Travelling days

The last week of July brings me some bad lucks. But finally everything is fine. On Monday, after dropping my son at school I went to a Nokia care center to have my phone formatted. Problems: phone memory was often full and once in a while Nokia turned itself off. Formatting takes about 1.5 hrs but the all data will be deleted. I know that and I transferred photos and deleted messages in Inbox and Sent. But I still had some messages in my private folders and I did not want to lose them. Troi oi, coming back home to transfer them was not what I wanted to do in hot weather. I suddenly had an idea, buying a flash card in a phone shop nearby. After some minutes figuring out how to tranfer data from one drive to another drive I succeeded. Giving the phone to the staff I went to Vincom shopping. Back to the center to pick up the phone was almost noon. Bad thing: my phone could not turn on. Unexpected problem. I felt sad and had to leave my phone there for repair. A morning was wasted. On Tuesday, I went to my bank to change the address and registered online account checking and to a law firm to do some personal things. While I was staying there Nokia center texted me and said that my phone was ready, earlier than they told me. But the receipt was left home. I could not pick it up on the way home from the law firm. In the afternoon, before picking my son from school I rode my motorbike to Nokia. On Wednesday, back to the law firm again. I needed quite a lot of money so I dropped at an ATM in the bank I went to the day before. I inserted my card and after pressing my PIN the machine kept my card. But lucky for me, a young man working in the bank smoking nearby (I think he is a smoker working in a non-smoking office. Poor guy.) gave me a hand. He used his phone and called his bank's center and explained my situation and even took a withdrawal form for me to fill in. Very polite. I got the money I wanted but had to come back to the bank this afternoon. I hate travelling in the afternoon: very hot. Today I went back to the the bank with my son. As soon as I got the card and asked the teller that I wanted her to cancel the link with my online account. It went well. Outside the bank I and my son tried using the card. Again the ATM ate my card. So irritating. The teller did not tell me that I could not use the card until 3 days later. At once I informed her about the problem and she unlocked the machine and gave me the card... Not having to come back again. So 4 days travelling stopped. Tired. Tomorrow, my close friends will visit me on the tenth floor :-) A day to relax.

I am told that my life is not easy but I often receive assistance. For long I believe whenever I have difficulties, I will be able to overcome them. I am also told that my life is getting better and better. Wait and see.

Long dress

Yesterday was my colleague's son's wedding party. That guy is also a new teacher in my department. And I decided to wear one of my long dresses I bought in Hue a year ago to the party. Although long dresses are highly appreciated, they are not convenient for us to wear to work, just on special occasions such as weddings and important meetings. That is why yesterday was time for me to try wearing something traditional for Vietnamese women. :-) My son took the photo for me and he said mum looked 'long' because of the dress.

I put away the dress and wait until somebody's wedding party. Luckily I hardly change the shape so I think it still fits me well when I wear it next time.

Summer vacation in Halong July 2011

Finally I went to Halong with my colleagues after cancelling a trip to Sapa. I went there several times. Not new destination but each time travelling there makes a different impression on me. We stayed the first night on Tuan Chau Island (exactly Peninsula because there is a road linking the mainland and the island) and the second night in the mainland, Bai Chay town. The weather was OK. Not too hot but it rained in the first evening and the second afternoon when we went back from cave-visiting. The group skipped water music show (no matter with me, I saw it in the past). The food was so so and our hotels were good. We visited a place where they make and sell pearls (in salty water). Some colleagues bought some jewellery as souvernirs.

Honestly, Halong is not a place for swimming in the sea. The water is very dirty and not much sand on the beach and waves are very low. However, it is so wonderful to be on the boat sailing in the bay and enjoying sea atmosphere and fresh seafood. After the vacation my feet's calves are very tiring, result of walking up and down the Sung Sot cave and going around shopping with my colleagues and poor me on the way home I felt a bit carsick even I took two medicine tablets. In general, my vacation was fine. Here are some photos from my Nokia.

Flying a kite

When I was a little girl, I used to like flying a kite in late summer afternoon with friends. I could not make a kite myself but my brother could. We often flew kites in the paddy fields and on the dike near our village. This was one of my favorite games. When my son was little, we lived on the 5th floor in a building in the urban, we flew a kite on the top of the building. Not bad but not much fun as on the ground. This summer I sent my son to my mum's place for a couple of days and he had a real experience of flying a kite. He was very happy to run on the grass and control the kite. However, not pleasant at all when his kite had problems with other kites and when the string broke and when the kite 'plunged'.

Even now, I still feel surprised: a very simple toy can fly high in the sky, really beautiful.

Raining day

The first day home is a raining day and according to the weather forecast in my Nokia it will rain every day until the end of the month. Troi, so boring just be inside. What will I do? Sleeping, eating, teaching, studying, watching TV, cooking and doing housework. My head is feeling heavy. Rain brings bad mood to me. Anyhow, I will go to Halong next week. Not new destination to me but good to change the living atmosphere for a short time.

End of entrance exams

Today the entrance to university examination finished. We teachers felt relaxed. No more getting up early at 4.30 am, no more walking up and down the exam rooms and feeling tired. :-) For most of the teachers in my department their summer holiday REALLY begins. They can enjoy their holiday until 8 August. But we vices have to go to university twice: one for supervising retaking exams and one for appointing teachers to teach classes in the new school year. (Luckily I am responsible for supervising exam on the day we do appointments, next Tuesday. So I just go to work one day instead of two).

IT things

These days I have been busy again. After attending IT training course I learnt some new things. The most noticeable is how to use PowerPoint and I know a bit about MOODLE, which is really a good tool for e-learning and is also what our department heads for in the near future. Another good IT thing I did is to connect my Nokia to my ProBook via Bluetooth (I could not do it for a long time). And I could download Youtube videos and watch them in Free FL player. J And the first time I can use 3G USB to connect to the Internet successfully.

Besides these good hi tech things, I encounter bad hi tech things which I cannot fix myself: problems with touch pad and wireless router. Troi, very irritating. Luckily, I know a really good IT engineer. He will come on Monday to fix wireless. And I will ask him about the touch pad. If he cannot help with the pad, I have to come to HP support center in Hanoi, which I intended to do yesterday. Why not? I was sick yesterday. Headache and a bit fever.

In the world nothing is perfect but I still feel annoyed if something goes wrong and worried if it is out of my control. I always want nice things and strive for them as possible as I can. And I learn that we always learn by doing and experiencing.