I watched the latest debacle with the Sens on the Slingbox today. Oy oy oy ... three road losses in a row. Way to go guys. I go back to my original statement ... they can olny play well or screw up, nothing in between. They will now plummet to the basement of the conference then rally to miss the playoffs. I hope to find somewhere to watch Barclay's this evening at 7:30 when I think Arsenal is playing.
I got up about 8 which was nice for a change. I had some breakfast in spite of the beloved Sens' performance, and visited with Troung outside for a bit. I watched some Sopranos and caught up on what's going on with the Sweet Thing at home. We got the broken TV back and the channel she watches the most is locked.
I met Junie in the lobby last night and off we headed on her bike. We drove for a while, and I recognized where we were going. We ended up in the back on the other side of the lake near the Hilton. She took me to a place her and ST had been to. She had steak and I had some ribs. Boy they sure know how to cook ribs in this town. The restaurant is part of the AlFresco group, a name I see everywhere in the restaurant business in Hanoi. We then went the other side of the lake, parked the vehicle, and headed to the outsoor night market. We walked there for 90 minutes or so. Does anybody want to buy ANYTHING? Head to an outdoor market in Asia. I was then dropped at the hotel, and visited with Bien and Troung for a while over a few Heineken. They mentioned a trip to Halong Bay next weekend, and asked me if I wanted to go too. I asked them to keep me posted. That was very kind of them.
I am listeneing to Donald Fagan belt out Bloack Cow and will soon head out for the first walk of the weekend. The weather is inviting today. It was 25'ish when I got up with a very nice light wind. The sun has not completely poked its head through the cloud cover yet. I would rather it didn't so it would not get much hotter. A security guard next door was approached by a lady carrying a red plastic bag and he took off his shoes and gave them to her. She started working away with some heavy rubber, then I finally realized she was re-soling and heeling the shoes. A colleague joined her and they madly worked away using the sidewalk as their workbench. The lady who was helping her got called away for some reason and someone else showed up and worked with her.
Right next door there is a building which, amongst other things, is a garage for two high end vehicles ... a very large Lexus SUV and a black Lexus 4-door. Between Bien and I we figured out the vehicles may be worth 300,000 USD here as the duty can be as high as 200% just like it was in Addis. Naturally this re-inforces my impression about the wider gap between the haves and have-nots as I noticed in Africa. My goal is to head up towards the Hanoi Towers, then further on to Nguyen Khuyen and visit the sporting goods/football sector of Hanoi. There are some very interesting shops all along the way. I will probably end up at the Hilton for Barclay's unless they have it on here. My only complaint about the Silver (and I would never ever ever say anything to Bien or Truong) is there are not large wing-back chairs to sit in anywhere. I know dem dere's da breaks with a boutique hotel, especially in Hanoi, as the buildings are very very narrow and there is not enough floor space to accommodate such large chairs. They build up her just like ST and I noticed all over the city and countryiside we have seen so far in Vietnam. What a pleasure having the day off :).
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