I had set my alarm for 1.50am on Sunday 31st January because I wanted to attend a surprise birthday zoom call for a friend’s 50th who is in Sheffield (Vietnam is 7 hours in front of the UK). Unfortunately, despite staying up watching Breaking Bad until gone midnight, I slept through and missed it so when I woke up at a normal time I was cheesed off about it.
I spent the morning catching up on some writing then I finished off the popcorn and had some dried prunes that had been in the cupboard for ages, for a late breakfast. I warmed up some chicken masaman for lunch and made some rice pudding with jam for dessert which I had later that afternoon. I decided that even though I had no cash to spend for 4 days (and I can’t get to an ATM easily) I couldn’t miss the Farmstay’s Sunday dinner and so when Veronika asked if she could share a ride up there I took my bank card to pay on card. When we arrived Matty was waiting for us and it was his turn to buy wine so we all shared a bottle of the Farmstay’s robust red. Veronika wanted her food a little earlier than us as she was hungry but Matty and I decided to enjoy some wine first. This week all three of us went for the healthier version, with no pasta or bread, just meat, veg, potatoes and gravy (and I purposely didn’t have much of the gravy). It was excellent but when I saw Ben’s normal Sunday dinner I wished I had chosen the same. Knowing I didn’t have any vegetables in at home, except for half a yellow pepper and some frozen sweetcorn, I saved some of my veg and took it home in my tupperwear box. I was hoping to take home my piece of carrot cake but just as I went to order it there was a game changing suggestion from Ben; how about we have the chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream as our included dessert!? I’ve had that particular sweet treat before so I already knew how delicious it is. Of course all 3 of us said yes, obviously it wouldn’t be suitable to take home so I just had to eat it. As it turned out I still didn’t physically spend any money as by the time we left the girl who takes the card payments had already gone home, so I had successfully not spent any money on day 2 of the challenge (sort of). The Sunday dinner costs 300,000 vnd (for the meat version, the vegetarian one is cheaper) and includes a generous glass of wine and a choice of dessert – a bargain!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Captain Caveman was up early and off on his first customer Son Doong trip of the season on Saturday 30th January and I had a bit of a challenge on my hands. He had not been able to leave me any money and I didn’t already have any in my purse so I had to survive 4 days without spending any cash – it was going to be tough! There was only one thing for it, I would have to start watching Breaking Bad and staying in!
I’d still not had breakfast when it was announced in the news that they had found 1 positive case in HCMC (Saigon) who arrived at 3pm on the 28th, we left via the same airport 24 hours earlier – how lucky! Here’s the info:
https://vietnaminsider.vn/vietnams-ho-chi-minh-city-records-a-suspected-positive-case-of-covid-19/
The authorities were all over the testing and tracing by 3pm that day and they had even adjusted the quarantine time from 14 days to 21 days, because of the new variants perhaps having a longer incubation period, here’s the link:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210130/vietnam-to-extend-covid19-testing-to-thirdtier-contacts-quarantine-time-to-21-days/59068.html
My brunch was a bit of a make do one of 2 Italian sausages (from Hue), the remaining 3 slices of bacon, a cup of sweetcorn, 4 cups of jasmine tea and an apple. I got peckish in the afternoon and had the rest of the popcorn (no butter) and some frozen berries as we were almost out of fruit. In the afternoon I got on with my languages and did a quick review of where I am up to; I was doing well on Turkish and was just in to Checkpoint 3 on Duolingo, Vietnamese was 4 topics away from Checkpoint 3 but it was taking me a lot longer to learn, with French I was only halfway to Checkpoint 3 and finding that one too easy. I watched a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad, which has been on my Netflix list for over a year, and I thought I might like it. For dinner I had some sticky rice with peanuts and some of the leftover masaman curry which Captain Caveman had made. I succeeded in spending no money at all on the first day of the challenge!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

On Friday 29th January there was some excitement in Phong Nha as Smiley, a former waitress at Namaste Indian restaurant, had been given a job at The Villas restaurant and she was being put through the paces of coffee training with Manu at 10.30am. A few of us were invited to try free coffee in exchange for a bit of feedback, not drinking coffee didn’t stop me attending though – it was a good excuse to go over for a hot chocolate and a catch up with the gang! There was Bich, Ben, Howie, Veronika, Captain Caveman, Matty, Tatas and me.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Captain Caveman and I decided to stay and have brunch after, with Tatas. She ordered the big breakfast which was huge, I had a smoked duck salad and Captain Caveman ordered a pizza because, although it was pizza night later, he wouldn’t be able to come as he was working. In the afternoon Captain Caveman popped off to Oxalis to get prepared for his Son Doong briefing later while Tatas and I sat by the fire chatting with Veronika, who was staying at Victory Road Villas in the Penthouse – she even gave us a guided tour and I was impressed because it was extremely luxurious and had an oven.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I had a an oolong tea and then it got to happy hour and a half so I started with a margarita, Tatas had a sangria and Veronika had a bottle of wine she had started the previous night. We ate popcorn and I probably shouldn’t have because this hindered my pizza consumption later on – I only managed 6 slices! It was Smiley’s first shift on the pizza night and she did very well, we even got some photos of all of us together. Captain Caveman popped back later and sent Raj (previous manager of Namaste) a photo of us all, fans of Raj will be pleased to know he is now back in Vietnam but in Tam Coc, further north, with his new restaurant The Curry King. Momma D stopped by with Kevin, the dog, and we all got to pet the little cutie!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

While Vietnam was possibly on the verge of their next wave of the pandemic, things were carrying on in Phong Nha as normal on Thursday 28th January. Captain Caveman had gone off to work in the morning just before heavy rain came, he had prepared a masaman curry in the rice cooker for later, using the whole chicken given to us by Thuy. For lunch he made us a pasta dish and then we went for a walk round the block with my new walking poles. I was a bit disappointed with them at first as they felt like they were not really helping, they were too light, compared to my crutches, and seemed to get in the way. I persisted under Captain Caveman’s direction and eventually cracked it. My 500m walk was completed in 9 minutes, a whole 3 minutes less than my quickest so far!
We hadn’t got anything on our Netflix lists which we both wanted to watch together and so I had asked Josh for some recommendations, to our surprise we ended up watching numerous episodes of Blown Away which was highly entertaining in a surprising way. The masaman curry was amazing and there was plenty left over for me to have while Captain Caveman was away.

• 

• 

• 

Captain Caveman didn’t want any breakfast on Wednesday 27th January so I went down to the dining room by myself for the usual buffet breakfast. While I had my last bath in Saigon, Captain Caveman went out to buy some essentials like Vegemite and curry paste then we checked out and got a Grab taxi to the Eon Mall, not too far from the airport. The shopping centre was huge but did have temperature checks on entry and decent toilet facilities so I was happy. We went to the top floor where all the food places are and we went to Thai Express, Captain Caveman’s choice, obviously! There were just 2 things on the menu that didn’t have any chillies in and so I reluctantly ordered honey chicken and Captain Caveman had a masaman curry which he shovelled down and then left to go to Decathlon while I was still eating. I wouldn’t recommend the honey chicken, nor have it again but I did eat it all as I wasn’t sure if we would eat again later or not. On return from Decathlon Captain Caveman had managed to buy me some lightweight walking poles for about 500,000vnd (£16) and I was happy about that, he bought himself 2 water bottles for cycling and some string for just over that and I think my purchase was the best value!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We masked up and got a taxi to the airport for our flight back to Dong Hoi and to my surprise we were allocated the Emergency exit row seats despite my limping, but no one checked our capabilities. We landed 15 minutes early and An was waiting to pick us up with his shared Grab taxi, which by the time we got dropped off was a full car! When we got home the cleaners had been in and the place smelled like lemongrass, we learned that our friend Ally, the filmmaker who lives in Japan, had made it to Vietnam and was in Saigon to do his 14 day quarantine and Captain Caveman rustled up some grub. We had spaghetti with bacon, peppers and tomato sauce and it tasted really good – finally a meal without chillies!

• 

• 

• 

• 

As some of you will know by now, I sometimes like to indulge in a second breakfast and Tuesday 26th January was one of those days, it was also our last full day in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). After the hotel breakfast of pho ga we headed over to District 2 by Grab car to Saigon Motorcycles in Thao Dien. The shop is owned by a friend of Ben’s at the Phong Nha Farmstay where we last met Trevor and his brother, Mark. Captain Caveman wanted to buy a full face motorbike helmet as the ones that come with the hire bike are basic at best. Gabrielle gave Captain Caveman some great advice and the first helmet she recommended fit perfectly so he got that, I fancied one of the bright orange helmets instead of wearing a cycling helmet when I’m on the back of Captain Caveman’s bike so I went to check them out. Trevor advised me that, while they looked good, they only offered a certain amount of protection and I would be better protected with a fancy black one that he got me to try on, it had a flip down sunglasses visor and a rain shield as well as protecting the face, it looks the business so we added that to the order – it would be my early Valentine’s gift! With arrangements made to post our helmets back to Phong Nha we had a little walk to Marcel’s Cafe where Captain Caveman had heard they do amazing croissants. They did indeed and Captain Caveman polished off 2 with butter while I had just a plain one and hoped I wouldn’t regret eating gluten.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We had a bit of a stroll to our next spot which was a rather fancy french restaurant, called P’ti Saigon. Andrea had managed to squeeze us in after her meetings and before her working from home afternoon so we met her there. I chose a salad expecting it to be small, Captain Caveman and Andrea both had prawn starter and duck mains. We shared a carafe of red wine and I observed a dressing up section, near to the upstairs toilets, ideal for party nights.
After lunch we walked in the hot sun to a bar called Bia Craft to sample a couple of their various beers, including an Oreo stout, I had a couple of ciders. It was a really nice afternoon and I could have stayed out longer but we needed to get ready for meeting Trang and Tan later, plus I was going to meet Lil Spud for the first time.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We arranged to meet at Tan’s new rooftop bar (which he warned me of the steps) at 6.30pm. It’s called Hippie Beer, in a great location, opposite Liberty Central hotel in District 1. The stairs were challenging because the first 2 sets were through the Thai restaurant on the ground floor and didn’t have a handrail, the next ones were ok but the handrail had loose bits and then the next to last set had neon tube lights down the sides of the stairs which meant it was hard to see the actual steps in the dark, the last set wasn’t too bad. The air on the roof was not fresh and I started having a cough thinking there was something burning in the kitchen but it was just the bad pollution. Lil Spud is Tatas’ younger sister and, although Captain Caveman has met her a few times, I had never met her. It was freaky how similar they were and it was like I was talking to Tatas! Trang finally arrived and ordered some food, we all tasted some gin made from Dragon fruit which was pretty strong but tasted nice. I needed to be sober when I went back down those stairs and so we said our goodbyes to Tan and his mates, hoping to see him next month in Phong Nha, I managed the stairs back down and we went to Tandoor Indian restaurant for a curry.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Captain Caveman wasn’t doing any sharing and ordered a tandoori plate to himself, I went safe by ordering a chicken tikka masala, mild, with steamed rice and a glass of wine. Lil Spud ordered a fish curry which was spicy and Trang ordered something that never arrived. When mine came it tasted rather spicy and I thought it smelled like it had fresh green chillies in it. I had one piece of the chicken and was sweating and when the girls tried mine they said it was too hot, even a load of yoghurt didn’t help and I left half of it which Trang took home. Captain Caveman was not impressed and for some reason seemed to think it was my fault and that I was stupid to order that dish, knowing it would be too hot for me, even though it’s my usual choice. Back at the hotel I was still a bit hungry but there was nothing I could do about it and Captain Caveman still had the face on with me about the curry.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Some photos by Captain Caveman

Our breakfast was included at the Silverland Charner hotel on Monday 25th January, I had dragon fruit and water melon to start with and a peach juice followed by 2 bowls of very tasty pho ga. Captain Caveman, wearing his new football top, had fruit, an omelette and coffee. I had arranged to meet Tan, a guy I met 6 years ago on a Tu Lan 4 day cave expedition with Oxalis, who is from Saigon. Our good friend Trang, who has businesses in Phong Nha and is from Dong Hoi, now lives in Saigon so we invited her too.

• 

• 

• 

Tan chose a pasta place called Sap Gourmet Corner which was very close to our hotel and we arranged to meet at 12. Trang is always at least an hour late but she arrived before our food came and I was enjoying a very good margarita. I’d not seen Tan for about 3 years and it was nice to see him again, he even moved seats before Trang came so that she could sit next to me! Both me and Captain Caveman ordered the chicken meatballs with our pasta and enjoyed watching them cook it, both Trang and Tan ordered duck dishes which looked fantastic. After a delicious lunch we arranged to all meet the next day and off we went back to our hotel.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I decided to try out the free afternoon tea, which the hotel advertised in the room directory, while Captain Caveman looked at his phone for a few hours. It was a sorry excuse for afternoon tea; there was just me, a choice of breakfast or earl grey tea and the hot water machine had a lock on it. There was no cake or other sweet treats until I eventually got a couple of biscuits. It was a sign that the hotel was probably suffering the effects of loss of customers due to Corona and no international travel.In the evening Captain Caveman was in charge of entertainment and we were off to meet his friends at Rico Taco, another Mexican restaurant. We walked there and called for a drink in a pub called Malt, on the way – a proper beer place which also sold a nice Chilean red wine by the glass. I managed the short walk then 3 flights of stairs up to dinner where we met Quyen, Andrea, Bruno and Rob and I had such a good time that no photos were taken of the whole evening because I was too busy enjoying it. I had pork tacos and tried to order without chillies but the waitress said it wasn’t possible, I just had 2 and the sauce on the side and that was hot enough, Captain Caveman had nachos, shared the guacamole and black salsa dip as well as burritos for his main. I had 2 margaritas but was conscious of having to go down the stairs again safely so left it at that. It was a good fun evening and all the dinner guests were lovely. On the way home we decided to call back in to Malt to break up my walk and it was pretty full. Captain Caveman decided to stare at a bloke who had walked in with a pretty Vietnamese woman and a younger man – I had to tell him to stop in case he started a fight as he was really gawping! Luckily Captain Caveman’s suspicions were correct and he recognised Neil from the cycling event on Saturday, who was a friendly guy but looked like he worked out!! I’d really enjoyed my second full day in Saigon and had packed a lot in, tomorrow would be our last full day in the city.

• 

If you’re a larger lady in the bust department then I’m sure you will appreciate what a great day Sunday 24th January was for me – and for once it didn’t involve a Sunday dinner! Before we had even got out of bed Captain Caveman decided to book our return flights from Ho Chi Minh to Dong Hoi, the holidays were approaching and so the prices were increasing and we may as well get it booked. The first customer Son Doong tour for Captain Caveman was on Sunday 30th January but he needed to be back for his briefing on the 29th, initially we had thought we may stay in Dong Hoi on the way back and so the flight got booked for Wednesday 27th January (this would later turn out to be a stroke of luck despite me thinking it was a day earlier than we needed).
Annette had recommended Eden cafe, District 7, for our breakfast or brunch and as we were staying in a basic hotel, Bin Bin 1, near to where Captain Caveman had his cycling event it seemed like a good idea. We had to wait a bit for a taxi and Grab was impossible to get in that area, plus the driver we did get managed to knock an old lady off her motorbike when we pulled up at the cafe, she was ok but there was some shouting. Luckily Annette had managed to free up some time between doing work to join us and we all found the menu had so much choice it was hard to decide what to have. I had a feast; a pot of earl grey tea (with milk), bacon, sausages, beans, mushrooms, and a hash brown which was all so good. Annette had smoked salmon on avocado muffins and Captain Caveman had a stuffed pancake – it is a nice cafe and I would definitely go back if I was in District 7 again.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Annette mentioned there was a shopping centre not too far away and the two things I desperately needed could be found there at the Vivo City, so off we went. I got a couple of cheap notebooks from Daiso, and then we went to Uniqlo so that I could get bras. I was also looking for swimwear as I hadn’t brought any but our next hotel happened to have a pool. I had measured myself according to the store’s size chart and went to try on a selection of bras, all of which were far too small, one of which I almost needed cutting out of. I went to look for a bigger size but unfortunately there was only one bra in the biggest they did, in the design I wanted and it was so high up I had to get Captain Caveman to come get it down for me. I bought 2 pairs of knickers and an extra large vest top with a fitted bra bit, so it would do for swimming in, and the biggest bra in the shop – I was so excited to finally have a new bra. We said our goodbyes to Annette and went to meet Keith, from Grimsby, and his mate at Phuc Long Coffee shop. It was about 300m from the shopping centre down a quiet street and I managed the walk, very slowly. I had an iced peach tea on the top floor and we chatted a bit before Captain Caveman got invited along to watch a football match that night with the two blokes and some of their friends. I intended to meet up with Veronika and Captain Caveman had chosen a decent hotel not too far from her’s to make it a bit easier for the elderly and the disabled.

• 

• 

• 

The Silverland Charner hotel in District 1  was very nice but could have done with a bit of a spruce up. Captain Caveman had booked a suite which had a bath in the room and a Japanese style toilet so I was excited. The bed was comfy, we had good pillows and good sized bath towels too. Veronika and I didn’t meet for dinner as it happens because neither of us wanted to walk too far so Captain Caveman helped me locate a place near to me that I could easily walk to and we also decided to go for a drink before the football to do a recky. I’m glad we did as we found a gorgeous little cocktail bar called Leon, so close to the hotel and we had a Manhattan and a Cosmopolitan, both of which were fantastic, and the popcorn was welcomed as I got hungry.

• 

• 

• 

• 

While the lads were at the football I took myself off to a Greek place, called Hellas, and had a starter of fava beans and a main of chicken shish with chips and flat bread, it was the nearest to Turkish food I’d had in a while too so I was happy and, as the portion size was generous, I brought some back to the hotel for Captain Caveman. When Captain Caveman got back he was so happy to have been to his first match and he had been given a football shirt – he loves a free shirt. He was also starving and polished off the Greek food quickly. My first full day in Saigon had been eventful and I was grateful to have a bra and have the freedom we have right now – we know we are extremely lucky in Vietnam.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Captain Caveman was on a 90km cycling day to a brewery all day on Saturday 23rd January and so I arranged to go straight to Veronika’s hotel in District 1, about 30 minutes from the airport, by taxi in rush hour. Saigon was hot and humid, even at 5.30pm I was warm in just a t-shirt. In the taxi Captain Caveman called me and said he would come to meet us for dinner and would get there around the same time. The fare to the Majestic Hotel was 200,000vnd (£6.40 ish) and when I arrived Annette was also there. Captain Caveman arrived in a sozzled mess and thought he had lost his bank card (which he hadn’t) so we had a short walk to a restaurant nearby called Jasper’s. I ordered chicken fajitas, seeing as I had missed the Mexican the previous night, Captain Caveman and Annette had massive burgers with chips and Veronika had chicken with spinach and mashed potatoes. Everyone but Annette was drinking red wine but after a glass each both Captain Caveman and Veronika went on to liqueur coffees and I had to finish the rest of the wine, plus my Jameson’s (I don’t like coffee). We walked Veronika back to her hotel where a massive kid’s party was ending and I’ve not seen so many people in such a long time, hoards of them – a large portion not wearing masks (I kept mine on). The taxi took a while to come and the rest of us were all off to District 7 so Annette dropped us off on the way to her place. It was a lovely night and we made some casual arrangements to possibly meet for breakfast the next day. In the room of the hotel it was hot so we had to put the Aircon on and I had to roll some clothes up under my pillow because there was just one thin pillow each. I was glad to have finally got my passport and been allowed to fly.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I woke up at 4am on Saturday 23rd January, desperate for a drink and a pee, the terrible hangover was on its way. I went back to sleep for a bit and then realised I needed to get up and get ready for my delayed trip to Saigon. I had to get to Dong Hoi, collect my passport, book a flight and get to the airport. Captain Caveman had forgotten his phone charger and so he was already in Saigon unaware of my plans but at least I had the name of the hotel he was staying in, in District 7, so I could go there. My visa agent, Kimmie, offered to book my plane ticket and bring it, with my passport to Tree Hugger.
I messaged Tatas to find out what time she was going to Dong Hoi so I could go with her and I would have lunch before my flight. I chose the 15.40 flight so that I could be sure I had my passport in time. An’s Grab car picked me up at 11.10am and was already full, including Tatas who had also woken up, hungover. We got to Tree Hugger and I ordered (too much) food and drink – french fries and veggie spring rolls.
I was still eating when Kimmie arrived with my documents and we were game on.
I managed the airport stairs, the walk to the shuttle bus and the plane stairs all fine and the flight landed in about 1 hour, earlier than expected. I was masked up, sanitiser on, up to the elbows and ready for the city life!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was a stressful day on Friday 22nd January and it wasn’t helped by Captain Caveman being a bit shouty first thing in the morning, for no apparent reason.
Phuong, of Phuong’s Transfers, picked us up at 9.45am and then we went to pick up Shannon, Stu, Max and Jack as we were all off to GuiGui and Stephanie’s wedding at the Royal King in Dong Hoi. There were hundreds of people going and it looked to be a big posh event, Bich had kindly saved 2 seats for Captain Caveman and I very near to the speakers, while the others went upstairs at the massive indoor venue. The food came out straight away and I tried to watch the ceremony and eat at the same time, there were some professional singers and even a violinist. I ate 1 big prawn, a piece of chicken, 2 prawn crackers, some sticky rice, some meat and a few chips, plus I had Tiger Crystal beer to toast with. The bride looked stunning and the groom and the rest of the party all looked very dapper. Shockingly we had been there only 50 minutes when everyone started leaving already and it was time to go and get photos taken with the happy couple. Even though the venue was very upmarket the floor was a greasy, slippy mess and it took me a while to walk to the toilet and back. When I got back there was only a handful of people still around, we waited for our turn to get photos and then I checked my messages to see what my plans would be for the rest of the day.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I had messaged Kimmie about my passport but still no word so Captain Caveman and I decided to go to Tree Hugger and wait there until the time for the flight. We got dropped off by Phuong, who then went back to Phong Nha with Shannon and family. Outside Tree Hugger were Momma D and Davis, sat having coffees and so we joined them. I ordered a peach tea while Momma D went back to the Nam Long Plus hotel to get Kevin, her new puppy, who was being cared for by the staff.
I still didn’t hear from Kimmie and I was on my second White Russian when it was time for Captain Caveman to leave for the airport and I was absolutely gutted to be missing the trip. Veronika and Captain Caveman had arranged to meet that night with Annette to have a Mexican dinner and I was so cheesed off that I wasn’t going!

• 

• 

To go back to Phong Nha I decided to try An’s new grab car (which is only 50,000vnd per person, one way, in a shared car) and even though it was meant to leave Dong Hoi at 3pm, they were still able to get me so I waited outside until 3.20pm. There were already 2 women in the car with An and we picked up 2 men from a bar, Quynh and Hung, who were drunk after carrying on drinking since the wedding. By 3.50pm we were leaving the airport after picking up a mother and screaming daughter. An hour later we were still travelling but dropped Quynh, from The Duck Stop, first while Hung had an impressive 7 minute pee at the back of the car. I was also desperately needing a pee by this time too but waited as we dropped Hung off at Karst Villas and then headed to Phong Nha town.

• 

• 

I decided to go straight to Victory Road Villas for Happy Hour and a half with Tatas before pizza night. I finally got there at 4.50pm, having taken longer than it usually would, but it was cheap. Luc, Colin and Matty also joined us and we had a fair few margaritas and a good laugh as I tried to forget about my passport issue and not being in Saigon. Unfortunately I got a message a bit too late to say that my passport had actually arrived in time for the same flight as Captain Caveman – I wasn’t happy but at least I could go tomorrow instead! Because we were drinking a fair few cocktails at The Villas before the all you can eat pizza night, which is a bargain for any pizza lover at 150,000vnd, I didn’t eat as many slices as usual but I still managed about 6 or 7 – even Tatas managed more than usual and shared a salad with Luc. It was a good night, finished off with me falling asleep as soon as I lay on my bed, still with some clothes on and the bedside light! I think I might have a hangover tomorrow, those cocktails were too good!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

My phone had been playing up, was running out of space and all my notes pages that I tried to edit were unable to show the content, on Thursday 21st January. Captain Caveman had bought me a new, bigger SD card and so I decided to put that in to my phone, taking out the old one. This caused an issue with all my photos being labelled as today’s date which I had no idea how annoying it would make my blogging until later. All my videos disappeared completely and I still couldn’t access Keep Notes, despite being able to see the thumbnails. This also meant all my passwords were lost too and I was in a mood. I added a new notes app so that I could start again, I missed breakfast and I still wasn’t feeling too well. Veronika had decided she was off to Saigon for a few days and booked her flight for that afternoon, Captain Caveman’s flight was booked for Friday afternoon and I still had no idea if I would get my passport back in time so I couldn’t book my flight. The visa agent, Kimmie, messaged me just before lunch with a photo of my passport and visa stamp and to say my passport might be back tomorrow afternoon as it was leaving Hanoi today. I had a small cheese sandwich for lunch and then packed a bag in the hope I would go to Saigon. Captain Caveman prepared a pork casserole in the rice cooker and went to Phong Nha town while I got peckish and finished off the sweet peanut and ginger snack Thuy had given us. My exercise plan was getting a bit easier even though I still couldn’t do a press up or a lunge despite attempting them every other day and the stepping one was a bit hit and miss.
When the casserole was ready Captain Caveman was back and brought it upstairs so we could watch a bit of Netflix on the big TV, while eating it and finishing off some red wine. We watched Man on a Ledge which was ok and fairly enjoyable.

• 

• 

Captain Caveman was working on the morning of Wednesday 20th January and so I decided to finish off the rice crackers which had been in the cupboard for a while, for breakfast. It turned out they were a bit soggy because of the humidity and not having been put in a locking tupperwear container, so the rest of them went in the bin. I had a bit of buttered toast instead and then caught up on some more work from my To Do List. The birthday celebrations had ended now but we did have an invitation for a wedding in Dong Hoi on Friday, a few hours before our proposed trip to Saigon. For lunch I ate the rest of yesterday’s shepherd’s pie, Captain Caveman cooked himself salami, asparagus and egg for his. I had a cup of earl grey tea later on with a couple of pieces of dark chocolate and put in a request with Captain Caveman to have something simple for dinner as I wasn’t feeling too well – I even had to turn down wine with Veronika. By the time our pork dinner was cooked I was hungry again and was really looking forward to the pork, red cabbage and mushrooms in red wine with steamed rice but unfortunately I didn’t put enough water in the rice so it was slightly undercooked and Captain Caveman decided to tip too much rosemary in and it overpowered the taste. The quality of the pork was great though and the rest was chopped up and made in to a casserole for tomorrow. There was a lot of pork from Thuy, the physio, so it went a long way and kept Captain Caveman busy in the kitchen.

• 

• 

• 

• 

1. Average White Band
2. Baba O’Reilly lyrics
3. Barbara Marineau
4. Customer synonym
5. Dong Hoi flight departures
6. Elon Musk
7. English to Vietnamese
8. English to Turkish
9. English to French
10. Ferry across the Mersey
11. Flight Tracker
12. Gin bar
13. Hanoi to Tuyen Quang in km
14. Ian Astbury
15. Intermittent fasting
16. Joe Lycett avocado smash
17. KPMG full name
18. Katoomba
19. Keep Notes not working
20. Leon bar
21. London lockdown wedding
22. Majestic hotel, D1
23. Oxalis Adventure
24. Phong Nha to Tam Coc in km
25. Psycho Killer covers
26. Pop up YouTube shared controls
27. Quang Ninh
28. Rabble rouser in German
29. Richard Ramirez
30. Rico Taco
31. Symptom checker NHS
32. Togarashi
33. Vinpearl Dong Hoi
34. Weather
35. World Life Expectancy
36. YouTube errors
37. Yorkshire pudding with buckwheat flour
38. Zoom

• 

• 

• 

1. Google translate
2. Grandma got run over by a Reindeer
3. Instagram next button changed to arrow – error
4. Jones the Bootmaker
5. Jam in French
6. Joe Biden
7. Man on a Ledge
8. NHS Entitlements
9. The Queen’s Gambit
10. Shallow
11. Ursula Von Der Leyen
12. Vietnam weather in September
13. World Life Expectancy
14. Weather
15. The Yorkshire Ripper
16. Ukulele tuning

•