Back in March I’d tried to arrange a soirée that never came off and then again, in April, the get together never happened due to Captain Caveman’s busy work schedule. Now that he had some surprise days off, on Thursday 13th May, we had finally got the makings of something organised for the early evening. Captain Caveman and I decided we would order in East Hill BBQ Chicken and sticky rice for a small group of us.
But first, Captain Caveman went over to Phong Nha in the morning, to get his washing in, turn Watto’s AC on for him at the Glass House and check in on things at Oxalis. He received a few updates from work and one in particular we were very pleased to hear; he would be getting his first Astra Zeneca vaccination tomorrow. I caught up on more writing and checked the news, as I usually do and I just had toast and brown rice crackers for breakfast and lunch as I knew I’d be eating a big meal for dinner. Captain Caveman came back for his lunch of a peanut butter and marmite sandwich and a can of lager (classy), while taking my place on the sun-lounger. Weirdly we decided to look up flights to the UK for later in the year because we knew that flights were available to Singapore and if I spent 10 days in Singapore I could go to the UK without quarantine – a one way flight to Heathrow wasn’t too pricey either. As Captain Caveman had a week off at the end of May we also started looking at more detailed plans in Vietnam, where we hoped I’d get my passport back in time to be able to fly to Saigon and then Tam Hai for a holiday within a holiday.
At 4.15pm Hanh arrived and we sat outside near the garden and had a chat and a drink while we waited for others to arrive. It was at this point I decided I would get more Lindeman’s sparkling white wine down me, which Captain Caveman was very attentive at topping up as almost everyone else started to arrive.
The East Hill BBQ chicken and sticky rice arrived right on time at 5pm, ready for our little get together with some friends. Veronika arrived back from a trip in to town to buy hummus, just as we had finished eating all the chicken so we ordered a third BBQ chicken and rice combo from East Hill who were great and said it would arrive at 6.30pm, in time for Bich coming. While Veronika got her hummus out and joined in a glass of fizz, it was nice to see the Vietnamese guests not drinking and driving, even the kids were behaving well. East Hill delivered the extra food earlier than expected but there was still no sign of Bich yet so we left it in the bag and went upstairs. Hong and the kids got in the pool, Phuong went to the blessing of the van party with Duyet, Hien and Khanh. I made jasmine green tea for the Vietnamese ladies and I had more wine. It was great seeing the kids enjoying the swimming and Captain Caveman made an excellent lifeguard and swimming coach. Captain Caveman and I had more chicken and rice with peanut salt when Bich and the kids arrived, Veronika finally got some chicken but there was still some left over which went in the fridge for tomorrow. It was a great night and it had been lovely to catch up with our Vietnamese friends who we don’t see so often. Captain Caveman made me laugh when everyone had gone, by saying how much he’d enjoyed it and that we should do it every month – it had took at least 4 months to get this one organised!
