Wednesday 24 October Day 145

Up at 7am. Tea and meditated by 9. Two tricky emails dealt with. Banana. I'm going to go out and get fuel for the bike, and have a sauna and a massage, and maybe meet up with Aden (he's gone out to work in a caff somewhere; he's planning to take some time off in the next few days so he's trying to get as much of the mag put to bed as possible, especially before Joe arrives). I've run out of weed, not sure I want any more, it was oddly skunk like - apparently a lot of the skunk growers in the UK are Vietnamese, so it may not be skunk at all, just what the Viets smuggle in from here.

I'm going to skip 12 meditation (sauna / massage instead) - otherwise I'll just be here until 4pm and then it's too late to do anything.

Bought some weed and NA beer, lunch with Aden and Danny and visited ProCare - he wants another VND500,000 (about £15) if I decide to keep the Dell, which in toto is about what everyone everywhere sells them for. Lulu suggested I use Calibre to create an epub. They've admitted they have a problem but only about 50% of files are getting through successfully.

Ha! quick my arse.

Took my shopping home and then went off to find a massage. Tried the one down the lane, but the school leaver was still in sole charge, and even the sauna would be a half hour wait. There were no masseurs available. I thought I'd just give up but then I thought, no this is my birthday treat, and I deserve a treat, and remembered there was another one near Aden's office (Oribery, on Xuan Dieu) so went there. I had a lovely massage, £10 for an hour from Hien, who despite being tiny and delightful, managed to make me feel like one of those squashed ducks we had BBQed on Sunday. And she did extraordinary things with my hips and pelvis. 

Home for a shower and then A and I went out to the motorcycle bar for a bite to eat, but they were shut, so we went somewhere else and I had so so bangers and mash. Paul, the bike bar owner (it was an old swimming pool and he's converted the pool into a garage for rebuilding and customising big bikes) laughed at all the tourists who get thrown off their scooters because they insist on using the front brake. I don't know why hire places don't just disable them. As Paul said everyone can ride a bike, but not necessarily one with an engine, in Hanoi. I've had a couple of close calls, but Naxos taught me several valuable lessons and I usually keep well away from the front brake, except when pushing the bike up a hill.