Faces of HoiAn

Never before have I ever been so compelled to take photographs of people and faces as I was in Vietnam. For most of the photographs of old people a small tip of about 50 cents was necessary. Some argue (as one bloke we met) that it was wrong to give them money for taking pictures but hey... at the end of the day it is only a token tip and they need to make a living themselves. You take a picture which will give you some satisfaction and they get a meal at the end of the day.

Iman was more than keen to snap away and took these first two pictures.

This is on the main river that passes through Hoi An.

And all along the riverfront in the town these old ladies sit on the pavement selling little crafts or fruit or sit in their small rowing boats hoping to make a dollar or two.

As we all know Vietnam has had a turbulent and violent history and one wonders what these old folk have lived through and what stories they could tell.

Often referred to as the "Smiling Man of HoiAn", this old man sits in his boat all day long and is according to Asian Geographic the most photographed face in Hoi An. Of course this I only read once we got back from our trip and I never took a decent picture!

And this is my favourite picture. The baguettes looked so good and she was a lovely obliging lady. Myself and Iman snapped this on our way back to the hotel just before we left Hoi An.

Vietnam Holiday - My Son Cham Ruins

Our holiday to Vietnam was a huge success for the whole family and we all want to go back again! We spent the week in the historic of town of HoiAn and did plenty of exploring of the town and the surrounding areas.

The Cham ruins of My Son , a UNESCO world heritage site is about an hour away from Hoi An. The ruins are a cluster of Hindu temples built between the 4th and 14th century A.D by Cham Kings. Not much is know about how the temples were built and it is still not known how the Chams actually made their bricks to build the towering temples. They were re-discovered by French explorers in 1898 and some restoration work was done in the next few decades. Unfortunately the ancient site did not escape the wrath of the Vietnam War and many buildings were destroyed by American carpet bombs.

Today it is a hugely visited tourist must-see and of course we arrived the same time as the tour buses. We had a tour guide - which we didn't know when we booked the car - and he was happy to talk and talk and we were happy to wander where he didn't want to go! A first for Iman on this holiday was to take her own pictures using my old point and shoot and she loved it and did very well taking plenty of good pictures. The first seven photographs taken below are all hers and I added a few of mine at the end.

The bomb shells above made the craters like the ones below.

Hope you are feeling better Granny !

While we were enjoying the sunshine and afternoon festivities, Granny and Grandad awoke in Cork to a very cold morning with the roads covered in ice. To make matters worse, it rained and then froze again so it was a mad idea of my Mum's that they (My parents and my sisters) would walk to Mass (Church).

Either on the way there, or on the way back, my Mum lost her footing and fell quite heavily and in the process, managed to break her wrist in two places. So Christmas afternoon was spent in the A&E rather than at home. Needless to say, there were a few choice quotes on the suggestion that they should even attempt to go to Mass ...... but they can't be repeated.

So, get well soon Granny and next time, best to say your prayers at home with the turkey in the oven.

'Clatter, Bang !' - I think I heard his sleigh !

When the kids woke up on Christmas morning, Iman was convinced that she had heard Santa's sleigh on the roof ! Of course, Jack on hearing this fantastic story, then told us that he had heard bells. Ayden was still snoring and needed a strong push to get him out of bed at 6.30am to see what delights were waiting downstairs !

Excitement, screams of 'Surfboard' followed by 'Can we open the other presents?'. In the McCarthy household, a tradition has developed that the kids get their presents from Santa and from their grandparents in Ireland on Christmas morning and then open the rest (yes, the rest!) of their presents after Christmas lunch.

Jack was one happy camper, with his Nerf gun which allows him to fit into the gun swinging tradition of the rest of the compound. The fact that his has a laser light for better aiming was greatly appreciated so thanks to Santa for including that !

Iman likes to sing - any time, anywhere ....... mostly Dubliner's songs so she was mighty impressed to get a 'Hannah Mantana' microphone that plays some of the songs from High School Musical and you can sign along. Endless hours of noise to follow ! Ayden also did very well from Santa Claus, getting a Fast Wheels set on top of this Surfboard.

Christmas lunch this year was great - Iman even made a special effort by preparing place names for everyone, including our guest's, the Cowley family. With military precision that can only be achieved by pure luck, we were sitting to have our starters at 12.15 ! The kids sat up at the table and enjoyed the banter but poor Ayden hasn't been feeling well for a few days and wasn't in the 'party' mood.

Starter was Wild Irish Smoked Salmon (Frank Hederman, from Little Island in Cork) and fresh soda bread made by a lady here in Brunei - an excellent start !

Main course of turkey, spiced beef (a very Cork tradition and something that had our guests raving !), roast and steamed spuds, veg, lovely chestnut stuffing and a wonderful gravy ! More than enough for everyone to eat (with leftovers for some more guests later in the evening). Juliet's christmas pudding went down a treat along with some very cold ice cream with the everyone leaving the table feeling rather full !

Of course, the kids were very keen to leave the table as it meant that it was time to open the rest of the presents. Some were wrapped individually and with care (i.e. Jack's present for Iman etc) and one particular attempt said more about the person wrapping that present (My present along with the kids for Maria - all wrapped in one single bundle ...... we were saving the environment!)

What better way to relax after a lovely Christmas lunch ...... a movie for the boys to keep us entertained.

Glad to report that we managed to get a Christmas swim in at the end of the movie (needed more than a swim when I look at the state of my feet in the photo !).

He's Coming and We're Ready (well, almost !)

Excitement is starting to fill the McCarthy household as we are expecting an annual visitor tonight - on the balance of things, the kids have likely made the 'Nice' list and we will be leaving some Christmas Cake, some carrots and a liquid refreshment for Santa so he can rehydrate in the warm weather we are having.

Of course, with the kids getting slightly older, getting a straight forward photo for the blog is almost impossible but at least we've got the three together (albeit with one picking his nose !)

Iman and Jack are keenly aware and expectant but Ayden is still riding the excitement and more focused on the upcoming flight to Vietnam on Saturday.

The Christmas tree is looking good again this year and already has a good covering of Christmas presents at the base. Christmas lunch this year will be slightly different as Maria's family are all away so our close friends Gavin and Juliet are joining us along with their kids. It should be an afternoon of fun, a Christmas swim hopefully and later that evening more friends are joining for leftovers.

The good news is that we had our delivery of fresh Irish Soda Bread (still warm from the oven) this morning so the morning tomorrow can start with some wild irish smoked salmon and soda bread.

Wishing all our family and friends a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Baby Reeham - 8 months

These pictures of Reeham are long overdue. He's 8+ months now and is a pretty fast crawler. All the kids adore him and he's kept well entertained. We missed Reeham and Sitty when they went back to the Philippines for a very long break and it was a great relief when they both came back!

Another jungle, another pit viper

I was part of a trio laying a straight forward run for the hash yesterday morning in the area we call Lucky Gardens. A branch had fallen across the trail and Bettina jumped the log with the intention of moving it. As I had spotted the snake, she walked past it without a care not noticing it at all! I was impressed how calmly we all took it - a couple of years ago I would have screamed and jumped! With the triangular head I think it was a baby pit viper though he was rather small but we didn't want to get too close because he was not impressed with us and was acting very defensive. So we didn't hang about and left him alone and by the afternoon he had moved on. After the kids hash a few weeks ago anyone reading this is probably going to think that there are snakes round every jungle path corner - in two years walking this is the fifth snake I have seen and I have been lucky because I know some who have walked for years and never spotted any - so as not to put off anybody thinking of walking in the Brunei jungle, snakes are not spotted as commonly as you might fear!

Its Karaoke Time!

On their recent trip to Doha/Dubai my parents bought a karaoke machine with thousands of songs on it and the kids have been serenading us with their versions of "Beat It", "We are The World", "Umbrella" and many more delightful tunes! At the end of each song the singer is given a score and Iman was very chuffed last night that she got a score of 96. Singing is really not my forte so I yet have to pick up the mic but it is the holidays and the season to be merry so I guess the motto of "If you can't beat them, join them" comes to mind!

Another party, another Santa

I am currently having trouble uploading pictures but managed to get these these up a couple of days ago. Santa made a surprise visit to Jack's class party and all the kids were so excited. Jack's was probably the second name to be puled out the sack and was more than happy to talk to Santa.

Santa Said "Are you sure you're Jack because your tshirt says GAP?"

And Jack's reply was "I am...look..." showing Santa his name written on the inside. Bless!!

Ayden was terrified to collect his present so Jack had to do it for him. He relaxed again once Santa left and was happy to sit with the big boys!

Santa @ Serasa

It was the kids Christmas party at the yacht club last week - Santa arrived by boat of course!

Santa in his usual spot.

And the usual chaos outside of kids and parents waiting to see Santa

Iman and Jack very both very excited especially waiting to get their gift. But poor Ayden was terrified and made me collect his gift - still he was pretty pleased with his Cars projector torch. Jack got the same and Iman a small battery fan.