Hung up

A funny thing happened today.

I couldn't find the timer for my IELTS lesson so I used my iphone, which has a timer built into it. I'd forgotten to switch off the phone in silent mode and then half way through one of the speaking exercises the phone goes off. The student thought his time was up. I waved my hand for him to continue. It was my mum. I hung up on her.

After class, I get a message from my sister on Skype. She asked me where I was was?
Work of course! Apparently, she had rung our mum and was asked where she was and what she was doing thinking it was me returning the missed call. My sister is in Madrid and not available for dinner. It still surprises me that my mum can't tell us apart our voices even after 30 plus years.

New Year's Eve
Tomorrow I've organised for my workmates to be colour co-ordinated by wearing something red for the festive season. I've even got our Japanese student in on it so he'll rock up with something red. I'm going to do the red socks thing as well. Also, I'm certain everyone I work with has worms. We didn't stop snacking at all today and it was one thing after another. Dried pork, marshmallows, chocolate, egg balls/waffles and this was after breakfast for lunch at The Flying Pan - 2 eggs sunny side up, four pieces of toast, grits, fruit and beef sausage. Hopefully, it will be a half day tomorrow and we can all leave early and make pigs of ourselves once more. I'm going to play mahjong with my aunts on New Year's day and try to win back some of the HK$400 I lost about two years ago. When to people actually start passing out red packets? I could break even.

WOM
I bought the word of mouth food guide 2008. Have to say that I was very disappointed with the accuracy of the guide. I met The V for brunch on Sunday and I had my heart set out for a breakfast of waffles and headed to Sheung Wan's Belgium 's Waffle Boy. When we got there all we could smell were pizzas but above the door the Waffle Boy signage was still displayed. The place had changed its business from waffles to pizzas. Pretty drastic don't you think? Anyway, 'Pepperoni's Pizzas' now graced the menu. We sat down and then got up and left and made our way to reliable and will never let us down Cafe O. I still wanted my waffle fix so went to The Flying Pan for dinner. Naturally, I wanted to write to the editors to complain but their website doesn't work despite going through the registration process.

Vietnam
Chloe has booked out flights and I've been reading the book! We are going to Hanoi and then taking the overnight train to Sapa (over Easter), which is suppose to be this glorious mountainous region in the north, close to the Chinese border overlooking a valley of patchwork rice paddy fields. There is also a group of ethnic minorities living in the area and markets. The food in the north is apparently a bit more spicier than the south because it can get quite cold up there. Also, I've been reading a lot about the Vietnamese history. I will have to re-watch Scent of the Green Papaya, Platoon, The Quiet American and Indochine before I go.