* Ia Chay: RE the outbreak of the runs, it's the vegetables. Those god-damn raw vegetables! (or so says someone
from WHO, who told someone I know). So leave mam tom out of this. Though it is still banned

* After eating nom du du on Thursday and Friday, all the accompanying veg I had with bun cha on Friday, the salad I had on Friday night... I was thinking I was eating healthily. The Ngoc Ha market was half-empty this morning. Only meat and fruit available, so the powers that be are taking this pretty seriously.

* The weather, oh we'll always have the weather: A stunning day, like a perfect Irish summer's day (no sniggering at the back), 25 degrees, blue sunny skies... but my office colleagues are wearing jumpers and scarves. It was good enough for the turtle (perhaps he's Irish?). He clambered up onto the island in Hoan kiem lake to soak up the rays according to that man-about-town-Julio. Of course, the turtle might just be trying to get out of the murky depths to breathe. Of course if you foolishly believed everything you read at Pittstop Works you'd know that he's actually a 62-year old retired sub-aquatic minesweeper.

* I am, for the record, wearing socks.

* Correction: I said that Thuy Linh was a verb and an adjective, but it was actually Vang Anh, the name of the show she was in. Example: A young man comes home late at night and his brother will tease him, I'm translating obviously, "You were out doing a Vang Anh", or something along those lines.