Productive Sunday

Downloaded video editing software today, so I've been busy putting together some video from our trip to Dalat and also uploaded a few photos. The Movie Studio software from Sony seems pretty easy to use and the results are ok, although I'll need to spend a bit of time on the tutorials to get the most out of it.

You can see the video on Youtube here and the photos here.

Catriona goes up to the hospital on Tuesday for her 3 month vaccinations and check-up.

Guard Up!

We took Catriona down to the K1 gym last night. CC's kickboxing trainer, FX, had just returned from a boxing match in Singapore and there was a party to celebrate his victory. You can see the fight here.

Catriona was fascinated by the gym - I think she might be an early student! Good for keeping prospective boyfriends at bay...

Speaking of gyms, Tom and I started back at the gym yesterday. This is in preparation for our next trek in February. I weighed in at 98.4kg (15st 7lb) and Tom at 102.7kg (16st 2.4lb). There's a lot of work to do! After 15 mins on the treadmill and an hour floating in the pool, we decided to celebrate with a breakfast of eggs benedict and a bottle of Zinfandel! The real work starts Monday...

Our new nanny started this week. Her name is Lệ and she's from Can Tho, near CC's Dad's house. CC's Dad knows her quite well, so fingers crossed she'll work out ok.

CC & I are off to a party at the Sheraton today. It's the AFL Grand Final (Australian Rules Football) and there's 400+ people going. One of the biggest events on the calendar for Ho Chi Minh City. Because the game is in Australia (obviously!), it means an early start - breakfast at 9:30am and the game kicks off around 11am.

Dalat Trip

Just got back from a long weekend in Dalat - we were keen to get straight back on the plane to Dalat once we were back in the heat and chaos of Saigon!

There were 11 of us in total, including Catriona. We had Tom, Thu, Bill and his cousin Vy. Also up with us were Diem, Sam, Alan and Ngoc.

We stayed at a fantastic old French-era villa at 28 Tran Hung Dao, a steal at less than $14 per night per room.

On Saturday we all went on a short trek through the hills. Catriona came along as well, fast asleep in the baby carrier. I think she preferred sleeping against my over-sized stomach than CC's... The trek brought us to a lake, where we took a boat ride to one of the islands and Tom & Sam took the kids out kayaking.

Sunday was golf day - there really is nowhere else like Dalat for playing golf in Vietnam - beautiful course, quaint old clubhouse, perfect weather and friendly staff all add up to a great day out playing golf.

As always, CC & I vowed at the end of the trip to get up to Dalat more often (or even live there!).

My plan is to put together some photos and video of the weekend and I'll be posting that up on Sunday hopefully.

Bibles

Just received The Babycare Bible from Amazon. I bought CC the Pregnancy Bible last year and we both found it invaluable from earliest days through to the first weeks following Catriona's birth. It was particularly good in dispelling the numerous old wives' tales and myths that surround pregnancy in superstitious Vietnam!

This book is by the same people and covers birth to 3 years. Hopefully it will be just as good.

I was a bit disappointed though - when I saw it was an Amazon parcel I was hoping it was The Abominable Snowman DVD with Peter Cushing!!!

Nanny no more

It's been a while since I posted, so a little update on what's been happening. We had a nanny arrive and start work on the 28th, Miss Oanh. She is from near CC's home town and the plan was for her to stay with us for a while and then she would be daytime only once she got used to living in HCMC.

Seven days, she lasted. She was fine with Catriona and didn't mind Walker. But I think her husband, who was still living in Can Tho, was missing her too much. Oh well, plan B (we don't actually have a plan B yet...).

2nd September was National Day in Vietnam, a public holiday. Tom, Thu and their son Bill came down to visit us and see Catriona for the first time. That's Thu, CC and Catriona in the picture. Check out CC's colour co-ordination, especially the patent leather orange Doc Martens!!

I've uploaded some new photos of Catriona to Google Web albums - check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewhcmc/200908Catriona#

We tried Catriona in the baby bouncer we got from Mum and Dad. She's still a bit small but she seemed to enjoy it. It also confused Walker no end!

Yesterday we were on a charity Fun Run across the new Phu My Bridge., which opened last week. There were 5,000 people who attended and it was a good day out. Most people walked the 5km but there were quite a few runners as well, including CC's boss Pat, who is training for the New York Marathon. He'd been out for a 12km run at 5:30 that morning as a warm-up!

We debated whether to take Catriona but in the end we decided not to in case the weather turned bad.

There's some photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewhcmc/200909PhunRun#.

A quiet week ahead for us, as it's back to just me, CC, Cat and dog...