Today’s class at Blue Dragon was a challenge. Again, I had no translator, but again the children were fantastic. Armed only with my Lonely Planet phrase book (which has about one word in twenty that I try to look up) and an ability to mime and repeat myself that all British tourists are born with, we managed to battle through. I honesty, when you try to explain something for five minutes and finally the little Vietnamese light bulbs click on the sense of achievement is immense.
Essentially, all I did was get them to use the things I’d taught them last week. I got them to pick their favourite football team and change the page title to match it. Next was to add a table (as soon as I said “table” they knew how to add one) and pick their best players – any players. That was probably the hardest part. Eventually I found the word “manager/director” in the phrasebooks and told them that they were the manager of their club and they could pick any players they wanted.
The table was filled in and then I loaded Paint on each machine. Now… how to tell them to design a new logo for their club…? I pointed to Paint, pointed to my tattoo (for those who don’t know, I have a Newcastle United badge on my left arm) and said “moi” (mur-ee).
Lightbulbs lit.
For twenty minutes, they beavered away making new flags for Real Madrid, Man U and Brazil. These were then duly converted into the right format and added to the web page – again, as soon as they figured what I was after they did it as if they’d been using Dreamweaver for years. Class!
A long class, but the best so far. Same again tomorrow!
Today, the Danish girls left for Bangkok. From there, they’re heading for a dinky island off the east coast and then back home again. I hope they enjoyed their stay here and also have a great time in Thailand!
I chilled in the afternoon and, after giving up on two of the in-house DVDs that were scratched to hell, Watched Cars – it rocks. Now, it looks like a copy from a DVD, the quality is that good. However, it’s obviously recorded at a cinema as roughly halfway through, and announcer pipes up “We apologise for the interruption, but would the Henderson family please collect their child from the concession booth?”. Despite this (and the end credits being lopped off), it was a cracking film – much better than I’d reckoned it would be. I’ll pick up the “proper” version when I get back, just to keep Mr Lassiter happy!
Max came wandering in with a doorstep that was doing a good impression of a very nice sandwich. The only sandwich shop I know of in the area is No Noodles and it’s closed down, so we asked for directions and headed off. Without these we would never have spotted it. The entrance is a tiny doorway next to a silk shop with an obscured sign above it. 15 yards down a tone corridor is a flight of steps and the cafe is up there. As soon as you step inside, the scruffiness ends and a lovely wooden cafe appears. Polished floors, solid tables, humorous menus, comfy seats. Really, really nice. A little hidden gem.
Eamonn and I had chicken and bacon salad sandwiches – top notch, though a little pricey. Still, you have to pay for quality. We were even sat down with a glass of iced water while we waited for the food to be prepared.
A fair few people arrived tonight and I ended up at the Pho place again, this time with three young girls from England still wide-eyed at their first view of Asia. Once more, the food was enjoyed and they couldn’t believe how little it had cost.
The only downside today was that the aircon in my room died. It had been ropey for a couple of days, but during the day it seemed to decide that it should pump out air at room temperature and start to smell of damp cabbage. I crashed in the room opposite as there was a spare bed, and the temperature was a lovely 17 degrees.
