Another Vietnamese First

Well so much for my New Year's Resolution. It is now the 30th January I have not posted one Blog since the 1st January. After two attempts to watch a movie on my laptop both times freezing and going no further I decided the Lap Top Gods had other plans for me today.
It is 2 O'clock on a sunny day 32 degree day in Saigon and I am sitting in bed at the FV Hospital. Today is Sunday and I have been in hospital since Tuesday.
To explain I will go back a few days. Matthew went back to Australia to help out his Brisbane Flood affected store. School is well and truly back in the Northern Hemisphere. After a week end of feeling unwell with high fevers I took both Monday and Tuesday off work (not something I like to do for there is an incentive to retain your sick days - you get paid for any sick leave you have left at the end of the year) but I really couldn't even get out of bed. On the Tuesday I headed to the local medical centre attached to the hospital - more for a doctors certificate then anything else. As I didn't have an appointment and they were booked out I ended up in Emergency, the doctor took blood tests and told me to come back for the results in 2 hours.
Two hours later I was being told they were admitting me because I had a severe infection. I tried to explain that no I couldn't do that I have children and a husband in another country but that didn't work and here I am still, 5 days later.
After a barrage of tests they finally found the infection on Friday; an acute bacterial urinary tract infection that is resistant to normal antibotics. This means I am now in isolation and have to stay here for another 3-5 days. I am hoping more the 3 then the 5.
So how is a Vietnamese Hospital (albeit a private one not a public hospital) different from an Australian hospital? Well I guess not that much really, food is dreadful, TV is dreadful, you get poked and prodded - so same same I guess. There are a few quirks I guess, being woken up at 5 am for blood tests I understand - being woken up at 5 am to be weighed was bizarre. There is a nice terrace on the third floor that when I wasn't in isolation I could go to but when you walk out the door there is about 10 or so metres of pebbled ground not so easy when you have an IV. The rejuvenating cup of tea comes once a day at 3pm. (I do wonder how my friend Bron would cope). And I won't even bother mentioning how attractive pink hospital PJ'S are for girls and how handsome the boys look in their blue PJ's. But that's Vietnam for you.

This week coming is a holiday for schools - well for everyone actually - its Vietnam's major holiday, TET or New Year. We were using the opportunity to go to Malaysia unfortunately that is not happening - however we , meaning matthew, has managed to cancel all of our travel plans, and rebook for Spring Break.
Hopefully this is our first and only experience of hospital in Vietnam.

New Years Eve Resolution

I have decided that my New Years resolution for 2011 is to become a better pen pal, or is it called a keyboard pal if you are typing. Anyway my goal is to email friends more frequently and write my blog my regularly.

So as it's January 1 I thought I should start immediately. We had Christmas in Hoi An which is a town north of Saigon. Unfortunately our hotel was not as nice as we had hoped, nor was it located conventiently to anything but it was clean.

Hoi An is known for it's tailors, but I was determined to remember that you get what you pay for so no bad bridesmaid dress lookalikes for me this time. A friend of Zander's from school had recommended a place so that is where we headed the first day. It is so overwhelming though , they have books and books of designs and rows and rows of fabric sometimes I think just going to Myers is so much easier. After a dress, a skirt and a pair of shorts and a suit for Matthew we had more then had enough - so we all escaped gladly. Only temporarily though because I had rejected Bella's choice of a dress well not the choice but rather the price, so it was off to another Tailors to look at a dress she saw earlier. Now we were done.

As it was a beautiful day we hired bikes to ride to the beach, a combination of bad roads, basic bikes and traffic made it a really interesting trip I am sure I felt every bump on the road. But it was so worth it. The beach was just wonderful, there is something rejuvenating about the ocean. Of course Vietnam being Vietnam it wasn't long before we were approached by a vendor selling her wares. When she walked away after we said no, Zander, Matthew, Joshua and I looked at each other and said "Did she say what I thought she said?" We all heard the same thing... "if you buy my braclet shit don't happen". Not quite the sales pitch we are used to but it did get us talking. but no we didn't buy a bracelet.