One minute we were in The Meadow showing Cooper the new baby chicks and the next we were back in one of the busiest bustling cities of Asia – Ho Chi Minh. My two lives couldn’t be more different!! My whole week prior to flying had been consumed with the safe arrival of our chicks. I took it all very personally and it very nearly brought me undone. I knew in advance that some eggs wouldn’t hatch and that we may lose a couple but knowing it and seeing it are two different things. One chick was born with no lower feathers and its stomach on the outside so it was a target from the start. It would never have made it in the outside world and luckily passed away within hours. My 2nd little chick was a different kettle of fish….

We had moved all the little chicks to their brooding pen and presumed the rest of the eggs in the incubator weren’t viable until we heard cheeping. We thought a little chick must have hopped away in the move and was in the garage somewhere but the noise was coming from the incubator. From an egg. It had a smallish hole in it or as they say in chick talk the egg was ‘pipped’ but all we could see was a foot. The cheeping however was strong and persistent and we left the heat on so it could do it’s thing. Two hours later still loudly cheeping the situation hadn’t changed much, just a rounder hole so I called the chicken guru. He said that usually the chick hatches quickly and beak first meaning the egg membrane doesn’t dry out too quickly but if it does dry up it sticks to the chick making it hard for them to break out. He suggested dampening the egg with a warm damp cloth to help it soften and as the call was so loud he thought it appropriate to help break some of the shell off with some tweezers and give the little chick a chance. It had such a strong life force with its cheeping and I really really wanted to give it every chance so I was very happy when it eventually broke free even though there was quite a bit of shell attached to its feathers. It lay there recovering and I left it for an hour to dry out and fluff up. On my return however it was still lying there and going around in circles rather than standing up but still cheeping like crazy. We popped it into a little paper towel lined “nest” in a reel of tape to try and give it some sense of standing and we fed it some sugar water as it had been going for nearly 24 hours by now. We named him Thor for his spirit and I checked on him every 30 minutes but he just couldn’t stand up and he too wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes with the other chickens. I was devastated and felt so personally responsible for this little life. He passed away in the warmth of the incubator, still cheeping, albeit more feebly, right until the end. I was a mess. Ridiculous maybe but that’s me I’m afraid. I couldn’t eat chicken for over 2 weeks. Not sure I’m cut out for this country stuff sometimes.

Our wonderful house sitter Smutzer arrived for the handover and despite us loading him up with an extra 15 chicks to look after he happily waved us off and we were on our way to see our daughter and our other little grandbaby in Vietnam. We have been many times now but it is always a bit of a shock on that 1st cab ride from the airport. Vietnam is an assault to your senses similar to most Asian countries. Life is lived outdoors and late into the night you can see people of all ages eating and drinking at pavement cafes on those little red and blue plastic chairs so evocative of Vietnam. Over the next few days we enjoyed our reunion with the family and delighted in our cuddles with little Myla. She loves going swimming and Pa loved taking her. I was on reading and playing duty and the latest adventure of feeding her solids. So far she seems to like EVERYTHING! Things get pretty messy though…

Lauren had booked us all into a boutique hotel on the beach at Ho Tram for the weekend and it was lovely to drive out of the madness that is HCMC and pass through rice paddies being worked by the most ancient machinery (and most of the time by ancient people as well!) and smaller towns with lush gardens on our 2 hour drive south. We stopped off at a roadside cafe to feed Myla and have a cafe sua da, the delicious and addictive Vietnamese iced coffee. Like many other cafes it had a selection of hammocks in which to rest if the fancy took you. It does look so relaxing just swaying in the breeze under the shade of a tree and watching the world go by….

The resort was perfect for us with 2 different swimming pools, a beachside bar that served tables and freestanding cabanas on the sand, a perfect location to enjoy the amazing sunset. The traditional decor was so serene and a welcome change from the ubiquitous modern hotel room. After just a few hours we felt recharged as if we’d been there for days!

Our son in law topped off the day by streaming the Rugby World Cup on his laptop at the beach bar for the MOTH while Loz and I read on the beach with a pina colada and Miss Myla ripped out the zzzzzs back in the air conditioned comfort of the villa (thanks to the babysitting app which made this possible!)

Back to the big smoke and some lovely meals and cold beer with board games around the Cook family table, walks via the very local area to grab pho or to one of the many local restaurants catering to the expats of the area. We love them both in equal measure as there is SO MUCH to see and people watching is one of our very favourite things to do!

Looking around, you absorb all the snippets of information that are the reality around you and this is what becomes your overall impression of Vietnam…..Hot and humid, chaotic traffic but with no road rage and very few accidents, beautiful lush gardens next to empty blocks of rubble, mud and rats; people so friendly and relaxed that nothing is a drama; food markets set up on the smallest strip of pavement; cafe’s set up in people’s houses; businesses pop up and shut down every week as everyone has a stab at a new idea. Flooded streets, karaoke belting out alongside the sweet songs of caged birds that hang outside in the shade of a tree. Dogs, chickens and cats wander the streets; roosters in cages resting up for a big night ahead – sadly they still fight them here. Pot plants galore in every restaurant and shop, bikes laden with entire families or building supplies…even 2 metre long pipes or planks balancing precariously. Old women selling lottery tickets, shuffling along in their socks and sandals, their deeply wrinkled faces etched with their life experiences. Young girls in tight jeans and stilettos on motor bikes, their bahn mi or iced tea dangling from the handlebars in a plastic bag. Men swinging lazily in hammocks slung between the trees in the shade or somehow miraculously sleeping on top of their bikes. All this can be witnessed in one short walk from Lauren’s apartment. Life is poor yet rich in Vietnam.

All of a sudden it was time for Pa to leave and Myla just loved helping him pack. He put his belt in neatly coiled and she would pull it out! Each item held the utmost fascination to her and it took him rather longer than normal to get organised! Lozzy and I had an extra couple of days together which was super, enjoying a lovely last lunch in the garden of an Italian restaurant – 3 courses and 2 glasses of bubbles each for the princely sum of $50. Amazing value! I was leaving at 10.30pm on Halloween and hadn’t given any thought to it until Berry came home saying he had tickets to a private compound where the wealthy residents decorated their houses for all the kids to enjoy. He was working at a ‘house of horrors’ which had taken weeks to set up. His job was to scare people as they walked through the darkened corridors and he was exhausted by the time he got home with nearly 1000 people coming through! It seemed so strange to see all the little Vietnamese kids dressed up and embracing such a western event! You could hear them all chatting away animatedly in their language with a few “trick or treats”thrown into the conversation! Together with sandwich and weekend and okay these words are universal apparently! So after a lovely week with my girls I was back on a plane to The Meadow but this time it was made easier knowing that they will all be home with us for Christmas in just 6 weeks time!

Bye for now Myla Moo xxx

So back home to my little chicks who are now gangly teenagers and practising their flying and eating us out of house and home. They have been moved into the big chicken coop but in a wired off contained area where Le Rod cannot eat them for morning tea and they can all get a bit used to each other before we let them mingle. So far so good! The garden is bursting with life and flowers and birds and we are back to mowing every week. It is still a bit chilly for the pool but not for long….Summer is definitely on it’s way folks!