Praying Mantis

There are two insects I like here, the metalic green scarab looking ones that I don't have a picture of yet, and the Praying Mantis. Here's one that was hanging about outside the glass kitchen door.

Much nicer than cockroaches.

Visitor

Our house has airconditioning in all the rooms above the ground floor but we spend most of our time on the ground floor. To maximise air circulation we keep the front and back door open and often open a door on the roof too. So we get visitors.

I think it sets off the indoor scooter parking facility beautifully.

On the up

Avid readers will know that our house has four floors.



You can count them. Last night we went to the roof with a bottle of wine and plans for a chilled evening in and found this...





Obviously I waited for daylight to photograph it because flash, chrome and me are an untried combination and the camera was on the ground floor.

It leads to the flat space where the water pump and air conditioner units live. I don't know why it's there, I don't know when it got there and I don't know what's coming next.

I'm off on holiday for a few days and slightly fear returning.

Fake Mexicans at the Opera House

Sunday the 9th of November, 8:30 am at the top of Le Loi on the steps of the Opera House I spied (well I could hardly miss them) people dressed in sombreros playing vaguely Latin American music. Who? Why? No idea but it fairly brightened up the morning for me.

Here they are from across the road the better to admire the newly refurbished Opera House.



Closer so you can fully appreciate the sombreros.


For some reason windmill salesmen always get in on the act.



And since it's "nearly" Christmas the Santa baloons have been dusted off for another year.



I was starting to think I was getting a little complacent about Vietnam, how wrong can you get?

Frog

Nothing more interesting than a picture of a frog but I was particularly pleased to capture it so clearly.

One, two, tree.

Tonight the frogs were lively and I happened to have a camera with me. There have been a lot more tree frogs around recently and I'm getting very fond of them.





I await three in one shot.

Domestic days

We have three floors and a roof terrace but often hauling it all the way to the top floor is too much to expect of a human so we spend a lot of time in our front courtyard.
It's 5m x 2m but packs a lot in.



Because we were heading out almost immediately we left the scooter parked outside the gate. At night it lives on the ground floor next to an armchair.



Our courtyard is home to twenty plants, 17 fish and assorted visitors.



We have tiny chairs that make it look bigger, if you look carefully you can see my first home grown orchid just starting to bloom.



And here it is, My First Little Orchid.




A view from three floors up with one still to go before we reach the roof.



You wouldn't want to forget anything you needed or to have suicidal tendencies. However, the climb to the roof space is worth the risk of being enticed to throw yourself down the stairwell.



As well as the view we have a fridge up here dedicated to beer and wine.

Shoes in the house?

I'm going to take some pictures of the house but haven't got around to it yet, To motivate myself I'm putting up a mini-posting which ought to shame me into being more productive. Time will tell though, I have a high shame threshold.

We are good tenants and don't wear shoes in the house, neither does anyone else so there tends to be a big collection at the front door at times.

On permanent display are the "gate shoes", rubber flip flops for shuffling back and forward the three steps from the front door to the gate when visitors or bill collectors arrive.