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By Claire, August 30, 2010 5:45 am

Yes, yes, yes _ i know I need to update. In themeantime, just checking the RSS feed.

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By Claire, June 19, 2010 11:21 am

…going out and not having my hair and clothes smell of smoke the next day.  It seems to smell post-washing today.  Not nice.

And on the food list: Bacon, Gluten Free Sausages, Runner beans out the garden and the Selfridges Cheese and Olive counters.

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By Claire, June 19, 2010 4:26 am

Really must be true that the end of year is upon me.  Last night was the end of year staff party, food and drink provided (until it ran out), with a raffle for the local staff (some pretty good prizes in there too).   Oddly, there was only beer or red wine when we got there, but once the red wine ran out, there was only white.  All a bit odd.  Head remarkably okay today (better than after popping for a bite to eat after the Primary school concert on Thursday – we were there so long we got free shots.  Dangerous).

Publicly need to thank Anne, my awesome personal shopper extraordinnaire , who took a dress I already had with her to Hoi An recently, with the brief ‘get me this in something Hawaiian.  Really pleased – may even wear it again!  Wearing a real flower lei is hot work (especially here), but thought the flower people did a fabulous job for about £3.

This was followed by a mini (an unintentional) pub crawl around Saigon in an effort to still be up for the England game, having originally been planning to watch it in An Phu.  Phatty’s (home bar of the Aussie cricket lot) wasn’t anywhere near as busy as we thought it would be, but just as smoky and chilly as ever.  Game, as you all no doubt know, was not the sort that makes you glad you’ve stayed up to watch.  One of the people there is part of the trip to Aus at Christmas, and I hope the next time we watch England sport together it’s more successful!

Off now to top up my tan – think I’m starting to look a bit pasty.

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By Claire, June 18, 2010 12:54 am

How did it come to pass that I missed off gluten free fish and chips from the Atlantic Fish bar?  Must go check that I’m in/passing through Tamworth on at least one Monday!

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By Claire, June 17, 2010 11:40 am

with only ten days now until I’m back in the UK for the summer, the (fairly materialist) list of things I’m looking forward to includes:

• A proper Birmingham Chicken & Spinach Balti.  With popadoms and cucumber dip.
• sleeping with a duvet and not melting
• Sainsbury’s smoked mackrel pate
• Gluten free bread (I can get the packet mix here, and could have bought an oven, but never found the right size cake tins)
• Stinking Bishop cheese
• Rioja
• Being in the same time zone as people I’m trying to call
• Talking to Mum and Dad in person and individually, not trying to talk to both whilst looking at the top of Mum’s head, the right side of Dad’s face and all the files on the bookshelf in the office
• Not descending into a pool of sweat after the 300 yard cycle to work at 7am
• Football commentary in English that matches the pictures (only Viet TV coverage and needs internet radio which doesn’t quite sync)
• Visiting lots of people
• Doing some UK tourist stuff (Stonehenge, Wells, Jenner Museum, Slimbridge Wetlands)
• Shoe shops that sell my size
• Book shops
• Squash
• Seeing my Nan and Grandad.  Grandad’s as surprised as I am he’s (fingers crossed with 10 days to go) stayed healthy all year!
• Raspberries, strawberries and blueberries
• Watching cricket that isn’t 30% wide balls
• Doing laps at Harborne (providing it doesn’t rain!)
• and other stuff.