To celebrate the most shoes Johnny has ever owned...

We took this photo.

He then proceeded to throw 5 pairs out.

This is what happens on Saturday nights kids.

What's That Smell?

This was a question Johnny often asked me in our apartment and justifiably so. To put it simply, every so often (and more and more often) our house would just smell weird, and weird in a bad way.

Johnny described it as "like a dead rat in our vents", which is coincidental because Tammy who lives in the same building the next day described it as "like a dead rat in the vents". I however took the more rational approach and said "it smells like Vietnam". Once it smelled like delicious Vietnamese food so I was totally right.

Then came the day that Tammy actually got the building maintenance guys in and found there was some kind of leak in the roof. This meant there was dirty Vietnam water festering in the dark warm air and that was THE smell. So kind of like a dead rat after all. In what should have been a glaringly obvious clue that also explained the water damage stain that had begun to appear on our ceiling.

Unconnected to the main smell there was another, probably more awful smell in our laundry.

So we get the maintenance guys in. Keep in mind this is one of the most, if not the most "prestigious" and expensive apartments building in Hanoi. Of course it doesn't smell they get here, but this is a summary of the type of things that went down.

A concierge chick and maintenance guy come and have a look. They discuss and decide the solution is to the paint the ceiling. I tell them it's leaking and they need to FIX THE LEAK. He decides he needs to discuss the problem with other technicians. I tell him we already know the problem, they solved the exact same one in the other apartment, so they need to FIX THE LEAK.

They discuss more and he grudgingly leaves to get a ladder and comes back 15 minutes later. He comes back with another concierge chick (so now there are two) and looks in the roof. It seems there is a leak. I tell the new girl they need to FIX THE LEAK. She explains what the problem is- "the air-conditioning is too cold". She also goes on to say, that it won't leak anymore, it's happened before and now it won't leak anymore.

The important part here is "it's happened before", it's happened again, and although they have done nothing at this point, magically it WON'T LEAK AGAIN.

Things get hazy here, mostly because if I think about it more my mind goes hazy from lack of any sort of rational at play. I wish I could tell you that my careful explaining about how if you eliminate the leak now there won't be a smell, or a stain and therefore you won't have to paint the ceiling (for a third time), or how if there was an leak because the air-con was "too cold" then they needed to fix the air-con suddenly clicked everything into place for them. Alas, there wouldn't be a blog entry if that was the case.

She told me when I used the air-conditioning that I should close all the curtains and slooowly put the temperature down.

Then they painted the ceiling.

Ironically, one of the girls dropped off a Service Quality Survey today. I looked through the questions and I couldn't actually note a bad thing. The smell seems to be gone after all and the ceiling is painted. Shock horror they even called after the work was done and asked if everything was okay. The next day as I walked in another girl asked how things were too.

The conclusion? Just like they are, I'm just hoping for the best.

Cause We're Awesome

It's been a tad quiet here cause I've been in Malaysia and Laura has been here making my life more exciting. More on that later.

In the meantime, check out these super cute aprons Laura bought us!

Note: no actual cooking is being done.

Home Sweet Home

I don't think I can ever not have a hat stand again. For the first time ever, my bags and hat have a real home.

Living/ dining room- the kitchen is to the right

Kitchen to the left, bedrooms to the right

Ovenless kitchen- the laundry is hidden behind the door at the end

The balcony- for looks only

The guest room- this is where you get to stay if you visit! I think we blanket failed though. There's a massive window where the curtains are and you get your own bathroom too!

Our room. I was waiting to out on pretty sheets before I took this photo but our cleaner has a strange system where nothing ever properly matches so this is as close as I'm going to get.

Err...this is our bathroom. I feel odd posting this but it's possibly the biggest bathroom I'm going to have in my life. Check out that mirror!

One of the things I've said to everyone is how much I love our apartment here- and finally, the photos!

Things I love about our apartment:
:: the fact we have space and we aren't squished in. This is probably why it's hard to leave it sometimes! It's also the perfect apartment for us to be living together for the first time. 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms!

:: one of the best things is the fact that we have a keypad door lock instead of keys. Even though keys are so small it's one thing we never have to worry about. I appreciate this every single day.

:: everything matches. I put it all down to Johnnys good taste of course (no sarcasm at all!). Everything is in neutral tones and really minimal. Very "adult" and I love it. I had visions of doing lots of things to it, but I'm loving it as it is- now I'm used to it, anything else just feel like clutter. I think we've lucked out too because apparently it isn't the norm to have bright open spaces because of "ghosts".

:: lots of storage- although we don't really have that much stuff

:: it's in a nice building with a fancy (compared to lots of other places) lobby. It's nice to walk in to somewhere quiet and nice. We also have a shopping centre next door.

And, just to balance out the glory, here are the things that suck:
:: WOODWORMS, we had our wood replaced, and.......there's another one in there

:: we don't have an oven. I've realised I've whinged about this enough to the point of being annoying so I'm just going to buy one soon to put everyone at ease

:: noise: I don't find it so bad but let's just say, because of sound bouncing off the building next door we're never going to be using that pretty balcony in the photo

:: we're kinda far from "things". Imagine the centre of town, most things are to the north- we're to the south. It's not really that far, but enough to not want to go...

:: Johnny doesn't like lots of other things but I forget what they are. I know one is that the people that work here suck, but I've resigned to the fact that service is pretty crap everywhere

So there we go. We still don't know how long we're here for so I'm revelling in this while I can. Let's not ignore the fact that we would never, never (at least in the foreseeable future) have this in Sydney. So come visit while you can! x

* Just a reminder- our Facebook access is pretty crap, so if you want to get in touch the best way is e-mail/twitter/msn.

Johnny & Jo vs. The Woodworm

What's a woodworm I hear you ask? Well, I could go into a scientific lecture about the history and evolution of them but to save you having to pretend to care all you really know is it's a REALLY FCUKING LOUD THING IN WOOD. Specifically, wood in our bedroom.

Johnny, being Johnny researched what these woodworms were (so I lied about me going into a lecture about them, it's really him) and sussed them out. This is the deal:
1. Certain beatles lay eggs in the wood

2. The wood gets chopped down and the untreated wood gets made into things that go into your house, in our case our skirting boards

3. An indeterminate of time later, the eggs hatch and the worms start eating the wood

4. In some cases they eat their way out - get enough and you'll get this

What does a wood worm sound like? Think a large, live animal with claws stuck in the walls trying to get out. Worst case scenario of course- which is what it sounded like when I first got here. That one either died or actually got out.

When the sound started again we called management who not surprisingly didn't give a damn, that is until Johnny bet the guy $100K ($5AU) that one was in there. Next thing you know a maintenance guy is here ripping it out. And when I say ripping, I mean in a "no holds barred I'd use sledgehammer if I had one" way. Once he does, the manager looks at it, and says "see no worms". He'd be right of course had the wood not had hundreds of holes in it. That's when they went outside to crack the wood, and what do you know, in the ONE random place they crack it a worm falls out.

Johnny didn't get $100K but it's worth the good nights sleep. Oh, and being right. In YO FACE management. And worm.

View From Our Apartment

These aren't the most glamorous shots but neither is this damn eye stye that's making my life awful at the moment. Apologies to everyone who's had to listen to me whinge about it already!

Anyhoo, back to the view. We're up on the 10th floor and we're one of those apartments who the two office towers look onto. Yep, I've always wondered what it was like to be one of them (I think specifically of the apartments next to the Ogilvy office in St Leonards) but I don't ever see people and so I hardly notice it. Though I did see some people lighting a fire this afternoon.

When I first got here there was fog every day and you could hardly see anything. Even though it's a million degrees each day now the sun has come out and life is much happier.

That last photo is from this evening after a storm- one of the most amazing sunsets I've seen.

What's going on in your world?