I am sure as you listen to this and eat your turkey leg you won't mind sharing this letter wih people on four continents who are also coming along with me on this Journey. It is probably the strangest Christmas I will ever experience as it is a non-Christmas and I like big ones.
So, wherever you are in the world, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. If you are in the UK, I am sure we will be meeting up pretty soon when I settle down in Milton Keynes. If you are in Dairy Farm - have fun - I miss that place already. If Santa doesn't find you, it is because he is strung up in Orchard Road.
Today I am off on the next leg of the trip to Vietnam and more specifically, Hanoi. It means another long slog on a bus. Yesterday's bus didn't have a motorbike on the roof but there was one firmly tethered to the seats in the isle of the minivan so we had to climb over it to get out at the toilet stop. This bus was green but Diane didn't mind this colour so much as it was probably about thirty years newer than the one that took us to Phonsavan. Once again we passed through beautiful countryside on hair-raising roads.
The toilets are always a good topic of conversation when travelling. I am saving this point up for a future blog - probably to be titled, "toilets I have known". After all we all have toilet stories from our holidays, don't we?
I will be spending Christmas Day in Hanoi. Things I know already - there won't be a turkey and almost for certain we won't be playing games like SPOONS. There could be hats, if I manage to find some to buy before our "Christmas lunch" and I would like to have bucks fizz for breakfast as that is what Woolheads do on Christmas morning.
Three years ago I had a Christmas party at my house that lasted a very long time. Didn't it DJ? We were still seated around the dining table at 11:30pm after starting dinner at 2pm. The following year my family came out for Christmas and one uninvited guest tagged along! I had pneumonia but none of the family seemed to notice. I managed to take myself off to hospital where I found the cause of my vomiting and tiredness. I was offered a bed and in retrospect I should have escaped to it. Clearly that was a Christmas to remember.
I expect my family will continue this year with all our old traditions. I can't quite see my ex getting organised enough to cook the dinner but I imagine, "She who cannot be named" - his not so new squeeze - will step up to the plate and do all the necessaries to create a festive meal. I'll raise a glass in sympathy to her. Merry Christmas Kids!!
(A glass of Lao vine terminate). I hope it doesn't.
I am already thinking of doing a not-Christmas - Christmas when I get home so my family can have a double celebration plus fun and games that we play at Christmas. I am looking forward to it already. Marmite - perhaps we can do a video link up so you will be part of the fun. I know you would love to see the rest of your family again.
Wishing you and everyone all the best of times and peace throughout the world.
Love you All.
Andie
XXX
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