Good to hear you're avoiding the plague, Terry - and Fran; well done both of you! We've endured commie-inspired lockdowns on and off for the past more than two years - barbed wire surrounding houses was a common sight - only for me to catch Covid no more than a few days after landing in Sydney: unbelievable in a so-called advanced (intelligent) civilisation! My back and kidney areas are now sources of constant pain and we don't know whether it's damage caused by Covid or some other source (the GP says "torn muscle" but it seriously feels more like kidney problems than muscle, but then I'm no doctor...) - but life goes on and I'll at least get out of here on Thursday (6 consecutive neg RAT results so far since Covid found someone else to maul) and back to Vietnam where they might not have much money but they've got a helluva lot more understanding of self-preservation than any of the maskless wonders in Sydney, and I'll feel much safer walking around between the massage and acupuncture appointments that Linh and Sunny are busily booking for me (assuming I can still walk, because I certainly won't be able to ride the bike for a long time yet) - happy days!
Dunno if Arsenal will make it into the top 4, but they've got more chance of that than LFC have of finishing 1st, more's the pity. Still, we shouldn't be greedy - and at least it's the blue Manchester team on top, not that other mob of misfits!
Linh says "Hi" to you both and wonders where JK and Babs have got to - any idea?

Thanks Lee, and thanks for the chat - probably the longest time I've spoken English in the last 20 years!

There's not much for anyone to be happy about these days - anything from Russia attacking Ukraine to Covid lockdowns or even the weather! But LFC giving Man U a 4-0 shellacking to follow the season's earlier 5-0 hammering is truly a bright spot in all the murk! Also flying back to Oz today for a quick 3 weeks to fix a few things that have fallen apart while we've been away for more than 2 years on what was supposed to be a 4 months trip! It was made possible because the VN visa rules changed and I was gonna have to do a renewal run to the border anyway, but VNA suddenly dropped their airfares to below pre-Covid levels so why not go a bit further? Mind you, I could write a book about the bureaucracy involved at both ends - I've got enough soft and hard copies of various health declarations and associated QR codes to fill a library! Happy days...............

I shouldn't have said anything about the Russia/Ukraine stoush probably affecting energy prices because that comment has now truly come home to roost! We've managed to get our vaccines and well underway with Sunny's visa application so we can go downunder during Sunny's end of school year holidays June/July (2 years overdue thanks to Covid travel bans), but today we learn that Biden & Co's (good, imo) decision to ban Russian oil will have an immediate roll-on effect on airline prices - just as they were getting back down to near post-Covid normal! Big question for us is now whether we'll be able to afford to fly the three of us downunder this year, anyway! And if not, can we somehow get all our affairs in order after more than two years of neglect? (not to mention cleaning the apartment in Sydney - it must be like a rubbish tip by now!). Things like utilities, phone services, health cover, postal services, etc are in a shambles now, and even our bank won't talk to us anymore - demanding that the changes we need to make to keep our accounts operating properly can only be done by presenting in person at the bank, despite our being stuck here in VN ("Sorry sir, bank policy")! Aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh - where's 007 when you need him!

No, that's not a mistake - today is Tuesday ("Twos-day") the 22nd day of the 2nd month of 2022 (, ie Twos-day 22.2.22). Hands up anyone who hadn't noticed!! 

G'day Steve Iceton - look forward to seeing your photos as I remember a lot of people from J troop 1962-65.
Cheers
Scouse Ratia

Nice timing, Pam - yesterday's news headline downunder was one of the biggest energy suppliers, Origin Energy, announcing closure of it's coal-fired plant a massive 7 years before it was required (or expected) to do so! Cynics say they made the surprise announcement because they didn't want to follow in the footsteps of another energy supplier, AGL, which earlier said it would close but was persuaded by the government to continue (with the gov't quietly 'subsidising' its losses). Not sure what's behind it all (apart from the usual mismanagement with senior execs filling their pockets), and perhaps a kowtowing to public opinion in our new snowflake world ("We must protect the environment even if it kills us"), but with at least a third of Europe's gas coming from Russia, the brewing stoush over Russia's apparent intention to invade Ukraine can't possibly help in that part of the world!!!
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, any power shortage will doubtless get treated with the usual aplomb: the authorities just turn all our power off for a few days!!! 

The rush seems to have subsided a bit here - still many on tourist visas trying to avoid paying the overstay penalty but no one's managed it yet! And thanks to facebook(!), the word got around v.quickly about booking low-cost connecting flights so everyone's wary now - and it's not just Singapore that was stopping them, many didn't even get out of Saigon! I just renewed my "permitted to stay 6 months" visa exemption but now it's only valid for 3 months. We asked why and they said "Covid" - as though no further explanation needed. We're trying to extend via family connections but it's not such a big deal because I could go back to Oz a bit earlier than planned and clean the place up before Linh and Sunny hopefully arrive a month later (more than 2 years empty - yuk!).