Dongurigal

I KNEW it

So like I get back to the Middle of Nowhere, Vietnam after nearly a week of civilization, tall buildings, light shows, SOHO restaurants, trams, buses, subways, shops, STARBUCKS, dung-free and dog-poo free hiking (those HK dog owners are very civilized) and find there's no internet. And then there's no power in the whole camp except for the restaurant and camp offices because they're on a generator. And it's pouring with rain. And it's pitch black. And there is an infestation of frogs on the road because apparently they like rain.

Sigh. I was all set to 'suck it up' for a month and a half before I go home to Canada for a visit. Instead, I was immediately growly.

It's 6:30 am. We've been 'told' that the internet sort of works in the morning, but by afternoon, fuggedaboudit. I'm posting now, just in case.  More later. I hope.

A post that fits four whole categories

This morning, when I woke up (at 6 am, why oh why), I looked out the window and saw the two islands across from our house. One island is flat and round. The other looks like one of the soaring egrets we see around here, wings tucked in, neck outstretched.  I don't usually see this island, even on what I think is a clear day. The mist from the humidity, I'm guessing, obscures it.

It's a beautiful and surprising sight.

Now you're thinking, wait a second, Dongurigal, aren't you in Hong Kong knocking people out with your rotten armpit smell? It's May 1 (or 2nd depending on the time zone.)  Aha, yes, I am in Hong Kong, provided my plane didn't crash. If it is indeed May 1, it's Hub's birthday too and we're probably at a nice restaurant, one without rats and cockroaches and horny dogs, or at least well-hidden rats and cockroaches and a definitive "no humping dogs allowed in restaurant" rule. 

I've used that little feature on TypePad I told you about two posts down.

So I'm writing this on April 28 but publishing it a few days later. Why not? I mean, what if I return from the holidays not having posted at all and the internet isn't working? That could mean a whole two weeks of not posting.   

But now I don't know what category to put this in. Vietnam Vignettes (the islands, the humping dogs), Weblogs (TypePad feature), Just the Facts of Life Here (although it's not in real time, hmmm) or Dongurigal Dilemmas (because I'm actually being a loser and fretting about this.) 

I'll put it in all four and call it a day.

A quick publishing explanation

A nice little feature of Typepad is that I can set my posts to publish on different days.  Probably Blogger/Blogspot lets you do that too, but as I didn't need to use it before, I don't know.

This past week I have been more prolific than usual and have written a few posts that have been published a day or two later. Prolificity (Jean, is it prolific--ness? Prolification? Spell check is giving me grief again) aside, one of the reasons I'm doing this is because the internet is acting wonky again. It gave out all afternoon and evening yesterday and right now it is starting to behave in the way it did yesterday, half loading pages, cutting out altogether, the usual crap.

Point is, because I have a post or two pending, you'll still hear from Dongurigal, but, if you're an IRL friend hoping for an email, that won't happen. Don't take it personally. Same same if I don't comment to comments here.

By the way, thanks for all the comments (and reassurances that you are still reading) in the "Don't tell me to suck it up post."  I forgot about feed sites like bloglines, even though, for me, it's the only way I can read blogspot posts. Now I can convince myself that I actually have 1000 readers. 

Right. I'd better post this now before the internet conks out completely.

Oh, and keep reading, I just wrote a hard-hitting journalistic post below. (Bah.)

Don't tell me to suck it up

Like any normal blogger, I check my site metre stats. (Maybe more often than is healthy, but whatever).

Lately, my reader stats have been really low. My loyal readers still come back (thank you!) even though I've been down in the dumps.  As far as I know, only a couple of in real life friends read this blog despite my having recently outted myself. I'm not sure what to think about that, but I'm not going to worry about it right now.

And then there's mom and dad who sometimes pop in, which is why I don't say 'fuck' and 'cocksucker' all that often, even though I want to.

Every now and then someone googles  "panties around ankles" and  "gazing at lint in belly button" and for some reason my site must be up there in the top ten hits. These "readers" don't stay around too long.

Potential readers who find me through the expat blog directory must be disappointed.  They've clicked on Dongurigal to find out what it's like in Vietnam and where they can find the best bowl of Pho and here I am talking about Japan or how I refuse to be a housewife and live in a remote camp as of August 31, 2008.

It's for these potential readers and, of course, my regulars that I am posting these photos. But please, when I complain in the future, don't tell me to suck it up. (DAD!) Yes, I agree this area is stunning. Yes, I get to go on the most amazing bike rides and hikes and swim at the most beautiful, secluded (poo-free) beaches and yes, I really love doing all this when I'm doing it. It's why I take photos. 

So I'll share them here, but with the reminder that I still hate not working full time and I hate the long, lonely hours of the day when I am alone, wiping up bread crumbs from the kitchen counter, sweeping a spider out the door, and desperately wishing I was yelling at a couple of obnoxious middle school students for making fart sounds in class.

After all, even Adam and Eve didn't fare too well in paradise.

Nonetheless, here they are: photos of a regular Garden of Eden (but you won't see me naked.)

A few changes around here

Regular readers might notice that I've changed Dongurigal's design to a 3 column layout.

Now that I've done that, I should change the banner so that the Dongurigal title and acorns are centred, rather than flush left.  But that would mean rummaging in the closet to find my dusty old laptop (I use Hub's laptop for all things internet--it's nicer)and redesigning the banner in Photoshop, then saving it as a JPEG file to a flashdrive, uploading it to Hub's laptop into a special blog folder, then uploading it here. Gosh.  Regular readers should know by now that I am very very lazy and this seems like a lot of work just to centre a rolling acorn. Plus I'm going for a walk in half an hour.

For now, it will stay flush left.

Regular readers might also notice that I've changed or added some new categories. I shall explain each one. If you aren't interested, stop reading now.  Instead, I recommend you click on Put Your Flare On's latest post on dealing with French bureaucracy. She's like BureauBasher Woman, superhero extraordinaire, and I'm not being sarcastic. Hers is one of those stories where you want to shout YES YES YES so that even the gargoyles atop Notre Dame start to shiver and shake.

But I digress, back to categories, for those of you still reading. (Hey, get back here!)

Belly Button Gazing -- for those posts where I ponder the meaning of my life. In other words, feel sorry for myself.

Flashbacks -- any post that has me reminiscing about the good ole days. (Algeria will not feature in any of these posts, needless to say).

If You Could Only Speak English -- this is an experimental category in which I write out an imaginary conversation I may have had that week with a person, place, animal or thing. So far, I only have one post in it, but that doesn't mean that my days aren't full of imaginary conversations. 

Just the Facts of Life Here -- General Dongurigal news, wherever HERE might be.

Take Your Pick -- in which readers can decide what I should do or how I should feel, or what they would do or what they would feel. Really, the only reason I created this category is I noticed that two blog post titles had 'take your pick' in them and I thought, ok, maybe that could be a category.

Vietnam Vignettes -- I don't have to explain this one, do I?

Weblogs -- a Typepad offering and anyway, sometimes I feel the need to explain what I'm doing on this here blog.

There's one more category that hasn't shown up yet because I haven't written a post to fit in it. It's called Dongurigal Dilemmas.  Basically, I will start a post with a question such as Do I go back to France in April to renew my residency card or do I let the fucker expire? and then I will go on and on about the whole dilemma, which I'm sure my readers will find fascinating. To say the least.

Now to quote Whats'erface from the Devil Wears Prada:  That's all.

Not gored by a bull

Happy New Year.

Just letting my loyal readers know that I am alive and well and have not been gored by a bull on a country road.

The internet in Vietnam wasn't working for an entire week and is still slow and cranky today, following some big earthquake in Taiwan. Or so went the rumour--something about a broken undersea cable.

I am bursting with blog post ideas but not in the mood to type a proper one up right now. Soon soon, please wait, as they say here. Hmmmm, I think I heard that very phrase when the internet first went down--Last Tuesday.

Coming out of the closet

Quite recently, I received an email from my dad after I had just let him and other family members know that I had added photos to the default photoblog. He wrote, excitedly, that he finally understood the metaphoric connotations of Dongurigal and had printed out my thoughts so that mom could have a read. He then added that he didn't understand why he needed a password to access the site; he had no problem just clicking on it.

It took me a full minute to realize that he had inadvertently discovered this public yet private Dongurigal and has been reading it ever since.

As I sent out some of my Christmas emails this past week, I thought what the hell, maybe it's time to come out of the closet and tell a few more people, who know me and know my past, about it.

I don't write anything nasty or titillating, really. What I do write are my observations of the world I live in and at times, because of this blog, I think I actually understand the what and the why of life in a zen or epiphany kind of way. Or at least in a goofy way. It makes life less difficult, less lonely, less isolated. I still want to wake up in the morning, look out the window, take a deep breath, and have a cup of coffee. And then maybe write about it.

Sometimes, in this blog, I'm whiny--less so than in real life, believe it or not. Sometimes I'm silly. Sometimes I'm sad. Often I am incredibly naive, inaccurate, and self indulgent.  I hope I don't offend anyone or hurt your feelings.

Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird, had been trying to get herself published for several years when her dad was diagnosed with brain cancer.   She began to write about this experience--putting what her dad was enduring into several loosely linked short stories, stories that eventually were published a year after her father had died.  When he was dying, her father had told her to "pay attention and take notes...you tell your version and I am going to tell mine."

That is what this blog is. My version.

Welcome new readers who know me in person. And Merry Christmas everyone.

Fiddling around

As promised, I am fiddling around with my template.  I made the banner in Photoshop and it is obvious that I am a relative beginner.  A basic green background and a bouncing, rotating acorn, woo hoo. 

I am also still a beginner with Typepad and use the help button a lot to figure out why the blog looks the way it does.

The monsoon season here in central Vietnam has finally started. We thought it had started in September, but except for a few half-hour showers and one nasty typhoon, it has been sunny, humid, and hot.   It is pissing today, so I figure I will learn a lot of Photoshop and a lot about Typepad in the coming weeks.

And if I don't, that's because I am a lazy slug.

A word of warning

Hello my 10 loyal readers,

I am about to make my other blog the default blog, so if you type in http://dongurigal.typepad.com, you will need a password to sign in to the other, completely unrelated blog .

Please make sure to type (or change your blogroll, bookmark) to http://dongurigal.typepad.com/dongurigal in order to access good ole Dongurigal.

As you know, I switched to Typepad because I cannot access Blogspot here in Vietnam.  Since this paid account allows me to have up to 3 blogs and I do not like any of the other free blog sites that I can access--too many pop up ads and ugly banners--I have decided to create a blog for my family and Hub's family using this account. 

I confess that I am still semi-anonymous. A few friends from my past know about this blog but they are tight-lipped and trustworthy. Some of my new friends, who I met in Paris, also know about this blog. And of course, Hubs checks in from time to time (and then has the audacity to correct my grammar--he's often right, but I claim poetic license!)

The reason for changing the default is that I don't want family members to accidentally happen upon this one. Not yet anyway.

If for some twisted reason you want to bore yourself to death looking at photos (mainly) of Hubs and me and our "excellent adventure" in Vietnam, email me and I will send you the password.

Uh, make that a maybe, I'll send you the password.  (Some of you I know--cyberly--and trust, but if I don't really know you, please don't take offense if I don't give you the password right away.)

I need a mirror

Welcome to the new Dongurigal.

The way I see it is, I could easily grab a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, brush my hair, brush my teeth, put on a bit of lipgloss and know, without looking, that I probably appear ok. 

Problem is, I want to do a quick mirror check to make sure that the lipgloss isn't too red, I've got nothing in my teeth, my cowlick is tamed, the black t-shirt doesn't have white anti-perspirant stripes all down the side, and that my jeans don't have a rip in the bum.

I can post on Blogger, but I can't even see my own blog.   Did the bold font work? Did the picture upload? Is the blogroll really updated?

TypePad is my mirror.  And yes, I'm paying for it. What the hell. It's supposed to be easy. Less HTML, more drag and drop.

There is different lingo to learn. New templates to navigate. I may even try to make my own banner, etc. Give me time. It's a whole new world out here.

*****

L and other blogspot bloggers, I can still, for the most part, read your blog posts through bloglines. Sometimes, the RSS or Atom feed (????) doesn't work properly and your post gets clipped and at other times, I can read your entire post and see pictures.  I still cannot comment nor read anyone else's comments, but at least I'm reading.

L thanks for the offer to send me those posts of yours that get clipped. If you send me an email to dongurigal (at) yahoo (dot) ca, I'll write you back and let you know which ones I've missed.  I really appreciate it.

******

Typhoon Xangsane is heading our way. It's supposed to be a Category 1 but could go as high as a Cat 4.  Hubs tells me that Xangsane sounds like "without shame" in French. A typhoon without shame. What could be more appropriate.

******

I am sick. My first thought, dengue fever. My second thought, bird flu. My third thought, oh for crying out loud, you have a mild fever and a sore throat because of the airconditioning. Drink water, take an aspirin, sleep, and quit your whining.