Blogs from Vietnam, Asia

In 2017, I wrote a blog called 'Favourite Words' (https://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-965608.html). It is quite long, each quotation being accompanied by a comment. This morning, being at a loose end, I decided to write another blog entitled 'Memorable Quotations'. This is similar to the previous one but shorter and containing no commentary. It is a very arbitrary selection, reflecting my interests (chess, boxing, football, literature, movies, education and so on). There is a small amount of overlap, a few quotations appearing in both blogs. There should be something here to please everyone. "I fought Sugar Ray so often, I almost got diabetes." (Jake LaMotta on fighting Sugar Ray Robinson) "Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that." (Bill Shankly) "A hard man is good to find." ... read more

In English, the phrase ‘looking forward to’ has a double meaning. It can be neutral in tone - meaning that one is foreseeing something that will happen in the near or distant future; or it can express pleasure – meaning that one is eagerly anticipating some future event. The phrase ‘looking back’ has no such ambivalence; it just means one is remembering something that happened in the past. We human beings are complicated in that we inhabit three time zones: the present, the future and the past. We are alive in the present but remember the past and think about the future. The degree to which we look back or look ahead (I have deliberately not written ‘look forward’) varies from person to person. On the one hand, there are people who live from day to ... read more

Whilst there are still traditional basket boat weavers, many fishermen have updated their vessels. Modern versions of basket boats use fiberglass, canvas and composite. It was so calming & relaxing as the boat meandered through the small canals of the estuary. The Nipa palms are harvested for so many products including sugar syrup from its floral and fruit stalk; thatching materials, cigarette paper, and construction materials from its leaves; as well as food and dessert from its fruits, the stalks are also good as an aid for learning to swim as they are very buoyant. Nipa palms grow in soft mud and slow moving tidal and river waters that bring in nutrients. The palm can be found as far inland as the tide can deposit the floating nuts. The plant will survive occasional short term drying ... read more

A little Facebook project of mine recently was to post photos of my favourite LP covers. I am semi-retired with time on my hands, so every day I ransacked my memory, did some internet research and wrote a spiel for each cover. Little challenges like this keep an old man’s brain ticking! Now I have gathered all my spiels together, starting with ‘Sergeant Pepper’. There is no space for all the cover pictures, so I have selected only the first 11. The following paragraphs are what I wrote on Facebook. I miss my old vinyl LP’s. In particular, I miss the artwork on the front of the sleeve. An LP sleeve was, roughly, 31 cms by 31 cms square – room enough for eye-catching art. Compare this with a CD case – 12 cms by 12 ... read more

Fiddling around on Youtube this morning, I entered ‘British black and white movies’ and came across a movie called ‘Obsession’ (aka ‘The Hidden Room’) which I had never heard of. I looked it up on imdb, where it receives a 7.3 rating and some enthusiastic reviews. I’ve just finished watching it and am mightily impressed. It is a little gem, an old-fashioned movie with no special effects, relying solely on plot, acting, dialogue and direction. I was especially taken by the acting of Robert Newton. I knew him previously from ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Oliver Twist’, where he plays rather melodramatic larger-than-life villains (Long John Silver and Bill Sykes respectively), but here he is understated and naturalistic. The ace detective, Superintendent Finsbury, played by Naunton Wayne, is also good - a model of calm logic and a ... read more