Project plans

I have added a new feature to my blog, a gallery of my photographs. This can be viewed from the top bar of the page. It took an incredible amount of work to create this page, due to one or both of the facts that I am quite computer-illiterate and that the templates on this site are not very adaptable. I wanted to have a page where my photos could be viewed side-by-side rather than in a standard blog format, and I have had to create a new blog with a different layout rather than a new page in order to do this. All this means is that when the link to 'Gallery' is clicked on, it will open a new web page as I couldn't find a way to link it back to this blog. So it is best to open it in a new window.

I had decided today to try to get my head around a few aspects of my project that I have so far been neglecting. As a part of Jessica's project plan that I have agreed to, I will be writing twenty book reviews and participating in at least twenty hours of charity work. I am falling behind on the book reviews, as I have been here six weeks already and haven't written any, when I need to be averaging two a month. I will have to catch up quickly, but there's no reason to despair. It's great that reading is considered to be work for me. Jessica has a lovely egg-shaped hanging seat on the small terrace at the top of the house. It's very nice to curl up inside it and read on a sunny afternoon. I have also emailed some local charitable organisations in the hope that I will have the chance to do some volunteering. As well as being a rewarding thing to do, I hope that through charity work I can get a better understanding of the social problems in Vietnam. I have to admit that I've only seen the affluent side of Saigon so far, which is not going to give me any insight into what life is like for the average Vietnamese person, something that is so crucial to my project.

Jessica is very busy with work at the moment, and for the next few weeks I will have to keep myself busy, finding my own things to do and pushing ahead with my project work. At the end of the month we have a trip planned, which I am excited about. We will be heading north to the capital, Hanoi, and then joining a tour group with which we will see Sapa, a mountainous hill town, and continue to climb Phan Xi Pang, the highest mountain in Indochina. This will involve two nights camping on the mountain. After the hard work, we will reward ourselves with the two-day hotel and spa package in Ninh Binh that, fantastically, Jessica was given for free at a corporate event in September. Jessica, who is technically retired but working most days at the moment, is keen to have a long holiday, and I will try to get as much work done as I can until then, to get ahead of things before December, when my family and Jessica's friends will be occupying all our time.