Back in Tasmania and loving spring.

We have returned from our cruise down the Mekong in Cambodia and Vietnam then a week long recovery period at a lovely hotel.

It was really interesting and fun. One of the more interesting excursions was visiting the facility that trains these big African rats how to sniff out the Cambodian land mines scattered throughout Cambodia in the thousands left from the days of war. We saw how they are trained and how they work and got to hold one. They are trained similarly to the customs and airport dogs. They have saved thousands of lives.

I know! Rats but they were very domesticated, soft and gentle. The trainers were very strict as to how we held them.

We enjoyed a lot of food and drink and made new friends which was fun. But always good to be home.

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We had to have a little talk with our dog Ollie. He is always glad to go to the vets as he loves the girls there. They really fuss over him. He gets so excited he often has a little wee.

So we are sitting in Saigon about to go to the airport to fly to DaNang and we get a message the kennel hand has rung and Ollie has a bit of an upset tummy and is off his food. And is this normal? Of course they transport him to the vet. Of course all the girls are there. Of course he got his own way and is socialising non stop- as he does. He had a bit of gastro, probably from his change in diet. He gets checked over, stays overnight for observation. Next morning, all his girls are there. My good friend is the vet and she sends text he is pretty much swanning around wagging his tail, socialising with everyone, before the kennel hand picks him up and tales him back. Of course there is a $50.00 transport fee each way.

When we got home I asked him if he was just faking it. He looked straight at me and wagged his tail. You tell me! We noticed he didn’t require any medications.

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I finished the book Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. Olive Kitteridge is in it at age 90 now. I enjoyed the book. A good holiday read but felt it wasn’t the best of her work. I kind of felt Olive was in it here and there as well as the other characters from her previous books to kind of stretch out the series. But like I said I did enjoy it though Lucy Barton annoyed me a couple of times. The plot wasn’t overly strong but it was ok and an easy read.

I am currently reading a very short Japanese book for book club next week. Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima. Published in 1949, my copy is a 2017 Penguin Modern Classic.

The dawning of a young man’s homosexual and sadistic desires

A Japanese teenager is overcome with longing for his male classmate. Each night he imagines his body punctured with arrows, like the body of St Sebastian in Guido Reni’s painting; the objects of our hero’s desire are tortured, killed and maimed, over and over again each night in his private fantasies. He must hide his lust from a homophobic and stiflingly conventional Japan. Self-loathing and desperate, he begins acting out a love affair with the sister of a school friend, while grappling with his hidden desires under the shadow of a Japan under threat from WorldWar Two.

I have to say I’m struggling with it a bit but it is short and for book club so I will finish it. The writing is very good but I don’t have a lot of interest in the subject. But I am interested in how this young lad progresses.

Well this is long enough. I am glad to be home and back to normal activities. I started back at the gym today and no doubt will be sore tomorrow but I gained almost 2 kgs on the trip. Too much cold beer in a tropical hot climate and way too many desserts and other wonderful food on the ship and at our follow up hotel . So food austerity is the plan for a couple of weeks. Ha!

All the best to everyone this week.