The Chemistry of beer and friends

Saturday, in late February in hot Saigon . The peace of the neighbourhood shattered by the arrival of a hoard of Ferengi Expats and a smattering of local Nuoc Viet, to the door of my new apartment to celebrate mine and John's new homes and birthdays. We had music from the 70's to Lady Gaga pumping out and a veggie spread to satiate the pallates of everyone.

Welcome cocktails made from various coloured liquers, layered and poured delicately into tests tubes to avoid mixing, were the gift on arrival. Then, after selecting an element from the Periodic Table, table cloth, that best suited their personalities or desires, the guests drinking vessels were labelled accordingly and filled with wine served from conical flasks or from the numerous beers and spirits - Vodka seemed to be in great demand and after three emergency re-supplies from the grocers at the bottom of the block, the vodka comsuming community were rescued from a potental libative disaster.

The gifts were lovely; the choco pies and flowers a particular favourite. However, someone brought me a belt which was great - it is fake leather and means I can wear it with no guilt- whoever that was, nice one, thanks. The wine, beer and vodka donations kept flooding in as each batch of guests arrived. A lot of calls to friends already ensconced at the party were received as some found locating the apartment more difficult than others! "So what!?" (Street number) was shouted across the room on numerous occasions.

The food of veggie curry, fresh spring roles, mango salad, fried rice and chinese black bean casserole was complimented by molecule structures of olives, cheese, raddishes and pickled onions. The dessert was also of molecular structures, but this time made from strawberries and grapes. By about 9pm all the welcome cocktails had been polished off (mostly by Daryl), so a fresh batch was made and handed to everyone and all toasted together - apart from the greedy ones who could not resist swigging it down immediately (Daryl) and not patient enough to wait for the toast!

The decor included a lava lamp made in the science department, which although quite nice, was really no more than a blob lamp - still, something to talk about. Food colour was prevalent in many items, including the flower water and made for a more vibrant environment.

The beer (which I find so tasteless in Vietnam - see previous blogs), was much improved by mixing a new find of mine, Dai Viet dark lager, with Tiger traditional lager. The combination has the same hue as a John Smiths back home and is a resonable, if slightly more bitter version, of a good pint of ale.

After all the food had been wolfed by the ravenous celebrants and the guests had thinned to a mere handful of drunken layabouts - mostly from the Saigon International Chior - (I am getting an interesting early impression of these muscians!), we clambered onto to our scooters and eventually found Johns pile about 2 mins ride away - it took us 15 mins!

There, the still hungry guests were treated to Annita's magic chilly chicken and copius more glasses of wine. After failed attempts to start up a sing-song, most of the remnants left for the apocalypse night club and me and John went up stairs to his lounge to watch England beat France in the rugby; though I have to say I could not see the ball too well as my focus had gone. What a glorious finale!

Thanks to everyone for making this a tremendous evening, it was wonderful to see you all there. However, it was a shame that the frivolity was tainted by the news of Emma's serious illness. We all hope she recovers soon.

See you all at the next one
Lynden

The vegetarian spread. The veg curry dissappeared fast!





Chris Palmer and Lynden toast with the test tube shots

  

The mint and Amarula cocktail shots - the triple layer versions were still in the fridge!






 

The Melon and Baileys - quite interesting to note the various densities of the drinks - made for some interesting practice sessions the night before!



The molecule snacks - the dessert was the same idea but with strawberries and two types of grapes.

 

The Lava lamp - more of a blob lamp really!




This is what happens when Henry (Lab Technician) gets hold of a beer!






Just getting warmed up -at its peak there was not enough room to receieve any more guests - even with smokers out on the balconies!





Typical entrance to an asian house party. Wonder who the posh suit shoes were!



some really cool images



Makes you realise we are all just skin and bone - chest x-ray suggests I am normal!
How rude! 



My legs before the op - notice the two screws, but also the closeness of the tibia and femur at the knee joint - no cartlige or meniscus left!



And this is me now! How joyous! I am bionic! Moronic more like.



if you ever need to break something, do it here!

Bumrungrad Hospital, Bangkok

Apart from the distinct lack of beer, my time here at Bumrungrad Hospital has passed extraordinarily well. So much so, I said something in passing to a friend on skype yesterday which says it all: "its been so nice here maybe I should break my other leg"! Could you imagine anyone saying that about an NHS ward experience? Whilst I really do appreciate the benefits of a "free at the point of need" health service, I can't help feeling that the quality is so far from what I have encountered here, in this insurance based environment, that perhaps we have got it all wrong?

just getting ready to leave the ward - nice place to recover

But, whatever warm, mushy verbiage I might spew about this place, I leave today. I am flying back to my apartment in Saigon to rehabilitate over the festive period and join a few of my friends and colleagues for a Christmas dinner. I hope to make it to midnight mass at the Cathedral in the centre of the city, but that depends on how crowded it gets. I don't want to hurt my knee for a few carols!

The scars are healing nicely now, but I will be on crutches for at least 5 more weeks!
One of the very many pretty nurses took these photos with her camera, looking good eh?

Femur incision and puncture wound looking good

Tibia had the metal plate and 7 screws,
here are the incisions and punctures to prove it!

Two factors (other than really hardcore drugs), that have really helped me during this week of virtually continuous pain and incapacity have been first: the ever-present tlc from a team of really top quality nurses. They are always happy and smiling and very willing to help - they are also, without exception, top looking chicks - and this will always help keep your pecker up, so to speak, even in the direst of circumstances. The second factor that has really made this all so much more bearable is skpe and emails - I have  been able to talk/chat with numerous friends and family throughout my stay and this has really given me a great moral lift - especially at this time of year.

So if you fancy a bit of medical tourism, here's the place to come. Top quality, top docs, great services, top nurses and a really warm and caring environment.

Can't wait to come back! ;)

kidding..........

don't just dream it, do it

For many many years I have felt some sort of special connection with a particular place. My mother's family is based in this far flung corner of England. I spent most of my summer holiday's throughout my years in this ancient country, combing the beaches and walking the cliffs. Initially with my family and then by myself from the age of 14, when I ventured away from home alone for the first time with a bag on my back- a bug that has never left me since. Later, I dragged my great friends, Chris, Paul and Charlotte down there for a post high school binge in a caravan. I have walked hundreds of miles along the coast, on the moors and through the bucolic farmlands and villages. I have worked there as a barman and lived in a tent for many months just before joining up. I visited there for a couple of weeks just this last July, to savour the sights, flavours, sounds and smells of this treasured county. During all these years, even as a young teenager, dragging my soaking wet rucksack from the sea after I had fallen in on my first lonely sojourn to these rugged shores, for some reason, I knew I belonged.

These cliffs, where my father first met my mother and so, to me, imbue a traditioanl sense of romance in a world where romance seems to have been lost to material and selfish gain, stir up my heart more than anywhere in the world. The light, the flowers, the scents, the golden ales, the ridiculously small churches, the sense of history, the power of the sea and the memories, all contrive to empower my dream of one day living permanently in this glorious land of funny accents - Cornwall, of course. 

So, I say to myself, should I dream it, or should I live it? These photos from my last visit will answer that question. Nowhere that I have been in the world - and that really is many many places, does it quite as well.

See you all down there!

Swimming at Trebarwith - Again!

a fun trip to bangkok

images taken with my lap top camera

Just two days ago the insurance finally agreed to cover my knee surgery - but as there are no specialists in Vietnam, I have had to fly to Bangkok and admit myself to the Bumrungrad international hospital.I flew in in the morning of Friday 17th December and arrived at the hospital at 1pm. I was whisked from one department to another and into see the specialist team who would carry out the surgery. By 3.30 I was in the prep room, lying on an operating bed waiting for the anaesthetist to put me to sleep. I challenged her that this time I would get to 10 before she put me asleep, I remember getting to 10 and then it was lights out.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Knee has to be raised and kept straight, OWWWW!

Its now midday here on Saturday 18th December and I am lying on a hospital bed once again....my knee is a disaster. I had a 5 hour surgery!!! It was all a bit tricky in the end. There were 3 specialists on the case. I woke up at 11.30pm in the recovery room and had a fitful and morphine infused nights sleep. I stopped taking the morphine about 3 hours ago (its now 12 noon), as it was doing my head in so to speak!. Now the pain is pretty bad, but at least I am awake and compus mentis. The doctor arrived to check me out a few minutes ago and he told me of the saga.. they have taken my ACL completely out as both the original and the revision were non-functional. then they drilled out the retaining screws and replaced the holes in the base of the femur and top of the tibia with a graft from my hip - A 2cm by 5cm core was hand-drilled direct from my hip, my perfectly functional pelvic bone to facilitate this!! Bits of this section have now plugged the old screw and ACL holes which will, in time fuse with the bone around it filling all the holes back in. They had also taken some slivers of the section and screwed this into the top of my tibia with the aid of a titanium plate. They did this as they felt that by re-aligning my bones, I should walk properly again without an ACL. Also they suggest that this will reduce future problems like those probably caused by the first quack who sliced me apart in Glasgow for the first ACL some 15 years ago and succeeded in crippling me for life.

This current triad of orthopaedic wizardry reckon that I might be able to function reasonably well now without an ACL, but if not, by filling in all the holes, they could take some of my right hamstring and screw it back into the now re-filled holes to act as an ACL. They would normally use my left hamstring, but that was taken in the revision ACL op some 4 years ago. So my right would have to suffice!

So all in all, I am in pain, in bed just days before Christmas and with not even the remotest sign of tinsel. I wont get out of here til 24rh at the earliest they say and now I have to amuse myself and get my head round the seriousness of my predicament, completely alone and with too many hours to think about it all..

At least I am still alive right?
_______________________________________________________________________________

Its now 11am day 2 of the recovery, (Sunday 19 December). Last night was quite literally living hell. I went through phase after phase of searing pain, like someone was burning my bones. The nurses are very kind though, and very caring. They injected me intermittently with painkiller which lasts a few hours, but the pain comes back again before they can administer another dose!

view from my bed

The hospital is wonderful actually. My room is like a 4 star suite: huge flat screen tv, kitchenette, dining table, lovely bathroom and a seating area that converts into a visitors bed. I have a large window with remote controlled curtains and the view across the city is quite interesting - another huge building site! This is like a different world compared to the hospital in Chennai that I had to stay in last year due to dengue. The food is also healthy and tasty and the atmosphere very professional and calm. The doctor came in to inspect my leg. All seems to be going to plan so far. I have 6 stitches on my hip (which is surprisingly pain free considering they removed 2 cores from the pelvis). Then I have three other wounds on my knee - one small puncture for one of their probes and two other long incisions, one with 10 stitches, the other with 4. They kindly sliced me open in the same place where I was sliced open during the first operation so at least I will only have two major scars still.

The doc says the reason why I am in such bad pain is because they basically did 4 operations in one go. Removal of a lot of torn cartilage (the stuff that cover bones at joints to ensure smooth contact surfaces), removal of 2 torn areas of my meniscus (the rubbery shock absorbing layer between the tibia and femur), the removal of the old ACL and screws - including the refilling with hip bone cores as mentioned yesterday) and finally the re-alignment of the joint using a titanium plate to reduce the same type of problems reoccurring...They have kindly issued me with a DVD of the whole thing! Makes for interesting, if gory viewing. In fact it made me wince with pain as I watched it through.

It all sounds pretty serious, well it is fairly. But the prognosis is good and the doctor says progress is fine and he is hopeful that I will be walking normally in about 2 months. In the meantime, I will not get bored as I will have hours and hours of rehabilitative physiotherapy to look forward to - joy!

So all in all not too bad, just wish I could have visitors, but because I am miles form anyone; friends or family, I will have a pretty dull time of it.

I have plenty of books downloaded onto my laptop. I have 3 New Scientists magazines to read, television, ipod and lots of physio to keep me occupied, so I will be fine.

cup of earl grey and good looking nurses, who cares about the pain

I now need to hobble to the loo to go for a pee - I have to drink and thus pee a lot to wash the painkiller through otherwise they can affect my kidneys.

Just had another visit from the admissions staff. The insurance have finally sent a letter of guarantee, so at least this is all free. :)

a rather unusual occurence

The owner and designer of The Make
clothing

The weekend started with a flight to Hanoi, then a 5 star brunch with free flow french wine at the Metropole Hotel. I was being wined and dined prior to a photo shoot that I had been asked to do for a friend of a friend. The designer wanted some shots she could use for her showroom. Surrounded by beautiful Vietnamese women, who was I too refuse..in fact I was more than happy to oblige.

 So here are some low res results of the trilogy idea I came up with. I did a load of catalogue shots as well, but the ones here tell the story that I wanted to project..

Oh it was such hard work luvvie!






Never lose your cool with The Make...
Sharp clothes for sharp people

 

To beer or not to beer? - Is there a simple answer.....

Finding a good beer in Vietnam is like spending a night in a 5 star hotel suite being pampered by 2, no 3, catwalk models, who's sole aim is your physical and emotional pleasure - i.e. its a pipe dream! However, I believe in fantasy and the age old adage that you can 'make your own luck'. Now, as I am not as interested in cat-walk models as a good fruity, crisp, refreshing glass of the amber nectar, I guess I have automatically set myself a rather unique challenge - to make and sell good beer in Saigon.


So! you might ask, surely there has been lots of people brewing and selling beers in Saigon, surely someone is getting it right? Well, as Pete Brown suggests in his history of India Pale Ale book - Hops and Glory, the current trends for beer in Asia is really producing nothing but insipid lagers  - so little to them except sour sharpness and very few with depth or character. He refers a great deal to those beers such as Kingfisher found in India, well let me tell you, Kingfisher is a glorious brew compared to the stained tap water variants offered in Saigon.


The current market consists of 6 main brews: Heineken, Hanoi Beer, 333, Saigon Beer, Halida and the South East Asian giant, Tiger - Most of this stuff can be bought in cans, bottles and occasionally on draft, but always it fails to do anything except fill the imbiber full of gas. All of these beers taste so indifferent that I have occasionally got so depressed about this status quo that I turned to that other malt favourite; Whisky, to give my pallate some relief from the boredom.


The only alternatives in Saigon are a couple of Czech Micro breweries which once again produce the standard fizzy larger and seemingly the exact same Dark beer (almost black) all of which come with a very sharp edge and very bitter after taste. At least this stuff is fresh and you can see a couple of large copper mash pots to pretend you're in a house of artisan brewing. But no - really - it just doesn't do it.....and then it came to me., why not, it could be possible, perhaps - perhaps what about......Pale Ale! The stuff of legends, the drink of Kings, the wine of the warrior - the taste - oh the taste - in my head I can remember it well...alas......the memory is fading - I need to act quickly - I need to start brewing Pale Ale based on the hops, Barley and Yeast strains of the best brew in England or the US. With time and a little investment perhaps this could turn into my next career move - teaching just doesn't quite do it for me any more.


So what next, how to bring this about in a foreign land with red tape spewing from every crevice of society. tricky - but....the answer is to beer - that is the answer.......