Weighty Nibblings

A mouse runs up my kitchen table each night and leaves his calling card by morning -- a bit of chewed-up fruit.  He's eaten through some of my favorites: mangoes, star apples, and bananas.  I have yet to name him.  But this is not my first experience with a mouse.  Ask Ink and she'll tell you I squealed like a little girl when there was a mouse in my Upper West Side studio a couple of years ago.  This time it's different --  I am learning to expect my midnight visitor.  He doesn't cause much harm.  He usually only nibbles on one piece of fruit and leaves the rest untouched. Eat away little bugger, just don't poop in the kitchen and clean up whenever you have a party.

Hanoi is damp.  Damp with the smell of mildew on the streets and on your clothes.  Particularly in this changing of winter to spring.  Since clothes are all sun-dried here, when there is a period of extended rain, like last week, my clothes remain damp with that pervasive 'slightly funky' smell.  I can't really do anything about it.  The maid leaves my laundry out until it dries, but because I am still on the backpacker wardrobe standard (i.e. I have a pair of jeans and 4 t-shirts), I go through my clothes on a 4 day rotation, dampness be dammed.  Why won't I buy more clothes?  Great question – perhaps because I can't let go of NY's metro-standards. I'm hoping that once I spill a little beer on myself, I'll smell less like a wet rag and more like an alcoholic.