HAPPY NEW YEAR and let 2008 be GREAT!!!
We went out on the streets of Hanoi to celebrate the last evening in 2007 with one of Julias colleagues and her husband; Liz and Kenny. The streets were full and busy like allways and everybody seemed to stand in line to have their photo taken under this poster, so getting a photographer wasn't difficult at all. We had our photo taken just minutes before midnight here, so it must have been at the time where the danish Queen made her traditional new years speech to the people. Surprizingly they didn't have many firework at all, so all the noise and the lights came from the 3 million mopeds, circling around the Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of the the old town, what again wasn't so unusually, because it is like everyday infact, only all the ballons are something special. 
So how was the first day in 2008 then?
Liz and Kenny came to visit to show photos and tell about travelling in China. Kenny brought his new (old) Russian Minsk moped so we could have our first driving lesson in Hanoi. Hazel and Bryan; Catrionas sister and brother-in-law in Aberdeen, Scotland- strictly told her off doing that on the phone last night, but since neither Julia nor I had spoken to somebody in our family, we agreed to give it a try.
Is of course Kenny's good old Minsk moped. A very fine running piece of russian mechanic. No fancy pancy foss here, just a machine used for transportation
Kenny gives Julia the last instructions before take off.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero...and off she went into the afternoon sun with an awsome noise of a Russian 2 stroke engine.
And then I was on the line. I desperately tried to remember the wild and silly times , about 30 years ago when me and my pal's drove from hamlet to hamlet on our mopeds in Denmark, trying to look like Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in "Easy Rider".
And I must admit. I really enjoyed the feeling riding a bike again , so I was `a little sad that it only could be a short one.
So maybe I should get me one back home in Tai Wan Village, Hong Kong. The last days we have been thinking a lot about Bob and Yvonne in Ottawa, Canada. Happy New Year to you too, and we are looking forward to see you again, and I would like to know how you are doing with your sketch book, Yvonne? Because we have been doing one sketch a day, or at least I have, even onboard the boat in Ha Long 
and Catriona have nearly done one a day.
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