Life for me in Vietnam doesn't change a great deal and a lot of this is because I am a creature of routine. I used to be Mr. Adventure and everything that I did almost every day was something that was done intentionally because it was something new and exciting.
I am older now and don't need that level of excitement in my life and also, probably more importantly, my dog is also older, and she doesn't have the stamina that she used to and any attempts to get her to do something outdoors - which she loves doing - is over very quickly. She turns 84 is dog years soon so it is understandable that most of her day is spent sleeping for the most part.
But I do still go bowling at least once a week and lately, I have been barely managing to stay in the top league.
Those are the scores of the 3 people (one of them is me) that were on my lane at our last group outing. Can you guess which one is mine?
Well, it's not the bottom one. I'm not trying to brag but in order to accomplish that I would have to bowl with my left hand. I am better than that.
The one in the middle is mine and if you know a thing or two about bowling a strike is the best you can do (all 10 pins with one ball) and a spare (using both balls but getting all 10 pins down) is the 2nd best thing you can do.
so as I was shouting out during the match itself, I was SPARE-CITY all the way through htis game but I just couldn't manage to get them all in one go. I was slightly missing the mark of where you need to hit each time I rolled the ball and I just couldn't seem to correct this. I ended up finishing was a 156 and to me, when I get a strike or spare in every single frame, this is not a good score.
The highest score you can possibly get if you bowl only a spare in every frame is 199 so I guess when you consider that my score wasn't that bad. One thing that you need to understand about me though is that I am a 150 average bowler, or at least was. My first game on this same day was 127 and of course that was disappointing.
By sheer luck the other 6 members in the Premiere League also didn't do very well and I managed to not get relegated, but only by a little bit. and by even more sheer luck I managed to be chosen to bowl for the top title next Thursday and I would by lying if I didn't say that I was worried about this and think I am going to get creamed.
My abilities ebb and flow: For like a month I will be unstoppable and then all of a sudden out of nowhere I just lose my touch and it doesn't come back for a while.
We'll see I guess, and I will give it my all and if I end up sucking, I will take it on the chin and just go with it.
In other news there's this
This, to me, is absolutely glorious. I've found an area where I can get away from the noise and just enjoy the beauty that is a rice paddy for a long way in all directions. They have a raised path that goes through the middle of it and it is too narrow for cars. I hope that they NEVER widen that road because I encountered only a few people when I was riding on it and nobody seemed to mind that I was on it.
Then a bit later on I found a sign that I have never seen in any country ever before in my life.
This is in a new area where the streets are done, the electrical poles are in, and I noticed fiber optic line boxes that are pre-installed on various plots of land. It looks like it is ready to go as soon as someone wants to buy it and build on it.
But one thing is for sure, they do NOT want you to bring your cows in here. Now I don't know if the city put up that sign, they probably didn't and this is just something that is home made. When I was riding around though it was pretty clear that nobody really pays any mind to this sign because there was cow poo all over the place.
I'm just curious as to why anyone has a bunch of cows inside a city of 1.4 million people. If you live in SE Asia, do you have these signs where you are? I guess I can understand if you owned the land that you don't want cow poop all over the place but those cows need to graze somewhere and probably help to keep the grass levels down. I say let them graze.