Deliberations. Vung Tang Park, maths challenge and owning a scooter

Our school is hosting the Maths professional development for all the other British Schools in Sth East Asia. FOBISSEA. Federation of British Schools in Sth East Asia. When you do something for FOBISSEA it always involves teachers and children. So teachers from around Sth East Asia come and bring with them a team of about 6 students. Up-skilling teachers and students together, so good. Clare our maths lady has designed a maths challenge in one of the local parks for the students to complete. On Saturday Clare invited everyone from TX Campus to come along, and

try the challenge to eliminate those small over looked errors. About 12 of us left from the apartment block in the city where I live. Many have scooters so we hopped on and rode off to a park I have not been t, down on the banks of the river. Have you ever watched the movie Larry Crowne? He joins a scooter group and they go off riding. So my ride reminded me so much of the movie. A scooter group weaving through the traffic and winding their way around the streets Vung Tang Park is such a lovely spot. The Vietnamese use their parks and green spaces so well. The park by me is used mostly for walking, exercise and playing badminton as well as a children's play area and pool. Vung Tang is for walking, relaxation, swimming and dining. There are many restaurants along the way and areas where you can eat and sit on the grass. Around the walkway are various statues, ponds, water features and many many trees. As the park is situated very close to the river a nice breeze wafts in, helping to dissipate the hot 36 degree temperatures. The maths challenge, wow. I could complete many of the problems in my head or with pencil and paper relatively quickly but then again I’m not 10 or 11 and I do have a mathematical brain. Some problems we did with a calculator on a phone which decreased our time in the sun eg working out the area of a circular stamp, with the middle cut away. The students will just have pen and paper and a tape measure. I am impressed. I also began to think about buying / renting a scooter for next academic year. It was just so easy to scooter off to this park and park the bike. Bike parks cost 2,000 -4,000 VND. That’s 10 – 20 cents for as long as you like. Eat your hearts out! I have tended to use taxis for long distance, cross the city travel. They are safe, but they do cost. $25 on Saturday afternoon. A scooter would allow me the flexibility and freedom inside the city. But when you see all the bike at 5pm on a week night, its not for the faint hearted. Both the girls who I rode pillion with just zipped in and out of the traffic like locals. Ali has only had her license about 3 months and she’s quite a confident driver now. There are many pros and cons for scooter travel and a debate I shall have with myself in the coming months.