Chet’s Chatter

Happy Tears

Posted on 15 July 2006 @ 00:22 in Personal

I just received an email from a total stranger which made me burst into tears, but they were happy tears.

Dear Chet

I was searching on the internet and came across your notes on HVV.

Ha Van Vuong was a lady, full name Lucierne Ha Van Vuong. She was in fact French, married to a Vietnamise Man.

We have found little info on the net about her and the only picture that ever shows up is Madoline

Hope this helps

Regards

Richard

Here’s a picture of The Mandolin (spelled Madoline in Richard’s email):

And here’s a repost of the entry that accompanied the picture:

An Artist Rediscovered

Earlier this afternoon, I sent off an email to a fine art restorer by the name of Richard Zahler. His name came up in my search for information on the artist Ha Van Vuong.

Ha Van who?

As far as I know, HVV is Vietnamese. I first discovered HVV’s paintings when a student in Norwich, England, in an Athena store which sells pretty pictures for framing, cards, etc., including reproductions of famous paintings. HVV’s work caught my eye, I bought copies of whatever was available, in both poster and smaller 10×12 sizes. I still have the posters and expect to bring them out for framing and displaying at my new apartment (which I expect to be moving into sometime in January 2006).

Years later, I searched for HVV online and some of those paintings came up. The most well-known is probably this, which has various names, including “Mandolin” and “Strumming” :

That’s one of the pictures I bought at Athena years ago. I took out my collection and saw two that have not surfaced on the Net so far:

And what brought Ha Van Vuong and his/her paintings to mind? Janis Ian. Her new web site’s logo looks quite similar to the first picture:

What do you think?

I thought maybe either Janis or Pat her partner are familiar with Ha Van Vuong’s work, so I posted a question about it on the message board and she replied that they are not.

Going back to the email I sent Mr Zahler, I hope he replies and gives more info on the mysterious Ha Van Vuong.

I never received a reply from Mr Zahler.

Pretty mugs in a row

Posted on 13 July 2006 @ 22:38 in Fun Stuff

We got these years ago as part of a Nescafe promotion. Can’t remember the exact details but it was either a free mug with every bottle purchased, or a free mug in exchange for a number of bottle caps or labels. Nescafe is having a similar “free mug with every bottle purchased” promotion right now, but I think mine are cuter.

This is the one I use the most:

Spoons spelled backwards

Posted on 11 July 2006 @ 21:38 in Being Silly, Food

Snoops.

Actually, Spoons is a cafe near my office. We go there sometimes for lunch, when we want to get away from the usual lunchtime crowds (usually at the two curry shops nearby) and also when we want somewhere cool. Its menu is similar to Secret Recipe, but offering more local fare. It also has a real fiery cili sauce that is made from cili padi and is specially ordered, and delivered in large bottles not for retail sales. It’s really fiery like the real cili padi and not toned down to be kind to palates. I’ve asked to buy some and the owner has promised to put some in a regular retail sized bottle for me. Yum, I’m salivating just thinking about it.

Picture Source: Cili padi – Wikipedia