The gas man cometh

Here in Vietnam we have two burners on our counter to cook on. They are fueled by a propane tank of gas, like our barbecues in the US. Well I decided to try making potato salad, side note the potatoes here are about the size of golf balls, so I bought ten tiny potatoes and was cooking them on one burner and I had the eggs to hard boil on the other. All of a sudden both burners went out, now you have to see my kitchen and know that there is a door to the laundry room that is always open and the wind blows through there so I just thought the wind had blown the fire out. This happens a lot since many of our storms happen in the late afternoon. I relit them and several minutes later I realized they were out again. I tried to check the gas tank but there was no indicator to tell me how much gas was left in it. Mark tried lifting it and said it felt empty. Great, half cooked potatoes and raw eggs. The owners had left us a number to call the gas man, thank goodness they come to you, can you see us riding a motor bike and trying to hold a propane tank of gas, not in your dreams. We were sure that no one at the gas company spoke English so we had to wait. This happened Friday afternoon. Dinner that night was from a crock pot, which by the way cooks very rapidly here so the name slow cooker is not appropriate. At least the meal is all in one pot. Any way back to my story, on Sat our friend was suppose to come visit, so around three he came and I told him about the gas. He said no problem they will be here five minutes after you call. Well we got to talking and I am looking at the clock thinking this is a long five minutes, it was after four and no gas man, hope he gave them the right address. Well at four thirty there was a knock on the door and the gas man was here with a new tank and a gift, he handed me a bag of sugar. He also attached the tank and gave me a bill. It cost me $15.00 for a tank that will probably last us almost a year. You can't beat the service and a bag of sugar !! What a country !! Some old ways of doing things are just more convenient for the customers. Customer service is still important over here, sometimes !!