With Valentine’s Day coming up there are all sorts of discounts and promotions on offer for lovebirds. But perhaps none was more thoughtful than a cinema in Hà Nội who will include a ‘special’ gift with every two tickets purchased… a free condom.

Among the tasks a university professor is expected to perform, babysitting an infant should be very far down the list. Last week, however, an accounting professor at the Hanoi College of Technology and Trading took on the unusual job so his student, the infant’s mother, could finish an exam.

A Literature teacher in a mountain district in central Nghệ An province late last month wrote a poem about not being paid as usual in the middle of January, making preparations for Tết difficult. He posted it on Facebook as an open message to the chairman of the province’s People’s Committee.

The People’s Court in District 10 in HCM City has asked a restaurant owner to pay VNĐ140 million (US$6,100) in compensation to a man who had his motorbike stolen from outside his restaurant.

In a feat many have called inconceivable, the Vietnamese U23 football team beat former champions Iraq to secure their place in the Asian Football Cup’s semi-final. In the celebrations that immediately followed the win, people and vehicles poured into downtown streets, wearing clothes of bright red and yellow, waving national flags, and singing and screaming at the top of their lungs, all in good fun.

The complicated traffic situations at BOT (build-operate-transfer) toll booths hit a ridiculous point recently when a bridal procession became trapped in a long line of vehicles waiting to pay the disputed toll. In fact, without a bit of quick thinking, their day of happiness was headed for the wall.

After a night of “spiritual debauchery,” HCM City resident named Huy drove home, very much under the influence.

Christmas is associated with eating and drinking to excess, and trips to the bathroom around this time of year can be dicey enough without adding queues for the loo into the equation.

Online shops on social networks can be a great way for small-scale traders to shift some clobber, but a public forum probably isn’t the best place to sell stolen goods.