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Published: June 21st 2011
Another series of shortish posts, for your general entertainment (and mine!) Sunday, 22 May Batty (my pet bat - if you can't beat 'em join 'em) is becoming a little annoying. He has started coming home in the early hours of the morning and making all kinds of noise. I think maybe he's been out drinking. Perhaps he's coming into those troublesome teenage years. Either way though, we have had some firm discussions around what is acceptable behaviour and I think he is now clear that when he comes home and wakes me up, I will continue to respond by getting a broom, standing on my bed, and poking him with the bristles until he leaves.
After church today, still on the lookout for some clothes to wear to work, I took a moto to the enormous Central Market. I got allll the way to the other side of the city, and after being told "oooh, big big, too big, very big lady" once or twice (fortunately I didn't take it to heart) I even managed to find some vaguely suitable clothes. However when the moment to negotiate and pay finally came, I realised I actually had hardly any
Sooo much dried fish
It's easy to find this area of the market, you just follow your nosecash on me! And I had no idea where to find an ATM, so I went home empty handed. Well, not entirely empty handed. I decided that since I'd come so far, I might as well at least take the opportunity to try and take a few photos and have a look at the dazzling array of stuff available for sale.
Monday, 23 May Batty was naughty again on last night, but I have discovered his weak spot. He doesn't like the torch flashing at him repeatedly and it will actually cause him to leave. So at least I didn't have to go find a broom to poke at him.
It was really hot today. The air conditioning in the office didn't seem to be able to keep up (maybe some power issues) so I was at work, wearing jeans on a day that was 34 degrees with just under 60%!h(MISSING)umidity according to the BBC weather. I'm glad that it wasn't just me that was finding the heat a bit much at the office. Ah sweet relief when the air conitioning kicked back in.
Wednesday, 25 May Batty didn't come home last night I don't
think. Which is perhaps not a bad thing if he is going to be so noisy. Though at the same time, I somehow feel a little concerned for him. I am such a sucker...
Today it is team lunch day. For team lunch, usually the two helpers employed by the company will cook lunch for all of the staff - Cambodian food such as rice with some kind of stir fry type dish. Today however, in honour of it being Fabien and Virginie's last week, the expats are taking over the kitchen. Or to be precise, Fabien and Daniel are taking over the kitchen. On the menu is crepes (I said pancakes earlier but I was swiftly corrected). There is one savoury and one sweet alternative. Bacon and cheese for the savoury and banana and nutella for the sweet. Some of the staff also got involved helping to mix the batter and cook the pancakes, and the helpers cooked a more traditional style meal to supplement the random western food. So lunch was a fusion of rice and stir fry and pancake and cheese and ham and banana and chocolatey nutella. And actually, it worked kind of well! Frankly
Chess at the market
Khmer chess seems to be played everywhere, its serious business. I wasn't so sold on the banana and nutella option initially, but it turned out to be pretty good when I tried it. I gather the general consensus from the Cambodian staff was that the sweet pancake was better - perhaps because the bacon and cheese option ended up being quite rich, and cheese in general is not really part of the normal diet here. All in all though, an awesome lunch.
Thursday, 26 May Expats lunch today! Lasagne is on the menu. At this rate I will never be able to find clothes big enough for me in Cambodia! I'm looking forward to some pasta and meat all the same.
I am starting to notice that the rain here is seriously inconvenient sometimes! I nearly had to swim home from work today. Thankfully I was able to get Phat to come and pick me up in the tuk tuk instead. I didn't really feel like getting a moto was a safe option, for me or for Mark's laptop in my bag, which would probably prefer to stay dry! But I had it pretty easy. Other people from the office had to either wait it out or
I'm not sure if this duck is alive or dead
It was moving, but that may have just been due to the breeze as the bike sped away ride their bicycle or moto in the downpour. Not fun.
Friday, 27 May The fruit here is so good. I have been having mangosteen quite a bit lately. So incredibly tasty. I had never seen it before coming here. Which is sad, because it probably means it will be hard to get back in Australia.
Today, I was very excited to be invited to my first ever genuine Swiss fondue. In fact, I was the only non-Swiss person in attendance, that is how genuine it was. And it was amazing. I am soooo full of fondue. I regret that I didn't take any pictures though. We actually went through two massive pots of cheese and a proportional amount of fresh baguette. I learned that the fondue is actually made with a mixture of cheeses an there seems to be a bit of a skill to getting it just right. This is a skill I would like to learn. I intend to get some written instructions on this so I can practice at home. Mmm. I am going to get so fat here!
Tomorrow I have an early start. I'm taking a bit of an 'intro to
Sugarcane juice
As a practical demonstration of the difference between sugarcane juice and salt (they sound the same in Cambodian) we went on a field trip. This stuff was sooo sweet! photography' course with this guy Nathan Horton who I found on the internet, and then Daniel and I are going to go on a field trip with him to Silk Island to take some photos. I can't wait! I think that might warrant a blog post all of its own.
Scroll down for more photos, including the expats cooking lunch!
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