Smile

Living in Cambodia is very nice… I love lying in my hammock, I love the sunshine, I love finding out how things are different and yet the same… I love eating out… I love going swimming in an unheated outdoor pool and not freezing to death, I love having massages (ooooo I am addicted for sure!)
But I miss home too… I miss some lovely people, I miss not being able to drink out of a tap, I miss the smell of grass, I miss feeling cold (sometimes)… I miss not having an oven… I miss not being able to understand everything people are saying… I miss not having proper speakers so I can play my music loudloud… I miss the countryside… I miss recycling and I miss my bike (very much).

Living in another country seems to be finding a balance between what you miss and what you like about where you are… and being happy. Mostly I think I am happy… this morning 2 things made me smile.
I was cycling home from church and stopped along the way to distract myself in a supermarket… when I came outside it was raining… and raining very hard, Cambodia style. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I seem to always forget my raincoat… anyways I hopped on my bike and cycled… the streets clear a bit in the rain and so I cycled fast, very fast given my bike only has 1 gear… the air was cool, the rain soaked me, and I was laughing my head off (yes I am going mad)… it was exhilarating…
The other thing that made me smile was sitting in the internet café, and I looked up at the old lady opposite me. I’ve seen her before, she must work here… anyways she was just sitting there, smiling in a lovely way, at the email she was reading. She reminded me of my lovely grannie… and I smiled, because she was smiling. Nice.

Tomorrow is international Labour Day, and the Royal Government of Cambodia has put large banners up telling me I must ‘celebrate’ this. So I shall celebrate international labour day by not going to work… which seems ironic… surely you should have to go to work on ‘labour’ day? I have various plans which involve applying for jobs... acquiring a new swim card as I lost my old one… sourcing some pine nuts to make pesto… on that note I should add that I have been away 3 months and in all honesty, aside from porridge, smoothies, lollypops and sandwiches, have only cooked once, and that involved the difficult task boiling some asparagus. I actually really like cooking, but it is too easy to eat out. However this weekend so far I have made a Greek salad (ok, not really cooking… but it did involve lots of chopping)… hummus (yes you can buy tahhini imported from Macedonia… how exciting)… pumpkin soup… mmmm and would have involved making pesto if only the shops hadn’t run out of pine nuts… so I feel quite Delia like.

Currently I am lying in my hammock, listening to DJ Shadow, trying to drown the sound of jinglyjangly wailing from the temple at the end of the street… and pondering how to end this blog…

Kisses and love perhaps??? X x x x X