A Day in the Life: Tuesday, 25 March, 2008

It feels pretty cool to think that I was in Cambodia on the Day In The Life day this time! I actually didn’t do so much yesterday, but will try to write this!

08:25 – wake up. I had quite a lot of red wine last night – fuzzy teeth, fuzzy head. Ah, but that dinner! Great French food, 3 courses plus a bottle of 2004 vintage wine – for about 30 pounds for us both. And the wine was called “Chateau des Tourtes”, meaning “Castle of Pies”!

09:30 – up, and downstairs for a bowl of noodle soup while our room got cleaned.

10:00 – back up to the room to watch a bit of telly and chill out.

10:50 – Rob and I have decided to do our own thing today, so off we head into town.

11:00 – I go and find an Internet place, and get my photos so far put onto a CD. Also check email and facebook – the essentials.

11:30 – CD in hand, I make my way to The Blue Pumpkin

11:40 – order myself a mango shake, some fresh spring rolls, and the lovely tofu salad I had there the other day. Yum.

11:45 – notice the adorable little blond French boy who is having massive fun running towards his dad, roaring like a lion, and throwing himself at his knees. He does this over and over again, and never gets bored. It’s about as cute as you can get.

11:50 – get writing some postcards of various spots we have visited here in Siem Reap. Realise how lame my memory for people’s postal addresses has become. I used to be able to remember so many – and then email came along…….

1:00 – lunch was great. Postcards written, off I go to find the post office.

1:15 – find the post office, thanks to the tuk-tuk driver who takes me there.

1:20 – right! Off to get a massage at the place I saw the other day.

1:30 – I have a proper Khmer (Cambodian) massage. This is very similar to a Thai massage, but you get naked and lie down; they cover you up with towels, then uncover bits of you in turn, sprinkle “refreshing” talc on said area, and sort of pat it onto/into your skin. Quite nice, quite weird, a pleasant enough way to spend an hour.

2:40 – back out into the heat. Decide to have a look around the Old Market (Psar Chaa) and see what it’s like. There’s fresh fish, fruit and veg, flowers, dried sausages, t-shirts, fabric, housewares, jewellery, bags, and all manner of stuff. I have a wander.

3:00 – back out of the market, I decide to take a walk through the back streets – a part of the town I haven’t explored yet. I happen upon a 2nd-hand bookshop – one of the joys of backpacking – and peruse their basket of music DVDs.

3:03 – I’ve found it!! – “The Last Waltz“! This is THE film that Rob and I have always watched, ever since we got together. A 1978 Martin Scorcese “rockumentary” (cringe) about the band that was called “The Band” – it documents their farewell concert. It is totally great. And I have spent the past couple of years trying to find a DVD copy of it, so I’m really chuffed to find it. Looks like a real copy, too,  not a pirate version. The man who sells me it doesn’t seem to share my enthusiasm when I tell him about my quest. The man must be a loon! I can’t wait to put it on!

3:15 -  more wandering in the backstreets. There are just so many shops and businesses here that are co-operatives or community concerns. there’s loads of support for fair-trade goods and the kind of shops where the money you pay goes straight back into local regeneration and empowerment of the workers. I really, really like Siem Reap.

5:00 – back to the guest house. This happens to coincide with the local primary school letting its children go home, so I get to see them all on their bikes, riding home. Great kids!

7:15 – out for dinner. We go to the “Khmer Family Restaurant” and have a fabulous meal – followed by some horrific wine at the Soup Dragon, which I didn’t drink more than a sip of; then a stroll to find somewhere to get some good wine. Ended the night at the Warehouse bar – lovely.

And thus ends my latest “blog in the life”!

Cambodian greetings to one and all!

Wow. Wowwwwwwwwww. I am in Cambodia!

Our work permits and visas ran out yesterday (Fri 21st March), and so we knew we would have to cross the border into another country, and then return to Thailand on a Tourist visa. Anyway, Cambodia and its exquisite temple ruins have been on our list of places to visit since we started planning our travels about 4 years ago. So, we thought, what better opportunity to go than now, when we have a few days before Rob’s mum and dad get here?

So, on Thursday we made our way to Prachinburi, where we lived last year, which just happens to be halfway to Aranyaprathet – on the border with Cambodia. We ended up getting a taxi all the way – for about 2 hours!! But it was worth it, as we had missed the train and otherwise we were resigned to a ride in heinous Thai minibus, which is never very pleasant.

In Prachinburi, we had a stroll around the town, waving and saying hello to people we knew there last year. We had dinner in the Five Powers restaurant, where their soup is the stuff of legend, and also ascertained some vital information: the rice porridge stall, where we had breakfast every day last year, will be open again as of Monday. Whoopee!

This gleaned, we sat and had a drink with Pi Noi, whose barber shop has said breakfast stall outside it. Thai brandy and soda…..er…….nasty stuff. But we sat and had a chat. Then we headed down to the riverside bar, where we sank a couple of jugs of beer and we saw more people we recognised. One guy was so drunk that he kept coming over to our table and saying to Rob that on Sunday (when Liverpool will be playing a match), he “will never walk alone”. He also hijacked the microphone that the guitarist was singing into, and insisted on singing his favourite pop hit while the guitarist played the accompaniment. Oh dear!

We stayed the night in the King’s Hotel, the nicer of the 2 hotels in the town. You REALLY don’t want to stay at the other one.

Friday morning, we woke up at 05:40 – ouch!

I will leave this blog here and go out and explore Siem Reap for a while. More very soon!

Wanna see?

So, here are a couple of peeps at the thing I made last weekend. At least 1 person I know will be interested to see………but this is as much as I can show you, as it’s actually wrapped up in paper now, until the middle of March, that is! Click on the links below:

t-shirt

taxi!

Shanghai Summer Camp, anyone?

I found this advert in the paper a while ago. I cut it out. It’s fantastic.

“Shanghai Summer Camp – Shanghai, China

Study and activity coorperates with Chinese student

Reach see a factory smelts big iron most in the world.

Rest middle a Shanghai city.

Tour duty-free and a bridge cross the sea long 32.5 kms.

Visit school and University in Shanghai for study the education trend.”

ramblings

I’m at home today, sick. I’ve had some sort of chest infection for about 3 weeks now, and I also seem to have caught a new cold, and all of this makes teaching 28 kids somewhat difficult – especially at the moment. My class are gearing up to go into the primary section, and James, whose kids are also about to move up, is having the same problem as me: they just don’t want to listen any more! It’s really hard when 1) they are Thai, and 2) I’m coughing like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

My craft project……..well, I completed it on Sunday (in one weekend!), rather than letting it run on and on, and it looks adorable! It is for Claire, who is coming over here for 6 months. She now knows that it’s for her. i still can’t post any photos of it, though, because she will see them. Maybe when she opens the parcel I’ll take a photo of her with it.

By the way, this is what I’ll end up with when I’ve finished my felt sushi: p1210083.jpg

We’re also looking forward to the arrival of Rob’s mum and dad on March 29th – they are coming for just over 2 weeks and we’ll be heading to an island for some good relaxation.

aaahhhhhhh………I have been remembering our Christmas detox recently…….. I feel so grim today – such a contrast to how I felt there.

A very exciting thing on the horizon: Harry Connick, Jr. is coming to Bangkok with his Big Band! It has been one of my dreams for the past 17 YEARS to go and see him in concert with the Big Band. And now he is coming over here, which is a bit obscure, in a way. Anyway, we have bought some damn fine tickets, quite expensive ones, and should have a great view. Whoopee!!

We should find out this week whether or not our school are going to offer us another year’s contract. We shall see.

A blog in the life, Saturday 16th February.

Well, it’s that time again……..time to write a blog of everything that I did yesterday. Here goes.

08:20 – wake up. Rob says he’s going out. But where?

08:25 – get up and check e-mail etc.

09:20 – Rob’s back from being out – he went to the supermarket. So I don’t have to go this weekend! Yippee!! He puts the shopping away while I lie on my bed feeling a bit fluey.

09:35 – I get up again and potter about a bit.

11:30 – have a shower.

11:50 – gather my things (book, sunglasses, craft project (of which more later), sarong), and take myself off down to the pool.

12:00 – joy! There is a sun-lounger free by the pool. In fact, there’s no one in the water at all.

12:00-2.30 – swim, read, swim, read, swim, read, swim, read. I’m reading Stephen King’s “Misery” book. Somehow I get so caught up in it that I find myself at page 127!!

2.30 – have a bit of poolside lunch.

3.10 – buy myself a Cornetto and head back up to the flat.

3.15 – mmmmmm. Cornetto. Read the free weekly BK magazine. Must remember to get tickets to see Harry Connick, Jr. tomorrow.

3:40 – Rob comes back up to the flat too. We watch a few things on youtube, and marvel once again at what you can watch on there, and how great it is to be able to see favourite things from home when you live abroad.

4:00 – I make a smoothie thing from bananas, crushed ice, espresso, honey and home-made cashew milk (you have to try cashew milk!!)

5:00 – I have a look at my craft project. Start beading again.

5:05 – It’s not looking so good. I’m bored of beading. I don’t actually know how to do it anyway.

5:06 – AH HA!!! I have a MUCH better idea!
5:07 – start undoing the beading I had done.

5:15 – cut out all the rest of the shapes I need to make all the different pieces of the felt sushi I’m making (different project), so that I can see how much felt is left for me to use for my new idea.

5:25 – make some templates for the thing I want to do instead of the beading, and cut the pieces out of the felt I have left from the sushi kit.

5:30 – start blanket-stitching the first felt shape in place. Continue with my crafting for an hour or so.

7:00 – get making the dinner. Poor Rob is really under the weather, so tonight is going to be a quiet one at home instead of going to see the blues harmonica guy.

8:30 – Rob’s out of the bath, so we have some dinner.

9:00 – Yum. Now I go back to my crafting.

11:30 – out with the iron – I want to iron an applique motif onto a piece of felt.

11:33 – WHY did the felt and the applique have to melt onto the iron???????? I’ll have to buy a new applique now.

11:40 – ……and some more felt, as that piece I tried to cut a tiny t-shirt out of is just that little bit too small.

11:55 – There we go – that’s one of his arms sewn on.

00:20 – And there’s the other one.

00:48 – to bed!!

*****************************************

So, that was my Saturday. I managed to stay at home all day and have a relaxing day.

I’m afraid I can’t tell you what I’m making in my craft project – it’s for, er, a friend, ahem. You know who you are. Or maybe you don’t! Ha!

so much gorgeousness!

My “freewill astrology” horoscope in the local BK magazine told me that I have to seek out the gorgeousness in all situations, and this weekend has been pretty lovely.

Friday night – went to May Kaidee’s vege restaurant and had some of their fabulous food. After that we spent the rest of the evening in “Adhere the 13th” blues bar, where we heard the usual great music from Georgia et al.

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the day with Shooka, who I work with. She’s Iranian and is married to a Thai man. We headed downtown to the fair-trade craft fair that I’m so fond of, and did a lot of browsing and bit of shopping. Lunch was Thai, and then we went online to find out at what time, and at which cinema, we could go and see “Cloverfield”. (Yes, I decided I could go and see it again.)

This established, there was then the purchase of some great postcards and a swanky pair of shoes, and much browsing among the little independent shops in Siam Square. We then walked to Central World Plaza with the intention of having a foot massage for the hour before the film started. This fell by the wayside, though, as we felt a bit peckish and went for some Italian food instead. I would have had a glass of wine, but I knew that would NOT be wise just before my guts were about to be wrenched by that film…….

Hey, it wasn’t that bad the second time. I knew what was coming almost all the way through, but there are so many thrills and spills that you can’t really remember everything. And the timing is so crucial, and you can’t remember exactly when each thing is about to happen. So it did still press a lot of the buttons it pressed the first time – I did still shed the odd tear, and the extreme noise is so all-pervading that it was still intense as hell.

I have now been told that something happens right at the end that I hadn’t spotted, and, maddeningly, I now feel like I have to watch it again just to see that happen! I won’t say what it is, but it actually has a really important part to play in the story. Gah! Maybe youtube can help. It feels quite funny to be so interested in a hyped-up blockbuster kind of film like this, but I found it so affecting when I saw it last weekend.

After the film we came home in the car with Shooka’s husband, who had been exactly where we were for the past 4 hours, while Shooka thought he was getting the car fixed.

A tiring day – loads of walking around in the heat – but a lot of fun.

This morning I got up late and made breakfast for Rob and me. He’d been out last night with some friends from work for one of their birthdays, and was suffering a bit. I think breakfast helped, though: vege Thai sausages, organic free-range eggs (yes!! in Thailand!!), fresh shiitake mushrooms and chunks of tomato, all scrambled in the pan and served on top of some nice bread spread with my home-made date pickle. Interesting story, that pickle: made from Iranian dates, to an Indian recipe in the cookbook from Demuths restaurant in England, where I was working before I set off travelling. And it is fantastically good! It goes so well with scrambled eggs. I would like a piece of nice tangy Cheddar cheese to make cheese on toast with some of the pickle. Yumyumyumyumyumumyumyumyumyumyum.

After brekkie I decided I was going to go and buy a bamboo saxophone

……..I’ve been wanting to get one ever since I saw the man who makes them, playing on the street. So I got the straight soprano one, though it didn’t cost the price quoted on the website. I paid 4,800 Baht, which is 80 pounds at the current exchange rate. It sounds fantastic! I need to practice my scales and then I’ll be able to play anything I want.

Then it was time for a swim. The water was just a bit warmer than it has been lately, and so inviting. So I had a swim about, then got out and we had some food, read about nice places for Valentine’s dinner, and then I tried out the jacuzzi that’s part of the pool. It’s really secluded and very nice – usually empty, too. There were even beautiful frangipani flowers floating in it – they must have fallen off the trees that overhang the pool. So that was a nice way to spend half an hour. Then off to the steam room, which warmed me up really toasty after the cool water (the sun had started to set, so the water had begun to lose its earlier warmth). And then I spied the new massage therapist who’s set up a little area by the pool to do foot massages, and sat myself down there for an hour while my feet were pummelled and pampered with fragrant oils and creams. Nice.

And then back up to the apartment!

It has been a good weekend.

Too much – Tuesday, 05 February, 2008

It’s Tuesday – back at work again after a great weekend down town. We stayed at Shanghai Inn for our 6th anniversary (though it’s not for another 3 weeks), and had a relaxing time.

I went to the doctor last week to have an ultrasound scan of my endometriosis, and………it’s gone! Not there any more! I’m amazed and so thrilled. I have no doubt that it’s largely because of the detox I did at Christmas.

On Sunday we went to see “Cloverfield”, the recent film. It was SO terrifying. I was crying and shaking at the horror of it. What a film.

Things are hotting up here for the arrival of my friend Claire,who’s being sent over here to work for 6 months. She lives and works in Glasgow, and the company she works at have an office here in Bangkok, so she’ll be coming over in March. I’ve never actually met Claire; we got in touch on http://gimmeyourstuff.blogspot.com and have sent parcels to each other. I’m very excited to meet her and take her around my haunts in Bangkok.

Apart from that, I’m pretty much laying low this weekend. Last weekend I really overdid things – I had tequila, chocolate, 6 coffees, ice cream, cheese, wine, beer, cake, milk……..and yesterday my body was NOT happy with my mistreating it! That was the most indulgent I’ve been since before my detox, and it’s really taught me a lesson. I felt so sick.

Well, back to school now – munchtime is over. Stay tuned.

A Day In The Life Of Me

This month I decided to join in with the “Day in the Life” blog thing. I’ve been reading the ones by Claire and Marceline and decided to have a go myself.

In the event, though, I forgot to do it – gah!! – but I’m going to try and remember it all. Maybe not minute-by-minute, but it will at least tell you what I did.

08:40 – wake up and remember the plan I made with Kay to go and find Next and look for real-sized clothes instead of cheapo Thai ones that wear out so quickly.

09:00 – plug my phone in to charge, and have a shower.

09:15 – Out of the shower, ring Kay and say I’ll be leaving home about ten. Plug in iron, iron my red shirt, eat a bit of the melon Rob has cut up, and get ready.

10:15 – set off to bus stop.

10:25 – WHY did the bus I needed to get on just go past? Have to wait for another one now. Waiting, waiting.

10:27 – shall I wait for the next #127, which will take me right to the pier, or shall I get just any bus that goes nearby, and walk the rest of the way? It’s so hot.

10:29 – get on the #177 after all. No seats – gotta stand up – but it’s only about a 5-minute ride.

10:35 – get off bus #177 and set off walking to the pier. Bus #127 brazenly goes past. Wish I had waited an extra 2 minutes for it.

10:43 – reach the pier for the river taxi. A Russian man in a Germany t-shirt is asking for directions from the man who works at the pier. I put some Jill Scott on my mp3 player and watch for the boat. I have a little sitting-down dance to the music.

10:55 – the boat comes. I get on and edge my way down to the front, so I can see when someone stands up and I can get a seat. Lots of interesting faces in the boat, as ever. I wonder if the Queen Of The Ladyboys will get on.

11:15 – I get a call from Kay to say that she’s already at our rendezvous point.

11:30 – Get off boat at Central Pier. Walk up to the Skytrain station, and get on the Skytrain.

11:45 – arrive at Siam station. Find the Skybridge, and set off walking to Central World Plaza (formerly known as World Trade Centre until 9/11).

11:55 – officially late, I get there, meet Kay in the Cafe de Paris, and off we go to Next almost immediately. Much browsing and looking at lovely clothes in their sale. (I’m looking for a white shirt or two, as I have to wear black and white at work until the end of March due to the national mourning period for the King’s sister. I just cannot wear black every day.)

I try on a few things, and end up buying an off-white linen top and a pair of striped wide-leg trousers.

1.00 – leave Next and set off to find something to eat. Immediately spy a clearance shop, selling things from the concessions in Central department store……..with 70 or so percent off! More browsing, and the purchase of a delicious turquoise skirt made of a fabric I suspect is either taffeta or organza – I always forget the names of these fabrics. Also buy an off-white smocky top. Very pleased with my purchases.

2:00 – off to find some food. I was famished when I went in that second shop, and now it’s an hour later.

2:10 – we take our seats at Pizza Pizza, somewhere I read about a while ago in a magazine. Order some pasta, salad, and lemon soda. Yum.

3:00 – leave there and swing by the Sylvanian Families cafe, where we look at the things on sale. Cute, cute, cute. And not half as expensive as I would expect.

3:10 – set off home. I titivate about whether or not to go to the supermarket on the way, as this would save us going tomorrow. I even go to the platform to get on the Skytrain that would take me there. But no, I need to go home. Still tired from the week, and a dinner date tonight – must not be knackered like last night!

4:05 – get back onto the river taxi and head upriver.

4:10 – WHY did I get on the boat at the back of the queue and therefore have to take a seat on the sunny side of the boat? I feel sick, the sun is so hot. I have to shield my face with a little bag I bought – what a prat I look.

4:50 – get a cab home.

5:00 – back home, run a bath and get ready to go out.

6.00 – down to the foyer to get a cab.

6.20 – arrive at ANOTAI vege restaurant. Eat all manner of lovely food, but no room for their fabulous-looking cakes – booo!

7.40 – decide against going to a club, largely because it is so much earlier than we’d expected to be finishing our dinner. Out into the street, off to find the subway.

8.00 – find subway and go to Lumphini station……..

8.10…………to go to the Suam Lum Night Bazaar! Yippee! Leave subway, get right into browsing around the market. I buy a little purse.

9 p.m. – stop for an hour’s foot massage (while Rob goes in searchj of the beer garden)  in a place with a raised platform up near the ceiling, which I am told is for body massages. But to me it sounds like there are people getting it on.

10 p.m. Massage over, I head out again and find a shop selling felt craft kits. I buy a sushi one – yes, making tiny toy sushi out of felt! Squeal! I also buy a massive candle made of coconut oil, which is encased in a coconut shell. Apparently it will burn for 20 hours.

10:30 – I find Rob, who has got himself a huge glass of German wheat beer and is watching the singers on stage. I get a beer, too.

10:45 – I head off to the loo, passing by a load of tatty, tiny karaoke booths that I cannot imagine anyone wanting to go in. Of course, there are a couple of people partaking.

11.30 -  we leave the bazaar and get in a taxi.

12:05 – take a table at the roadside restaurant, lulled by the cacophony of passing traffic (8 lanes of it), and have a bite and a beer or two.

01:40 – we go home and go to sleep.

And that was my day!

Cancelled

Oh no! The Rhythm of the Earth music festival, which I was so looking forward to this weekend, has been cancelled due to the death of the Thai King’s sister.

Never mind – it’s going to be re-scheduled for March, or so I hear. I’ll put me dancing shoes away, then.