Thunderous rain started in the evening and went through the night.
I woke up around 5am and went for a pee. I finally got up at 9am. That meant I'd missed going for a noodle breakfast with Cina and Vuth. I stood by the stairs, contemplating how to apologise, when Vuth appeared. He, and the rest of the family, have keys so they are always coming in unannounced. He said he'd been calling but I hadn't heard a thing. When we checked the phone we realised the boys had mucked about with it. He said they do this kind of thing all the time and, before they leave, I have to tell them to put things back the way they were.
We had a visit and I asked him to look at the television. Somethings wrong with it - the remote doesn't work and I can't change the volume or channels on the television. It's so embarrassing because it comes on with such loud volume I worry about the neighbours downstairs. Now we have to carry the television down three flights of stairs to have it fixed or chucked. Personally, I'm wondering if I can get a second hand smart television so I can watch YouTube on it.
He said I had to come over to have lunch with the family so I toddled over. I always enjoy eating with them as there's a lot of company. Granny helps to serve and then she and the 2 maids and one cook relax and watch a Hindu soap. After all the meat I'd eaten at the buffet it was lovely to have dried and fried fish with a soup which had tofu and minute shrimps in it. Cambodians eat a lot of fruit at every meal and today we had lovely, juicy pineapple and persimmon. Granddad sometimes joins but it depends if he's outside working on one of his projects. He's a fine example of a handyman - he even made my coffee table out of marble and metal, plus the shower head. After lunch I had to go with the little 3 year old, Cheata, to take her to school. We travelled with the regular rickshaw chap so he knows where to go. We always look for police, hiding behind trees, as they have a habit of catching poorer folk who happen to be going the wrong way on a one way street or using streets which rickshaws and motorbikes can't use. Things are getting super modern here - if I want to be taken somewhere I can use an app on my mobile device and I can decide if I want a regular car taxi, tuk tuk or rickshaw. I saw an enormous white Rolls Royce on our way home. This would be a rarity in my part of Canada and England but here, in this poor, developing country it's not an uncommon sight.
I hate modern technology. I added a photo and then changed my mind. "Do you want to delete changes" it said. I agreed and I promptly lost not only my photo but the rest of this blog. So here we go again.
In the afternoon I cooked three bags of popcorn and took them across to the travel office. It was time for celebration as it was pay day. No cheques here, just envelopes stuffed with money. The boys came home and Oudom insisted on coming home with me until he had to go to Chinese class. I had my potato/spinach curry along with a dessert made from black beans and coconut milk while Oudom had a peanut butter sandwich. In the Chinese class there are 60 students and twenty classes. He said he just sits and listens and repeats what the teacher says; there's no individual interaction and the teacher doesn't care if people want to learn or not. Rather him than me and I can understand why he and his brothers are grumbling.
