What a morning. I was asked to take care of two special needs people and then I was asked to look after Mary too. I discovered they lived next door to each other. I first of all decided to see about Mary and we ended up going out around town. What a pain in the neck she was; I've never met anyone like her. She'd walk with me and then shoot off in another direction, bashing into people. I was constantly apologising and dragging her off. Then I woke up! I never did get to meet the other two people and I haven't a clue what happened to Mary, thank God.
I did my morning 10,000 steps, walking up and down my apartment and listening to the BBC world service - I love it. I'd just taken my breakfast things out of the fridge when Vuth phoned - "Join us for noodle breakfast." I put everything away and went up the road to our usual place where I had a bowl of seafood and noodles with a glass of sugar cane juice with a dash of lime - and very nice too.
Back home I settled into doing my morning chores when Vuth phoned again, "Would you like to go out for a ride with me?" He enjoys company in the car and I'm practising absolute flexibility, so off we went. We stopped for gas but then the car wouldn't start - the battery was dead. We had to push the car forward to get it away from the pumps and then I saw a car wash place behind us so we pushed it backwards to get it out of the way of garage traffic. Luckily they had a charger so a few minutes later, and a few dollars tip, we were on our way. Often, life is so much easier in Cambodia with help readily available most of the time and no form filling and formalities.
Vuth is a member of Business Network International, which has chapters around the world. It's an interesting arrangement, mainly for young business people to network and learn from each other. Each chapter can have only one representative for each occupation/business so Vuth is the sole travel agent in his group. After breaking down at the garage we drove to a car repair place owned by a BNI chap and got a new battery; naturally with a discount. We were late so decided to have lunch on the way home. We stopped at the Moon Cafe which is owned by a BNI lady and there we met another BNI man who deals in cotton fabric. Normally, I only meet people who work for others so it's interesting sitting with business people as the conversation is different.
I was leaving later today with Vuth, and around 16 other people, to go to Seoul for four days and Hanoi one day so I had to start packing when I got home. Emails were coming in from the dental group that's coming next year to Cambodia so I got distracted and ended up having only 30 minutes to get myself ready, pack and organise the apartment.
The traffic to the airport was terrible as it's Pchum Ben, the Buddhist festival in which people honour their ancestors - I think every man and his dog was on the road heading home for the holiday. It was a relief to finally settle into the lounge for our flight to Ho Chi Minh; we'd got a good deal on ticket prices so we were travelling with Vietnam Airlines. It was Vuth's 40th birthday so one of the group had bought a cake and we sang "Happy Birthday" in the lounge. We couldn't eat the cake so we took it on the plane for HCM. We were late arriving in HCM so the cake then went on with us to Seoul. It was a well travelled cake.
