I surprised myself by having a good night's sleep; the worst part was having to get up early enough to be dressed and at the riverside by 7am. Oudom decided he wanted a walk along the river so that's what we did. It made a change to listening to the BBC World Service. We were to meet Meakara at the Royal Palace but never did see him which was strange as he was dressed in red and white.
It had rained heavily during the night so there were few people on the promenade. The pigeons were gathering early to eat the corn that people throw to them. Young boys wandered around selling bags of corn or popcorn. Ladies were busy making posies of lotus flowers for those people going to the pagoda to pray. The part I always want to avoid is the area where people keep birds in cages. Local people pay to get a bird from the cage and to then release it, carrying the person's wishes into the air. I feel sorry for the birds because the men have long poles, with something on the end, that catches the birds. Some say it's a sticky substance. The poor birds find it hard to fly away as they are disorientated and so they land on the floor and are quickly picked up to earn the man another dollar.
AIA is a huge insurance company and they've kindly painted a white line on the promenade to indicate that it's a "running track". The words are painted in English and Khmer, interspersed with "AIA" along the entire route. Along the side of the promenade are signs indicating every 50 metres, as if a runner needs to know that. It's just a chance for more "AIA" advertising. Somebody in the city hall got a nice handout I suppose.
After breakfast I promptly fell asleep until 11am. It was lovely and I didn't feel a bit guilty. I posted the photo as proof but anyone seeing it is not allowed to make any comment unless they are positive. Samnang (14) pointed out that the soles of his feet were dirty which meant my floor was too. This morning I decided to do something about it and I gave it a good mopping. It rained heavily during the night and that always means that detritus comes down the drain spouts onto my two balconies. Even though cleaning was only a 20 minute job I developed quite a sweat.
Oudom wanted to make a microwave cake in a mug so we made an effort. We didn't have some of the ingredients but we managed to turn out something that was edible. It was called a chocolate and peanut butter cake but we had no chocolate - we used Milo instead. Because of being away for six months it was as solid as a rock so we had to dissolve it. Now I've got a container in the fridge for Oudom to drink when he comes over. It only took 1 minute - it makes me wonder why we bother with ovens.
Sophiep came over at 4pm with his little daughter, Sara. Oudom didn't want to be formal so he decided to go home. Sara has the record of being the first child to visit me who didn't have to be given an iPhone to keep her occupied. Luckily, I had the Lego so she played with that for a while, and then attempted a Tangram with her dad. When they left she wanted to take various items with her but thankfully she didn't squawk when Sophiep took them from her.
Gwen's sister, Jean, died at midnight in Regina. This was the first summer I hadn't seen the two of them as I'd gone to England instead. Jean must have been around 90 years old and she was an amazing lady, always interested in social issues and human rights. She and Gwen lived together for many years as Jean was widowed and Gwen unmarried. It was lovely listening to Jean laying the law down to Gwen and Gwen taking it all with a pinch of salt.
I've just hung out my laundry on the balcony so it'll be dry in the morning and I can wear them straight away. The joy of living in a hot climate!
I'm now going to settle down to a British movie on YouTube.
