Ponleu wanted the usual cheese on bread for breakfast. He wants it sliced super thinly because he says it's salty. I love cheese so I'm quite happy to give him what he wants as it leaves more for me. He sat on the balcony and declared it was absolutely stupendous.
I took him to the riverside to use up the bag of corn seeds he'd been saving for over a week. He got a bit fed up with a little lad who kept running through the flocks of pigeons and chasing them away. A lady, with a tiny child, asked him for some seeds for her child. They were wasted as the lad was so small he couldn't throw them far. Thousands of these greedy creatures are based along the riverside and in front of the royal palace. I presume they are breeding like crazy too.
One of the things that fascinate me, as I walk down the streets here, is the sight of the electrical wires. They are worse than a jigsaw puzzles. I've watched electricians come to do something and they unerringly choose the right wire; how they do it I've no idea.
It's the famous dragon boat races next week. It takes place at the time from the flow of the water in the Tonle Sap River starts to flow south; during the rainy season it flows north into the Tonle Sap Lake. The lake triples in size and the depth increases from around 3 metres to over 12. The biggest boats hold around 75 paddlers so it's an amazing sight. Look it up on YouTube.
From there we walked to the French bakery and bought some fresh bread. If the bread's fresh I can live on it as long as it's got a reasonable layer of butter on it.
The news today was that two senior members of the Khmer Rouge have been sentenced to life imprisonment. They've already been in prison for life sentences on different issues so nobody's too excited. They are 87 and 92 years old so life sentences are a bit irrelevant. The tribunal has been going on since 2006, at a cost of $300 million so people are saying it's a waste of time. So many lower ranking Khmer Rouge are living an ordinary life and the Prime Minister is saying there should be no more trials. He's a former Khmer Rouge so it's no wonder he doesn't want any more trials. One witness said he lives across the street from a former soldier whom he knows cracked children's heads open on tree trunks. Only 3 people have ever been convicted during the 12 years of the tribunal so many people are saying the country needs to move on. On the positive side, there are now thousands of pages of testimonial from witnesses about the five years of terror.
Ponleu was quite pleased with himself as he managed to pull out one of his teeth while he was eating lunch. The other two were removed by the dentist who charged $15. This is the place to come if you want cheaper dental work.
I listen to Jaron Lanier last night. He's a pioneer of the internet. He said that nobody should have anything to do with social media - he doesn't. He gave lots of valid reasons why we should break away from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc and his arguments sounded very compelling. It's really quite scary what these people know about us and how they do very little to stop negatively minded people from posting their messages.
Last night I had two of the brothers staying with me. It's the last time too! Oudom is only 3 years older than Ponleu yet he constantly lays the law down to him. They wanted to watch a movie based on the video game called Minecraft. Throughout the 1 1/2 hours of the movie I had no clue what was happening. Oudom offered to explain but I said he didn't have to bother. He said, "I'm not going to tell you about the move, just the concept behind it." The language of this 12 year old always blows my mind. The two lads understood everything that was happening but I felt like a Neanderthal.
It was a rough night; Oudom slept on top of the covers so I couldn't pull them over me; Ponleu decided to migrate to the foot of the bed.
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