It's amazing how positive the day becomes after doing my morning routine. It's just a matter of habit but it's hard work. I've always bragged that I could rule the world if someone would put a desk over my bed; I love my bed. When we were children in Yorkshire it was often hard for us to settle down for bed. There were six boys in one bedroom, six girls in the other room, and our parents with younger offspring in the third bedroom. We'd start making a noise, which bothered our parents as it kept the younger ones awake. Dad had a habit of fooling around which just made matters worse. One day he crept upstairs and got on his hands and knees before coming into the bedroom. The next thing we knew was our bed was being lifted up into the air on his back. Naturally, we burst out laughing so he gave us a whack to shut us up.
On another occasion I didn't want to go to school as it was exam time. Mother was sick and tired of writing, "Peter has diarrhea", so she sent Dad to get me out of bed. I wouldn't budge so he tipped the bed upside down and I landed on the floor. I finally gave in and went to school.
We dreaded bed in the winter time as it was so cold. There was a fireplace but we daren't light the fire as the beds were too close to it. In his motorbiking days Dad had used a very heavy black leather coat and so the lucky ones got to have it on top of the blankets. Sometimes we'd wrap a shelf out of the oven in a towel and put that at the bottom of the bed. I don't think we had hot water bottles. Nowadays I love a cold bedroom - life's a bit topsy turvy at times.
Phearak came over for his English lesson. For some strange reason I keep forgetting he's coming over. Today he forgot his keys so his phone call alerted me. I wish I could find culturally appropriate lessons; most of them are based in the USA or England. The grammar part is all right but the settings are often confusing for people who've never been to either place. Today I had to deal with "ground floor", "first floor" etc; today's article was based in London but others are from the USA where the ground floor is the first floor. It also talked about all sorts of sports Phearak had never heard of; it was all right when I had to demonstrate 'jumping' but I drew the line when he wanted to know the meaning of gymnastics. I'm also having to deal with the different ways of telling time. Normally, in Cambodia, they would say, "It's eight forty", but the worksheets talk about "twenty to nine". It's hilarious when I give Phearak and Srun my watch and I ask them to figure out certain times. Getting them to understand 'past' and 'to' is a challenge. I'm not complaining though as their English is infinitely better than my Khmer.
I have to take my passport so that Cina's office can apply for my one year visa to Cambodia. I'm always embarrassed when I talk to people about visas; most of the time I don't need one but, if I do, it's always issued. I listened to a programme from Tunis this morning and a young lady said her wish was for all Tunisians to get a visa when they want one to anywhere. There's so much discrimination surrounding visas; in Canada's case I complained once that a friend from India had been rejected twice by Canadian representatives in Jamaica and also New York. Each time she lost the $60 she had to pay. I wrote and said it was disgusting. I received a reply from the Canadian government saying that it was one way of bringing down the Government's deficit.
I should stop as Samnang, my chef, will arrive in a few minutes; today I'm going to have something involving pork. I really should put in writing my one and only nasty experience with visas but I'll do that tomorrow.
