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| Ponleu typing his two sentences |
He's full of wisdom. "Peter, are you single?" I told him I was. "But you shouldn't be because you can't have children to carry on your name." I told him I had a few brothers and sisters doing a good job for me with this so I didn't have to bother. I've just chased him into the bathroom for a shower. He opened the door and said, "Go and do something; this will take a long time, I have to poo!" He's just told me I have ten more years and that's enough time to find a wife as he wants to meet my kids. Little kids do help to bring a bit of sanity into this world.
Last night I had a few minutes to spare so I watched a short inspirational video. It said I had to wake up slowly and calmly and to tell myself I was going to have a good day. "Take control of your life! Don't let life control you!" The phone rang. I staggered out of bed in the dark and found my phone. It was 4.40am. It was a call from England but the other party didn't pick up. I went back to bed and then, for some strange reason my phone decided I should get up - it was 5.30am. From then on, every few minutes an alarm went off on the phone. I've no idea what was going on.
I presume you've heard that we are supposed to keep a note book by our bed so that we can wake up and write down meaningful dreams as they are telling us something about life. In the early hours of the morning I found myself in a town I'd not visited before with an enormous hotel. I asked a lady what the place was called and she told me to look at the name on the hotel - Hotel Quack. In the stores people were grabbing up items with images of ducks on them. It turned out to be a town where the main industry was the production of eider down. For those non-Europeans, that's the soft feathers from the eider duck which were used to make winter clothing, bedding etc. How is this dream supposed to tell me something? It's absolutely idiotic. So the idea of having a meaningful waking up was lost.
Phearak and Srun came over for their English lesson and I was pleasantly surprised when I had them reading sentences; they did quite well. I've finally got Phearak to say, "I don't understand", which is a huge victory as they don't want to offend me.
When they went back to work I had to do some grocery shopping. I don't like walking on the streets so I go down the back alleys. Behind the shopping facade there is another world of linking alleys where people live. They are very narrow and little light gets to them. People spend most of their life in the alley as they can buy all the food they need, whether cooked or uncooked. Traders walk or cycle through selling their wares. One lady has a stall where she does manicures. It's sad that the tourists stick to walking down the streets, looking in the shop windows, instead of seeing the real world at the back.
When I came home I found a lizard in my sink. The sink is quite deep so the poor thing couldn't get out. I spent about 15 minutes trying to catch it but it would have nothing to do with it. I finally managed to scoop it up on a plate and it then jumped onto the floor and disappeared. I like them around as they eat the ants. Here in Cambodia we can't leave anything out on the counter as the ants arrive in droves. Even a single crumb will attract them. I go around plugging up small holes with toothpaste but they find another way out.
Ponleu says he wants to write two sentences:
Sometimes i thought that every needle hurt at the dentist. But when i went to the dentist , the needle doesn't hurt, only like an ant bite and after that my mom buy me some candy.(So much for stopping tooth decay!)
I think I should end this while I'm still winning. Last night, the final words Ponleu said to me were, "Peter, I've got lice!"
As a reminder, there are a number of ways to read my writings. If we are friends on Facebook you can find it. If I forget to post it, you can get it at peterheyes.blogspot.com. Another way is to go to this feed and register by entering your email address. (https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverifyuri=PetersMemories
