I had the last banana with my porridge for breakfast; I'm not buying any more bananas until I've eaten all the oranges, Mandarin oranges and dragon fruit. Phearak, from across the road, sent me a nice Valentine's message, wishing me a happy and healthy life and a good time with my family - the latter sadly won't happen. Then Makara came with a box of chocolates, a huge red rose and lots of hugs and kisses. He lived with me for about eight years so we are very close. Sreypov, his wife, is furthering her nursing training in Japan as she was sent there by the Japanese hospital she works for in Phnom Penh. He talks to her every night via the internet; in my younger days, if we wrote a letter it took 6 weeks to get a reply when I moved to Canada. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why I'm still single? After six weeks I most likely forgot the person with whom I was communicating.
I found another kind of tea, hidden in the cupboard - Artichoke tea from Vietnam. It's in bags so I've no idea what part of the plant they use; it's nice though.
Vuth passed on to me the report card for his oldest boy, Samnang (14). In his private school, every subject is taught in English and also Khmer. He passed everything except Khmer Math so that lets me off the hook as I don't know the language. A while back I discovered that I didn't understand Khmer Math either; I always thought that 2 + 2 would be 4, no matter what language I did it in but here I've discovered that an algebra problem done in English has a totally different answer to when it's done in Khmer. Personally, I think the Khmer teacher's off his rocker but the students can't say that - they have to do things his way or fail.
It's a sad day for Townsville, in Australia, the town that was recently flooded. They have a toy library and they've had to throw everything out because all the toys have spoilt because of the mud and water. I wish we'd had a toy library when we were kids because we didn't have toys. At Christmas we got one toy and a small bag that had nuts and an apple or orange in it - never both. It makes me realise how much less plastic we'd use if every community had a library like this. Kids soon get bored and so we'd just take the toy back for someone else to borrow. Just think of all the children in refugee families - how much fun they'd have being able to borrow toys.
The BBC in Indonesia has had a road show, taking young entrepreneurs to encourage other young people to think outside the box. One story involved a dentist who set up a clinic in a remote area, on the edge of a national forest where there's a lot of illegal logging plus one of the world's largest orangutang populations. The people are poor and can't afford dental treatment. The dentist has encouraged the people to grow seedlings in their back gardens and these are planted in the forest. They pay for their treatment with seedlings. I know some lovely dentists but I can't imagine any of them following this dentist's brilliant idea. I'm terrified of the dentist so I spent a small fortune on toothbrushes and toothpaste. It's bad enough for me going to the clinic in Canada but it's even worse in Asia as I have to take my sandals off - I'm not sure the dentist even notices my toes are curling but I definitely do. When I have my teeth cleaned I'm always reprimanded by the dentist or hygienist for being too aggressive when cleaning my teeth. I tell them to tell the government school dentists who came every year when I was younger than 11 years of age. All they knew what to do was yank out.
I was flabbergasted to hear that 150,000 tonnes of food are thrown out every single day in US households. The speaker spoke about how older generations, who've lived through hardships, were better at saving food etc. It reminded me of Eva in Calgary. She'd lived through the depression so she knew how to save. When she "emptied" a box of soap she would cut it apart and scrape off the bits of soap powder stuck to the cardboard; this was saved in a little jar. I can't throw anything out. I know some people who refuse to keep left-overs from one meal. Apparently, North Americans waste 70% of the food they buy. Now that's disgusting. I also learned that the fridge temperature should be set for lower than 5C. I'm going to have to get a thermometer as my fridge has arbitrary numbers that mean nothing to me.
I wonder if people know what a pram is? In my younger days in the UK we had prams and pushchairs but now there's baby buggies and other things. A pram was for a baby and then he or she progressed to a pushchair. There was a story on the news about the 1960s in Northern England when the government tried to de-industrialise. It talked about men pushing prams across wasteland. It reminded me of my coal-mining village. When the miners went on strike, in the years following the war, we'd start to see men pushing prams - normally that was a woman's job. But now, drastic action was needed for drastic times. The men pushed the prams to the pit tip which is where all the "useless" coal was dumped as it was too poor to be sold. The men would remove the bed from the pram and fill the space underneath with coal. It was risky business because you could be fined or gaoled for taking the useless coal. Nowadays, anyone going to our village wouldn't know it had been a coal mining area. The pit tips are covered with grass and forests and there are streams and sheep roaming around.
I had a late afternoon cup of tea and then watched the news on my iPad. I'd not watched the floor so I went into the kitchen and there was a pair of sandals. They weren't mine - somebody was in the house. I never know who's in because various people have access to keys. I then saw a bit of a head on the balcony - it was Samnang. We had a chat about his report card - like the rest of us he can't see any point in most of what he's being taught. He wants a fancy, modern haircut so I've promised to pick him up on Saturday and take him. He'd better not blame me if it ends up looking a mess. He's a very good artist but he rarely does anything. I was therefore pleased when he said he and a friend want to create a comic strip. He's keen on having a gadget that allows him to draw - it's a sort of iPad. I think I'll talk to his dad as he said he would use it and that would get him away from gaming. Samnang's even offering to pay half, which is something as he is well known for hanging onto his money.
I decided to phone my sister Barbara in Lincolnshire - she's next to me on the family list. She's a bit deaf so there was a lot of shouting going on. Her taxi driver says they are in for a heatwave. Her roses and other plants are growing so spring has sprung. It's nearly 9pm so I don't think much more is going to happen and so I'll sign off.
