I did finally get to sleep but it came after battling with Oudom for a while. I keep forgetting that his arms and legs carry quite a punch when he flings them through the air. I woke up at 6.30am and did some exercises. Noch phoned to say he would be here at 9am so I stopped exercising at 8am to have breakfast. I woke Oudom up but he decided to stay in bed until 8.40am and then he wanted breakfast. I mentioned to Oudom that I was going to have a shower. "You'll find some of the soap missing; not a lot of it, just a little bit." I asked him what he'd been up to. "I thought I'd put it in the microwave to see what happened." I can now add soap to the list of other things he's microwaved, including chewing gum and styrofoam.
Noch is so shy and reserved and his English isn't good so I always have a hard time understanding him. He phoned and told me he was here; I couldn't see him at the front so I went to the back balcony and still couldn't see him. I phoned him and he said he was at the back. It turned out he'd been jitterbugging back and forth from front to back.
While I was sorting out Oudom and his breakfast, Noch tackled my dishes. I can't stop him doing things. Eventually, we sorted ourselves out and I took Oudom home. I kept asking Noch where we were going. Initially, he said, "To the Royal University of Fine Arts." When I asked what I'd be doing there he said, "You can read a book." I had no idea what was going on. We set off on his motorbike and I enjoyed the ride, even though I can't stand wearing a helmet. I'd not been inside this particular campus so I was surprised at the number of motorbikes in the parking area - there were many hundreds, and it was a Sunday. Noch suggested walking around the small lake and I saw many students sitting on mats; some were studying others chatting and others checking their phones. All of them looked at me as if I was something from another planet. I suppose it was because I looked like them in that I had my backpack but there was a 60 years difference.
After our walk we settled down in a cafeteria area and I was presented with an enormous tub of chocolate and strawberry ice cream, a large plate of fries and a bottle of water. There were students everywhere, mostly studying together. It did my heart good to see them in this situation - and on a Sunday too. Noch said he was going to study so I read my book on my iPhone. Study for Noch meant reading his hand written notes for about half an hour. I don't fully understand what is happening in Noch's life. He graduated a couple of weeks ago with a Bachelor's degree and now he's studying for six more months; to do this he has to quit his job at the justice department but he's still on their books. The six months of study are followed by six months doing something else and then he's posted to Kratie Province to work in the courts as a clerk of the court. I'm sure he's moving up the ladder but I wish I fully understood. He loses his salary while studying although he said something about being given around $25 a month but that wasn't definite. I'm going to talk to Thornin and Vuth to see about releasing some of the Trust funds to help him. We then did some more walking around the campus; two young men, sitting on the grass, looked up and smiled. I wonder why?
Noch said it was lunch time although I was still full from the food he'd bought. We found Vitking House, which is a popular vegetarian restaurant. It was packed so we waited about half an hour for our table and our meal. It's scorching hot weather but I decided on the sizzler plate - a metal dish with noodles, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms, fried egg and some slices that look like meat but aren't. It was the wrong dish to order on a hot day.
Noch was going to a wedding so he dropped me off and went home to get dressed up. I decided to 'relax' and read a book, which meant falling asleep. When it's hot I wake up so groggy I can hardly move. I do wish it would rain. We were promised 90 percent rain for Friday, Saturday and Sunday but so far nothing. In Battambang the authorities have created an earth wall across the river in the downtown area to keep a depth of water for residents on one side of the wall. It really does need to rain.
