In Japan they are using robots to help take care of old people in care centres as there aren't enough people willing to do the job. It was a bit creepy, and sad, listening to elderly people playing with a robot that's like a seal and a dog. They talk to them as if they are human and it's weird hearing the robots respond. In Singapore the kids in pre school are working with robots so we humans are slowly but surely becoming redundant. The 'expert' said, "Do you remember when we were young and we had to learn about Microsoft in school?" I couldn't help laughing; when I was young we had a pencil, paper and a pen we dipped into an ink well.
I looked all over the place for my glasses. I'm a creature of habit so I know they have to be in certain places but they weren't. I forgot to check around my neck - it's an old age thing. It's also a heat problem. I don't mind having 38C outside but 35C inside the apartment is a bit too much. I don't have AC in the living part of the apartment so I depend on a fan that just moves the hot air around a bit.
Makara and his wife, Sreypov, came for lunch. The power was off so they bought lunch outside and brought it here. I dragged the furniture into the living room so we could sit near the open door on the north side and get some fresh air. Sreypov has just done two months of nursing upgrading in Japan as she works here in a Japanese hospital. She was there for two months and, just before she was ready to return here, she had a bout of morning sickness - she discovered she was pregnant. A few days earlier she'd been invited to a Disneyland fun park. Fortunately, her Japanese friends were too afraid to go on the rollercoaster so she didn't either - it could have had disastrous effects on her child. Cambodians cannot buy one dessert so I ended up with five. They aren't desserts as Western people know them but instead they are made of vegetables and fruit with coconut milk etc. We also had slices of sour mango which we dipped into a sauce made of fish sauce, sugar and chillies. The thought of it made me cringe but it was actually quite tasty and it definitely helped to sweeten the sour mango. They left me some Japanese chocolates. Fortunately, there's only four in the box so they won't last long.
Friends went to the border with Thailand to visit the temples; the famous one is Preh Vihear which is older than Angkor Wat. In the past the border with Thailand was changed and I cannot fathom why the powers that be decided it should run right in front of the main entrance to the temple. In fact, the front entrance is right on the border so it can only be entered from the Thai side. There's a sort of a mini war going on there all the time as the Thais want to push the border further into Cambodia. Meanwhile the village people on both sides speak the same language and go back and forth for school, shopping, hospital etc. The Cambodian soldiers are not cared for by the government so my friends donated $250 so they could buy supplies.
Romanians are the second biggest group of 'foreigners' living in the UK - the Poles are the biggest. One of those interviewed said it was difficult leaving one's country. It reminded me of when I left Yorkshire to move to Canada. In the early 60s there was no hugging in my family so I just got in the taxi and set off for the railway station. I was heading for Liverpool and I had to change trains in Sheffield. The train trip to Sheffield took about half an hour and during that time I wrote a homesickness letter home and posted it on the station platform. I felt terrible, as if I'd betrayed the family. So I definitely knew what she meant.
I had a phone call in the evening from Ponleu. "Can I come over for the night?" I agreed so off I went to collect him. He chatters non-stop and asks so many questions. The first one he asked this evening was, "How do married people not have children?" He's 9 years old! Then he said, "I think I'm adopted; my mother said I was mucky when she got me." I'm going to have to have words with his parents. He is adopted, along with his two brothers - his mother is the sister of their father. I don't know where the idea of being mucky came from as he definitely wasn't.
It's going to be a long evening.
