Got time, part 1

Got time, so it becomes time to write. There hasn't been much happening to be honest. Well not until recently anyway. From the last one I wrote about my time back in England. I honestly thought that it would be tough returning to this wonderfully mad country! Although last night I was riding home and it just hit me like a tonne of bricks. I love this place, I want my future to involve it somehow, someway. I understand that it may not always be like this, that I may eventually get sick of the place but right here, right now, I'm happier than I have been in a long while. 

I want to try to tell you about the love and death in this place from what I know so far. I may write about it again, in a couple months and say that this was all out my arse. So here goes....death in western culture is generally a bit taboo of 'oh we can't mention lest they get upset' it's always 'i'm sorry' and what have you. It's a dreary and upsetting affair for all those affected. Then, once they are buried that's it, you move on and remember them with rose tinted spectacles unless you're jimmy saville. However here, they're never forgotten. They have services for one whole week after their death, drinking and remembering and praying in their name. After that I think it's one month on they have another service with more drinking and celebrating the persons life. Then it's one year on they celebrate again with drinking and laughter. After five years, they again celebrate with dancing and singing. There maybe more but that's all I know so far. This does get irritating because over here they just block the main streets up with big pavilions but still how incredible is that? For five years they celebrate the death and life of someone. They're not forgotten, and death is accepted as a thing of life. The ying to yang. You don't get the gift of life without the release of death and over here it is accepted that it happens and it's a thing to dance and sing about. I, personally, think it's wonderful. I will learn more this weekend as I'm going to a five year anniversary funeral....

On the other hand we have love. Again streets are blocked up with tents and monks praying for good luck. Obviously there are different levels of wealth bigger tents, more important streets being blocked, more garlands, more people. I know less about the wedding rituals apart from there is traditional clothing and food and what have you. Then we have got the poorest of the poor. People having to live and work on construction sites. It popped into my head, what happens for these guys? The ones that cannot afford a house and roam around looking for work. The ones whose children live on site and live in less than sanitary or safe conditions. So as I was going along I happened to go past a construction site and do you know what? They were having a wedding! Playing loud music and having a good time. Everyone deserves their special days and these guys certainly got one, I was so happy to see it. That even though they have a tough life, these two people got their special day and celebrated it with their friends. Everyone loves a bit of a party and it showed here. 

Anyway what have I been upto recently. I've been playing in a football tournament and we are through to the quarter finals after topping our group with a goal difference of 39. Playing two matches this weekend to get to the semis. Wish me luck! 

Work is fine but we have three days off now for Chinese New Year. So I'm going off to the mountains which I hope will be fantastic. No light, sound, air pollution. Will be able to see the stars, will probably be bitten by Mosquitos as well...will let you know how it goes. 

However for a celebration of the new year my school had a professional lion dance, it was brilliant. Makes you want to go to China...

Link of the day - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zUeAaBGVTk 

 Here are some photos and videos of the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj1dXjFEk1c

Blogging...

Well wowee! Have I got a lot to write about! Mum came and went. It was lovely, she completely understood why I want to be out here. Which made me happier within myself as it kind of justified it again, that I'm not crazy and it is okay for a person to move away, just as much as it is okay to live in England, some of us are born to follow a different path. 

Meeting mum and being with her did make me miss home a little bit. Those home comforts of speaking back at a higher tempo, of asking someone to do something  or what have you. It made me miss just the little things that are hard to come by out here or are just stupidly expensive. 

It was lucky then that for Christmas....that...I went home!! Most of you already know this by now. It was really really...cold and of course, lovely. It was a strict schedule I had to keep to. Not much choice in it either if I wanted to meet everyone. So I got back on the 22nd after a rather long flight...eurgh! Got picked up at the airport by my friends to keep the ruse going, went around with them for the day and then went to Uxbridge for a drug-deal esqu handover from my friends to my mum. Car to car. No messin' about. 

Afterwards I met my grandparents and my sister! It was brilliant! I've not seen my gran move so fast in years. Teary-eyed reunion. 

Immediately the next day I shot up to Bury for another reunion (you're gonna get sick of this word) with my father. Had a lovely Christmas with him and then we tried to go and see my other grandparent but unfortunately it snowed and we had no chance of getting over to Chesterfield. Afterwards I rejoined my Mum and her partner to go to her house in Shropshire on the Welsh border for a couple of days. Then on the Monday, I went to Portsmouth on the coast and had a reunion again with my other sister which was fantastic! Then shot up to London to see my brother and stay at his and use his house as a base of operations until I went back. So in the meantime until I went home I saw my friends for New Years which is my first proper New Years doing something and for it to be exciting and fun. Afterwards on the second the day before I left we went a big family reunion with which I haven't got enough adjectives to describe how it was. Let's just say very very good however it was much more than that. Then on the third I was on my way back, flight was delayed but it was well worth it because I was on an A380, it was really cool!! Top class service. The delay meant I thought there was going to be some squeaky bum time in the transfer but in the end there was no problem. 

All in all it was a beautiful holiday, back to the home country. Although it was a bit hectic! Never seen so much of England in such a short space of time! It was nice to fulfil the itches that were needing to be scratched. I may have returned to Cambodia with a suitcase full of Jaffa cakes, Haribo and After Eights. Only half a box of Jaffa cakes left eek! 

On my return, my tuk tuk was ready, the language was familiarly unfamiliar. I immediately went and played football which in hindsight may have not been the most wisest of decisions but it was nice to see my friends again. Due to the change of climate I got rather ill, luckily I had a day off on the Wednesday due to another of Cambodia's holidays. 

Bought a new bicycle so am now doing everything off my own back again which is nice. Back into the swing of things and all sorted for the upcoming year. Very excited to see what this year brings if it's anything like the last, it's going to be even better. 

I'm sorry I didn't manage to see everyone but I hope that the next time I come back I'll be able to see you! Good luck to everyone! I'll see you on the next one. 

Link for the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr7wcHTzcTg&sns=em

This was the only photo I took on my phone the whole time... So please enjoy looking at me and my sister. 

FIRST FULL DAY IN CAMBODIA.

Hello! Mother is here to give me a right good ear bashing on what's what and whose who. So she's  decided to also take over my blog for the next couple of days, whilst she is here. Please enjoy!

Greg met me at Phnom Penh airport yesterday after telling me that he wouldn't be able to which was my second (wonderful) surprise upon entering Cambodia - the first being that the visa had gone up by $10 since my Lonely Planet guide was written in Sept 2014.  Flight over with Thai Airways was brilliant and managed to watch 'Frozen' at last.  A bit bleary eyed I got into the tuk tuk Greg had arranged to take us to his flat, driven by his friend Sky.  She drew a lot of glances as one of the very few female drivers in the city and then - out into the heat of a crazy world of thousands of motos carrying everything from up to 5 people (3 of whom are often small children and babies clinging on), tables, huge sacks, monks in their saffron robes sitting side saddle, live ducks gazing out with loads of chickens hanging upside down apparently hypnotised their beaks nearly on the road surface, tuk tuks loaded up with every conceivable item used by mankind, old ladies walking along with a stick across their shoulder with their cooking implements hanging from baskets on either end.  Lorries loaded sky high usually with someone on the top, little refreshment stalls with a moto attached with one bent wheel hanging on for dear life.  A trailer on a moto being loaded up with 20' wooden poles - how does he go round corners?  The side roads are full of potholes, dust, rubbish - then to my horror there are people on motos and bikes coming towards us on the wrong side of the road! Junctions - pah; traffic lights -  might stop if everyone else does; zebra crossings - don't bother!  I cling to Greg's hand when we cross roads now as if I were the child.  The trick is to be confident and they go round you!  

Everywhere is full of personal industry - cafe's, stalls, workshops fixing anything that has ever worked, shops stacked high with bits of metal god knows from where, another old lady selling snails off a tray by the road side, chickens on the bbq smelling delicious, all covered in a thick layer of dust and diesel.  What an experience - I can see why Greg loves it here. 

The poverty is unconsciounable - I watched a female street seller lay a blanket on  the pavement last night on the equivalent of the Embankment (but warmer) by the Mekong river for her small child to lie on for the night inches from the busy road.  Young boys no older than 5 or 6 approached us begging in a street cafe last night.  No-one walks anywhere - the pavements are broken up badly and covered by parked cars - huge 4x4's so there is wealth here and which are an obvious status symbol, heaps of debris, cafes, parked tuk tuks and motos on which you find the driver asleep.

 

I visited one of the 'Killing Fields' sites today in the suburbs and was very moved by the peace there as in the war cemetries in France and Belgium and the audio tour, then went to a genocide museum near where Greg works which was a secondary school before it was turned into a prison and torture centre by the Khymer Rouge in the second half of the 1970s.  People were taken from here to the Killing Field I visited to be executed.  It was full of photos of the people held there and the cells they were kept in.  They were the middle classes, the teachers, doctors, lawyers, shop keepers that Pol Pot hated despite being a teacher himself.  The rest of the population were worked or starved to death in the countryside growing rice to export to China to buy arms.  3 of the 8 million population were murdered. Horrific. When will we learn!  

Close shaves

Please excuse the poor grammar in this post and missing letters i will try to fix it all but my keyoard is broken and i may miss some full stops. 

However anyway i want to talk about some incidents i’ve had so far out here. Especially after my most recent incident. So i recently met my friend purely by accident at a festival they have out here to celebrate the water and the river, Im unsure but I get three days off, so i’m happy. Any how there I was on the river side taking pictures of the boats when all of a sudden i get a tap on the shoulder saying ‘hello Greg’ and it was my friend Rory with whom i had gone to school with. It was so nice to see a familiar face! It made me even more excited for my mum coming. So we went for something to eat and what have you and a catch up. At that time we decided we would watch the Manchester United game which started at ten p.m the next day. We met at a bar and watched the game (it was a drab affair) after which we split off and went our own ways. All was well with the world. I got about half way home and onto a street near my house when i realised i had some people following me, not just any people, two prostitutes who were ladyboys. They pulled up alongside and started asking where i was going and the like. I say ‘no i’m going home.’ Big mistake letting them know that i was soon gonna be off my bike. They followed me the rest of the way home. There I was, trying to get off my bike and they get off their moto and come up to me and (Sorry Mother) they were grabbing things that weren’t asking to be touched so i tell them in no uncertain terms to go away and stop touching me this was when they put their hand in my pocket to take my wallet. I stopped them right there and then on that one. Blood was starting to pump around my body, I was getting ready. The one whose hand i took out my pocket returned to the moto the other bigger one got off and came straight up to me to grab my phone out of my hand. It was in my hand because i was trying to get my key out of my pocket where the phone was obviously i was interupted before i could get at it. So this ladyboy grabbed the phone but years of siblings and friends snatching things out my hand meant i was prepared. This ladyboy wasn’t getting it without a fight. So as she twirled round to break my vice like grip i was pulled off my bike. That was it fight or flight kicked in. It was fight. I managed to break her grasp on the phone and pushed her away. Her friend had driven off round the corner I was now bellowing at her in less than gentlemanly terms to go away I think this is what frightened them off. That i had turned from someone saying please go away to them, to someone who had an army mans voice (years of watching and playing football) telling them to f*ck off. Which was for some reason came out in a northern accent, i think. It came out as ‘F*ck off eh?’ And off she did. Me victorious them in defeat. Of course i felt immediately shakey and weird because that isn’t me nor is it usual to have an attempted mugging. A quick call home to mum and dad to calm the nerves and i fell asleep. 

 

Of course at the time i was angry. However now retrospectively speaking i bear no ill will to these two people they may have mouths to feed or rent to pay. They were doing it out of necessity when a country has no infrastructure in place to support these sorts of people of course this is going to happen, especially to foreigners. I just hope at some point they can get out of this hole they are in and do better for themselves but i have feeling its very difficult to do.

 

I have had some other close shaves in Cambodia many traffic incidents. Witnessed one fight, a few arguments, my sprained ankle, someone eating eggs in front of me that sent him to hospital to get his stomach pumped he even offered me to try them! Rather glad i wasn’t feeling brave that day!

However i am typing this as i have been given the rest of the day off to go to the hospital and get my right ear checked out as i cant hear anything out of it which is slightly worrying. I reckon its been infected with some dirty water because, when i was having a shower the water pressure was low as i had just gone to the toilet, and just as i turned my ear to the shower it suddenly went full power shower and i managed to get a straight shot into the ear hole! It hurt like hell and now i think its infected with that dirty water.

 

Anyway good luck to Rory on the rest of his travels and have a look at some photos i took of the water festival.

 

The link of the day is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwSNMibfaRg I just watched Shawshank Redemption and i think the way Morgan Freeman described this music was lovely.

 ‘I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.’

Update!

So I haven't written in a while. A very long while. So I thought rather than just give up because it had become such a huge thing to write I'd do a vlog. Please watch and enjoy. 

The link of the day is my vlog then! 

http://youtu.be/jVmPSP1nwLA

Where am i?

Where am I?



How do i feel? Am i happy? Is this the correct decision? Could anything be improved?

Whats the next move? Do i miss home?



These are questions constantly running through my mind and i’m going to try to answer them somehow. It maybe a bit jumbled as these answers are coming straight out of my head onto paper. However i’m hoping that writing this it may help with my understanding of where i am.



I generally feel that i’m in the region of attaining happiness and being happy all the time. As when i living in England, i did feel depressed and had no energy to continue with anything just wanting the world to stop. However i feel that was a mixture of things such as wanting to come back here, no job, getting rejected from jobs and no day to day routine so everything was just piling on and you sit there and you think about life in its entirety and honestly it does begin to get you down, as i’m at an age in my life where the norm nowadays is to be in Uni. However i wasn’t and i felt like i was a waste of space. So now being here with a job and a routine it does make me happier as those thoughts can be placed at the back of your head and ignored for rainy days and decisions. It’s not to say i’m walking around smiling and nor does it mean i’m walking around crying all the time. I’m like goldilocks and i’m just right. Which is nice, this feeling of contentment.



I do sometimes have to force myself to spend money though. Such as last night i was freaking out at the idea of having spent $9 on a delicious two course meal of steak and chips and then ice cream. (Already breaking my promise to go full native) Though I have to say it was flippin’ amazing! I have to constantly remind myself that i can spend money and not worry too much about it. As whats the point of working and saving the money for that ‘day’ you have to use it every once in a while. And boy did i use it for the right thing. I must be the exact opposite of those who get that release of endophorins when they spend money and there’s me convulsing on the ground after spending $9! I think i maybe spending more this weekend though which may end up being a fair bit! Football shoes, a suitcase that isn’t my massive one (for a couple days public holiday in two weeks i think i might be going down to Sihanoukville) and then a portable dvd player....Now i’m buying one of these because my wifi is awful so can’t stream stuff, my tv can’t be heard over the rain and then on top of that it is rainy season so i wont be going and playing football much or doing anything at all really...so i’m buying one to sit and watch english TV with. The titles im buying with it are ‘friends, True Detective (heard good things about it, I’m looking at you person in particular if it’s bad i will not be happy ;), Mrs Brown boys (been watching clips on youtube and seems hilarious) and finally Game of Thrones latest season. So i’ve sold it to myself, you can’t stop me Mum! So that’s going to be some money being spent i just hope it works out all okay. Eek!



Anyway back to answering questions for the time being i do feel as though this is a step in the right direction for myself, i am learning about myself and it’s certainly been interesting as i have learnt, how i learn best- which is to say it a couple of times and write it down. Bit useless now i’m not taking any exams but never mind. I’m fulfilling a dream of speaking another language, i just think its amazing how i can make a few different sounds with my mouth and people understand me, language i have always found fascinating so its nice to be putting in the effort of learning a different one. Not one that would be helpful exactly if i was to move back to England but i would be in a niche of people to speak it. So i know i’m moving at the moment in a generally right direction. Whereas in England when i was unemployed so many days were just filler of doing nothing which can be nice but not all the time...Now it’s work and live a bit, no offence to my friends at home but i didn’t do a lot with most of you because generally we lived miles apart or you were at uni and i had no money. Here though i see my friends everyday, play football and perhaps at the weekend i go for a drink and dinner with a load of them which is great and i’m always welcomed even though i may not understand what all of them say but i love every minute!



Could anything be improved......... My single complaint to be honest is that my guesthouse could be a bit better, as at the moment, every day i come back from school they are drinking

‘Gregory, drink with us!’ they call

‘No, sorry i don’t like beer.’ Is my go-to reply

I then go to play football after i come back two hours later they are still there. I then go shower and rest for a bit. In that time i get hungry so then i’m off for food. Again they call ‘Gregory, have one beer’ by this time they are all out of it.

‘No i need to eat first otherwise i’ll be drunk in seconds’ is another reply i give.

Most of the drinkers I’m generally friendly with but they aren’t my crowd, most times they have already got one guy to sit with them and he sits in silence. I suppose if you switch the perspective that’s what people may think of me with my friends at the weekend but then again i can speak a bit of khmer and generally fit in more with people around my age not like this one foreigner who is always with them. I couldn’t think of something more boring than sitting around, not talking and drinking. It’s a waste of life in my eyes! So yeah if i could improve it, they wouldn’t do that but its their culture so i cant deny them that. The only way i could improve it would be to move, but the location of where i live is fantastic, it’s nearby to everything and i have bought stuff that wouldn’t fit into my bag so maybe when i get this second suitcase i might have to start looking for somewhere or just another guesthouse. As they are so useful, clean my room for me, useful knowledge and friendly people. So it’s something to think about certainly.



Next move? Staying here for the time being, always looking for the next opportunity that may lead to not having to work again, that’s the dream obviously but its to generally trot along and learn khmer and stay happy with my simple little life. Which, to me, sounds good for the time being. I’m fulfilling my Maslow hierachy of needs so i’m content when any of those change or are fulfilled such as knowing enough khmer that i’m comfortable in any situation that’s when plans will be laid down to get out of here. That or when it takes me the same amount of time to eat a bowl of noodles with chopsticks as it does to eat a bowl of rice with a spoon! I think i will be safe for a while yet!








Yes i miss home, i miss the familiarity of everything, locations, weather, people or to be able to talk to someone about whats happening in the world and chat about it. Or talking with friends about past incidents and jokes, going to the movies with someone. Oh i should add i do miss my family as well! But i know i’m going to see them again at some point so it’s not a major issue that one. In all honesty i miss England a bit but its not at all crippling or going to stop me in my tracks any time soon! It’s going to be there whenever i come back so there’s no need for me to worry. I’m excited for the future i can’t focus on the past otherwise you get stuck, in the words of Walt Disney from ‘Meet the Robinsons.’ ‘Keep moving forward’ and i shall.



Nothing much more to add, maybe that answers some people questions i hope. Now that i have written over 1500 words i think i should get back to work before somebody notices what i have been doing. :)



Link of the day: Miami 2017 (Hopefully England doesn’t change as much as New York does in this song.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az1FSLfZxH4

Well, well, well...

A couple of weeks into the job now. Going swimmingly, maybe apart from getting bitten by the young kindergartens, life's pretty good or is it?

Generally it really is, but yesterday morning I had a two hour meeting with the faculty (how much of an adult do I sound?) outlining future objectives and what have you and I feel slightly overwhelmed, I think I will to talk to my boss. If I get in tomorrow. 

Yesterday I got paid half a paycheck as I've only been there two weeks. So that was nice. As a slight celebration I've always said to my self I would have a British fry up when I got paid. So I did. Unfortunately this led to me having some pretty awful food poisoning. I'm getting better now but boy did I feel awful. I slept from 8-7. Interrupted by trips to the toilet. It was all over by 12 but to me it felt like years that it had lasted and then it was still an interrupted nights sleep.

So I hope to go to school tomorrow but I'll give them a ring, they say you should wait 48 hours before coming into school if you've thrown up but if it's food poisoning I'm not infectious so I can work surely? Well we'll find out. 

My football shoes that I play with here are breaking so I decided I would buy ones that everyone else wears. Went and found some and had a massive group of khmer people surround me, because I was speaking khmer. So they all got excited, so I bought this pair that felt a little bit too small but they were size 9. So I go to football but take my others just in case. I wear them and realise that they are diabolical! No cushioning and crushing my feet. So I thought I'd give them away. As a lot of people can't afford to buy shoes so play barefoot. In the end I gave them to my friend. He was as happy as Larry. I was then rewarded by being ill! Trying to change the world, one happy person at a time. 

Not much too add apart from now on I'm going full native and not having western meals, I mean I generally didn't anyway but after that affair I'm not going to have any. 

I wrote that and went and bought some Pringles because I was feeling sorry for myself. They tasted like crap. SO from now on I will be not be having western meals! 

Link today- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9b6jgbNyc