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August 09, 2004
Housewarming party weekend
6th – Friday – had lunch with Lydia – thought I was going to look at fixing her bike, but she didn’t call before lunch, so I didn’t have time to look at it.
The fact that I now don’t have a 7-8:30 class means that I am able to go see the 7:30 shadow puppetry show with Lydia and Charlotte, and at lunch we planned to do so. However, she pulled out at the last minute, instead wanting to have a girly talk with Charlotte. This was in fact a blessing in disguise, as I had a great night out with the boys (most of the Regent boys plus some) – first of all going to Big Fish (a Khmer restaurant off 63rd) for many cheap jugs of beer and some cheap food. We then went riverside, to the King’s Court Restaurant, where we (Vinh, Kit, Neil and myself) continued to drink and talk, before heading home.
7th – Saturday – recovery from last night. I had quite a lot to drink, now that I feel the after-effects. Not a bad effort. After cashing my first pay cheque (yay!), I had breakfast with Lydia, in return for helping her with her moto.
On a side note – I saw some amazing going’s-on at the bank… Many, many dollars being handed over, including what I saw to be a cheque made out to ‘CASH’ for a princely sum of $199,275 !!! (Two hundred US grand, made out to CASH!!!! WTF!!)
I helped Lydia get some petrol and oil for her moto, but the damned thing still didn’t start. I don’t know why. She may have to take it back to the previous owner. Didn’t do much else today. Chatted with Kirrilee, who gave me a potential contract-work contact. Sorted out some Hosta stuff online. There was supposedly a Villa party somewhere, but Brandon’s phone wasn’t working, so he didn’t get my messages – so I didn’t end up going. No biggie – I appreciated the rest.
8th – Sunday – today was preparation day for my housewarming. I sms’d all those I know in Phnom Penh (as well as some in Oz/UK… hehehe), then went shopping. I don’t have a loud speaker on my laptop, so I went looking for speakers. It’s such a pain! I can buy cheap-ass speakers that you’d typically plug into a walkman/discman for up to $22, but I know what they’re really worth, and the quality you get from them. I did see some seemingly very good quality speakers at an AV store, with decent satellites and a subwoofer, ranging from $50 (2 sats, sub, PC-style input) to $85 (5 sats, big sub, AV-style input). Yet again I come to my various dilemmas…. One – Anything worth buying/keeping I can’t really travel with, its too big/heavy – but I don’t want to buy small/crap! Two – I don’t have enough money to buy these things, and I don’t really want/need to be ‘buying’ stuff anyway. Oh well, I ended up not buying anything, instead I borrowed Hanne’s speakers (that arrived well into the party, just because that’s when the delivery girl arrived ;) ).
I went to Pencils and Big A supermarkets, as well as my local Psar, to buy drinks, chips and more homewares. I wasn’t able to find any kind of dip/salsa anywhere, WTF!!
Anyway, people started arriving just before 8pm, and as expected, there were problems with finding the place. First of all, house numbers aren’t necessarily sequential, so that doesn’t help finding things here. Secondly, access to this place is via a side alley off the main street, so it’s not easy to point out. I made some small signs with directions, but people had to find the alley entrance and the sign in order for that to even help! For most of the groups of people arriving I had to direct them in, sometimes even going out to the street to get them! Even Kit, who found me the place, couldn’t find it again!
The party was cool, it was pretty chilled… drinking beer, watching TV (Southpark, Daily Show, etc), chatting and mingling. We mostly stayed in the front room, although at times there weren’t enough chairs. It was a pretty low key party, mostly due to space and timing I think. Everybody left by 11pm – it WAS a Sunday night after all – I probably shouldn’t have expected any more than that.
Anything missing from this picture?
Oh yeah, I don’t have a bathroom basin anymore. Did I forget to mention that?
A certain someone, we don’t need to embarrass him any more than has already been done, did a pirouette (or something) in the bathroom and managed to knock it off it’s supports, breaking it and spraying water everywhere! We couldn’t find the tap to turn off the water, so he stuck his finger in the hole while I went to get the landlord downstairs. Within minutes, it was cleaned up, taken away, the tap re-connected and water turned back on.
Posted by Dan at August 9, 2004 05:01 AM
Comments
The situation of teh decision with the speakers is typical of the choices you will make the rest of your life and more especially of the tighter decision making required whilst travelling.
Smart choice in the end!
Posted by: lozza at August 10, 2004 04:48 PM
9 September 2004
Daniel is travelling tonight on a plane
I can see the red tail lights heading for Phnom Penh
Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye
Oh it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes
They say PP is pretty though I've never been
Well Daniel says it's the best place that he's ever seen
Oh and he should know, he's been there enough
Oh I miss Daniel, Oh I miss him so much
Daniel my brother you are younger than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal
Your eyes have died but you see more than I
Daniel you're a star in the face of the sky
Daniel is travelling tonight on a plane
I can see the red tail lights heading for Phnom Penh
Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye
Oh it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes
Oh it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes
Happy Birthday Dan from all of us, your friends and family in Australia, with a bit of help with those words from Elton John
Posted by: kelly at September 9, 2004 02:13 AM