It's The Most Wonderful Time For A Beer

 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Sunburn?

The sun is high in the sky, and I'm spending my day off lazing around a swimming pool. There are 22 days to go until Christmas and I can safely ask the question...

Where there hell has this year gone?! 

It feels like just a couple of months ago that I was lounging around on Coconut beach, and only a few weeks ago that I completed my little cycle trip around the country. It does seem like an eternity ago that my job title was "Teacher". Safe to say I'm not in a rush to get back into that one...

UPDATES! 

• My work, Pet Care Cambodia, is going great! I have my regular pup, Grover, who I walk three times a week. Got a couple of cat sitting bookings for next month, been to a puppy play date, and getting a lot of audience for the Facebook face (according to the stats). The next two weeks I'm housesitting for one of my Cambo Besties, Rakhee. I'm hanging out with her pups, Bean and Scruffy and the kitties, Peaches and Monkey.

• Talking of work, I've been hanging out with the cutest kid for the last couple weeks...and getting paid for it?! His name is Will and he fully cracks me up. We talk about stuff in English...mostly dinosaurs and yoghurt. We do some maths, maybe some swimming. I've also been teaching essay writing to him, Mum. Whilst looking after animals is great fun, it's not exactly going to buy me a new 2020 plate moto any time soon. So the extra couple of $$ is well received. And they're a great family.

• I haven't been on the bicycle as much as I'd like. As work gets busier my bicycle has become more of a mode of transport. I head out for at least a 50km fun ride once a week though. 

• 2020 has been the year that has shocked everyone. When my Dad broke the news to me that my brother had started cooking, HELL NO. I would've believed a global pandemic happening than Craig being able to cook anything more than an oven pizza. Alas, it's true. My brother has coined an apron and oven mitts. Doubt he'll be in a chef hat anytime soon, but hell WHO KNOWS. Because, there's one other thing if you said to me a year ago I would've laughed in your face. Here we are, 2020, what a year!-play some dramatic music here-. I have a boyfriend. 

I know, I know! 

Pick your jaws up off the floor. Who'd have thought!

Ironically, I'm getting near the end of the first draft of my book and it's basically a written version of my personal mantra "fries before guys". So the timing seems quite funny as I'm getting steps closer to releasing some information bout myself to the public world. 

But hey- enough about me, more about him. He's awesome. 

Okay, that's all you're getting. Oh- and he's American. 

But he can't help that.

Scruffy and Bean being cuties

So, that's all the bulletpoint updates on my seemingly smooth life...

I'll give you one bad point so y'all can feel a bit better that it's not all cheap drinks and sunshine. 

Last week was Thanksgiving. You know, that Turkey day they love so much in the States. Now I'm dating someone from that side of the world I have to pretend it's a big deal (like his American Football fantasy league). We decided to pop to our local and have some pumpkin pie (and turkey etc for him), have a couple of bevvies and enjoy the festivities. I know they take it seriously there so I want to make sure it's a seamless day. I'm walking the pups and decide to take a rest so they can grab some water. I feel an itch on my neck. "What's that?" I think to myself...

I look at my hands and it's only covered in 

BUGS. 

SO MANY BUGS.

Not just any bugs.

Bugs with a big butt and tiny head. 

Similar to what you'd find in a child's hair, or burrowing under your skin, or...IN YOUR BED. 

Yep, I had all these suspicious-looking bugs all. over. me. 

This on its own is no worries. But then my mind flashes to WHAT HAVE I TOUCHED? and I realise they must be all over my apartment, all over my friends' house, I needed to have a shower, I was covered with blood-sucking parasites. I needed a shower. I needed to get home. I just lost it. 

Luckily for me, my boyfriend was understanding (even when I went to show him them all and they decided to disappear...I'm not going crazy I swear!). Of course, I had to still make Thanksgiving all about me...

With everything in my apartment, my friends' house and I all washed and cleaned and successfully bug-free Icouldfinally devour the pumpkin pie... only 7 hours late. 
Turns out, they weren;t even bedbugs. 

DAMN. 

So yeah, my happy life has its downfalls, I guess. 

More positively from my first Thanksgiving experience, I had (veggie)dinner around a friends house (it was amazing). She had a gratuity wall where we had to write things we were thankful for. I just didn't know when to stop. 

I'm getting paid to hang out with animals, I have a lovely little house with a lovely little garden, I play sports at least once a week, I'm surrounded by some truly amazing people. I have food on my plate. My friends and family are all in good health and have a roof over their heads. My gut activity is fairly normal. My suspected case of pink eye is on the mend. I didn't fall over on my run this week, unlike last weeks...

I always feel selfish to say all the positive things, especially when literally the rest of the world is living in this Post-Apocolypicic reality where you can't give hugs, can't have groups of more than five, but you can grab a cheeky one at 'Spoons. 

Life is great! 

Sending all the posi vibes out to the rest of the world, but more importantly than posi vibes, I'll send out the recommendation to everyone to move to Cambo as soon as you can! 

R-L Me, Grover, Bong, Scruffy, Bean, J

In ourshortshorts...

Dan's festival themed birthday! 

Me and birthday boy Dan!

Welcome to November!

Another day, another 20-second scroll on Facebook has revealed even more doom and gloom coming from the Northern Hemisphere. Lockdowns and Trump, and masks and toilet paper shortages. 
It makes even the most mundane day in Cambodia seem lightyears away. 

Things are still going really well over here, and I'm trying not to make this post a brag. Just the fact I can meet in more than a group of six and I feel I'm rubbing my joyous life in your faces. Sorry about that. 

Work

My pet sitting business is picking up! This weekend I was cat-sitting a six-month-old kitty called Kamow (Khmer for black...guess what colour she was...) seemed fitting that I was catsitting a black cat on Full Moon Halloween. And as I type this I have a ten-month-old puppy sitting at the end of my bed called Pixie. 

This weekend along is enough to pay almost all my monthly rent. So KERCHING! 

Bookings are flying in, and I'm sure my hot competition isn't too happy about that... but that's a story for private chats. 

With the help of a friend, I've also managed to secure some play dates with a cute Russian five-year-old called Will. I teach him some English, play and hang out and I've got myself a salary! After months of watching the funds dwindle in my bank account, I no longer have to feel guilty about upgrading myself from a $1 beer to a $2.50 Margherita at Taco Tuesday.

Talking of rent, I've decided to upgrade from my pimp pad, to an even pimper pad (with a garden!) straight across the road and only $20 more a month. Breaking the bank a little with the extra $20, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. Watch this space for another MTV Cribs video... 

Kamow The Kitty

Pixie the Puppy

Play

What I have I done since my last post? I have no idea. Every day blurs into one! 

Halloween

Halloween was a tame one this year in comparison to the last few (well, apart from last year where I was somewhere in rural Thailand drinking rum and soda with some strangers...) But that doesn't mean it awasn't a good night, or a well behaved one! This year saw a Friday night costume, and a Saturday. Budget friendly, as always. 

Whilst the rest of the world is running headless about Corona, here in Cambodia we're all freaking out about chikungunya. Chikungunya (or as we call chicken-tikka, chicken-korma, chicken-run-yeah, chicken-whatever) is a mosquito spread illness. It can last from 1-12 weks and completely wipes you out...and a lot of people are getting it. So REALLY, the scariest thing in Siem Reap right now? Mosquitos. So that's what I dressed as. The original costume was two balloons on my head, some homemade plasticbag-and-coathanger wings alas, the only photo is just me in a stripy top...it's the thought that counts. 

Saturday I was a zombie lumberjack. Much more traditional Halloween.

Me, J and Dan on Friday

Saturday: Me and Dan 

Taco Tuesday, Frozen Cocktails and Rapping Around Siem Reap

The Tuesday straight from Hariharilaya we indulged in somee Mexican food at MaybeLater on their Taco Tuesday. I ordered a water, but a margherita showed up...and the night continued in that fashion. I'm currently doing a mexican tour of Siem Reap to trial all the burritos and tacos on offer. As it stands, Maybe Later (and their damn tasty, but strong, margheritas are currently first place). 

And next up starting a night with $1.50 frozen pina coladas is only ever going to end a certain way. That is with Rakdaddy sigging on the rack of my bicycle as we parade the streets of Siem Reap. 

Posh Pressure Hour 

Every Friday at the local, Star Bar, they do an event called Pressure Hour. Basically, you buy the first beer ($1) then between 5.30pm and 6.30pm it's unlimited beer. The only rules are that you can't leave the bar, or go to the toilet until the horn blasts at 6.30pm. 

There's a group of us, call us regulars if you will, who attend most Fridays. Now, my friend Amanda is from The States and she is always dressed nice. The idea sprung into our heads that one week it'd be fun to all get dressed up as nice as we can...so that's what we did. Fancy Friday: Posh Pressure Hour. Get dressed up real nice, then get drunk and slur some Karoke. The same as we usually do, just this time a little cleaner. It turned out to be a great sucess! 

Sports

Urh.... yeah. About that. There's not been much of that happening. 

Usually I cycle a lot, but between being a little hungover, socialising, eating, uhh existing. I haven't been on the bike as much as I should. So this weeks goal is to saddle up once again and getthat bubble butt back again.

As for Zumba, Yoga, and Running....ummm yeah. I'll get back into them this week too. 

BUT I have still been playing Ultimate Frisbee once a week. That's something...right?

Drinks with the Ultimate crew

Water Fasting

After indulging in three buffet-style meals a day at the retreat I felt my body needed a reset so I decided to do a waterfast after doing some research about it. And I detoxed for five days by not taking any solid food...or any food at all actually. Just water. Not lime water, not water tea. Just water. Maybe with ice. 

Here is a photo of me with my first wonton soup after five days. 

Now, I feel great! 

Me and J, gangsta

I'm a superstar...at the Star Bar 

(L-R)Co Fancy Friday Originator Amanda, me, Jared and my new next-door neighbour Pascal

This Week I... JOINED A CULT (or went on a Yoga and Meditation retreat, depending how you look at things)

cult

noun

1. a religious group, often living together, whose beliefs are considered extreme or strange by many people.

Okay, so yeah. This week I definitely joined a cult. 

Chanting in unison in forgotten languages, group circles and spoken words before every meal, synchronised movements and praising to the outer universe...yep. I was defo in a cult. 

But you know what- it wasn't half bad! 

I'd heard many things about this yoga and meditation retreat just outside of Siem Reap (the city I now call home). Many things mostly being very positive anecdotes from past visitors and taking some time out to go to a retreat had always been something that interested me. With COVID 19 still raging on they had slashed the prices 75% so now it was in my price range so I booked into a dorm at just $100 for a six-day escape. 

I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was planning on going, knowing that he's into yoga (definitely much more than I am these days now I find other things to do to occupy my time, like cycling and drinking beer) and he agreed that his chakras weren't aligned or something like that and decided to come along for the adventure too. 

Last Monday (12th) we hopped on our bicycles and made the journey 20km out of town. 

We are both YOGA AND MEDITATION RETREAT virgins, so we weren't too sure what to expect...apart from the joint confirmation we knew it'd be full of stinkin' hippies (myself included). We joked on the way, wondering how culty it would be. We wondered if the hippies would want to hug us. Will we come back brainwashed? Will I ever wear shoes AGAIN? (Although, given my island gal lifestyle I am still not a fan on those constricting foot cages anyway...).

We've been getting some quite heavy rain in Siem Reap the last couple weeks, making up for an otherwise very dry wet season. When we got an email on Sunday night saying the road was flooded we took it with a pinch of salt. Maybe we should've taken it with a splash as that's what we got as we attempted to cycle the last 4km of the road to the retreat. 

With the Tonle Sap* just ahead of us a few more kilometres down the road the river that ran adjacent to our cycle had burst its banks the previous day and as we cycled water came above our peddles and even up to our knees at times...

It. Was. Amazing! 

*the massive section of water that's in the middle of Cambodia

The local kids instead of playing marbles and on their bikes, they were swimming and splashing and still attempting to ride their bikes in thigh-high water (for them at least). Residents stood outside their stilted homes and laughed as the "barangs chi gkong!"  foreigners ride their bikes. I said as soon as I checked into the retreat and had a bit of free time I'd pop out to spend a bit more time with the people in the road. 

And that I did! I was invited for beers, which in my week of vegan-sobriety I turned down but accepted their request for me to join them dancing. There's never a dull moment in the Kingdom, and every day I'm here I find more reasons to call it home. 

So, as for checking in! We found the retreat by spotting the only other barangs we had seen all day. 

Being hidden behind unmarked, secretive gates, located down a dirt path I don't know if we would've spotted it without. Funnily enough, before I'd even stepped foot into the building I'd been welcomed and hugged three times. Luckily for me, it was by people who I happened to know already and were still at the retreat, months after I thought they'd left their week-long stays....

You don't need to know the whole ins-and-outs of the week. But it was actually hella fun. 

The food was awesome. 2019 I decided to quite successfully follow a vegan diet and upon my return to Asia in October the same year I decided that I had to compromise as even avoiding meat can be tough here. 

Below is a triangle I created to save me some words on this post. 

So basically you can pick two. But you can very rarely have all three. For example, I can order fried noodles. Will they be vegan? Possibly. Are they cheap? Definitely. Are they healthy? Mmmm no. 

Superfood salad on the other hand! Is it vegan? 100%. Is it healthy? Of course. Is it cheap? Well, $1 Noodles vs a $5 Salad.... I'll let you judge that. You get the idea. 

Yeah. The food was awesome. Completely vegan from the first meal to the last, full of colour and vegetables and healthy stuff and gluten-free and...Cambodian! Not a pizza, burger or lasagne insight. All vegan variations of local Cambodian food that I would otherwise have to turn down due to their love of fermented fish prohok, general love of meat or overuse of fish sauce. Without getting too graphic, my bowels have got some GREAT movement this week. The best part? It's buffet style so you can help yourself to as  much  as  you  want. 

gross and happy after my cupping....
you cant see the marks too much 
cause i aint to toxic

In the morning and evening, we have 90 minutes of compulsory yoga, breathing and meditation and I was definitely more keen on it by the end of the week than on Monday night with my aching knees and out-of-practice Downward Dog. It did spook me a bit when we ended the mediation with an obvious "omm" chant....only for Sanskrit chanting to erupt from the programmes veterans without warning! By the end of the week, I knew all the words to the Hari Krushna chant (mostly from midnight adventures at Glastonbury in my teens). Other programs in the week were fitness, mindfulness seminars, alignment workshops were just a few and in all that other free time? 

Well, there's a rock climbing gym, art studio, swimming pool, library, trampoline, I had some traditional cupping* and an oil massage, and there's the local village to explore...maybe that's why this cult retreat is so easy to get sucked into and why my friends have long overstayed their original timeframe...

*Cupping is basically where they use suction cups and squeeze them onto your back and they take out all the toxins. I didn't have too many as I didn't end up with any full/half moon outlined hickies on my other side. 

So yeah! Basically just a really quick, not too entertaining post about the last week. Procrastination my imminent return to "the real world" and letting my parents and grandparents (the only people who'd notice my absence) know I haven't fully committed to the stonecutters just yet... 

I hid my phone in case someone decided to break into my apartment this week... it'd be a good start to remember where I hid it... 

evaluating the splash damage

Just like a beach party....kinda