100 days of mourning

Yesterday we had a ceremony at the family apartment to commemorate the 100th day since Jerome's father died of Cancer. Vale Robert................

Quote of the Year ?

"One thing in life I must do is fire an AK-47/M-16/RPG just to relieve myself of some frustration and to rid myself of my teen obsession with weapons then Ill be over it..."

Max Mclachlan,18.

My soon-to-arrive nephew on his desire to rip a few off at the firing range.....

Classic

TWINS !!!

Last night we got some splendid news indeed. Leakhana's sister Phalla( older by 2 years ) is pregnant also - about 2 weeks behind us. Amazing news for our family ! I am personally very happy because it now means my girl has someone special to go through it all with and after the pregnancy she will have someone to hang out with who also has a baby !!! I was a bit worried about her being stuck at home all day and as she does not drive..... I don't see too many mother's groups here sitting in Cafes with strollers everywhere but I now have visions of the two girls going out with the babies. It will also bring Tra and I evenGreat stuff!

The Expecting Couples !

AK47s,M16s and a mad old plonker called Mia Farrow

Got a bit of a rude shock on the weekend. As Leakhena and I headed out of our front gate for our ritual Sunday morning noodles at Olympic Stadium we were confronted by a small battalion of armed soldiers packing some serious heat. We walked straight into a cluster of AK47s, M-16s and handguns all carried by the infamous Flying Tiger brigade. I contained the pooh in my underpants and relaxed as they greeted us with a smile. As it turns out, Mia Farrow was in town and leading a protest to draw attention to the plight or refugees in Darfur, Africa. Er.....this is CAMBODIA you silly old cow !. The boys were there to ensure she did NOT reach her destination - Toul Sleng Museum. I was wondering whether maybe I might have seen Sean Penn, Richard Gere and Matt Damon as well but alas…….just the potty old dame from New York. For the rest of the day the streets surrounding the museum and out the front of our house were delightfully void of any traffic, tourist buses and tuk tuks and it was the quietest Sunday I have had in Cambodia yet…

Sorry about the quality of the picture - I was shaking !

You could have fired an AK down the street - preferably at
Mia " where IS Darfur anyway ?" Farrow

The biggest project of my life !

OK ...having told the mother-in-law,called my parents and emailed my large family, it is now official..........Leakhena and I are expecting a baby ! My lovely girl is ust over 8 weeks pregnant so baby should be born in July. At the moment she is experiencing no sickness but is a little tired. With a burgeoning little belly and a healthy complexion, Leakhena is looking magnificent and we are both extremely excited. Such a big year for us ! Stay tuned.............

Barefoot,pregnant and...................

........in the kitchen !

My Completed Projects

Well...I am pretty happy with myself. I have delivered 3 out of 4 of my projects ahead of schedule and with no major hurdles ( apart from a $600 kickback I had to pay to the local
cops! ). I guess the School's Principal must be happy too because he just extended my contract another 9 months and gave me a pay-rise !

New Secondary Campus Basketball Roof - US$25,000

New Secondary Campus Finance Office Extension - US$2,200 ( cheap !! )

New Elementary Campus Basketball Roof - US$17,000

Construction of The Dragonfly PART 1

My mate's Will and Bruno are currently renovating a 30m long Khmer wooden boat that has ostensibly been used for trafficking humans AND CARS across the various rivers here. With visions of a 6 cabin + bohemian / luxury river cruiser able to take motocross bikes and a jeep or two up the river, the boys are learning all there is to know about all things boat-building. All I can think of is much my brother Adam ( a carpenter, builder and wooden boat restorer and owner himself ) and my mate Lars ( a boat builder ) would love this project. We all look froward to the launching party.

Tee gets a tattoo !

Yesterday I took a Khmer friend to the Khmer tattoo parlour on BKK near Toul Sleng. Many people have asked about getting work done in Phnom Penh recently so I can report the following;

The tattooist is a young lad of about 22 or so. When I walked in earlier in the day on a reconnaissance mission he was doing a very large tribal design on a Khmer guy. It looked a bit rough. The gun used looked like an electric pen and was not a modern tattoo gun . The ink was just splashed in what looked like a bed pan and he was wearing a rubber glove. There were a few photocopied books on the coffee table with the usual tribal designs etc and a few Yakuza style magazines. He has a small photographic portfolio with nothing special in it.


So I arrived at the "parlour" with my friend and her 3 kids ( dad asleep the lazy sod ) and we sat down and she told him what she wanted done. "I always miss the ones I love " done in Khmer writing. I told him I wanted him to do a "draft" first so we could see the size, placement etc etc so we were taken upstairs to the mezzanine bedroom which had a kind of tattooist's bed in it and not much else. He proceeded to stencil the tattoo on the nape of her neck with a blue biro pen and once given the thumbs up on design, I checked the needle came out of a sterile packet and that he had a glove on and he then hoped into into it and was done in 20-30 mins. My friend experienced a little bit of pain but was otherwise pretty brave.The result wasn't too bad actually. It was a pretty easy tattoo by world standards but the telling will be in the healing.


The Bad

- The gun was not a proper gun
- The environment was less than sterile.
- Using a PEN to do the outline and then tattooing straight over the top of the ink? Where has the pen been ?
- The swabs during the process were just cotton wool. Solution was only applied at the end during a general clean up.
- Absolutely no hint of post-dressing or provision of antiseptic cream ( I had to take her back to my apartment and dress it myself and give her a tube of cream etc ! )
- Absolutely no advice on care

The Good

- Ummm....the price ? $25

There is no fucking way on god's earth I would get this guy to do a tattoo on my god-like Adonis body. I was not there to advise my friend, merely to hold her hand and I at least made sure the design was right and basic procedures were followed. She had made her mind up but I will still probably feel guilty I didn't stop her.

So there you go. My advice - Bangkok all the way. There you have some of the best in the world so why take the risk here !

New Year's Eve 2008 - The best ever !

I have just had possibly the best New Years Eve celebrations EVER! Xmas was very quiet (not even one present! *sniff*) but NYE and the proceeding day were just perfect. Here is how it all happened……..

We started at 4p.m by attending a wedding. Dan (English) and Aya (Khmer) have been going out for 9 years and as they have recently adopted Aya’s niece and as Dan had basically run out of delaying tactics, it was time to get hitched. Luckily it was ion Phnom Pen and not far from our apartment and it was a splendid affair indeed. This wedding was a classic good-vibes celebration with many of his friends and family jetting in from the UK, including his 90++ year old grandmother and her 90++ chaperone. Both these grand old dames were the stars of the night and they handled themselves admirably.

With an all Barang wedding party (very rare indeed), the crowd were all in fine spirits and many new friendships were forged and much dancing and eating and drinking was done. We had a young Khmer lad at our table that looked about 12 but was actually 15 and we watched in amazement as he chugged back beer after beer. His mum was with him so there was not much we could say but I did try and tell him to slow down or he would puke. Too late……he was soon puking his guts out whilst I held the back of his belt. Poor little lad.

After a thoroughly enjoyable time at the wedding we headed over to Tra and Phalla’s house for a family gathering. On arrival I walked in to find a beaming Tra sporting a new tattoo on his left arm. He had just been to Bangkok with some of his mates and they all got tattoos. Tra was very proud of his tribal design and we made a pact to go back to Bangkok to get our second tattoos together. I have just found out that Tra is moving ahead in leaps and bounds and is now working in a property development company with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An’s son. This places Tra in the upper echelons of the Khmer big boy’s club and he told me on NYE that if I ever wanted to buy land or a house that he would ensure it all went smoothly for us.

Tra's new tattoo

After a few cold beers with the family we then headed to Pontoon where my mate Paul was DJing and lo and behold - the entire barang contingent from the wedding were busting up the dance floor…..16 year old nieces and nephews included ! Classic stuff as we all went mental at 12 o’clock and continued into the wee hours of the morning. Heaps of my local friends were there and many travelers and all the wedding people as well so it was basically just a great night that saw Leakhena and I finish up the night by going to have noodles with the bride and groom at 4.30a.m !!

The next day we fell out of bed at 2p.m and after a late breakfast and a bit of shopping it was time for the wedding recovery party at Talking To A Stranger, a lovely bar set in a big villa that is run by Derek and Wendy, two Aussies. All the overseas guests and many Khmers were all back together again for the final hurrah and again, lots of good-vibes as the roast pig was consumed, the champagne flowed and the music flowed. Also it was Aya’s 30^th birthday so big celebrations for her including sparklers and a big cake.

Leakhana and Aya ( the bride )

All in all the entry to 2008 and my second NYE in Cambodia was an absolute cracker and one I will remember for a long time. This year is a huge one for us. We get married, I turn 40 and…………