Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Screwing everything in sight...


Get your mind out of the gutter you lot !

One thing I personally believe every household should have in it is a power drill. I had to borrow Murray's Bosch when I last hung photos in The Compound and as his has now blown up, I decided that as Veasna's birthday photos needed hanging and I have various other small projects in mind it was time to invest in my own.

A quick phone call to Murray informed me I needed to search out a maktec ( made by Makita ) as they are the only reliable drill in the country. So I headed off to Russian Market and again, the way vendors do business here amazed me.

First Shop; They only had new 10mm/non-hammer maktecs for $43 and would not even talk discounting. Warranty ? No..sorry.

Second Shop; They told me thay had new 10mm/non-hammer maktecs and then proceeded trip over all manner of dismantled power tools before bringing out 2 second hand maktecs. There was one fairly decent looking one which I plugged in and when I head it operate I started to worry these smaller drills might not have quite enough punch for serious screwing ( despite the fact moist khmer walls are softer than Camembert cheese ). He wanted $18. I offered $15. He accepted but no warranty. I told him I might come back.

Third Shop; I spied a very neat,orderly and large hardware shop on the NW corner of the market and lo and behold they had brand new 13mm maktec hammer drills. They asked $46. I offered $40. We settled on $43 with a 3 month warranty card and for an extra $7 I got a set of timber/masonry and metal screw bits as well as a phillips head and flat head screw bit.

So, Like I said, I am now prepared for some major screwing. First order of the day ;

Jeff's safety gate to stop Aliyah going upstairs.

Second;

Veasna's photo boards


Tuesday, April 21, 2009

This absolutely made my day.

As a fan of American Idol and in particular Simon Cowell for his ability to keep it real when everyone else around him is gushing forth with crap, this clip is truly legendary. Apparently I am a bit behind the 8 ball as this lass' performance on Britain has Talent has been viewed over 100,000,000 times on various websites but I am glad I got to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Enjoy.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Khmer New Year 2009 -Waiting for the Golden Cow

Back home, as 12a.m approaches on New Year's Eve everyone is usually tanked up,throwing up, partying their arses off and getting ready to snog some random spunk or their partner, pop some bubbly etc etc.

Grace couldn't hack it.ZZZZZZZZ

You know what they do in Cambodia ?. For about an hour leading up to 1.30a.m ( that's NYE
here ), they watch this inane TV broadcast with a bunch of holyish apsarars dancing around in a soft glow. The main event is when this Golden cow floats down from the sky and lands on the ground. Cambodians then light some incense and well...........that's it !

Is it here yet ? Is it here yet ?

Oh for Buddha's sake..hurry up !

The cow ! The cow ! It's here !

Mum makes a wish and I think the look says it all;
" come earlier next year you rotten bloody cow"


Needless to say, I have vetoed this scintillating event for the last 2 years.

GRACE; General Update

I'll tell you when I am finished with the spoon ok ?

Our little Grace is coming along marvellously. She now has her two top teeth coming down and is a very confident, inquisitive and all round easy to manage baby. She is eating EVERYTHING that we throw at her - baby foods, bread, rice soup, soft boiled eggs,yogurt, ice cream, mango and she can destroy a bottle of formula in seconds.

Her favourite mush.

She dominates her cousin Vichea and reduces him to tears with her " sorry mate, I want that toy NOW" tactics. She now sleeps almost the whole way through the night BUT has become a little AirCon snob. If she is at the end of her day and is very tired putting her in an AC'd room puts her out like a light.

The cousins at Grandma's house

She is even now swimming in The Compound pool !. Leakhana is the best mum and looks after Grace's every need and can read her like a book. She knows every little sound and bump and scratch and nuance and is very very patient.

Enjoying a cooling swim

Doof Doof Jeep


Well I sold the Jeep last week. Then the guy recanted. As part of the sale process I had to put some new Monroe shocks on the front and all of a sudden the car was riding like a Rolls Royce. After a heavy rain storm on Saturday afternoon and then battling waste deep water along 136 st in the Jeep to get to my Poker game whilst all around me were conked out, I have decided to keep it . I bloody love this car.

First order of business ? SOUND. I decided it was time for an MP3 player to be installed and I hit the strip where all the car pimping shops are. Two hours of haggling and waiting around and $40 later, I have a brand new sound system that PUMPS out the tunes. Luckily the Jeep's speakers were fine so I did not need to buy new ones. It makes such a difference to be able to tackle the Phnom Penh traffic with AC/DC blaring............

Next I removed the big roof rack to give the car a more streamlined look and finally, the AC will be tuned to make it Westinghouse quality.

Paul and Aileen's house warming party

The Lord of The Manor - Paul


After a boring, stiflingly hot day lying around with the nieces, Sunday night brought Paul and Aileen’s housewarming party. Paul has just about put the finishing touches on his palatial multi-level hacienda and whilst I have seen it unfold over the months as we play poker in his backyard, it was time for Paul and Aileen to show the house of to everyone. The jeep was loaded with kids and baby and all supplies; Zorok Beer, Wolf Blass red wine, baby formula, spare nappies,iPods for music supply, cameras etc etc and away we went. Luckily Paul’s house is about 1km from ours so it was a short trip.


Women.


On arrival the party was getting started with the usual poker suspects and colleagues, wives and girlfriends. Thousands of children were running about under foot and the flip flop pile at the front door took on Everest like proportions. After a few cold beers, the table was loaded with plates and plates of delicious food and everyone was soon noshing hard. Across the road another party was raging and the (mostly male) crowd was having an absolute ball dancing as the music pumped out.

After dinner I took to the bar (literally –Paul had removed a 2 meter section of his restaurant’s bar ) and did my best at mixing a variety of cocktails which seemed to go down ok although it was all a bit random because I was not sure how big the measure was – 50/25ml or 70/35ml. Paul’s new sheesha pipe fresh in from Afghanistan was fired up and everyone including some of the girls and some inquisitive young Khmer guys were choofing away as the party revelers across the road watched on with interest.


Grace and Veasna


A little later I sniffed out a card game going on out in the back yard. Some of Paul’s relatives and his chef and her husband etc were playing and I thought it might be fun to sit in with them. None of them spoke English so asking for instructions was pointless. It was basically just a case of sitting down and learning the hard way. What I soon figured out was that they were basically playing 7 card stud poker!! And even better – they were playing with small change. Just 2c saw you in the game! Lucky Luke joined in and a small crowd soon gathered to watch the white guys get fleeced. As I tried to steal pots by bluffing and muscling the Khmers with larger cash bets of $1, I soon got done trying to score a straight and a little later Luke was out doing the exact same thing.


A top night as we approached Khmer New Year and big thanks to the Gager Family for a great night.

Leakhana's new iTurd phone

Looks like and Apple iPhone.........

On Saturday Leakhana and Veasna took of for Central Market and on the list were some new school pants for Veasna, some silk to make a new traditional Khmer New year dress for Leakhana and some flip flops for me. So imagine my surprise when my wife arrived home with all of the above and a brand new 8GB Apple Touch Phone to boot! At a cost of just $120!

Now, bearing in mind we just swapped out her old Nokia for a new Nokia only a month ago and it cost me $100, I had to keep a cap on my ire. We were running low on cash for New Year (an expensive time for anyone involved with a Khmer family) and I had told my wife to be tight with our cash. So …yeah…seeing the Apple come out its box irked me somewhat though $120 was a bargain for this phone. Or was it?On closer inspection, it seems that whilst the Apple Touch Phone was branded with the Apple logo, it is actually a “Peaktel” phone straight out of China. Now, to be fair, Leakhana did know this but like many others, she was seduced by the sleek, shiny design and the touch screen functionality of the unit despite its non…er….Appleness. As a life user of Nokia phones, this defection was a big deal for Leakhana and my anger at her impulse shopping soon subsided as she explained she really just wanted to learn about new technology. Who can argue with that? Besides, I find it very hard to get mad with my wife.



The box says it's an iPhone....

So, being interested in new technologies myself, I quickly scoped up the phone and went into touchy-feely-test-the-functions mode. Within about 5 minutes I had made my informed opinion. This phone truly sucked the big one. For a start you just about have to punch the screen for the desired function to occur. Secondly, on opening a new SMS message, you are automatically in Chinese and have to scroll through the languages to select English. Every time! Going to the manual doesn’t help (yes…believe it or not I DO occasionally use a manual) because it is brief in the extreme. My prediction to my wife “You will be trading this phone back to a Nokia within a month” and I from then on referred to the item as “that Chinese piece of crap”.


Hang on a sec....what's this "Peaktel" in the manual ?


Later that night Leakhana joined me as I finished up playing the Poker Tournament at The Red Fox ( a respectable 5th out of 18 ) and as we retired to a bar for a beer I asked her “ so how is that Chinese piece of crap going anyway?”.Her automatic and strong reply ? “ I HATE THE BLOODY THING!” We both had a good laugh and it is back to the phone shop we go.

Friday, April 10, 2009

30 Odd Years ago

What were you doing 30 odd years ago ? Like me, I bet you were tucked up in suburbia enjoying the good life ?I was happily attending Neutral bay Public School in Sydney, enjoying being a Boy Scout, riding skateboards, learning how to surf and generally leading the life of a happy little kid. Australia was and is the Lucky Country and the greatest threat I faced was a wooden spooning from my dad ( or my teacher ) for being a cheeky little sod.

I remember CLEARLY the nightly Channel 9 news reports about the almost weekly arrival of "boat people" from Kampuchea. As they desperately tried to escape the Khmer Rouge many made it in tiny overloaded boats, many didn't. I also remember that at the time the school yard jokes centred around Kampucheans and their skininess. As a 10 year old,I had no idea where Kampuchea was or why they were coming to our country.

Well, imagine my surprise that 30 years later I find myself living in Cambodia, married to a Cambodian lady and with Cambodian family . Life takes you on some amazing turns. I have blogged mostly about the banal, amusing and frivolous for some time now but the other night I was reading Pol Pot's autobiography whilst my daughter Grace ( half Cambodian / half Australian ) slept beside me. It is a very heavy read and when they get into the real desperate years, it is..well..harrowing. I just found myself thinking all over again how much Cambodia and it's people have been through.

This is where I choose to live and despite it's horrific recent history, I wouldn't have it any other way.

A Cambodian soldier holds a .45 to the head of a Khmer Rouge suspect in 1973

Survivors sift through rubble after the Khmer Rouge bombed Phnom Penh, the capital city, on January 1, 1975

A prisoner gets her mug shot taken. At prisons like Phnom Penh's infamous Tuol Sleng, prisoners were painstakingly documented before being sent to their deaths in mass graves later to be come known as the "killing fields." In total, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died between 1975 and 1979.

Forced labourers digging canals in Kampong Cham province, part of the massive agrarian infrastructure the Khmer Rouge planned for the country.

The Khmer Rouge sought to rid Cambodia of all Western influences that distracted its people from their agrarian calling. Cars, abandoned and forbidden, were stacked up alongside the road.

An exhumed mass grave, pictured in 1981, in the Cambodian countryside reveals the skeletons of those executed and buried together under Pol Pot's regime.

Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the jungle of western Cambodia as they attempt to halt advancing Vietnamese forces on Feb. 15, 1981.

All photos courtesy of www.time.com

Monday, April 6, 2009

Rivers of ( bloody good ) red wine


Last Friday night I got roped into auctioneering duties at a Penfold's wine tasting night at the Intercontinental. Sponsored by ABAC,ANZ and Infinity Insurance and with proceeds going to the Sunrise Orphanage I was a little nervous as I had never auctioneered before but I volunteered because I thought " how hard can it be ??". With 50 people in attendance and with tickets costing $80 for the super premium tasting session ( including an opportunity to swill the 2001 Grange Hermitage) our target was $1300. This would send one kid to a quality English school for a year. After a lovely dance performance by the kids from the orphanage, I milked $3500 out of the crowd and apart from the fact I had a ball and was in my element, I think the owner of the orphanage was overjoyed at the result.

As some guests did not turn up, I was invited to join in the tasting and I got to taste alot of wonderful wine. ..inlcuding the $400 per bottle Grange ! I had a great night and am now available for auctioneering duties should anyone need me.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Money Money Money


Well yesterday we had a very nice surprise indeed. It seems that the larger block of land we bought in Kep falls within an area slated for industrial development by the Governor of Kep. Luckily, my brother-in-law is very good friends with the Governor so rather than having our land simply stolen as is often the case, they have offered us a more than fair price. In fact, the 2700m2 block of land has been bought from us for the princely sum of US$100,000. After a phone call mid morning from Tra to confirm we wanted to sell, the cash was delivered to me, in a paper bag, mid afternoon and was safely in my ANZ Royal account before I knocked off work.

A 90% premium to what we paid a year ago. Not a bad return if you ask me.

Now.....about that XR400 I have been eyeing off...............