“I feel like we might remain friends.”

Thirteen years ago next month, I first came to Cambodia as a beady eyed, ignorant sixteen year old; eager to see the world and discover new cultures. This country captured my heart the moment I arrived and thus dictated my path over the following decade. Today, I leave Cambodia and, I must admit, the country which I fell in love with has broken my heart, just a little.

For the most part, this is a happy blog. It’s about the friends I met, the opportunities I seized, the memories which will stay with me forever. But, before I get all nostalgic, one thing must be noted. This country has changed, as all countries do. And while the old Cambodia I fell in love with is still here, I’m now only seeing glimpses of that world, as international development and influences sweep through. I won’t name names. But let’s just say the speed of “their” economic expansion here has been terrifying and needs to be reined in. I think it’s safe to criticise this “government” when you’re about to board a plane, right? I just hope the charming, friendly, beautiful country which I once knew manages to retain as much of its culture as possible. From where I stand, it’s slipping away, one casino at a time.

The decision to leave after living here for five years wasn’t made overnight. It was carefully considered but I came to the conclusion that I was ready to move on and that Cambodia was no longer the place for me. It was a decision I couldn’t have imagined making eighteen months ago but now, sat in the taxi on the way to the airport, I can’t imagine staying. Life changes fast sometimes. Not everything changes; I keep my job thanks to my wonderful boss. I’m bringing my cat because who doesn’t want to invest $1,000 in a bundle of fur who bites you if she’s bored of being stroked? And I’ll be returning to my childhood home, where my wonderful parents are graciously allowing me to return for a few months.

A lot has happened in the past five years, let alone the past thirteen. A levels, gap years (two), undergraduate degree, masters degree, teaching, setting up a charity, starting to write, getting paid to write, working for a business, becoming a team manager. You never know where life will take you but I’ve been riding the waves which crest before me and I’m pretty happy with the direction my board is heading. Heading back to Devon clearly brings out teenage surfer Ruth…

I am of course leaving behind a lot of amazing friends. I’m known (in my mind) for my goodbye blogs, written for people when they leave Cambodia but I’m afraid I don’t have the time nor the emotional energy to write one for all you wonderful people I’m saying farewell to in the kingdom of wonder. So I’ll just say thank you here. Thank you, to each and every one of you. From the friends I met in my first weeks in Phnom Penh back in 2014 to the families who welcomed me into their homes in Kampot to my Khmer friends who have taught me so much about this country and showed me its inner beauty and everyone in between. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I feel incredibly privileged to have spent the last five years with a group of kind, funny, intelligent, eclectic individuals. I will miss you all so much but I know this isn’t goodbye forever, just for a while.

And then there are the friends who have already left. Phnom Penh in particular holds ghosts for me, most of them Casper-like. I walk down streets which have changed not-so-subtly over the years and remember dinners, nights out, dodgeball tournaments, tuk tuk journeys and so much more. Some of my closest friendships were formed here and while some have faded over time, a few remain strong, even with oceans between us. I suppose now I’m the one putting oceans between friends. But with technology and determination, these connections can endure. And I’ll make sure they do.

The title of this blog came from one of my closest friends, at the end of my last night in Kampot. You know what? I feel the same way. This country bonds you; the experiences, the challenges, the memories, the moments which make it truly live up to its name of “the Kingdom of Wonder.” Sometimes, wondering is all you can do here. And Cambodia, despite everything you’ve thrown at me and put my some of friends through, you’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

This will be the last blog post for Lemon in Cambodia. Lemon in Devon doesn’t have quite the same ring to it but I’m excited about my new adventure nonetheless. Sat in a taxi, bumping my way towards the airport, with the most expensive cat I will ever own asleep in her travel crate beside me, I know I’ve made the right decision. This is the first time I’ve been leaving Cambodia and felt good about it. Usually I’m sick to my stomach and bawling my eyes out. I’m nervous, I’m sad, but above all else, I can’t wait to find out what happens now. It’s my time, and Nugget’s. I’m ready; for the next chapter, the next challenge, the next step. At the age of 29, I’m growing up, I’m settling down.

Cambodia, you beautiful, illogical, hilarious, insane, friendly, scary, unforgettable place, in the words of Fall Out Boy, thanks for the memories.

KP – From PP to NT

I’ve always wanted a friend who went by their initials. For some reason the concept seemed innately ‘cool’ and luckily for me, KP did not disappoint! Photo one is Exhibit A in coolness.

It is almost two years to the day that I met KP. We were both invited by friends who were friends to a dinner one weekday in Phnom Penh. There was a big group of us but I do distinctly remember KP and thinking she, much like her initials, was ‘cool’. A few weeks after our meal, I headed back to the UK for Christmas as always but resolved upon my return to message KP and arrange to get together with her. She beat me to it however and invited me out to dinner shortly after I landed back in the Kingdom.

I suppose our friendship blossomed from there. Cambodia and other expat communities have a funny way of throwing people together who, in another other context, would probably not have crossed paths. But I’m immensely glad that KP and I not only met but had the opportunities to become friends.

Just a few months into our friendship, however, KP decided to leave Cambodia. She, being the sociable person she is, had no less than three going away parties. I, being the awesome friend I am, attended two of them. But then mere weeks after returning to her native Australia, she announced she was back for another volunteer stint!

KP at her first going away drinks

By the time KP got back to Phnom Penh, I was living in Kampot so we had to accept weekends hanging out rather than random evenings whenever we felt like it (KP lived opposite my old house in Phnom Penh). We had many an adventure together, including exploring (twice) the secret waterfall (we were successful the second time), many meals at Greenhouse, numerous lunches at Sesame Noodle (at my behest), an exploration of Silk Island and a massage or two at Banteay Srey Spa.

Inevitably in Cambodia, people move on. I’m sad to see KP leaving but I’m also very excited to see the next chapter of her life unfurl. The job she’s moving to begin in the Northern Territory of Australia is not only an amazing opportunity for her career but also just an awesome thing to be doing. She’ll be working in Darwin with women in prison there and I’m so proud of her.

Of course, in true KP style, there were three going away parties once more. Due to my being in Kampot, I was only able to go to one of them and I decided to surprise her. It was, and I quote: “The best surprise ever.” I’ll take that endorsement.

I’m honoured to have been friends with KP for the past two years and I’m very much going to miss this confidant from my circle of Cambodian friends. KP is unlike anyone else I have ever met and our friendship is something I know will continue and will be cherished for years to come. Thanks to WhatsApp and Facebook and Skype (and a possible move for me to Australia) I have no doubt that we’ll stay in close touch.

KP, thank you for the awesome times. Thank you for listening. Thank you for all the hilarious memories. Thank you for the TV evenings. Thank you for the random nights out. Thank you for the cranberry vodka. And thank you for coming back to Cambodia after leaving too soon the first time around. If you ever decide to come back again, we’ll all welcome you back with open arms! Good luck in the NT. PP KP, over and out.

99 Surprises

It’s not very often that you get the opportunity to attend a 99^thbirthday party. In fact, I decided it was such an honour that it was worth flying back to the UK from Cambodia just for the occasion. I don’t usually visit the UK in the summer – it had been two years since I had done so and I realised perhaps it was time to remind myself that it’s not always cold and rainy in Blighty.

Once the idea was in my mind, I knew this trip would be the perfect chance to surprise my family. I’d always wanted to organise a surprise visit but never quite knew how it would work. Without letting friends and family know of your arrival, you run the risk of returning only to find people already have plans and don’t have time to see you. Logistically, however, this wasn’t going to be a problem as I knew all of my family were gathering together for my grandad’s party. This ‘all’ included my older sister, Fran, who lives in Perth and was returning for the 99^th party too.

Little sister, big sister, me

I decided to tell Fran about the surprise and we attempted (and failed) to coordinate our flights. Having someone on the inside really helped, however. I also told my friend Anna who generously offered to pick me up from the airport and drove me to the holiday home where my parents were staying for party weekend. Fran was able to provide us with all the details and even told us to wait halfway up the drive when my parents went outside unexpectedly.

You’d think after 28 years that my mum would recognise her daughter but there was a definite pause of about one second before she registered who was stood on the doorstep. My little sister, who I was next to surprise, started crying (although she claims this was shock, not an overwhelming love for her big sister …).

My first day back in the UK was typically English. Anna joined us for the day and we went for a walk through the woodland, had ice-creams and visited a pretty village. The afternoon was sent at a pick-your-own fruit farm, over the course of which we may or may not have snaffled a strawberry or two. That evening, we had a mega picnic outside, complete with Pimms.

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The other two surprises occurred on the weekend at my grandad’s 99^thparty. Amazingly, yet unsurprisingly for people who know him, my granddad knew right away that I, out of his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, wasn’t supposed to be there. There were other cousins and their children to greet as well and then finally my brother arrived with his kids and I was able to surprise him too.

Here’s a link to the little montage video of these surprises (WordPress wouldn’t allow me to upload it).

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The rest of my time in the UK was spent working and seeing as many people as possible. I was in the country for 8 days and only in Devon for 4 so everyone was squeezed in for a where possible. From chips in the local pub to a BBQ and movie in our field, this brief time reminded me that perhaps the weather in the UK isn’t always so bad. I even managed to see two friends from Warwick as I travelled through London.

 

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The final weekend was spent in Italy where I visited friends from Kampot. The logic here was that, compared to Cambodia, Italy is close … Sabina left in May (there’s a blog about that) and returned to her family home just north of Venice. I had three beautiful days in the mountains with her and her family where we caught up on one another’s lives, ate delicious food and drank spritz and Prosecco. It was short but sweet and definitely worth the two-hour flight. Also, my nice camera got an outing …

 

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After one more night in London, which I spent with my niece and nephew, it was time to head back to Cambodia. The whole trip took less than 2 weeks and was definitely busy but totally worth it. Back in Kampot it proceeded to rain for weeks on end, resulting in terrible flooding and people being forced out of their homes. For once in my life, I found myself wishing I was back in the UK to escape the terrible weather – fairly sure that sentence has never been said before. Life is full of surprises.

The Curse Of The Expat

Over the years I’ve lived abroad, I have written a number of blogs in the wake of friends leaving. It’s an inevitability, or perhaps a curse, that those of us who live in the expat community embody a transient existence. We all love to travel, to explore, to experience new things, and as a result of our adventurous personalities, we move. When you’re not the one moving, however, it means you have to say goodbye to people more often than is natural. And some of those people are special enough to deserve a blog.

I met Sabina over a year before I moved to Kampot. She worked at my favourite guesthouse and as a result I would see her every couple of months when I came down on holiday. We were nothing more than customer and front-of-house manager at that point but I think we got on well and I don’t think I was an overly annoying patron …

By the time I actually moved to Kampot, Sabina had left her job in the guesthouse so imagine my surprise when I bumped into her right outside my house. Mere days after I arrived, Sabina and her family had returned to Kampot and moved into a house directly opposite my own. It was great to see her, as I had always liked this friendly, fiery Italian, but I was recovering at that time from the last curse of the expat, the departure of Jordan days before I relocated to Kampot. I wasn’t really in the mood to make new friends.

But slowly, over the coming weeks and months, I realised that perhaps being sociable wasn’t so bad. Sabina and her partner, Erwan, are both incredibly social people and it is in their nature to invite others to join them in their activities. For this, in hindsight, I am eternally grateful. Within weeks, Sabina was inviting me to join her and her friends, all families based here in Kampot, on various activities and outings. I fell, blissfully, serendipitously, into the most wonderful friendship group I could have imagined. Even though I am writing this blog because Sabina is leaving, I’m not going to be alone, thanks to the other women and their families that Sabi introduced me to.

The final Friday night hoorah!

Because I work from home, there can be days on end when I don’t have a conversation with another human. Sabina realised this and began inviting me out for dinner or drinks mid-week, just to make sure I didn’t go mad. Along with her adorable son, Altinio, we’d drive into town and see Erwan for a beer or grab take-away noodles to be eaten on her porch. On other days, when work had been hard or stressful or just long, I’d wander over to her house. Regardless of what she was doing, Sabina always made me feel welcome when I turned up on her doorstep, inviting me in for food and drink and generally making sure I didn’t go mad. Someone else will have to pick up the slack in her absence, no doubt!

Every Friday night over the past several months, Sabina hosted a gathering where all her friends (and me) would all come over to eat food and drink wine. Most of the other women have children, Sabina included, and they played together as we chatted into the evening. This day became the highlight of my week as I got to know my new circle of friends and their kids. This tradition will endure but I suspect the house’s new occupant may request we find a different venu.

When Sabina told me she, Erwan and Altinio were heading back to Italy, I felt a familiar sense of dread. I scolded myself for doing it again; for getting close to someone who was going to leave. Hadn’t I learnt my lesson? Hadn’t I lost enough friends to the expat curse? But then, over time, I slowly realised that perhaps the pain and sadness one feels when you have to say goodbye is outweighed by the good times. The positive memories, the laughs, the treasured moments which will remain long after the tears have dried. Surely the harder the goodbye, the more special the friendship. Let’s just say this one was a difficult goodbye.

Another Friday night when we actually left Sabi’s porch

Being friends with Italian people is great! In addition to the fact that Sabina served me delicious pasta and introduced me to all the best food spots in town, she is an amazing, warm, generous and very down-to-earth person. I also loved her European attitude to life as well as watching her son begin to copy her Italian mannerisms. Over the past ten months, she has become my main confidant in Kampot, always offering advice and support whenever I need it. She even helped keep me alive when I got sick a few weeks ago, bringing me coconuts and little dishes of food when I was too pathetic to get out of bed.

I have many fond memories of my friendship with Sabina as well as great times with her son and partner. Erwan was the person who helped lift my moto up after my first crash – a true Kampot milestone. Altinio was the child who made me think perhaps parenting wouldn’t be so bad (although there are times when he definitely earned his nickname of False Advertising). Kampot won’t be the same without these three people. My life here will change, more than I think I realise right now. And change is hard but it’s also inevitable. The change Sabina and Erwan are making is exciting for them and fantastic for their son. They leave behind friends but they head back to Europe where they have family waiting for them, eager to help them build a new life together.

Of course, with technology and air travel, goodbye is never forever. But it still hurts. So all I’ll say is goodbye for now. I don’t know when I’ll see you all again but I’m sure that I will. Good luck as you set off on your next adventure. I wish you all the best and I can’t wait to see what you achieve.

Digital Freaks Become Reality

For the past eighteen months I’ve been working online for a digital marketing agency. I suppose you could say I’m a static digital nomad. While my newfound profession allows me to work from anywhere in the world, my love for Cambodia and my little furry friend has resulted in my setting up residence in sleepy Kampot and getting the fastest internet connection the country has to offer installed in my house.

I knew relatively little (read none) about the world I was stepping into when I got a job as an SEO blog writer through an online platform in September 2016. But like most things I turn my hand (fingers) to, I picked it up soon enough. I’ve always loved writing (this blog is exhibit A) and it wasn’t long before my boss began to offer me a diverse range of writing tasks.

But who is this boss? Karyn started Digital Freak a few months before bringing me on board and is based in Melbourne (along with almost all of our clients). Over time, as I began to do more work, we started to get to know one another. Time passed, I took on more responsibility and our Skype message conversation began to be so long that trying to find a password or task shared just a few days before resulted in my entire computer becoming overwhelmed and crashing.

Before long we were talking about more than just work, growing closer in both our professional and personal lives. We learned about one another, talked outside of working hours (which is saying something considering we’re both workaholics and have been known to be at our respective computers into the small hours of the morning), and eventually began to call one another friends. When I knew I was coming to Perth to see my sister, therefore, I knew it was time to hop over to Melbourne. This is the tale of how Digital Freaks became reality.

There’s a difference between knowing someone in messenger form, commenting on one another’s Facebook posts and the (very) occasional work phone call. I won’t deny that I was a little nervous of meeting Karyn. I had joked several times that if we met and didn’t get on, the business would implode. I maintain that statement is true. Luckily for both of us, Digital Freak stands strong. After over a year of talking to each other every day, sharing stories, thoughts, hopes and dreams, I was standing outside her apartment building, pressing the intercom and about to come face to face with the individual who set my life on an unpredicted, yet wonderfully enjoyable trajectory.

At 7am, after only an hour’s sleep and suffering from jetlag aren’t the best circumstances under which to meet someone for the first time but considering that, I think we did pretty well. Karyn was kind enough to open her home to me for the week, share her evenings and time with her son and allow us the opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper level. And yes, I know what you’re thinking. We don’t have a typical employer-employee relationship but it works for us and it works for the business. I trust her implicitly and I hope she feels the same about me.

The unorthodox nature of our friendship continues. Only a few hours after I landed, I found myself in my first ever public yoga class; a three hour ‘urban retreat’ alongside Karyn followed by lunch. Feeling refreshed, relaxed and in touch with my inner zen, we returned to her apartment and continued to find our footing with one another in the same room, city, country and time-zone.

After a visit to Melbourne’s annual Moomba festival and a good night’s sleep, Karyn and I were back to doing what we do best: working. Except this time, I was able to interrupt her with a knock on her office door rather than the ping of a Skype message. I fell seamlessly into the routine of working at her dining room table, shouting questions down the corridor and discussing clients, strategies and the future of the business during our regular coffee breaks. The evenings involved more getting to know one another and various wines I’d brought from Margaret River, a memento of my roadtrip the week before.

Attending Karyn’s BNI meeting on Thursday was a definite trip highlight as it allowed me to show my face to about half of the company’s clients. I also got to meet one of our partners whom I’ve been exchanging emails with for the past six months. Another first-time experience was attending a book launch of client, coincidentally scheduled during my trip. The week was rounded off by a four-hour photoshoot with yet another client. This was somewhat sprung on me (Karyn, I’ll get you back for this) and while I accept that my LinkedIn profile was in desperate need of being updated, I was a little nervous, never having felt at home in front of the camera lens. The girls at Blush Creative were fantastic, however, and managed to make me feel relaxed and comfortable as they snapped away.

That evening I also had some time to spare so I popped into the city to meet up with a friend from Cambodia. Mel lived in Kampot for six months and it was great to catch up with her in one of Melbourne’s countless bars, reminisce over our time in the kingdom together, talk about our friends and update one another on our lives.

The weekend was downtime. Karyn and I aren’t known for taking time for ourselves but we managed to drag ourselves away from our screens, bundle her son, Corbin, into the car and hit the road. To the Twelve Apostles, to be precise. Majestic, iconic and thoroughly worth the 3-hour drive.

We then set off weaving our way back up Great Ocean Road, talking about our hopes and dreams for the future, life plans steadily mapped out in front of us and growing more defined the closer we got to the city.

I’ve never been a planner. Unlike Karyn, who has a ten-year plan. After my time in the city, however, I think I can see my future. For those of you in England reading this, I’m afraid it looks like I’m moving further away. Melbourne was an amazing city but more than that, this job and this company is presenting a great opportunity to me. I’ve always been lucky in my ability to do jobs I love but I have never enjoyed my work as much as I do with Digital Freak. It’s interesting, challenging and a constant learning curve, one I am yearning to travel further along. There’s no set time frame for this next step but I think it’s safe to say, at some point, it’s happening.

And on that note, for those of you who want to visit me in Cambodia, start booking your tickets (Karyn, that includes you!)

Here are some pics of my time in Melbourne and if you’re on Instagram, search #DigitalFreaksBecomeReality to see a few more.

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Fran And Ruth Drive SWA

For anyone who follows me on Instagram or is friends with me on Facebook, the revelation that I have been on a roadtrip around Western Australia will not be news. My older sister lives in Perth and this month I visited her for the fourth time since she emigrated. While Cambodia may be an inconvenient distance from the UK, flights to WA are surprisingly cheap and quick. So I landed back on the dusty planes of the Australian outback, already keeping my eyes peeled for snakes, and was reunited with my older sister, Fran.

Actually, before I dive in to the roadtrip, I should at first say that the reason for the entire holiday was a certain young man named Ed. For my birthday, Fran gifted me tickets to see the genius that is in the city. So before we set off down to the coast, we at first had a little partying to do and we couldn’t have been happier. I’ve seen Ed Sheeran before and he just gets better and better. In fact, I reckon he’s perfect. I don’t think anyone else in the world can command the stage quite as completely as he does and it was a truly epic evening with Fran and her friends Katherine and Tara. Even as someone who knows they can’t sing, I couldn’t help but belt out every one of his epic hits, in between taking this photograph and a few videos.

Yes, I just shoved about 10 song titles into this paragraph: I regret nothing. What can I say? His music is in my bloodstream. Ok, I’ll stop now. Let’s take it back to what happened next and the content of my Instagram page for the subsequent week.

Hungover not from alcohol but euphoria, our trip down south began in earnest the next day. To be honest, I think this is where even my words (I’m humble) are not enough to sum up the amazing travels we shared together. So I’ll just offer you a brief review of our route and then let the photos tell the story. Needless to say, we had an amazing time and it was a real treat to spend some quality time with my big sister, eating and drinking out way through some remarkable landscapes.

We went from Perth to Denmark to Pemberton to Augusta to Dunsborough and finally back to Perth, all in the space of eight days. Sounds short? The reason for that will be coming up in another blog published in a couple of days time. For now, take in the sights of South Western Australia and feel that travel bug begin to itch once more. In that time we visited countless vineyards, walked amongst 50 metre high treetops, hiked to the top of a rock, graced several beaches with our presence, fed stingrays (well, Fran did), went caving, saw the biggest flag in Australia and ate our weight in free samples of just about every foodstuff you could possibly imagine.

Sister Selfies:

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Places and pretty things/food:

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For those of you who are interested, my digital marketing brain didn’t switch off entirely (this was the first full week off work I’d taken in 18 months), so if you want to see all of our photos, search #FranAndRuthDriveSWA on Instagram.

Calamity Ruth

In the spirit of my New Year’s Resolution to update this blog more frequently, I am now posting about even the most mundane events in my life. Feel free to duck out now …

 

This week saw my first moto crash, after riding for six months. To be fair, the word crash is a massive exaggeration. It was a bump, an incident, pathetically anticlimactic and barely worth the 700 words I’ve managed to pull from a few seconds of drama. I’ll first of all say that I am 100% completely ok and that there is no need to worry. Now I’ll go on to set the scene.

 

I was driving along, as I do every day, through the ‘centre’ of Kampot. Full face helmet on, as always. I was even wearing long yoga pants (a skin-saver, it turns out). I indicated to turn into a junction and slowed down to wait for some passing traffic. I was almost in the centre of the road, pootling along at about 2mph. Once the way was clear, I turned, as my indicator suggested was my next planned manoeuvre. At that exact same moment, two young local lads zoomed by, catching my front tire as they overtook me. There was really nothing I could do to stop the inevitable. Hello road!

 

It didn’t even hurt. I was moving so slowly that the impact was negligible. As I looked up from my new position (horizontal on a warm and dusty road), I saw the two guys looking over their shoulder before speeding off. The next sight was my friend’s partner running across the road towards me. I don’t know many people in Kampot but I happened to have toppled over outside his place of work, for which I am grateful. He lifted the bike off me and walked me and it to the side of the road. By this time, the policemen in their newly erected police station (a shipping container painted white and blue), had noticed the ‘foreigner in trouble’ and decided to get involved. You never know when you’re going to receive a cash ‘thank you’, after all.

 

Holding my broken wing mirror and the end of my brake handle, I had to then explain to the overly concerned cops that the scratch on my leg had come not from the accident they had just witnessed but from the day before when I had somehow walked into my own desk. It’s a wonder I am still alive, to be fair.

 

Reassuring a few bystanders that I was ok, Erwan and I got my bike running again (apparently the poor machine was more shocked by the collision than I was and had temporarily stopped working). The cops faded away, realising there was no money to be made from this particular barang (white person) mishap. The reckless driver who hit me was long gone and, frankly, there was no reason to chase after him. In the grand scheme of things, it was a non-event.

 

As a side note, the only reason for my trip into town on that not-so-fateful day was to buy salad. Eating healthy almost killed me! Except I didn’t nearly die: that was just a statement for dramatic effect. Seriously, Mum and Dad, I’m fine.

 

The next morning, I dropped by my mechanic who reattached my wing mirror free of charge. I’ve decided to live with my snapped brake handle for a little longer as it still works perfectly well. My blue kneecap will be covered by long trousers or leggings for a few days.

 

That’s it. That is the story of my rite of passage: becoming a moto crash victim in Cambodia. Considering I’ve been here for three and a half years, the fact that I’ve never been robbed and, until this week, hadn’t been involved in any traffic collisions was something which made me rather unusual. Perhaps now I can truly be considered a local. When, in fact, I think I could more accurately be described as a careless barang who forgot to check her mirrors before turning. I should have known that indicating wasn’t enough!

 

Lesson learned, I’m back on the road. Getting back in the saddle wasn’t even a psychological hurdle. After all, I had salad ingredients to buy. And the cover image for this blog was taken after a 30km moto ride with my former flatmate, Fanny, to meet some climbing friends of hers. Confidence unaffected, I drive onwards.

Nugget’s a wannabe biker kitty!

Catch-Ups And Christmas

Christmas is a time for friends and family. When you only go back home once a year, this is the perfect time for a visit. I spent December in the UK catching up with friends and family, eating way too much and driving up and down the M4.

My trip started off with a few days at my brother’s in London with his wife and two children. As an absent aunt, it always takes a little while to reconnect but we had a great time together and it well and truly got me in the Christmas spirit. From our ice skating trip to attending the children’s school Christmas fair, complete with carols, I felt entirely festive by the time I set off to the first of two university reunions.

Family Ice Skating at Hampton Court

I’m very fortunate to be part of two groups of friends from both my undergrad and postgrad universities who are highly organised and meet up once a year. The first evening was with my Cardiff gang where we played Danish Secret Santa (Google it) and ventured out for dinner and drinks at Clapham’s answer to Winter Wonderland, aptly named Winterville.

Cardiff University Friends

Four days after I landed back in the UK, I was finally on my way to Devon where my parents live, after meeting up with a fellow Cambodian expat. Recognised by my dog and greeted with home-cooked food and a glass of wine, I could finally relax. Plus, the gift of an electric blanket allowed me to not freeze to death so that was a real bonus.

Throughout the month I was working full time which is awkward when you’re 11 hours behind your boss, with whom you work very closely. But we managed! My evenings were reserved for seeing friends from school and my childhood, catching up on our lives and falling comfortably back into old dynamics.

High School Friends

My second university reunion with my Warwick crew came the evening after my annual charity fundraiser. A three course meal and a night out to catch up with everyone I met during my postgrad studies.

Warwick University Friends

The following day I walked around a snowy Clapham with Ruth, my closest friend from my university days. That evening I returned to my brother’s for an early Christmas and present giving.

Ruth & Ruth

Lemons!

The final trip was up to Oxfordshire to visit my horse and my friend who now looks after her. I miss riding terribly and it was great to get back in the saddle and hack through the fields, where snow still lay on the ground. Yes, I was freezing cold, even with fleecy socks which had been heated on the Aga.

Reunited With Melly

The rest of my time in the UK was spent with high school friends and family, eating, watching TV, playing cards, hanging out and fundraising. SKOPE relies on donors from the UK and I returned to two Rotary Clubs who supported us last year and continue to be very generous. I updated them on our projects throughout the year, thanked them for their continued commitment and answered any questions they had. I also collected books which are going to be donated to my friend’s new library/school in her family’s village in Kampot.

Torquay Rotary Donation

With technology making communication so easy these days, I no longer have to tell everyone my life story of the year whenever I return. It’s nice to just be together as if no time has passed, enjoying our traditional Christmas festivities. From walks in the village to going to the beach to eating at our local pub, sometimes it feels like I’ve never been away. And yet, I have now been living in as an expat for three and a half years, with no plans to return to the UK permanently any time soon.

98 Years Going Strong

 

I’m now back in my beloved Cambodia where life is wonderfully familiar and yet full of surprises. Take Friday afternoon, for example. I was lying in my hammock when my Khmer neighbour casually beat a snake to death in front of my house, watched on by her three screaming children. Plot twist, this snake had fallen off the end of a stick which she had been carrying, walking from her own house to my other neighbours who are her in-laws. I’m presuming the journey was meant to culminate in some fantastic show and tell. Sadly for all involved, particularly the snake, the final presentation was far less impressive than it had been when first discovered and decidedly more gory. That said, I hate snakes and am glad there is one less of them living in my vicinity.

Please don’t let that put any of my friends or family reading this off coming to visit. It’s wonderful here. You’re all welcome at any time.

My new years resolution is to update this blog more frequently …

Lemon Sister Earrings

More Beach Walks

 

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

When considering the nature versus nurture argument, I find it very interesting to look at myself and my younger sister, Molly. While we were brought up in the same environment (nurture), we are very different people in many ways (nature). That said, we also have a lot of similarities; you just have to look a little harder to find them. While I love to travel, my sister is most definitely a home bird. I have a cat, she has a dog. Molly is making her way as an artist while I struggle to draw a stickman. We’re following very different career paths and yet, over the past few weeks, we’ve come to realise we can lend our individual skillsets to help one another. Rather than sisters doing it for themselves, therefore, we’re doing it for each other.

I suppose we are both creative; she with images, me with words. For the past year, I’ve been working for a digital marketing agency, writing blogs, websites, social media copy and much more. I have learnt what is required for a business to rise through the ranks of Google and land at the top of relevant search engine results pages and capture the attention of customers. And now my sister wants to do exactly this with her new website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is simple enough once you know what Google’s PageRank algorithm is looking for. You need to deliver the information it is seeking in a straightforward format which it can identify and analyse to determine your page’s relevance. While Molly had a great website built for her by one of her friend’s, Google would have struggled to recognise its relevance before I got my hands on it. You see, Google can’t (yet) read images. It relies on text to understand what is on a page. Therefore, beautiful though Molly’s website was with images of her artwork, as far as Google was concerned, it was empty. Now, however, we have added in the relevant tags and alt text and meta descriptions which allow Google to scan the Internet, pick up keywords such as ‘pressure print’, ‘oil painting’ and ‘British bird greeting cards’ (all Molly’s specialties), and push her website up the pages of results whenever a relevant search is googled.

It’s a great feeling to not only be able to help my own sister but also to see the positive results in what I’ve been doing for her (using an analytics app kindly lent to me by my boss). It’s also validation that I really do understand what I’m doing. And the best part about this is that it’s a two-way street. While I may be helping Molly, she has skills to offer me too. Or, more specifically, my charity.

I am always looking for new ways to raise money for SKOPE, my education charity I run in Cambodia. Between us, Molly and I came up with the idea of her creating a charity greeting card as part of her British bird range from which the proceeds will go to SKOPE. We’re considering it her way of saying thank you for my help. And yet she’s helping me too. We are now both in positions where we are excelling within our chosen careers and able to offer support and help for one another using our specialised skills.

The cards Molly will design shall feature a Cambodian bird and are due to be available in her Etsy shop within the next couple of months. Hopefully, by that time and with my continued SEO efforts, she’ll be landing high up Google results and attracting more web traffic and more customers. We both benefit from helping one another. I’m sure our parents are reading this and wishing we had realised we would have benefitted from being friends as children so we could play together rather than fight. But it’s better late than never, right?

Molly and I are doing it for ourselves in our separate career paths but we’re also now working together, offering our unique skillsets to support and better the other. We’re two sisters who are doing it for one another.

 

Oh, and in case you hadn’t already clicked, here’s a link to Molly’s website and her Etsy store.

Chapter Two – The Kampot Adventures

In less than two weeks, I will have been living in Cambodia for three years. Of course, my love affair with this wonderful, colourful, noisy, friendly, flawed yet utterly beautiful nation began over eleven years ago. For the past three years, I lived have in the bustling, busy, dirty, dusty and endlessly entertaining capital that is Phnom Penh. Until July 1^st 2017. Now, I am a Pot-Pat and I’m not talking about marijuana. I have moved to Kampot; my favourite place on earth.

 

Just a few minutes from my house

Firstly, I appreciate that considering this blog is supposed to keep friends and family updated on my life, I’m doing badly since it’s almost the second week in August. For those of you feeling out of the loop regarding my relocation, be comforted with the knowledge I Skyped my parents for the first time since June five days ago. That said, they knew all about the Pot-Plans.

 

Kampot is a town which has featured in more than a few of my past blogs (like this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one). It’s my favourite place in Cambodia and being the sort of person I am, I decided to make my dream a reality and just move here. Of course, I am lucky now to have a job which I can do from anywhere (writing for a digital marketing agency, in case anyone missed that). So back to Kampot. It’s small, it’s sleepy, it’s full of colonial architecture, it’s friendly, it’s right on the river, it’s 30 minutes from the coast, my new house is seconds from open countryside, and the place is packed with delectable eateries. Basically, it’s heaven on earth.

 

Sense from my balcony

My last blog was about the departure of my long-term flatmate and closest friend, Jordan. This shift in my life was one of the reasons behind my move. Admittedly, a life in Kampot had been on my mind for over a year so when Jordan announced her plans, it seemed as good a time as any to make the change. After three years and sixteen flatmates, many of who were fantastic and some of whom were … yeah, anyway, I decided I needed some time on my own. Well, with Nugget the cat, of course. And for one weekend, I was accompanied by my stellar moving crew (Jess even stayed with me for a full week to help settle me in!)

MY amazing moving crew

 

I am now living like a queen in a beautiful three-bedroom house with Nugget in an eco-village, populated with long-time Pot-Pats. Seriously, people refer to themselves as that here. One bedroom doubles as an office and every Saturday is cleaning day. It’s like I’m an adult; rather disconcerting if I do say so myself. I’ve even learnt how to drive a moto; something I had been putting off doing in the city and am now discovering is not only easy but great fun and gives me the freedom to go off exploring the beautiful countryside whenever I like.

Exploring on the moto

Nugget is loving her new life down here too. After two years as an indoor cat with the occasional escape attempt, she is now free to roam around in the quiet, safe, community garden, populated by mango trees and chickens. The latter of which scare her, by the way. She rarely strays far and has learnt to jump back into the safety of the house through the open window whenever next door’s puppy, Toby, appears to ‘play’.

Outside Nugget

 

I plan to stay in Kampot for at least a year, with sporadic trips up to Phnom Penh required for work and social occasions. I’ve already been back once and admit it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience. I hadn’t realised how much I loved and had missed country living; the clean air, the slower pace of life, the peace and quiet. Now Phnom Penh just seems nosier, busier and dirtier than ever before. It was a relief to return to my little mansion (oxymoronic but accurate), close the door against the torrential monsoon rains (which Kampot is sadly suffering through the past few weeks due to the massive mountain between me and the ocean) and be alone.

 

I’m a social person but solitude is my closest friend right now. I need some time. I need to recuperate, recover, recharge. Phnom Penh took a lot out of me. It was a lot of fun, of course, but it was also a lot of drinking, a lot of near-death traffic experiences, a lot of dust and dirt and, sadly, a lot of goodbyes. The last one was the worse and I’m not ready to begin making new friends just yet. For now, a few months, perhaps, I need some me time. Well, me and Nugget time. I’m writing more than ever before (although admittedly not for this blog – sorry!), I’m eating healthily, I’m not drinking, I’m reading more books. I’m happy, frankly.

 

So, Kampot, thank you for giving me a new lease of life. I’m so glad I decided to move here and become a Pot-Pat. Here’s to the next twelve months of countryside adventures and rural delights.

 

Oh, and anyone who wants to come and visit, I have two spare bedrooms! Must like cats.

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