It’s not very often that you get the opportunity to attend a 99thbirthday 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 99th 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.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
The other two surprises occurred on the weekend at my grandad’s 99thparty. 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.
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.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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 …
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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.
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:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Places and pretty things/food:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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.
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 …
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.
This week was all about red helmets for me! The order from Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (AIP) finally arrived on Tuesday and they look great!
Thumbs up for the helmets
This is the culmination of six months’ work for SKOPE which started in one of my first weeks back at school. I had always noticed, and been horrified by, the number of children coming to Sovann Komar School without helmets, especially since a law passed early in 2015 made it compulsory for all passengers to wear one. After I had started SKOPE, I realised I was in a position to instigate change in this area.
Two cousin nipping home for lunch … without helmets!
Most of the children within Sovann Komar Children’s Village don’t ride motos too often because they take the bus to and from school. However, when they do they are traveling along one of the busiest and most dangerous roads in Cambodia. I didn’t understand why the parents allowed this since they are so loving in caring in so many other ways. The students at our school however often come from very poor families. For some of them, a helmet is seen as an unnecessary expense and therefore they risk their child’s life every day. If you’ve not seen it, click here to watch a video I made.
Most of the funding for this project came from a few generous donors in the USA and Outreach International. Outreach is the volunteer agency I used when I first came to Cambodia and we have kept in touch ever since. They also continue to place volunteers at Sovann Komar and one of the mothers at the village acts as their in-country coordinator. Thanks to their contribution, SKOPE was able to finance the rest of the project with money raised in the UK in December.
I’ve written before about the helmets I chose so I’ll just briefly summarise here: they’re made in Vietnam and conform to US safety regulations. They’re bright red and have the SKOPE logo on either side.
I spent the day yesterday carrying around large boxes to every classroom in Sovann Komar School to fit and hand out the helmets for children who travel to school by moto. Here are some lovely smily faces to give you an idea of my job and why I love it so much.
Some happy children from Nursery 2Grade 3 and their new helmetsMe and one of our Grade 1 classes with their new helmetsMy Grade 5 class next to one of two signs we have had made for the project
Yesterday evening I stayed behind after work and when the older children returned from school, we had a little ceremony to give the helmets to the Sovann Komar families too. Each family got three or four helmets (the children had all been sized several weekends ago) because if the whole family are going somewhere, they usually drive.
Sovann Komar children and some parents with the helmets
Along with the helmets, Sovann Komar and SKOPE are implementing stricter road safety rules. Everyone who lives within Sovann Komar Village must wear a helmet when they pass through the gate. If they don’t, they must pay 50 cents to the guards there. Although we are not financially penalising the students enrolled in our school their parents will be informed that we are stepping up our game when it comes to road safety and our guards have been asked to keep an eye out for children who repeatedly do not wear helmets.
However, I do not think we will have much of a problem enforcing these rules. The children who received their helmets yesterday were all very pleased with their shiny red present. They understood the importance of them and so did their classmates. Parents too acknowledged these gifts and will be able to tell the helmets are excellent quality. That, coupled with the letter, and I hope we will instil a safety conscious culture into everyone at Sovann Komar.
A father admiring his son’s new helmet yesterday
It doesn’t sound like much but I think SKOPE accomplished a lot with this project. 117 helmets distributed and over 360 students educated about the importance of road safety. Hopefully these are lessons and practices which will continue for the rest of their lives.
Keeping this family safe!Grade 2 and their new helmetsGrade 1 getting fitted for helmetsKindergarten and their helmetsOur youngest students, Nursery 1, and their helmets
It will be seven years in January since I first left England to live in Cambodia, on and off of course. But it wasn’t until November 2015 that my parents finally came to visit me. And I had to make sure the holiday was worth the wait.
The route:
Siem Reap
Phnom Penh
Kampot
Phnom Penh
Mondulkiri
Phnom Penh
The reason we went to Phnom Penh three times? Because Cambodia’s road network looks like a spider with every highway stemming from the capital and none of them linking up outside of the metropolis.
So let’s start with the temples in Siem Reap. This wasn’t a difficult part of the holiday to make awesome. I mean, it’s Angkor Wat! The ancient structures wow over one million tourists every year and my parents were among them as we wandered through the colossal stone structures. We actually started, rather unorthodoxly, with Ta Prohm. This is my favourite temple and also the one where Tomb Raider was filmed (for about one minute). It’s been left partially to the jungle with giant trees draped over the stones and undergrowth slowly encroaching from all sides. It’s magical.
Big tree, teeny tiny parentals
On to Bayon which is part of Angkor Thom. Basically it’s the one with the big faces everyone knows.
Angkor Wat was our final stop on our first day. It’s just as amazing to me now as it first was almost ten years ago. Unfortunately some health and safety laws have come into play (yes even in Cambodia our fun is ruined) and because of building works we weren’t able to climb to the very top. Still pretty cool though, right?
Angkor Wat Selfie!
On our second day we headed out to the Tonle Sap lake where you can visit fishing villages which float on this giant body of water. To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend the experience. I went a few years ago and since then the site has become a money making, tourist extorting, generally unpleasant place to be. The village itself is picturesque but you get constantly asked to donate rice to children who are “orphans”. $50 for a twenty kilo bag of rice! It should cost about $10. And even after I explained that I work at an orphanage, they still tried to get us to donate money. It was pushy, rude, misleading and left us with a sour taste in our mouths. And then to top it off, as soon as we disembarked from the boat, a little girl appeared trying to sell me a ceramic plate with a picture of my own face on! Creepy or what?
Traditional floating village scene
The day got better though when we hiked up a stupidly steep hill to a temple and discovered a wonderful view over the Tonle Sap lake. In fact, after a brief meeting I had arranged for my SKOPE project, we returned that evening and watched a glorious sunset.
The final day in Siem Reap took us out to the remote temples: Kbal Spean and Banteay Srey. The former is actually not a temple but carvings in a river bed. Different, beautiful, and rewarding after the 1.5km hike up the hill.
Kbal Spean
Banter Srey was nicer before it made its way onto the Chinese tourist bus route. It’s a tiny temple made of pink sandstone with the most intricate and beautiful carvings over every inch of it.
Banteay Srey
On the way back to the city, we stopped at the Landmine Museum where we were lucky enough to arrive at the same time an American worker was starting a tour which was incredibly informative even for someone who’s got a Masters in the subject. That evening we went to the Phare Cambodian Circus – amazing!
That’s high!
I was glad to be leaving Siem Reap, to be honest. I was looking forward to going home and showing my parents a real Cambodian city rather than the tourist centre Siem Reap has become. The weekend in Phnom Penh was touristy too though: Royal Palace, National Museum, Wat Phnom, Riverside, accompanied by several of my favourite restaurants. They only got lost once (well, there was a miscommunication with Tuk Tuk Lady but she was terrified that she’d lost my parents when they didn’t reappear after they went to the Royal Palace!)
Kampot remains my favourite place in Cambodia and we spent three full days in the sleepy riverside town. To be honest there isn’t much to say about our wonderfully relaxing time. Our guesthouse, Greenhouse, was right on the bank of the river and my mum and I swam across at least once a day. We took a countryside tour to see the caves and rice paddies one day before having lunch in Kep, a seaside town famous for its crab. We also hired bicycles and cycled up to an old temple. The hill was incredibly steep but I was really looking forward to going back down … until my front tyre got a flat about thirty seconds into my downhill dash. Ever tried to carry a bicycle upside down on the back of a moto? The Khmers make it look easy – it’s not.
Swimming in the Kampot river
Back up to Phnom Penh and my parents came into work with me (after getting lost in a tuk tuk again the night before). It was great for them to meet some of the kids I teach and also the children at Sovann Komar to whom they’ve donated money several times over the years. They also met my bosses and saw me in action in the classroom. My parents wanted to get presents for the kids and I suggested some world maps. Their geographical knowledge is generally poor (one kid pointed to Canada when I asked them to find Cambodia …) and I am really pushing for them to get a greater understanding of the world and other countries.
Handing out maps in Grade 5Handing out maps in Grade 4
I then had to work on Saturday in the provinces (blog upcoming about that) so my parents spent Saturday morning doing the necessary but depressing genocide tour – Toul Sleng detention centre and Choeung Ek killing field. But then I returned and cheered them up with a takeaway and Tomb Raider (it’s obligatory viewing if you’re in Cambodia.)
Our final trip was up to Mondulkiri in the east of the country. I’d not been before so I was really excited. The town itself, Sen Monorom, is nothing special but the main attraction of the area are the elephants. There are several sanctuaries working up there to rescue these majestic beasts from logging work, tourist riding companies, and other industries. We first stayed at Tree Lodge in a wooden bungalow butit was a little too rustic even for me. I mean, the spider in our bathroom was, legs included, the size of my hand. And the frog by my bed was huge too. We moved into a place with a ceiling which connected to the walls which connected to the floor the next day. Not sure how much safer it was though because my mum still managed to trip over a drain and fall down that evening. Funny in hindsight, slightly terrifying at the time when heard clattering noise, turned around and saw her rolling into the road.
Elephants are amazing. I mean, they’re just incredible. We went with a group called the Mondulkiri Project who have four elephants in 30 hectares of forest. Sophie, Princess, Lucky, and Chi Chan (moon in Khmer). We spent the morning feeding them bananas (Princess lived up to her name and insisted we place the food directly into her mouth) and following them as they wandered freely through the jungle.
Feeding Sophie
We then had lunch before heading back down and over a “bridge” to a small waterfall where we were split into two groups so we could wash the elephants! One by one, Princess and Lucky waded into the water and sat down. You then see a rather strange sight of several Westerners in bikinis with scrubbing brushes around these amazing creatures. I washed Lucky with my parents and the whole experience was just spectacular!
Elephant scrubbing!
And that was it! We headed back to Phnom Penh, spent an afternoon on the silk island, went to Raffles, did some last minute shopping and stocked up for the Christmas Markets I’ve since done for SKOPE (blog coming soon) and we were off back to England where my parents returned home after seven weeks of holiday and I came back after ten months to celebrate Christmas in the cold once more.
Cheers to a bloody good holiday!Dad at Ta ProhmMum at Ta ProhmPosing at one of the smaller templesFamily PortraitKids playing in the moat around Angkor WatThe classic shotMonks in Angkor WatFishing in the floating villagePanorama from the top of the temple overlooking the swollen Tonle Sap LakeEven monks’ motos break sometimes
A working pagoda beside Angkor WatIn the mouth of a tree on the way up to Kbal SpeanFirst monsoon in a tuk tukFresh crab arriving in KepRice harvestThe view over KampotCavingDad’s new best friend after he used the parentals’ binocularsNew family pet?The moment mum caught the bag of bananas and nearly fell over in the riverJust showing off my camera here …I was waiting for her to fall … she didn’tSitting in the river on Silk Island on our penultimate dayFinal Cambodian sunset for me of 2015
November marked the start of a two month vacation for me. Yes this is another blog about a holiday, sorry! To kick things off, I flew to Australia where I was reunited with my mum, dad, and older sister. Fran has lived in Perth, Western Australia for about eight years now and this was my third trip out to see her but the first time all of us had been together down under.
Reunited in Perth and already exploring the Australian bush!
I was only in Australia for a week, joining my parents for the final stint of their three week holiday there and we split our time between Rottnest Island and Fremantle. Rottnest is a relatively small island off the coast of Perth which is very popular with both local and foreign tourists. Its main attraction are these little guys:
Quokka!
Quokkas are marsupials which stand at about thirty centimetres high. Despite their rat-like tails, they are impossibly cute and excellent selfie takers. Look at their little grins!!! You’re not actually allowed to touch them but if they bump into your hand, that’s alright isn’t it?
So many Quokkas!
Rottnest is also popular for cyclists as the roads are great quality and almost completely empty. So on our first full day, we hired bicycles and set off, stopping regularly to look at quokkas by the side of the road of course. This trip took a downhill turn for me when, on a walk down to a beautiful beach, I spotted a snake. Those of you who know me will be aware that I have a massive phobia of snakes. Needless to say I ran back up to the road and perched on a bench, feet off the floor, until my family returned. We saw three more of these poisonous snakes throughout that day. Grrrrr.
Cycling FamilyBeautiful beaches
But it was worth the fear because the island is just stunningly beautiful and we spent a wonderful hour on the beach photographed above after my mum and I went swimming. Oh and the quokkas were cute, did I mention them? Our beach-hut style accommodation also afforded us sunsets like this one every night – perfection.
Back on the mainland, we stayed in a quirky little town, just south of Perth, called Fremantle. It’s an alternative, arty, hipster type place. Basically the perfect place to go shopping if you’re a millionaire. But also a great town to wander around, window-shop, admire the street art, and try out various cafes. They also have an amazing brewery called Little Creatures where we enjoyed some beers one evening before heading for fish and chips. Not quite like the Devonian version but pretty damn good, nonetheless.
Just an example of some of the incredible street art in Fremantle. Rainbow zebra!
On our last day, we had to be out of our rental property several hours before my parents and I caught our flight to Cambodia (hint about the next blog entry there) so we headed to Kings Park. For those of you who don’t know Perth or aren’t avid botanists, this is a wonderful garden and parkland set high on the hill above the city. With views over the skyline and plants from around the world, it’s an amazing place to experience Australia and all the incredible flowers and trees that it’s climate allows to grow.
Posing with the view over Perth hours before we said goodbye to Fran
It’s always sad saying goodbye to Fran but it’s become a regular event as the two of us fly backwards and forwards between our new homes and England. She waved us off at the airport as I led my parents into the terminal and on towards our flight to Cambodia.
Watching this space for a blog about my parents’ first trip to South East Asia!
And below are a selection of some holiday snaps – apparently traveling with my mother means I take photos of birds …
Peacock on RottnestKanga and Roo on the mainlandSleepy KoalaMore QuokkasA very blue bird – a bee-eater if I remember correctlyQuokka Selfie – this photo has since been retweeted over 600 times on Twitter (just FYI)Beer, beach, sunset – perfect holiday eveningThis didn’t take as many attempts as one would think!
Awakening on a Sunday morning with a slightly foggy head is not conducive to writing a blog post … so I’ve decided to use other people’s words.
When I was preparing to come to Cambodia for the first time in 2009, I was only 18. I have never been someone who suffers from homesickness but I was daunted by the seven months stretching ahead of me, several thousand miles away from my friends and family. So I bought a white duvet cover and some fabric pens and asked people to write little messages which I could read when I was away. I can’t recall exactly where this idea came from, but the resulting object is one of my most treasured possessions.
Six years later and I still sleep under that same duvet cover every night, surrounded by the love and good wishes of those I hold dearest. I thought I would share some of the messages with you now. The people I asked to write these were not usually given any prior warning before I pulled out a double duvet set and handed them a pen so the messages are unprepared, raw, and honest. The writers range from family members to high school friends, from teachers, to family friends. Some are funny, some are sentimental, some are short, some are long – all of them make me smile. If I have a (rare) bad day here, all I need to do is read a few of these notes and I am reminded of how lucky I am and how full of love my life is. Below is a selection of those messages I feel are most poignant or mean something particularly special to me.
“Try everything once” – brother
“Always ask yourself ‘what’s around that corner’” – close friend
“Make the most of every minute” – childhood friend
“It will be a journey in all senses of the word” – A level English teacher
“Come home safe to those who love and miss you” – best friend
“Open your heart and mind – travelling expands both” – family friend
“Sleep well?” – Grandad
“We will be here to hear about it all when your journey brings you back home, to pause before the next adventure” – Mum
“I can’t believe that you are going to a different country/countries for many many months” – high school friend
“Practice thinking in glorious technicolour” – godmother
“So proud of what you have achieved so far” – spinning instructor
“The longest journey you must take is the 18” from your head to your heart” – Aunt and Uncle
“You are very special to me” – childhood friend
“Please don’t talk them to death” – work colleague
“Check the sobriety of your tuk tuk driver” – best friend
“Promise me you won’t die in Cambodia. That would be a total bummer” – university friend
“Dance your way around the world” – dance teacher
“The difficult times make the best stories” – brother
“The change that is needed lies within each of us” – Dad
I’ve returned to England for a two week holiday. This trip was initially arranged around the date of my Masters graduation. Unfortunately the University of Warwick didn’t know what to do with my thesis which I’d submitted early (because I had a job to start in Cambodia) so they popped it in a drawer … and forgot about it for three months. By the time they found it and sent it to the external examiners, it was too late and I was told I would be unable to attend my graduation. Crap. But the plane tickets were booked and my stash of good British chocolate was running dangerously low so I decided to stick to my flight dates and headed home. Now I know winter is cold but Jesus Christ when I stepped off the plane at Heathrow (in flip flops because my trainers didn’t go with my outfit), I was tempted to turn around and head back to the seat I’d been confined to for the past 14 hours and fly straight back to the Asian sunshine. How was I ever able to deal with this freezing weather? Admittedly I had arrived in a particularly cold spell but even so. I’d become so accustomed to waking up every morning to brilliant sunshine that I hadn’t realised what an impact that has on your life. Sun makes me happy, it’s as simple as that. Clouds and frost make me want to hibernate in my luxurious bed with a 15 tog duvet or curl up like a cat in front of the wood burner – both of these have happened several times in the last two weeks. It was great to see my mum in arrivals, although she then asked me to drive the 200 ish miles home because she’d been kept awake by a fridge in the hotel, so loaded up with good coffee, we hit the M4.
Reunited with my mum at Heathrow
Three hours later and I was walking through the door to my childhood home, greeted by my dog, who seemed genuinely happy to see me for once, and then my newly retired dad and my post-kidney removal little sister and her boyfriend. I had well and truly come home. It’s funny how so little changes and how quickly you fall back into a routine. Familiarity with one’s family is so innate that it felt as if I’d never been away. The only difference seemed to be my inability to deal with cold weather – so my parents decided a trip to the beach would be a good idea on my first day back! Coat, scarf, hat, hot chips (French fries for my American buddies), and I just about managed to ward of hypothermia whilst enjoying the fresh sea air.
Me and my sister huddling in the car whist her boyfriend braves the cold weather!Me with my mum and dad on Sheldon Ness beach on the first dayMe and Kay, my former bar supervisor turned friend
As I only had a limited amount of time in the UK, I had to fit in visiting as many friends as possible. These included one of the elderly ladies in my village, one of my closest friends who is now looking after my horse, my former work supervisor from when I was a bartender at university, a friend continuing her PhD at Warwick, my spinning instructor, former babysitting clients turned friends, and my best friend Anna with whom I volunteered and lived for seven months in Cambodia back in 2009. Saturday night in London saw a big get together of many of my Warwick friends, predominantly because they were all in the country because they had graduated … the exact reason I was in fact in the UK. Despite not having endured a two hour ceremony nor shaking hands with the university dean, I decided to celebrate being in the UK and reunited with some very good friends I’d not seen for five months.
The gang!
I was also able to see many family members, including my 96 year old grandfather and my brother’s two young children … and my brother and his wife. This get-together was also a brilliant excuse to enjoy some good pub grub! Once again, as a family we fell into our familiar routine, despite them not having seen me for five months and knowing that I would not be back in the UK before November.
Dinner with a lot of lemons! L to R – Jamie (big bro), mum, grandad, Molly, me, Thomas and Flo. And thanks Emma for taking the picture!Me with my niece, FlorenceLook how pleased with my scroll I am!
As for the original purpose of the trip? Well Warwick may have royally screwed up but you can always rely on your friends to make any situation better. When Rachel texted me asking if I could pick up the pizzas before heading to Emily’s house for our reunion, I happily accepted. After a slight delay when I somehow found myself trapped in a car park and had to call a nice man to ask him to raise the barrier, I finally arrived with a teetering tower of cheesy goodness. Upon arrival, I saw that my wonderful friends Rachel, Emily, Becky, and Rory had decorated Emily’s house with a graduation theme. There were banners, balloons, and sparkly graduation caps adorning the walls and doorways.
Champagne!!!
After dinner they presented me with my very own hand-made robes, the trim of which looks remarkably like the twitter logo – they know me too well! I had a cap and everything! Becky even presented me with my scroll proclaiming my successful graduation from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I was so touched that they’d gone to such an effort, and the champagne toast (with mandatory graduation confetti in my glass) was the icing on the cake. This is my public thank you to you four amazing people – that hilarious, thoughtful night was a highlight of my trip.
I’m a graduate!! L to R – Emily, Rachel, me, Becky
Before returning to Cambodia, I put out the call on Facebook, offering to buy things for friends in Phnom Penh who wouldn’t be returning home any time soon. The amount of chocolate I ended up buying forced me to do a disclaimer to Sainsburys’ cashier lest she thought I was attempting to give myself diabetes! I swear it took up half my suitcase by the time I’d packed!
Can someone say chocolate?Snow Selfie!
I enjoyed my time at home immensely but after two weeks of being cold – it even snowed one day – I was more than happy to be boarding at Heathrow, once again clad in flip flops (Reading station that morning was not fun!). I was greeted at my apartment by three friends and an iced coffee – the perfect welcome home. And to be honest, sitting at work the following day writing this, it feels like I never left!
I’ll admit I was somewhat apprehensive about my first Christmas in Cambodia. Not only was it my first hot Christmas, but it was also my first Christmas away from home. I feared that whatever the day brought, it would not measure up to those long held familial traditions I treasure so dearly. Regardless of my misgivings, I knew there would be one reason for me to smile on 25th December. My big sister would be here! Fran lives in Australia with her partner Rob, and they flew to Cambodia last week to join in with the humid holidays! Having one family member here immediately made me feel much more Christmassy and without her, I suspect I would have felt homesick over the past week, an emotion with which I am rarely afflicted!
Me and Fran on Christmas Morning – yes we have the coolest hats ever!
I booked three days off work to spend Christmas at the beach. To make up for not working, I offered to throw a Christmas party at Sovann Komar but as I wasn’t feeling very festive, I put off making many arrangements until Fran arrived. And Fran did not arrive empty handed! Her very generous colleagues and friends in Australia had donated 20 kilograms of presents for the children! Thanks to these wonderful people, we were able to give each of Sovann Komar’s 56 orphans and 12 additional children (the biological children of the foster parents) a Christmas present. With money kindly donated by my very own mother, I was able to purchase a very decent Christmas tree and a Santa outfit which Rob, in a moment of weakness, had agreed to wear. The Christmas tree was decorated with paper ornaments made by the children in their previous English lesson and I think it looked pretty damn good.
Sovann Komar’s Christmas tree
Every one of those painstakingly wrapped presents was handed out by “Santa”, with the help of his “elf” (Cambodian name pronunciations can be a bit tricky so I helped out donned in a green shirt and a bouncy Santa hat!). Rob was initially regretting his agreement to dress as Santa but as soon as he tried on his outfit in the middle of IBC, he took to the role with gusto! Interacting with every child, asking questions, and presenting their gift, he even got some of the younger children to sit on his knee! The smile on the faces of the staff and parents at Sovann Komar as they watched the children approach Santa was priceless. I also threw Christmas parties for my Grade 3 and Grade 4 classes, consisting of musical chairs, musical statues, pass the parcel, and a screening of The Snowman – they loved it! I have always heard the expression “Christmas is for the children” but, being rather materialistic, continued to believe it was mostly about me (and Jesus), but seeing the happiness and excitement on all of the children’s faces made me realise perhaps I was wrong!
Santa and 69 happy children!
The following morning, Christmas Eve, we were off to the beach! And for anyone who’s counting, yes this is my fourth trip to Sihanoukville in just over four months. I may have an addiction! We are staying in a delightful hotel call The Tamarind, whose pool I am currently sat beside as I type this blog. Whilst showing Fran and Rob around S’noukie we spotted a sign advertising Christmas Dinner for the following day. My prayers were answered!!! At least one of England’s traditions would be upheld. We enjoyed a BBQ on the beach on Christmas Eve and I introduced Rob to my favourite BBQ-ed squid – my nod towards the smoked salmon feast I always enjoy at my Godmother’s every year.
A slightly scared squid seller and Santa
Christmas Day morning saw us opening presents by the pool at the hotel. I’d collected quite an impressive haul from my lovely Grade 4s – most of which were cute presents, a few of which were just weird! I may not have been snuggled up on my parents bed but I still felt very festive surrounded by wrapping paper and a few decorations sent over by my mum. To get us even more into the festive mood, Rob decided to get out his Santa hat and beard. We hadn’t really thought that through though and as soon as he came out, two little French boys who were staying in the hotel stared at him aghast! Rob waved and jumped into the pool and we continued to open presents. Not long after, the French boys came over for a photo with Santa Claus and two American girls appeared shortly afterwards for the same reason. Oh and then a retired English woman wanted to sit on Santa’s knee (not kidding), followed by a couple of the waitresses at the hotel! Santa was well and truly a hit!
Santa in the pool on Christmas dayFran, Rob (Santa), and me with the present by the pool
Present opening followed by a sunbathe – not normal but damn good! Then it was time for Christmas dinner. As usual in Cambodia the food didn’t come out at the same time and it was all luke warm at best. But it was pretty good and the atmosphere was great – festive, jolly, relaxed.
Christmas Dinner!
Next on the Christmas agenda in the UK would have been a walk… how about a swim? Ok Christmas in Cambodia is starting to be pretty awesome!
Christmas Day Swim
Of course we haven’t forgotten the English peeps – time to Skype! Oh wait the entire internet is down at the hotel? It’s time to scour S’noukie for good wifi then! Mission almost accomplished and families greeted and Christmas wishes bestowed!
Dad’s giant head is partially obscuring Mum, Grandad, with Molly and Sam perched on the end!
Sunset time! Can’t get much better than that now can you?
Sihanoukville sunset, 25.12.2014
My first Christmas away from home was certainly different, and I still don’t quite feel festive, simply because it’s so hot here. But thanks to the numerous friends and family members who sent cards and presents, I feel I captured a certain something of the holiday season. Plus I got some good tanning hours in ahead of returning to the UK next month so who can complain! It may have not been a holiday snuggled up in front of the wood-burner, watching Eastenders, and eating Quality Street (oh wait we did do the last one), but I will never forget my Christmas in Cambodia.
Lemon in Cambodia 