Hi

Hello friends. My apologies for not updating this blog. I am still alive and kicking here in Phnom Penh. Although I have been working part-time these past months, the tasks assigned to me are very tedious. Please head over to my other blog - Sreisaat Adventures for more updates. I'll let this blog rest for a while, and resume posting when I have the time.

Thank you and see you in my other blog.


Sreisaat

Sunday laughs (a crosspost)

Today I am breaking my self-imposed hibernation to bring you this hilarious piece I found from another blog. But first let me say that I am still very much alive and kicking in Phnom Penh. Contrary to what my friends think, I didn't fall in one of the many manholes in the city, nor was kidnapped by some wayward highway robbers while on field work. And no, I haven't abandoned this blog.

The truth is, I am currently doing two consultancy jobs at the same time. How courageous, isn't it? But hey, as long as the jobs keep me busy and moolah is coming in, I wouldn't mind the stress that goes with work. After all, I have long asked for this to keep myself from going bananas and from driving Rob further up the wall. Tee-hee-hee. The work arrangement is in my favor because I could both work at home and correspond to my bosses online, and do house-chores at the same time. I only go to the office near the Russian Market once a week, when needed. In addition, they phone me or send me text messages, much to my surprise since most Cambodians are not fond of sending text messages at all. They'd rather pick up their phones and call.

Which is so much different in the Philippines. Texting started out as a craze, especially for young people, but now, it is no longer a craze but a way of life. If you see a man or a woman, hunched in one corner, two hands gripping the cellphone and their knuckles almost white and body seemingly trembling. Well, don't fret folks... look again, because, more often than not, this person is merely writing a text message with great speed! Making a call is not a priority and ignoring someone's call is not a big deal. However, ignoring text messages is unspeakable. So you can imagine how many millions of cellphone messages are being sent by Filipinos everyday!

Just a thought... If God has a cellphone up there, have you ever wondered what kind of messages He would send us? And if you receive one of His messages, would you likely respond? How would you respond?

Anyways, while I was checking Max's blog today, I came across Tony, the funny guy behind the The Old Fart blog, who left a comment months ago. He probably thinks Max got eaten alive by ants by now because we'd never replied back. I was chuckling while I was reading his past posts, and one particular entry caught my attention because it just answered my question (see previous paragraph). Here's is one example of a message God would have sent to us had He got a cellphone up there:

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
2. dnt wrshp idols.
3. no omg’s.
4. no wrk on sat.
5. ur m&d r cool.
6. dnt kill ppl.
7. :-X only ur m8.
8. dnt steal.
9. dnt lie.
10. dnt ogle ur bf’s m8 or ox or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.


What a hoot! You should head over The Old Fart's blog for more funny takes on his daily life in the land down under.


***
Photos were also taken from Tony's blog.

Unconscious Mutterings 001

I thought this is cool so I decided to join. Here's my first entry:

1. Again :: repetition


2. Shower :: rain


3. Flirting :: mating ritual


4. Moving on :: leaving


5. Rachel :: wife of Jacob and Benjamin and Joseph's mother


6. Chips :: cookies


7. Texting :: mobile phone


8. Feel better :: happy


9. Cashmere :: endangered animal


10. Sucked :: thumb

Also in Cambodia...

Last week we heard of a man in Netherlands who rammed his car on a crowd of people gathered to watch the royal procession, apparently an attempt to attack the royals family members.

This morning, I read of a similar news this time involving a Phnom Penh thief and an English royal family member:

LONDON, United Kingdom—Thieves tried to rob Queen Elizabeth II's 19-year-old granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, and her friends while they were traveling in Cambodia, a British newspaper reported on Monday.

The rest of the story here:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20090504-202977/Thief-in-Cambodia-attacks-British-princess

Updates from our side of the planet...*

Dear family and friends – hello!
I have gotten out of blogging recently – sorry for the "blog-blackout". As you can see I am trying to shake procrastination off of me and get back into blogging as I realized it’s already been a month since we returned from Thailand. And when I was finally out of it, that’s when the internet connection went awry due to the road works in our area.

So what’s new, you might ask…
Nothing much for me. Let me rephrase that – nothing much that I am unhappy about. After returning from Thailand, we’re pretty much back to normal. Fresh from the Thailand course, Rob is back in the swing of things at the international school where he’s now handling the primary school English. With new teachers in the primary department’s roster, he hopes to implement the new plan for the English curriculum this year. Some teachers were not too welcoming about the changes that he is introducing, and surprisingly the ones clamoring are the Filipino teachers. They think my husband has no qualifications to be even teaching and so they are, sort of, waging a silent war against him. One particular teacher went to great lengths of spreading nasty things about him. Ano naman kaya ang mapapala niya? Teacher pa naman siya, and teachers are supposed to be paragons of virtues for students to emulate. I know who they are and my take is this – manigas na lang sila! My husband doesn’t talk much but he’s a silent worker. Unknown to them, he’s taken teaching courses long ago which made him qualified to teach. That’s all I can say.

Now let’s go to me.
Initially, I thought that my adventures as Sreisaat ended after I’d quit my job, but, I was proven wrong. My life now as a stay-at-home wife is quite an eye-opener, and, if I may add, I find myself in hilarious predicaments from time to time. I wish I had made a list and blog about these experiences but these are moments that I’d rather keep untold until the time comes that I am not too embarrassed to write about it.

Being a full-time housewife now, my concerns have changed. Instead of community work and dealing with research methodologies and project management, nowadays, I get busy with household management and all. Gone are the days of identifying research communication needs in the pilot communities, nowadays I identify our weekly needs at home – groceries, utilities to be paid and many others. Instead of balancing the project’s monthly budgets, I do our household’s monthly budget. One time I was in the supermarket, fumbling at my grocery list. I stood in the middle of the supermarket, frowning over my own notes when a familiar voice called my name. My former colleague was there, too, and I smiled at her. I was really pleased to see her. We talked for a while about her ongoing management difficulties in the projects she’s handling, and me, with my ups and downs on being a domestic diva. While she was talking, I couldn’t help but think about how the things she’s telling me sounded so familiar and yet now seemed so distant from me. Like they were from another time.

Anyways.
Despite the household work, I still find myself idle most of the times. That’s when I go out and see friends, do lunch, have coffee or go on market-tours *lol*. If not, I just stay at home with Max. She’s our pet dog and I’d like to think she makes attempts to talk to me by grunting, sneezing, winking, or tapping my knees. It amuses me so much that I sometimes find myself talking to her. *lol*. Ngek, nasisiraan na yata ako ng bait. Am I losing my sanity? Hope not. She’s just over two years old and so full of life. She takes her morning and evening walks regularly with Rob and I taking turns to walk her. She rarely goes out of the house to play with other dogs so she’s a bit unsettled whenever there are other dogs around. That’s one reason Rob picks her up and carries her around. She loves being picked up, mind you, and with her nose up in the air, she acts as if she’s the queen.

So we are all fine here.
I sometimes think about how unproductive I am but I am actually enjoying the bliss of idleness.