Christmas Day has always been about family. As children we would all wake up early, wake up Mum and Dad, be sent back to bed, wait for Dad to get up to go and do the milking, open presents, eat a turkey lunch etc etc. Ie Eating, presents and family. As adults we would wake up late. Drivie to parents, (Mum only recently), steak pie lunch, open presents, play games (Turkey is now eaten on Boxing Day) ie eating, presents and family. For me Christmas has always be...

My last night in Pailin and I spent it in a karaoke bar just outside Pailin with the girls. Yes I did say KARAOKE. I had asked them out and they suggested Lucky, so of course I said yes. The meal had been lovely, in an open air room at the front of what looked like an ordinary Cambodian house. While we were eating the electricity went so they all just took out their phones and carried on cooking, chatting and generally ignoring the fact we were now in the dark. W...

This morning I was alone in the office. Bunthorn has gone off training and the boys, for some strange reason that I will come to later, failed to turn up for work. I sat there thinking about the last 4 months and came to the conclusion that the good has definitely outweighed the bad and that I will really miss this little town on the edge of the world. As you approach the town from Battambang the first things you see are three very large monuments on the top of ...

Well everyone now knows I am moving placements. I arrived back from doing the evaluations yesterday and as the taxi drove towards Pailin I don't think it could have looked better. The sun was going down behind the hills which made them look blue. The fields and trees were very green due to the late rain. Everything was just lovely. Maybe I am lucky in that I have only seen this area looking good - in April it goes brown like the rest of the country. In the eve...

One down two to go - before I finish this blog I will have eaten all three. The first was a french chocolate mousse which tasted devine. Before you all put your hands up in horror and say how could she - I deserve it. Interviews through an interpreter all week with only a travel day in between is exhausting. I also stood on a set of scales for the first time since I arrived - lost 6Kg since the doctor weighed me for my medical and it was in the evening with my...