Tuesday Night Chatter

I hope you'll excuse the lack of TNC last week, I was just a bit busy.

To be honest, I don't really know what I'm going to say here. There is a lot to say -- there's always a lot to say -- but trying to put words to it is always an issue. I know, I do fine, and can usually smash thoughts together into a more or less cohesive post, but --

I don't know tonight.

The return to Phnom Penh has been busy, mostly. I spent a lot of time saying "we'll see when I get back from Siem Reap," and, well, now I'm back from Siem Reap and those projects are now waiting for me to attend to them.

Thank god for google, which has been invaluable in identifying all the crazy fruit my friend the fruitseller gets me to buy, this week persimmons, which apparently need to be eaten very, very ripe. Hence why the one I just tried to eat -- still very hard -- was no good. Oh well. She was also selling those wonderful sesame candies, some kind of sweet paste rolled in sesames. No idea what it's called, but I somehow ended up with a kilo of the stuff, or a half kilo, not really sure, and either way I'm happy.

My concentration is totally shot tonight -- I couldn't sleep last night and started out with a bang and didn't stop since; a meeting or two, work, my Khmer lesson, and then a rush job for my boss the ED. I can probably do without, but I am starting to seriously consider getting a smartphone for work, as I spend a lot of time in transition and unable to access my email, so when my boss calls me as he does and asks me if I can check my mail right now there's something urgent, it stresses me the heck out.

We'll see -- I'm making a bit less than I thought I was, thanks to my brain helpfully deleting the "but that's for full time" out of a crucial sentence, when I am in fact working part-time. However, thanks to my having about three different jobs, it shouldn't wind up being that big of an issue. We will see when I get paid from this new job, as I've heard different numbers from different people and am somewhat curious as to the final one.

I confess to being totally torn about being back -- half of me wants to go straight back to Siem Reap and find Linda, and the other half is really glad to be back in my own place, eating simple food, doing work I like.  But I miss Linda dearly, and check my phone all the time just in case she decides to call, which I'm still holding out hope for.

My wrist is getting better but there is one place at the base of my thumb -- which I know because I poked it the other day in investigating -- that is still very sore and gets achy when I use my hand too much. I wonder if there might be a very small hairline fracture in there, but either way it will heal itself like any other injury.

I also miss my students -- as frustrating as they were, we ended on a fantastic note with the showing.

But, onwards we go. I'm working with someone on an investigation of dance and film -- working together to make art, not one for the other -- and found my inspiration for the dance I'm creating. I think you can guess -- a little 10 year old flower girl, who totally turned my world over. I know what I want to name it, and we've started talking about showing it when it's done. That way I get to talk about it...and maybe someone will know where to find her.

On a final, somewhat lighter note, it's really quite amazing the difference it makes having a bike that's not falling apart and way too small. I can get places quite quickly, I feel a hell of a lot safer, and the bike chain doesn't skip every time I try to add extra power. What a thought...