SEPTEMBER 1st SOMETHING, I SAW: yesterday was a brochure about special screenings of new release Asian films in Phnom Penh. I immediately noticed this one which is a Tibetan documentary. Tonight, with only a handful of others I saw it on the big screen
SEPTEMBER 2nd PLASTIC: waste is a huge problem here and yet there are cheap, viable, sustainable, aesthetic alternatives readily available. Even this vendor has the requisite plastic cup, lid and straw despite his wares. Baskets, banana leaves, lotus leaves and other traditional alternatives are still being used and I believe actually making a comeback, gauging from the number of times I have received purchases wrapped in lotus leaves. I even found a place to buy them for home use yesterday. Say no to plastic
SEPTEMBER 3rd PAPER: I’ve always been a collector (some might say hoarder) of paper items. Even as a kid I loved stationery stores and spent any spare cash there. I especially love to buy postcards and greeting cards but handmade paper, wrapping paper, stickers, origami paper and even fliers get added periodically and used and gifted too. This is a flat lay of part of the current mostly local collection
SEPTEMBER 4th SOMEWHERE I WENT: Today I went for a walk along riverside for the first time in over two weeks. How could I resist taking a shot of those dramatic monsoon skies over the Royal Palace?
SEPTEMBER 5th HOBBY: One of my many hobbies is writing and after years of travel journals, diaries and poems in 2011, I started writing a blog. Recently it has been mostly PAD photo summaries but I promised myself to write more entries again when we moved to Phnom Penh. So far, I have kept that promise and today I published my latest blog on my experiences of Tibetan Culture
SEPTEMBER 6th GREEN + BLUE: = decor. One of the three matching blue pots I bought to co-ordinate with the hall stand a couple of weeks ago. My mother always said, “blue and green should not be seen without a colour in between” but I never got it and always thought it looked lovely as a combination. Think of a peacock
SEPTEMBER 7th BEFORE BED: Every night for over seven years, I have written three things I’m grateful for that day and added photos in the gratitude app. It has had a profound effect on my wellbeing and mental health and I encourage anyone struggling to give it a go
SEPTEMBER 8th AN EMOTION: A little pensive and a little hopeful would be the best I can muster right now. This month’s selfie on the terrace with a prayer flag is now done and dusted
SEPTEMBER 9th OPPOSITES: Phnom Penh, like so many others, is a city of juxtapositions so I present the opposites of development versus heritage.
Second choice
SEPTEMBER 10th I CAN HEAR: monks chanting in the street and through the temple loud speakers most mornings but today is Mid-Autumn Festival. The streets were really teeming with people and droves of monks. This one is chanting and sprinkling water on the stall holders in the market as a blessing
SEPTEMBER 11th PAINT: I made an offering in the main prayer hall at Wat Phnom this morning. I find many of the murals in Theravada Buddhist temples very gaudy but the paint in this one is subtle and subdued. Maybe it’s the age or the effect of the constant smoke from candles and incense or maybe things were done differently in the era that this one was founded. The walls and ceiling as always tell the life story of Buddha but these are exquisite
SEPTEMBER 12th SYMMETRY: We bought this beautiful Buddha statue when we had just decided to buy our apartment and it’s symmetrical. The Mundra or hand gesture is the Varada mundra pose, which is customarily used whenever a blessing is being offered. It is highly unusual for both hands to be in an identical pose and that was part of its appeal for me. It now lives in our bedroom and the blessing is more than welcome as Ian is spending so much time there healing
SEPTEMBER 13th TASTY: This was Sunday night dinner for Mid-Autumn Festival which should be a family feast with mooncakes. We don’t actually like them that much so I made a couple of my favourite Chinese dishes instead. Garlic bolts with eggs and rice and spicy tofu hotpot. Both were very tasty
SEPTEMBER 13th ODD ONE OUT: in terms of model, brand, age, condition and parking style too! Parking Phnom Penh style
SEPTEMBER 15th A FOOD SHOP: This is a typical local food and everything else shop street-side in the capital. Lots of snacks and drinks and staples and at this time of year the yellow wrapped packages, which contain supplies for the monks. Families buy them to take to the pagoda during the 15-day festival which began last Saturday
SEPTEMBER 16th 12:34- At exactly this time today I was sitting on the terrace feet up with a cold drink and a good book admiring the little corner of plants I had tidied up this morning. I like to try to get all the domestic tasks and outings accomplished before midday as it’s then that the dark clouds start rolling in and monsoon rains threaten. (You can just see them at the top left if this shot) Even if they don’t always create a downpour we’ve been caught often enough to be cautious now
SEPTEMBER 17th LUCKY: Today is Heritage Day and the fully restored building which houses the UNESCO office is open to the public. I have long admired this structure and taken many photos from the street of it over time. I was lucky to be able to take a peek inside and was surprised to see how few people availed of this once a year opportunity. It’s stunning inside and out
SEPTEMBER 18th CAR PARK: Whilst I think the Khmer are quite skilled drivers, gliding painlessly through random and chaotic traffic. Parking is not their forte. The bigger or more expensive the vehicle the more entitled one is to abandon it wherever is most convenient. A metre to a metre and a half from the curb or even in the middle of the lane is not at all unusual. This car park was the best one I spotted today based on that fact
SEPTEMBER 19th WHAT’S ON TV: Absolutely nothing at our place ever. I went to a different shopping mall to the one I was intending to visit just so I could get a photo of a TV and was about to post I have never owned or bought a TV when I remembered we currently have this one. When we bought this apartment, certain items were included in the sale - this TV, the DVD player, satellite dish and a microwave oven and fridge (not visible) and some furniture. It seemed very odd to us but that’s the way it’s done here apparently. The day we moved in we banished those items, for which we have no use, to a room we refer to as the dungeon, since it gets no natural light. We actually have no idea if it even works as we have never tried. Currently we are looking for someone to donate all these things and a fridge to but until then the TV is in the dungeon
SEPTEMBER 20th TEXTURE: The texture of the exterior of a ripened coconut shell is weird in my view
SEPTEMBER 21st NATURE: On Saturday I had the privilege to wander freely around the grounds of the French Embassy when it opened for Heritage Day. The 7-hectare French Embassy Park is one of the largest green spaces in Phnom Penh, containing valuable biodiversity such as 200 trees in 50 different species as well as a menagerie of animals. By going early in the day, I was able to experience the quiet, tranquil atmosphere in the shade and the sheer beauty of nature. It’s hard to believe this private garden is in the heart of a bustling city
SEPTEMBER 22nd TREE TRUNK: A random tree trunk I spotted on my wanderings around the streets of Phnom Penh. Looks like some kind of ficus to me
*suprisingly this one was selected for the fab five on Facebook for this prompt
SEPTEMBER 23rd CRUNCHY: homemade pita chips to go with baba ganoush and hummus for our gathering of friends to celebrate Ian’s improved mobility, Blessed Rainy Day and the biggest festival of the year in Cambodia, Pchum Ben. There is always a reason to feel blessed and grateful
SEPTEMBER 24th I CAN SMELL: the combination of two sweet scents: the one oriental lily bud that snapped off the stem as I carried them home but miraculously opened anyway and the exotic aroma of this new incense I recently bought. It’s Himalaya Mist scent which is supposed to create peace and tranquillity and perfect for our little altar with the Bhutanese incense holder. It’s a match made in heaven and a delightful fragrance is permeating the apartment
SEPTEMBER 25th LANEWAY: This is the laneway through which we enter the stairwell to our apartment and these are a few of my regular welcome team who shout “Hello, hello, hello,” to me and usually attempt to repeat anything I say back to them in English. We all get a big kick out of it
The laneways are usually a hive of bustling activity but currently they are eerily empty, as are the streets of Phnom Penh. Today is day fifteen of Pchum Ben, and anyone who can goes home to the provinces laden with treats and festival food, for a family celebration. After visiting the pagoda that is!
SEPTEMBER 26th THE MOON: at dawn from our back balcony. It was a few mornings ago and a crescent but that was the best I could get with my phone. Right now, the moon is elusive with monsoon skies and heavy cloud cover and I haven’t seen it since. I also love the breather bricks on the bedroom wall in this shot
SEPTEMBER 27th OPEN DOOR: The temples have been a hive of festivities for the last fifteen days but today the celebrations are over and they are once again sanctuaries of peace and tranquillity. I took the opportunity to wander through the serene compound of Wat Ounalom just before midday today. There were many open doors but this one leading to living quarters, I believe, really attracted my attention
SEPTEMBER 28th MY CULTURE: would definitely have to be coffee culture. Latte, long black, iced or affogato, at home on the terrace or in a quaint little cafe as long as it doesn’t come in a plastic cup I’m always up for a cuppa
SEPTEMBER 29th NOT MY STYLE: This formal attire for Cambodian women is worn at weddings, festivals and on other special occasions and they often look spectacular in it but I’m well aware it’s not my style
SEPTEMBER 30th SENTIMENTAL: This was taken on timer with the first ever real camera we bought and shared, after spending half our life savings on one-way tickets and this camera, to take up teaching jobs in northern China just two months after Tian’nanmen in 1989. That one-year appointment saw us spend the next thirteen years in Asia and changed the course of our lives forever
THE PROMPTS
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