oNe PhOtO a DaY JuLy 2022:

JULY 1st REFLECTION: A reflection of us and the arches and shadows of the recently renovated, deco Phnom Penh Train Station. Whooo hooo taking the train back to Kep tomorrow morning

JULY 2nd LETTERS: I’ve long had a fascination with languages and especially those with a non-Roman script. Khmer is one and our tickets to the screening of “White Building” yesterday afternoon were a fine example of the artistic Khmer script

 

JULY 3rd HUMAN: The very distinctive human faces in this garden sculpture are unmistakably Khmer to my mind

JULY 4th I’M WORKING ON THIS: We are now dismantling the kitchen and bathroom and preparing for the third load out tomorrow. Down to the pointy end with only the heavy and bulky items remaining for the removal truck next week. The new apartment is taking shape and the Kep house is almost uninhabitable now

 

JULY 5th WALL: We arrived back in the Aerie this afternoon to find the wall almost completely rendered, plastered and painted and the workers calmly continuing the job they were contracted to do. A heart-warming welcome even if the mess will take a committed clean up routine

 

JULY 6th BRIGHT COLOURS: A totally accidental shot that I hoped would show the night lights of Phnom Penh! I did get my shot looking back at our precinct from the opposite bank of the Tonle Sap but I do also rather like this random light painting especially as actual painting has been going on for the last two days and is finally finished

 

JULY 7th A FAVE PLACE: Give me a market and I’ll always be happy. Central Market or Phasar Thum Thmei is the crème de La crème in Cambodia and this shot has all the ingredients I usually buy as you rarely see them elsewhere

 

JULY 8th OUT OF FOCUS: The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh - taken from a moving tuk tuk in the attempt to ensure it was out of focus but even then, it came up crystal clear so I had to revert to long exposure

 

JULY 9th A BOOMERANG: We have been bouncing back and forth between Kep and Phnom Penh like a boomerang for the last few weeks now. This morning we took our second ride train to return to Kep. Ian was boarding at 6:20am when I took this shot

 

JULY 10th BEHIND SOMEONE: This is an archive shot taken on this day in 2019 when we were on our last overseas trip. It came up in memories this morning and since we are on the final fling of packing up, cleaning up and moving out it’s the best I’ve got. The rabbit and dog are definitely behind someone in a horse mask and they are all waiting in the wings to make their grand entry at Tshechu in Nimalong. Tshechu is my absolute favourite thing about the Kingdom of Bhutan

 

JULY 11th INTERIOR: We are down to the pointy end now and the interior of our living room in the lovely house in Kep which we have lived in for almost five years, looks like this. Only the mattress which we will sleep on, one last time tonight needs to be added to this truck load leaving on Wednesday

 

JULY 12th EXTERIOR: The view of our exterior of the Aerie and our favourite place to sit for meals, coffee and just to watch the world go by

JULY 13th LIFE: I’m fascinated by the lively activities and lives of market vendors. At 7am this morning this vendor was out selling the flowers used as offerings on Buddhist altars. I’m sure her life is not easy but after, at first hiding behind her flowers she overcame her shyness and gave me a huge smile. Although I haven’t set up spirit house or my altar yet, I also couldn’t resist buying an offering

*This image was elected for the Fab Four on Facebook on the day I posted

 

JULY 14th CREATE A POSTCARD: I have spent the morning unpacking and organising and the most pleasurable of my tasks was to set up my Khmer Buddha again. It’s in a temporary position until we find a hall table we like so the quote seems apt for how we have spent the last few weeks too, this this is the postcard I created before stopping for a coffee break

JULY 15th WHERE I STOOD: Early this morning when we were out on a buying mission we walked right past the Royal Palace so I had to stand in front and take a selfie

JULY 16th PATTERNS: One of the design features of the building we now live in are breather bricks. They provide both light and ventilation in the building. There are two of this pattern above our entrance way and several others in the stair wells and I really love them. This pattern is my favourite. In the evening they all cast crazy shadows inside the apartment

 

JULY 17 WATER: The Tonle Sap River is about 200 metres from our place and it is a waterway with a long history of thriving communities, whose livelihoods depend upon it. These onetime ferries have turned into pleasure boats and floating bars as the building of bridges stole their trade. This morning we strolled along the quiet riverside banks. The monsoon flooding of the Mekong causes the water to turn a murky brown and flow northward away from the sea! The only river in the world to flow two ways

 

JULY 18th STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: I had so much fun this morning taking shots on our market run. The streets where we live teem with vibrant activity especially in the early morning and evening. This is the shot I was most pleased with. Those curved corner façades have so much character and this one even has some of the original signage

*This image was also selected for Facebooks PAD fab four much to my surprise

 

JULY 19th A CYLINDER: Our orange speaker is about the only cylinder I have and our brief walk outdoors didn’t reveal any others. So, the kitchen unit from Kep houses the bar temporarily and the speaker can be heard through most of the house from this position

 

JULY 20th HUG: This is an archive shot from 2013. We are monsoon rained in with torrential downpours almost all day. Luckily, we went to the market early and loaded up on supplies. We surprised my sister by coming home from Asia for Xmas and knocking on the front door unannounced. Can’t wait to hug her again. It’s been five years now and we hope it might happen later this year

 

JULY 21st CHURCH: Having been rained in for the second day in a row this is also an archive shot. It is the abandoned ruins of an old church on Bokor Mountain and one of the very few churches I have ever seen in Cambodia

 

JULY 22nd CURRENT INTEREST: At the moment I’m totally fascinated by the recent history of Phnom Penh. We recently saw a film about this building and the consequent displacement of residents and its demolition. We actually saw it standing when we arrived here in 2017 and pondered what happened later. Then I saw this photograph and bought it and just a few days ago, found a frame and hung it. It’s known locally as the White Building and this photo is called “The Not So White Building”

 

JULY 23rd STILL LIFE: of breakfast with yoghurt, fruit and coffee

*Yet another fab four selection with this one came as a surprise too

JULY 24th A METAPHOR: It seemed appropriate to go for a metaphor based on home given our focus on getting properly set up at the moment. This is our Bhutanese themed entrance

 

JULY 25th BEAUTY: Peacock feathers symbolise beauty and luck among many other interpretations by different cultures. I found this one in the streets of Phnom Penh the day we decided to buy the apartment and have kept it as a way to bring luck into our new lives. It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this prompt and the miracle is after all the packing and unpacking of the recent weeks I could actually locate it. Now to find some way to display it

 

JULY 26th PORTRAIT MODE: There’s a bit of a lack of subjects at the moment as we have both tested positive for the dreaded “C” virus and are isolating. Feeling somewhat better after just a couple of days and I have got the sparkle back in my eyes if not the spring in my step

JULY 27th COUNTRYSIDE: We have now taken the train back to Kep twice and hope to do it many more times. This was taken on our last trip back a couple of weeks ago. Monsoon skies and flood plains - quintessential Cambodia countryside landscapes

JULY 28th AN OLD CAR: This prompt presented something of a challenge given that we are in isolation on the fourth floor. I unsurprisingly turned to a novel given I have read three in five days. An old car and family photo from the poignant and perhaps best-known tale of one family’s ordeal during the Pol Pot era - the trilogy beginning with “First They Killed My Father,” by Loung Ung. A photograph of an old photograph of an old car

 

JULY 29th BLACK AND WHITE: Not my tipple of choice and a bit too early in the day for me but a shot from our home bar that’s been all but abandoned for obvious reasons of late! It might make a comeback soon, since we are now both starting to feel somewhat more human. Ian doing his Glaswegian mum proud with his choices scotch whiskey

 

JULY 30th HAPPY DAYS: Some of our happiest days in Cambodia have been spent with the little monks of Kep. We are hoping to be well enough to be able to visit them again soon and until then the thousands of memories and thousands of photos of them make my heart sing

*Final selection for the Facebook Fabbers for the month was these baldies and they were actually selected on Instagram too. So that’s a first

JULY 31st SUNDAY MORNING: is all about silent streets and secret side alleys with citizens waking up slowly in the city that prefers to sleep

 

THE PROMPS 

Arrived Anecdotes

13/7 8:30 am

Yesterday was a true Red-Letter Day! 

We managed a last picnic style breakfast from Delis with cold coffee brewed the day before so the coffee pot could be stashed in one of the many cardboard cartons that accompanied us in the car. 

It was an absolute miracle of logistics. The load for the truck was lined up in the living room already but we stripped the bed and added the mattress. Meanwhile, the boxes, blinds, fan, rattan stools, plants and sundry miscellaneous items were on the porch as a load for the car, while we frantically cleaned the remaining spaces and rain persisted. 

Luckily we were able to load up the “taxi” in only light drizzle not the howling winds and torrential rain of the previous three days. Even more luckily the rain stopped completely half way through our journey. 

The Khmer family who we rented from have become our Khmer family, through their kindness, generosity, concern and care. That relationship was established largely without shared language but it is and will always be a strong bond. 

Our neighbours, our friends and most of all the little monks have been an enormously enriching part of our lives in Kep and it’s not easy to walk away from all that. 

As we drove out through Kep towards Kampot it really hit home that we were starting a whole new journey now. Yes, we will go back to visit and hopefully often but that chapter is closed. “Nothing remains without change.” We were both pensive and silent for a large part of the journey to Phnom Penh. 

On arrival, we raced up and down the stairs frantically in relays and managed to get everything up before the skies once again opened up. A record 34 flights for Ian with the heaviest of the goods and one set less for me. As the driver stated, we “have a lot of products!!” We dared not mention to him, those already on their way in the truck as I write. 

A quick early dinner at the local IndoPak restaurant, just a block away having waited once again for the rain to abate before venturing out again, and exhaustion set in and sleep called. 

Great bustling activity in the Kandal Market today as we joined the locals at 7am. My favourite observation for the day was watching the small vendors without licenses presumably, stash their wares and scarper as the inspectors came through. Those with legitimate established stalls simply incorporated their products into their own stalls until the threat was over. That’s a respectful sense of community and support for the underdog if I ever saw it! Yes, I know we all have to pay for the right to conduct business but times are tough and everyone needs a break and a little helping hand sometimes. 

23/7

It’s hard to believe more than a week has passed now since these events. 

The following day the rain scenario repeated itself almost exactly and via messages from our friend and neighbours in Kep we heard how everything was carefully wrapped to avoid rain damage and loaded with caution onto the removalists truck, once again in light drizzle.

The Khmer company “we love to move it” were incredible. They messaged us to say that they had arrived in Phnom Penh and were hopeful that they could off load before the rain started up. They not only roped up the heaviest items from the ground to third floor and carried them up the final flight but also placed them where they needed to be within the apartment. They were incredibly efficient, hard-working, polite and professional and did indeed get everything into the apartment with just minutes to spare. As they were walking down the stairs to leave the rain started up with a vengeance and we were thoroughly amazed at how fortunate our timing had been.

I set myself up in the apartment to direct arrivals and Ian, of course, was at the pointy end taking photos of the process and carrying things from the third floor up the final flight. I decided to get a shot of the first things off the truck and through the door and much to my amusement, I saw Ian carrying this bundle. 

When we first arrived at the Kep house in 2017 there was a plastic broom in the kitchen. I much prefer the local ones which are brush, string and a bamboo stick as they are 100% recyclable. For the next five years I referred to that broom as Muma San’s broom and never used it. When we left that house the previous morning I dutifully left the completely unused broom in its original place in the kitchen but despite the instructions that only the things in the living room needed to come, it too was loaded onto the truck with sundry other cleaning items we had used that morning and no longer had a use for. So, now despite my best intentions, I have Muma San’s broom in PP and I just can’t see myself returning it to her in Kep. I’m sure she would be bewildered if I did. 

We, of course, wrote a glowing review on their business, tipped them and sent them off mid-afternoon with beers in hand. Everyone was smiling and I can’t praise them enough.  

Since then little by little boxes have been unpacked and more scraping, scrubbing, sweeping and mopping of the floor has occurred but we have also taken time to enjoy the process of setting up a new home.

The purchase of some new items was inevitable and we decided to throw caution to the wind and buy the hall table that actually made our hearts sing. We also ordered new rattan chairs for the terrace and are anxiously awaiting their delivery. 
 

Phalla has also made a return visit and managed to adapt and put up to more of our blinds from the house in Kep just in time to provide our guest with some privacy. They went up literally the same afternoon as he arrived and just hours before we departed to meet him at the airport. The Venetian blinds that were the worst aspect of the place when we viewed it, in my opinion, are now all a thing of the past. 

At long last, we feel it is all coming together and we are able to enjoy the Aerie and not only know that it’s ours but that it is taking shape in the way we imagined.

Our first international guest arrived earlier this week and has been treated to several days of torrential rain and therefore forced confinement but we have also managed a few sorties to the market, riverside, shops and local places.

 We also went to another art exhibition and recognised both the work and the artist as there was one of his original pieces in the Aerie the first time we saw it.  

We have also hosted our first dinner party and I’ve even embraced the induction cooktop to create a few of my signature dishes although it’s the new oven that really brings me joy. 

Finally, we have spent time relaxing, chatting and simply adjusting to the new lifestyle without feeling the need to achieve more transformation daily.

 

Due to my tardiness in completing the write up of this saga, I have been hounded for a “big reveal”. It’s actually more of a slow unfolding but for what it worth this this the way our new abode currently looks. 

And we love it!