At Home

We moved into our bijou des res (appartment for any plebs reading) in April. The first thing we had to do was equip the place as it contained furniture, cooker, fridge (luxury!) and nothing else. Most of our stuff was bought and/or haggled for in the market. As you can see below, plastic appears to feature very heavily in this year's Cambodian chic.

Do you have it in any colour other than gop?

Please note that Sarah is not pregnant in the photo above (except with unknown expectation - she's just about to experience Pol Pot's revenge for the first time and is, at this stage, just wondering why she is swelling up).

Nonetheless, we were soon in and comfortable. Having our own space was something of a joy (SOMETHING - hah!) after the weeks of communal living (Sarah only had two of them, Perry rather more, of which more anon). The appartment is on the second floor of a family home, with three generations of the family living below us. The pictures below give some idea of the feel of the place.

This is the living room. Sarah has since moved the furniture around (No! Really?) Below is the vew from the living room out onto the balcony.

And now, as the song goes, we come to the tragic bit. We have to boil and filter all our water (unless we want what to get what are described by the volunteers around here as "pets"). We didn't quite get into a routine in the early days. Once upon a time, early in the morning, Perry put on a kettle to boil that he would later pour into the filter. Sadly, the wicked fairy (going to work) intervened and our hero was dragged away, kicking and screaming. Come lunchtime, however, he escaped and rushed home to have lunch. However, horror on horrors, as he opened the kitchen door, his first thought was "It's bloody hot in here". His second was "And steamy. Oh ****!". He rushed to the cooker but it was too late. We don't know what the melting point of aluminium is, but Perry had found it. The tragic remains were properly disposed of, although Perry's sugestion of giving them a viking funeral didn't go down too well.

Sarah points out that Perry has also since killed the iron in the background. He hasn't harmed her muesli bowl yet, so perhaps becoming a cereal killer is something for the next blog...

In the meantime, please don't forget the need to keep supporting VSO through our Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/jagoteers.