Cats and other things

My new home, which I will be moving to this week, has a resident cat, a small orange tabby rescued from the streets of Phnom Penh by my (soon-to-be) French-American flatmate. These pictures were taken from my time in Los Angeles -- I forgot how having a pet makes home more homey.

It's Sunday night here and the end of a lovely weekend. Last night, I accompanied my (soon-to-be-former) American flatmate and his friends to a boat party, thrown for their lovely German colleague. There was some dancing to James Brown and Michael Jackson on the rickety-rockety boat, as the lights of the city lazily slinked by and the night breeze blew.

At one point in the evening, my flatmate and I sat out on the narrow deck of the wooden boat, escaping the salsa music that had just commenced, and, there, quietly savored the darkness stirring around us and the dim night sky above. We sat drifting along the Mekong River in this manner for who knows how long (until the boatman told us we were soon docking), complicit.

Life has been too harried lately; I need more of those moments.

Happy Australia Day

via Gourmet Traveller

Oh, I've been a bad, bad blogger. Life threw a tornado at me (primarily, the good kind) when I returned to Phnom Penh. I'm still dizzy.

And then there was the day that blogger was cut off in Cambodia, as is the case in countries like Burma and China. Sketchy, indeed.

Yesterday, I celebrated my first Australia Day and was introduced to the joys of hamburgers with beetroot and lamingtons (coconut-covered sponge cake).

2011

So, 2011, huh?

During the weeks I was home, my computer died, taking with it memories and documents of what has been a whirlwind year-- and then, thanks to one very savvy person, it was resurrected. There was a 30-hour-Portland trip, too short a time to see friends, but just long enough to give me a taste of the Pacific Northwest, to remind me how nice that city feels, how a big part of myself was shaped there. There was also a whole lot of eating.

And then, there were family goodbyes, packing, a plane trip that started with breakfast in Los Angeles, continued with an orange sunset in Tokyo and then a late, late dinner in Bangkok.

I'm back in Phnom Penh. Stepping outside the airport doors to the dusty city, I peeled off the layers of travel clothing and was greeted by the smell of burning-something (incense? foliage?) and the honking tuk-tuks and a cool breeze, all filling the air; it felt really homey.

Already, there is so much to do, and a tide of change is underway. There are new faces in the office. And very soon, I will have a new home. With an oven!

It kinda feels like I'm turning a page.