Let me share some good news with you; I have finally found a place of my own here in Phnom Penh! After two months of going around with estate agents to look at one place after the other, I´ve signed a contract for a quite small but nice 2 bedroom flat on street 115. It´s not the kind of a traditional wooden house that I´ve been looking for - but after looking at one wooden house after the other that needed major renovations, and also after endless discussions with private landlords over all means of things and details, I´d almost lost hope about finding a place that I´d really like and that would also be a good practical solution. But a couple of weeks ago, I was shown this apartement by one of the estate dealers. It turned out to be a very light, nice and by Cambodian standards modern flat, with a small balcony. Not in the same area as I have looked at before, but still a convenient location; close to food malls and restaurants. So, after some consideration, I decided to drop the idea of a wooden house and instead settle for this more practical solution. And I´m really happy!! The apartment is really cute, fully furnished, and it has a guest bedroom which means that I can welcome friends and family to stay. And although it is pretty small, it´s at the same time very well planned when it comes to both light and storage facilities which otherwise is really difficult to find here in Phnom Penh. And I can set up an internet connection in the apartement, too. So I´m really, really looking forward to moving in. I´ll have access to the apartement from the 15:th of July, but I´ll stay in my friends house until the 22:nd of July when my they´ll be back from their holidays. This as I don´t want Skruttis to be on her own, and I don´t want to move her to a new place for only a week as that probably will cause her stress.
So - I guess that I´d better start planning for some serious shopping now. Because here in Cambodia, the concept "fully furnished" doesn´t really cover anything except just the furniture. Kitchen ware, bathroom equipment and a lot of other things are always provided by the tenant. So Russian Market, Central Market, Lucky Supermarket - here I come..!
Thursday 28 June 2007
Wednesday 27 June 2007
Wedding Anniversary
Today, on the 27:th of June, me and Janne are celebrating our 9 year anniversary. I can´t believe that we have been married for 9 years already..?! It´s diffucult to comprehend that almost a decade has passed since that wonderful day when we walked down the aisle at the little red wooden chapel in Tylösand.
Today, I sent Janne 9 red roses, to tell him how much I love him and to thank him for 9 wonderful years together. The roses were delivered to his office two hours later. It´s quite impressive that thanks to the modern means of communication, you can send flowers from Cambodia to Sweden in less than two hours, isn´t it?
We´re already planning for where to go next year, when we´ll celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Perhaps, we´ll go to Singapore and Borneo where we went on our two months honeymoon in 1998. It would be pretty romantic to revisit some of the places that we visited back then, don´t you think?! :-)
Thank you for 9 wonderful years together, Darling! I love you more than words can say.
Today, I sent Janne 9 red roses, to tell him how much I love him and to thank him for 9 wonderful years together. The roses were delivered to his office two hours later. It´s quite impressive that thanks to the modern means of communication, you can send flowers from Cambodia to Sweden in less than two hours, isn´t it?
We´re already planning for where to go next year, when we´ll celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Perhaps, we´ll go to Singapore and Borneo where we went on our two months honeymoon in 1998. It would be pretty romantic to revisit some of the places that we visited back then, don´t you think?! :-)
Thank you for 9 wonderful years together, Darling! I love you more than words can say.
Thursday 21 June 2007
Midsummers Eve
Dear family and friends,
today you are all celebrating Midsummers Eve in Sweden.
And Michael - you might be celebrating it in London, too? I know you went to IKEA the other day, perhaps for stocking up on pickled herring for Midsummer?:-) (Remember when we celebrated Midsummer in Crete..? :-)
Well, wherever you are dear friends and family, today is a day when you all will eat pickled herring (except for the vegetarians of course), with potatoes, sourcream, chives and most likely drinking a lot of "snaps" with it. Perhaps there'll be some dancing around the midsummer pole as well. Many of you will go with your friends to the countryside for a traditional and romantic - and as usual cold - celebration. Stockholm is a very empty city at Midsummers Eve, as everyone seems to migrate to the countryside or the archipelago.
Here in Phnom Penh, there's no such thing as midsummer in sight. It's more like "the first quarter of the rainy season" or something. So no celebration for me tonight, but probably a nice evening anyway. As usual, I'll probably go out to dinner with my friend Dre, and then go home to Skruttis the beloved cat, watch an episode or two of "Grey's Anatomy" on DVD before going to bed, hoping for a long sleep tomorrow morning. Although that won't happen as Skruttis always wakes me up for her breakfast at 06.30 AM... And tomorrow evening, there'll be a somewhat belated Midsummer celebration with my friends Dre and Johan. We're going to the supermarket to try to find something similar to what you guys are eating today. Strawberries, sourcream and potatoes should be no problem to find here, and the rumour claims that there's even pickled herring in some stores. Well, I guess I just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what kind of Cambodian version of Midsummer meal it'll be for me this year...:-)
I am thinking about you all today, and I wish you all a happy Midsummer!
today you are all celebrating Midsummers Eve in Sweden.
And Michael - you might be celebrating it in London, too? I know you went to IKEA the other day, perhaps for stocking up on pickled herring for Midsummer?:-) (Remember when we celebrated Midsummer in Crete..? :-)
Well, wherever you are dear friends and family, today is a day when you all will eat pickled herring (except for the vegetarians of course), with potatoes, sourcream, chives and most likely drinking a lot of "snaps" with it. Perhaps there'll be some dancing around the midsummer pole as well. Many of you will go with your friends to the countryside for a traditional and romantic - and as usual cold - celebration. Stockholm is a very empty city at Midsummers Eve, as everyone seems to migrate to the countryside or the archipelago.
Here in Phnom Penh, there's no such thing as midsummer in sight. It's more like "the first quarter of the rainy season" or something. So no celebration for me tonight, but probably a nice evening anyway. As usual, I'll probably go out to dinner with my friend Dre, and then go home to Skruttis the beloved cat, watch an episode or two of "Grey's Anatomy" on DVD before going to bed, hoping for a long sleep tomorrow morning. Although that won't happen as Skruttis always wakes me up for her breakfast at 06.30 AM... And tomorrow evening, there'll be a somewhat belated Midsummer celebration with my friends Dre and Johan. We're going to the supermarket to try to find something similar to what you guys are eating today. Strawberries, sourcream and potatoes should be no problem to find here, and the rumour claims that there's even pickled herring in some stores. Well, I guess I just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what kind of Cambodian version of Midsummer meal it'll be for me this year...:-)
I am thinking about you all today, and I wish you all a happy Midsummer!
Sunday 17 June 2007
A constant flow of people...
Both the social and the professional scene here in Phnom Penh are very international; a mixture of people from all parts of the world coming to Cambodia for work or tourism, short or long time. I stay and work in the southern part of the city, which means that I seldom run into tourists though, except for the few times I´m going to one of the more tourist oriented markets in the weekends. At the office, the vast majority of my colleagues are Khmer - out of 15 staff, 5 are Swedish and 10 Khmer. It´s a new and very rewarding experience for me to work in an international team like this. Through my work and especially the social scene, I meet a lot of expats from the western countries, too. There´s a huge western oriented restaurant- pub- and music scene here, side by side with the huge karaoke places and noodle stalls, which means that you can have the best of two worlds whenever you feel like it.
What´s characteristic for the social and professional expat scenes, is that they are constantly changing. People are coming and going all the time. Some are staying for only a shorter period of time, doing volunteer work or research. Some people, like myself, are staying for a some years, before heading back to their home country or for a new mission in some other Asian country. There are also some who find themselves staying for 10 years or even longer, making Cambodia their new home country.
The only thing for sure about this dynamic scene, is that it´s constantly changing. This is of course a bit different compared to home, where your social network most likely is quite stable from year to year - well, I don´t know about yours, but mine seems to be quite unchanging anyway. But here, you meet and make friends with people who you might not even know if they´ll be around next month or not. This means that there is a constant flow of people; a lot of new aquintances, and also a lot of farewells... For example, last week there was a good bye lunch for my new good Swedish friend Susanne, who returned for Sweden after a couple of months of field research here in Cambodia.
Goodbye lunch for Susanne at Intercontinental Hotel. From left; Dre, Johan, Susanne and me.
This coming week, another Swedish aquaintance is leaving after a two year mission here. In August, my Lithuanian friend Dre is leaving for Europe after some months of volunteer work at Ecpat here in Phnom Penh. And in December, my good friend Johan might move to Chiang Mai. As I said; a lot of goodbyes... At first, this might seem sad. And it is. I must say that I miss Susanne already, that I don´t like to think about that my wonderful friend Dre will leave quite soon, and that I for my own egoistic sake hope that Johan will be around also next year. But, at the same time, I´m adapting to these dynamic social relations. I´ve made some really good friends, and I hope for some more to come along in the future. My social network here in Phnom Penh is energetic, warm and supportive - good friends altogether. And the fact that people have already come and gone in and out of this network during the short time I´ve spent here, hasn´t changed this. So I´m kind of getting used to the fact that my network here will change and look different over time. And although I will miss the friends that are leaving, just as I miss you friends at home sometimes, I also appreciate the possibility of meeting so many new and interesting people, all of whom have their own stories to tell and experiences to share from all parts of the world... And together, for a shorter or longer time, we´re writing a joint story here in Phnom Penh. Which we´ll look back at sometime in the future, when the time has come for each and one of us to move on, leaving others behind...
Two of my good friends; Dre and Susanne, in a tuk-tuk.
What´s characteristic for the social and professional expat scenes, is that they are constantly changing. People are coming and going all the time. Some are staying for only a shorter period of time, doing volunteer work or research. Some people, like myself, are staying for a some years, before heading back to their home country or for a new mission in some other Asian country. There are also some who find themselves staying for 10 years or even longer, making Cambodia their new home country.
The only thing for sure about this dynamic scene, is that it´s constantly changing. This is of course a bit different compared to home, where your social network most likely is quite stable from year to year - well, I don´t know about yours, but mine seems to be quite unchanging anyway. But here, you meet and make friends with people who you might not even know if they´ll be around next month or not. This means that there is a constant flow of people; a lot of new aquintances, and also a lot of farewells... For example, last week there was a good bye lunch for my new good Swedish friend Susanne, who returned for Sweden after a couple of months of field research here in Cambodia.
Goodbye lunch for Susanne at Intercontinental Hotel. From left; Dre, Johan, Susanne and me.
This coming week, another Swedish aquaintance is leaving after a two year mission here. In August, my Lithuanian friend Dre is leaving for Europe after some months of volunteer work at Ecpat here in Phnom Penh. And in December, my good friend Johan might move to Chiang Mai. As I said; a lot of goodbyes... At first, this might seem sad. And it is. I must say that I miss Susanne already, that I don´t like to think about that my wonderful friend Dre will leave quite soon, and that I for my own egoistic sake hope that Johan will be around also next year. But, at the same time, I´m adapting to these dynamic social relations. I´ve made some really good friends, and I hope for some more to come along in the future. My social network here in Phnom Penh is energetic, warm and supportive - good friends altogether. And the fact that people have already come and gone in and out of this network during the short time I´ve spent here, hasn´t changed this. So I´m kind of getting used to the fact that my network here will change and look different over time. And although I will miss the friends that are leaving, just as I miss you friends at home sometimes, I also appreciate the possibility of meeting so many new and interesting people, all of whom have their own stories to tell and experiences to share from all parts of the world... And together, for a shorter or longer time, we´re writing a joint story here in Phnom Penh. Which we´ll look back at sometime in the future, when the time has come for each and one of us to move on, leaving others behind...
Two of my good friends; Dre and Susanne, in a tuk-tuk.
Tuesday 12 June 2007
Birthday Bitch
Today, wednesday the 13:th of June, our beautiful English bull terrier Polly Jean turns 2 years old.
According to the report from Janne, the birthday celebration started early morning, with Polly receiving a so called big "boomer ball" from me and Janne. It is supposed to be impossible to destroy, even for a bull terrier. (Well, I guess we have to see about that). Polly showed a great interest in the boomer ball, so it was brought to the doggy day care where Polly spends her days when Janne is working, for Polly Jean and her friends to play with. There'll be more celebration in the evening, with Pollys magic three P:s ; Pizza (Polly will get a children's pizza with ham and cheese), more Presents and a small Party to which, among others, Polly's friends "Whoopie" the Grand Dane, and "Morris" the miniature bull terrier, are invited.
Happy Birthday, my beloved Birthday Girl! I love you so much!
According to the report from Janne, the birthday celebration started early morning, with Polly receiving a so called big "boomer ball" from me and Janne. It is supposed to be impossible to destroy, even for a bull terrier. (Well, I guess we have to see about that). Polly showed a great interest in the boomer ball, so it was brought to the doggy day care where Polly spends her days when Janne is working, for Polly Jean and her friends to play with. There'll be more celebration in the evening, with Pollys magic three P:s ; Pizza (Polly will get a children's pizza with ham and cheese), more Presents and a small Party to which, among others, Polly's friends "Whoopie" the Grand Dane, and "Morris" the miniature bull terrier, are invited.
Happy Birthday, my beloved Birthday Girl! I love you so much!
Sunday 10 June 2007
Checking out and checking in
No, unfortunately I still haven´t found a place of my own. At least I haven´t signed a contract yet. There are very few apartements and houses on the market for the moment, and the prices are sky rocketing here in Phnom Penh, which makes it difficult to find a place that suits both my wallet and my requirements. But as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have looked at a traditional khmer wooden house which would suit me perfectly. The owner has promised to keep the house for me until the tenants are moving out around the 20:th of June, and we´ve agreed on some - if not all - details of the contract. I do hope that the landlord, who is a really nice elderly Cambodian man, will keep his promise to me. If everything will work out as planned, my employer will do a security check of the house tomorrow, and at the same time we´ll start to settle on the details of the contract with the landlord. And if we agree on everything, the landlord has promised me that I can move in there around the 25:th of June. I´m a bit supersticious when it comes to talking too much about a deal that is not settled yet, so I don´t actually dare to give you more details of the house for the moment. But as soon as - or if- the contract is signed, I promise to get back to you all with the details, and of course photos too.
Well, although I haven´t found a place of my own yet, I´ve at least checked out from the hotel where I´ve been staying since I arrived on the 1:st of May. Two days ago, I moved in at my friends Mimmi´s and Albin´s house.
So now I´m staying here..!
My dear friends have left for a five weeks summer holiday in Sweden, and needed someone to look after their lovely cat, "Skruttis" when they are away. So; ta-daa! Now I´m staying in the biggest house I´ve ever stayed in my whole life - 10 rooms and 6 bathrooms - and even better: I´m staying there with a wonderful cat!! It feels so good to have a cat again - you all know how much I miss my pets at home. Skruttis is the loveliest cat in Cambodia; social, talkative and she loves to cuddle. She follows me everywhere I go in this giant house, and I´m trying to convince her to sleep beside me at night. I´ve bought ham for her at the supermarket, which she loves, so now she wakes me up like four times at night, meowing really loud, and I could swear that she says "ham, give me ham..!"
Skruttis
Last week, it was time for Skruttis´ yearly visit to the veterinarian. After the appointment, her master Albin called me to inform me about what he had seen at the vet; a six week old kitten, abandoned and in need of a new home... The tiny, tiny kitten now lived in a cage at the reception desk, and it was so small that there was not a single sound when it tried to meow... The veterinarian had asked Albin to ask everyone he knows if someone could take care of this little kitten, and as Albin knows how much I adore Skruttis, he of course called me... I really, really had to challenge myself to say "No. I would love to, but no". As much as I love cats, and as much as there´s nothing I would want more than to take care of this little kitten, I just can´t. I actually made a decision before I left from Sweden that I won´t get any pets here in Cambodia, for the simple reason that it would kill me to leave them behind the day I´m leaving Phnom Penh. So, it was with tears in my eyes that I had to say no to giving that little kitten a new home...
But anyway; I am very happy to have the privilige of taking care of Skruttis for five weeks, and I hope that I there will be more "cat sitting" for me in the future as well. If I move to a place of my own before my friends return from Sweden, Skruttis will of course come with me to my place and stay there until her family is back in Cambodia. I hope she´ll like it there. I guess I can always bribe her with some ham...!
Beautiful Skruttis - my new house mate!
Well, although I haven´t found a place of my own yet, I´ve at least checked out from the hotel where I´ve been staying since I arrived on the 1:st of May. Two days ago, I moved in at my friends Mimmi´s and Albin´s house.
So now I´m staying here..!
My dear friends have left for a five weeks summer holiday in Sweden, and needed someone to look after their lovely cat, "Skruttis" when they are away. So; ta-daa! Now I´m staying in the biggest house I´ve ever stayed in my whole life - 10 rooms and 6 bathrooms - and even better: I´m staying there with a wonderful cat!! It feels so good to have a cat again - you all know how much I miss my pets at home. Skruttis is the loveliest cat in Cambodia; social, talkative and she loves to cuddle. She follows me everywhere I go in this giant house, and I´m trying to convince her to sleep beside me at night. I´ve bought ham for her at the supermarket, which she loves, so now she wakes me up like four times at night, meowing really loud, and I could swear that she says "ham, give me ham..!"
Skruttis
Last week, it was time for Skruttis´ yearly visit to the veterinarian. After the appointment, her master Albin called me to inform me about what he had seen at the vet; a six week old kitten, abandoned and in need of a new home... The tiny, tiny kitten now lived in a cage at the reception desk, and it was so small that there was not a single sound when it tried to meow... The veterinarian had asked Albin to ask everyone he knows if someone could take care of this little kitten, and as Albin knows how much I adore Skruttis, he of course called me... I really, really had to challenge myself to say "No. I would love to, but no". As much as I love cats, and as much as there´s nothing I would want more than to take care of this little kitten, I just can´t. I actually made a decision before I left from Sweden that I won´t get any pets here in Cambodia, for the simple reason that it would kill me to leave them behind the day I´m leaving Phnom Penh. So, it was with tears in my eyes that I had to say no to giving that little kitten a new home...
But anyway; I am very happy to have the privilige of taking care of Skruttis for five weeks, and I hope that I there will be more "cat sitting" for me in the future as well. If I move to a place of my own before my friends return from Sweden, Skruttis will of course come with me to my place and stay there until her family is back in Cambodia. I hope she´ll like it there. I guess I can always bribe her with some ham...!
Beautiful Skruttis - my new house mate!
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