Departure Day

This afternoon I´m leaving Sweden and flying back to Cambodia. As all D-Days - Departure Days - this is not a very happy day. But for a change, it´s actually not a very sad one either, as I know that I´ll be back quite soon; in less than two months it´s time for the summer holidays which I´ll spend with my loved ones in Sweden. It´s been a very nice stay in Stockholm (except from the bad cold I caught) and lovely to meet the Swedish spring. And important for me, even more important than I realised before I arrived, to come home and "touch base", to reflect, to breathe, to re-connect to my loved ones; family and friends. And for us, our family, to make that decision that we´ve been thinking about for some months now. Where to live? Should we relocate to Cambodia? We, as me, husband and pets. There are so many factors to consider in a decision like this; job opportunities for both of us, the financial situation, the social situation, how the pets would react to the transportation and change of environment, the balance between far and away, work and relaxation, nearness and distance.... Both countries and living situations has their pros and cons. But we´ve finally come to the conclusion that this is not the time for us to relocate. But - if the circumstances will change in anyway, we´ll reconsider again, so we haven´t outruled the possibility of moving at a later stage. But for the moment, we´ll keep both our base in Sweden and the one in Phnom Penh and continue to travel between to see each other every two-three months.

Today, I´ve done exactly half the time of my contract in Cambodia; the first year out of two, and I now have one more year to go. It´s been a wonderful year in some ways, and also a very tough one in others. Now I´m curious about what my second year will bring. Looking forward to one or two visits to friends in Thailand, two vacations together with Janne to some nice places in South East Asia, and visits from friends who already have planned visits for later this year.

Ok, I´m leaving for the airport in less than two hours, so I guess that it´s time for some last-minute packing now. Next posting will be from Phnom Penh...

Monday morning

Another Monday morning... don´t we all feel like this?

A nice weekend and some great music

It´s Saturday night people, and I hope that you all are having a good time, wherever you are in the world and whatever you´re doing. I´m having a very quiet evening myself. No dancing, no drinking, instead I´m enjoying a very relaxed evening with friends (Peder) and family (husband and pets), exactly what I need right now. But if I was going out dancing, this is what I´d dance to; enjoy!  

Have a great weekend, all!

The spring is here!

After some crappy days, I´m now back on track and am finally able to enjoy the lovely Swedish spring weather. 17 degrees celsius, sun,flowers, and the first outdoors coffee break of the year...
...including Swedish coffee in cute Moomin cups, Ben & Jerry´s "Cookie Dough ice cream" and chocolate sauce.  

And - with the most handsome and wonderful man in the whole world by my side.

It just can´t get very much better than this, can it?! :-)

New layout

I´m trying a new layout for the blog. After a year with the old one I thought it would be refreshing with something new. What do you think?

Self pity

I´ve pitied myself for some days now. Instead of seeing friends, enjoying the lovely spring weather and walks with my beloved dog as planned, I´ve been in bed with a flu for four days. Headache, muscular pain, a runny nose and a soar throat has made it impossible to anything else but to stay in bed and watching bad soap operas. Lucky for me though, I´ve had the world´s best bed companion by my side; Kasper. This guy just looooves to stay in bed all day. He´s not very much for soap operas, though - he´s far too intelligent for that!

Politeness in Cambodia

For you Swedes out there; if you would like to know what´s considered to be polite in Cambodia, how to address someone and the Khmer art of greeting people, you can listen to a Swedish radio interview with me on the subject here
The interview start approximately 10 minutes into the clip.

Reunited

These photos were taken my first evening back in Stockholm. My precious princess Polly Jean was sooo excited, and wouldn´t leave my side even for one second. So we spent the whole evening cuddling and bonding on the sofa.

Back in Stockholm

I´m still suffering from a bit of a jetlag, but otherwise I´m feeling great and am of course really happy to be reunited with my beloved husband and pets in Stockholm. It´s early spring here, which means around 8 degrees celsius. A bit chilly for someone who´s newly arrived from Cambodia, but I do enjoy this break from the tropical hot season. It´s really refreshing to be able to go out for a long two hour walk without risking to die from dehydration. For the first time in a whole year, I´m wearing jacket, gloves, long sleeve sweaters, jeans and boots.  And although I´ve never, ever appreciated this cold Scandinavian climate before, I now love the feeling of wrapping a large scarf around my neck, pull down the cap and the cool wind in my face. No matter how much I love Cambodia, I must say that this change of climate and environment is lovely and really refreshing. Seems like my beloved Cambodia makes me appreciate Sweden even more. 

Janne has been very thoughtful and sweet as always; preparing my arrival by filling the kitchen with tons of my favourite Swedish food; Kvibille cheddar cheese, dark bread, snacks, candy etc. And on top of that a beautiful boquet of tulips - my favourite spring flowers. And he makes me delicious Swedish coffee in the mornings. I´m getting really spoiled here...!   

I was very happy to see that although I haven´t been at home for 8 months, our pets immediately recognised me when I walked through the door. All three of them greeted me in their very own warm, loving, personal way.  Polly Jean was of course the most intense one, she practically freaked out, made all those crazy bull terrier sounds, runs and jumps all over the place and shivered from excitement. She´s practically been stalking me for two days now, and won´t leave my side. The cats are of course much more dignified, and shows their affection in a much more tactful way. 

Another nice thing about visiting Stockholm is of course the opportunity to catch up with friends I haven´t seen in a long time. Yesterday, we had a visit from our dear friend Mats who very recently has moved back to Sweden from Greece. It was great to see each other again after spending the last couple of years in differens countries; him being in Athens, me in Phnom Penh and Janne in Amsterdam. Mats´ visit was the second "happiness shock" for Polly Jean this weekend, who almost couldn´t deal with any more excitement and showed off a very intense and contact-seeking behaviour for the whole time Mats was here. As soon a he left, she crashed out on the sofa, totally exhausted from all the excitement and emotions she has experienced this weekend. 

I´ll now be here in Stockholm for 2,5 weeks, flying back to Cambodia on the 30:th.  I´m actually having my annual New Year holiday now, as the the Khmer New Year - the biggest holiday in Cambodia, is being celebrated this week. I´m also taking the chance to take some more days off, as I´m in a great need of some rest and recreation. I´ll also work some days at our head quarter here in Stockholm, and also deal with some more practical things such as a health check-up, and boring but necessary paper work like tax declaration and renewal of my insurance. 

So all in all, this visit will be a combination of a lot of things and probably pass very quickly. So I´m happy to know that I´ll come back again pretty soon; by the end of June it´s time for my summer vacation which´ll mean 3-4 weeks in Sweden. Including the celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary on the 27:th of June

Last minute of everything before departure....

(Hmmm.. I wonder what´s wrong with the typeface.. changing between different sections in the text... strange..?) 

Well, anyway; Tomorrow evening I´m leaving for Sweden, and tonight I´m doing last-minute-packing in the middle of the night as usual. Don´t have very much to pack though, as I can´t bring any of my clothes from Cambodia to Sweden for very obvious reasons - I won´t be able to wear them without freezing to death. My beloved husband told me over the phone that there was snow in Stockholm yesterday... Brrr.... 

I´m experiencing a very stressful situation due to a heavy work load at the office, and I´m in great need of some time off. But at the same time, I find that the work load makes it very difficult to let go of work, to not think about it. A sign that this is probably the very best time to let go. This´ll be a good practice for a workoholic like me;  to let go of work even if I think I can´t (yes I can!), to focus on my private life for a change (a good balance between your professional and private life is necessary and very important), to learn how to leave work at a time when I´m needed the most (they´ll be just fine). Work isn´t everything. It´s so easy to say, but more difficult to practice. But I´m working on it. Hopefully it´ll feel better when this very-last-minute-of-everything  are over and done with, and I´m sitting on the plane. 

Can´t wait to see my loved ones!

Humour in Cambodia

For those Swedish friends who'd like to listen to another radio interview with me, this time on the topic "popular humour in Cambodia", can do that here. It starts about 12 minutes into the clip.

The monsoon season is here

Dark skies, heavy showers, thunder storms, black clouds, a flooded street. Yesterday afternoon the monsoon arrived to Cambodia. The thunder and rainfall lasted for most of the evening, and I watched the spectacular lightning from my apartement on the 5:th floor. The same this afternoon; the clouds built up during early afternoon, turned darker during late afternoon and then very suddenly; thunder and heavy rainfall. Seems like the monsoon season has arrived here to stay for the next six months... 

Note to self: make sure to pack a raincoat and rubber boots when going on that field trip to nortwestern Cambodia later this week...

At miien pleu´n tee!*

It´s late evening here in Phnom Penh, and my apartement is pitch black. The only source of light is my computer screen. As so many other evenings during the past weeks, there´s no electricity. There´s a huge scarcity of electric power in Phnom Penh. Cambodia doesn´t produce any itself, it´s all imported from the neigbouring countries. This means that the electricity is scarce and bloody expensive. I´ve heard that Cambodia has the highest price for electricity in the world, and considering how painful I find it to pay my domestic electricity bill every month, I don´t doubt it. The shortage of electricity and the boom of private investements with new banks, offices, housing estates and other building that requires a lot of electricity, going up in Phnom Penh every day is not very good combination. Adding on the fact that the hot season is here, which requires all households and businesses to switch on their air-cons and fans doesn´t really help either. Not to mention how hot it gets in the office and at home during the power cuts… Without air conditioning and fans, the temperature soon climbs up to close to +40 degrees celsius, which makes it impossible to work, think, sleep… Even my Khmer colleagues are complaining, finding the heat almost unbearable. They don´t sweat as much as I do though, as they are more used to it. The other morning, I came to the office for a meeting with my colleagues, just to find the electricity cut off. Although it was still early in the morning, the temperature was already almost too much to take. We agreed to make it a short meeting, due to the heat. After approximately 10 minutes, a colleague pointed at me and laughed loudly ”-Look! The water is coming out now”!, which I guess means ”Look, she´s sweating!”.

So, how does Cambodia handle this problem with lack of electricity? The solution ”the people in charge” as my Khmer colleagues call them, is: electricity rationing. The electricity to different areas of the city is cut off during different parts of the day – and you never know when you´ll be effected as there´s no information about this. Sometimes you´ll have electricity in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, or in the evening. On just one of those periods. Or, if you´re unlucky – none. Yesterday for example, my electricity was cut in the morning. When I came to the office, which is situated in another part of the city, it was soon cut there, too - for five hrs… But at least there was electricity in the evening. Which is obvious not the case tonight… or for any evening last week, for that matter… The funny – or rather very annoying – thing is that if you´re lucky to live in a neighbourhood where ”high ranking and powerful people” (to quote my Khmer colleagues again) - live as well, you won´t have this problem. Because in those areas, the power will never be switched off! One of my colleagues is lucky in this sense, as he lives next to the deputy Prime Minister. While I have my electricity cut several times a day, he hasn´t had any problems with power cuts for as long as he has lived there; the past six years… Here in Cambodia, it´s obviously good to know your neigbours… So; until a minister or alike moves in next to my office or apartement, I guess that I just have to get used to the ”black outs”. I think the only way I can avoid to go crazy from frustration is to try to see it as an opportunity to improve my patience – and obviously also to amuse my colleagues.

* Khmer for ”There´s no electricity!”