Round 2

- a hop, a skip and a jump 
Torrential rains drumming on rooftops at a speed of, so it seems, 50 kilometres an hour. Our lips are moving, but we cannot hear each other speak for we are deafened by the sound of the torrential rain. At Phnom Penh airport, we were greeted with heavy downpours - the heavens had opened up with no relief ... added to this, streets are persistently being flooded due to the plugged drainage system.  It’s also been hot and muggy. There’s been no mercy since we've been here, we’re either drenched with sweat or  we’re saturated with rain…   lol

June and July was a hop, a skip and a jump with so much to do, to say the least.  Though, as I speak, everything seems to be a blur, since so much has happened in such little time.

Two years ago today, before setting for Cambodia, we attended a SKWID training, went to China for a month, passed through the UK for 3 weeks and had a mere 2 weeks left to prepare for Cambodia.  I don’t know how we did it and I’m not sure if this time around, we could have been just as prepared as we were then.  In truth, I don’t think one can ever be fully prepared, no matter what the circumstance … Welcome to retirement!

Anyone for lemonade?

In early June, on our arrival in Canada we had a number of things to do; taking care of 'household' business, health, dental check up, finding a tenant, connecting our phone with Kudos phone plan, getting rid of never-ending stuff and more to prepare for round 2 – for Cambodia. 

Finding a tenant was a lot easier than we had initially anticipated.  I must say, we have great neighbours who helped us find a tenant.  Our next-door neighbour, Sarah immediately had put an add on her facebook, others passed it on by word of mouth and, our previous tenant advertised it on their University general email that reached everyone and beyond the University to other provinces.  As a result, in no time we had 15 people knocking on our door and, within a week, we found someone who met all the criteria – a young family who are a perfect fit for the neighbourhood… :)

As for connecting with a phone plan, (in Canada), coming back for a short interim from Cambodia, the technology of voice mail was too sophisticated for us to grasp, as a result we missed some very important 'voice' messages until late in the week when we activated our voice mail messages. Unbelievable ...

Unfortunately, we had limited time to see everyone - thankfully, we did however, manage to juggle our time with family and friends … :)  Despite our hectic time in Canada, we did manage to have fun with family and friends; we even got to 'join' our neighbour's lemonade 'parade' stand. We also went away for a week’s a holiday in Cuba to relax, to be ‘mindless!’ and, in the process, we met a wonderful couple, Jill and Raffi.  On our return from our holiday, we joined, for a day, thousands of fans at the 32nd Hillside Festival on the Island.  

Oh yes, and whilst we were both in Canada and the UK, we got to drink tap water.  It was heavenly indeed to say the least.

Thank you to everyone - family, friends, neighbours and colleagues for your warm well wishes, and of course, we'll attempt to keep you posted for Round 2, for another exciting time in Cambodia!

More later ... :)