Winter in Aus

Hot season here was hot and stressful..and then we went to Aus just in time for winter! It was very cold! And it was stressful to go back to Aus after fleeing due to ill health.

But we were well looked after and the birth went well, very fast and safe. And the baby is easier to look after than we expected.

The toddler had lots of fun getting to know his Aussie relatives and enjoying Aussie things like parks with grass and play equipment.

I had fun making use of the oven. (One day we want to get a full size gas oven but they are expensive and we don't really need one at this stage.)

 In Aus I not only had the use of a full size oven but also people who like eating oven cooked things as well as the ingredients and other equipment that goes along with it. Oh and also good oven using weather.

 I made some food I've made before also quite a few new things mostly involving flour and often yeast and or butter!

First rainy season in SR

Taken from just outside our front door, our floor was covered in water last night.

Yesterday Soeun was trying to prepare for a class he will be teaching next month. The books he wanted to look at were in a cardboard packing box, in the corner, wedged in by a table and the huge wooden thing our landlord owns. On top was 2 plastic tubs of other books. It was just too much effort to get to the box, esp as we only just moved the furniture that way the other day, trying to make space for a desk so he could sit down and work.

Luckily, in the evening our floor was suddenly covered in water. It had been raining for ages and stormy. We were waiting for the power to go out. We raced to pick things up and moved the furniture so we could get to the cardboard box of books hopefully before the water soaked through.

As we were racing around the toddler was trying to help us and slipped over a few time, while the baby lay neglected in her bed crying. Once we got all the things up that needed to be up I sat down with the toddler and baby and tried to calm them down while Soeun took the water out using a dustpan (with a long handle, kind of like a spade) and then a mop and then floor maps. Then he washed the whole floor- so its really clean now!

After an Aussie winter

Back to hot weather, power cuts and no wifi.

The endless supply of wheat and dairy is over, and once again I'm feeling the frustration of not being able to find somewhere comfortable to sit.

The first little while back in Cambodia each time is hard.

Things are ordered differently here, beautified differently, hygiene is done differently.

And of course I'm tired from travel and the different time zone and weather takes awhile to get used to again. Also I didn't speak/hear Khmer for about 3 months .....

We only just moved house a few months before we went overseas, so we are still settling in here. It was not  a case of come back , unpack and get on with things. We are still moving furniture around, looking to buy a few cupboards and a bed for the toddler, rummaging around in boxes and bags to find the blender/ that book for the lesson Soeun needs to prep/  the baby things etc etc....

I miss having a bedside table to put my glasses on, and my clothes stored in a cupboard in the bedroom. At this point in time there is no spare floor space on either side of the bed and my clothes are in various places so getting changed/having a shower takes a bit of planning ahead.

And what to do with the Toddler here...?? In Aus he enjoyed visits to parks- vast spaces of grass to run on and exciting play equipment, all free! We don't really have those spaces here, there is a private playground we can visit on Saturday mornings, its cost 2 US dollars tho, and at the mall there is a small soft playroom, that cost 75 cents.

First time to fly solo with a baby