chaos

i bought some salami for the rat trap this week. its gonna score me a mega catch, maybe it will be so good i could become one of those guys from the discovery channel who catches things for a living...?

ive been using this facebook site to catch up with some people i havent seen for a while and seeing some seriously great photos. i got all remisent of the good old days! el clubbo in brighton for nicolas 18th a couple of years ago and christmas walks along the beach this year, happy days.
one thing i realised at christmas which i knew before but never really noticed is how much i love all my friends. i realise its mushy, and a little concerning, particularly the photo of me kissing luke.....let me explain, that was during a very hyper night clubbing in brighton after we had both been hit on by gay men, not a story i like to tell often (laughing). but seriously christmas was such a valuable time for me, to see everyone come together and support each other was amazing and im sad that i cant be there at the moment, but seeing a bunch of photos this week reminded me how much i love everyone and miss you'all. ahhh happy days.

its starting to get hot here, really hot. not thast it isnt always hot but it is getting hotter at the moment. around april/may time is the hot hot hot hot time of the year. apparently it is either seven showers a day and a long siesta (which is fine by me) or death by melting. it can reach 46 degrees during the day...thats pretty hot. so my monthly laundry trip has become a fortnightly one as i seem to be getting through several sets of clothes each day and have seriously been considering reverting back to ice cold showers instead of my hot ones simply because id rather come out refreshed rather than sweating still.

its been great to hear from so many people in the last few weeks i feel like since christmas i have been in contact with so many more people from home which is really good. im really pleased people are taking an interest in the things going on out here. im still really excited about khmer new years in a few weeks down in the province with poli. its gonna be a good one...which reminds me...chinese new year has been a bit uneventful but i did see some dragons dancing in the street today which i had to stop and watch for a while, i think because im living out on the edge of the city im not as exposed to all the chaos.

i found out this week that wat phnom (the big temple in the north of the city that the city was named after) used to be a lot more wild than it is. when my parents were over we went walking round it and they have an elephant and a whole bunch of monkeys that live there. sothy was telling me they used to have crocadiles, snakes and tigers as well. for some reason like tourism they moved the more rare animals into a nature reserve about 50km from the city. when uncle neil was over we met this lady at fcc who is doing a phd study into panthas in ratanakiri (jungle way up in the north east) that was intersting.

so i'll remember to write some more about history and culture this week when i get the chance.
Ben.