April 20th (2020)

 

April 20th

Awoke today at 4.30am.

Facebook for nearly two hours reading about this pandemic, who should have known and WHO should have known. A huge percentile of this social medium is crammed with news, views and opinions about the Covid19 virus, as if nothing else matters in the world. I understand that this is important, and that people have concerns, but when it comes to sinophobia include me out. Another person unfriended and blocked today for racist views. Strangely enough, all of the people whom I have recently blocked, are from the same sub-continent.

6.15am

Feeling sleepy

9.16am

Okay time to get up, though I do feel lazy.

I had intended to take the bed linen to be washed today, but I think that I’ll leave that until tomorrow.

Checking about my visa, online, is really not easy. I still haven’t found a definitive answer, and cannot find an actual Cambodian Immigration Department website. Answers seem to range between go to Phnom Penh, or go to a travel agent, or there again do nothing and pay on exit.

Ooops, I’ve accidentally landed back on the bed again. My head is heavy with lack of sleep, and maybe dehydration.

9.40am

I am going to try, very hard, to get off this bed.

11.06am 

And I am done with breakfast which, incidentally, was two slices of (soft) bread, Irish butter and the remaining two small bananas, and a nice cuppa tea (Lipton’s). My ‘Red’ coffee does not taste as nice without Cambodian Palm Sugar (the plastic jar is finished), hence the tea today.

Still feeling groggy, but I’ve had no grog (rum diluted with water).

Back to bed then, as I have a class after lunch. No, not a class we are not allowed to teach here at the moment. It is a gathering, no not a gathering, but a chance meeting not of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table but me with a wooden table, computer and a white board, espousing Art Historical nonsense to whomsoever is here at the time. Phany interprets.

The talk went well, I think, but with little feedback it is very difficult to tell. In two hours, I swept those gathered through Paul Cézanne, his triangle, cone and rectangle, led onto towards Pablo Picasso with Georges Braque and Cubism. We took a detour into Leger’s ‘Tubism’, and very quickly mentioned the British Vorticism and Italian Futurism. We looked at Eadweard Muybridge’s (1872) images in movement, as well as ‘Dog on leash’ by Giacomo Balla (1912) and a modern comic book (Nightwing), comparing the success or otherwise, of the images when it comes to depicting movement. 

Lunch and dinner are the same.....Myojo Mee Soto Ayan, with cut cucumber and cut tomato. For dinner I added two squares of plastic cheese to the mix. This has given the taste an extra dimension.

I am beginning to be concerned about my future. My fate is entirely dependant on being able to return to Malaysia. As yet there are no signs that Malaysia is opening its borders to foreigners. I will, undoubtedly, have to extend my visa for at least another month. Another month’s stay here will hit my finances hard, and cause me to be yet further nuisance to these kind people. I’m also concerned how the new emergency powers, this government are taking on, will effect us all.

8.51pm

Reading, then it’s early to bed tonight.

Total spend today 0