April 23rd (2020)

 

April 23rd

According to the Khmer Times this morning...

News arriving from Malaysia indicates that their Movement Control Order (MCO) will be extended until the middle of May, possibly June. This extra time will have devastating effects on everyone. It will also keep me out of the country until it’s lifted, and foreigners allowed back in. Many people, myself included, will owe great sums of money when this is all over. This is when we really see the difference between having money, and not having money. Rich and Poor.

Phany tells me that her friend’s husband is stuck in Singapore. It is a tough time. 

I have no alternative but to try to extend my visa to Cambodia.

 ‘The COVID-19 situational update today remains at 122 positive cases detected since January 27  and with the last reported case being on April 12, 2020’.

I awoke at 7am, desperately trying to remember which day it is. It wasn’t until I switched on my iPad screen that I realised it was Thursday (T'ngai Prohoa).

It’s now eight twenty three and I am still in bed. Huh! So much for my early morning walk.

I’d better get up, now. It’s eight thirty.

Showered etc. I have walked, for ten minutes, in the hot morning sun dripping with sweat, to ‘Bang Bang’ the bagel place on Taphul Road, Krong. Only to find it’s only doing deliveries. That could have been mentioned on their website. A bit pissed off, and hungry, I’ve stopped at The Palm Café to have an ‘English Breakfast’. Surprise, surprise when the breakfast coffee turns out to be a small glass of Vietnamese ‘drip coffee’ (ca phe sua da). Although I love the taste of this coffee, especially with condensed milk (which the French are responsible for apparently) ultimately the small glass of coffee is not satisfying enough for me. 

Today’s ‘Raisin Bread’ is very dry. I tried some for lunch, but even with butter was still dry. I have a problem with dry food. I’ll try it with milk, butter and sugar in the morning. It’s a recipe handed down from my dear old mother, during those times when I was ill and off school. In England’s North it’s called ‘Pobs’, or ‘Pobbies’ apparently. Though I have never known this dish by that name, or any other really. 

This is a working-class, or poor, recipe where nothing was wasted, not even partially stale or dry bread. When I was young, sometimes we would eat bread and dripping (which is basically beef fat), and things like ‘Brawn’ (meat jelly often made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig). We would have the occasional rabbit, or pigeons and, if we were lucky, a pheasant or partridge, but not often. 

Dinner is Samyang Korean Pot Noodle with cut cucumber and cut tomato add, with two squares of processed cheese torn to pieces. It’s not too bad but I think that I much prefer the Myojo Mee Soto Ayam. I know that pot noodles are not healthy but neither running out of money. At home I would never eat such rubbishy food, but I have little choice now.

Incidentally, I had the real Mee Soto Ayam, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a few years ago. It was divine. The pot noodle doesn’t even come close.

Today’s spend is.....

The Palm Café breakfast..$5

Asia Plaza shopping; Cambodia Water; Chabaa Tangerine Orange Juice; Samyang Korean Pot Noodle ; Raisin Bread; Small Cucumbers; Yellow Bananas and Dutchie Yogurt.....$8.45

Tuk Tuk (because I couldn’t carry the bags back)..$1

Total spend today....$14.45