June 8th (2020)

 

June 8th

Here 85 days   

I am awake at 6am.

It is a day of sadness. The 'protests' in the USA continue with more news of police brutality. In the UK, a statue of a slaver has been torn down in protest after peaceful avenues ended in resolute non-actions.

The Guardian's headline today runs..

"BLM protesters topple statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston"

Graffiti has been daubed over Winston Churchill's statue, proclaiming him a racist. Maybe you should read this before deciding….

https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/white-supremacy/

It would seem that many people simply re-post on social media without researching the facts. We all need to check and double check what we are reading and posting.

(This unstable Google Docs app had just crashed 5 times)

Yesterday I updated my Blog, and now am up to date with my sharing. I felt that a week's gap between writing and 'publishing' was too long.

As it is not always possible for me to access the computer here, I have downloaded the Blogger app for this hand phone and will, most probably, use that to post my daily diary.

I shall take breakfast out this morning, and visit an ATM as I am running low on cash. I need to shop too, then prep (a little) for today's Art History class.

I did manage to get some money from the same ATM as before. That's the next three weeks catered for, phew. I presently sit at Common Grounds having breakfasted on Eggs Benedict, croissant and a large Flat White. Lunch will be minimal.

Lunch is, in fact, the two pots of yogurt bought earlier.

I am in negotiations regarding my extended stay in Cambodia, and hope to hear shortly. I hope to be able to continue the Art classes, which are a combination of art history and art theory (incidentally my first Masters). Perhaps the class will have to move time and/or day depending when the Khmer schools start up again. But we shall cross that bridge etc.

The class goes well. We continue seeing the programme about blue, which takes us onto the romantic theme of Jean Paul Richer's poisonous blue flowers (in his Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces) and to Pablo Picasso's 'Blue Period after the death of his dear Spanish friend Carles Casagemas. We talk about The Blues and listen to 12 bar blues on steel guitar and bottle neck and then move on to 'The Fauves' and Voka's 'Spontaneous Realism'.

Dinner is pot noodles, oh heavens yet a-bloody-gain, with one small cucumber, a small tomato and two melting squares of plastic pretend cheese, whoopee. I think that I’m going stir crazy. I’ll be pacing up and down soon, making scratches on the bloody wall, waiting for a visitor and daydreaming of char kway teow, nasi lemak and fish laksa, not to mention someone’s pau.

Today’s spend

Common Grounds…..Eggs Benedict; croissant and Large Flat White…..$8.75

Thai Huot Market…..Myojo Soto Ayam x4; Dasani Water x 2; Globemilk Milk; Milk Soft Bread; Dutchie Mixed Fruit Yogurt; Coca Cola; Happy Cow Sliced Mozzarella Cheese, Cucumber and Chicken Egg Banana….$13.75


Total spend…..$22.50