June 9th (2020)

 

June 9th

I am awake at 7am today but still in bed at 8.29am.

"Try to realise it's all within yourself, no-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you."
(The Beatles, Within You and Without You, 1967)

86 days here, and a bit of a rant (brought on by the lack of water up here, where I exist like some rat scurrying about in the rafters)….

"I'm goin' back, goin' back, to be young again
To find a time to develop my mind and be kind
To really see, to really hear, to really live, to really love
And be kind
When I was young, I knew that I was right
Then everything moved, I wandered out of sight."
(The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack, The Nice, 1968)

Oh Great Celestial Spirit of Rudolph Steiner, do I get time off for good behaviour?

"I'm OK, I'm alright (he's alright, he's alright)
I ain't gonna face no defeat (yeah yeah)
I just gotta get out of this prison cell
One day (someday) I'm gonna be free, Lord!"
(Queen, Somebody to Love, 1976)

Who am I kidding? Get me outta here!

Halfway through my involuntary exile and I am going stir crazy. I am fed-up with austerity, of counting 'riel', of denying myself chocolate, Southern Comfort and all those little pleasures which cost money because I am on a financial bloody diet. Fed-up too of bananas squashed between bread instead of Masala Dosa, Lipton's Yellow tea instead of Twinning's Earl Grey tea, Nescafe instead of Nespresso. One day (someday) I'm gonna be free

Oh Spirit of Rudolph Steiner I want my life back, er, now!

Breakfast this morning is a banana sandwich and a mug of Lipton's Yellow tea, ha ha bloody ha!

With the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic, Far Eastern tourism has been hit badly. The South China Morning Post, talking about Cambodia's ancient city of Angkor mentions…

"The [Angkor] park counted more than 1.1 million international visitors in the first five months of 2019 but by the end of May 2020, fewer than 400,000 had visited, according to the state-run ticketing agency Angkor Enterprise."

Cambodia, like Malaysia, has relied on copious amounts of foreign tourists to boost its annual income. Neither Cambodia, nor Malaysia, are able to generate the finances they previously had from international visitors, by encouraging tourism among their own citizens.

Cambodia recognises this and is attempting to open up, and to bring back a little of what they had in the way of international tourism. Malaysia naively adopts a nationalistic approach as it spurns 'foreigners’ in favour of Malaysia for Malaysians. Good luck with that.

I break camp in my artic box room and travel to the equatorial conditions of the computer room. I have no sherpers nor  porters to carry the twin burdens of wired computer mouse, and hand phone wired earbuds.

After three hours wrestling with Indesign, I need a rest. Lunchtime whoopee (I’m being sarcastic). To pot noodle or not to pot noodle that is the question, well perhaps not THE question but certainly a question. Sandwiches or noodles, hot or cold. The mind fairly boggles. I re-pack my belongings and trek back out of the tropical front room and its warm air, twisted by two small ceiling fans, to my arctic encampment (yes, I’ve been watching too much of His Dark Materials, half expect a bloody polar bear to come lumbering in).

Dinner is, guess what?

Pot noodles, yet again.

No spend today.