May 2nd (2020)

 

May 2nd
5.45am
Awake


6.42am
Still in bed Facebooking, thinking about getting up.


7.39am
Finally I am up, showered and breakfasted on bread, that wonderful Khmer palm sugar that Phany gave me, and salted 'Anchor' butter. I only wish that I'd had more bread and butter for the palm sugar, it is that good.


It seems that Cambodia has the very same problems, when it comes to palm sugar, as Malaysia has. That is, unscrupulous people watering the product down with ordinary cane sugar water, and selling that at inflated prices to the unwary. Once again I am so happy to know Phany and the students at Colors of Cambodia, who help steer me in these matters.


Since my current sojourn in Cambodia, I have been able to taste authentic Khmer home cooking with thanks to the above, and I am very grateful for this. Even in the Khmer restaurants, of which there are plenty, high and low brow, there is not the sense of ‘home cooking’. As anyone, with any sense, will tell you, the heart of a country’s cuisine is in its food cooked at home, often with recipes dating back generations, which may be specific to that family. Dampened during the Khmer Rouge  era (1975 and 1979) Cambodia’s unique culture is slowly arising, and authentic Khmer cooking is part of that. There have been a few pioneers into Khmer cuisine, some currently attempting to have their Khmer recipe books published, others initiating restaurants, but few, I would imagine, would be able to recreate the dishes emanating from Phany’s mother’s cooking.


Are you so sure there are only 24 hours per day? It feels more like 48 at the very least.


‘Through the long days and years
What will my loved one be,
Parted from me?
Through the long days and years’


'Through the long days,'
John Hay (1838 –1905)


Answer, painting lotus flowers, according to the Private Message she sent this morning. A subject which is dear to her Buddhist heart.


While Cambodia gives us overstayers a visa amnesty, Malaysia has been raiding and arresting those with no current visa. It seems that the Malaysian Government needs, once more, to divert attention from its miss-handling of the current crisis and the fact that it is not a legitimate government. So, not only has Malaysia turned away those with costly paid current visas, it also harasses those poorer souls who do not have the power to protect themselves. When some sort of normal arrives in the world, such countries may not see a rise in tourism, for people have long memories as far as ill treatment is concerned, especially now in a world becoming more humanitarian, a world awakening to the ‘We’ and rejecting the ‘Me’ culture highlighted by Thatcher and Reagan in the good ole bad ole days of government sanctioned hedonism.


Lunch is at Mamma Shop. A plate filling ' Four Seasons' Pizza. I was the only customer  but it has quickly filled. Cliche but ‘Volare’ is currently playing, right after Gimme Some Lovin'. Outside of Italy, this has become my favourite Italian restaurant. They even give a small chocolate brownie, gratis.


Tonight's 'Project' involved new language created to express this pandemic, the plague in ', Samuel Pepys’ Diary From 1665, and  'A Journal of the Plague Year' by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722.