The Weekend.

Not much to report really. I started to feel ill on Friday and went home from work early. I think a combination of work being very stressful and not getting enough sleep has meant that i have caught the flu bug that has been doing the rounds. All the usual symptoms that aren't a lot of fun.

I woke up on Saturday and really didn't feel any better, a runny nose and generally a blocked head. Anyway i decided that i wouldn't let it halt my weekend. I met up with Johanna and we decided to do a round of all the shops we hadn't been to before and that we'd been meaning to go to. We started off at Ambre a rather up market place where you can have nice dresses made at a pretty reasonable price. I had seen one there a while ago and decided to get it made in different colours for my cousins wedding this August. It was all a bit rushed but before i knew it i had been measured and that was it - i am due back next week to have another fitting. We then headed to a couple more places before we met up with some friends for lunch.

Shortly after that the heavens opened and we got stuck at Elsewhere, a nice French clothes shop, so we ended up trying most things in the shop and generally being a bit stupid - photos to follow. We decided after about an hour that the rain wasn't going to stop and the best thing to do was go and get a foot massage. All good, then the rain stopped!

That evening a group of us went ten pin bowling - there is a place in one of the shopping centres. It was a lot of fun although in our second game the computers went off and we lost our scores - a little reminder that we were actually in Cambodia. After some food i ended up dragging myself home feeling pretty rotten.

Sunday involved some time by the pool, and then a trip to the orphanage. It was nice to go there - i had the photos i'd taken of the kids to deliver. They loved them. They turned out really well, quite big and all laminated so that there is little that they can do to damage them. There was a bit of an argument over who would keep which ones but they figured it all out. They then proceeded to laugh and point at themselves, really enjoying seeing the pictures printed. After a short while the photos ended up in their individual cupboards for safe keeping - a bit of a shame really. I was hoping they might put them up on the wall or something like that. But i guess ultimately whatever makes them happy.

Just before i was going to leave a bunch of backpackers showed up to visit the orphanage. I find the whole thing very confusing and haven't quite worked out how i feel about it all. The kids seem to enjoy having visitors and the visitors enjoy seeing the kids so maybe it should be that simple. But somehow it all bothers me, i'm not saying that i am really any different, although i like to think i am a bit! They get their cameras out straight away and start snapping, spend a bit of time there, and then they leave. I think this cycle develops an unnatural behaviour in the kids, maybe it's a survival instinct, they have to be nice to the strangers as they might donate some money or some food. I am sure they are told by the couple that run the orphanage that they have to be affectionate with tourist when they stop by. But maybe i'm too cynical, maybe i should just see what happens at the surface. I will reflect a little more on this one!

The rest of my Sunday was fairly unproductive. I watched a film and had an early night.