Will i stay or will i go?

That is the big question at the moment. My six month contract in Cambodia is fast coming to an end. We have submitted all that we are required to but there is a lot of doubt as to whether or not our company will get the next phase of the program. Having been adamant that i didn't want to stay longer than 6 months i am now predictably hoping that GRM win the next phase. I have really settled here and would love to stay for another year or two.

So, my fingers firmly crossed and i should find out in a week or two.

A busy few days!

Having submitted three 130 page documents our team was completely shattered. The boys had arranged a team dinner at the Russian restaurant but by the time i got home i was shattered and the last thing i felt like doing was getting drunk with the guys i'd spent the whole week with. Luckily my friend Jemima came to the rescue and asked me to me her for a drink.

What a night, we ended up going from party to bar, to party, to another bar and another one. It was all a lot of fun and it didn't end until 7:30 am. Watching the sun rise over Phnom Penh was beautiful and getting into bed in my air conditioned room a few hours later was even nicer.

I had four hours sleep before i had to get up to catch my flight to Hanoi. I had a meeting on Monday as the tourism project that i manage there hasn't been paid for months. There are no direct flights to Hanoi so you have to fly through Laos. It ends up taking 6 hours to get somewhere that should really only take 3.

I spent the rest of my weekend relaxing and reading and enjoying not having to do much. We had a good meeting on Monday and i hope we'll get paid soon. Tuesday i was back down in Cambodia for the final submission due on our currect project.

What a week...

Cooking in Cambodia

It's something that a few of us have been meaning to do for a while and just never got around to, so this weekend we finally got ourselves motivated and booked ourselves on the one day course.

We met early at the restaurant Frizz on the river front in Phnom Penh. A very enthusiastic Khmer man, Heng, was taking the course and he first took us to the local market to basically educate us a little on the types of produce available and the sorts of things that are traditionally used in Khmer cooking. It was great to just wander around and ask questions and try various bits and pieces.

We were then taken across the Japanese Bridge on tuk tuks to a nice house bordering the Mekong River. We then spent the entire day cooking and eating. It was a lot of fun and i think we all learned a lot. The greatest achievement was the Fish Amok, which really wasn't too complicated.

We finished the day at about 5pm and headed for a few happy hour drinks to celebrate our new found skills!

Visit home to the UK

I was very excited about going home, i think because work had been so busy, i was just ready for a break. I was also excited to see family and friends that i hadn't seen for a fair while.

The morning i arrived back in the UK it was glorious sunshine, which was a bit of a surprise as everyone had told me how bad the weather had been. I arrived in Bristol and spent the day relaxing at home with mum and dad and the dog. It never stops amazing me how when you travel somewhere familiar it truly feels like you've never been away. I think that's a nice thing but i'm not sure!

Dom, Tessa and Megan arrived on the Friday and it was lovely to see them. I have seen Meg for 6 months and she'd really grown. She's walking now and is a very sweet little girl. She's a bit more clingy than she was the last time but she seemed to warm to me fairly quickly. She's a cuddler, which i love and she also enjoys when you read her stories. It was nice to be able to spend the whole weekend with them all. I'm not sure Dom and Tessa liked me being there too much as normally Meg sleeps in my room but this time they had her in with them - ooops not much sleep for any of them i don't think!

Becky and Steve got married in the same church as Becky's sister Susie, it's a beautiful little place in Bristol. The weather the day before had been a bit iffy so we were happy to see that the sun was shining come Saturday afternoon. We headed to the church, late as ever, we always plan so well but it's always a rush. It was a lovely service with a slightly strange vicar, she kept on comparing the love that Becky and Steve had with each other with all sorts of gadgets that she kept showing in front of the congregation!

The reception was at Leight Court, a beautiful building just over the Severn Bridge, there was a champagne reception and a great little four piece band. There was a gorgeous amount of space for the kids to run around and for the adults to mingle. It was so lovely catching up with everyone and spending some time with family.

The food was fantastic and the champagne didn't stop flowing. The evening carried on with a disco and then some amazing fire works. A bunch of us then carried on to the Marriott hotel in Bristol where we paid stupid amount of money for more alcohol. We all stayed there until about 4am when people started wandering off. All in all a fantastic wedding - everyone had a lot of fun.

I took a lot of photos with my super duper new camera and haven't put many of them on here but if you're keen they are all loaded on Picasa so you can have a look at them there.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JStancombe/BeckyAndSteveWedding

The rest of my trip in the UK was spent travelling around seeing friends in the short time i had. I went up to St Albans to see Andy and Charley, we spent a nice amount of time in the pub garden just chatting and reminiscing. I then went to London, i spent the day with Frank and Holly, which is always nice. I then had dinner with Simon, which was also really nice. And then drinks with the Clapham lot. The following day i had lunch with Claire and then headed back up to Charley and Andy's. Time was flying by but that is always the way i think. Jo then came up to St Albans for the day and we walked around in the sun and enjoyed chatting about not very much at all.

I then went back to Bristol for a few more days, again i was so lucky with the weather, it was beautiful. I did lots of reading and lying in the garden. It was nice to feel i had a bit of time off but i also knew that i'd be heading back into the thick of it with deadlines looming on the project.

Oh well, until December that was my little taste of the UK for the time being. The sunset on my last night was incredible. This photo was taken from my bedroom window. I miss not seeing those sunset when i'm here, i don't think you can see the sun set!