I’ve been thinking of starting a ‘random things’ post for my blogs for a long time already. But the procrastinator in me just keeps me from doing so. But since were half-way through the year and I want to have at least one thing off my ‘new year’s resolution – to do list’ then I’m starting this now. Be forewarned, though, I think my random-ness posts would be a lot more personal and messy compared to my other posts. This would be where I’ll be blurbing about things that come and go on my mind. Of course, mostly things I experience everyday, things I observe and whatnot…

• I did a huge load of  laundry today coz it’s drizzling. Yes, I’m weird like that. And now I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it won’t smell bad. Lol.
• Yesterday, I met my Phnom Penh friends, Sreisaat and Mumsified. And I suddenly think I do miss them. You know I’m not exactly very social, and coupled with loads of things I have to do, I’m always left with no time to see friends. So it was great to see them.
• I dropped by IBC bookstore and I ended up buying another pile of notebooks. I seriously don’t know what to do with them except that I looooove notebooks. Oh well, maybe I should start writing down project ideas on one.
• I also went to the wet market with the intention of buying vegetables. But I ended up buying fish, eggs and pork. No sign of greens. I guess I have to go back again tomorrow?
• Need to go and book our tickets to Ho Chi Minh. Well be spending the Pchum Benh holidays there. And oh I really have to search for a hotel. Any recommendations? And I would prefer a nice hotel near Ben Than Market.
• Saturday and Sunday well be visiting several wats and making our offerings.
• And oh, I really really love Khmer iced tea. It doesn’t taste a bit like our usual ‘lemon iced tea’ which is yummy but I know its all just sugar and artificial flavoring. The Khmer iced tea though is made from freshly brewed tea with a twist of lemon + lots of ice.

Ooops. I’ve been missing my regular living in Phnom Penh posts! Lately I’ve been posting mostly just Cambodia Snapshots and Khmer food photos. I do still have my blogging mojo, but I was simply preoccupied with lots of things. Mainly mommy and wifey things. Priorities . I have also been reviving some old blogs and finally I have some spare time now so I would be posting some snippets of our life in Phnom Penh.

For the past few weeks, I had been obsessing on getting fit. I spend a lot of my time tinkering with the computer since I work online so I don’t want to spend some spare time staring at the idiot box or playing on a tablet pc, so I decided I should give myself some love and be fit. I considered enrolling in a gym, but I think that is not for me. I’ve tried that before when I was in the Philippines but I always end up not going. Enrolling in a fitness class is also a no go for me coz I prefer to have a flexible schedule. So I decided to get fit on my own. I started with weekend early morning walks. Now, I jog/walk 4-5 times per week. I do my jogging in the parks , which thankfully Phnom Penh has a lot of. I could walk in the streets but for safety reasons, hubby told me to just walk in the park, I’m the queen of klutz, you see so I could understand his point.

So this has become a routine for us. During the weekends we usually go to the Vietnamese-Cambodian Friendship Park in Sothearos. They have a big free play area for kids so the kiddo can play till she drops and hubby and I can do our brisk walking around the park.

During weekdays, after I send off the kiddo to school and hubby is off to work, I jog around Hun Sen Park. A couple of rounds on that huge park is really exhilarating. Plus you get awesome scenery and this is also an interesting place to do some people watching. See? The photo below was taken during my walk this morning. Lovely, isn’t it?

Sigh. This is what I love about living in Phnom Penh. It’s a simple and good life. You still get to enjoy things for free.

A friend forwarded me this email announcement. I’m sure a lot of people would be happy to hear about this. There will be a career day at HRInc with hundreds of jobs available in the tourism sector. The job fair will be held on September 17-18 2011. HRInc office is located at St. 242 behind Singapore Embassy. There are positions open to both expats and locals. So do check out the job fair if you’re looking for employment here in Phnom Penh.

Anyway, I’m pretty pleased with this announcement. It just shows that the business climate here in Cambodia is improving, the tourism sector is on the upswing so there are more jobs available. I noticed the increasing surge of college graduates here who are unemployed so this is a welcome news. But one thing I admire also with a lot of Khmers, they are very enterprising. A lot of Khmers run small businesses, from  small salons, motor home repair, car wash to selling knicknacks and i noticed lots of baby shops opening..So at least even if they are not regularly employed they are creating means to earn and a way to employ others. A win win solution :O.

You know, one of the things I appreciated about Phnom Penh when I first visited in 2004? That you can actually get from point A in the north to point B in the south of the city in less than an hour. Alas! Things are starting to change. Nowadays, traffic here is starting to get horrendous and I’ve actually taken to avoiding going out during rush hour if I don’t want to get stuck in traffic. The pains of development, they say.

But still, there are times one can still enjoy a traffic-free Phnom Penh. Sunday mornings and holidays! Here’s one snapshot taken along Sihanouk Blvd on Sunday morning. Almost empty road and roundabout when this is usually jam packed with vehicles. Perhaps because those clouds look really ominous?

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A late post.  I had this in my drafts but I simply forgot to click on the publish button. Sigh. But its never too late for goodies and eye candy right? And I did have boatloads of eye candy with Legend Cinema’s Fast and Furious 5 advance screening and awesome hot cars event. The guys at Legend sure are very generous and you’ve gotta hand it to them. They come up with cool and fun marketing activities for each movie feature. Fast and Furious 5 is still on, so check out Legend Cinema‘s site and Facebook Fanpage.

I was pretty much excited to see Fast and Furious 5. I have watched the previous installments for this series and I did enjoy most of them. Visually, its stunning and who can resist hot cars, anyway? I’m also a fan of Vin Diesel’s voice {lol! yeah his voice} and to see him again with Paul Walker would be a treat. Adding Dwayne Johnson to the cast sure was a stroke of brilliance on the part of whoever produced this film. And I liked the movie. It had awesome visuals, effects, and the script was unexpectedly funny {check out the movie quotes here and you’ll get what I mean}. Yes, funny and that was a surprise since I was thinking this would be an all out action movie considering the mega dose of testosterone from the presence of both Diesel, Johnson and others. As for the acting, well it was so so, but who cares anyway. Just concentrate on the muscles. That’s my advice. LOL.

Here’s the trailer if you need some convincing..

Going hand in hand with the movie {and coincidentally they were also showing Cars 2..}, Legend held a hot car exhibit and here’s some snapshots.

 

Kudos to Legend Cinema’s team for the onslaught of cool events. I think its high time Phnom Penh gets to enjoy all these.