This week has been pretty hectic for us. I’ve been thinking the best way to cope of not having hubby with us right now is to keep busy. Last Monday, it was Chinks first day of “full day” school. She’s in 2nd grade already and she’s also taking her Khmer classes. I was apprehensive about her adjustment but I think it was only me who was bothered. She made the transition so smoothly that I had to tell myself, ‘Duh? I wonder how I could even worry?”

Our daily schedule is now a bit different. I wake up early before 6 am to prepare snacks and lunch for Chinks. Then I wake her up, get her ready for school and feed her breakfast. School service picks her up around 7:15 am. Then I take about an hour to have a bit more rest before starting to do house chores. Then around 10 am I start with my blogging tasks.

I also get to do a bit of video calling Hi-ace in the morning just to catch up on things. I think its great that we still get to talk almost on a daily basis so I don’t get to miss him too much.

Lunch now is a quiet affair. I don’t even bother to cook anymore. It’s just me and my sister Ouwie, and I would usually just make a sandwich and that’s it. Afternoon is spent resting a bit, then working on some web projects. School service drops off Chinks at around 4:30 pm and we spend a couple of hours playing and roughing around before I start fixing dinner.

I had been also trying to sleep earlier these past few days coz I haven’t been feeling really good. Last week I felt really nauseous and irritable, I even began to think perhaps I have a new baby but alas! I was just wrong. Too bad really but we could try again next year hahaha! Then I had a full scale asthma attack, and the next day I had to rush over a pharmacy to get my asthma meds. Phew! It scares me to get sick here…

I know. I’d been a little out of my element this past week coz I guess I was just too overwhelmed with things to do, errands to run, weather not cooperating with me at times. I badly needed a break.

The past week has been so hectic, in fact I had to drag Hi-ace for a weekend in Kep because I felt like I needed to be alone, away from maddening crowds, away from a computer, where I could stop thinking about what I should be doing next, what I have missed doing etc.

I’ve posted a few updates and mostly for blog memes because I simply don’t have the energy to write more. Things are in full swing with updating and repackaging my sister’s graphic design business and I have my hands full helping them. It was also my mistake accepting custom blog installation services while I was busy.

I didn’t even have the time to go to the market the past week and thankfully, MIL supplied us with food we needed. I was also supposed to meet my friends last Monday but I couldn’t. Wednesday also passed by with me unable to be out of the house and by the time Friday came I was really glad I had some free time to have coffee with friends. I was scheduled to meet a new friend, Jonna who was visiting Phnom Penh, but I felt thoroughly guilty canceling on her because it was raining so hard and our place is far from central Phnom Penh and I had no one to drive me around. And since the weather was bad enough, my daughter had to be home early too. So I got my hands full again..

Sigh! At times like this I really feel like I should get myself a house helper but them again after I take a breather I always change my mind. For now, things are slowing down a bit and I promise to also slow down..

Last week, Cambodia celebrated its Khmer New Year (Year 2554 in Buddhist calendar).  Some relatives are asking what’s this about and how come its in April, well, its because the dates are based on the lunar and Buddhist calendar. We had the whole week no classes, no work, and almost everyone leaving Phnom Penh for somewhere else..

This is actually the third time I had my Khmer New Year here and I had been expecting it to be uneventful but alas! I was wrong.. We were planning to go to Ho Chi Minh during the week but a few days before the new year, Ma (my MIL) asked if we could accompany her to her regular pagoda visits and they were also fixing up a place in a pagoda somewhere in Kandal as their family’s burial grounds. So, ok Ma has always been nice to us and seldom asks us to go anywhere or do anything so it wasn’t hard to acquiesce to her request. So we put off going to Vietnam and just stayed here in Phnom Penh.

In one pagoda..

Stuppas..

Sunday was spent trudging around a couple of pagodas for their offerings and prayers. I’m not actually required to join these but I always tag along because I find these traditions very interesting and worth observing. During the previous years , we always visited pagodas exactly on the 13th or 14th and its just so crowded and chaotic so this time we went a few days earlier so visiting and offering was a lot easier. Still the heat was a bit too much for me and in the afternoon my head was throbbing and the beginnings of migraine was busy showing itself.. I stayed up all night coz my head was so painful, not even a big dose of Ibuprofen could ward it off and lol! I almost died of fright when I looked at my face the next day! The dark circles around my eyes were bigger than golf balls. Seriously!

The whole week just breezed by and I’m seriously still disoriented  by the flurry of activities I was in. But then, if you ask me what have I been doing, I don’t really know. Haha this must really be a sign of aging. Not knowing what went on.. So, I had to do some heavy-duty thinking so I could actually remember what happened this week.

The whole week I had been so busy cramming! PUC where Hi-ace is teaching some classes changed their textbooks on one subject so every lesson had to be rewritten. Since hubby is super busy already (an understatement, we only see each other after 9 pm and Sundays hayyy!) so I volunteered to make his lessons plus the handouts. Crazy me! With lots of things I also have to do with my blogs, on top of the household chores and taking care of a husband and a daughter tasks, I had work up to my neck this week with barely a second to even brush my hair. So I had been cramming, cramming and till now I’m barely half-way with the lesson thing. Thank God, it’s Khmer New Year next week so I can have some more time to finish it.

Last Wednesday, Chinks woke up feverish. I decided to let her stay home to just rest. Thankfully, with lots of fluid and some fever medicine, her fever was gone the next day.

We also went eyeglasses shopping. Hehe not for me but for my sister-in-law. Glass frames here are so cheap and the place we went to has this big sale coz of the coming Khmer New Year. We got several glasses for $23 only per piece.

We also went ‘window shopping’  for some rattan furniture along Sothearos Blvd. I saw this huge ‘bucket-like’  day bed priced at $40 including the mattress. Good deal right? I’ll be getting that one probably next week after I’m done clearing some space in the house…

I have also been super busy blogging, crocheting, cooking, cleaning and jumping rope lol! More later..

My very first Wordless Wednesday entry for this blog..

Photo courtesy of my relatives in Bacacay, Albay, Philippines. The sign at the back ‘Pamibi sa Getsemani’ translates to ‘Praying in Gethsemane’

The Philippines has very strong Catholic traditions and the Holy Week is one of the most anticipated events in our country. In most towns there are a lot of religious activities and one of which is the procession. Life-size images statues depicting the last days of Jesus Christ are shown during the week. Our family takes care of the “Agony in the Garden” scene and this image statue has been handed down from several generations of our ancestors already…

You can view more photos of the previous years Holy Week Procession on my photos page.