Up quite early this Saturday morning as I forgot to turn off the call forwarding feature on my Skype account.  What was for my sister supposed to be a call to leave a message, turned into a conversation with me instead.  That’s okay as my alarm clock was due to ring a few minutes later as I’m doing a border run this morning.

Another trip to Cambodia! 

This time, I don’t think I’ll write a whole entry about it.  Once you’ve gone, you’ve gone.  But I’ll bring my camera nonetheless in case something really blog-worthy occurs.

All in all, a good week in the Big Mango.  The weather has been overcast and rainy much of the time, making for cooler temperatures and nice breezes.  This just serves to remind me that April and May are really the two months best avoided here as they are just so hot.  Not Saudi Arabia hot, but hot nonetheless.

Elfie and Ryan came to town for several days, providing an opportunity for us finally to meet.  They are friends of Otto and Han’s in Singapore.  Ryan and I knew each other in virtual passing through airliners.net and our respective trip reports. 

One day Ryan and Elfie were at Otto and Han’s house.  While browsing a photo album, they recognized Tawn and I in a picture and that was how the mutual connection was affirmed.

They’re a really nice couple (that’s Elfie on the left and Ryan to the right of him, and of course Tawn and me) and it was a pleasure finally meeting them. 

One of the things meeting them serves to remind me of, is that I really like having a diversity of friends and perspectives.  This foreshadows a more introspective post that I’ve been turning over in my mind, one about the challenges and pitfalls of making friends and acquaintances when you are an expat.  I’ll masticate the topic a bit more until it is ready to be written.

Also this week, I’m pleased to announce that I finally baked a successful (in terms of both flavor and aesthetics) loaf of my sourdough whole wheat bread. 

This time I returned to the original proportions for the recipe.  In order to get the desired height for the loaf, I went to the UFM baking store back behind Villa Market on Sukhumvit.  They have these half-loaf pans that are the same width and height as regular pans, but only about 1/2 the length.  They also have a sliding top so I can make perfectly square sandwich bread if I want.  (I prefer a rounded top, though.)

The texture was beautiful with a nice crumb and even air pockets throughout.  Good smell, flavor, etc.  I’m so happy I could cry… but instead, I’ll just eat a slice or two for breakfast with my oatmeal.

Also this week I had the unusual opportunity to watch a crane being assembled right next to the Ratchadamri BTS Skytrain station.  The cab was at the same level as the station platform, so I had this up-close view of it.  Fascinating stuff to watch. 

I’m still such a boy when it comes to planes, trains, trucks and construction equipment.   Ryan mentioned that he had gone to a store in MBK shopping centre that sells the scale die-cast model airplanes.  It reminded me of how much I loved lying on the floor, playing with my toy airplanes.  Tawn wouldn’t let me do that anymore so I don’t buy any.

Have a good weekend everybody!