Season's Greetings

Hi folks, just a quick one to wish you all a very happy Christmas and hopefully I will see most of you very soon in the new year.

The money has now run out and I'm forced to live on my credit card. I did call to a few schools looking for work; none of them have actually come back to me yet. The new term starts in January and I'm pretty sure that they are waiting until after Christmas to conduct interviews. I have made a decision though that it is time to go home now. Even if I was offered a job at this stage I would turn it down. I know that my health is at risk as I just cannot, no matter how hard I try, get used to the food here. I am living on baked beans, pizza, soup and bread. Plus the climate is not really conducive to me being active and alert all the time.

Christmas means very little to most people here in Cambodia. Being a mainly Buddhist country it is just another working day. I'm sure whatever barangs are about will be out for a few drinks tonight; as will I. I suppose moto drivers and tuk-tuk drivers are hoping to make a few dollars tonight if the barang drink enough of the Christmas spirits and start to give bigger tips than usual. Well it shall be a different Christmas to ones I have been used to.

I do want to take this opportunity to relate an experience I had in a bar the other night. It was the bar I worked in for two nights, Revolution. A gang of us were sitting around some tables, having a few beers. Three Austrians called to the bar and sat with us for a while. When they eventually made moves to go, the owner said he would buy them a drink if they stayed. They said that they were looking for somewhere to eat spiders. The owner's wife, a Cambodian woman, said that she had some in the car. The three Austrians sat back down while she retrieved the spiders from her car.

We all held our breath as she opened the plastic shopping bag to reveal about twenty deep-fried tarantulas. They were as big as my fist. My skin immediately began to crawl. The two Austrian blokes eagerly took one each from her. The Austrian girl declined. She took photos of the two guys eating the spiders. They posed with the spiders hanging out of their mouths, they posed with the spiders in their hands just to show how big they were. I am still kicking myself that I didn't have my camera with me; it was an excellent photo opportunity. I remember watching the guys biting on the legs first. Then one of them bit into the abdomen, he paused, obviously fighting back the gag reflex. His eyes widened and he said, 'That part does not taste the same as the legs'. One was offered to me, I declined before they had even finished offering it to me. If anyone had pushed one of those spiders towards my face I would have jumped up, thrown the table over and screamed like a little girl until my throat bled.

I'm looking forward to getting stuck into a batter burger and chips when I get home. I also find myself reflecting on the joys of white pudding spread over a slice of fried bread. All good things come to he who waits.

Okay folks I'll stop waffling now. Again have a great Christmas, and I'll see you in the new year.