Animoto

There you go.

:)

And then there was three!

Wow, talk about lots having happened!
The last video was May giggling (very pregnant!) as rufa fish ate her toes.
Since then we have become a family, Sopheap Isabella Johnston Born 12 Sept 2009
is the little monster who makes our days exciting.
We went back to NZ to meet the family and get married Palangi style

I'm not sure how i ended back up at this blog?!
A trip down amnesia lane certainly.

But i will upload the animoto from the last cpl of years so at least there is an online log of the very cool things that have filled my life since leaving NZ.

Peas

i really should preview things!

Ahhh i think this is the clip

Long time between drinks!

Ok, my last post was a jpg not a movie file.....so liz!
but here is the video.

It is of May and I in Siem Reap having our feet tended to by Rufa fish.

The little devils nibble at anyhting they can find and generally make you feel very strange.
$3 for 20 mins, money well spent

And our feet felt smooth and tingly for a day afterwards.


Now i wonder what a bath of them would be like?

Rufa fish in Siem Reap

Why do i sound like Homer Simpson here?

End of year

A collection of images from the last year

Love you cuz

Missing home is something that creeps up on you in the quiet moments.
To be honest when you're busy with the everyday actions and thoughts of the here and now you dont think about the place and more importantly the people who you surrounded yourself with for such a huge part of your life.



So often here i sit amidst a swirl of language that i can only comprehend a tiny part of, an observer of the everyday rather than a full participant. And yet i'm happy, i'm where i'm meant to be, with the person i want to be with.



But at odd times i find myself enveloped by the face/places/times of Welli.
The good, the bad, the immortal.

I think about my mate

Much love to all of you celebrating this weekend for Jase.

We are mobile!

Well, we are finally able to choose when we go places!
Went shopping for a moto in the weekend with May's dad and his mate (It is amazing how helpful it is to have a Khmer speaker when shopping)
Found a Honda Click which had only 7000Kms on the clock and had a clean engine and sound frame (yes i had a look under and inside the bike but my knowledge is laughable !)
Next was a stop down Helmet selling street to have a look at some of the many helmets that are available in Phnom Penh (the build quality of some are questionable in the extreme... think Ware Whare Bob the builder plastic but with "cool"stickers to make them look tougher)
We settled on a couple that felt heavy enough to be useful but not full face as in summer that will be sweltering.
Then came the difficulty, who was to drive our new bike?!
lol
Up till now i have been a passenger most often as May has borrowed her sister's bike (crashing that is not something i wanted on my head!!)
So May felt that the status quo should continue........... I on the other hand was keen to get riding again, to get more confident in the sometimes chaotic conditions on the road.

It is turn taking time.

Although i think May was a bit cunning by suggesting we go for a "sedate Sunday drive"along the riverside last night!!
It seems every family, teenager, tuk tuk, moto driven food seller, 4x4, truck decides to drive up and down the riverside and around the roundabouts near Independence Monument.
with May sitting side-saddle i wound my way without any skill or daring through the jam. (i will be honest, our conversation was terse lol, as a first nite time ride it left a lot to be desired)

Rode this morning to work, and then May took the moto to her mothers, a much nicer run along Russia Boulevard which is paved well and wide!
I will catch the bus home each nite but ride to school as it will allow me to get up later than 5.30! and spend some time with May each morning before i go to school.
Will post a vid showing our route to school soon.

Looking over Phnom Penh towards the slowly filled lake

The lakeside area of PP, where I and many first time travelers stay is being filled in to make new land for real estate developers.
The people who lived on the lake and beside it are being squeezed out as they are anywhere in Cambodia where their property is worth more to someone more connected than they.

Im sitting in my class, getting my breathing under control

Damn, i take my hat off to every guy I know who has ever had a child.
The ability to go from regular day to a ALL STATIONS panic is an eye blink now.
May has been ok up to now and apart from the many little changes for her, from some sort of Steve Austin like olfactory powers (not the best super power in Phnom Penh!) to the need to not try and do the things that she could do so easily only a month ago, she has coped really well.
Each day i go to work i hope all goes well, i understand the dates and chances that problems will occur or at least I did in a textbook way.
Getting a call minutes before my grade 3 kids came in for class, from Bom (May's older Sister) on May's phone telling me she has a lot of pain in her pompoy/stomach (my spelling) and should they go to the local Khmer doctor or across town to our Doc at Rattanak made everything come into perspective.
May and the baby are ok, the ultrasound showed no problems with either of them thank what ever deity is looking down on us. (credit has to be given to Buddha as i had several long chats during the quiet moments as i waited for the phone to ring)

I understand that having the baby come to term safe and well is still very much a case for statisticians to debate but if emotional force could influence it we would be having our baby safe and sound in Sept!

I will be making an offering tonight to say thank you for letting us get another day down the road.

If you want to do something similar, I'd appreciate it.

First Ultrasound

Friday afternoon, a day that saw us go from a couple to something more.

A very good day in Phnom Penh

Matt and May in Laos Dec 08

Merry Xmas

Woke up xmas morning in Laos, Vientiene at a hotel way out of our budget. Gave May some pressies to bring her over to the Barang dark side. LOL go Santa!

We are off in an hour to Vang Vieng to climb into inner tubes and get drunk while floating down the mekong.... very much the Xmas message .....distilled through rice whiskey.

Keep safe y'all

MattnMay

mattj in asia

Bueller, Bueller? Fry, Fry? Thank you Simone....

Well, that series of soundbites dates me.....as if my photo doesn't! lol
The music for the last animoto was of course from Ferris Buellers Day off, and yes the Cure did a remake of it but i still think it is a very melancholic and beautiful track.

We are coming up to the end of the school year (well we would be if i wasback in NZ but its just a short mid year break here)
Another Xmas in Cambodia which makes for some curious juxtaposition of images ala Snow and Santa images while outside its hot sun and wind.
The wind has been quite strong recently, a warm wind that makes you think about Chch and its Nor'wester.
Where will we spend Xmas this year?
Well, it would be great to go home and show May NZ in the summer, let her meet the fandambly and such but between Visa troubles and cash it looks like we may be in Cambodia for the break.
May hasn't been to Laos so we may go to Luang Prabang then work our way down to Don det for 10 days as Cambodian nationals don't need a visa.
Who knows.
Happy Holidays all

Merry Xmas from Cambodia

Just some images from the last year

May

Blogger is not a happy chappy

Im sitting at the computer, the lab is filled with Grade 6 pupils playing Chicken Invaders (think Galaga ....but with Chickens) Yes i know the lab should be "game free...but really, thats like telling the iphone interface that it cant be sexy'.
hmmm perhaps i need to get out of the lab for a while?
I have been trying to upload some video i shot of the Water Festival but for reasons too mundane to state the blogger page wont show the link toolbar.
So i have been forced to play with Animoto and Moblyng (two cute little online photo manipulation and presentation software that i came across in Classroom 2.0)
Hopefully i can upload some to the blog without having to go through blogger, but it is still a pain not having the post page as it should be.
I apologise if you read this, it has nothing of merit for others other than an opportuinity to do some distance Sigmunding on my state of mind.
Whatever makes you smile.
I will return when i have more to say.

UN Day at NISC

We had our recent UN day which proved to be both a success and interetsing to see how the dominant cultural groups presented their own culture to the school.

Some very cute kids in national dress, the Korean Hanbok has to be a winner with the Pre K Korean kids almost unable to move in it.

There was a parade behind each of the countries flags and it ended with a cpl of representitives from each nation going onto the stage and saying hello in their countries language.

Damn Kiwis, left me in the lurch to say Kia ora and so forth....apparently the sound system was iffy and the kids at the back couldnt understand me.'

"What do you mean we kiwisslurandrunallourwordstogether" hmmm

Whats in the newspaper today then?

The Kep seafood shacks are being moved.

For 15 years the area along the waterfront has had a collection of shacks that serves a collection of the yummiest seafood i've eaten, all washed down with the typical Kep chilli sauce that makes your tongue pucker even as your tastebuds smile.

Now they are being offered $2000 to move somewhere else..... The land is supposedly being turned into a park but most people believe that a property developer has plans on a beachfront hotel.

Hmmmm sound like Boeung Kak Lake to anyone?

A regretable but seemingly daily reminder that the rich are finding ways to get richer while the country and the population is left to count the cost.

The grade 3-6 students are studying an inquiry under the banner of "sharing the planet".

They are looking at Cambodia as a focal point and there is so much they could be doing, the examples of people working to help the environment are so clear as are the effects of placing too much emphasis on quick profit and unsustainable practice.

It is interesting having to walk a fairly thin line between discussing the negative influences having a govt with to ready links to development for profit and the realisation that quite a few students have parents in that same area......

It is fun being back involved in inquiry based learning, the old teacher inside of me misses the development process that happens as kids start seeing the connections and realising the opportuniities that learning can give them. phew thats enough passionate teacherness for the day! lol

Have been playing with Jing, which lets me capture anything on my screen as a video or image file. For me it means i can capture short animations about the inquiry topics and use them at a later date with students without worrying about internet connectivity or download speed. Getting back into using tech as a tool for learning has been a rude shock for me, i have a computer on my wishlist as i still need to sit and learn how to use the adobe suite of software(Robin figures in my plans here!!)

Have a few days in Bangkok coming up, I am going to the ISTEC conference which is for the IT teachers in the region, i bet it is a good place to meet greet and listen to some experts in the tech field and see how they are applying the tools to learning.

Broke the news to May that i was off for a weekend in thailand and for many reasons that initially went down like a lead balloon, luckily i have to go there to process our application for a visa for May to allow her to travel with me to NZ either this Xmas or more likely next June (we will have nearly 3 months off work then)

The number of hoops you have to jump through to get a visa makes you realise how easy it is for Barang to travel thoroughout Asia and the world for that matter.

A quote from a Cambodian soldier on the Thai/Cambodian border at Preah Vihear to finish

"We didn't touch anything, we left it here for them"said Mom Kiri referring to the weapons , personal effects and bedding that the Thai troops dropped as they escaped the fighting that erupted on Wed.

He was pictured with one of the Thai soldiers coming to collect his rifle.... there is a joke in there somewhere but as the photo below confimrs the situation is too tense to be funny.

Here is hoping sense prevails