summer fun

a 'mukade' (poisonous centipede) gave Karen the fright of her life when she was doing the dishes
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Back from a tiring day of travel, returning home from Cambodia, I was so stoked to find all my classes had been cancelled at school!  I had to feel for Karen though, as while I was sitting round surfing the net and counting down the minutes between coffee fixes, I knew Karen was teaching back to back classes, putting in her best effort to be "genki" (energetic) for the ever demanding kids!  What a star ALT she is :)

The next couple of weeks were a blur of hours spent at school teaching, or more often not as seemed to be the case, watching hour after hour of the highly addictive 24, and then countering the "indoor time" with "outdoor time" in the ever warming sunshine as summer kicked in.

on a drunken path that would lead us to yet another night of karaoke!

chin master time
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The first weekend back after Cambodia, both Karen and I found ourselves working on the Saturday, and therefore in much need of some chill out time that evening.  We arranged to have a bunch of people over for some drinks, but, as 8 o'clock ticked passed, I sat at the table playing solitaire as no one had shown up yet. Things weren't looking too promising for a night on the chop.  However, by 9 the usual cast had arrived and we were all sitting around the table quickly spiralling downhill on a drunken path that would lead us to yet another night of karaoke!

Caleb rips a full heart felt westside
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It had been a long time between parties, and at the conclusion of the night I think everyone can agree it had been way too long!  It was one of those nights that really gets away from you and the blank patches are filled in by the traumatically bad photo viewing session the next day.  One thing I do remember is Krista making it a rule during 'circle of death' that every time Karen danced we all had to drink.  Karen must have had a couple of thousand ants at war in her pants, because she was out of control and wriggled her way through the entire game, thus, led to every ones downfall!

Krista offering her drink to anyone who will take it
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On Sunday we awoke to find the sun streaking through the curtains, and feeling like a wound up Tasmanian devil in much need of energetic release, I convinced a bunch of people to all head over to a nearby 'handball' court for some soccer action.  It didn't take long, it never does, before we had a bunch of local kids surrounding us buzzing out at the foreigners and their funny way of talking.

Soon, we tired from soccer and opted for a change of scenery so made our way up to the Takeo Lake for a lash in the rowing boats.  An hour later, and with everyone sufficiently soaked, Karen and I made our way to shore, a job well done on the oars!  I can thank the many holidays in the Lake District as a child for my skills of splashing with an oar (of course, I have Ali and Dad to thank, though they never gave me "lessons" as such, more they forced me to learn the hard way!).

enjoying and eventful night
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After a great day at the park Karen was inspired to put the word out and arrange a BBQ in the same spot the following Sunday. Consequently, a week to the day we had tripled in number and had ourselves a fine feast of food grilling away under the watchful eye of 'Tan the BBQ Man'! The Sunday BBQ was a very enjoyable day in the park with a great bunch of friends, way too much good food, and sports (oh, blessed sports!). There was actually another BBQ simultaneously going on across the park and, after closer inspection, it turned out to be the ' kendo ' club from my school. So, before anyone had a chance to digest their food we were teaching a bunch of my kids how to play Ultimate Frisbee, and then, just as they got the hang of that and were starting to be a little too good, we switched games and taught them Tag Football, of the "American" persuasion.

"I'm fine thank you, and you?"
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It reminded me of agreat summer BBQ in New Zealand. It was just so great to be out and about enjoying the summer weather finally.  I think shorts and a singlet are my dress code for life!