Here be dragons

Less than two weeks...

2011-10-10T12:03:53Z

Until I get on a plane to Cambodia, and they're having some of the worst flooding since 1990. Cambodia is a very poor country, and it lacks the resources to deal with these kinds of disasters. Being Dutch, I'm used to flood precautions and aftercare being swift and efficient. We have good infrastructure, plenty of money and all kinds of plans in place for when (not if) the waters rise. We are the lucky ones.

And now I'm wondering if it's wise for me to get on that plane. Will I be an oblivious tourist getting in the way, or worse: will I get in trouble and end up appropriating limited funds for my rescue? Will I notice anything (most of the travel blog writers I found don't mention any problems, even the ones updated in the last few days)? Is the damage limited to remote areas that tourists don't visit?

There is very little info to be found about which areas are affected. I can find a dozen news articles reporting that so far 184 people have died, but nothing more specific than "in Cambodia". The news media probably figure that since so few people can even point to Cambodia on the map, naming a specific region will not mean anything to their readers so why bother?

Sometimes I feel like such a privileged asshole when travelling, and this is why. I can simply decide to stay at home and all I'll have lost is the price of my plane ticket and the malarone pills. The people affected don't have that luxury, and they've lost everything they have.

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E-mail from my mother

2010-01-27T12:20:32Z

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh
My chequer tolled me sew

Sauce unknown

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It's probably the climate control thingy

2010-01-15T19:35:16Z

They say it's got something to do with the low humidity in the office due to the heating, but I've been having more than what I consider my fair share of headaches lately.

Discomfort led to some pointless ruminating, about how I might be willing to give up a body part if it meant I would never have another headache in my life.

And then I realised that the most logical body part to sacrifice for this purpose would be... my head.

Yeah. No.

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This is what happens when you are me

2009-06-03T07:02:35Z

And you hear people say something different than what actually came out of their mouth.
When I stayed with Mae, she told me that her neighbour - who took care of Mae's cat Vicky while she was away - had left the light on when Miss Vicky ate because she didn't want her to have to eat in the dark. Which is sweet of her but slightly silly, as cats can see a whole lot in very little light (it is a myth that they can see in complete darkness, but complete darkness in London is rarely achieved).

But I misheard this as "she didn't want her to have to eat the dark". Which may in a normal person spark questions as to the nutritional value of dark, or the sanity of any of the people involved in this conversation. It does not, generally, lead to this:

Title: They eat the dark.
Author: lady_deirdre
Length: 250 words (and no, I wasn't aiming for that. It just ended up that way after the second draft)
Warning: this never happened, and hopefully never will. Probably not suitable for children under 8, or people with nut allergies.

( Behind the cut to protect your sensibilities, as you are undoubtedly more sensible than I am )

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I'm talking to myself. That's never a good sign.

2009-05-26T21:16:34Z

LadyD?

Yes?

You're drunk.

Nooo!

.
.
.
.

Oh, all right. I am a bit.

Folks are off to the donkey rescue tomorrow. Have had several slightly panicked phone calls from Mum wondering how the hell they're gonna fit all that stuff into the car. Managed to refrain from making anything other than non-committal noises. Will probably only fully realise that parents will be unavailable for a month when parents are unavailable for a month. Help. Hope they like the donkey rescue people, because it'll be all my fault otherwise.

Who am I kidding? It's all my fault anyway. And Dad doesn't have a spare battery for the pneumatic drill.

If I hadn't had that last glass of wine, I might even have understood *how* that's my fault.

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