Colds and construction

The terrible onslaught of colds and flu hit here in Asia just as it has in so many places. It seemed odd at first, that we were sitting in weather that was 90F and snorting away with winter colds, but there it was. I thought it a poor choice of ways to begin the new year, but on the other hand maybe it gets all the being sick out of the way for a good long time. There ought to be some sort of karmic value to it -- short term, I mean. I suppose everything factors in karmically if you look at a long enough span of time.

It doesn't help that Dr. Philippe, our landlord, started putting up a new old house next door. He bought it standing out the jungle or someplace, had it taken down and brought here. It looks like a nice house, but with the crew working it was hard to sit around and take it easy and get over being sick. Below are photos of the ritual blessing on site, and two photos of the first wall going up. Reconstruction, Cambodian style.

Now the house is mostly done, at least that is what we are told. It seems to us like there is a lot left to do.

Cambodian Christmas

Christmas is not a big deal in a Buddhist country like Cambodia, but the merchants know that the tourists enjoy it. As a result, the restaurants tend to have Christmas meals of far too much food and the locals make an attempt to wave the flag, as it were. I took this shot in Kampot at the old/new/somewhat refurbished market just before Christmas.

New Speculations

Float Street Press has been taking on a bit of a life of its own lately. I started publishing my own work, then stumbled across Kurt Dysan and published his (with more to come). Then my old friend Javaid Qazi got the rights to his out of print short story collection (UNLIKELY STORIES) returned from Penguin and we published that. Then, while Jim Beckett and I were finishing up THE INVENTION OF CLAY McKENZIE, Tilly Jupiter turned up with funny speculative fiction (you are free to speculate whether or not the science is science or fantasy) and that went into the mix.

And now Jim has produced a couple of fine and funny science fiction stories. He comes from a hard science background, but with his funny bone intact. The first story is:

Proton, protector of the innocent and oppressed, roams the world of Chem fighting evil and injustice. But if she can't escape the ambush she has wandered into, all life on Chem will be in peril.

An adult story for those who appreciate chemistry.

And of course he writes about space travel as well:

When Amanda Murphy accepted the command of the spaceship that would test a revolutionary new propulsion system she didn’t bother to ask why she was selected over dozens of veteran Captains with more rank and seniority. Until, that is, she learned that the computer would actually have total control of her ship. A human couldn’t think fast enough to make course corrections at the speeds the Dark Drive was capable of reaching. But what if something went wrong?

Both books are available as ebooks from Amazon and Smashwords

(and soon through B&N and iTunes and Sony and Kobo) and in paperback from Amazon or CreateSpace.

You can find both right at Jim's sites on Amazon and Smashwords.

I'd put previews or teasers up, but they are in a nicer format at the bookseller sites anyway.

French Chicken

As the United States is celebrating annual slaughter a turkey day, I thought it appropriate to write a column about the fool things.

Here in Cambodia there isn't a word for turkey, not exactly. The word for chicken is (badly romanized) Moan. A turkey is Barang Moan, or French chicken. However, nowadays any foreigner is call a barang and if you want to say that someone is French you have to say barang barang. So I suppose French chickens are now actually foreign chickens, if anyone wants to get that technical. There is no word for fowl, either. You just say Chicken-duck. I guess turkeys and geese don't count for much.

At any rate, here is one of our landlord's foreign chickens parading around this morning. Although they look like US turkeys (although not like butterball or other factory models), these will still be around next week. They have a longer lifespan here. Must be the weather or something in the water. At any rate, this one does not look stressed out.

Hong Kong Redux

In October we flew to Hong Kong for a week. The trip was to serve several important purposes with seeing old friends among the most important. Tom Tsui and I worked together at Asian Sources, a publishing company, some twenty years back. Dagny and I hadn't seen Tom and his wife Miu Miu since then. They were wonderful hosts and we spent some wonderful time together.

Hong Kong is even more intense than it was when we left. We are so off the pace of that kind of life that it left us exhausted. But it was fun and we even ate ostrich (tenderloin) for the first time. 

So here are some images of us and Tom and Miu Miu and Hong Kong in general.

Late Night Reading

MURDEROUS INTENT

by Ed Teja

I know I'll sleep fitfully tonight
lie awake in my bed

reading nefarious meaning into all I hear.
I may even have to avoid the dark completely;
keep all the lights burning bright.

For my stomach is knotted with fear;

my optimism is vanquished,my energy spent.
 

I made the mistake of reading,

late into the night

a story that promised little but fright.
It was bent on creating vivid images, 

on filling my head
With horrifying scenes
And thoughts 

of murderous intent.

copyright 2012, Ed Teja all rights reserved

Quiet October

Actually our October isn't quiet at all. Just running in a number of directions.

We had a lovely visit from our friends Mandy and David, who comprise The Grand Theatre of Lemmings, an exciting street theatre group from Manningtree, England. They are on vacation and managed to make it to Kampot for a few days. We first met them in Hong Kong back in 1992 when they stayed with us on our junk. They had come to perform at the Fringe Festival. Now they have headed off for Bangkok to visit another old friend.

Next week we are back to Hong Kong ourselves for the first time since the end of 1992. It might have changed just a tad. Tom Tsui took this picture recently and while I can recognize a few things, it isn't the city we left behind.We will be hunting down elusive art supplies for Dagny and visiting our friends there. It will be a fast week and then home to get ready for making art.