ZEN Bitchin'

I didn’t expect that I’d be able to write this post, because I felt that the past holiday season went by in a blur, almost a drug-induced haze that it didn’t seem worth writing about. And yet here I am, doing exactly the opposite of what my glum heart has told me to: ignore the holidays, let it pass like water flowing around river stones. I don’t remember much, actually. My memories these days are more confined to what I was feeling rather than on what was happening.

I went through the motions of fixing the Christmas tree, which turned out better than I expected (though I wouldn’t admit it). I went through my friends’ plans of hosting a Christmas eve party at home, instead of a Christmas day lunch that I usually did in the past. This experience taught me that a potluck party is way better than people contributing money then having the cooking done by just a few people only.

Why? Because when the expenses exceeded the pooled money, nobody volunteered to make a second contribution to the one who handled the cooking. Moi. I however, hope that everyone had a good time. Based on the level of intoxication of people, it’s safe to say that they did have a good time. I was, in fact, so drunk that night that I only managed to help V, my room-mate, a little in tidying up after the party before sleep claimed me.

The rooftop of our flat was decorated for the party. In the end there were too much food (which we ate for the next 2 days, it seemed) but not too much whiskey, vodka & beer. There were new friends (at least to me), resurrected friends, and friends of friends who attended the party.

The Beautiful Ones

I wanted to spend new year’s eve away from Phnom Penh; I considered going to Siem Reap or Bangkok. However, V beat me to the chase when he announced that he had purchased tickets to Bangkok. I couldn’t very well leave the house unoccupied at the start of a new year (bad juju, I learned from childhood) so I had no other choice but to stay. And since the Christmas eve party was held at home, everyone assumed that the new year’s eve party was to be held in the same place again. So with the flow I again went. I, however, decided that this party would be on a much lesser scale than the previous one.

Starting with the food, we only prepared meats for grilling, a festive rice dish called bringhe, and dessert. The amount of alcohol we served was also scaled down. Even the guest list. But something strange happened. I think we had a damn better time. The party started at 8PM, with drinks and the grilled pork, chicken and sausages. Later, those who wanted rice were led to the kitchen so they could help themselves. Drinks flowed. We cam-whored increasingly as our inebriation deepened.

An hour before midnight we walked to Hun Sen Park, in front of Nagaworld Hotel Casino, to greet the new year and to watch the fireworks. We brought with us 2 bottled of wine and plastic tumblers. The drinking and cam-whoring continued. When the fireworks display was over, we returned to the house for yet more drinking, eating, and cam-whoring (not necessarily in this order) and we didn’t stop till it was way past 3AM.

Then I slept peacefully. I wasn’t as drunk as I was at Christmas, but I was a comfortably numb bunny, with a little buzz of happiness thrown in on the mix. The next morning I reviewed and laughed at the photos we took. This is the stuff you pay good money for when you run for public office and desire a squeaky clean image. Of course, I exaggerate. We were happily misbehaving in front of the camera (that’s what cam-whoring is) but we never let go of our model behaviour. Well, enough with the  attempts at witty descriptions. I will let the photos speak for themselves.