Chaul Chnam Thmey

It’s the Cambodian new year today. It celebrates the end of the harvest season. The celebrations last for three days and each day has a different name. It starts with Maha Songkran, moves into Virak Wanabat and finishes with T’ngai Leang Saka. Yesterday was 2557 and it is now the year 2558 of the Buddhist Era. So, Happy New Year!

As well as the Cambodian new year, it was also London Marathon day. Part of the race was around the Isle of Dogs, the route effectively turning the area into an island of its own. We were prisoners in the immediate area around the flat!

The crowds at the end of the road, cheering on the runners

The most annoying thing, however, was the almost constant noise from the TV helicopters. Here’s one of the irritating things.

Where’s the Mortein?

Mirinda had an appointment with a new hairdresser at 3pm so, after Skyping with Bob and Fi, we had lunch (leftovers from the Lotus) then left the flat. We thought we might have to jump on the DLR and go a couple of stops in order to cross the roads, which were full of marathoniacs. We hoped not as it’s a rather expensive way to cross two lanes.

Then we saw it. A little bit of organisational genius. This is probably really obvious (and old hat) to people who go to these sort of public inducing activities, but it was all new to us. The stewards have a lot of red stripy plastic which they reel out across one lane, forcing the runners (and walkers) to move into one lane. Then they herd the pedestrians into a narrow corridor of barriers in the middle of the road. Once this corridor is full, they retract the red stripy tape from one side of the road and start to draw it out across the other. The pedestrians then cross the rest of the way.

And not a single competitor was inconvenienced. As I said, genius.

So, we had no problem getting to the hairdresser and Mirinda didn’t get too annoyed. And the new colour looks fantastic.

Late in the afternoon, I took apart the old bed and moved it into the lounge room because, tomorrow, the new bed arrives! YAY!