Interesting Events

Over the last few weeks we have had a few intriguing events taking place here at the BEC.

 

Our silicony window sill

First up: a few complaints were being whispered around the BEC about windows leaking when it rained, so Vitou was on the blower to the landlord, and before we knew it the fik-it men were here to remedy the problem. Two men arrived and were duly shown the windows and the locations where leaks were to be encountered. Our bedroom windows didn't actually leak but it seems it was deemed necessary that virtually every window in the house should be fixed regardless! Silicone was the solution of the day, and so it was applied liberally around the frames, the sashes, the tracks, the flyscreens and even some on the glass itself. Problem fixed, the fik-it ('x' is more or less unpronounceable to Khmer speakers) men left! 

It wasn't until a while later when we decided it was time to open windows to clear the lingering fumes of fresh silicone that we investigated what they'd done. We found that they had in fact sealed the frames and even the flyscreens (!) into the tracks. So that meant that we needed to prise the half dried silicone apart, simply to ensure that we would be able to open our windows again. They sealed round places that just don't leak... but not only that, why oh why would anyone seal around the fly screens (to stop the leaks) when the rain will come straight through the fly screen anyway! These particular fik-it men seemed to have a lack of comprehension of the situation that was simply astonishing.

A few days later the landlord popped in to see what they had done, and casually mentioned the clue that might explain their course of action: the men that fixed the windows were air conditioning technicians... no wonder their solution was to seal all the windows against the risk of being opened and letting in fresh air!

 

Mousie Hole

Next event: a few nights later we were in bed and were woken by rattling sounds a number of times during the night. We came to the conclusion that maybe a mouse had taken up residence in our room. The next night we heard it again, and found it snuggling behind our wardrobe. After a flurry of chaseing, it went behind our bed and then under the bed and back behind the wardrobe and finally disappeared out under the door. Now that we knew where it had been coming in we could try to block the hole it had eaten through the rubber air seal attached to the bottom of the door. So we put a small heavy box there... which seemed to work... until a few mornings later when I went to open the door and discovered another hole eaten through the rubber at the other side of the door.  So it was still determined to get in - though just why it prefers to frequent our bedroom we are yet to discover, as it doesn't seem to have been nibbling our bickies at all. The game of man-and-mouse continues unabated, as Phnom Penh appears to be bereft of any suitably effective mouse traps, and I'm not sure that I want to use mouse glue - what do you do with an extremely irate mouse stuck in glue? Any suggestions welcome!

 

A few days after this, I was in our room and noticed people on the street below were looking up and pointing in the direction of the BEC and talking on mobiles. We went outside to stare back at them and then discovered (by looking in the opposite direction) a huge column of black smoke a few blocks away. Heaps of people in the neighbourhood were on their rooftops watching the spectacle. Eventually we found out what had happened: a petrol tanker was filling up at the service station when drips from its tank fell on the hot exhaust pipe and caught alight. The driver managed to drive the truck a short distance down the road before it burst into flames and burnt a number of other cars and 5 or 6 shops/houses. The fire brigade were called but apparently you have to negotiate the price first before they will come... rather an absurd procedure in an emergency situation (and I would guess that the bargaining process is altogether rather one-sided if you having your house being engulfed in flames as you try to haggle the price down). I don't think anyone had any major injuries although there was one firefighter injured. Here is the link if you want to see some photos: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092242215/National-news/fire-fallout.html

 

Syphoning the diesel

Talking about petrol... yesterday David and I were travelling out to LCDI to teach, together with Vanny and Sokhorn acting as our motodups. We stopped down the road to fill the motos with fuel before continuing on our way. But some how or other the guy filling the tank put diesel fuel into the moto! So we had to wait while they syphoned all the diesel out, with the aid of a tiny legth of rubber piping and an old cooking-oil bottle. Another only-in-Cambodia moment!

 

Well that is it at the moment for interesting events that are happening in and around the BEC.