Sunday soccer

Seven years of football inactivity came to an end this afternoon, with my first competitive match since I hung up my boots in April 2001. And boy, did I feel it. My groin and my left knee were giving me some discomfort before the match - now every bone in my body is crying out for rest! I played for 40 minutes of the first half and the last 15 minutes of the second half in a 3-1 win over the Labour Ministry team, but failed to register on the scoresheet. To be honest I was just pleased to get my legs moving again after so long and my pre-match injuries actually held up well. The expat team I turned out for is called Bayon Wanderers and they've been in action for a few years now, regularly putting out two teams every weekend. The line-up was a real hotchpotch of nationalities with French, Italian, Dutch, British and Khmers amongst the eclectic starting eleven. The game was played at the Old Stadium in Phnom Penh and was watched by a crowd of one man and his dog. Actually, the dog belonged to one of our players. The sun spent most of the time behind cloud, which was a relief, and we managed to end the game before a 2-hour thunderstorm hit the city.
During my dinner at the Red Orchid, I watched a television programme which was devoted to reading out names of donors who had pledged amounts as little as $5 to a fund being organized to pay for food and supplies for the Cambodian soldiers currently on duty at the Preah Vihear stand-off. That's about the gist of it as I could make out...the public dipping into their pockets to send the troops parcels of supplies - an interesting take on keeping the nationalism aspect of this spat foremost in the minds of the audience. Thai troops have occupied the pagoda at the top of the mountain for a few days now and talks tomorrow are aimed at defusing the situation, which has even overshadowed the run-up to next weekend's general election in Cambodia. By the time I'd finished my plate of spaghetti, the total amount of pledges had risen to $50,000. Then it was time for a massage to relax my weary bones at the end of a tiring day.