At last

Have I whinged about the state of the Cambodian post system recently? Because I've just had a delivery to my office from the main post office in Phnom Penh of three large envelopes which contained books and stuff sent to me in early February. It's now close to the end of April and frankly, the service is crap. Though at least this time the envelopes hadn't been opened. So what did the postie bring you might ask? Two books from Demaz Baker, namely her A Taste of Cambodian Cuisine, a Khmer cookbook of ingredients and recipes, which she uses in the cooking classes she teaches; and Khmer Legends, seventeen folk tales from her homeland including the story of Wat Nokor and Phnom Pros Phnom Srey (Man and Woman Mountain). From James Rosin came his look back at the classic cult sci-fi television series in the late 60s called The Invaders, which was a big favourite of mine with David Vincent doing his best to warn the world of the invasion of aliens. Okay, you had to suspend belief and the invaders were recognisable by their distorted pinky finger but that was part of the fun. The final envelope contained a DVD of excerpts from Sarah O'Brien's new musical, Winds of Angkor, which she hopes to premiere in Cambodia in the not too distant future. She also sent me a book of images from the musical. My grateful thanks to all three. I also need to get out to Monument Books sometime soon, as I have a list of books that are missing from my library of Cambodia publications and that needs to be addressed.