Day 103 - Editing, eating and enjoying a sunny Sunday.

The beauty of Bou Savy

Day 103 - 04th October

Another early weekend rise. 6:15 am this time.

Unable to get back to sleep, I went down for breakfast and continue work on my Australian visa. The first stage was cleared so it's time to get moving on the next bit. Johannes joined me briefly before his trip out to Angkor Wat and we discussed our fascination with the Khmer culture and how greaeverything was here.

I found the Khmer's secret hiding place on the top of the hotel.

I had an 8:15 swim of 40 laps and then went for a walk around Bou Savy. Yes, I walked around my hotel, my iPod on shuffle and took in the morning sun. It was great.

By 9:30, I'd set to work on editing my book. It's coming along nicely and will be ready to send to my willing volunteer readers very soon. Get ready guys. It'll be all systems go before you know it.

The rest of my day was spent sitting still and working but I loved every minute of it.

By the time Johannes had returned, I was pretty worn out so I showered to freshen up before we headed down to pub street for some grub. The fried chicken and bok choy was glorious and Johannes' Loc Lak looked pretty good too. 

Johannes was taking the photo. But love that bucket!

We met his friend who he'd teamed up with on previous travels and the three of us headed to Angkor What? Bar for cocktails. After a bucket of Apsara's Blend we tried the local rice wine, mussel wine and Angkor whiskey. As expected, it wasn't a pleasant experience.

I shot back to Bou Savy for a Skype session with my sister and cousin who are coming to join me on a two week trip around Thailand. We decided to go to an Elephant sanctuary on a two day trip in Chiang Mai. I'm pretty excited about that.

Then I watched the horror show that was United losing 3-0 to Arsenal. Definitely a day to forget! I went to bed grumpy.

Day 96 - Sunday - God rested, Dan wrote!

What can't speak, can't lie as my old mate, Del-Boy would say. A proud achievement for me!

Day 96 - 27th September

Ah, Sunday. The day of rest.

NOT FOR ME!

If I'm ever to become an author, I can't rest until the job's done. 

I woke up and had an early breakfast before I set to work to finish the final chapter of my book. And I did it. I finished it in just over 79,000 words. What a sense of achievement I felt to have finished another novel. All those long hours and all the hard work and research have finally paid off and come together to form the first book in my four part book series.

Now all I have to do is edit it before sending it to a list of ten volunteers to read for me and to give their feedback. Once I have this, I do my third draft and then send it off to literary agents for them to consider. Here's hoping this is the one! 

Love those laps!

I went for my fourth day of swimming in Bou Savy's pool and came away feeling relaxed from another 30 or so laps.

Dried off, I set to work on my niece's gift, using the spare hours I had to create something that's just a little bit different to the normal gifts I would give her.

Brilliant and very flavoursome.

The rest of the day was spent eating - Lamb Curry and rice and garlic Naan bread - and Skyping my family back home. Everyone is healthy and well so I can't have any complaints.

The evening brought more rain and thunderstorms. It made me retreat to my room as I refused to repeat my experiences in Shanghai and end up with a stinking cold for a week. You're not going to get me this time rain, you relentless git!

Back to volunteering tomorrow, I can't wait. I tend to miss it when the weekends roll around! Just four weeks left! I'm going to enjoy every minute.