Ohhhkaaaay, now that the big events are done and over with, I can safely say that I’m back to my swapping activities again. I know many of my readers (ahem) are waiting for this announcement. So sorry to keep you all waiting.

At work, we have already done two major activities and with these all over, my life is returning to normal. That means I can turn my attention to my house – we’ve moved in this house three months ago and yet unpacking and decorating is never completed due to previous pressing responsibilities at work.

Apart from swapping postcards, I will catch up with my craft activities. Before 2013 ended, I purchased some fabric for some easy DIY sewing. I can’t wait to use my sewing machine again. And of course, my dogs. I feel bad that I haven’t played with them in a while. Yesterday, my husband and I went to a pet shop close to Olympic market to get some treats and we spotted a pack of dog training treats. Hah, I had the brilliant idea of trying them so we got a pack. Not sure how different it is from the ordinary dog treats, hehehehe. So, dear swap-friends. I’m now open for business. Leave a comment or send me a message via my blog’s message system. Looking forward to hearing from you.

I sort of taken a leave of absence with swapping postcards due to a very demanding job. However, I still managed to swap a few to persistent – and I say this in a good way – individuals. I am just amused at them because I really see myself in them, too.

I recently have resorted to envelope printing. I am so embarrassed now that I have a really lousy handwriting. Back in high school and uni, I used to have a really nice handwriting that my teachers praised. THis is which is why I love writing on envelopes. But since long years of computer-use has made my handwriting ugly.

Anyways, moving on, I would like to thank my friends from Germany, Anastasia, for the whimsical planner, and also to my two friends from Operation Smile Singapore, Lifen and Lai, for the lovely postcard from Nepal.

Hello, blog. It’s been a long while.
It’s been — what — nearly two months. Gosh.

Welcome to Banlung, Ratanakiri!

For those not in the know, I got a job in August and since then, I’ve been busy with the surgical missions – two times already – pre and post-mission preparations as well as the mission itself that lasts at least 5 days, not including the travel time. What an international volunteer remarked the other day is so true – mission coordinators do not have a life at all. We don’t have enough sleep, we don’t eat when not everyone hasn’t eaten yet, and we do not have a night life. Good luck to me next year then.

Now that we just wrapped up our most recent surgical mission in Banlung, Ratanakiri province, I am swamped with paper works. My back aches from too much slouching in front of the computer, typing out reports and letters and other stuff. My eyes and head hurt from too much staring at the computer monitor. Gah.

One time I allowed lazy self to take over and wandered over the Internet. I got hooked in the online buy and sell group of expats here in the Penh. There’s so much going on – from selling (and buying) home and office items, to musical instruments. I didn’t know a lot that there’s a lot of music enthusiasts in the expat community as there are lots of electric guitars, drum sets, sound systems – what is a budda amp, by the way?

Anyways, going back. My postcard-swapping activities will resume shortly. Just allow me to wallow in idleness for a while just because… I think I deserve to, considering the stressful mission that I just been to.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been away for so long that the mails on my email accounts need sorting out. From the email I use for my swapping activities, I receive more than a thousand emails already. Emails from people who want to swap, and yes, junk mails, too.

I was going through it one by one because if I didn’t, I might erase unintentionally some emails that are rather important. Like the case of my coursera application – I almost forgot that I used this particular email to contact coursera. There is also one email from the reid supply homepage which I bookmarked simply because it has some tools that my husband needs in his mini-workshop.  My husband likes to create things and then let his students do the same and develop their English communication skills through this.

Anyhoo, I digress.
I just found out that our scanner doesn’t work anymore 🙁 I have lots of postcards that needed scanning for publishing them here. So it has to wait till we get a technician to check out what’s wrong with it. So please come back next time for new postcards – lots of them.

Hi. It’s been awhile, isn’t it?

If you’re disappointed about the lack of updates here, well, you are not alone. My friends are, too. I myself is very disappointed because I could not seem to push myself and finish my drafts.

Work is really getting more hectic, and from the way I see it now, looks like I’m going to stay longer. Hurrah for me! Anyways, I was not totally offline as I’ve been browsing through a lot of sites lately. Just reading, mostly, and I have to congratulate myself for successfully keeping myself from commenting. Yay.

In one of the sites I surfed, I found this online article about Internet spying by Cyberexpert Nate Anderson, Meet the Men who Spy on Women through their Webcams. It is scary! I recommend this to everyone, most especially young and vulnerable females, to read this as it exposes how hackers can infiltrate your computers remotely and use your camera to spy on you, or worse, blackmail you. This is a great article on Computer Security, or the lack thereof.