One day, at the beginning of the Khmer new year holidays, the landlady invited us to her home on the outskirts of the city – on the other side of town. Before we went she had told Darren that he’d have to go up the mango trees to pick them – it was so much fun. Susan was the only one who stayed on the ground and enjoyed picking the fruit with the long stick with the basket attached on the end. The family quickly learnt Dutch Blitz – a fast moving card game. It’s April, so it’s extremely hot!

Birthdays are good excuses to invite neighbours around. We had a great time eating, chatting and playing pass the parcel or the cops and robbers scarf game. The ‘cop’ scarf tries to catch up with the ‘robber’ scarf. To move from one person to the next each person has to tie the scarf once knot for the cop and 2 for the robber (obviously slower because he’s carrying the loot!)