How to win friends and influence people; A lesson in cake fights and kitchen flood

My first dinner party went off with a literal bang, Jason was the first to arrive and within about 5 mintues he had bumped a pan which fell and knocked the attachment for an old tap of the wall causing a torrent of water to us to start jetting out of the wall, spraying us with water and making the water level in the kitchen quickly rise. He apologised and we laughed and he rode to our local café to ask the guy who works there and who I pay rent to, to come look at the house. Jason came back a little later and took over holding a pot against the flow to try and redirect some of the water into the sink. In the mean time I called Noni and go the phone number of Buff, out local hero and fixer of everything, and also the smiliest guy in Cambodia, and maybe the world.

My phone ran out of credit half way through the conversation and I decided not to bother Buff anymore, and then Yong rocked up and turned the water off (which is way easier to do than I thought). Yong then tried to shove a kitchen sponge in the hole in the wall with a knife and talking about maybe calling someone to fix it tomorrow. I wasn’t convinced about the kitchen sponge, but was happy for the plan to fix it the next day (probably needless to say when Yong turned the water back on the kitchen sponge went flying and the water spout re-started).

After Yong left Buff rocked up (somehow, I don’t know how he found out where I was or what they problem was…) with a bunch of tools and looked at the hole in the wall, then took a few screw drivers to the hole and chipped out the rest of the metal pipe. He turned the old fitting around, put it back in the wall and it was fixed (He really is the coolest dude ever). I offered him a beer or dinner, but he just happily headed off to do whatever it is that Buff does when he’s not fixing all of our problems.

Then Alexa Noni and Allison arrived with take away Indian Jason swept out most of the small flood,  and I proceeded to be the most unorganised host ever, not having any plates or cutlery or anything, and feeling so happily amused seeing all my bongs in my house J

It was a lovely dinner, and we talked about all the things and teased each other and gave Allison the mug that we got made for her birthday with a picture of Us and all the Kinyei staff on it, and eventually it was time for cake. Khmer cake is an interesting conglomeration of oil slick like puffy cream and spongey cake… It is often thought to be better for throwing than for eating, and so, in a moment that I feel really christened my new home, I took a chunk of it and smooshed it into Noni’s face…  It was Cake-on from then and we quickly deceminated the cake, re-homing it to each others, faces, hair clothes and my entire house, It was one of those moments where you realise your friends are real friends because your can smooth oily cake all over each other and then stand together on the balcony in the rain trying to wash it clean and laughing. Not long after that everyone went home and I bemusedly removed cake from some surprising places, washed it out from behind my earsand went to bed. J