……So I walks down to the restaurant/bar in the tourist part of Tadlo…….a beautiful and chilled little place, by the river with the best views of the falls…….and went and ordered my dinner…..which was invariably spagetti bolognaise, as I was still trying to keep on the right side of my stomach and prevent it from seeing the new feature length epic of “Gandhis Return”!!!! My stomach really wasnt into sequals and it had found “Gandhis Revenge” to be a right bummer!!!!! 😉
So I sat down and awaited my italian delight…..Laos style :-), and the Canadian girl walks in, clocks me and sits down at my table. We starts having a chat and it turned out her family were from South Okendon, and she was born in Essex!!!! She was an Essex Girl!!!! Well……I couldnt help but relentlessly take the piss…….she’d made herself an easy target to poke………fun at!!!;-)……..and she appeared to enjoy the experience…… just like all Essex girls do!!!! 😉
But then I started talking about my trip and happened to mention about the Kymer Rouge and how I thought that what they did was even more evil then the atroscities of the Nazis. And then she flew off the handle at me again………..she goes “WHAT?…..Do you actually know what the Nazis did?”….. “Yes, and I also have learnt what the Kymer Rouge did and in my opinion they were even more evil……although I dont believe its a competion :-)” I added in an attempt to be more light hearted.
She then went into one at me saying how she’d studied the Nazis and was giving me a lecture, basically rubbishing my opinion, at which point I’d heard enough and curtly interupted her saying “Look!……I’ve also been to sites in Germany and I’ve been to sites in Cambodia where particular atrocities have been carried out…..and based on what I FEEL and have learnt…..the sites in Cambodia were more evil…..and thats my opinion….I am Entitled to an opinion you know!!!!” I said getting a little bit of a strop on!!!
Well…. she shut up and stopped having a pop at me………. but I didnt feel particulary comfortable around her and we’d entered into another deep silence. So, in an effort to make peace and break the ice again………. I got back into the Essex girl jokes!!!!! 😉 But she was in a mood now and excused herself without saying goodbye…….. thank god for that……. I didnt bloody ask her to sit with me!!!!!!
So I sat there by myself again, sipping me pigs ear and reading my book, when this English woman came over and asked me really sweetly if I’d like to come and join her and her fella. “I’d love to…..thanks thats really nice” I said while going and joining them at their table. And as it turned out….Lyn and Stu were about the soundest couple of people I’d ever met. We spent the entire evening talking passionately about the stuff we were into and had done, and were having a proper bubble, and the time and the beers seemed to fly by!!!!………
*and in the midst of having a bubble….I happened to hear a great laugh across the room….there were a couple of lads having their own bubble with the owners of the bar……..and I happened to notice that one of them…..wearing this stupid blue bandaner (which wasnt even put on properly!)….. was different to everyone else *
…………..They were deep people full of a lot of love and just so fucking cool!!!!….I felt completely at ease with them and completely able to be myself!!!…..Its not often you feel that with someone after a few minutes…..but with them it was instant!!!! And as we were talking about ourselves I obviously told them about the work I’d done with Leyton Orient Football Club, and Lyn said “Is that the club which has got this new centre being built?…..whats it called?” “ The Score centre “ I volunteered. “Yeah, thats it” she said. “How did you know about that?” I asked a bit flabergasted……
– At the time I left, Leyton Orient were in the middle of major works rebuilding the stadium and were almost completing the building of a brand new, state of the art indoor sports complex….The Score Centre –
…….”I used to work for an organisation which made decisions on the allocation of grants for community facilities…….The last decision I was involved with was the grant for Leyton Orient…….it was a long debate, we had a choice of dividing the money between 6 other community projects or giving all the funding to Leyton for the one big one…….I was arguing the case that the money would be better allocated among the 6 projects, but Leyton won the day in the end”
I was like “No way!!!!….argh Lyn you should see it though….I had a sneaky peak in there just before I left and it looks awesome…….it looks like money well spent to me”………The score centres basically a massive area, larger then a football pitch, undercover in a rectangular building/canopy similar to the millenium dome……..she said “Really….I’m so glad I met you because that was the last decision I was involved with and its actually been bugging me ever since!!! You’ve set my mind at rest!”…..and I was pleased to!!!!! 🙂
Before we new it it’d turned midnight and when we looked up we realised everyone had gone!!!!!! The only person left in the bar was the owners daughter…..who was half falling asleep and sitting in her pyjamas!!!! Bloody hell these Laos people were polite!!!!! She asked if we wanted another beer and we were saying…”Are you sure….is it still cool for us to be here? “ She said yes. We goes “If you want to go to bed you can…dont stay up on our account” She looked pleased and then gave us the keys to the beer fridge, so we could help ourselves, then asking us to turn the lights out when we leave and went to bed!!!!! How cool was that!!!! We had the run of the place and carried on drinking till about 1.30 am!!!! What a pukka night!!!!!
It was really cool there too because the geezer allowed you to have a slate (tab to you foreign types!) and it was nice she trusted us to be honest with it. But Stu and Lyn were heading off the next day, so we exchanged emails and said our goodbyes grateful of the company for that evening. I’d only known them 5 minutes….but I already loved them to bits!!!!:-)
*…………And they were going to reappear back in my life at a time when i needed them most. *
So I walked back to my bungalow and I noticed the big gate was closed leading to it. Bloody hell….gonna have to jump it I thought, but then saw a little gap by the side of the post and tried to squeeze through……….then I heard a tear….
Oh fucking hell!!!!….there was some barbed wire and I’d ripped me cool as fuck Molecule half cut pants…..and I werent bloody happy!!!!! “Who the Fuck locked this gate!!!!” I screamed out in the confines of my own head!!! Gonna have to fucking jump it now…..Bollocks!!!!….I tell you what, in the moment I werent best pleased!!! 🙂 And as I put my hands on the bars, while preparing to jump over………the gate swung open!!!!!! “Oh you fucking bastard….of all the fucking muppets in the world…..you complete and utter gonad!!!!” I thought to myself………..and then couldnt help but laugh………..what a twat!!!!! 🙂 Well……I guess I’ll have to find someone to sow me strides up in the morning then……bugger it!!! And I went to bed 🙂
Love and Light,
Miller
The Adventures of Miller 