last minute lady

I arrived in Siem Reap this evening and it's been an interesting past 72 hours... in my usual last-minute style I made it out of London with everything in order, despite a few hiccups, which are always to be expected. Highlights included movers who showed up 2 hours late (6 hours before I needed to be at the airport) and one last shopping trip on Oxford Street (3 hours before I left for the airport) - wow, if you really want a sure-fire way to make sure you don't get sentimental about leaving a city you love, go down there and walk in the cattle herds of tourists who are moving at a snail's pace, not allowing even a spare inch on either side of the pavement for those of us who live here and are in a hurry.... THEN - wait in a line of 20 people with only 2 people working the register. I avoid that area at all costs, so much that I ordered everything online 2 weeks ago. This idea seriously backfired on me as half the stuff never came. This added to my last minute list: 'sweet talk a colleague into sorting out returning my stuff when it finally arrives so I can get my money back'.

Yes I do tend to do everything at the last minute relative to what some people are comfortable with, but it works for me, and the beauty of travelling alone is that you get to do it your way. I was thinking about this as I was sitting at the gate before I boarded the plane. Question for you: are you one of those people who races to get in line as soon as they call you, or do you let all those eager people do their 'hurry up and wait thing', and then go after the line dies down?

You can probably tell from the tone of the question which camp I fall into. So I sat there until the end, even though I got upgraded and had some sort of priority boarding. I haven't flown Qantas Airways in a long time, or perhaps ever, so when the guy told me that he had upgraded me to 'Premium Economy' I didn't get too excited. I had visions of 6 extra inches of leg room, at best (not a huge selling point to someone who is 5'5), and maybe the chance to board the plane 5 minutes earlier.

Well, walking onto the plane dead last, as planned, feeling quite satisfied that I was travelling alone and could do whatever I wanted... I realised the joke was on me as I could have been sitting there for 20 minutes sipping champagne. Who knew Premium Economy on Qantas rivals many American carriers' Business Class... what is wrong with our airlines? It was a very welcome surprise.

So now I am here... I have tomorrow to explore and adjust and then I start working with this organisation http://www.lifeandhopeangkor.org/ on Thursday. I was placed there by an agency based in the UK called AFID http://www.afid.org.uk/. My primary objective is to see what I can do to help strengthen their financial management and accounting teams and processes... but I asked if one day a week I could go work directly with the kids and take photos, which they seemed to be fine with. As you can see, this is something that makes me very happy...

And so it begins...