Holdiay Equals Happy Day

Happy Coronation Day!

What a relief to have a day off of work! Of course, a day out of the office means a day doing other fun things. I'm currently at my favorite cafe, Living Room, catching up on Bowtie articles I've horribly neglected the past couple weeks due to the conferences and such.

Besides the construction on the building across the street from the cafe that is causing distracting levels of noise pollution, the atmosphere is great. A series of storms have been rolling through the region, which has caused high humidity but lowered the temperature a considerable amount. There's a nice breeze wafting through the porch here -- great for brain stimulation. Coupled with the double espresso and fruit salad I ordered, I should be content here for a few hours.

So I think the holiday, though its not as big as the Water Festival coming up in a few weeks that I hear compares to NYC's New Year celebration, has had an awful effect on the traffic situation. Last night I was heading to my pilates class, which usually is about a 10-minute walk from my house, but I was running late so I decided to take a moto. Bad idea! The usually empty streets were packed, intersections were jammed, and not even my moto driver who was willing to jump sidewalks was able to wriggle his way through the mess. I ended up paying my fare and jumping off in the middle of the street to walk the remaining few blocks, which I assume would have taken 20-30 minutes to drive through.

Well, tomorrow it's back to work, but Friday is the King's birthday, which means another free day! Plans have been up in the air, but I think I'm going to head to Sihanoukville (rated one of Southeast Asia's Sexiest Beaches by Forbes Traveler) for the weekend and hopefully get some sun and read some books.