Talk around town

Where the walls have ears...

• The world famous, one-hour documentary on The Phnom Penh Post, simply titled The Post, will be shown tonight at Meta House.  The film was made by Australians Hugh Piper and Helen Barrow in 1999 with funding from Film Australia.  Starts at 8pm.

• Sources say the foreigner who died at L'Imprevu on Dec 11 was Finnish citizen Miika Makinen. The death looks like an apparent suicide. Makinen used to be the bass player for the band Bum ‘n Draze in 2006. The story got tangled as Makinen checked into the guesthouse and didn't give his passport details. When staff discovered his body, they panicked and pulled a name from their guestbook of somebody who had stayed there two months earlier so they could give a name to police.  By chance, they pulled PPPost CEO Michel Dauguet's name. A reporter from Koh Santepheap contacted the guesthouse and said the paper wouldn't run any story on the event if L'Imprevu paid US$100. The reporter was politely told to take a hike and the story ran with Dauguet's name as the deceased. Michel thanks all those who called to check on his welfare and assures friends and readers that he is alive and well. Bum n'Draze would like to share their condolences with the family and friends of Miika Makinen.

• The big event at Wilhelm Tell last week was that Declan's dog, Angel, tried to catch a cat. The cat escaped.

• A small footnote on the Adrian Ross story.  After he gets back to Northern Ireland, Adrian and his wife plan to ride across Canada on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, then head to Oklahoma in the US, where he plans to fly a World War II-era P-51 Mustang.

• Informed sources say the people most bent out of shape by the cancellation of the IBC Ball were the women who had bought new gowns for the event. And now the fear is that if they save them for next year, they may not fit by then.

• What's the difference between a pessimist and an optimist?  The pessimist says: "Oh dear God, things can't get worse". The optimist says: "Sure they can".

The Gecko column has run in the Post since Issue 1 in July 1992.  He has been on “vacation” for the past six months.