A Day In The Life...

sick and drowning

wildboar — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:43:42 +0000

day 1: not really sick as in the true sense of the word. but have been here for 3months plus and this being my final year, so its been a bit of a drag. currently drowning in a mountain of unfinished lecture notes, revision (exams eons away), gathering newspaper articles and other bits of housekeeping. navy and school both starting to clamour for my undivided attention so something’s gotta give. usually my sanity. luckily weather been uplifitng these past few days meaning no rain or overcast skies, but as winter is drawing near, might start to get moody. self revision starts this week so most probably will be camping in the library clearing the backlog of notes and whatnot. who knows how long this will end.

more chicken curry or mutton curry?

wildboar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:25:21 +0000

school lunches are atrocious during holidays. has to return early for some personal stuff and lunch was taken in the main canteen. for three whole weeks, except sat and sun, the DAILY dish was thai red/green chicken curry with rice. there were other options but i’m trying to control my weight. actually they should have named it red/green bamboo shoot curry with chicken. ingredients (listed in order of quantity): shredded bamboo shoots (60%), chicken breast (30%), thin coconut milk (5%), curry paste and eveything else (5%).

thankfully the cook was more hardworking this week and no more chicken curry. had sweet and sour pork on thursday and lamb curry on friday (today). strangely enough, both were made using same ingredients and tasted the same and even looked the same. reminding me of the scene in army daze where they were all discussing about cookhouse food, recalling that the sweet and sour pork and assam fish both tasted like mutton curry.

At the movies

wildboar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:08:52 +0000

first cinema experience since i came here and watched . three innocent words which earned me the wtf? look when i bought my ticket in advance, like as if i was watching some *artistic* film. it was only during the screening did i realise why: two pairs of grandparents, one pair of grandmothers, one teenager accompanying her granny, one middle aged couple, two middle aged aunties and twenty-something me. thankfully the cinema wasnt too large either, 88 seater.

film review: good, thoughtful and well balanced movie. dabbles in romance, food (of course) and life issues. must watch for bloggers and food enthusiasts alike. or if you’re being greedy, both. not revealing too much… yet

Please return my dessert

wildboar — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:56:18 +0000

Being a once-a-year frequent flyer, I have noticed gradual changes in airlines, especially the in-flight entertainment and food and beverage department. Gone are the days of watching pre-selected (read: non-choosable) movies on huge screens on the walls or drop down screens. This have been replaced by an entertainment system that can never be fully explored in a single flight unless you spend three solid months in that hollow metal sausage.

Thankfully, the quality of the food in people class have always remained top-notch. Appetisers were interesting, mains were wholesome and delicious, desserts ever scrumptious and ice-cream used to be handed out like treats i.e. consume sparingly. However, with massive cost-cutting measures in place, airlines have resorted to various ways of saving which in turn lowers the experience of air travel. Out with metal cutlery, in with plastic (security). Recently, I noticed a very disturbing trend. The absence of the dessert. It used to be a piece of cake or pudding but has now been replaced by ice-cream. I’m not complaining but imagine ending a five star meal with a $2 ice-cream biscuit sandwich. It just doesn’t fit.

When I was a kid, I always anticipated the dessert course. That was the only time I could indulge in guilty pleasures with mum’s approval. Even now I’m of legal age, nothing has changed. (except for flying solo.) So please Mr Airline, bring back the dessert and the memories.

easter deployment

wildboar — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:08:29 +0000

as described in the previous post, this 2 week event will be crammed into one post (hopefully). first, a little preamble bitching (my first b-word!). if you have read my super early posts, you would know that i am serving the royal navy “part-time” through the University Royal Naval Units. if not, you know now. anyway, the system operates on lectures on weekdays and sailing practice on weekends. each easter and summer holidays, there are a few extended sailing periods called deployments where we sail a “little bit” further than usual. now, i am theoretically bound not to reveal information which could lead to something nasty. if i abided the rules “to a T” (or letter if your english is half-past six), then you would not have the faintest idea what i’m talking cos then it should end here. thankfully, i have known greater secrets concerning national security, so to speak, and have worked previously in such environments. i know what to say, what not to say and whats really testing the system.

this deployment was a 13 day sailing trip covering the coasts of southern england and northwest france. this trip is the longest cruise for me, covering 8 ports. we left portsmouth on the first day. the familiar surroundings allowed me to “acclimatise” since i hadn’t been to sea in a while. first we re-fuelled then headed for nearby lymington. the whole vessel consisted of the CO, four permanentship crew, and us seven students; three males, four females. the females occupied two cabins while us males occupied the forward (front) accommodation. the forward accommodation is also divided into two.furthest front consists of four bunks, two on each side, one upper, one lower. the nearer front had one upper and one lower bunk. the other side was the toilet and shower. throughout the whole deployment, i slept alone in the nearer front.

from lymington to caen was difficult. i knew it would be a very long and difficult journey since i wasnt used to being on the ship for long periods of time at sea. it was my first “virgin” crossing of the Channel. naturally, the hot sun and the monotonous droning of the ship moving forwards, combined with a little seasickness and exhaustion brought me to my knees. literally. i curled up in a corner clutching a sea sickness bag. i dozed off, awaking like every ten minutes or so. when i finally woke, i thought twenty minutes had pass. instead, i had been sleeping intermittently. it was the longest “twenty” minutes of my life. i did vomit but didnt produce much. i was then tasked to go above to keep lookout. and it was here that the bitching started.

i was sick, shivering, tired, eyelids feeling like bricks. apparently, my senior thought i was trying to skive and spoke a little too loudly. i was unimpressed. i thought someone was trying to show off since we had juniors on board. i just nodded to the questions and disregardedthem anyway. i admit i didn’t do a good job keeping watch but you cant expect must when a man is half incapacitated. i tried to cheer myself by looking for birds. it’s a known fact that sea birds stay close to the shore so seeing one in the Channel means land. therefore, my spirits rose tremendously when i spotted one about three quarters into the journey.

we reached caen around tea time but had to further sail in a canal to reach caen proper. we moored and rested for two days. during which i had an unforgettable lunch ashore. cherbourg was next, then st helier and st malo for two days. st malo is a real tourist town. the city is located in a fort and ALL the shops are meant for tourists. but there was one exceptional store. along the inside of the fort wall nearest the yacht berthing and carpark, stands a professional macaron shop. owner-chef sells macarons by weight not by pieces which is the real way of selling macarons.

i was better prepared for the return crossing of the Channel from st malo to dartmouth. more sea sickness bags and more food. being out at sea is a tremendously boring event. your entire 360 degree view is the sea and the sky. you have no landmarks to guide you, no hills, terraces and undulating features to break the monotomy of the landscape, no green grass, tall trees and beautiful flowers to admire. upon reaching dartmouth, everybody was ready to “go horizontal”, my term for hitting the sack. but everyone performed admirably helping to clean the ship. the CO, crew and students all went ashore afterwards for a well deserved get-together dinner. two days later, we gave the entire ship a good thorough clean before leaving for home.

everyone learnt a lot on this trip and so did i. in fact i think i learnt a lot more than everybody. during this trip, my view was reinforced that some people have poor leadership qualities to put it mildly. anyway, i’ve written enough.

format change

wildboar — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:34:55 +0000

change is long overdue. all my previous posts were about day to day descriptions which i admit, can get very tedious reading and takes a disproportionatelylong time to write. i set up this blog cos i really wanted to talk about any interesting things daily. however, being boring myself will also mean nothing to blog anyway. and those minute by minute accounts of my holidays are just a dragggg. from here onwards, events large and small will be reflected only in one post. simply put, a summary. no more blah-ing about the nonsensical things like waking up, sleeping, taking a dump etc.

with regards to pictures, if you could leave a link in comment about a FREE picturehosting site AND does not pre-require me to have a yahoo or google or what-have-you account to sign up. then i would be able to upload more pics. by the way, dont forget to read “read this first”. previously i kept all my posts clean sans a few. clean meaning G-rated for kids. therefore, i’ve decided to spice things up and do away with those ridiculous pre-requisite warnings that make the post look like some porn flick. meaning, more “colourful” langauge, “infighting” and everybody’s favourite: gossip or in layman’s term; bitching.

readers, you have been warned…

blog not updated frequently?

wildboar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:54:50 +0000

to all my loyal readers. i have not been updating my blog regularly. its actually quite difficult to blog regularly when there’s nothing to blog about. day after day after day is the same. all repititions. not worth nothing. therefore, in future i will not update unless its a very big event that merits lots of writing space. otherwise you can follow me on twitter. its a lot more updated.

paris revisited – day 5 (19 dec)

wildboar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:50:35 +0000

day of departure. i was a eurostar virgin when i came and now leaving paris, i was well prepared for the return journey. bought a sandwich at some bakery. same like subway, you choose the bread then the toppings. i got the french pronunciation for baguette, chicken and mayo right. but that one word had me suffer a major embarrassment. (and wishing to dig a hole and bury myself). the word: crudités. thats french for vegetables. i pronounced it similarto “crudies”. immediately, monsieur francaisbehind me corrected me by saying similar to “crudits”. i turned around, apologised and explained i was practising my kindergarten french to whcih he looked nonplussed and accepted my explanation. i grabbed my baguette and coke and rushed back to my hotel, red-faced with embarrassment.

checking out, i decided to walk the 10 minutes or so to gare du nord for the eurostar. the rest of the way was travelling all to my ultimate destination: my room in reading, uk. eurostar, london underground, national rail, bus. i arrived in reading in the evening with some unfinished business in paris.

paris revisited – day 4 (18 dec)

wildboar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:22:13 +0000

as promised, i will not go to this place. the mecca of capitalism. its evil franchises are found all over the world. from new zealand in the south to canada in the north. from japan in the east to the US in the west. the place where adults all act like children, spending obscene amounts of money on themselves and yes, the kids. the place of the world’s most loved vermin and his gang of animal cronies. yes my readers. this is disneyland.

one lookat my guidebook and i erased all thoughts of entering eurodisney. but as luck would have it, that same day i was to visit the two famous and largest department stores in paris, there was a bomb scare in one of them. it seems i would end up in disneyland. its actually very easy and cheap to get there. take the “other metro line”, the RER line A4 to the very last station marne-la-vallée/chessy. the line splits halfway so make doubly sure you are on the right train. the RER takes about 1hour to get there cosits located on the outskirts of central paris.

upon reaching, i told myself. i’ll take a look and return. ok… i inched closer to the ticket counter. how much? €59. unknowingly, i blurted “any discounts for under 25s?” yes. €39. for both parks the entire day. i surrendered my debit card to the master of manipulation himself: mickey mouse.

eurodisney comprises of two seperate parks. the smaller walt disney studios and the much, much larger disneyland park. walt disney studios is where they show you how they make films, animation and the like. its also THE place in eurodisney where you can pose for pictures with mickey, minnie and all the other disney characters you and i have come to like (or hate). nothing much to see here besides taking pictures with m-i-c-k-e-y and gang. disneyland park is the larger and more interesting of the two. itself is divided into five areas: main street, usa; frontierland; adventureland; fantasyland; discoveryland. to fully enjoy disneyland park, you will need at least two days. i had only half a day so i could only barely squeeze in walt disney studios, main street and frontierland. a good way to see the entire park is to take a ride on an authentic (?) steam train that travels around the perimeter of the park, thus allowing you a tantalising glimpse of all five theme parks. also they have a parade on main street at 4pm. it’s the usual with all the floats and dancers and no prizes for guessing the theme. i think the best time to go eurodisney is in the winter before christmas. you get to see all the christmas decorations and lightings with half the crowd compared to the peak season. as long as you go during the off peak season, you need not wait long for the rides. and yes, 90% of the rides are free (mostly in disneyland park).

i didn’y buy any souvenirs except for a disney mug with “free coffee” for €5 something. i’m afraid i’ve been infected with mickey fever. after returning to central paris, dinner was in a nondescript parisian bistro. empty except for two customers. apparently, the server was also the bartender who was also the cook and is also the owner. i finally found what i was looking for in paris: steak-frites. except cos i dont eat beef, the ‘steak’ was pork. dessert was apple pie (the instant version, not homemade) and more crepes. i asked the owner if i could eat my crepes in the restaurant with cafe and he very graciously gave me permission. i was eating halfway and two more customers came in (no relation to the earlier two). they were all eating the same thing. lamb tagine. damn. instanly i knew that was the house special but i’d had my dinner already. the kind owner invited me for coffee the next day before i am to leave paris but i politely declined cos my train was leaving in the early afternoon. what a way to end a most unexpected day.

the place of dreams

walt disney studios (have your photo taken with mickey here)

paris revisited – day 3 (17 dec)

wildboar — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:33:02 +0000

the great bakery hunt.

parisbeing the center of all things pastries and bread, and with nothing scheduled and nowhere to go, i decided to go on a bakery rush of the the top five bakeries as recommended by my lonely planet guidebook (6thedition, to be exact) after a bit of planning after breakfast, i visited the following bakeries in the most convenient order possible by the paris metro network. to best follow, pls get a map of the paris metro so you can trace my way around. (start from jacques bonsergent of line 5)

first: boulangerie de monge (M) censier daubenton, 5arr. supposedly the best croissant place in all of paris. bought one but wasnt overly impressed. it was room temperature, a touch soggy and in need of a little butter. one thing about the shop thats the same as anywhere is its preferred mode of advertising. pasting newspaper articles, food reviews and the such all on the front door. managed to stop and explore the market located in rue mouffetard. one would not expect of a market where everything clumps together in one building. instead the street is lined with shops selling fresh fruit and veg, fish, meat, cheese etc. (by the way, avoid all cheese shops or risk damage to your sense of smell. french cheese shops smell like a pair of mouldy, sweaty socks thatsbeen worn everyday for a month. thats how french cheese would smell like to a singaporean. similarly, thats how a durian would smell like to everyone else in the western world. they have theirs, i have mine.)

second: boulangerie kayser (M) maubert mutualite, 5arr. from this place on, i decided on the modus operandi. go to the bakery shop, take a few photos and then scoot off. if i were to buy one item from each bakery, i would go broke, throw up cause i had a ‘bit’ of a breakfast and just eat myself silly.

third: poilâne (M) sèvres babylone, 6arr; and (M) dupleix, 15 arr. same modus operandi. go to shop, take photo, and leave. note: there’s a great open air market stretching from (M) dupleix to (M) la motte-picquet grenelle selling all kinds of fresh produce, seafood, clothing, second hand goods and the like. also, if you’re looking for cheap foie gras (you know the duck/goose liver thingy), this is the place to come. the entire market is situated directly under the elevated metro line.

fourth: boulangerie-pâtisserie secco (M) la tour maubourg, 7arr. the hardest of the lot to find. and the longest queue to match.

fifth: la fournée d’augustine (M) pernety, 14arr. the most out-of-the-way bakery. did manage to track it down anyway.

after all the train-taking, and sniffing, and phototaking, and walking, naturally i was hungry. according to my guidebook, there was a famous crêpe restaurant: crêpe bretonne nearby. one thing to note in paris. the shops outsidethe touristy areas do not have very prominent signboards. i actually walked past this crêpe shop twice (!) before finding it. sadly it was closed. i arrived after lunch service and too early for the dinner. so off a bistro nearby. more french food, more cafe au lait. paris, i believe, has more eating establishments per square mile/kilometre than london so you’re bound not to starve. unless you’re a very fussy or picky or a vegetarian.

ended the day with dinner in Leon’s. a chain of restaurants specialising in moules marinieres: mussels cooked belgian style. they have a few variations of this classic belgian dish but i ordered l’original: 800 grams of uncooked, unshelled mussels cooked in white wine, shallots and parsley. this served with “free flow” fries. but since i couldn’t figure out the free flow, i had only one serving like other customers. the time i visited they had a promotion. one serving of mussels, fries “free flow” and one serving of belgian waffles. the waffles were nondescript. nothing special compared to the parisian crepes i had after every dinner. it was just waffles with ice cream and chocolate sauce. the whole bill came to €17.90. ( i think. its been four months). but i do remember leaving €20 on the table.

tomorrow: i will not go to this place. i will not go to this place. i will not go to this place…