FAQ
HOME
ARCHIVES
BABYBLOG
ARTICLES
FIJISUN
FIJITIMES
MOVIES
WEBCAM
RSS FEED
EMAIL
WILLIAM
PATRICK
JEAN
SCEMO
TED
AARON
New Feature: Use the search box below to find stuff in this blog!
HOME
ARCHIVES
BABYBLOG
ARTICLES
FIJISUN
FIJITIMES
MOVIES
WEBCAM
RSS FEED
WILLIAM
PATRICK
JEAN
SCEMO
TED
AARON
New Feature: Use the search box below to find stuff in this blog!
Friday, January 17, 2003
Thursday started with another trip to the LTA to take care of our fijian driver's licenses, and to our surprise, they would not accept Ritsu's international license. No, they want her japanese one. For a moment they even "threatened" me with a driving test (since my license is from a country where you drive on the right side of the road), but I talked them out of it.
We then did a quick stop at Asco motors to arrange for our car being fixed, minor blemish which was supposed to be fixed before they handed us the car over.
I spent some time at the office, then grocery shopping and then at home I experimented with tamarinds to create tamarind chutney, and it turned out quite nice.
I discovered that the hatchlings are apparently gone. Probably flew out already with mama bird. But on closer look I discovered the smallest one on the ground still yapping for food ... no trace of mama bird or the others, so the only thing i could do was using some leaves to get the little one back into the nest (not bare hands so it does not smell like human, especially human who just chopped chili) and indeed, a bit later I saw mama bird returning to the nest. I hope she keeps feeding also. I just quickly looked and it seems she is still there and accepting the hatchling back.
Dinner was the leftover south seas chicken.
It will be a bit quiet here the next few days since Ritsu is "kidnapping" me over the weekend. I have no clue where we are going, but diving is involved, so I am of course very excited. We will be back by sunday.
Thursday, January 16, 2003
Wednesday was the first day our new cleaning lady Marama came over to clean, and she did a great job. It kept me busy too since I helped with some things and used the time doing my room, setting up my work area.
I bet she would have stayed longer and do some more stuff, but I had to leave at 4:30 .. I stopped by the office briefly, then had new passport pictures done, bought some cheap flip flops and then picked Ritsu up from work ...
For dinner we went to Korea House, the 'other' korean place in town. But some things seem to be constant in those restaurants, patrons are only groups on kroean men, they are loud, they are smoking and they have the worst and loudest cell phone ring tones imaginable. Food was nice, we had beef BBQ .. but we also ordered some beef bone soup .. and that soup was just plain boring, even salt and hot sauce could not rescue that soup.
Back home, we watched X-Man, to see a very different side of Halle Berry's career. Entertaining movie.
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Yesterday's (Tuesday) Dinner was something I had never tried before: South Seas Pineapple Chicken. I got the recipe from a cookbook I bought here (Taste of the Pacific). And it goes like this:
- Make a marinade of 1/4 cop soy sauce, 1/4 cup white wine, juice of one lemon or lime, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, crushed garlic and crushed ginger (about a table spoon each), 1 teaspoon curry powder, pinch of each: thyme, oregano and rosemary.
- Take clean, skinned pieces of chicken (breast and thighs) and marinade them for several hours.
- During that time have fun with a fresh pineapple. Unless there is some trick I don't know or they have a hidden zipper, they are killer to work with. Mainly after you chopped off top and bottom and then carved off the sides, you are left with many ugly brown "eyes" ... I know there is some trick, but the way I try it, it does not work ... Anyways ... the recipe calls for thickly sliced pinapple (which is not visible on the picture in the book, instead there they have some fine sliced pieces as garnish, so just do both).
- The time is also good to finely slice 4 medium size onions and create a big heap of onion rings.
- Once you consider the chicken to be marinated enough (having turned them at least twice in that time, the book says), at least several hours, drain chicken, reserve marinade, dredge chicken in flour and set aside.
- Heat some butter in pan and fry onion slice golden. Set aside. Then melt some more butter and brown the chicken on both sides. Add the reserved marinade, toss the onion rings on top, cover the whole thing and let simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover and let simmer for another 15 minutes.
- During those last 15 minutes use a small frying pan to sauté the pineapple slices in yet some more butter. Arrange the thick slices on a heated platter and keep the small thin pieces for decoration.
- Place the chicken pieces on top and garnish with pineapple and slivered almonds (which should have been carefully toasted before, great NOW i am telling you)
- Now the recipe gets a bit hairy, it tells us to add more white wine to the pan juices, but does not specify which pan, the chicken or pineapple pan. Well, i tried the pineapple one, but I think they talk about the chicken pan. So this way you create some more sauce to pour over the whole thing.
The book also says this is a great party dish, prepare before hand and just reheat. Check out the picture comparison above. Not bad in taste at all, but I would recommend to add some crushed pineapple to the marinade, as it adds flavor and tenderizes the meat.
After Dinner we finally got around to watch "Monster's Ball", quite an interesting movie with a somewhat sudden ending, though it made sense to me. I found that Billy Bob Thornton played the same stoic character he played so well in "The man who wasn't there" and while Halle Berry was pretty good, if not even great, I did not really see an oscar performance there. I have to admit that the sex scene was done quite well and tasteful, but I wonder if they used body doubles. Oh, and I sure liked the cinematography, and I was positively surprised by Sean "Puffy" Combe's performance, pretty strong.
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
It seems hurricane "Ami" has left the island and left quite some devastation, especially on some smaller outer islands. The main drag for us was that just after we prepared for an extra holiday full of watching movies and cooking, the power went out. And it stayed out for the whole day pretty much .. so, while the sun came back bringing her heat, the fans did not work and the fridge got warmer. Power finally came back at 6 PM.
Here the promised pics of some trees (the first is actually leaning on the powerlines leading to our house).
The wind died down quite some, and we spent some time shopping for food (and to seek the nice ACed environment of the supermarkets).
Around 7PM we were treated to a great sunset:
(on request I can also put up a small video clip of that sunset :)
This blog got a pretty bad review (and a 1 out of 5 star rating) from one reviewer:
Rating: 1 by Anonymous, 01.13.03
One day is enough for Fiji, ONE STAR!
Hmm ... what shall I think about this one? What is that person's point? Is he a disgruntled tourist? Or did not get the concept of this blog? I'd like to hear from this person, but I doubt he/she would ever show up again here.
And hey, this is not a way to get your own blog entry :)
The cyclone is still around, but we are ok (and so are our little birds it seems). Ritsu did not have to go to the office today (but I went down town, looked a bit like a battle field, I saw some trees cutting of streets, pictures later.)
Wow, quite some weather going on outside. Time to make sure the car is not parked under a coconut tree.
Yesterday's gardener adventure ended with me firing them. They just did not do their job right and tried to hike up the rate. Then they suddenly said they can do the job in 1 day, though 2 days was agreed earlier ... then they complained the job is harder than anticipated, and other people give them more money plus lunch and breakfast. Ah well. Took me only 30 minutes to get a new gardener who looked very happy to do the job next month.
Dinner last night was by the way some beef satey stir fry with lots of veggies ... but it did not turn out the way that I wanted ... well, Ritsu liked it :)
As to the weather, yes, tropical storm Ami is coming, but not to Suva, so no hurricane warning for us, but it still affects the weather quite some and we have gusting winds and lots of rain ...
Monday, January 13, 2003
So, this is where the hatchlings are at now. You can actually make out feathers now. And what I find very interesting is that their position's in the nest seems to stay the same ... and I bet the slightly bigger guy is the first who hatched .. and since he is the first to yell for food, he will keep on growing fastest. Survival of the fittest. Depends all if you were strong enough to hatch first (or you were gifted with a weaker shell to break through)
Sunday was a very relaxed / lazy day, we had to give those sore muscles some time. Then later we had dinner at neighbor Wayne's and his family's house, and it was very nice, very nice people. We had some really yummy burmese noodle dish, and later we got to see their new puuies, very cute. Wayne drove us home, though it is just 500 meters to walk, it is dark and full of dogs.
Today (Monday) I am sitting in and checking on the gardeners. I got a surprise call from our New York friends Berna and Chris. And what I am preparing for dinner I cannot say since Ritsu may read it while at work :)
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Hiking Mt. Korobaba or What the heck was I thinking?
Ritsu found out that the Rucksack-Club was offering several activities and for our first experience we decided to do the Mt. Korobaba hike, since it was said to be an easy hike, which fit people can do in 1 hour, and others in 2-3 hours (It took us 4.5 hours !!!).
We met with guide leader Ron at the Lami Tradewinds hotel, where 4 more hikers were waiting. We then continued to the cement factory a bit further down the road, where the trail would start. Ron, since he had other commitments, just lead us the first 15 minutes, until the trail was pretty obvious, and then Deborah was adhoc elected new hike guide, and she did a great job ... the only fork in the road was decided democratically anyway (and we made the right decision).
We thought we were well prepared, we had cold water, good shoes, long pants and sleeves (against the insects and to absorb sweat). But water was not enough. At 75% humidity you just start sweating right from the start, all clothing was drenched later. The topsoil on that trail is basically lose red dust mixed with water and as slippery as ice and snow, but gladly mixed with roots and twigs that can either help you to hold on, or easily twist your ankle.
The summit is at 464 meters (1300ft) and the first hour was ok, not too steep and very beautiful, then we came to a creek with clear water. After that it got steeper, we passed a wide area which was very slippery and then mud and roots built a natural staircase (to heaven or hell, you decide). My heart was racing faster, sweat was pouring in gallons and at times I feared I would faint. I have to admit that I nearly did not make it to the top, but when I was about to give up I heard that I was only a minute away from the summit, so I got my last energy together and made it ... Great view, eh ?
Summit .. great spot .. why are there no shady trees ?? Well, at least there was a slight breeze to cool us down, and of course the stunning view of Suva Bay. If there had been more shade I would have (and should have) stayed longer, but the sunny heat made us all wanting to return. The steep descent was actually easier than I thought, one had to concentrate to not stumble and break one's neck ... but there was also no big weight to lift. The other 4 hikers were somewhat faster than us, and before we reached the creek again, by shout conversation they checked if we are ok and that they would go on. We took a brief rest at the creek, I actually drank some of it water (still feeling fine so far).
But the last part was the hardest, we were already very exhausted and the way was very slippery, both of us fell several times on our butts, I stopped using my hands to make the fall softer, since I already had some nice scratches and bruises on both hands, and a little piece of rock jammed its way under one fingernail, yippieh. The rumbling of an approaching thunderstirm did not lighten our mood at all. There was also nothing really to hold on to, and so we scattered our way down, even being happy to hear the sound of cars, giving us an idea that we are not far anymore ...
At that point it was not really fun anymore and we must have looked pretty awkward stumbling out of the forrest like to people who just survived the dessert. We passed a group of fijian village women doing laundry (brilliant idea: do laundry upstream and have the kids swim in a puddle downstream: a) don't need a baby sitter b) you have clean kids). One of the very large fijian mamas was washing her dress, so she was topless, which in my weakened state nearly gave me a heart attach (kidding). In their friendly manner they asked "oh, where do you come from?" (and they usually mean Australia or Europe) I managed to mumble "from the top of the mountain" and they all laughed.
We finally came back to the car and I dropped all my garbs since they were full of red mud and sweat (and tears and blood) .. and we drove off to the next shell shop to buy whatever liquid they had, gatorade, water and some weird juice ...
back at home we managed to take a quick shower and then just fell into bed ... we awoke around 5:30 and noticed that we had not have any food in a long time (Ritsu had breakfast, me not) and Ritsu made some of her super yummy cold summer noodles (Soumen) and I still had a hard time recovering from exhaustion / dehydration. But I managed. I did not feel like watching anything so I read one of my favorite books and fell asleep.
