Dinner last night with Robin Hood was glorious. Local mussels and clams from the seafood store around the corner steamed in a white wine shallot sauce (see Victoria Recipes to the left). Scotch before, then white wine, then red wine for a soak in the hot tub.
As for today — what a slug. Still haven’t put real clothes on, might as well do my laundry! Laying around reading, soaking, blogging. Talk about a lazy day.
Breakfast salmon scramble with the last scone and tonight’s meal is all the leftovers from the last four days. Main course will be a pork hash from all the left over roast and root vegetables from two nights ago, and a nice salad. And there is even a partial bottle of wine from last night (2004 Mas des Huppes Saint-Chinian).
Looks like I”ll be bring booze back to the states since Robin Hood brought a bottle of wine (above, and VERY good), and Chip/Linda left their scotch for me. Guess we didn’t REALLY need to each buy a bottle of scotch — thought they would be taking there’s back with them, but left it to me as a present. Means that I’ll finish the Glen Morangie Port Wood Finish scotch, leaving half bottles of the Famous Grouse Port Wood Finish and the Macallan 10-year-old Cask Strength to take back to the states, and probably the bottle of Jackson-Triggs Cabernet 2005 Okanagan Valley.
Here is the typical picture of me from today.
And now for my political commentary on the second big contest of the 2008 Presidential Contest. My thoughts on this are that the public as a whole is not ready to choose the top candidate yet — both the Asses and the Pachyderms have three people still alive after the New Hampshire primary. New Hampshire has continued the Iowa tradition of this election cycle — hundreds of hundreds new voters registered — on both sides. It’s about time Americans got off their butts and voted.
Asses:
Clinton
Edwards
Obama
Pachyderms:
Huckabee
McCain
Romney
Names are in alphabetical order, rather than my preference, which I don’t have yet.
Seems the good people of this country want to learn a bunch more about these six before they commit to a top choice.
Met Marty and Eric for breakfast. Good to see them again. The breakfast buffet was nothing short of stunning. From raw fish, to Cheerios, to Dim Sum to pastries, to the standard make to order eggs. I really must take photos tomorrow morning. It’s spread across THREE rooms so it won’t fit in one photo.
Our “David” group seems pretty agile – no skelators on board. This mornings tour was of the Yuyuan Garden and Old Shanghai. The hotel is in new Shanghai – the area on the other side of the river that was farm land twenty years ago is now all high rises, condos, shopping malls – very Nuevo Urban. The gardens are something like 800 years old, and now in the middle of the city surrounded by the bazaar of shops and restaurants including all the favorites: McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks.
Next stop was a dangerous one for me…a silk rug factory. It only cost me $900 to get out of there. Ended up with a 3×5 pure silk rug knotted at 600 knots per square inch and an unusual old style pattern on it. Definitely not a new rug. Amazing imperial saffron coloring including the warp. Luckily it is small enough and light weight enough to go in my suitcase. It reminds me of when I was in Greece years ago to go sailing with Kevin, Claire, Rachel, Evan, and the woman’s name I can never remember. I got to Kos a day or two early and took the ferry to Turkey and ended up buying the Kilim that was in the living room of the Capital Hill house. Maybe this is a good omen – I bought that carpet at the beginning of a long trip and carried it the whole way – just like I’m about to do now.
Lunch was a dim sum style affair of Shanghai style Chinese cooking, complete with a can of the local beer. So far, the food has been excellent on this trip. Now if the heat would go back into the normal range that would help. Lots of showers in that lovely marble bathroom. If the rest of the trip is like this – the $5050 dollars I paid (includes air and single supplement) will be worth it.
Maybe I should have come to Shanghai a couple of days early…getting the feeling that there is much more to see and do – and not enough time. We have a couple of hours of free time this afternoon which I’m using for this journal, and a glass or two of scotch.
Odd things about this hotel. 1) For ice, you have to call housekeeping and they come and fill your little bucket. 2) The tap water isn’t drinkable. They provide you with three half bottles per day (which is handy for all the touring we are doing). Millions of dollars spent to build this place (and it is grand, definitely 5-star) and no water filtration system. Are they waiting for the infrastructure of Shanghai to catch up with them? I love Eric’s comment about Mexican hotels – they KNOW the infrastructure won’t catch up with them, so they just build the system in.
Eric and Marty are slated to drop by for a pre-dinner drink at 4:30 – since we have to be on the bus at 5:15. Not much time for relaxing on this schedule. Tonight is a welcome dinner and acrobat show. Later, my plan is to go out to hear a jazz combo that the drummer and the piano player are friends of my buddy Mark Pucci from Boston – jazz musician, teacher, second string bass player for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Luckily, they are playing at the Ritz-Carlton, which is right next to the place that we are seeing the acrobat show.
Even had time this afternoon to write a postcard to Steve, my prison buddy from Montana. Didn’t get time for a nap with all the writing and scotch. Just for a baseline, weighed myself – and the answer is 225 (about 30 pounds heavier than I should be to look good in my tuxedo).
In the picture to the right, our hotel is just to the right of the largest sphere you can see to the right of Marty. A close up is below. Twenty years ago – the area behind Marty and I was all rice paddies and farm land.
Dinner was another round robin of food, was just OK – many of the meat products had lots of bones in them, but the free beer was welcome. This time the beer was Tsing Tao – in a can.
The acrobat show started at 7:30 and ended at nine. They were great performers, but the music was a little choppy – sort of a Riverdance with Chinese acrobats – my friend Javier would have loved it since he has been working on the Mexican version of Riverdance. Personally it should have be called hotties in spandex costumes (which means Helene and my mother would have loved it). My problem was that it was right after dinner, and the theatre warmed up as the performance went along – making me want to sleep all the more. The other odd factor was that the seating assistants were more like seating Nazis – the theatre was half full, but they made people sit in their assigned seats – to the point of moving people around repeatedly. Bureaucracy dies hard I guess.
After the show we checked in with “David” and told him we were going to listen to jazz at the Ritz-Carlson and that we’d make our own way home. Met the piano player, who was nice – and talented. Wow, could he play. Marty and Eric had beers, I had a couple of gin and tonics — $34.50. Word to the wise – don’t drink in hotel bars.
On the flip side – the taxi home was cheap – something like $3.00. Got the tour of Marty and Eric’s room on the 25th floor. Better view, same bathroom.
Early to bed for me, luggage has to be out by 7am – which is when I meet up with Marty and Eric for breakfast. Bus leaves at 8am for our two tours and meeting up with the boat.
Checked out a couple of minutes before eight. Used the last of my paper money ($5) to settle accounts before heading to the airport. The run from Ballarat to the Melbourne airport is 90 minutes with only a couple of morning congestion points. Need to put that in the revised directions for WorldMark as well. Rental car was a snap — held up the contract and she said I was good to go. And the International Terminal in Melbourne is right across the street from the rental cards.Surprisingly few people in the check in line — had the full two hours to try and spend my $3.45AUS… $1.20 for the paper, and the rest in the Salvation Army can.
Had a little pre-lunch — half a chicken wrap and a gin and tonic in a bottle (look for that on Twango in a day or do) before the second screening that is standard on all flights going to the US these days.
An hour flight to Sydney — and, guess what, a plan change — turns out our airplane is going to SF and I have an hour and a half in the waiting lounge for the LA flight. Annoying, but time to check email and update the blog.
At least the movies look good for the flight home (well, except for number 3, Happy Feet). #2 is a Russell Crow flick — A Good Year. #1 is about a News Commentator (Robin Williams) running for President who wins, possibly because of a computer glitch, and #4 is Casino Royale, which I saw on the flight to Melbourne, but missed 5 minutes while I was in the loo. Which I slept completely through this time.
More from LAX where I’ll track down the Alaska lounge for a couple of hours of computer time since I have to got through security again anyway… might as well do it twice since there is something like a six hour layover — and still no news on my first class upgrade which means it sort of like pissing in the wind. Of course, to use the Board Room, you have to go from Terminal 6 to Terminal 3 (7 minute walk), get a pass from the ticket counter (since my boarding pass says United and they don’t fly from that terminal), and then go through the strip search (I mean security).
Three vodka and cranberrys, a shave, and my teeth brushed, it’s all worth it.
Wonderful is picking me up at the airport — might stay for a simple meal if I’m up to inviting him. Might just try and get twelve hours of sleep tonight.
What a day. Work at the house patching the floor where we shorted to wall to the bedrooms, then off to Olympia for a hot dog, some paint (robin egg blue) to hopefully match the ceiling in the living room, then off to the escrow company in Oly to sign papers selling the rental property.
Back to work on the house after having an epiphany while driving back north that the maple cabinets that I bought at the UW, that two of them would fit in the hallway (the other three are going in the pantry). Of course, the place they need to fit is 1/2″ two narrow so I have to take out the plaster — more mess and dust, just when I thought I was done making big messes!
Back to the apartment around 5:30 for cocktails before being taken out to the Brooklyn for a stunning dinner and an amazing conversation with Blair King, the executive chef (who treated us to a foie gras and scallop appetizer).
Needless to say it was straight to bed after that — way too many activities today.
Well — poker was fun, but not profitable. But Neil was as delicious as always — with his blond hair growing out, and his piercing blue eyes… ah, those straight boys — I’m a sucker for them always.
This mornings schedule (revised). Meet up with Ross, look at his house (remodel project), look at Cathy’s house, then head north to look at my house and the remodelling work done there. Then he’ll stay for dinner with Chris and Michael.
Gotta go — he’s due any minute.
First stop — Ross’ gutted rental house. Tossed out a couple of ideas — widen door from dining room into kitchen, swap out the fridge for a tall and skinny one, put a washer/dryer in the upstairs new bath, and add a wall heater for supplemental heat in the attic. Keep a large washer/dryer for all the other stuff in the house, but a small stack-able one in the upper master bedroom.
Second stop — Cathy’s house to see the work in progress, even though we couldn’t get in. Wow! Massive water and poop work to get the house up to spec. She was right about needed to spend 30K almost instantly. Massive new septic system, remove the old well — but finally drove down to see the far end of of her 1.3 acre property. BIG! I’m imagining a 3′ tall green chain link fence keeping the neighbor kids out — but that’s me. It’s long and skinny — probably 50′ wide — but very deep, unfortunately bordering a road on two sides.
Third stop — Red Robin where Ross took me to lunch. Pulled pork (no bun), garlic fries, couple of glasses of pinot grigio.
Then onto the freeway — Ross coming north to see my remodel for more ideas. Actually managed to not lose each other for the hour plus drive. What amazed me was that there were no backups from the construction on I-5 – at least to where we got off just north of the airport.
Dinner tonight for four at 7pm. Swanda, Michael, Ross, and me…. surf and turf. Steaks and salmon, salad and bread, and oh, that red stuff as well.
After a lovely breakfast of sourdough waffles and bacon — we started the process of gear checkout. Whitewater is a god-send. Means I won’t be doing this on the ramp at put in which wouldn’t make me very popular.
Here I am with everything for the three weeks, minus the pink river purse. That’s my borrowed PFD (personal floatation device) on the floor next to me. Thanks WW — and for the splash jacket (better than my windbreaker from the jazz fest in California).
Called Germain-Robin today to set up a tasting for tomorrow afternoon on the way to Nice (Trendwest Clear Lake). Might try and schedule a distillery tour as well, but for either Wednesday or Thursday. They make the most amazing small batch brandies — a favorite of Mr. Pucci and myself.
Dinner tonight will be a BBQ — which I need to go shopping for. Will pick up a bottle of wine (or two) as well.
Well — that is the phrase from WhiteWater about the Nice, Lucerne area of Clear Lake, California — the “White Trash Riviera”.
The day started with a quick breakfast of waffles and eggs and the last bit of packing. Out the door by 10:30 — and to the Germain-Robin “warehouse” for a tasting — ended up buying a bottle of their Poet Tawny Port for someone who just had a big event, and a bottle of their Hanger One Mandarin Vodka for another person at said event. Let’s hope it makes to trip home a month from now.
Did the shopping at the Sentry Market — found some “interesting” things for the raft trip. Got 6 liters of wine in aseptic boxes of 1 liter each on sale for $6.99 each — not as cheap as the five liter ones, but close, and it will be a nice variety. Must make a good impression!
Got to love California — picked up some things for my own beverage bags — limit, two cases (or in my case, two orange sacks — one large, one small). The score? 1.5 liters of premixed Bloody Marys, and (4) each Long Island Iced Tea and Margaritas (yes, with REAL booze in them).
Got to the WorldMark Clear Lake a little early — room was ready — as the two WorldMark folks I saw in the Sentry said it would be. They were shopping for guest — you can fill out a list and the groceries are waiting for you when you arrive in your unit. Too bad I don’t know what I’m cooking before I see what’s on sale, special, etc.
Dinner was marinated pork on the grill and a big salad. After dinner is reading the paper and updating the two blogs. And postcards, and web revisions… which will get put off until tomorrow cause I’m out of steam — but the two day old headache is gone. Is it change of venue? aspirin? wearing sunglasses while driving today? fresh air? quite time on the lake? Who knows — we’ll see if it comes back tomorrow. If the “owner re-education” at 10:30 doesn’t do it ($50 in AMEX booze cards), it might actually be gone.
Can’t quite decide what to do tomorrow — probably should be billing some hours while I can — but touring wineries (like Steele) sounds tempting as well. Oh — maybe I could hit the wineries on the way to the bay area since it’s only a couple of hour drive.
Well, the question has been asked about why I like this place in Victoria so much when I mentioned I wouldn’t mind dying in this place…
If it is someplace you wouldn’t mind dying in does that mean there is something you can incorporate into your home to mirror the feeling? Or is it really the location?
As the real estate people say… location, location, location. The unit I’m in this time (and most are like this) is a corner unit with glass on two sides. This time I’m facing the bay and the city, other times I’ve been facing the bay and the inlet and mountains. Both views are stunning. Here is a typical one.
Chip and Linda leave today on the 4pm ferry back to Port Angeles, and they are replaced by Robin Hood who is coming down from Salt Spring Island further up Vancouver Island. After viewing their camera mounted at their resort (Quillayute River Resort) and seeing snow falling, they are less than thrilled going back home.
Today’s plan calls for shopping for dinner. Seafood tonight as RH is a fisheterian. Two choices for fish shopping — next door at Fisherman’s Wharf, or around the corner at Finest At Sea’s Retail Store which is quite a find since they are a restaurant provider that has a little retail store. Think scallops, live in their shells, the size of salad plate.
Maybe it’s the weather that makes me sleep in on the East Coast. By the time I got up at 10:30, Jill was getting ready to shove off to visit friends and friends children leaving me with the late morning and early afternoon “at leisure” as they say in the travel brochures. Plenty of time to reprogram my spare MP3 player for Jill’s return trip (she forgot her Zune), figure out how to finally get my phone to sync with my Exchange server contacts/calendar, strip and remake the guest bed, put away the clean dishes, add the dirty ones, and get all the soiled linens into the laundry basket.
Pucci showed up at 3:30, just after Jill returned to the apartment – and off we went to Whole Paycheck and Cambridge Wine and Spirts. The 12-year-old Macallan was on sale for $39.95 which was all I was planning on buying, but then a bottle of Germain-Robin brandy caught my eye… damn, there goes another $23.99 (down from $29.99).
Cocktails at 5:30 with Pucci, his GF, me… before dinner at Netta’s place in Arlington. Lamb shanks over couscous, which was supposed to go with a Caesar salad – except Pucci forgot to make that in all the excitement over the lamb.
The large Le Creuset pot on the right side of the stove used to belong to Julia Child – sent from the company to Julia as a promotional item. Netta used to work as her archivist and found it in the basement of her house. Julia’s comment… “you want it, take it, the damn thing weighs a ton.” That French Oven held 10 lamb shanks and all the fennel and garbanzo beans, rosemary, the works.
What a meal, even without the salad. So much for greens today.
Pucci grabbed all the bones to make a lamb stock for tomorrows pork dinner which will include a whiskey reduction sauce.
Who would have thought I’d be up at 6am…guessing that it has to do with “early to bed”. Or maybe it was the fact we pulled anchor and are under way again.
Breakfast is at 7, we need to be off the boat at 8 for transfer to smaller boats to explore the Mekong Delta a little more. At least there is coffee ready for us:
And a beautiful sunrise:
Good Morning VIETNAM! R.I.P. Robin Williams. I loved that movie – and Apocalypse Now. Maybe I should re-watch those on my return to the states. We still have more time on the boat – but I’m already thinking I didn’t book enough boat time.
They advertised a “continental breakfast”. I’m not sure what continent, but the options were English-style (beans, scrambled eggs, broiled tomato), American-style (omelet, bacon), European-style (breads, meats, cheeses), or Vietnamese-style (pho). When in Rome!
Yum!
When it’s time to off-load, it’s funny to watch the French people who each have one HUGE bag, and one roll-aboard – PER PERSON trying to get all that stuff into the boats. Here we are, headed away from our home of the last day…
One headed up one of the many tiny waterways of the Mekong Delta:
A word to the wise – a little mobility is required for this portion of the journey…think narrow ramps.
The poor lady from Singapore (on the English presented tour with us) was having some difficulties on this portion of the tour.
First stop was an open-air barn that they were roasting something…coal fires underneath, and pig pits above that guys with plastic shoveling moving product around – it didn’t look like a fun job:
Even the back channels of the Mekong Delta are crowded with boats as I discover on the way to our next stop:
Next up – Vietnam’s most pampered animals – Fighting Cocks!
They are kept in wire cages to keep them from fighting with each other before there is actually money on the ground.
Here is a chicken getting a bath and a massage…
As in the rest of Vietnam – scooters EVERYWHERE…
Even on the narrow village paths…
It surprised me that this one was concrete – the one yesterday was asphalt – but I guess in a country that has a monsoon season, paved is better than mud. My guess is that this village is doing OK judging by some of the houses:
Next up is a sugar cane processing “plant”:
Remember I mentioned that rice husks are used as fuel? Above, there is a sloping pile of husks that is used to feed the fire below. And the pile outside that feeds it.
Lots of sloshing around…
Before it gets poured in to plastic pots to cool and then be stacked and wrapped for shipment:
Apparently, it’s a family affair judging from the water bottle above, and this scene below:
Before you know it, we are headed to Cái Bè and their floating markets – you can tell what they are selling by what is on a bamboo pole sticking from their boat:
There is a lovely cathedral in Cái Bè – alas, it isn’t on our itinerary.
What is on our itinerary is a one-stop “folkloric” shopping opportunity – MUCH lower key than most. It features snakes soaked in rice liquor (I’m sure customs would LOVE that in Houston), and displays of candy making (using ingredients like we saw earlier), paper making, and rice popping (think rice krispies).
From there, we are off to meet up with our driver for the ride back to Saïgon – and here is a picture of our driver. Not much in the way of English skills, but Sean has some rudimentary Vietnamese.
Confession – the picture was taken in Cần ThÆ¡, but it just didn’t fit the narrative.
Got back to Sean’s apartment a little after noon – dropped bags and off to lunch – with this amusing photo-op on the way.
Did you need some hot peppers? Those were sitting on the table next to us.
I just let Sean order – it’s simpler, and I eat most anything. And I get to try all the local favorites.
One of my favorite things about third-world cities is the “amusing” wiring hanging off poles.
I’d hate to trace a wire in that jungle.
After lunch it’s nap time – something about travelling Vietnam highways/streets is exhausting, even if you aren’t the one driving. Then off to the store with a fistful of Dồng!
That 2000 note is worth 9 cents USD. The print bills up to a million Dồng– which is equal to $45 USD. The smallest note is 200 with a value of less than a penny USD. And look – you can buy casks of wine at the grocery store for about $30 USD.
Sean is cooking tonight, which turns out to be a rarity with the inexpensive nature of going out to eat.
And it’s tasty as well!
Time for a little work before bed…
Didn’t last that long before it was “hit the hay” time. Another big day planned for tomorrow.
I failed. That bed is WAY too comfortable. Why get up? That’s right – bladder call.
It really is life on the farm. Chasing down recently hatched chicks (no me, but the neighbor grandchildren visiting were the heroes), ten pounds of blueberries harvested in the hot sun, breakfast on the deck with farm fresh eggs, bread from the bakery, organic chicken sausages from the island (put in the category of turkey bacon, tofu bacon, and any other non-pork breakfast product).
Post-breakfast reading on the couch because it’s so HOT on the deck, even under the umbrella, which leads to the pos- breakfast, post-reading, nap. Yes, mister travel freak out guy is napping on a day he has a date with a non-refundable ticket.
Out of the house one-ish for the 1:50 ferry back to Vancouver Island – yes, the boys are driving me back to Victoria because one of their neighbors is flying into the Victoria airport around the same time. Should I offer my $2.50 Canadian for gas?
Ferry was fun. More pretty boys. Here is the stroller bar for the trip:
Got to the Clipper terminal a little after three and decided to see if I could catch the 5:30pm ferry rather than the 7:30pm ferry. $10 please. Off to the restaurant at the Days Inn on the Harbour to mail postcards and have some fish and chips before loading.
It was nice to get in at 8:30 rather than 10:30 – meant I could stop at Swandas for a package, which turned out to be a package, and drinks with Swanda and Wonderful, and much chatting – by the time I got home, it was well after 10:30.
Get home, start the ice machine, make a sandwich, catch up on email, listen to TV (cause I’m busy with other stuff), and go to bed.
Tomorrow is another day. There is some rumor of me using the other Clipper Groupon to come during Salt Spring’s Gay Pride Parade.
I did Eureka/Arcata’s parade, complete with Humboldt State marching band. Why not Salt Spring Island.
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