Archive for the “General” Category
Posted by: doramac in General
April 15th: Chincoteague, VA USA
Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note to say hi and tell you where we are. Today we are in rainy Chincoteague, Virginia home to Misty the Pony and lots of migrating birds. Yesterday we saw egrets, a great blue heron, sand pipers, plovers, red-wing blackbirds, and an eagle. I even saw two of the wild ponies that live on Assateague Island which the wildlife refuge island here at Chincoteague.
We arrived in the U.S. March 26th and have spent time with family, friends, doctors, dentists and accountants. We are heading up to New England soon to visit more friends. I’m taking some photos but have no way at this point to share them. We’ll be back in Roanoke about May 9th and will visit more friends and a few more doctors, though both of us are fine. Just the yearly routine stuff.
DoraMac is back in Sebana Cove and our friends Cliff and Ruth from Icycle are keeping an eye on her.
We’re loading up on books and a few boat things and lots of good memories.
So for now, from Chincoteague, VA!
Ru
ps My poor Red Sox are not doing so well. Hmm. GOOOOO Sox!
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Hi Everyone,
We are in Manila at the Aloha Hotel across from the bay and have a lovely view of the water. We have internet access at the hotel, but it is quick access so I’ll just send this email and then wait till we return home to write and send photos. Today we will try to do some touring but most of our time here is for boat supplies. Yesterday we went to the “Chinatown” part of Manila and it was like being back in Mong Kok in Hong Kong. Anyway, don’t worry if you don’t hear for 4 or 5 days. I’ll write when we are back on the boat. I miss the boat and am happier there than in a hotel!
Ru
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Hi Everyone,
I said I would send a photo of the ube ice cream and here it is. Randal and I just biked over to a wood working shop to pick up a fishing rod hangar he’d ordered. The shop is just outside of Freeport so we needed to stop at the gate for the Subic Bay/Freeport security guards and be okayed through. Same thing on the way back. The shop can’t be more than 3 or 4 miles from the Yacht Club. When we got back it was lunch time.
Randal had left over lima beans, canned Vienna Sausage (yuck) and a beer. My lunch was left over warmed up green beans that I had cooked with balsamic vinegar and soy sauce for Sunday’s dinner; four minutes in the microwave…pretty good. For lunch today I added some fresh parmesan cheese but microwaved it too long so the cheese was a lump of rubber. But tasty rubber so I ate it. We both deserved a treat for dessert so had some of the ice cream. That is the problem with having ice cream, we find excuses to eat it!
Anyway, here it is. Ube is in the yam family. It may be the same as taro or just a relative; I’m not sure. It makes great ice cream.
  A close up. Pretty!!
Unfortunately since I have been reading my Wounds Made Easy book this looks more like a clogged artery than ice cream.
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Posted by: doramac in General
Hi Everyone,
It is Saturday noon here at the Internet Cafe. The wireless at the Yacht Club seems to be having issues. I had prepared emails to send from my computer and will, as soon as I can. If you don’t hear anything for a few day, and some of you might be thinking what a relief! don’t worry.
I usually check on the Sox each morning and couldn’t this morning and they won. Hmmmm I’ve already given up my red beads, but I don’t think I could promise not to check on them till after the game. My new hat seems to be bringing them bad luck. Hmmmm.
I have seen lots of different B hats, but not one of the wearers know what I am talking about. I will probably get a reputation as the crazy gringo who keeps pointing to hats. Oh well.
Ru
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Hi Everyone,
I will probably not explore so much for a few days as we work on boat chores and giving the boat a good cleaning inside and out. I do have a back log of photos to send so that will let me catch up rather than take more that just sit. We have all of the Chinese and Hong Kong pollution to wash off and stuff to rearrange now that I have experienced a passage. Stuff moves around, and even if it doesn’t break, it makes noise and that’s annoying. So, though I have gotten off relatively easily up to now, it’s time for me to get to work and learn about the NAV system and First Aid and, and, and. But we have lots of time here so that’s ok. I’ll try to send some of those photos soon.
Ru
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Hi Everyone,
This is an email from our great friend Jane Chou at the Boat Yard. Jane always had a smile and was alway so positive about getting things done if Randal asked. She even sat with him for hours in the hospital so I could get some rest after sleeping 2 nights on Randal’s hospital bed.
Very exciting, can access www.oddgamer.info again after read your e-mail……… but in fact I
could not access your blog for a long time …I tried many times in many days…….…It is fun
that can access again, just like to meet an old friend.
She wrote this about accessing my journal link in China. I had mentioned in a recent email that I was worried about what the Philippine censors, if there is such a group here, might think of what I write. When my journal stopped being available in China, it was available everywhere else, even Hong Kong. Marino Rancier, computer guru at the Roanoke County Public Library had been able to check and make his computer mimic one from China; no journal. My Chinese friends Jane and Lillian both were unable to access it and Randal and I both tried when we were in China and also could not access it. Because it was available everywhere else, I made the assumption that it was an action of the Chinese rather than any decision by the www.oddgamer.info service. (Of course you know what happens when you assume!) The Journal disappeared in April during our trip home, but is now back. I think I tried it just before we left in June, so it has returned since then. I can’t explain its reappearence any more than its disppearence. Bill said the Chinese government wouldn’t even notice a tiny journal like mine, but it did disappear….
So as Gump would say, "that’s all I have to say about that."
Ru
(Jane Chou wrote this to me yesterday. She has a very poetic way of writing. I had asked her to check when Bill Kimley said he could see www.oddgamer.info on his computer. He wanted add a link to it from "Duck Talk" a Diesel Duck discussion group.)
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Hi Everyone,
I haven’t quite finished writing up my walking tour, but our pallet arrived from Roanoke so I thought I’d send some photos. Randal and I had packed the 750 lb before we came back to China in October. It had everything we thought we would "need" for our lives on the boat. To me these were not only boating essentials; they were also live your life essentials. A sepia-like photo of my parents taken in Provincetown, MA in 1947, a photo from my library retirement party of all of my Reference Department Co-workers, a Happiness is Being Married to Your Best Friend pillow, a wedding gift from my growing-up friend Har, family photos, my favorite apron from Joesephine and lots and lots of books. Randal also had packed lots and lots of books, boat tools, and paper towel sized filters for fuel (I think.) It was about $1200 to get the 773 lb pallet from Roanoke to Hebe Haven. Most of the money went to UPS, the rest to the transport service Randal hired to take him to the airport UPS and bring him and the pallet back to our boat in Hebe Haven.
 Randal was afraid that it would take all day and be a nightmare process to retrieve our pallet. But it only took about 4 hours and went quite smoothly because the hired van driver and his helper knew exactly what to do. Randal had asked them to contact UPS ahead of time so things would go smoothly. They did and it did.
Randal had estimated 750 lbs so was quite close to the exact weight of 773 lbs.
Luckily the pallet was well wrapped because it spent the night on the dock. We did get up early the next day and started to unpack and load the stuff onto the boat.
Randal unboxing things. 
 Lots of boxesClothes to be sorted and put away.
 The back bag on the table has sheets, towels, etc. The chair is loaded with my books and Red Sox Banner that now hangs over our bed instead of the the drapes that were there.
Most of the books, clothes, towels, blankets,etc had been brought aboard when it started to pour again. We ran outside and started hauling the last few boxes of tools up the ladder, onto the boat and into the pilot house. We took all of the empty boxes on the dock and threw them onto the boat so they wouldn’t blow away and make a mess. We weren’t out longer than 5 minutes, but were soaked from head to toe.
Most things were put away during the day and since the rain had stopped, Randal and I walked across the main road from the marina and ate at Hebe 101 which had just opened. The area here is called Hebe (none of my neighbors know why) and 101 is the main light bus that runs up and down the road. We split a great Greek Salad first. Then Randal had a huge bacon, cheese, burger with potato wedges and I had seared tuna with eggplant salsa. Lots of good food. We were given the royal treatment being the first or 3rd customers (depending on whom you asked) of this just opened restaurant. All of the staff came to wait on us. But it was fine and the food was really good. When we got back to the boat our neighbor Michael (Michael husband, Adrianna wife, Michelle less than a year.) was out playing his guitar. Randal got his and joined him for a while.
Another neighbor Fiona and her husband and dog Jack live on this boat. A nice night image.
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Posted by: doramac in General
5:40 am Hebe Haven time.
"Here, comes the sun, and I say, it’s all right!" When I lived in Brighton, MA (Boston area) and taught school an hour’s drive south on the expressway, I would know I was on time each morning when I got into my car, turned on the radio and "Here Comes the Sun," would be playing. That meant it was 6:15 am and the station was playing its signature first song. That was pretty much the highlight of my day. Not a good teaching experience those 6 looooooonnnnnngggggg months. They asked me back for the following year, and I’m like, "Are you nuts!" I had student taught in Chicago where kids traveled the city from class to class and there they needed a pass to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t deal with that even if the kids could. "But that was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone." Other song lyrics, other group. Aren’t there some about shades of grey too?
Ru
PS you saw the second photo yesterday, a series of bright lights. Slow camera and rocking boat combined. John Hamill, you got it!
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Posted by: doramac in General
Pink sky at night,
sailor’s delight!
A prize for anyone who can tell me what this is!
Bad baseball day, but a lovely evening.
Ru
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Today was a lovely weather day, baseball day, and catch up on paperwork day, but not such a good food or shopping day. I’ll explain. It truly was bright and sunny from morning till evening today, slightly breezy too, so not too hot. Randal and I each did computer work early and I followed the Red Sox/Giants game and the Yankees/Mets game. Sox WON, Yanks LOST. I’m happy today no matter what. Yesterday was a bad baseball day, though Randal and I did accomplish lots of boat tasks so that helped compensate. We traveled over to Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island where we bought the outboard motor for the dinghy. Then we took a sampan over to Ap Lei Chau and bought 4 spiffy new blue and white fenders to protect Doramac when we dock. The fenders we have now are old chopped up tires in a white canvas covering; functional but Randal wanted Doramac to have something more fashionable and actually more functional. The ones we bought are a lot lighter so I can lower them over the side rather than dropping them over shouting "bombs away!" and bending our railings. Topping it off, we had the motor delivered and us and the fenders along with it. The delivery van took motor, fenders and us for the horrible hour long hot drive through Hong Kong traffic back to Hebe Haven. It seemed as if the tunnels had no air and it was stop and go through them. I was afraid to breathe too deeply and find there was no air to take into my lungs. No AC in the van either. I was stuffed into the front seat between Randal and the driver so had no window and no neck rest. Each time we started up my head would fly back. The first tunnel seemed to last forever and reminded me of my one MRI experience. But, and this is a BIG BUT, it was really great that we could have the motor delivered and that they allowed us to ride along too because it was truly the most convenient way to get us, the motor and fenders home. A cab would have cost a fortune and might not have taken the motor. And our driver helped us carry it all to the boat too.
But that was yesterday…..
Today about mid-morning we walked the mile and a half to Sai Kung to get groceries and to look for washers for our water hose and to find a lock for the new motor. We walked a bit and then Randal said Pizza Hut and I said, no, local sea food. Big mistake on my part. Actually not the choice of food, but the place. Big crowded place on the waterfront. It took too long, was too expensive, and the food was not good. Really not good. There aren’t many meals that I have ordered in China that have been bad, but this one was. I truly wanted a do-over. My meal was described as fried shrimp and taro something. Well the shrimp was flash fried to furz and wrapped around a ball of mushy taro stuff. And it took almost an hour to get. Randal’s tasted ok, but reminded one of noodles covered with melted butter mixed with cheese whiz. And there were some chewie mushrooms in it too. But both dishes were served hot, I’ll say that. And they were large portions too. Randal also ordered a kind of egg roll…..It had a big piece of crab leg and a small chicken thigh and a large piece of spam inside. The beer was good and my tea was hot. Restaurant should have been called Yuck Poo. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
After "lunch" we looked for a barber to shave Randal but couldn’t find one, only hair cutters.
Then it was off to the Welcome supermarket. Everyone else in Sai Kung had the same idea and check out lines were really long. But I found Gold Medal whole wheat flour and vanilla and Bisquick so Randal can make pancakes (he says). We bought tuna and Laughing Cow spread and Philly cream cheese, and yogurt and eggs from America in cartons like at Kroger. Put a Kroger down on the Roanoke Market and add the dock area from Annapolis and write the signs in Chinese and English and you get the picture. We caught the bus back to Hebe Haven where our neighbor on Farfadet told us Sundays were even worse because many people work Saturdays so everyone shops on Sunday. We thought everyone had shopped with us today.
Then Randal and I went back to our computers. I had emailed my sister who is a nurse for help with our First Aid meds and supplies list. There were 2 web sites with good suggestions I wanted her to evaluate. She in turn emailed the list to Dr. Hugh Wells who kindly reviewed them for me and responded with suggestions and an offer for help. I truly appreciate that because I do have lots of questions. Aside from band aids, antibiotic ointment, Advil and Gaviscon I feel somewhat at a loss. Thankfully good health has kept me ignorant, but we have to prepare for the what ifs, so I’ll learn. Luckily I have Dr. Wells and my sister to help me. The trick is to pay attention and not have preventible accidents or ignore small things and let them get big and infected.
This is the place! 
Our waiter was very nice! Here he should have stopped Randal from ordering our horrible egg roll.
This little boy was watching someone’s party platter swim by. 
 There were all kinds of exotic sea creatures in the tanks to choose from if you knew what you were doing. Here folks are picking theirs.
We walked over to the water and then along the pier.
These boat had various types of sea food and sold it to folks up on the public pier. Fish were handed up and money handed down.
Heresy, I know! A Yankees hat!!! But he was the man in the previous photo and here is a close up of his fish.
More fish sellers, even more colorful!
Randal couldn’t resist! 
Boat fenders. 
In Aberdeen, at the Mcdonalds I had a Green Tea & Red Bean Sundae. That was good!
Aberdeen to Ap Lei Chau by sampan. 
 Bus ride through Hong Kong towards Aberdeen.
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