Fishing with Eskimos

Tonight I was on the bank of Ship creek just on the edge of downtown Anchorage fishing for Salmon. It was a very quiet night with only 1 fish being caught as far as I know. Needless to say it wasn't caught by me but I did get to meet an eskimo couple who were fishing next to me. The wife was Yupik and her husband was Aleut. I suppose somewhat unsurprisingly there are quite a lot of Eskimos around here but these are the first I have spoken to and had a conversation with. I did kind of meet one earlier today but she was absolutely legless and as as she got on the bus she proclaimed that she loved everyone and proceeded to laugh everytime the bus changed gear. As she got off the bus she kept calling me Elvis and kissed my hand on her way past. Very odd

Anyhow, my fishing licence is valid for 24 hours so I will be back down there in the morning for the incoming tide again as that is supposed to be when the action happens. Hopefully it is my turn to catch one as I had some fresh King Salmon for dinner the other night and it was amazing. Puts the stuff you get in the supermarkets around the world to shame.

Views from the office

Every once in a while we get some awesome views from the office. This one is taken over the Pacific just about as we crossed the International Dateline. It's a Japan Cargo B747-400F about 2 miles ahead of us and 2000ft above. On days like these, I really really love my job.

I'm now in Anchorage, Alaska. It's my first time here and it is definitely different. For a start it doesn't really get dark. It was the summer solstace yesterday and the sun didn't set until about 11:30pm but even at 3am it was still light enough to read outside. Very strange especially when you add into the mix the confusion of the body clock caused by an 8 hour time change and crossing the dateline. On Saturday we left Hong Kong at about 6pm flew through a very short night for about 10 hours and arrived in Anchorage at about 11:30am on Saturday. It's a bit like I went back in time and that's without even counting on the fact that I am now in Alaska which is like stepping back in time anyhow. Needless to say I didn't sleep properly and woke up at about 7am.

So much for Delsey Dining!

There I was so proud of my various in room productions and my last one got me a dose of food poisoning. I've had food poisoning before but this was extreme. It took a while to set in as in the pastit has set in within an hour or so. This time it didn't hit me for about 9 hours but boy was it a corker. I could hardly stand up. Anything that went in came out within a couple of minutes. Both exits were open and it seemed. I think it was the roast chicken that did it. It was warm when I bought it and I only kept it for a couple of hours before I ate it. There must have been something brewing in there when I bought it. Last time I buy roast chicken from Carrefour. It all meant that I wasn't able to operate my flight back to Singapore and ended up here in Sharjah for an extra 36 hours. I don't wish this on anyone in the home environment but remove yourself to a lonely hotel room in the dessert and it adds an extra dimension to it all. Back home in a couple of hours but only for a couple of days before I head off for my first visit to Anchorage, Alaska. Just got to hope Mount Redoubt stays quiet while I'm there although another dose of food poisoning like this one may provide a good replacement.

Revisiting 'storm in a coffee cup'.

I was just adding a photo to an earlier post which I realised had a certain amount of significance at the moment with regard to Air France flight 447. A little sobering especially when I try to imagine what the pilots had to deal with at the time of the tragedy. It doesn't even bare thinking about if the scenario I have in mind is in any way right let alone what the crew and passengers experienced down the back. I wonder if this is an example of the technology being too smart for the human side of things to take over when they go wrong. I really appreciate the fact that I have some physical connection between my control column and the flying surfaces. Long may it last.

RIP crew and passengers of AF447. I just hope we find the cause of this sad loss so that we can learn from it to stop it happening again.

Extreme Delsey Dining.

Those of you that have been to my house in the last 20 years will know I'm quite into my cooking. As such my girth has gradually grown in that time to the extent that I thought it about time I did something about it. That started about 5 months ago now I think. I'm not entirely sure because it has been a while now and unlike many diets, I don't find this one much of a chore. I'm doing the Atkins programme whereby I don't eat carbohydrates. I've lost about 15kgs (about 2stone 5lbs to you old fashioned lot) in that time and I'm starting to really feel I'm making progress.

Anyhoo, I've always had a bit of a penchant for Delsey dining (preparing my own food in my hotel rooms around the place) but recently I've taken it to a new level. In the early days it used to be a bowl of cereals to avoid the horrendously expensive hotel breakfasts and the fact that I don't always get up in time for it especially when you get of duty at 3am. Then I started on ready made salads with ham. Tonight's extravaganza was half a chicken with a salad made in room and a huge chunk of Brie.



Some places we stay are easier to do this in than others. For example I was in Auckland last week and had a little kitchenette complete with cooker, oven and even a dishwasher. Here I had to go down to the restaurant and beg for a plate. The last time I was here (Sharjah, UAE BTW) I didn't bother with the plate but just chucked it all in a bag. I had left over roast pork which I turned into a Thai Salad with the addition of some fish sauce, lime juice, corriander, onion and chilli (a bastardisation of Laab Gai which is one of my fave dishes in the world). I have inherited a love of radishes from my Grandfather so you might see that is a common theme here. Another common theme when I am here is an olive preparation called Egyptian Cocktail which are olives with pickled lemon and chilli. They are about as hot as the surface of the sun.



It's something I quite enjoy doing and when you are in a place that is as culinary (sp) barren as this it means I get some nice fresh food that fits my current eating habits without breaking the bank. Living in hotels can get really quite expensive if you are not careful and eating on your own isn't always my favourite option. At least in my room I get to watch the TV.