Sunday 14 December 2008
Day 61 - Mon 15 Dec 2008
I woke at 10am, trying to get my body clock back to the times it should be working on. After putting on my washing and checking my emails (and also what the closing score was in the cricket at the end of Day Four - it looks as if it will be a very interesting last day in a very tight game with both sides in with a chance of victory), I went to Tatsumi's for lunch at midday, again ordering the fabulous Beef & Onion on rice with poached egg, miso soup and japanese pickles, as well as getting a complimentary Canterbury Ale from a voucher I've found in a visitor guide to Christchurch.
Day 60 - Sun 14 Dec 2008
After waking at 3pm (!), I took a very late lunch at the Cathedral's cafe which is over the road from the hostel I'm at. Sausage, bacon, poached eggs, tomatoes with toast and has brown (all x2) did the job perfectly in filling me up. The next three and a half hours I spent updating my finances (as well as following England's progress in the First Test against India). Before I left I'd compiled what people would probably view as a complicated spreadsheet whereas in my view its rather straight-forward (though relatively large) and just helps me record what I've spent so far on my trip and the expected costs of the rest of the trip over the next few months.
Needless to say, with it being the 60th day on tour, I had a lot of updating to do to it as this was the first time since starting my tour that I'd got round to doing it. As anticipated, I'm a little poorer than what I thought I might be but I know that if the situation called for it, I could utilise a combination of the various overdraft facilities I have. A trip like this probably won't come around too many times in a lifetime so if there's a chance of doing something that I wouldn't have a chance to do back home then I really should do it, regardless of the cost implications.
The useful thing about going from east to west (most travellers I've met appear to be doing it in the opposite direction!) is that having done USA and New Zealand early on in my trip is that two of the most expensive legs are out of the way. New Zealand I count as expensive partly due to the costs of the organised tour and also the additional activities (such as skydiving, glacier hiking etc) that I've done. Also, there were many costs in the USA that I won't be repeating elsewhere, such as acquiring "more-suitable" clothes and shoes than those I'd started my tour with (shoes, waterproof jacket, new comfortable jeans etc) as well as the money I spent gambling in Las Vegas. Food can be purchased everywhere relatively cheaply but I admit my daily estimates of GBP 10 a day for food was a bit unrealistically-low; for the rest of my tour I've now increased that to GBP 20 a day - just doing that increases expected costs by approximately a further GBP 1,500 !
Anyhow, this took me up to 8pm and after returning to the hostel briefly and chatting to a new room mate who'd just turned up at the dorm I went to Little India and had a chicken saagwalla with basmati rice and a bottle of Steinlager.
After following the English cricket effort on the internet and doing some further research in to the places I'll be visiting in the coming months, I got to bed around 12.45am, relatively early for me! I will be intriguing to see how the day ends in the cricket - when I left there were about 20 overs left and Virender Sehwag was hammering the English attack all over the park as India set about a run-chase of 387 that England had set them earlier in the day after fine centuries by Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood.
Needless to say, with it being the 60th day on tour, I had a lot of updating to do to it as this was the first time since starting my tour that I'd got round to doing it. As anticipated, I'm a little poorer than what I thought I might be but I know that if the situation called for it, I could utilise a combination of the various overdraft facilities I have. A trip like this probably won't come around too many times in a lifetime so if there's a chance of doing something that I wouldn't have a chance to do back home then I really should do it, regardless of the cost implications.
The useful thing about going from east to west (most travellers I've met appear to be doing it in the opposite direction!) is that having done USA and New Zealand early on in my trip is that two of the most expensive legs are out of the way. New Zealand I count as expensive partly due to the costs of the organised tour and also the additional activities (such as skydiving, glacier hiking etc) that I've done. Also, there were many costs in the USA that I won't be repeating elsewhere, such as acquiring "more-suitable" clothes and shoes than those I'd started my tour with (shoes, waterproof jacket, new comfortable jeans etc) as well as the money I spent gambling in Las Vegas. Food can be purchased everywhere relatively cheaply but I admit my daily estimates of GBP 10 a day for food was a bit unrealistically-low; for the rest of my tour I've now increased that to GBP 20 a day - just doing that increases expected costs by approximately a further GBP 1,500 !
Anyhow, this took me up to 8pm and after returning to the hostel briefly and chatting to a new room mate who'd just turned up at the dorm I went to Little India and had a chicken saagwalla with basmati rice and a bottle of Steinlager.
After following the English cricket effort on the internet and doing some further research in to the places I'll be visiting in the coming months, I got to bed around 12.45am, relatively early for me! I will be intriguing to see how the day ends in the cricket - when I left there were about 20 overs left and Virender Sehwag was hammering the English attack all over the park as India set about a run-chase of 387 that England had set them earlier in the day after fine centuries by Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood.
Wednesday 10 December 2008
Day 57 - Thurs 11 Dec 2008
The day started relatively early at 11am and after walking in to town and purchasing a few more things in order to wrap up presents, I then spent the best part of the afternoon doing so. I'd been to a fairly basic chinese restaurant for chicken chow mein whilst in town, which was nice enough. After preparing the package to go back to England I walked to the Post Office and after an exorbitant amount of form-filling (including an export invoice!), got the package in the post.
For my evening meal, I went to Mum's - a Japanese and Korean restaurant - just around the corner from the hostel. I ordered a Benton box, which had a variety of foodstuffs in it. It was quite nice but compared to the previous night's food it didn't quite stack up.
I believe this was the first time I'd ever - knowingly - had sushi of any sort as the salmon in the box was definitely raw.
For my evening meal, I went to Mum's - a Japanese and Korean restaurant - just around the corner from the hostel. I ordered a Benton box, which had a variety of foodstuffs in it. It was quite nice but compared to the previous night's food it didn't quite stack up.
I believe this was the first time I'd ever - knowingly - had sushi of any sort as the salmon in the box was definitely raw.
Day 56 - Wed 10 Dec 2008
After waking at a reasonable 10.30am and having a noodle fried rice from a stall outside the Cathedral, I set about doing my Christmas shopping! Back in England usually the entire process for Christmas shopping would start and finish on December 24, Christmas Eve, from a visit to Milton Keynes.
As I had no "ideas" as such, though, I had to think on my feet more than usual when doing such shopping as historically I've just got lists from close family and then worked out what I should buy from there. However, it was good to do it different for once and in fact was probably more "fun" doing so and trying to work out what individuals may or may not like. This took up most of the day.
After a short internet check, I went to Tatsumi Japanese Kitchen & Pub for dinner at a decent time for one, around 7.15pm. As my first time in a Japanese restaurant I wasn't quite sure what to expect or what to order so went for a Prawn Spring Rolls followed by Beef and Spring Onion on Rice in a Miso Soup with a poached Egg on top. When the spring rolls arrived at my table I knew from the presentation of it - even before I'd tasted it! - that it was going to be good and it sure was! Astonishingly enough for someone who likes curries and chicken as some of my favourite food, I was absolutely bowled over by the Beef and Onion main course; it was delicious, probably in my top 10 meals of all time; and the entire meal was only $18.50 !
I take back what I've thought before about it being difficult to "cock up" when cooking rice or (vice versa) to make it exceptionally good, as here they achieved the latter very much so, with apparently little effort and cost. Two complimentary cups of green tea - again presented simply but with style - completed a delicious evening's meal.
As I had no "ideas" as such, though, I had to think on my feet more than usual when doing such shopping as historically I've just got lists from close family and then worked out what I should buy from there. However, it was good to do it different for once and in fact was probably more "fun" doing so and trying to work out what individuals may or may not like. This took up most of the day.
After a short internet check, I went to Tatsumi Japanese Kitchen & Pub for dinner at a decent time for one, around 7.15pm. As my first time in a Japanese restaurant I wasn't quite sure what to expect or what to order so went for a Prawn Spring Rolls followed by Beef and Spring Onion on Rice in a Miso Soup with a poached Egg on top. When the spring rolls arrived at my table I knew from the presentation of it - even before I'd tasted it! - that it was going to be good and it sure was! Astonishingly enough for someone who likes curries and chicken as some of my favourite food, I was absolutely bowled over by the Beef and Onion main course; it was delicious, probably in my top 10 meals of all time; and the entire meal was only $18.50 !
I take back what I've thought before about it being difficult to "cock up" when cooking rice or (vice versa) to make it exceptionally good, as here they achieved the latter very much so, with apparently little effort and cost. Two complimentary cups of green tea - again presented simply but with style - completed a delicious evening's meal.
Day 55 - Tues 09 Dec 2008
Given the lateness I got to bed the previous night, a late lay in was sorely needed and despite a tedious continual "hum" of rht efridge in the room and the builders working from early in the morning next door that you could hear through the windows, I woke at 4pm!
A shower later and a walk through town got me to The Raj Mahal, a restaurant serving "Classical and Contemporary Indian cuisine". I ordered two popadums, a 660ml bottle of Cobra lager with lamb kebab for starters followed by chicken balti with basmati rice and a plain naan and then set about getting the manual version of my travel journal up to date for the last few days, which I have now done :-)
The food was decent enough, though again nothing really to phone home about, then once it reached about 9.30pm I headed back to the hostel.
A shower later and a walk through town got me to The Raj Mahal, a restaurant serving "Classical and Contemporary Indian cuisine". I ordered two popadums, a 660ml bottle of Cobra lager with lamb kebab for starters followed by chicken balti with basmati rice and a plain naan and then set about getting the manual version of my travel journal up to date for the last few days, which I have now done :-)
The food was decent enough, though again nothing really to phone home about, then once it reached about 9.30pm I headed back to the hostel.
Day 54 - Mon 08 Dec 2008
I woke up in time to checkout at 10am in order to upgrade rooms to an ensuite room to give the party that had already booked up my present room access to it. Then to Cafe 90 for breakfast, a three egg omelette with ham, cheese, tomatoe and spring onion. I then took a walk around some of the many souvenir shops in the city but after a while thought better of it and went over to the pedestrianised area near the Cathedral where there's a full life-size chess set that the council bring out every day for the public to use. I sat down and watched two games and standard appeared to be quite good.
When the third game was being set up I was asked if I wasnted to play so duly took up this offer against a New Zealander, Rex Tail. I was playing as the black pieces and after a mixed opening it transposed into a French Advanced but without my light-squared bishop that my opponent (folloishly I thought!) swapped off early on. as a result, I appeared to have a lot of space, more so than normal anyhow, and a relatively stable buut easily-playable position. After taking a while to clear my f-file pawn and castle it was a fairly even position but a clever tactic by myself won the game. I was quietly impressed with myself, given that I'd played rather averagely at Central Park a many weeks before and it had been my first game apart from that one for the best part of five years.
Due to it being the time of day or that due to the relative solidity with which the game had been played, although there were a few spectators watching none wanted a game. So we had a furthe game, which this time I jotted down.
As my opponent preferred the "white" pieces (although in fact on this board White was represented by red peices) and I prefer playing as black, we started with the same colour pieces as in the first game.
When the third game was being set up I was asked if I wasnted to play so duly took up this offer against a New Zealander, Rex Tail. I was playing as the black pieces and after a mixed opening it transposed into a French Advanced but without my light-squared bishop that my opponent (folloishly I thought!) swapped off early on. as a result, I appeared to have a lot of space, more so than normal anyhow, and a relatively stable buut easily-playable position. After taking a while to clear my f-file pawn and castle it was a fairly even position but a clever tactic by myself won the game. I was quietly impressed with myself, given that I'd played rather averagely at Central Park a many weeks before and it had been my first game apart from that one for the best part of five years.
Due to it being the time of day or that due to the relative solidity with which the game had been played, although there were a few spectators watching none wanted a game. So we had a furthe game, which this time I jotted down.
As my opponent preferred the "white" pieces (although in fact on this board White was represented by red peices) and I prefer playing as black, we started with the same colour pieces as in the first game.
Monday 1 December 2008
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