Gettin' Things DONE...

Alternate titles: 
What I've Been Doin' When I'm Not Gettin' PAID or

How Do You Hang A Shelf Straight and Level When Nothing Around it is Straight or Level? or

I Wonder If I Will Drill Through A Weight Bearing Piece of Cement and Crumble This Flat or

How Many Drill Bits Does it Take To Get To the Center of a Cement Wall? or

Is The Core of This Flat Really Chinese Newspaper? or

Close Enough For State Work (as my Papa used to say)

DrB Nepal

Another post is up

http://drbnepal.blogspot.com/2010/02/day-3-february-1-2010-kathmandu.html

Also take a look at these spices
Asafoetida
Fennel
Garam Masala
Gram Flour

A new blog

It will only be for my Nepal stuff.  I just created it so I can start uploading my trip journal and pictures from my Nepal trip last year and I'll share the link with Khem and all his friends too.

http://drbnepal.blogspot.com/

First Post is up
http://drbnepal.blogspot.com/2011/01/day-1-january-30-2010-hong-kong-to.html 
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5 hour time lapse out our back window

Three hundred and sixty something days and counting...

Just over a year ago I left New York on a journey that I knew would change my life, however, it was impossible to tell just what I would encounter along the way.

Here I am still travelling down this path with an unknown destination, however it's this very journey that keeps me going.  "The journey is the destination" I used to tell my kids at ALE.

I knew that this experience would change things for me and going to a place that literally couldn't be further away from home definitely did just that.

Signing a 13 month contract was the longest contract I had ever committed to and at first it seemed daunting to me, then I settled in and found the flow of things, then the reality of 6 more months set in, along with (I'm not really sure how to say this...) let me just say that several factors more numerous than I want to list here allowed me to make the decision that...I'm DONE with this company or as they say in the states..."Done like dinner" or in New Zealand..."Done and Dusted"
or multiple choice...
"I'm as done as ______"
1) Conan O'Brien hosting The Tonight Show
2) Eliot Spitzer's political career
3) Healthcare Reform
4) Tiger Woods and golf

OK, maybe some of those things aren't a lock just yet, but I've decided long ago that I am looking for other things.  I like Hong Kong and I'm not ready to live in the US yet; I can't wait to go back and visit though.  Around 60 days and I'll be back in the good ol' US of A and I've also booked 3 shifts at ALE that will bring me into the summer.  Katy's coming to visit me in New York and then I'll return for DrB HK Part 2 sometime in August, who knows what that will involve...

A quick summary of the past year would involve travelling to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau, and Nepal.  Also seeing Mount Everest from the airplane, then Dhaulagiri and Annapurna the 7th and 10th highest peaks in the world from the ground.  Scuba diving, reaching 12,170 feet in altitude, walking on 110+ degree Malaysian beach sand, being in 4 countries in 16 hours, sleeping everywhere from luxury buses and junkboats to local buses' plywood bench seats and cardboard boxes. As well as finding love and getting a place to call my own in Hong Kong among many many more things.

The spring season starts March 1, people are arriving now, although the nor' easter on the East coast is messing up some people's plans.  The confusion and frustration have reawakened, oh March 31 where are you?

The Nepal pictures and journal are coming soon, I'm getting a lot more pictures from Elena soon.

I have some ideas about this blog and some changes I'd like to make, I'm hoping to finally finish my journal from last spring and reorganize it to the correct dates and maybe put in my trail journal from my Long Trail journey in 2008, I'd also like to integrate all my twitter messages into the posts somehow.  This is all in hopes of creating a print version of this blog I think it would be pretty cool to have a hard copy of all my writings and pictures, we'll see how it goes.  I think the Lapsap Stringband and yelling at kids might take up most of my time once things get going...

Last week

Last week was pretty busy, we had an Australian school come Monday (6th graders). So I was there to help them out because my real group (Shanghai) didn't come until Tuesday. Then Wednesday I broke off from them to go kayaking with yet another school coming in for a day. It was a pretty logistically crazy week. It was great weather all week, the sun was blazing Wednesday, but then hazed up Thursday and Friday.

My primitive skills package came in and I was able to use some of the materials in it to show how to make a matchless fire, well almost. I didn't have time to prepare everything so we tried a lot with the strikers and just couldn't get it to catch, but all the kids had fun trying and they got the point I think.

I found a stave to make a bow for my bowdrill set and I should be "busting" a coal sometime today. I feel a lot of relief now that I have that box, there are so many projects/possibilities in it. And for someone who is pretty knife-centric I felt pretty lost without my Leatherman the past 3 weeks.

We have a half day of work today and then I might go get some more groceries I think. We have two day camps coming Thursday and Friday so it should be a pretty chill week.

------Cantonese Lesson of the Day------
Joe-san = Good Morning

A day off

Not really much going on lately but I want to keep up on the writing. I never kept any record of anything I did at ALE, except for the mountain if itineraries in ziplock bags I have in my basement at home, which I will sort out someday...ha!

I'm back to 100% health, yesterday we shared a bunch more of our games and activities with each other. I made a bamboo handdrill and got some smoke on it, everyone was pretty impressed. I can't wait to make a real bowdrill set when my knives get here. I also showed everyone the water bottle cozie, we might do them with the kids if the rains hit next week.

Yesterday has some of the highest winds I think I've ever been in, it was probably sustained 45mph gusting over 50 they said. It was pretty crazy, we hunkered down in the Ooh La La restaurant for a few hours until it died down enough for us to walk home.

This morning I had my first grocery shopping experience, it's pretty much the same as in the US except everything you buy is a little bit smaller in size. You can't get 5 gallon buckets of peanut butter or ice cream, which is a good thing. I'm fine with my 8 slices of bread and 4 oz peanut butter, less wasted food when I'm at camp all next week. I also can't buy $350 HKD (or ~$50 US) in food and expect to be able to easily get it back to the flat, you have to carry everything to the bus stop and wait for the bus. You can get a taxi easy enough, it's just the difference between a ~.50 bus ride and a $3 taxi, but it does add up. So today I spent less than $20 US on groceries and it was enough to comfortably carry back to the bus.

I'm not sure what I'll do today, maybe try to make it to the music shop in wanchai and try out some sanxians and pipas