/travel/freighter/Food, Safety
After lunch (more below) I
spent some time reading "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood. I'm about
halfway through, and quite enjoying it, though I hope it goes somewhere, and
isn't "just a dystopian story" about genetic futzing around. I'm enjoying the
main character's involuntary construction of a mythology for his unintentional
worshippers, including a creation myth about animals (Children of Oryx) and
his worshippers (Children of Crake), and the detailed contortions he has to go
through to keep things consistent.
I've brought some videos to watch, but it turned out I didn't have the necessary software to watch them. Since we're still in port, I muddled around until I managed to get my laptop talking to my phone via Bluetooth, and my phone talking to the internet via GPRS. (Thanks, Keith.) Thus the miracle of blog postings.
Then I got the safety tour. My life jacket is just above my closet, in its own special place. Seven short blasts, then one long blast is the abandon ship signal. I should go outside, and down two decks. There are three separate small-craft setups: a primary "abandon ship" covered boat, two backup inflatable rafts, and a small motorboat for rescuing me when I fall overboard.
I also got a tour of the other facilities on the boat -- a small swimming pool, to be filled with sea-water, a sauna (which, presumably from Jani's influence, everyone pronounces in the correct, Finnish way: "sow'-na"), laundry, and such.
I then had a short nap. Which turned into a long nap, and I very nearly slept through dinner. The steward was kind enough to feed me anyway, though.
Eating the Children of Oryx
Lunch started with a fairly-tasty French onion soup, proper and home-made, with a make-do piece of toast and cheese floating on it. The table had a little ledge, so your plate wouldn't fall off. The main course was fish, with potatoes and white asparagus, in a buttery gravy. That was the first time I've eaten a whole piece of fish in five years. It was nonplussing, since I've had a few nibbles here and there.
Dinner was a bit more harsh -- "Goulash" to me is a sort of stew, but in this case it was basically just stewed meat, with new vegetables, served on a plain pasta. I neither enjoyed nor was bothered by the taste, nor the concept of what I was doing, despite careful consideration of the source of that food. There was also coldcuts and some bread and cheese and such.
On my way out, I noticed that a weekly menu is posted, so hopefully I'll be able to improve my food with tactical requests to increase pasta servings, etc.
My stomach felt a bit heavy from all the tough meat, and my teeth are slightly sore with chewing (it wasn't the most tender meat, though still quite edible).
Thus far, while I'm not bothered by it, I suspect this will serve mainly to reinvorce my vegetarianism.
We were a bit late getting loaded, and the boat needs high tide to exit the port, so we're not leaving 'til 03:00 now.
Comments
Julia wrote
so have you chosen to eat meat because you don't want to offend your hosts, or because you fear nutritional inadequacies at sea?
j
Rob wrote
I feared nutritional inadequacies if I don't eat the food I was offered, which was meatitarian. starvation was a less cool-sounding option.
