Living in SIN

Greetings from Singapore, where I’ve now been for the last five days and will be until at least Tuesday and likely beyond.

And honestly, it’s not that much fun, not that it was supposed to be. But, even though it’s one of the most expensive cities on the planet, it’s not costing me a whole lot of money. Not that I wanted it that way.

On Monday, I reported the shoulder specialist’s findings to the nurses at work, who reported it up the food chain. After noon sometime, it came back down saying, “You’re cleared to go to Singapore.”

This was not an option I was expecting, since I’d been told earlier that I was no longer able to do so. But it was a welcome, because the fact is, although my shoulder doesn’t hurt all the time, the times when it does hurt, it’s excruciating. Like screaming from pain excruciating.

We have security cameras in the halls of the hotel, and one day I was running late and pulled the door shut behind me. If they were monitoring those cameras, the likely think I am some kind of alien, the gestures I made. It HURTS. And it impedes my daily life. I have a hard time getting dressed, and brushing my hair is painfully uncomfortable.

Still, based on the earlier conversation, the one where I was not cleared for a medevac, I didn’t expect to be cleared for a medevac, but somehow it happened. And quite suddenly.

I talked to the nursing staff and got the 411 and, when asked my preferred date to depart, I said Wednesday. I’ve been told this whole time that Singapore works fast and I’d likely get in one night, see the doctor the next day and then have surgery later that day. I figured I’d be back to work on Friday.

Well, that was stupidly optimistic. First, I got the email around 5:03 on Monday that my doctor’s appointment was 10:15 on Wednesday, meaning I had to leave the next day. I didn’t even have a ticket, which takes lots of authorization.

Much ado later, by 1:30 p.m. I still didn’t have a ticket for the 6:20 p.m. flight, but it came through. After a late and bumpy flight, I got to the hotel, crashed, woke up, ate breakfast, checked out under the assumption that I’d be in surgery that evening and then went to the doctor. He confirmed I needed surgery, then said he had zero time that week.

I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I knew I needed surgery and even if that specialist had decided no, I felt like it should have been conveyed to him that I likely needed it, so he could have said there wouldn’t be any time to do it.

But I need the surgery, and if I left for Guangzhou, the medevac was over. The only choice was to just hang out here until the next possible surgery time, which turned out to be at 5 p.m. on Monday.

As a result, I’ve set up camp at the Regent and tried to make myself at home, but I really don’t want to be here. I want the surgery and then to go home to my comfy Ascott pillows.

Singapore is nice, don’t get me wrong. But it’s a shopping destination and I am not a shopper, though I’ve had to be this trip.

On the “stupidly optimistic” topic, I only brought one change of clothes, a mostly empty tube of toothpaste and microscopic amounts of toiletries. Yesterday and today, I had to hit the overpriced stores trying to replenish, plus do some emergency shopping for thing that might make my life a tad more bearable after surgery, like purchasing bras that close in the front. That was harder than it should have been. There is no Walmarty store that I’ve found. Lots of H&Ms and UniQlos, though.

And Asian sizes. Oh, my. I wanted one more pair of pants before the reinforcements came in. (That was in the form of a colleague, who was visiting here this long weekend. She swung by my apartment and brought me a small duffel worth of clothes.) Pants. How hard, right? Well, I tried on six pairs the first day in sizes 6-12 and nothing came close to fitting. And by that I mean one pair out of six made it past my knees.

Finally, the second day, I found one store with some Australian brand and I got some shorts. I really wanted a nice pair of pants I could wear to work, but that just ain’t happening here.

At one store, I gave up all pretenses of being able to wear women’s shirts and picked up a men’s XL. It was too small. I wish I was kidding.

But now I have enough, I hope. My surgery is tomorrow, and I already feel like I have been here forever. It’s just crazy, really. I had suggested as my No. 2 choice of days was next Thursday, and was told if I could wait that long, it wasn’t an emergency.

So I’ve been sitting here in Singapore, being almost totally non-productive. I did manage to work in the office here maybe five hours over two days, but that’s about it. I’ve walked a lot and sweat a lot. It’s massively humid.

I saw “Snoopy” and “Star Wars,” the latter for a second time. You pick up more the section time, like Rey’s response when BB8 told her where he was from was classified. It was something like “Yeah, mine, too.”

But I’d prefer to be at work.

Today, I went to Santoso Island, and thought I’d go to the Universal Studios but backed off. Instead, I just took the cable car over, walked down to the beach through teeming throngs of humanity and then came back.

Tomorrow I eat a late breakfast because I can’t eat or drink after 11 a.m. I check into the hospital at 12:30 and the hour-long procedure is scheduled for 5 p.m.

Prayers welcome.

Success, of sorts, in Hong Kong

Back from January trip 2 of 3 in Hong Kong, the second day trip in a row. It’s been an exhausting weekend because I followed up Hong Kong with a trip to the glasses market but I did get stuff done. Long overdue stuff, plus a good burger. And the good burger accompanied a root beer, something I haven’t been able to find in Guangzhou for many months. You don’t realize how much you like something until it goes away.

My two coups in Hong Kong were finally seeing the replica Noah’s Ark that’s there and getting a diagnosis of my shoulder.

The ark is something Leila told me was there; I never would have come across it. It’s on one of the other islands, a 25-minute ferry ride away. You can take a taxi, too, and the ark is right under the bridge to the island that you’d cross in the taxi.

It’s life-size, which is what is cool about it. It’s kind of in a little park, but is only becoming a tourist attraction now. (The ark doubles as a hotel.) I finally made it over there and enjoyed it, but didn’t stay long.

 

There’s a nice little garden, but I couldn’t figure out where to stand to get the whole thing in the picture.  Inside, it’s done up as an exhibit (complete with some live animals, mostly reptiles, and some models of animals in stables like you figure would have been on the ark. There are also exhibits with fossils and prehistoric wood. There’s also some sort of a film but I missed it.

Since it’s new to the tourist world, they didn’t have T-shirts, postcards, magnets or anything like that. I mean, they had stuff for sale, but it didn’t say “Noah’s Ark” on it or anything like that. They just had stuff like tea cups with animals on them.

But I was glad I made it there, just as I was glad to FINALLY get to a real shoulder doctor. And it was so simple, I almost cried – he had me do a few motions and said, yep, this is what it is, then he went to the MRI film and verified it.

Basically, my tendon has popped off where it’s supposed to be, and although I can do most things all right, those things that I can’t – like putting on a bra – bring me to tears.

 

The bad thing is, I don’t know where to go from here. The surgery is a one-hour surgery but I have to pay up front and file later. The price in Hong Kong is outrageous -- $21k, and that is for the “ward room,” not the private. It’s double the price I was given for possible hip surgery.

So we’ll see. Right now, I am just glad to have a name behind the pain. Specifically, the names are “torn rotator cuff” and “torn bicep.”

The Force finally awakens

What a week! We had a fire at the apartment building, a chaotic mess on NYE and yesterday I finally got to see “Star Wars."

Way too easy for Rey to be Luke’s daughter.

But first, the fire, though I’ve forgotten what day it was.

My apartment building has two towers with hallways between them. The sixth floor is where all the action is -- the gym, pool, golf course, movie theater, restaurant, conference rooms, etc.

Whatever morning it was, one of our employees noticed smoke coming out near the gym. He reported it, and the fit hit the shan.

I missed most of it because I head into work a little earlier than most. Coming down my elevator, I smelled smoke. I got to the lobby and one of the doormen/guards ran toward the other set of elevators. Others quickly joined him.

There was one guy at the front desk and I looked at him like, "what's going on?" but he wasn't one of the better English speakers, and I have zero Mandarin skills. So I just went into work. I reasoned that since the people were using the elevators, it couldn't be a fire, right? That's rule No. 1, I think.

But it was. Other people coming in to work after me said they started blocking off the elevators. A guy on the 7th floor said his apartment was filled with smoke. The smoke alarms did not go off in many people’s places. And we have two sets - one belonging to the apartment, and one belonging to the State Department.

There’s a day care in the building and firemen too the kids out, but the school opened later that morning. The building started knocking on doors one by one to evacuate people. The family members my colleagues wound up across the street at Starbuck's "in various stages of dress." Everyone else went into work.

The gym was closed for three days for deep cleaning. It’s open now, but the smoke smell lingers. The pool still isn’t open, and the women’s locker room won’t open until the sauna is rebuilt – apparently that’s where it started.

It seems that someone left it on all night, or something like that. The gym is 24/7, but I think the locker rooms are closed when the pool is, so I don’t think anyone could have gone in early in the morning, so my guess is it smoldered through the night.

But the apartment complex reacted quickly and is fixing things. I’m glad.

Now maybe I can see if I can get my AC back. It is still surprisingly hot but the heat is on. I mean, I don’t have it on in my apartment, but I don’t have the option to turn on the AC.

I might have to borrow a fan or something. It’s just so hot. And polluted. I have a few windows that I can open and it’s marginally cooler outside, but the air quality index is over 200 today – I can’t even see the Canton Tower through the pollution. So my options are to be a bit toasty or to let that air in my house. Decisions, decisions.

NY Eve was great. I went to a nice house party. It wasn't what I thought, it was more of a party for parents and kids, but not a kiddie party. The kids, and this amused me greatly, got into "Return of the Jedi," to the point that they were shushing the parents.

I left 11 p.m. with a friend for the 25-minute walk home and wound up getting back after midnight. The streets were blocked and it was PACKED with people. We got to the block we needed to turn down and it was barricaded. The cops wouldn't let us by. It was very weird and I was starting to get dizzy, sick and claustrophobic. Finally, after my friend pleaded with the guy for 15-20 minutes to no avail, a guy not 10 feet away let us into the underground parking structure so we went the two blocks that way. 2016 rang in as we were down there.

It's just so strange -- some people wanted to go home, but they were barricaded on the streets. (This is a high-end area with ritzy hotels and apartments as the only residences.) And it was just a stampede waiting to happen. I wanted to be home safe before everything unleashed. People weren't drunk or anything, but there were lots of people on rollerblades and bicycles, along with hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of people in the area. If you're not reveling, there's no smart reason to be out there.

And then 2016 sucked because of the FSU game. My Slingbox didn’t work, and in the end, that was probably a good thing. As it was, I dozed on and off and kept checking the score.

But on Jan. 2, I headed to Hong Kong to see Star Wars. Oh, man, that was totally worth it. It opens here next week, but I figure it would be awhile for the crowds to die down and I really did want to see it. I’m glad I went and might try to see it again when it does come out here.

But not next weekend. As it turns out, my Jan. 16 shoulder appointment was canceled because the doctor will be out of town and I rescheduled for next weekend. In a way, it’s good because it’s really hurting me but in another it’s bad. It’s really exhausting to go up and back in one day. I was up at 6 a.m. and completely on the go until 9:30 p.m. last night.

And it’s expensive. For the second time since I’ve been here, they raised the train ticket. It’s also crowded as heck, but I’m going to deal with it.

I’m still going over MLK weekend, because we’d planned on doing Disney then, so basically I am going to HK three weeks in a row.

Sugar shock

Merry Christmas everyone!

I’ve had a super long weekend – we got off at 1 p.m. on Thursday – and am quite ready to get back into the swing of things.

But it’s been nice, if overly social for my tastes. I spent Christmas Eve at one colleague’s house, then Christmas Day at another event with about 20 people. Boxing Day was with yet another group at someone else’s apartment, then today I went to the All Things Made in China place with someone else.

It’s now 5:30 p.m. and I’m just so ready to chillax.

And not eat sugar. My gosh, I have OD’d on all things sugar the past week or so. My desk, which is at the main door of a long office, has been the gathering place for all the stuff that people have brought in to share. If you stand and talk to me, you inhale so much sugar you might as well eat some of it.

I’ve been in the gym as usual but the sugar wins. It’s just been everywhere.

The weather is finally changing here, and the gym has been crazy. I’ve been freezing and sweating from cold and heat in the same 2-hour visit. I don’t understand how they do the heating and air in this building, honestly. The management here asked if they could turn off my air because apparently I share a unit (or something) with someone who’s ready to crank up the heat. Meanwhile, I am roasting under my cozy comforter. I wound up opening a window in one room but having the heat on in another. It’s bizarre.

Coming down to the wire of 2015. I’ve decided to go ahead and suck it up and go to Hong Kong next weekend to see Star Wars. I’m only going for the day, so it’s a rather expensive movie but I want to see it. It’d be more expensive if I stayed overnight, but it’d be a lot cheaper if I could wait until Jan. 16. I’m going to HK then, too, to see a shoulder specialist. But I figured if I waited until then to see it, then I should just see it her, and I didn’t want to do that. It seems my only option for movies here is 3D, and not only is that expensive, I don’t like the experience so much.

So I’m off to Hong Kong on the 8 a.m. train on Jan. 2 and returning again on the 8 a.m. train the same day. I hope it works out. I might not go alone; I mentioned it to a couple people at work and someone may tag along. I’m OK either way, though.

The shoulder appointment is something I wish I could speed up time to get to. I’m really in pain, and my desire to suck it up and put it off until Florida blew my shot at a medevac. And because I deemed the doctor I had been seeing a crook, I start over again in Hong Kong midway through January. Fortunately, I have the MRI from January and I hope that will stand; I just want to get whatever over and done with. It’s starting to affect my day-to-day in a much more major way. Screaming in sudden pain has kind of become a norm, and not a really fun one, you know?

But I am still trying told hold out until Tallahassee to deal with the hip. That’s chronic, not the result of an injury, and it’s just more nagging than anything else. So we shall see. Lord knows I have enough other specialists I want to see in Tally. Home leave – what fun!

So now I am trying to find hotels and such in Hong Kong for the doctor weekend. I’m headed down on Friday because my appointment is Saturday morning, so I’m staying in a hostel that first night but will switch to a hotel and split a room the following two evenings. (It’s MLK Day.) The plan is to go to Disney on Sunday and come back Monday afternoon. I bought a total of four train tickets today, so the plan better come through for me!

Jam-packed weekend

Winding down on a Sunday night, and boy, did I get a ton of stuff done.

Honestly, as much as I like Christmas, the holidays themselves suck. Not to be a Scrooge, but I just get tired of one party after another, and having to make stuff for all of them.

Tonight, I turned down one. Felt bad about it, but I’ve just been slammed. I had a  ton to do this weekend and, if I survived to the night, knew I’d just want to veg out. And that’s what happened.

My big highlights, beyond Christmas prep, I mean, were a birthday party for a 6-year-old and two movies. As busy as I was, these were things I had penciled in.

The brunch Saturday morning was not. I didn’t find out about that until Friday night, at a going-away party. But it was a person I like, so I woke up and hit the gym before 6 a.m. in order to squeeze everything in. Even before breakfast, I’d made the first of the Christmas sweets – a vat of Rice Krispy treats for stocking stuffers.

The nonstop Saturday wound down with a movie with a friend. We went to see Mockingjay, which I recently learned was showing here. While researching that, I found out that Point Break was also showing here and I’d made time to do that on Sunday.

But Mockingjay was a cool one to see not because it was in 3D (which it shouldn’t have been, but it was my only option) but because seeing that here meant that I’d seen every movie in the franchise in a different country. I started in Indonesia with the first one, then Catching Fire was how I spent the day before my deployment (that an Chick-Fil-A). I saw the first installment of Mockingjay in Hong Kong, so this was No. 4.

Today I went to see Point Break. I’d seen the previous before, possibly in Hong Kong during that Mockingjay showing. I remember watching it and them highlighting the extreme sports and the “bag guy” gang and me sitting there thinking, how is this not Point Break? I’d heard nothing of a reboot, and really, the highlights showed things like snowboarding, base jumping and motorcross – not surfing. But I swear they called one guy Bodhi and the other Utah and I was really, really confused. How could it not be point break? But eventually, they flashed the name on and it was like, oh, they DID reboot it.

And it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t have heart and I didn’t buy the whole reason the little bag guy gang was committing the crimes, but it was enjoyable. It didn’t seem to rip off the Swayze/Reeves version at all – that’s the classic. It did not interfere with the presence of that one at all. And since it was in 3D and featured extreme sports all in exotic locations all over the world, the scenery was fantastic.

The rest of Sunday has been spent baking. I’m on the hook for not only Rice Krispy treats and a side dish (which I did Saturday before the movie), but cookies for two parties this weekend, plus Marine stockings.

We have some party on Saturday at the Big Boss’ house and for some reason, even though 120 people and their spouses have been invited, it’s the junior employees who have been asked to make cookies. Sigh. I don’t know if we’re supposed to be flattered or what, but I’m just not.

I made mint chip (from mint chips someone gave me) and sugar cookies, plus brownies. I’m just covered in baking goop and cannot wait to take a shower and just crash.

I did finally pull out some Christmas decorations. I thought about it earlier this month but was out of town last weekend. At that point, I figured I’d bypass it totally but decided today that I should toss out some jingle bells or something. So now I have a few modest decorations – two Nativity scenes, a couple little wooden trees and a snowmanny-like thing outside the door. I have another little wooden tree and a snowman heading into work tomorrow to accompany the reject brownies. No one can turn down reject brownies.

In other news, I got my official time from the race – 1:16! I was pretty happy with it. I mean, I know it’s slow but ya know what? So am I. I was not built for speed, but stamina I got.

Aaron Tippen gets partial credit

Back from my first (and, let’s face it, last) 10k! I don’t know what my time was because I didn’t know you were supposed to look up at the clock, but for me, it was decent. I’d hoped to finish before they scraped you up off the road and really hoped to finish in 80 minutes. I realize for real runners that’s a joke, but when you’ve never done it before and are not a runner, it’s not bad.

The way it turned out, I think I beat it, but I’m not sure. A little while after I’d finished – I’d talked to some people I knew, gotten water and took the little clip thing off my shoe and traded it for me “finisher” medal – another friend came up to me, all smiles, and said she’d finished in under 1:20.

Internet photo, not mine

Sunrise at Angkor Wat is phenomenal. I didn’t take any photos, but it looked something like this, but a heck of a lot more crowded. Haven’t seen the numbers this year, but last year’s race had about 2500 people, so it was a tad more crowded, too.

And it was rough, but honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. As it was, I probably ran half and walked (really fast) half. I’m more of a stamina person – after the 5k mark, I felt a lot better. But it really got to the point where I was like, you know, I can do this, but do I really want to? Even having been there before, I was wowed by the scenery and decided to enjoy it and not kill myself.

And I did good. I kicked up the headphones and tried to enjoy it. I’d picked some upbeat songs to try to keep pace, and had a good time. I tried to hit t rhythm of walking for a few minutes, then finishing out that song and the next at a jog/run, but that ended around 6k, when I went into some Barenaked Ladies live versions – those went on forever.

Around 9k, Aaron Tipped kicked in. If “Working Man’s PhD” doesn’t get you moving faster, something is wrong with you! So I give him partial credit for my finish!

 

Honestly, in my little crew of about 10, I think I was the third to finish. And those were the two real runners in the 10k. (We had a crew doing the 21k, too.)

And it’s not like we took it really seriously. A friend finished after the sweep-up time (although they didn’t actually do this; the clock just kept running.) armed with pictures and videos of monkeys she’d seen along the way. She said she took a 10-minute detour and shot photos. I mean, the area is just beautiful – it’s a UNESCO site.

In my training – if you could call it that – I finished it up at a level of walking at 6.something kilometers and hour for two minutes, then finishing out the K at a pace of anywhere between 9.5 and 10.5 kpm, and at an incline of 6-8. So stamina I had, but speed I will never, ever have.

The rest of the trip was not great. The night before the flight, I got little sleep, and the night before the race, I got none. As in not a minute.

On Saturday after we arrived, we wandered around town, and Siem Reap is hot and dry. I’d drunk water and tea, but by the end of the evening I had a migraine coming on. That usually isn’t a huge deal because normally they go away when I get some sleep, and we were headed back to our little guest room for the night at 8:30 p.m.

(As an aside, the hotel we stayed at was a hotel school for underprivileged Cambodians. It was a really nice place to stay at, and it only cost $26.)

I could not sleep. One bit. I tossed and turned, the migraine growing. It was awful. I’d check the time and think, “Oh, OK, it’s midnight, but I can still get 4:30 of sleep.” And it just went on and on. I  thought I was doomed.

But the next morning, when I got to the race, it went away. Thank you, Jesus, for that one!

The rest of the day was also good. After cleaning up, my little group went to get massages, ate lunch at a Mexican place (though I had Cambodian) and then took a near-perfect flight home.

What a great weekend!

Happy camper

Still on a New Zealand high. I went to my fourth Thanksgiving meal in four days last night and was extolling the virtues of the trip to anyone who would listen.

I did get a belated scare while watching the news on the hotel TV last week. A blurb on a New Zealand helicopter crash caught my eye. After doing some researching, I found out it was a group of tourists headed up to fox Glacier, the same place I’d been two weeks before. The outfit was a different one than I’d used, but I remember seeing their helicopters. It was very jolting to me; all seven people aboard died. So sad.

And yet another reason to be thankful, for sure. There but by the amazing grace of God go I.

And go I do. Next week is the 10k. It’s in Siem Reap, a direct flight from here, at Angkor Wat. I’m not taking any time off or doing much touristy because I’ve been there. My flight leaves Saturday morning and arrives around 11 and the race is at 6:30 Sunday morning. The flight out is at 6:30, so there’s an afternoon.

About 20 of us are going, several on the same flight. I’m rooming with someone who’s doing the half marathon, but I’m only in for 10k.

 

This weekend is the last chance to really practice and yesterday I did 14k and today I did 13k. I would have made it to 14 but I had to cut it short to get to the Gator game on my Slingbox. I’m exhausted and sore. I have no idea what I was thinking when I registered for this thing.

Usually on weekends after the gym I come back, shower and take a nap but yesterday I got back and Skyped and today I turned on the game. While watching it, I’ve gone ahead and done laundry and cooked for not just one but two weeks since I’ll be out of town next weekend. I’m looking forward to a nap.

After next weekend, I’m in town til Christmas for sure; I have a birthday party and then a Christmas party. I’m considering Hong Kong over Christmas weekend just to see Mockingjay and Star Wars, but we’ll see. Right now I’m not into it.

But New Zealand … amazing. I’m posting a few more photos.

I went with a tour group, Flying Kiwis, which I’d totally recommend. I never intended to do a camping trip, but I had specific dates I could work with and wanted to stay X number of nights or so. Once I found out I had to be back at work on 11/12, that narrowed my options. It was camping or nothing.

And for me, New Zealand was one of those places I needed a set itinerary. There are just way too many options to choose from. Like Greece and its “mainland or islands?”question,  you have to decide which island you want to do first, at least unless you’re staying for weeks and weeks.

The north island is more cultural (and Hobbiton) and the south is more adventure-oriented. It’s where bungee began. I have no interest in that, but the hikes and stuff were more interesting to me. Someone told me Queenstown was where you needed to go, so I put that in my tour requirements.

I wound up with the “Wild West” tour from Flying Kiwis, and it was perfect. I met the group in Queenstown and we worked our way up through to Nelson, Picton and then over to Wellington. Basically, it’s sort of the equivalent of U.S. 1 in Florida – up the coast, except there are mountains on the other side.

We camped, which, really, was a first for me. Yes, I camped twice at Disney, but that’s hard to count. This time, it was legit – in some places, we didn’t even have showers, although we always had flushing toilets. (Which, as mentioned before, ALWAYS had TP.)

All the tents – mine was named Evil Knieval (yes, that was the spelling they used), our tables, stools and cooking equipment got pulled in a trailer behind our bus up the highways and byways. The bus was pretty good, too, with a sound system that was decent although I got tired of the kiddie music. (By that I mean 20something, not Sesame Street.)

When I signed up, the brochure indicated I would be sharing a tent but it ended out not being the case, so between that and the fact I spent WAY more money than I intended, I did not bother upgrading to a bunk when I could.

Honestly, the tent wasn’t bad. I’m not up to the point where I’m ready to strike out on my own, “Wild”-like, but I got pretty darn good at putting it up and taking it down.

The first night was brutal, though, because it was super windy and started to rain. Someone showed me how to do it, which was good, and I took two sleeping bags because it was going to be really cold that night. I was glad because I really was cold, and I could hear the wind just whipping. It took me back to the RV at Hope Village, just wondering if the wind would flip me over. In this case, it didn’t, although some of the tent pegs got bent during the night. But it didn’t cave in like one person’s did, so that was a win.

I got smarter as the trip went on, picking locations that were closer to the bathrooms or next to a distinguishing feature, like a bush, so I could find it easily in the dark. We had about 15 tents and they were all exactly alike, so at dusk or whatever you didn’t want to crawl into the wrong one and freak someone out.

Our days started fairly early, with breakfast around 7 or 7:30. We’d, pack out and hit the road, stopping in an hour or two for our first break or hike of the day. Sometimes, we’d spend a few hours in a city or something, where our guides loaded up at the grocery store for the night’s meal.

That’s what this one town, Hokitika, was – just a stop on the road. I bought a pair of gloves there, and then a meat pie, which I took with me down to the beach to eat. The chair, made of concrete, was just sitting there, a la Kenny Chesney. It was fantastic.