365 New Experiences

One man, 365 days to say yes to new things

[365newexperiences]

A New Start?…

Last weekend was the one year anniversary of my repeated failure to achieve my new-thing-every-day-for-a-year challenge. Again. I know this because my last post was a lengthy recall of my day at the 2014 DBS regatta and at the weekend the 2015 DBS regatta started.

The last time I failed I went on a 400 word rampage, professing my apologies for failing the few who followed me and my own sorry self. What an utter arse. Last year life got in the way again and I didn’t even get a chance to write another guilty sob-story. Probably for the best, the internet already has enough precious bytes of data being wasted by other bothersome-bloggers.

So what brings me back? What strange impulse has led me into the dark corners of my web browsers, returning to Tumblr, keyboard underhand, ready to type again?

Firstly, no, I’m not doing this challenge again. “Third time’s the charm?” ideas can go shove it. Don’t get me wrong, in the 365+ days since my last post I’ve done plenty of new things. I won my first dragon boat medal, as well as competed in Malaysia and Korea; I travelled to Vietnam and saw Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; I had new years in Singapore with my old chums Sam and Aigul; In recent months I travelled to Nepal* and trekked with friends to Everest Base Camp and saw the snow-covered Gokyo lakes; I’ve eaten new foods, drunk new drinks, met new people and seen new places. It’s gone so quickly - a blur seems too weak a word to describe the thumping pace my life seems to take at times - its hard to comprehend that its been a year since my first dragon boat competition. Tomorrow I will be returning to Marina Bay to continue the DBS regatta which started last weekend and it will be merging with the SEA Games events. The opening ceremony is currently being broadcast on the TV in front of me as I write this. That’s another opening ceremony i’ve missed. Oh well, can’t watch’em all.

I’m back to tell you that i’m actually not back, basically. Well, not in the same way. A few months ago, an old university friend of mine got in contact via Facebook. He’s involved in getting a new European Young Engineers UK website setup and they were looking for content providers for a blog area. He wondered if i’d like to get involved. You bet your bottom unit of currency I would!

Soon my first blog post on the new EYE-UK website will be going live, i’ll make sure I put a link to it on here. The thing is that there is going to be a link to this blog too. So, another reason for writing this post is so that anyone who reads my other blog and has some strange urge to follow my writing has something a bit more fresh to read. It’s not going to look good that my last post was in May 2014 and was about drinking an obscure tea after a disappointingly rainy day. Best to put some space between then and now with a large block of wittering text. In fact, if you’ve made it this far then well done to you. I’m not sure i’d have the patience or mental stamina to read this much of a random bloggers ramblings. Double points if you’ve just come from the EYE-UK article. Or should it be half points? Really, you should off Engineering something wonderful not wasting time devouring the blog post equivalent of a plain rice cracker. Get out there and Engineer yourself to the top!… Actually, ignore that, sounds a little bit FIFA.

*only just before the devastating earthquakes which have rocked the country, if you haven’t yet, please donate to any charity supporting the efforts there.

[365newexperiences]

Day 41 - Lapsang Souchong

Day two of the DBS Regatta and this time it’s five-hundred meters to paddle. That’s more than double yesterday. Because of this it’s an earlier start so I’m back up at 5:00am to get the MRT back over to downtown. The sun isn’t up when I arrive and my eyelids are still heavy, making the outside even darker. Soon the sun starts rising and we are greeted to a beautiful view of the marina and the glass-still waters we will soon shatter with our juggernaut-esque dragon boats and frantic paddling. We are nervous, yet excited.

Before we know it it’s bright, the area packed with our competition and we are realising that both our crews are in two of the first races of the day. Deep breaths, Paul. You can do this. As my mind starts to darken with fear during our team warm-up I notice that the sky is also starting to cloud over.

Then the announcement happens, a Cat 1 situation has been set in place, the event is being delayed for an hour.

In Singapore there are three different weather category levels. The normal, sunny, wonderful weather is Cat 3. If it starts to darken and you get a bit of rain then you are in a Cat 2 situation. Thunder and lightening and you are in Cat 1 territory. Apparently a few years back a dragon boat team was out on the water during a lightening storm and they got hit, this led to new regulations about boats being on the water during these electrical storms which are oh-so-common to the country. That regulation is basically that they bloody shouldn’t be on the water.

So we are stuck waiting to see when the races will start as the rain starts to pummel the area. An hour goes past, the rain doesn’t stop and the category level remains. Two hours go past and the precipitation starts to relax and we think that the deluge might be subsiding and the event can start. The rain stops and our ladies get on their lifejackets and make their way for the first race. Two boats are already out on the water and are making their way to the start line when the event marshals announce we are back in Cat 1 and the teams need to come back in. It’s not a moment too soon as the heavens open again along with more clacks of thunder.

Races start to get cancelled as the weather maintains its watery assault on the area. We get to midday and lunch arrives. We eat, crammed together in the small marquee’d area which is becoming stiflingly humid. Soon the organisers are cutting whole heats and semi-final rounds. This is so unlike the weather in Singapore. Sure, it can be inclement, but only in short burst; one to two hours at a time. It’s been raining for about five hours now and it’s getting a bit ridiculous.

Most of us are just embracing the situation and have been wandering around outside in the wet anyway. Some people decided to play touch rugby. A group of paddlers who competed together in Boracai performed a dance routine they put together for that event. It’s got to the point where none of us even give a solitary shit about racing and would have preferred to have had the lay-in in the morning. Finally the organisers announce that all the races (apart from the international ones) have been cancelled and that we can go home. This being an amateur sporting event for most, we did exactly what we are supposed to do - we pack up our stuff and proceed to start drinking alcohol. The competitive side of us has been dying to break out all day and a bunch of us end up doing eating contests and apple-bobbing in ice waters. James’ technique of pushing the apple to the bottom of the container with your face and then biting worked a charm.

Eventually we all go home to get showered and changed as we are having a team debrief that evening as is tradition after a race event. The men’s captain, Dan, very kindly lets go back to his to use his shower and get ready rather than make the hour long journey home. He offers me a cup of tea when we arrive, which is actually really welcomed as due to the ice-cold apple bobbing and getting soaked through i’ve actually become quite cold and could do with a warm cuppa. That’s when he asks if I fancy a cup of Lapsang Souchong. I’ve never had Lapsang Souchong, though I know of it thank’s to the Colin Hay song I Just Don’t Think I’ll Get Over You. It’s a smokey tea and has a very distinct flavour which I actually really liked. Funny how these new experiences come about.

Just realised, I probably could have told you I tried a new tea in a much quicker way. Sorry about that.

[365newexperiences]

Day 40 - Dragon Boat Race (DBS Regatta)

Here we go — now this is a big new experience.

I know this when I’m waking up. I know this when i’m walking through the underground shopping centre which links the MRT station to the outside area where the team will be congregating. I definitely know this when i’m sat in the boat, leaning forward, breathing deeply ready for the call from the race marshall to get those paddles in the air. It’s time for my first Dragon Boat race.

The DBS regatta is sponsored and named after the Development Bank of Singapore and is a fairly big event in the Dragon Boat calendar in Singapore. Set in the shadow of the famous Marina Bay Sands, teams from across the South East Asia region come here to compete for a pretty lucrative prize. Due to the size of the event each team can only enter two boats — one men’s and one women’s. No mixed, no crew A or crew B. 

I was in the men’s crew, thankfully. 

The race on the Saturday is two-hundred meters which is a relatively short distance, definitely a sprint. It’s pretty much over within fifty seconds, but that doesn’t make it any less tough. The competition was high and for my first race we came in fourth. Not enough to qualify to the next round directly, but because of the schedule we got the second chance with the repechage. We were much faster in that race. We still came fourth.

Oh well, I was just happy to get to actually race for the first time and soak up the atmosphere with the British Dragons. Bring on the next race tomorrow, five-hundred meters is going to be tough.

[365newexperiences]

Day 39 - Cold Storage Smoked Duck

I’ve got a routine when going to my local Cold Storage supermarket of getting one of their whole honey roasted chickens and using it to make salads and wraps for a few days. Today when I went in they had a special offer for their whole smoked duck. I bloody love duck.

Only realised when I got the duck home it’s actually a bit of a pain to strip down to the meat. Plus it exceptionally fatty and not really in line with my health and fitness aspirations. Oops.

[365newexperiences]

Day 38 - Litely

Got bored this evening so thought I’d have a look for a new app to keep me occupied. This was recommended on the front page of the app store so I took a chance. It’s basically a photo filter app from what I can see. God knows we’ve needed one of those to come along…

Still, cynicism aside, it’s actually quite a nice app and pretty easy to use. I quite like what it did to this pic I took last year of the wine region near Perth Australia.

[365newexperiences]

Day 37 - Pocari Sweat

A rival to 100 Plus, with what can only be described as the worst name for a drink. Pocari Sweat?

Apparently it is a Japanese drink and the use of the word sweat was part of marketing it to sports enthusiasts as a way of saying ‘this is what puts back in what your sweat takes out!’. Lovely. The word Pocari means nothing, literally nothing. It was made up because it sounded good. To me it sounds like i’m drinking Pokemon perspiration.

Tastes quite nice though.

[365newexperiences]

Day 36 - Roti Prata

Goddam that was good.

Another post-dragon boat training favourite is going for a food stuff known as Roti Prata. Basically a pancake that is usually served with meat curry, and you can have them made in a full range of flavours. I had a cheese one. 

This is why I need an activity tracker.

[365newexperiences]

Day 35 - Polar M7 Heart Rate Monitor

I'm trying to be fitter. My diet is atrocious at times and I need to monitor how much exercise I’m doing to balance out the wonderfully flavourful and calorific grub I shovel into my face.

I’ve got a fancy new Polar Loop activity tracker on it’s way to me, thanks to some forgotten about Qantas air miles. It’s going to track my movements during the day, warn me when i’m being too static and hopefully give me the kick up the arse I need sometimes. To get the most out of it when I am actually exercising I can also put on a heart rate monitor. There are only a couple which are compatible with the Loop as they need to be bluetooth enabled, so I got the official Polar M7 HR monitor which is exactly that. The M7 will also link with a mobile phone so today I decided to do some exercise in the apartment and monitor my heart rate on my phone. Turns out i’m very unfit.

[365newexperiences]

After a few weeks of coming to the tougher sunday morning training sessions the British Dragons put on, I have finally organised myself well enough to be able to join them for some post-training food. A common location for the team is Loysel’s Toy, a cafe and coffee house nearby. Edward Loysel de Santais it turns out was an engineer and inventor accredited with creating the worlds first commercial coffee machine. Check out their website for a bit more info.

It’s a quant, quiet little cafe and we all enjoyed our brunch outside in the shade. One of the items on their menu is Eggs Benedict Trio where you get ham, salmon AND bacon. Absolutely delicious! Great way to spend a Sunday morning.

[365newexperiences]

Day 33 - Cox-less Four

A day after getting my Dragon Boat paddle I'm swapping it (for the morning at least) for a sweep oar and getting into a rowing boat for the first time in a few weeks.

Rowing is a tough sport to pick up. It's exceedingly rare for someone to just get into a rowing boat and be expected to get it to move in any meaningful direction straight away. Or even stay upright to be honest. This is not to demean dragon boating, but compared to rowing it’s a much easier sport to start as within fifteen minutes of being told roughly what the technique is you are plopped in a boat and thrashing away at the water with all the other paddlers. Life isn’t so simple for a rower. It can take weeks of coaching before you are really ready to get into a crew.

The rowing club I'm a member of here - Easter Rowing Club - has a very different way of working to what I'm used to. You need to be much more self motivated. I think because getting people who can actually row, or even dedicate the time to learn to row, is hard. So instead of there being any set trainings, or assigned crew lists, there is basically a rental system. They have boats. If you want to row one you book it out and you row it. If you want to row in a double or a four, then you organise it. How often, how hard and how you improve is kind of up to you. And that’s fine, but I definitely need a kick up the arse sometimes and having a squad you are part of and competitions to enter really helps with the motivation.

I think in the three months i’ve been in Singapore i’ve only been out rowing two times so far. That’s not very good really.

Today was a lovely change though as I got invited by some of the contingent at the club who really wanted to go out in a four and needed their fourth person. This boat turned out to be a cox-less four which is a new experience for me having only experienced single sculls or double sculls where you are left to your own devices to steer clear of any obstacles. It was good fun and great to get back out in a rowing boat. Even if we did veer all over the reservoir and have to stop every two minutes before we crashed into something.

[365newexperiences]

Day 32 - Own a Dragon Boat Paddle

After just a few months I have decided to invest in my own dragon boat paddle. I guess this means I'm really a dragon boater now. Some people use super-light carbon fibre paddles which are quite expensive; I decided to stick with the wooden paddle as it's helping strengthen my shoulders as I train, and to be honest I think it looks rather nice. At 80 SGD it was a bargain. I'm also looking forward to using it to herd people out of my way when walking through MRT stations.

[365newexperiences]

Day 31 - Leopard Press-ups

** Warning, swear word alert ** Warning, swear word alert ** FUCK ME, LEOPARD PRESS-UPS ARE REALLY FUCKING HARD! Whoever invented these evil, body twisting movements, there is a special place in hell especially for you, where you are forced to do them for eternity over hot coals. My arms and chest better be noticeably bigger and stronger in the morning or I'm going to be really unhappy.

[365newexperiences]

Day 30 - Dehli Restaurant, Little India My father is probably going to read this post and remember a time when the following words would have seemed alien coming from my mouth. Like cat barking or Kanye West speaking modestly it just wouldn't look right. So here goes. I just had a really nice spicy Indian meal. Hope you were sitting down for that, Dad. Growing up - and up to a few months ago, really - the prospect of eating spicy food was upsetting to me. Every time I went to an Indian, had Mexican or got a takeaway with friends I was the guy who ordered the mildest thing on the menu. Any sign of a spicy pepper or chilli I would either avoid it or pick it out of my food if necessary. Spiciness, to me, was something which really detracted from the whole eating experience. I hated the fact it put my tongue in pain. That's all that heat is, pain. It's your tastebuds shouting "Ow! That fucking hurts!" I hated how sometimes a piece of chilli would hit the back of my throat knocking out my voice, usually just before being asked a serious question. But what I hated the most was the fact it would make me sweat. If I had to list activities where I expect to perspire, eating wouldn't be on it. Sweating + Eating <> Fun. I even remember one time I went with my dad over to Portsmouth to have a curry with him and his old work colleagues and flat out refusing anything put in front of me. I think we almost fell out about it. I really became that stubborn, it was almost a spicy-phobia.* Yet this evening I went with my Dragon Boat team mates to a restaurant in Little India and the food was delicious. The Delhi Restaurant has iPads for menus as well which was all kinds of awesome. The food was not shy on the spice (for me at least, I'm sure some of the others might describe it as tame) and I enjoyed it. Singapore has lots of spicy food and my palette is obviously getting used to it. There are even some foods where if I expect a level of fieriness and it isn't there I'm a little disappointed. If the salsa I have with nachos doesn't have a bit of kick then I don't really enjoy it. Somehow my body has adapted to this heat. My tastebuds no longer scream quite so loudly, probably because they are slowly burning away and dying. But I think the real reason is that I no longer sweat like it's the height of fashion. My moments of scrabbling for a napkin to soak up the sweaty waterfall emanating from my forehead, or reaching for the closest cool drink to put out the fire in my face, have reduced greatly. Or maybe I am still sweating and I just don't care anymore? Maybe moving to a country so humid that excessively perspiring is such a constant state of being I no longer take notice of why. It's so inevitable it's become unnoticeable. A bit like a teen star's mental breakdown. My curry eating days are now entering the Lindsay Lohan getting a DUI phase and it feels good. *After extensive googling it appears that there isn't an official phobia of spicy food. There is a fear of sourness (Acerophobia) or even of taste (Geumophobia). Surprisingly there is a fear of poison (Iophobia) which to me isn't really that irrational, I don't think many people bravely dive head-long into some poison with the belief everything will be fine. Therefore, using the Greek word for spicy I shall now pen the name for my old fear of spicy food - Aromatophobia.

[365newexperiences]

Day 29 - M&S Seed and Nut Granola

Moving to a new country can be daunting. It took me a few weeks to find a supermarket I trusted to provide the food I was looking for. Whilst looking I found out something wonderful - they have Marks and Spencer’s here in Singapore.

M&S is known in the UK as being at the expensive end of the supermarket spectrum, but most people agree that it’s food is some of the best out there. Their adverts became instantly famous, showing their food and meals up close and in slow motion in a darkened environment, with a sultry female voice describing the food. It even bore a new phrase for the industry - food porn. I dare you to find an advert on YouTube and not feel hungry afterwards.

Finding M&S here is amazing. They don’t have the same range of products but that doesn’t matter. I needed some new cereal so I thought I’d try one of the granola’s they sell here. All I can say is, this isn’t just granola, this is M&S granola.

[365newexperiences]

Day 28 - Benjamin Francis Leftwich

I fancied some relaxing tunes to listen to in bed yesterday evening. I let iTunes decide who it thinks I might like and I trusted it with this selection. Benjamin Francis Leftwich’s music sure is calming, I doubt I lasted more than two songs into his album “Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm” before I was asleep.

[365newexperiences]

Day 27 - Prive Cafe, Keppel Bay

Back in Singapore and off for a catch up with a friend I made last year when preparing for my big move to SE Asia. I’m still working on establishing favourite places to eat and drink - and it could take a while as I’m spoilt for choice on this wonderful island - so we went to where she suggested.

Price Cafe is actually on a separate little island, Keppel Island, and has fantastic views of the harbour and Sentosa Island. It’s also next to the Reflections Residences which are fairly impressive. I have to admit when I first saw the tall buildings I thought they were still under constructing due to the metallic grid structures at the top. I felt a little silly when someone told me that’s what they are supposed to look like. Still, the cafe was nice and it was good to catch up in such cool surroundings.

[thepostermovement]

Her by Hunter Langston

[365newexperiences]

Day 26 - Her / Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ah, watching movies on a plane. It’s one of the things which makes being a frequent flyer a lot more bearable. Especially when you get woken up by the hotel front desk telling you your taxi has been waiting for you for five minutes.

These are two movies I really wanted to watch when they were on in the cinemas but I never got round to it.

Her is great, though a little strange. For those who have never heard of this Oscar winning movie, it is about a guy, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), who gets a highly advanced new operating system with human-like artificial intelligence. Set in the not-so-far future the movie follows how Theodore, in the midst of a divorce and battling with loneliness, starts to interact with this OS which is marketed as having it’s own consciousness. The OS, which names herself Samantha, starts to learn more about Theodore, and herself. Then they start to fall in love.

I know how crazy that sounds, and the reason why this movie is so disconcerting is that it’s believable and strangely relatable when you look around and see so many people absorbed by their smartphones. How far away are we from actually having a deep, intimate relationship with these little black mirrors? Hell, I’m writing this on my iPhone.

The element of the movie I liked the most was that it explored what was important in a relationship. I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that most of the developed world puts a lot of credence in appearance and achievements rather than personality and compatibility when looking at relationships. Her basically gets rid of appearance as a factor, Theodore can only fall in love with Samantha for who she is*. It’s who she becomes that is hard to deal with. Definitely worth a watch.

The other movie I watched on my seven hour flight of joy was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Ben Stiller stars here as the quiet introverted Walter Mitty who has a habit of daydreaming of breaking out of his monotonous life and getting the girl of his dreams. He, in pure Hollywood style goes on a crazy adventure and does so many things he never would have done normally. This is a heartwarming story which I actually thought was done well. It was also another great reminder of why it’s important to keep searching for new experiences and giving them a go. I like that.

* Well apart from the sound of her voice, which does belong to the incredibly sexy Scarlett Johansson. I’ve not met her yet so can’t comment on her personality, but I like to assume she is very pleasant.