Gotta love that headache mask which Ritsu uses these days mainly to cool down her swollen hands. But it also makes her look hotter than Halle Berry in Catwoman
Contractions seem to have stopped for today … back to yellow alert for now .. so … I guess some time in the middle of the coming night or the night to monday ….
Nothing more exciting than waking up hearing the wife going through her first set of contractions … just a handful and pretty irregular … and right now nothing is going on .. but we are getting there.
It has nearly been a year that we went there … after ‘Metal Cow’ closed, this is now the only steak house left in Suva. Last time our experience was not that great. Food was mediocre and there were insects around the salad bar, service was questionable … but after a while we thought we should give it another chance … and yes, they still do steak very very well!
Big sign ‘under new management’, new service people, new table cloth. Menu is new too .. also it has pretty much all of the same items as before .. even at the same prices … only now it looks cheaply printed and laminated … was better before. We had the usual, tenderloin with potato and salad and 2 different sauces.
I am very happy they dropped that salad bar … that was a joke. The steak was very good, the baked potato was a bit boring … the waitress brought Ritsu the wrong wine initially …
They seem to have a chef who is really good at steaks .. if they could build up around that a bit.
And very positive was that after some hideous radio music, we had some live music. That is not uncommon in Fiji, but often the annoying ‘please the tourist’ kind. But these guys mixed stuff very nicely .. from fijian classics to beautifully done oldies … great versions of “Masquenada” and “Ain’t know sunshine when she’s gone” … I should get their contact info …
Bottomline … no cockroaches, great steak, fair price … could be better … when one has the steak craving .. that’s the place to go.
This wonderful morsel of truth was uttered by Ritsu yesterday …. and I was so fascinated by it … I wanted to copyright it and put on T-Shirts. In fact we are anticipating the ‘event’ in a healthy state of fatalistic but positive excitement.
We saw our doctor today, he checked Ritsu out … and voila: 2 cm dilation … his guess is that something will happen within the next 72 hours (66 by now). After that we drove by Bill and Vero’s place. Since their son Ben is now too big (already) for their car seat, they passed it on to us. Very nice! These things are hard to get here. But installing a car seat seems to require a degree in mechanics or rocket science … wow these things are tricky … anyways .. first time I am driving around in a car with baby seat.
And then we went to Suva Private to check out the room (nice, spacious and all ours) and lunch was at Ikkyu. Ritsu had the lunch box (today: fried seafood) and i nibbled a bit on the miso soup.
This fresh in from the KulchaVulcha newsletter:
“BIKINI AND LINGERIE SHOW
When: Saturday 31 July from 7:00 pm
Where: Suva Marine Showroom, 190 Foster Road, Walu Bay
Help us fund the recent team to the Hobie Cat World Championships. Cocktail hour from 7:00 to 8:00 pm with free drinks and finger food. Drinks on sale thereafter. World premier of the Fiji Team’s Road Trip Movie & the Official World Championships Video. $20 single, $35 couple. ”
I think we are going 
No .. no baby yet
But I got Ritsu a little something … I thought she could use some music in the days to come …
Weather is fine … we are relaxed .. and we are awaiting the new guest soon …
This is just a test if Ritsu can post too
if anybody forgot how close we are .. here is a counter …
We took a little trip to Nausori today (pics and report later) and on the way back .. we just could not pass McDonald … ever since they put the spicy chicken burger on the menu … ah well .. for those asking those burger questions on google and end up here .. our usual combo is a spicy chicken burger menu, large (don’t get me started on the ketchup … Ritsu actually scored 4 today) and a second spicy chicken burger … 12.45 FJD … the burger alone is 4.50 FJD
Interestingly when we passed the industrial area just before McDonalds (Vatuwanqa) there were huge clouds of smoke .. I bet in a few hours we see some headlines about that …
The first ‘real’post here … today we took a little trip to Nausori. While we pass through every time we go to the local airport or visit Toberua Island … we never stopped to actually look around …
Its only 18 km (12 miles) away .. but the street and the traffic turn that into a 1 hour adventure ride … Nausori is mainly famous for being the international airport town adjacent to Suva .. it also has gotten famous for its important bridge over the rewa river .. which is being replaced as we speak .., seems it is about to break down any minute now …
So, here we are at the market .. I can’t really confirm of what I heard earlier .. that it is cheaper than Suva .. but the same rules apply … a) you look like a tourist, you are doomed b) a little local language a lot of smiles gets a lot of smiles back … c) if there is no price tag … its a dollar per heap
I think that spice guy was the first person I actually ever asked if it was ok to take a picture … This market feels very different compared to the Suva market … but obviously so .. they have no expats .. it was a week day … and it is much smaller …
A chinese place by the subtle name of “Peter Fong” .. sure enough we found some little items we always wanted to buy .. a bigger hang-to-dry spider and a metal cooking thing for me .. in case I ever try deep frying and stinking up the house again
The ‘business area’ is all along the main road .. which is parallel to the river (which usually those little island planes use for orientation) .. it is interesting to see all those small versions of places we have in Suva .. Courts, MH, Big Bear .. even Jack’s Little India .. and then of course the same food places all over … curry wrapped in Roti for 50 cents from people you are not so sure if they were always washing their hands preparing this food item ….
And here a picture of the Rewa bridge … soon to be replaced .. well .. soon … maybe in 3 years .. but a recent shake and closing of this bridge set things in motion … and it seems like they are actually doing something …
Gotta love a good headline that will drive traffic to this site up again:) … And Ritsu just said that I am obsessed with that topic .. but articles like this make me laugh again.
So, seems some americans ‘shot’ a ‘porn’ movie in Fiji and no one knew about it? Like someone would go somewhere to ask permission?
All I know is that this Qamea resort is very very pricey and does NOT offer special rates for locals. I wonder if they would chose such a fancy resort. Then again, seems there is lots of money to be made in that industry.
I am still researching the issue of localy and by locals (starring locals) produced porn …. but can’t find a thing so far … just rumors … who is behind it? Indians? Fijians? Chinese? Or those horny tourists????
A reader sent in this link. Basically the same story, but from Fijilive.com, who also claim that they ‘discovered’ the news story (now we wonder HOW they did that:) [fijilive.com requires a free but annoyingly longish registration.
This article just keeps me wondering … Quote “He claimed of being kicked around like a ball on the chest, ribs and his bottom torso with chilly mixed in water poured on his eyes, ears, and nose and was forced to drink it before chilly was rubbed on his private parts and anus ”
Real? Fake? who knows …
We had a couple of nice social gatherings today …. first was lunch at Malthouse with Edo and Marly and they also invited Timothy, who Ritsu knew from french class. We had our usual Pizza .. but also some potato wedges (yes, lots of wedgie related jokes ensued) which seem to be only on the lunch menu .. nice and evil .. for the pizza I brought our own supply of crushed red pepper and dried oregano .. and even some fresh basil ..
For dinner Jon came over .. I had prepared some marineted chicken skewers (Marinade: Olive Oil, garlic, ginger, honey and some plum jam) added some green and red bell peppers (capsicum), onions and zuchini … that on rice with some nice salad .. yummy …
We finally finished watching Donnie Darko .. one of the weirdest movies I have seen in a long time … I bought the DVD a while ago .. watched it… shook my head .. thought I never watch it again .. kept it … knowing .. or sensing .. that I would give it another try …
This movie is brilliant .. and i can’t say why .. its so friggin confusing … and yet beautiful … Here is a lengthy essay, which I still need to read .. this short version is equally wacko .. focuses a lot on the faux book within the movie The Philosophy of Time Travel
If a movie is just stupid, you never want to go back and invest another 2 hours of your life … but this movie keeps you wondering .. now I want to rack down that new director’s cut .. not that I really think this will help much …
We received a lot of nice gifts at the baby shower .. and it is very interesting what people found. Getting baby stuff in Fiji is not easy … usually its stuff from China or India and the selection is quite limited … it seems that everyone here knows someone ‘overseas’ who sends stuff .. thus the market for baby stuff is small.
One piece we got was an interesting example … besides the smell that gave away that this item had been in Fiji for several years already, the writing was very interesting:
“He loB ar” !!! what the heck is “He loB ar????
Ritsu solved the puzzle fairly quickly … its and old chinese way of saying “Hello Bear … and I also ran out of yarn!”
2 weeks to go .. and we are enjoying the last stretch. It is great that Ritsu can stay home, as now everything is getting a bit harder … sometimes she has pain from Julius doing some stretching, and sometimes her tummy feels very hard, which most likely are contractions .. we are not sure when Braxton-Hicks turns into the real thing .. but it seems her tummy is testing a contraction about every 2 hours.
The pain is less funny … usually makes us go run to find Tylanol and then after a while it is all over. Walking around helps a lot too. We used to do quite some walking, but the weather has shifted to ‘ugly’ and going out is not really in the book.
Besides that we are taking it easy, watching TV and sleeping a lot ….
Not really much going on .. but here a little rundown
- The never ending milk story: First there is not enough, then the dairy company here imports tons of milk powder from South Africa, but some government official objects and the stuff is stuck in customs forever. Then this offcial is sent ‘on leave’ and the powder goes free. Now milk is available again .. but NOW people start complaining about getting sick from it. (hello? put it in the fridge maybe?) And here another brand new article claiming that the new milk is life threatening
IMHO this is a huge political mumbo jumbo (The dairy company REWA being in some kind of a tricky financial situation may be part of that) .. some people get rich on milk shortage, the others on milk, and they are fighting it out now … also interesting that this “i feel sick” is only reported in the Fiji Sun, not the Fiji Times …
- When we are not eating or sleeping, we are focusing on the Baby Countdown. As of today 14 more days to go, but Ritsu thinks it might be a bit early because of the approaching full moon.
- Food: Besides eating many of the party’s leftovers (outstanding: the chicken curry that James’ mom made!) I made some Sake-Pork with ginger-apple sauce last night. Some grilled beef and veggies the night before .. and now I am getting ready to make pancakes.
- TV: Ritsu is getting totally into “Sex and the City” .. a nice New York reminder for us. It also comes in nice little 22minute packets … easy to digest.
- Weather: Getting weird … after many weeks of nearly no rain, it now started showering pretty heavy .. and this morning we noticed that the wind picked up quite some!
- Cats: Peachy. Misha is her girly/gorgous self, while Nietzsche seems to be going through a horny / fighting phase and has a whole bunch of new scars, one big hole on his head, lost his bell … took him to the vet on thursday, but everything is fine, just need to give him eyedrops which, of course, he loves.
- Oh, and i shaved my beard off… but this is only a semi annually housekeeping thing … i try to avoid having any pics of that taken (darn, who turned on that webcam?) .. i look like a frog … well .. in a week we can call it a beard again …
That’s whats new here … besides me trying to build a new, all unifying blog over at nacken.com (not much there yet). But make sure to keep checking .. first baby news will be here!
We had another appointment with Dr. Sharma today, which went quite well. The baby looked great and the 2/5 of his head is now in my pelvic area. No dilation yet, but seems like we’re on the right track.
I was a bit concerned about today’s appointment because we had an issue that we wanted to discuss with Dr. Sharma. Last week, I called him twice because I had very sharp abdominal pain (I had to take two days off from work) and was bleeding. When I called, he sounded very upset and asked me if I’m getting enough reading materials on pregnancy. Well, all books we have read says “If in doubt, call your practitioner.” He might have had a bad day or something, but I was hurt by his attitude and even thought about changing to another doctor…
When we brought up this issue to Dr. Sharma today, he was first a bit defensive saying that “he has no life” and has so many mommies he has to deliver every day. Then, Peter articulated that as first time parents we definitely need his support no matter what and we should be able to call him when we have questions. Then, Dr. Sharma apologized and assured us that we can call him when we have serious concerns. I was so happy after the meeting because I know that if I cannot trust him, my L&D will not be easy because L&D is not only a physical but a very psychological process, as I understand it.
Our next appointment will be in 9 days… Hope I will be dilated a bit by then!
Tonight we had a big bunch of people over to celebrate Ritsu’s Maternity leave and Baby Shower. Ritsu made a great fruit salad and I made thai chicken wings and chicken balls which came out very nice … once again, i should stay away from the BBQ … while I was an ace on the open fire back in NY, here I manage to either undercook or turn things into charcoal … so the wings came partly in all shades of black … but most of them were still edible and yummy, though some needed quite some beer to deal with the spicyness.
Since it was a pot-luck event, we also got other nice food items: 2 huge pizzas, a bowl of chicken curry, tomato salad, orange kiwi tart, little quiches, delicious tuna sandwiches … I bet i forgot something … we also got some very nice presents for Julius.
(click above for really big version)
As reported before, every once in a while on a (hopefully) sunny sunday there is the RoC market between Dolphin Plaza and the Shell gas station.
(click for larger version)
The market is a 100 yard stretch of street which is lined with stalls on both sides and in the middle .. a huge variety of items: clothing, books and comics with authentic fiji smell (mold), some household goods, 7$ pirate VCDs, home made foods, plants and some services like massage, drawing a picture and find your inner center mambo-jambo … very neat, can be walked in less than 10 minutes unless you find something of interest or (way more likely) you run into someone you know and end up chatting.
After that we did some shopping at cost-u-less and then had the fun of witnessing a birthday party at McDonald. Ususally we see 5 year olds bouncing around and having a good time .. but this time it was 10 year old girls and they were mainly dancing .. and can someone tell me where they already have learnt that pelvis grind? There should be a law or something .. they sure seemed to have fun .. but watching that, in Fiji, with an exotic looking Ronald McDonald … that sure was surreal.
Bought some more stuff today at a garage sale, then some fun on the market, getting some nice fresh stuff …
For lunch we got some vegetable curries at Hare Krishna (amazing, enough food for 2 below 5$ and no work involved, and very nice)
Dinner was alegedly a thai recipe, but actually it was very fijian. Basically some fish in spiced coconut milk. Unlike thai dishes it had no fishsauce, no curry paste, no coriander … I was a bit disspointed and started to “thai” it up a bit and it cam out as a thai red fish curry. Very nice.
I was invited to many baby showers in the States, but seems like it’s a purely American event. In Fiji, people usually visit new parents & baby after the birth and celebrate. So, I wasn’t at all expecting a baby shower for me.
One day before my last day at work, Susan, a colleague of mine who’s originally from the States, wanted to have a meeting with me. As soon as we started to talk, her phone rang and she told me that my boss needs me… So, I was walking to my boss’s room almost passing through our conference room where all our staff was gathering. I was like “What’s the occasion??” Turned out it was a surprise baby shower for me! To my even bigger surprise, Peter was also there and smiling at me… Later I learned that Edo, my colleague/friend, called and invited Peter. I got really cute baby outfits and an album, which I found really sweet. Now I’m really ready to start my maternity leave next week
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