Ugh, it has been one long week. Sorry for the lack of updates, but we've been massively overworked to the point of bodily harm. Yes, bodily harm...
So last week I gave my presentation on the first half of my thesis. It went pretty well, despite a single attempt at show-stopping. I think everyone was relatively satisfied with what was discussed and, aside from some complaints about my translations, my supervisor was okay with it as well.
I have to say that being done with the seminar is a huge load off of my back, although it left me with a few revision ideas for my thesis that I've been driving in ever since. Still, I think I'm finally at a point where I can just stop and relax for a while. My work in Hong Kong is almost done and soon we'll be on our way home for a brief respite before the final leg.
Oh, speaking of legs, Carina's are all torn up. Yeah, this goes back to the bodily harm bit...
So last week included Thanksgiving. Originally, we'd just planned to have a small feast in the apartment but Carina's boss was all over the idea of having a big T-day dinner at her flat in Discovery Bay. She also offered to pay for the groceries. Well, who were we to refuse such generosity? We went over on Saturday (Thursday was my presentation) to help with preparation and cooking. Of course, by "help with" I mean "do all of". Cara's boss is a bit ADD and tends to flutter around rather than just sit still and focus. This includes grocery shopping (I don't mind telling you how hard it is to figure out where someone totally random will be in a supermarket).
Anyway, after purchasing the groceries (which included pretty much everything but the turkey), we were getting ready to take the bus up to the apartment. This is when the injury occurred. One second we're just getting the bags distributed so we can carry the 75 pounds of supplies, the next Carina's boss has started dashing for a bus that, by the way, just pulled up and showed no sign of leaving immediately. Well, Carina and I followed suit. Unfortunately, Carina had (bravely, I think), opted to carry some of the most awkwardly-shaped materials and, given the weird distribution of mass, ended up missing a step when running off the curb. She took a nosedive (or, rather, a knee and elbow dive) across the ground. It was a bloody mess, but she toughed it out and clambered aboard the bus with all of her groceries intact.
When we did get to the apartment (a five minute ride away), we immediately set to work on preparing the meal...well, after Carina's boss tried to clean her up a bit...awkward. Anyway, Carina did a great job of organizing everything, taking inventory, and getting us started on preparation. I, lacking any Thanksgiving cooking experience, was more than happy to follow along, assisting in whatever way possible (preferably with a glass of wine nearby. By the way, avoid carmeneres, they aren't that great). We ended up putting together green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, cranberry relish, and sweet potato casserole in addition to the turkey and stuffing (which, by the way, included the most onion I think I've ever seen Carina eat). I did a lot of the prep work and Carina did most of the measuring and putting together of stuffs. Carina's boss talked...at great length...whether I wanted her to or not.
Finally, after almost everything was prepped, we were at the critical moment of the great switch of the turkey from the oven to...everything else. Unfortunately, it was at this point that Olga decided she wanted to go out for a walk. Lovely. Well, we couldn't just leave everything to burn. I had one of two options: either abandon my post and leave Carina to fend for herself in the kitchen while I had awkward conversation, or I could actually try to hold my own in the kitchen. I chose the latter.
As Carina and her boss left, I checked the clock: I had ten minutes to keep checking on and basting the turkey while boiling the corn and making the sweet potato casserole as I loaded in the stuffing and green bean casserole to bake. Okay, I have this: corn should be finished boiling within 15 minutes, sweet potatoes in 20 and they'd already been in for 15. The green bean casserole needed 20-40 minutes to bake and the stuffing needed 30. The sweet potato casserole would only need about 20. No problem, piece of cake.
I started prepping the corn for the boil. At the five minute mark I checked the sweet potatoes (they seemed done) and swapped them out for the corn; I also gave the turkey another basting. I returned to the sweet potatoes and, despite them being blazing hot, I peeled them as quickly as I could, just barely finishing getting the last one into the mashing bowl at the second five minute mark. Phew! I opened the oven and checked the turkey: it looked like it needed a little more time. I basted it again and left it for another five minutes. I turned back to my yams and started taking a masher to them. Then it happened: hard potatoes.
Despite having boiled for over twenty minutes, the yams still weren't soft enough to mash easily. I tried pounding away, but the masher kept falling apart. I decided to take a more primal approach: I picked up the hard parts of the sweet potatoes and started crushing them in my hands. It was a little messy, but it got the job done. Five minutes later, the yams had been mashed and I'd poured in the other ingredients to make the casserole. I quickly washed my hands off and pulled the corn, then the turkey: perfect. I carefully set it on the counter and replaced it with the green bean casserole and stuffing before returning to my sweet potato casserole-in-progress. After mixing the ingredients together I spread it in the casserole dish we'd picked for it and placed the marshmallows on top to coat it. I checked the time and saw I'd regained about five minutes. Perfect. I poured myself some more wine and, after the five minute down period elapsed, I added my casserole to the oven.
Thirty minutes later (than expected), Carina finally managed to drag her boss home again. As she walked in, the look on her face read: "I am so, so sorry...now give me some of that wine." No worries, Love, I had everything covered. The turkey, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole all came out beautifully. For some reason the green bean casserole never set properly, but it was delicious all the same. We sat down, had a nice dinner, and enjoyed our quasi-Thanksgiving.
The End...of that part of the story.
Since then we've still had a lot on our plates. Just yesterday some American friends of ours hit us up to say they were returning stateside and wanted to know if we'd like any of their stuff. Um...yes, please? We hurried over to Hung Hom and returned with what I like to call "Christmas Come Early". We have about HKD 2000 worth of groceries in addition to our own toaster oven, a decent cooking pan, a water filter, and numerous other items that will no doubt serve us well here in Hong Kong. Did we luck out? Yes, yes we did...now, excuse us while we collapse from exhaustion.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon,
Colin (and Carina)
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