Bermuda Cup Match ‘08

    Thursday and Friday before the first of August are the biggest days in Bermuda.  Why?  For me, because it’s the only 4-day holiday I’ll ever have in the island!  But for Bermudians, it’s Cup Match!  For somebody who’s not familiar with Bermuda (like me!), it’s the chance for residents to watch a cricket match between St. George (west end) and Somerset (east end).  Remember Bermuda is an English territory so they are definitely into cricket.  I, personally, never understood the game but somebody told me that it’s a very long game that could take days to finish.  Yes, days…just like Harry Potter’s Quidditch?! 

Being a small and expensive island that it is, there are no concrete grand stands to hold this kind of event so to the Bermudians built makeshift courtside seats, which are very similar to what we have at small town events in the Philippine provinces (sans the girls in bikinis of course).  We call it palapala in Zambales.

Aside from the cricket match, it’s the only days that gambling is allowed in Bermuda.  Uh huh, another fact about this island is gambling is strictly prohibited.  Even cruise ships that pass through the island shut down their casinos because the island’s authorities enforce this law seriously.  The only game though is what they call the “Crown and Anchor”, which is basically a dice game but instead of numbers marked on each face of the die, it is symbols: crown, anchor, diamond, spade, club and heart.  It is very similar to the Philippines’ kalo-kalo sa peryahan.  You place bets on any of the symbols and if that symbol comes up, you win. 

The blue and white striped tent is where the crown and anchor tables are setup, which is exaggeratingly packed with people sweating like pigs!

G placed a few bets and won $10.  Not bad.  I pulled him away from the tables though because it was awfully hot and disgusting with all the sweat from gamblers. 

There are food vendors all over the place and of course alcoholic drink stands.  Booze would never be missing in any event here in Bermuda.  I found quite a lot of people swaggering around and it was just 2 in the afternoon!  Aside from drunk men and women, there are other sights to see like girls in bikinis, weird hats, and a wedgie here and there. 

I didn’t stay long at the field because of the heat.  But in spite of the high temperature, the sweat and the discomfort of it all, the event was still popular as evidenced by the queue of people as well as scooters outside.

We spent Sunday on the boat supposedly to watch the non-mariners’ race.  Unfortunately though, we didn’t get to the venue in time to witness it.  G says that the race features make shift rafts, which are made from materials you would never think would be used as a floating device like park benches and tables.  I think it’s pretty interesting so hopefully I’ll get to see it in the coming years. 

Anyway, we may not have seen the race but we were able to enjoy just hanging out in the water, gawk at nice boats and of course, watch people do all sorts of things.  Here are some pictures I took:

I think pretty much all of the boats in Bermuda are out today.

We drooled at this sleek boat.

All sorts of sights to see…I’m restraining myself from dropping comments…

And for sure, there are parties all over.

I had a fabulous long weekend.  Can I have more please?!

G rocks! err…cooks!

We’ve been eating too much meat lately and G knows I really love fish a lot.  Having been brought up in Zambales made me one of the greatest fans of seafood.  So to satisfy my fish craving and in our attempt to eat healthy, G decided to try our colleague’s recipe called fish in a bag.  It’s really nothing complicated.  It’s just fish wrapped in foil.  As G told me, it’s a very common recipe for westerners.  The only ingredients needed are fish (we used salmon steaks), lemon, rosemary, onion, green pepper, salt and pepper. 

The only variation of this recipe is that it has couscous in the bag too. 

I’ve never had couscous before but apparently, they say it’s very healthy. 

That’s my personal chef at work

By this time, I was really getting hungry that I was tempted to pretend it’s one big piece of sushi! Haha!

After 30 minutes or so of waiting, this is what I’ve got for dinner!

I don’t think I took a very good picture but it was really delicious!  It was very easy to prep too.  We didn’t use too much dishes so I was happy with that (I’m the dishwasher).  Oh, and the total cost to make this is only $24.00!  That’s very cheap for Bermuda.  I can never get one salmon steak for only $24.00 here!  It’s not only our tummies that got happy, our wallets too!  Yay!

getting off the road to fatness

I recently weighed myself and found out that I gained a whopping 10 pounds!!!  I say whopping because I’m definited that it’s not muscle weight gained but just a massive amount fat spread all over my body.  I used to be fat and this is the heaviest I’ve been after  I lost those fat right after my university days.  I don’t wanna go back to that body anymore.  I felt depressed and not feeling good about myself.  So G and I decided to have a change our lifestyle a bit so we both will be fit and healthy.

Our first resolution — we will be running everyday at 6am.  Yes, 6am.  Just thinking about it makes my body want to go back to bed again.  Starting it the routine was the most painful part since all my life I’ve never been an early riser and not very physically active.  But G is a very good fitness partner.  He wakes up early and calls me just to make sure I’m up too and keeps me going when I’m starting to pant and give up while running.  Our first week went well.  We were very consistent on our routine and I think my body is now looking forward to waking up early and running everyday.  After waking at 6am and running, one would think that we’d be pretty exhausted and sleepy by the time we get to work.  Quite the contrary though, I actually feel more hyper and energized after incorporating the morning runs to our routine. 

Second on our list is to take the stairs up the 6th floor after every lunch.  It seems like a little thing but I think doing it everyday will help us towards our goal of weighing less and keeping healthy.  As with running, the first time was the hardest.  I feel like my legs weigh heavier than logs after 3 flights and by the time we reach the 5th, I don’t think I could lift them any longer.  But with just one flight ahead, I suck it up and get through the last step with sweat trickling down my back.  After the climb, I feel better and I think it keeps me getting sleepy after a good meal. 

Last but not the least on our list is eating healthy.  We now watch what we eat and we try to cook more so we could have control on the calories on our food.  Aside from being healthy, it’s cheaper and I think tastes better too.  Besides, I’m getting tired of the limited choices of food here in Bermuda so this is perfect for us and recently, I think cooking is so much fun. 

We’re taking baby steps now and as with everything, it takes time.  But I’m pretty sure that if we keep our resolve and stay consistent, we’ll be successful and end up being fit and healthy at the end of the day. 

newport to bermuda race

 Being a newcomer in Bermuda, I never knew that there is a race happening every 2 years that starts in Rhode Island and ends in Bermuda.  Apparently, I have a lot more to learn about the traditions of Bermuda.  Luckily, I came at the year that the Newport to Bermuda race is happening. 

I found out about the race through a colleague.  He likes sailing so he was up to date on sailing events in Bermuda.  Living in a small island with limited activities to choose from, G and I went to the yacht club to see what he was talking about.  After fighting our way through a throng of spectators and sailors, we found ourselves at a dock filled with perhaps million dollar sail yachts that evidently traversed the treacherous waters of the Atlantic.  Most of the sailboats just reached the port so a lot of the sailors are in the midst of tidying up their boats, doing their laundry or just enjoying relaxing under the Bermuda sun. 

I have never been close to a sailboat in my entire life and I was amazed at how huge and luxurious they are.  After seeing the entire fleet, I can’t help but wish I could set my foot on one sailboat just to see how it is inside.  But being with a guy isn’t really the best way to try to do that. 

That same day after work, I asked some of my girl friends to go back to the yacht club with me.  My intention is just to show them what I saw earlier in the day and take some pictures of the yachts as well.  But walking with a group of girls on a dock full of men sailors definitely worked its wonders and we eventually found ourselves aboard some of the nicest yachts in the race. 

Above is the first yacht we got the privilege of seeing.  I thought it was already big but they said their yacht is just mid-sized and not as luxurious as the other big yachts docked at the other end.  They actually told us to try to get ourselves into one of the bigger yachts so they could see them too. 

After our first tour and some tidbits about sailing, we walked on and another group of sailors asked us to hop on their boat.  This one was a lot bigger, neater and more luxurious.  It was called “Mischievous”, which was sailed by 16 men from Newport to Bermuda.  I was impressed!  16 is a lot of manpower!

This is a picture of the interior of the 2nd yacht.  It looks really sleek but I don’t think my pictures gave it any justice.  Anyway, following are the pictures we took from outside the boat.

The guy in blue, Mark, is the owner of the kickass boat. 

Wishing it is my boat…

These sailors, including Mark and the guys from the 1st boat are so nice enough to accommodate us and give us a primer on sailing.  We actually learned that sailing is more complicated than it looks.  There are a lot of things to remember including the color of ropes.  This is Evan’s cheat sheet on their yacht:

Honestly, I don’t remember a thing about sailing because I know from the start that I’m too lazy for it.  But these sailors are so nice, down to earth and so unselfish for making people ignorant of sailing (like me) tour their boats and educate us. 

And yeah, not only girls are allowed to tour their boats, kids and their dads too. 

adobo!

 We (G and I) recently realized that we have been spending a lot on food lately so we decided to eat out less, translation, I should cook more!  The thought of cooking actually put me in a lot of pressure since I haven’t cooked anything aside from pasta in a long time.  Also, we’ve always been guests to one of our colleagues, who I must say is the best cook I’ve ever met in my entire life.  Phew!

G actually asked me to cook a Filipino dish and the first thing that came to my mind is adobo.  Aside from loving and missing this dish, I thought it was really easy to assemble — all I need is good old Silver Swan Soy Sauce and Datu Puti vinegar. 

So we went to the Filipino section of the Marketplace and I was surprised not to find all the Filipino goodies in the same section!  I thought I was gonna cry but when we were looking around, we found it moved to a different and bigger area of the store.  Yay! So I was able to buy my toyo and suka and I can’t resist getting a can of Purefoods chunkee corned beef as well as a bag of dried mangoes (which I ate right after paying).

I really miss all the Filipino food!  I think next time I’ll be cooking pancit canton both instant and not! 

Going back to my adobo, I googled recipes of adobo at work and I was surprised to find different versions of it! Some put more vinegar than soy sauce while others do it the other way around.  There are also some sites recommending putting only 2 teaspoons of each.  I was confused!  So I ended up just doing it the way I know, which is “tanchometer”  (Thanks Kim for the term!).  I also put some Sprite in it to make it a little sweeter and make the meat more tender. 

After an hour or so of prep, my adobo finally came out of the stove over rice and G loved it!  Yay!  It is his first time ever to taste Filipino food and I’m so glad he liked it!  We also ate the leftover after 2 days and he agreed that the longer it sits in the fridge and the more times it is reheated, the better it tastes. 

Oh, and just to compare prices here’s how much I spent on the ingredients here in Bermuda (all in USD):

• Silver Swan soy sauce - 5.19
• Datu Puti Sukang Puti - 4.39
• Pork - 5.80
• Purefoods Chunkee Corned Beef - 5.49
• Dried Mangoes - 2.99

Syet! E magkano lang ang toyo at suka sa Pinas?!