I thought I’d post this up now...snippets of my little adventure. No pictures though.. the wait will kill me. I am clearly talking less than I usually do, since language is a slight (to say the least) barrier. So I have taken to talking to my computer.

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4 October 2004 12.30pm
What’s the best way to overcome seasickness? It is to lie down on a horizontal plane. Then, the rocking and rolling of a ship on choppy seas suddenly become lulling and comforting. It takes me back to a time where I used to take naps in a sarong, rocked to Zzz land by the steady rhythmic hand of ma.

And so it was how I came to spend the last 18 hours - in bed. To be fair, maybe it was also partly due to my physical state prior to arrival in New Caledonia that caused it.

Flashback to Saturday 1st October - my flight was at 8pm, which means 6pm at the airport. Where was I at 4pm? Still in the lab! Handing over stuff... marking scripts... sorting out last minute bits and bobs. Took a cab home (Reuben had helped me with my barang down Sci Dr 4, hailed a cab and ceremoniously told me to fuck off), had lunch with my mum and aunt. 5.30 p.m... took a shower and only left for the airport at 6pm. The flight to Sydney was chock full, and I had some time wandering around duty free and picking up a Chick Lit (Marian Keyes no less!!) book before getting on the plane. I didn’t get a window seat for both legs of the journey! It must be that dour check-in girl. Luckily i was just the right weight. 19.8kg (I'm getting good at this packing shite). I'm fairly sure the girl would have seized the opportunity to charge me for overweight baggage. With pleasure.

Dinner on board (Monster-in-Law), movie, some polite conversation with my neighbour (Singaporean doing his MSc. Eng. speaks with a bastardized Aussie/Singlish slang that trails off to an unexpected pitch at the end of every other sentence) and much fidgeting in my seat later, I touched down in a deserted Sydney airport (time:5.35am). There was nothing else to do except go to the toilet, freshen up and check my email on the computer terminal. And do some blogging (last post before I disappear into the Bermuda Triangle, I thought gloomily) The flight to Noumea was full too. At the waiting lounge were loads and loads of tanned, orange Europeans. Speaking French and, I suspect, named Jacques, Xavier, Benoit, Pierre.. ok. so I made that up. There would have been no way for me to find that out. But I shouldn't be too far off the mark.

Landing in Noumea, because I had the @#%^^ aisle seat, I missed a terrific view of the Great Barrier Reef. Darn. Must flash dazzling smile at MALE check in counter staff when I leave New Caledonia to secure my seat with a view.

The Big Boss was taking the same flight as I was, having flown in from Manila the night before. Luckily he was around, or I would have missed the arranged transport that was to bring me to IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) . The journey to to Noumea itself was pleasant. Rolling hills, bright sunshine, bill boards and little Peugeots zipping about along the landscape - they even drive on the right side of the road. The dry mountains on the west coast looks terrific. According to BB, it had a high level of endemism of plants. Not the same story with regards to fauna though... no large mammals in New Caledonia, pitiful bird count. The only exception was perhaps its reptile fauna. New Caledonia has some big ass geckos, or so BB tells me. One thing that struck me about Noumea.. it is tropical France. Everything here seems French. Shop windows, advertisements, and everyone speaks french. They even play boules by the sea! How french can that get?! If you blindfolded me, dropped me in the middle of downtown Noumea without giving me a clue, i would have said we were in France. Except there is no tropical France. The closest is Mediterranean France. But this is much more laid back. Think French men in surf shorts.. mmmm. Australians with more finesse?

The Alis set sail eventually at 4 p.m on the 3rd of October, seven hours later than the projected 9 a.m. It would take us one and half hours to leave the lagoon of noumea, pass the barrier reef and another 40 hours to reach our first ‘port of call’ a series of uncharted sea mounts to the south west of New Caledonia. We were to conduct a series of bathymetric studies as well as dredge there. This is literally uncharted territory. No one had done it before. Ever. Suddenly I feel like David Attenborough. Yay! An explorer!

One hour into the journey... sea sickness began to creep on me. I had to go lie down. From previous experiences, 40 winks usually solves everything. I hadn’t been sick in any of the previous cruises before. Just have to take it easy for a while. My body will adjust. That canicular fluid in my ears
6.30pm. The cook knocked on my door and announced that it was dinner time. Oh good.. The dining room had a convivial atmosphere, very cosy and the table top was laid with a durable and tough anti-slip mat. Must look alive. Don’t look too green around the gills , I told myself. Managed to down some chicken noodle soup. The trick is to take in food slowly...don’t gulp down your food and introduce unwanted air in your digestive tract. That is a sure fire way to feel queasy.

I was doing rather well, I thought, but I thought too soon. Main course was served - hamburger and mash. Oh boy.. it smelt really good while i was lying in bed (my cabin is two doors away from the kitchen) but when it was brought into the dining cabin, all i wanted to do was to get out screaming, but that would be really bad manners. So I skipped the meat and allowed myself a small dollop of mash. It was delicious. Celine was right. Jacques and Marcel were excellent cooks. It was my delicate state that let me down. I managed to take in my mash and excused myself from the dinner table. Decided to go to the loo before dropping dead into bed. BAD mistake. Everything came out. Lunch, dinner. With a light stomach, I staggered into my cabin and put myself to bed and was knocked out from 9 p.m to 7.30 a.m.

I woke up feeling fine this morning. “Great! The worst is over! I’m acclimatized to the rocking motion of the boat now!” and gleefully jumped out of bed feeling all smug and ready to start the day. But like boss says, famous last words. Twenty minutes knocking about in the shower and I was back to square one. I decided to skip breakfast, and after an hour of loafing about the deck, and trying to read pdfs on the computer, decided to go back to bed. It was so much more comfortable to be in a horizontal position. it was only 8.30am.

sigh.. looong day ahead.

To be continued...
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