If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you’re enjoying whatever it is you celebrate.
If you don’t celebrate at all, I wish you a safe and peaceful day.
I just wanted to share a piece of art that my friend Jennifer did for me to celebrate Christmas.
I hope whatever you’re eating today is as tasty as I reckon this barbeque pig would taste after slowing turning and cooking for a few hours.
Looking back over 2016
This year (2016) has been pretty good for me. It started with a holiday in Hong Kong with my daughters. It was the best holiday ever. I really loved spending nine nights there and spending time with my girls. We did a lot of things including a lot of shopping. For me, the highlight was the food. OMG! I ate so much.
Work has been very fulfilling and very rewarding. I tend not to write much about work, but I am fortunate to have excellent and very supportive bosses right up to the secretary of the department. I’ve also loved being able to continue practising medicine in ACT Pathology at The Canberra Hospital. I have the perfect balance work wise.
I’m also experiencing a great balance in life too. As well as blogging here at Yummy Lummy, I’ve started a YouTube channel with some videos on the food I eat. If you have watched them I hope you enjoy them. I’d love it if you would leave comments, like the videos and subscribe.
Podcasting is fun
The other thing I’ve started this year is a podcast named Medical Fun Facts. It’s a great outlet for my sense of humour coupled with my professional interest as opposed to my food interests.
Work has been great
Work has seen me visit Manila and Helsinki this year for various aspects of the work I do.
I love reading other blogs
I’ve also been enjoying reading blogs from quite a lot of bloggers.
I’d like to shout out to my friends who I share comments with and who regularly comment on Yummy Lummy.
PS. One thing I do mourn now at Christmas is that my favourite Christmas song, viz., Six White Boomers, is now dead to me because of the criminal behaviour of Rolf Harris toward women (the link opens an NSFW photograph).
I first heard of Corregidor Island while watching “World War II in Colour” on Netflix recently. If you’re interested in modern history I highly recommend this documentary. I binged watched the entire program over a weekend.
Corregidor Island day tour is the trip I took. It was with Sun Cruises and a day tour cost me Php2549.00 (AUD$75).
I had a 4.30 am start because I’d been told the roads around the Seaside Esplanade Terminal would be closed from 4 am to 10 am for a fun run. I thought about walking but I’d been feeing a bit under the weather (fever, chills, sore throat and headache) for much of Saturday so I arranged with the hotel to hire driver to take me. It cost about P575 (AUD$17).
I ended up having a poor sleep filled with odd dreams and some nightmares.
At 6 am I got into the hotel car and explained to the driver some of the roads would be closed and suggested a road we should attempt to take based on the map I’d been shown of the path of the fun run. He ignored me. We got close to the Seaside Terminal and he exclaimed, “roads closed!”. I said “yes, that’s why I tried to show you a different route based on the information about the fun run.” “You should get out here and walk. I cannot drive.” So I walked to the Seaside Terminal. The driver had got me most of the way there so I shouldn’t complain.
I quickly found myself amongst the fun runners. I still think it’s an odd concept…fun…run! I really don’t like running.
I got to the terminal at 6.15 am. Check in was at 7. I’d been told the night before in an e-mail that I should get there well before 7 to avoid the fun run traffic which would start at 4 am! The ticketing and check in process was really confusing. An inordinate amount of time was spent just standing with very little activity.
I had time for breakfast from 7 Eleven. A snickers bar and a bottle of water. That would have to sustain me until lunch time. Little did I know that lunch would be delayed.
Snickers and water at Seaside Terminal Manila
We boarded the boat at 8 and didn’t shove off until 9. I just wish I could have slept in my seat. We all wore stickers that had our names, seat number and bus number on them. I had no idea what anyone was saying so I followed the crowd. At one stage I nearly got on the wrong boat.
The trip across from Manila to Corregidor Island takes about an hour. The water was flat and calm which was good. I didn’t need to add nausea to a headache and sore throat that I had worsened overnight. I think Sun Cruises must be owned by a church. The music being played on board were gospel choruses. On the way over we also watched a documentary on the WW2 activities on Corregidor Island. Veterans, especially former members of 503rd Regimental Combat Team (part of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment) who surprised the Japanese forces who were expecting an invasion force by marines from the north of the island. I was fascinated watching Japanese tourists sitting in front of me on the boat. They started watching and then they went quiet and they all tried to sleep. Listening to these veteran parachute war fighters was fascinating. They were asked why they joined the parachute regiment and many conceded it was because they were paid an extra $50/month. In the 1940s that was a lot of money. Notwithstanding their motivation, these war fighters were incredibly brave.
When we arrived we were instructed to climb on board buses which we would stay with for the entirety of the tour. One of the buses was dedicated to Japanese tourists. Their tour guide could speak Japanese fluently.
Tour buses waiting for usFred our tour guide
The island has a fascinating history in terms of the Spanish occupation and then the American move into the Philippines. The World War 2 history is the most fascinating. I just wish we had stopped next to the flagstaff made famous by MacArthur when US Forces raised their flag when he returned (as promised) to the Philippines after being sent to Australia by the president to plan the Pacific Ocean war strategy.
We saw the armoured batteries, the huge mortars and the barracks that were all bombed and disrupted by the Japanese Imperial Forces.
They hold separate Japanese tours which we’re told tell the truth but not in harsh terms. It was interesting and I will say troubling to see Japanese and Italian tourists just lounging over the weapons and spending their time taking selfies. The Filipinos say they forgive and forget and reap the rewards of Japanese investment.
The tour guide we had was Fred and his driver was Bert. Fred is laid back and easy going. Bert likes to keep to time. They made a good good cop bad cop duo.
I’ve created a gallery of photographs here. Because of the number of photographs, when you click on the first one and you scroll through you may need to wait a second or two for each image to resolve to a sharp picture. Please take the time because the photographs look much better when they’re viewed as sharp images.
Battery Way
Battery Way mortar
Battery Way mortar barrel
Battery Way
Mortar shell
Battery Hearn bomb crater
Eternal Flame at Pacific War Memorial
Eternal Flame at Pacific War Memorial
Pacific War Memorial
War fighter statues at Pacific War Memorial
Barracks ruins
Barracks ruins
Barracks ruins
The tadpole Corregidor Island or is it a spermatozoon?
We were scheduled to have lunch at the Corregidor Hotel at 12 noon but they couldn’t accommodate us so we went on to the Japanese War Memorial and then on to the Malinta Tunnel light show. The bus passengers moaned when we were told lunch would be delayed by about 90 minutes. Apparently lunch in the Philippines is 12 noon and eating later is not the norm. I didn’t say anything. I try to eat my lunch at about 11.45 am most days at work.
At the Malinta Tunnel the dioramas were very good and very well done. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in those tunnels with bombs and mortars going off above and around.
A lot of the information for the tour focuses on the 503rd paratrooper regiment. These men basically run out of the back of aeroplanes at low altitude with almost no time. If their main parachute failed they had 3 seconds to deploy a reserve. If that failed they died.
When we finally made it to lunch it was a buffet in the hotel. I think I had pork and chicken but I can’t be sure of what it was.
Crumbed pork and braised chicken on a bed of sweet corn at the Corregidor Island Hotel.
The trip back to Manila was trouble free. We were shown a film about Todd Burpo who had a son who thought he had been to heaven and back. As I looked around I couldn’t see one passenger who was interested in the film. I thought I may end up walking from the Seaside Terminal to the Pan Pacific Manila but I managed to haggle with a cab driver to take me back to the hotel for an extra 50 pesos.
I think a trip to Corregidor Island is worthwhile for many reasons. You get to escape the pollution and smog of Manila, you learn some modern history and it reinforces a better understanding of how awful war is and why we must do all that we can to avoid armed conflict. I’ll add that in my opinion, that does not extinguish a need for nations to have national security and defence measures and to have trained and battle ready war fighters in case of armed conflict. It’s just as important to be well equipped and I support the need to wisely spend money on defence measures.
I’m not sure as I ‘tap’ this out on my iPhone if I’ll publish this on Monday or not.
I’ve been pretty good lately at doing a Monday post and sharing some link love from the Canberra Food Bloggers Facebook group. I won’t be able to do that this week because I’m spending most of my day flying to Manila for work. I’m flying from Canberra to Manila via Sydney and Singapore. All going well I should be in Manila by 2300 AWST (0200 AEDT 20160216 [Tuesday]).
My day started at 5 am doing the last minute shut down and lock up of the apartment making sure everything was secure and there weren’t any perishable items left in the refrigerator. Have you ever gone away and come back to a refrigerator failure? I have. It’s not pleasant. Putrid and rancid odours assail the nostrils.
When I arrived at Canberra Internationl Airport I had some fruit for breakfast and a small skim flat white to wake me up.
I discovered while in the Virgin lounge that the free Wi-Fi ‘thinks’ YummyLummy.com is unsafe. I couldn’t open my page!
I flew to Sydney on VA637. An uneventful flight which landed ahead of schedule.
The snack was a raspberry muffin which had a use by date of 20161021! My goodness I wonder what preservatives it contained. I wonder if I could treat patients with fungal infections with that muffin 😃
Making my way from the domestic to international terminal wasn’t difficult. Virgin Australia puts on a bus.
Domestic to International terminal drama
When I got to gate 46 for the international terminal bus we were told there was a 30 minute wait and then the trip would take longer than 30 minutes because of a traffic problem around Sydney International Airport. We were instructed to catch the train. I’ve never caught the train from Sydney Domestic Airport before so this was a new experience. I followed some other passengers who seemed to know what to do. In the end it worked really well. This may be my standard method to get between terminals in the future.
The border control processes were smooth as silk. The Singapore Airlines lounge is a short walk from border control. I stopped and changed some Australian dollars into Philippine pesos and then entered the Singapore Airlines lounge.
Boarding my flight to Singapore via Singapore Airlines was pretty easy and when I got on SG232 I saw what must be the widest business class seat ever 😃 After boarding lunch was served pretty quickly.
Chicken in rice paper roll with mesclun, cherry tomato and nam jim dressing
Garlic bread Grilled riverine beef with horseradish butter. Bordelaise sauce, celeriac dauphinois, green beans (which were squeaky), baby carrot and red capsicum. Khiffir lime-coconut sorbet with passionfruit coulis.
Woodside Mclaren Camembert, pyengana mature cheddar and trinity cellar blue cheese with grapes and sweet paste.
The lunch was delicious.
The seats on the SG232 Airbus 380 are really wide. The widest seats I’ve experienced. I was able to work the entire flight from Sydney to Singapore except for when I was eating. The Singapore Airlines Airbus 380 is equipped with AC power plus two USB ports. It also has Wi-Fi but I wasn’t going to try that assuming the cost would be prohibitively expensive.
Close to the end of the flight we were served with a refreshment.
Braised egg noodles with seafood and mushroom in oriental sauce. It also came with a nice little bowl of green chilli in soy sauce.
There was a little turbulence throughout the flight but not enough to disrupt my work or any of the service.
The flight attendants were all very friendly and helpful. I’d say the service is amongst the best of any airline.
Getting into Changi Airport was pretty smooth and finding my way from terminal 3 to terminal 2 on the airport shuttle train was easy.
Do you want to know how big this airport is? The signs add walking times!
My next flight is SG918 SIN to MNL. As we board we’re told there is a delay because anther flight had to make an emergency landing.
The flight was smooth and the food was good.
Classic gravadlax cured salmon with dill, asparagus, mesclun salad, salmon roe and mustard dill dressing. Char siew rice Chinese barbecued pork with steamed rice and leafy greens.
Iced parfait of lychee and coconut with passionfruit coulis.
I need to stop here. I landed in Manila quite late and I have an early start.
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Grilled riverine beef with horseradish butter. Bordelaise sauce, celeriac dauphinois, green beans (which were squeaky), baby carrot and red capsicum. 
