Holidays on deployment

My National Geographic atlas lists just two facts about Singapore: it’s an expensive city and it is “renowned” for its internet connectivity. I can confirm that it’s an expensive city, but the internet connectivity was oversold. Over the Christmas week, we had a six-day port visit in Singapore, and I am a little poorer for it. Still, it was great to walk on land after a month at sea. It was great to eat real food after a month of Navy fare. And it was great to drink beer after a month of abstinence.

Singapore was my introduction to traveling in Southeast Asia. It was easy for me to get around because all the signs are in English and almost everyone speaks English (Singapore only gained independence from the British in the mid-twentieth century). It’s a small, urban country that thrives on shipping, finance, and tourism. It’s very clean and very safe. Almost too safe.

Imagine, if you will, a country covered by malls. I mean just covered. Everywhere you go, it’s malls – big, western-style malls with stores like Brooks Brothers and The Gap alongside Asian-style malls where you can haggle over pewter knickknacks and candy from the Philippines. On Christmas Day, the malls were open. Even late at night. There are a lot of wealthy people and tourists in Singapore who keep the culture of shopping alive. I don’t like malls enough to ever live in Singapore, but it was an amazing sight to see. Also, I was able to get a jade pendant, two scarves, and a cute journal for Angelina.

Posing in my hotel room with Duffy and a hippo from Night Safari.

The bread, buns, cakes, and pastries in Singapore were great. There was one bakery chain called “Dough Culture,” which was a good summation of my whole experience in the country. Everything I had from a bakery was great. I also tried plenty of exotic foods. But the weirdest meal I had was at a place called Toast Box. I ordered their Set #1 (it’s a set, not a combo meal), which consists of a cup of highly sweetened coffee, a piece of white toast – covered in peanut butter, cut into squares, and served with toothpicks – and two hot-boiled eggs. Yes, hot-boiled eggs, not hard-boiled – the contents of the eggs are warm and soupy. You crack the eggs into a bowl, mix with soy sauce and drink. I don’t know why that’s supposed to go with peanut-butter toast and sweet coffee, but as the saying goes, “When in Singapore, drink your eggs from a bowl.”

In addition to eating, drinking, and shopping, I also supported the local tourism industry by going to the Singapore Night Safari and Universal Studios Singapore. The Night Safari has 150 nocturnal animals in a lush rainforest setting – it was the most amazing zoo I’ve ever been to. The animals are very active and it’s amazing how close you can get. Universal Studios Singapore was also fun, and it’s currently the only place in the world where you can go on Transformers: The Ride. Transformers reminds me of the new Star Tours ride at Disneyland: it’s a fun 3D flight simulator that uses audio-animatronics to add another layer to the experience. Of everything I did in Singapore, being at a theme park was the thing that made me miss Angelina and Gabby the most. I know they both would have loved it.

It's 50% elephant, 50% Angry Bird, and 100% awesome!

Another thing about Singapore, it was fun to be in a country that is as obsessed with Angry Birds as I am. They were on T-shirts, purses, posters, cakes, dolls, stickers, and more. I remember getting into a cab and seeing Angry Birds plush toys lined up on the dash. The driver and I talked about Angry Birds for most of the ride. It made me wish I still had my iPhone. My favorite Angry Birds sighting, though, was the Angry Birds elephant. You know how a lot of cities have a single type of statue that different artists will paint different ways? In Eugene it’s a duck, in Norfolk it’s a mermaid, in Chicago it’s a cow. And in Singapore, it’s an elephant. Well one artist made his elephant into the red Angry Bird, which is my favorite! Even though it was raining, I had to leave cover and get my picture taken with it.

Final Singapore observation: on the highway, I saw a toddler sitting in the front seat of a car, strapped in with the lap and shoulder belt. Is that just something they do there? It seems weird to see that in a country that has so many strict nanny-state laws on personal conduct. It’s the only example I saw of someone doing something that wouldn’t be allowed in the States.

After Singapore, the ship’s Christmas decorations were put away and it was back to the Groundhog Day experience of being underway, every day the same as the one before. But New Year’s Eve broke up the monotony a little. Some of my shipmates whipped up a cute impromptu party, complete with funny hats, refreshments, sparkling cider, and a silver ball to drop. On New Year’s Day, we had a holiday feast, which I’m still trying to digest. It’s not quite Disneyland with Angelina’s family (which I did last New Year’s), but it’s as close as I’m going to get to fun for awhile, so I’ll take it.

Now a view of the Swissotel from Merlion Park. That tall building in the center is where we had a great lunch and took great pictures.

More pictures from Hawaii

I caught a cold yesterday. And today I had to get the smallpox vaccine. But before you start feeling too sorry for me, take a look at these pictures from our port visit to Hawaii and get jealous.

I wonder whose idea it was to put the spear-throwing game next to the Mai Tai bar.

Rocking the Hawaiian shirt and shell necklace at the Paradise Cove Luau. That green wristband means batteries release for Mai Tais.

Standing on “vulture’s row” as the ship leaves Hawaii.

ADTEMPO & Aloha

The military has a term: OPTEMPO, which is short for operational tempo. A high OPTEMPO means you’re really busy and a low OPTEMPO means you’re really bored. Because we were just sailing to Hawaii for the past week, it’s safe to say that our OPTEMPO was about as low as it could get. But I’m not what the military calls an “operator,” I’m a lawyer. So my busy-ness is disconnected from our OPTEMPO – I can be busy when there are no ops going on and I can be bored when there are ops, it all depends. To describe this phenomenon, I have coined the term ADTEMPO, which is short for administrative tempo. A high ADTEMPO means there is a lot of admin/lawyer work to do and a low ADTEMPO means all the paperwork, emails, and PowerPoint slides are squared away.

The ADTEMPO for the first week of deployment was much higher than I had been expecting. Between helping to write the liberty policy, serving as my command’s liaison for visiting professors from the Naval Postgraduate School, and making sure that the operators have the latest and greatest guidance, I was plenty busy. Add to that the random legal questions that pop up throughout the day, often from unexpected places, and I barely had a moment to breathe. I actually don’t mind having all that work to do – I’d rather be busy than bored. On the ship there’s not much else to do besides work. Also, it was great getting to know the NPS professors and learning from their classes. But, like I said, the high ADTEMPO was a surprise.

The downside to being so busy is that I haven’t been able to write my NaNoWriMo project. The goal is to write 50,000 words by November 30. It’s November 22 and I’m at 13,225. I’ll probably cheat and count this blog entry as part of my total, but that won’t get me to 50,000. It’s disappointing, but life goes on.

Donald, John, Me, Amanda, and Michelle get ready to experience Puka Dogs at the International Marketplace. (Photo by Tom)

Yesterday, we pulled into Pearl Harbor. I had never been to Hawaii before so I was excited when we finally got to leave the ship at 1400. Because Angelina has been to Hawaii before for several military exercises, I asked her about the best things to do on Oahu when you only have a short time to do it. On her list was shaved ice, so I went straight from the pier to a shaved ice stand. Excellent choice. I spent the evening hanging out with shipmates from the staff, most of whom had either been stationed in Hawaii before or had port visits there. It was a lot of fun to eat good food, have a few drinks, and sing karaoke. I got to bed by 11:00 and slept in a real bed at the Ilikai Hotel, which was a treat in itself.

I’m not standing watch in this port, but I am carrying my command-issued JAG phone in case people decide they can’t have fun without causing legal problems. “Why does this taxi have windows? I need to kick them all out!” “I’m so drunk, I need to be in a fight, right now!” “Who does that cop think he is anyway?” You know, that sort of thing. So far, no rings on the JAG phone. That’s good; people are pacing themselves. I’m signed up to go to a luau tonight, so I’m knocking on wood that drunken Sailors don’t ruin the party. But, if duty calls I’ll just have to get my roast-pork fix next year, on the way back from deployment.

As I write this, I’m sitting by the beach with a cup of coffee, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and trying to savor the experience of being on shore. This deployment has already been an adventure, but I wonder if I will still feel that way after four months of turning slow circles in the waters of the Middle East.

Chilling on the balcony of the Ilikai Hotel in Waikiki. You can't see it in this picture, but there are parrots on that shirt.

Also, for Gabby, this is your first Duffy sighting of the deployment! Some of you may know that Angelina and I spend pretty much all our free time and money at Disneyland. I’m not sure why, it just sort of turned out that way. Anyway, Duffy is Mickey Mouse’s teddy bear, a relatively new Disney character. In the “Duffy the Disney Bear” picture book, Mickey has to go on a long sea voyage so Minnie Mouse gives him Duffy to keep him company. On his voyage, Mickey takes pictures of himself with Duffy in exotic places and then sends them back to Minnie Mouse. I don’t expect to spend a lot of time in port during this deployment, but when I do go ashore, the teddy bear is coming with me. I’m thinking about you, Gabby, even though I’m far away. You’re always in my heart. And Duffy says “Aloha” from beautiful Waikiki.

Final observation: I have been counting the number of times I hear “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” playing here. Right now, having been on shore for about 24 hours, the count is at five. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice song – I just didn’t realize it was the state song of Hawaii. Well, that’s it for now. I’m off to score some macaroni salad and Dole Whip.