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Monday Blues
5 March. Well hi again. Thought I'd tell you all a bit
more about cooking on the Rainbow Warrior today and
I'm going to use yesterday as an example. That was Monday
and, believe it or not, Mondays on ships can be just like
Mondays in the office!
As I'd had such a lovely Sunday off I thought I'd be raring
to go yesterday, but no. I guess I relaxed so much that
my body could only work on 'stand-by'. Poor old Marco had
to watch me cut up lettuce and French beans at a rate of
one an hour.
Anyway, let me introduce you to the galley (kitchen). It's
not as big as the one I have at home yet we still manage
to get two meals a day for 26 people out of it! The most
we've catered for so far is 41. This galley is definitely
a magic box from which delicious food emerges.
And of course we don't just do 2 meals a day. Oh no, we've
got meat eaters, vegetarians, vegans, no cheese crew, no
nuts (I'm mad enough as it is) and no onions (or I'll be
ill) people, so we can throw the idea of meat and 2 veg
out of the porthole for a start.
Anyway, yesterday began as it always does. Up at 7.30.
Make a cup of tea to quick start my body. Then, first one
into the galley turns the oven on and puts a huge (I mean
huge) pot of water on the stove to boil. Next we normally
think about lunch. However, as I was so darn slow, Marco
thought about lunch and I just stood there and 'processed'
10 bunches of fresh parsley to be frozen for when we are
at sea. Meanwhile Marco gets a huge veggie soup on the go.
I get around to preparing the fresh salad eventually.
I go downstairs (actually, down a ladder) to the massive
walk-in fridge and freezer, waving my plastic supermarket
basket as I go. We call it 'shopping' in the galley. I load
up with 5 cucumbers, 2 red and 2 green peppers, a handful
of carrots, 5 beef tomatoes and a head of celery. All this
I will spend the next 2 hours chopping (I am quicker normally,
but as I said, it's Monday morning). I eventually crawl
through the lettuce-cutting, feeling very much like a limp
lettuce myself, and make it to lunch. Marco's scrummy veggie
soup livens me up and I don't feel quite as bad, although
I could still do with going back to bed. But no, this is
the RW and cooks strive on just like the rest of the crew.
After lunch I set about making 2 cakes, a lemon and a date
and walnut tray bake. They should be easy because all you
have to do is slop all the ingredients into the bowl and
mix well. Hahahaha.
First I see to my surprise that the date and walnut cake
recipe has ground almonds in it. Oh well, think I've seen
them somewhere, so I go hunting. What I thought was ground
almonds turns out to be desiccated coconut. So now I go
on an almond hunt. They are not down the ladder…or
under any of the seats in the mess. Buggar. OK, what to
do? I know, I'll just grind down some walnuts, that should
do the trick. But the huge food processor is down the ladder
and is a monster to bring up. Oh stop moaning and go and
get it.
At last, the first cake is in the oven and I turn my attention
to the lemon cake. Now where are the lemons? Marco has been
tidying up the walk-in fridge and I can't see those damn
lemons and Marco has gone shopping. OK, I'll make a…a…
mandarin orange cake then!
Marco comes back and tells me my date and walnut (with
no ground almonds) cake smells like it's burning. I whip
it out of the oven before it ruins my day. I put the lemon,
sorry mandarin mix in and cover it with a tray because this
oven is so fierce it will scorch the top before the bottom
notices it is in the oven. But, I forgot that the cake tin
was shallow, so my mandarin cake spends the next 30 minutes
trying to force the protective tray off its head. It fails,
but manages to slip out of the sides, drip to the bottom
of the oven and continue to rise and bake there. Oh well,
I'll cover it in icing and I'm sure it will taste great.
These cakes are for tomorrow's 'smoko' (tea break). Now
Marco and I have to get on with the important job of cooking
dinner. It's meatballs and sauce and a vegetable pot roast,
sharing the same sauce (but not for the vegans), with fresh
French beans and potatoes. Marco takes over. I just chop
what he tells me to. At quarter to 5, I want to go to bed
again. Ah, but is the salad ready? Buggar. I do the salad
and hold on until dinner is served. It's delicious again.
I'm in bed before I have finished washing up my plate.
I know there is a crew meeting at 7pm and I'm sure I'll
wake up for it.
Huh! Suddenly the chicks rush into our shared cabin and
start to maniacally put on action suits. 'Uggh --what's
going on?'. Kristina leaps around the room, one foot into
her suit shouting 'action-time dear'. Eventually I realise
that they are going off, so I figure I should get up to
wave them on their way.
I wrap warm clothing on and go out on deck. Once again
it's a frenzy of activity. Inflatables are flying over my
head on a crane and ropes, action bodies are suiting up,
donning life jackets and grabbing notepads. There is no
point in me asking what is going on. Everyone is too busy.
They all know exactly what they have to do and I wouldn't
dare go anywhere near them at this moment. For a start,
they would notice that I'd missed the meeting!
Eventually three boats set off. I wave them off, tell them
to come home safe and I go back to bed. God knows what they
got up to. I wasn't there and to be quite honest, I wouldn't
have been at my action best anyway.
At 3.30am, I wake up again. They are back. I go to the
debrief meeting and hear all about their daring does…Climbing
onto the ship from inflatables in a big swell of wave, and
being wary of the petrified snakes and spiders still left
on the logs (yuk, sounds like a job for somebody else if
you ask me). However, the action crew had a successful mission
and an exciting time (don't ask me what the snakes and spiders
thought). Wonderful. I go back to bed. Good nite. Les
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