on the move

not a cargo, but we're headed north, to the top of Denmark, to take on bunkers
and wait up there for something to materialize. Which means we're more or less
committed to finding a Baltic load port. It can't come too soon.

I cooked some turkeys yesterday. Was talking about Thanksgiving, and how it's
the best holiday ever, and the Captain encouraged me to cook some turkey for the
ships crew. I discovered that the Chief Cook doesn't like people cooking in
"his" galley. He was singularly unhelpful.

They were pathetic looking birds, but I did my best. I had picked up a jar of
rubbed sage back in Louisianna, just for such an occassion, and successfully
deployed it in my ripped up bits of stale bread stuffing. My Mom swore by a
thyme stuffing, but I'm a sage man myself.

The mashed potatoes were quite nice as well. I roasted two heads of garlic for
about an hour and a half, which turns the garlic flesh into a sweet paste. I
squeezed it out of the garlic skins and mixed it in with the potatoes, which I
had left with the skin on. A nice combination. A splash of blue cheese would
have been perfect, but no such luck.

For the gravy, I took the turkey necks, onion, celery and carrot, salt, freshly
ground pepper, and sage, and made a stock. Then a roux with the turkey fat, and
a nice, tasty brown gravy. No lumps.

There was no cranberry sauce to be found. What kind of barbaric work conditions
am I enduring here???

Another topic: Flaws in saintly characters.

I watched "Cinderalla Man" last night, and it was pretty good. But the Russell
Crowe character was too perfect, too nice, too honorable. I saw "The Cider
House Rules" a few weeks ago, and a comment on the extra's on the DVD, a bit of
insight by John Irving, the author of the book and screenwriter of the film,
struck me as quite correct. He said that when you have a saintly character,
like the doctor that Michael Caine portrayed, he has to have a flaw otherwise
the film falls flat, it doesn't grip you, it becomes preachy and obvious.

It's Sunday, but I've got the duty today, so I am down in the Engineroom. We're
purging tanks, so I had to get the IG system up and running by 0800, which means
I came down here at 0630. We'll pick up the pilot around 1400 today, drop the
anchor around 1700 and then take bunkers. Busy day for a day off. Hopefully
next Sunday I'll be at church in NYC.