a document of days

On Monday morning, September 29th, Sarah McLaughlin (no, not that Sarah McLaughlin, Sarah my associate from Giles publishing in London) and I met up with Desmond, our print rep from Singapore. Over the course of the following four days, the three of us spent many, many hours together. My schedule for the first two days went like this:

Monday - Began at 10:15am, had a break to shower and refresh at 7:00 p.m. then worked through until 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning: 21 hour shift with no sleep.

Tuesday - Was able to sleep at the hotel from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (1 hour only!) then we worked through until 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning: 22 hour shift with no sleep

So actually, that adds up to 44 hours worked with one hour of sleep.

Obviously, shifts like this bring you close to your coworkers. For every lunch and dinner break, Desmond took us to a new restaurant. He was intent on helping us to experience the local flavors.

The first day we went to lunch at an upscale restaurant that served food prepared in the Hong Kong and Cantonese style. Desmond ordered for us, as he would at each meal. The spread was incredible. Dish after dish arrived, each one new and delicious. We started with a fish that was cooked in two ways. First stir-fried with a brown sauce, and secondly, steamed with vegetables and tofu. It was delicious, but it wasn't until I returned to the States and did a little research that I realized exactly what type of fish I was eating.

We were dining on wrasse. Wrasse is a coral reef fish, and a highly controversial catch.

The grouper and the Napoleon wrasse live in the Coral Triangle spanning the waters of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands. They are dwindling in numbers and their disappearance could seriously upset the eco-balance of the coral reefs there, says the WWF.

After Hong Kong, Singapore is the second-largest consumer of these fish in the region, noted the leader of the WWF's Coral Triangle Network Initiative, Dr Lida Pet-Soede.

Read this entire article here.

In order to protect the delicate balance of coral reefs, the World Wildlife Fund is asking that we cut down on the consumption of wrasse. From now on, I will comply. (Sorry fish! You were tasty!)

As far as I know, I didn't eat anything else controversial. I skipped the shark's fin. Not because of my morals, or because it wasn't offered to me, honestly, I was just concerned about my stomach.

To be continued...