11 June 2005
As the ship steams down towards the humid equatorial SG, the weary pirate had an enjoyable haircut at the last port call (09 Jun) in Shekou, PRC.
The 30 RMB haircut came along with a relaxing hairwash, which was followed by a face wash-backrub massage-haircut-hairwash-blow dry routine.The hair stylist had to put up with a half-nodding & dozing customer.*chuckles* The relatively proximity of Hong Kong to Shekou is barely lessthan 3 hours of sailing time and the hectic cargo operations left not only me but almost everyone onboard worn out.
The backrub took off the weariness that bugged me for the past weeks. I drew much flak from the inconsistent work perfomance and inevitably the stresslevel went to record levels. Thus the massage was a god-sent and it alleviated the weight off my mind and shoulders.
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HK (08 Jun)
On the train ride towards Mongkok MTR, I found myself gawking at the galsonboard. Not to be misinterpreted as being desperate/ horny/ otherequivalent synomyms, I thought to myself : The opposite gender seemed veryalien to me. Or perhaps the work enviroment onboard being dominantly male,the sight of a woman seems out of place in my mind. *LOL*Thankfully, I stopped the gawking looks after a while after I got off thetrain.
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KaoHsiung (07 Jun)
My adventure ashore merely took me out of the port premises and into the warehousing section of the vicinity. After a good 10 min walk, I chanced upon the first and probably the closest convenience store and promptly made my phone calls back to SG. One might wonder why I didnt venture further. As the ship was due to sail off later that afternoon, the excuse of headingashore for phone calls was more to take my mind off work rather than toventure and seek out new adventures.
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South China Sea (12 Jun)
Hence so much for shore leave, come tomorrow the ship will be tied up at Keppel and after my duty hours, I should be making my way home to send all these mails to the recipents. Shore leave ashore in SG is again hectic akin to other ports.
Some of my friends have a tendency to ask me: 'When are you coming back?'I merely replied them, passing through SG so-and-so day. Even then coming back does not necessarily equate to me staying home for the next couple of days.
Work is still work, I have yet to finish my contract and thus still obliged to perform my duty hours even in SG. Though I can arrange with the other officers to cover my shift, but I rather not. Fatigue is often cited as the cruical reason for any accidents. Try running a 18 hr shift non-stop andyou see my point.
To my friends ashore, it is quite unimaginable to be working in 12-15 work hour days, coupled with lack of sleep environments. On top of everything,the security hoo-haa drummed up by the Yankees forcibly shoved down to therest of the world, do not make anything easier for us.
Every one coming onboard is subjected to scrutiny. What made it worse is that as officers, we have to called back to the gangway where-ever we are on the ship, especially to tend to minor issues which involved language differences (More especiallywhen our crew are Filippino and the shore stevedores speak nary a word ofEnglish)
At times the work is indeed too overbearing at times... as depicted and reported umpteen times in seafarers' newsletters and also at inter-governmental levels, seafarers these days are more like prisoners oftheir own will as opposed to the swash-buckling era of days gone by.
Seafaring these days have lost the charm. Gone are the days where ships stayin ports for more than 2-3 weeks. For those working on tankers (crudecarriers or clean petroleum products), the shore leave is even non-existent.
Pray thee, where do you wish to head for in the middle of some forsaken barren desert country?
These days, when you get more than 24 hours in port,it is already considered a steal.The Sep-11 incident had brought about repercussions: Many ports especiallyin US have gotten overly jitterly about security, thus imposing a barrage ofregulations upon the seafarers. I recall seeing citizens of our neighbouring country being subjected to much stringent checks than any nationality in some countries.
So inevitably the decline of sea-going officers have gone from a mere trickle to a steady stream these days. Most of us, upon reaching some stage have turned our sights ashore and the influx of fresh blood have been consistently low, with a high dropout rate thrown in, "the world is now short of 46,000 officers" as quoted from a newsletter.
You might have heard on-off over the media about piracy attacks, ships collisions, but that is merely the tip of the ice-berg. More work and responsibilities have in recent years piled upon the shipboard staff, leaving us with ever-increasing paperwork and less rest hours. With the rallying banner of cutting costs in hand, the salary scale in SG have moved little over the past two decades. Thus when I chanced upon an opportunity to move to an overseas-based one, I jumped. With a almost 200% difference between the former and present, it is little wonder SGeans are inclined to give up sailing altogether.
All the talk about free travel and adventure is merely is marketing ploys. Reality bites, the allure these days is the pay check in the bank account.
If the high levels back home had allowed the market to decide the salary scale, there would be a big paradigm shift in manpower and thus upset theircontrol over the only asset: the citizens of SG.
Pawns are what we are these days. Sad, is it now?
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This is the high-sea pirate reporting from South China Sea. Arriving in SGon 13th 0400. (See what I mean about ungodly hours?)
Syn
June 13, 2005
Pirate Press - Rampant shooting edition
12 Jun 2005News Flash: It have been overheard that there was a loose shooter at Shoreline Village, Long Beach on 21 May 2005
He was stopped by security personnel on patrol and questioned about his intentions over the shootings of a purple-coloured house.
The suspect is a bespectacled man of Chinese origin, currently a citizen ofSingapore. The suspect was armed with a digital camera: a Canon 300D series camera. Fortunately this shooter was stopped in time and no "casualties"were accounted for.
Before pulling up at a snack place, the suspect hit upon a child, named Jo-Jo with his mouth wide-opened. Thankfully, no bits of leftover food showed up in the final shots.
The suspect was then spotted devouring a cinnamon pastry washed down with a Coke. After the meal, he was seen chatting with the owner of a shop over a series of Hardy Boys books seen in the store. The shopowner had openly declared that the books on displayed are actually more than 40 years old.*Grasps!*
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2 kilometres from the scene of crime, he was spotted training his sights ona band of musicians. The lead man, a saxaphonist was shot many times. The bass guitarist and the other members of the band were fortunate to get away without a scratch.
The trail went cold after he was seen entering a pizza restuarant and left in a yellow cab in the direction of the container terminal.
This is the high-sea pirate, reporting from Long Beach California.
Syn
He was stopped by security personnel on patrol and questioned about his intentions over the shootings of a purple-coloured house.
The suspect is a bespectacled man of Chinese origin, currently a citizen ofSingapore. The suspect was armed with a digital camera: a Canon 300D series camera. Fortunately this shooter was stopped in time and no "casualties"were accounted for.
Before pulling up at a snack place, the suspect hit upon a child, named Jo-Jo with his mouth wide-opened. Thankfully, no bits of leftover food showed up in the final shots.
The suspect was then spotted devouring a cinnamon pastry washed down with a Coke. After the meal, he was seen chatting with the owner of a shop over a series of Hardy Boys books seen in the store. The shopowner had openly declared that the books on displayed are actually more than 40 years old.*Grasps!*
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2 kilometres from the scene of crime, he was spotted training his sights ona band of musicians. The lead man, a saxaphonist was shot many times. The bass guitarist and the other members of the band were fortunate to get away without a scratch.
The trail went cold after he was seen entering a pizza restuarant and left in a yellow cab in the direction of the container terminal.
This is the high-sea pirate, reporting from Long Beach California.
Syn
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