2 Shaken but sober

It's about time I do a proper post; I haven't written a decent one since I arrived two-and-a-half weeks ago.

Today was a harrowing day. It started off on the wrong foot: while opening the shelf to get breakfast, I knocked a container containing muesli over, and its contents came spilling out as it hit the table. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was just the table, but my camera case was just lying at the damned spot and thus was covered in muesli chalk. More cleaning up, I hate. I soothed my annoyed soul with my daily fix of creamy banana oats & peanut butter, then went for the departmental welcome at Strand, then to the welcome fair at Barbican Centre. I had no intention of signing up for any society whatsoever, but went there just to accompany Charlene, and hopefully get freebies (I ended up with a useful cloth tote bag, some post-its and a kilo worth of flyers).

All was well until the time I decided to leave the fair. I was directed to the exit ("go up turn left," instructed the security guard). I went up onto the second floor but only God knows why I did not turn left, but right instead. I followed a fire exit sign (the universal green man running) which led to a door. Pushing it opened, I was greeted by a vast, empty, dark stairwell. Another door stood at the opposite end. The dingy atmosphere and absence of people should have set alarm bells ringing in my head. Perhaps I was deaf; as I walked towards the second set of doors which I presumed was the real exit, the first set of doors slammed behind me. Horror of horrors: the second set of doors was firmly locked and when I returned to the first set  of doors, a sign above it read, "exit only, no re-entry" - or something along that line. I was locked up in the stairwell! I panicked a little, but not as much as the situation should have called for. I started rattling and banging the door as hard as I could, praying to God that someone would hear the banging above the din of music, chatter and white noise of the welcome fair. About 3 minutes passed. I continued banging on the doors. Now, I really begin to panic and thoughts of having to spend the night in the basement, and even dying in this basement with no one to find my body (how very dramatic) came to my mind. Just at this instant, a KCLSU student voice drifted over from the other side of the door, "hello, is someone there?" I nearly cried out in relief. Soon enough, the doors opened and she asked me how I got in there because apparently the alarm should set off when the fire escape doors were opened. I was pretty traumatized that I didn't bother explaining my situation and didn't thank her as much as I should; I just wanted to escape from that area into open air.

I had my packed lunch of tuna & spinach sandwich on a bench at Beech Gardens, just outside the Barbican Centre. I wolfed it down, unlike my usual "slow food" style, trauma still reigning over me. After I finally calmed down, I set off on my ?-mile-long walk to Dover Apts, with a planned stop at Borough Market along the way. (To save on transport, I have been walking to all walkable destinations, which is nearly everywhere.)

I shall cut the long story short and move on to the second traumatic incident of the day. I had just bought a twin pack of rainbow trout from Marks&Spencer and as I went into Tk Maxx just opposite the road, the store alarm started beeping. This shouldn't be much of a cause for alarm under usual circumstances. But this was not any normal circumstance; I almost stole a grapefruit from M&S for 65 pence but returned it to the shelve at the last minute. It was like God's warning to me, God's eyes on me. The security guard came over and opened up my shopping bag. I told him I just walked into the store, and came over from M&S. He took out my fish and removed the scanner bar tag. That was all. I was so shaken I couldn't shop properly (I was looking out for a sling bag).

Finally, I went back to Dover, feet sore from the walking. Pasta was on my mind for dinner. Since I had four rainbow trout fillets which would give 8 servings and they had the expiry date of 27 Sep, I thought I had better start using them now. As much as love fish, I haven't much experience cooking them. I removed one large fillet with the intention of slicing them into two, so that I could just cook one-half and save the other half for tomorrow. However, I then realized the trout still had the skin on on the other side and tried as I could, it was impossible to slice vertically through the skin, at least not with my small paring knife. I gave up and decided to steam the whole darn trout, despite the trout being larger than my mini travel-sized steamer (I compensated by curling the trout at the tail-end). The next problem was I didn't know how long to steam it for. 15 minutes? 20 minutes? I knew the end-point was when the fish starts to flake. Still, as a first-timer, it was hard to tell. The last problem was that even after 15 minutes of so, the trout flesh remained rather pink. I thought the flesh was supposed to turn white? Ok, maybe it's like salmon, with pink flesh, I reasoned. I let it steam a while more - better to have rubbery over-cooked fish then suffer from food poisoning from raw fish) - then served it with wholewheat Tesco fusili. I didn't do any seasonings, just pure steamed fish, and it was certainly one of the best meals so far. Sure, it was a little firm for my liking, but I daresay my rainbow trout turned out pretty well :).  The day ended off well after all the incidents.