Just thougth i'd write a quick note to let peole know i'm alive. My laptop doesnt like the wireless internet at the hostel, but rest assured i will give a more detailed account at the next opportunity.
Ciao...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Aftermath...
Okay, first… there are several things you don’t want to happen the morning after you’ve had a big night, the first is that you really don’t want to wake up to someone screaming – which is good, cause that didn’t happen. The next worse thing that I can possibly think of is to wake up to someone whistling the 12 days of Christmas – badly – for easily half an hour. I swear there were about 4 months of Christmas instead of just the 12 days. The next worse thing when you’re feeling fairly sick is unidentified cooking smells… Then the lights come on, and then the TV. Then people decide that once you’re up that they don’t want to watch it and they turn it off again. And leave the room.
Awesome.
Then next bad thing that can happen is finding that you’ve injured your self in ways that you aren’t quite clear on… My knees are extremely sore, and I really don’t know why… I’m assuming that I must have fell over on the ice… anyway…
The night was good fun, great to hear the noise of boisterous loud drunken Aussies having fun. We got approached by a group of guys that are part of the local Australian rules footy team, they asked us to play… but they don’t start until like April, so by the time the season starts *shrugs* I guess I might be back at some point… don’t know. Although if I do come back in the summer, Shannon would be gone, so there’d be no real reason to come back to Toronto, as nice a place as it is.
Was cool too, bumped into the couple that I’d sat next to on the plane, had a chat to them for a little while, but it was a little bit uncomfortable, so I left…
And now I just feel hung-over… but I’ll live…
Awesome.
Then next bad thing that can happen is finding that you’ve injured your self in ways that you aren’t quite clear on… My knees are extremely sore, and I really don’t know why… I’m assuming that I must have fell over on the ice… anyway…
The night was good fun, great to hear the noise of boisterous loud drunken Aussies having fun. We got approached by a group of guys that are part of the local Australian rules footy team, they asked us to play… but they don’t start until like April, so by the time the season starts *shrugs* I guess I might be back at some point… don’t know. Although if I do come back in the summer, Shannon would be gone, so there’d be no real reason to come back to Toronto, as nice a place as it is.
Was cool too, bumped into the couple that I’d sat next to on the plane, had a chat to them for a little while, but it was a little bit uncomfortable, so I left…
And now I just feel hung-over… but I’ll live…
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Australia Day Musings;
Sitting in Shannon’s apartment looking out the window, listening to chasing cars by the snow patrol… I can’t normally write blog entries while listening to music, its distracting… but I felt the need to write… so here I am. One advantage of touch typing is that I can actually sit and look out the window as I type, not having to look at the screen, letting my mind wander and ponder the words of this song… looking at a city that’s virtually learned to live thru the cold… again, it was minus 15 as I walked here this morning and its so cold that my gloves don’t work and my fingers ache… and the breath coming thru my scarf wrapped around my face freezes on the outside. Then when you get inside it feels like your fingers are in vices as they de frost… its an odd feeling… reminds me of scraping the ice out of the old freezer at home and then putting my hands in the sink with hot water in it.
So its Australia day pre party, and I’m really looking forward to it, still deciding which T-shirt to wear.. the one that says “Fcuk down under” or the one that says “No Fcuking worries” I think it’ll be the latter… its nice to try to fool people (of course I have worries – who doesn’t?). I’ve done my bit so far and had some vegemite on toast… drinking beer will be later!
Here’s an observation for you, and a warning if you are ever planning on coming up here, forget driving on the other side of the road, this is much more important… people walk past each other on the right too… its keep right all the way here… trying to walk past someone on the left gets you funny looks… I feel like I need a T-shirt saying “Sorry – I’m Australian; We hang to the left…”
Another observation – snow does 2 interesting things that I’ve seen… sometime it goes up. Which is quite cool… Also the temperature actually goes up when it starts snowing. So its lucky its snowing now and I don’t have my long johns on cause I had to wash them… but its not so cold now, so its okay… only other thing about snow is that it stings when it gets you in the eye…
I’m just doing a final load of laundry before I go on Sunday on my little trip. Thinking of going down the street to see if I can find a nice outfit for “Going Out” all of my stuff is pretty casual, I do have a couple of shirts, but all I really have is jeans, and *shrugs* I don’t know why I need to tell you this… so I’ll shut up now.
I’ll tell you more tomorrow when I’ve recovered from tonight…
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation. - Kin Hubbard
So its Australia day pre party, and I’m really looking forward to it, still deciding which T-shirt to wear.. the one that says “Fcuk down under” or the one that says “No Fcuking worries” I think it’ll be the latter… its nice to try to fool people (of course I have worries – who doesn’t?). I’ve done my bit so far and had some vegemite on toast… drinking beer will be later!
Here’s an observation for you, and a warning if you are ever planning on coming up here, forget driving on the other side of the road, this is much more important… people walk past each other on the right too… its keep right all the way here… trying to walk past someone on the left gets you funny looks… I feel like I need a T-shirt saying “Sorry – I’m Australian; We hang to the left…”
Another observation – snow does 2 interesting things that I’ve seen… sometime it goes up. Which is quite cool… Also the temperature actually goes up when it starts snowing. So its lucky its snowing now and I don’t have my long johns on cause I had to wash them… but its not so cold now, so its okay… only other thing about snow is that it stings when it gets you in the eye…
I’m just doing a final load of laundry before I go on Sunday on my little trip. Thinking of going down the street to see if I can find a nice outfit for “Going Out” all of my stuff is pretty casual, I do have a couple of shirts, but all I really have is jeans, and *shrugs* I don’t know why I need to tell you this… so I’ll shut up now.
I’ll tell you more tomorrow when I’ve recovered from tonight…
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation. - Kin Hubbard
Friday, January 26, 2007
Considering... ?
It’s -15C outside… I have to walk to Shannon’s place at some point this morning to have a shower, then I wanted to go into town. But its minus fifteen degrees out there… that’s just not sensible. You have to think that whoever settled Canada must have got here after a particularly mild winter and had made enough headway by the following winter that there was no turning back. You just don’t build cities where it gets this friggin cold, this be hibernating weather…
Yesterday I woke up at my current standard time of nearly midday. Which corresponds directly to 2 things, the first that my current standard time that I'm going to bed is somewhere between 2 and 3am, and the second being that I have no particular reason to get up any earlier most days. Today however I am up at 10am. A much more reasonable hour, and having said that, if it was Sunday, I would have already missed my bus. I’m going to have to set an alarm… someone remind me… anyway, all the plans are looking good, and I only have one gripe to voice, and that is directed at the greyhound bus company – both US and Canadian sides of the border… it seems that there is no easy way to buy a bus ticket that takes you across the border. All other tickets can be purchased either on line or in person at another bust terminal, but if you want, for example, to purchase a ticket from Montreal, to Boston, as I do, there are some limitations. Well, really, there’s only the one limitation, and that is that you can’t buy it from anywhere but the Montreal Bus terminal. Which unfortunately forgoes the chance of getting the cheaper fare and saving myself $25. On top of that, when I tried to buy the ticket at the Toronto bus terminal, all they said is “no, we can’t do that here” further information was not forthcoming as to HOW or WHERE I could actually buy the ticket, calling the greyhound company directly to try to buy the ticket over the phone, I found out that apparently the US side of the company can’t process international credit cards. Which I find odd, having bought all my tickets that way so far… but “Maybe the Canadians can help you”. Maybe not…
On other news… ah… yeah… well… um… the latest album by “The Shins” is pretty good… I like it anyway… that’s about it… been pretty quiet…
I need a shower
Yesterday I woke up at my current standard time of nearly midday. Which corresponds directly to 2 things, the first that my current standard time that I'm going to bed is somewhere between 2 and 3am, and the second being that I have no particular reason to get up any earlier most days. Today however I am up at 10am. A much more reasonable hour, and having said that, if it was Sunday, I would have already missed my bus. I’m going to have to set an alarm… someone remind me… anyway, all the plans are looking good, and I only have one gripe to voice, and that is directed at the greyhound bus company – both US and Canadian sides of the border… it seems that there is no easy way to buy a bus ticket that takes you across the border. All other tickets can be purchased either on line or in person at another bust terminal, but if you want, for example, to purchase a ticket from Montreal, to Boston, as I do, there are some limitations. Well, really, there’s only the one limitation, and that is that you can’t buy it from anywhere but the Montreal Bus terminal. Which unfortunately forgoes the chance of getting the cheaper fare and saving myself $25. On top of that, when I tried to buy the ticket at the Toronto bus terminal, all they said is “no, we can’t do that here” further information was not forthcoming as to HOW or WHERE I could actually buy the ticket, calling the greyhound company directly to try to buy the ticket over the phone, I found out that apparently the US side of the company can’t process international credit cards. Which I find odd, having bought all my tickets that way so far… but “Maybe the Canadians can help you”. Maybe not…
On other news… ah… yeah… well… um… the latest album by “The Shins” is pretty good… I like it anyway… that’s about it… been pretty quiet…
I need a shower
Monday, January 22, 2007
Leaving Me Tour My Own Devices…
So I’ve finally decided to throw myself off the deep end and dip my toe into the world of the Hostel. Now, I’ve seen the movie… I’m hoping its NOTHING like that… Torture and hacking off of limbs isn’t really my cup of tea. Cheers anyway, no, really, its alright, I had something before I left… but it promises to be a lot of fun, no doubt I will keep you informed along the way, and probably before then too, but *shrugs* it just popped into my head that I probably should see more of the area so my plans are as follows:
I leave on the 28th of January for Montreal, on the Greyhound, 3 nights there, then to Boston for another 3 nights, 4 nights in NYC – time to see the sights and also catch an Ice hockey game between the NY Rangers and the Detroit Redwings. That should be a Hoot. Especially when I don’t care who wins or looses. Always a good thing for me to not be TOO involved in the game – unless I’m painting my face that is… then its okay. After that I’m heading to Washington for another 3 night stay, and then up to Philadelphia for 1 night before stopping (fortuitously enough; just before valentines day) in Ithaca for a bit… again, not sure how long, or what the plans are there, but it will be good to see Amber again… of course… Then depending… I might head down to Florida for a week and meet up with my friend down there, see Disney world or land or whatever the one is that’s this side of the continent… I have to see "the keys" apparently too… may involve hiring a car *rolls eyes* its going to be an expensive month… you only live once...
So today was spent lounging around doing very little until I decided on my trip, then it was spent booking hostels online, checking bus timetables, and planning my day tomorrow. I need to buy my bus tickets from the depot itself, then I want to get a little tripod for my camera… taking photos at night time is turning out to be more than the built in image stabilizer can handle… I also need to work out what I’m going to take… I need to pack warm but light… *Shrugs* will check out the travel stores and see if anything jumps out at me... as things tend to at that kind of shop... oh well...
Never go out to meet trouble. If you will just sit still, nine cases out of ten someone will intercept it before it reaches you. - Calvin Coolidge
I leave on the 28th of January for Montreal, on the Greyhound, 3 nights there, then to Boston for another 3 nights, 4 nights in NYC – time to see the sights and also catch an Ice hockey game between the NY Rangers and the Detroit Redwings. That should be a Hoot. Especially when I don’t care who wins or looses. Always a good thing for me to not be TOO involved in the game – unless I’m painting my face that is… then its okay. After that I’m heading to Washington for another 3 night stay, and then up to Philadelphia for 1 night before stopping (fortuitously enough; just before valentines day) in Ithaca for a bit… again, not sure how long, or what the plans are there, but it will be good to see Amber again… of course… Then depending… I might head down to Florida for a week and meet up with my friend down there, see Disney world or land or whatever the one is that’s this side of the continent… I have to see "the keys" apparently too… may involve hiring a car *rolls eyes* its going to be an expensive month… you only live once...
So today was spent lounging around doing very little until I decided on my trip, then it was spent booking hostels online, checking bus timetables, and planning my day tomorrow. I need to buy my bus tickets from the depot itself, then I want to get a little tripod for my camera… taking photos at night time is turning out to be more than the built in image stabilizer can handle… I also need to work out what I’m going to take… I need to pack warm but light… *Shrugs* will check out the travel stores and see if anything jumps out at me... as things tend to at that kind of shop... oh well...
Never go out to meet trouble. If you will just sit still, nine cases out of ten someone will intercept it before it reaches you. - Calvin Coolidge
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Oh yeah...
Forgot to mention that I got accepted into uni... So, I've deferred until '08 and will spend the next year deciding whether or not I go to school in Adelaide, or if I can find something in the UK. Will wait and see!
"I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down." - Mitch Hedberg
"I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down." - Mitch Hedberg
A Brewery Tour, a Movie and Aussies on Ice
Yesterday was a good day… it started late, when I woke up around 11.30 (coincidentally about the same time as I’ve woken up today) and we sat around the house until about 2. Chatting to Amber and Mum at different times. Then Shannon and I went back to his place… not sure what we did, but we left there at about 4 heading in the general direction of where Shannon thought he had heard the brewery might be. Roughly.
So we took a street car (tram) most of the way and disembarked at the furthest part of the loop and started walking. Funny enough, we turned a corner and bumped into the travel shop that Shannon needed to find to change his ticket. We had time, so we went in and after they decided they didn’t know what they were doing and took Shannon’s number, we JUST had time to get to the brewery for the tour.
The tour was good. First thing they did was give us a beer, that was actually also the second thing they did, which no one complained about. The tour itself was shortish, but good, having seen other brewery tours I guess I knew most of the technical side of how beer is made – not to mention that we went thru the process in the bar course I did. So what I found the most interesting was the history of the building itself, which was an old train yard, and in the early 90s the neighboring exhibition center wanted more parking space – the city wouldn’t let them knock down the building and put up a multi-storey car park, so they pulled the building down, dug down 14 stories for car parking, and then put the building back together on top. Crazy. Anyway, after the tour, we got another beer, and a 6pack of their beer to go. Each. As we were walking down the street Shannon slipped and fell on his beer, which broke… but from there we found some more ice and slipped around deliberately. That was hilarious… great fun…
After that we went and saw the movie The Good Shepherd. Really good… then we went to a bar and met a couple of Sarah’s friends… but I had a bit of a headache. No actually, it was a really bad headache… but it was a fun night. And as we left it started snowing lightly, which was really pretty. But needless to say I slept well last night…
Today I have to do laundry.
So we took a street car (tram) most of the way and disembarked at the furthest part of the loop and started walking. Funny enough, we turned a corner and bumped into the travel shop that Shannon needed to find to change his ticket. We had time, so we went in and after they decided they didn’t know what they were doing and took Shannon’s number, we JUST had time to get to the brewery for the tour.
The tour was good. First thing they did was give us a beer, that was actually also the second thing they did, which no one complained about. The tour itself was shortish, but good, having seen other brewery tours I guess I knew most of the technical side of how beer is made – not to mention that we went thru the process in the bar course I did. So what I found the most interesting was the history of the building itself, which was an old train yard, and in the early 90s the neighboring exhibition center wanted more parking space – the city wouldn’t let them knock down the building and put up a multi-storey car park, so they pulled the building down, dug down 14 stories for car parking, and then put the building back together on top. Crazy. Anyway, after the tour, we got another beer, and a 6pack of their beer to go. Each. As we were walking down the street Shannon slipped and fell on his beer, which broke… but from there we found some more ice and slipped around deliberately. That was hilarious… great fun…
After that we went and saw the movie The Good Shepherd. Really good… then we went to a bar and met a couple of Sarah’s friends… but I had a bit of a headache. No actually, it was a really bad headache… but it was a fun night. And as we left it started snowing lightly, which was really pretty. But needless to say I slept well last night…
Today I have to do laundry.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Niagara Falls And A Biscuit
So… I’ve partaken in my first real touristy adventure so far in that I’ve visited a renowned tourist attraction. Niagara Falls is, as most of you would know pretty much on the border between the US and Canadia, so on Saturday on the way up to Toronto, Amber and I decided that it would be cool to go and have a squiz.
We left at about 10 am from Ithaca and arrived at about 1ish at Niagara, as we were hungry and Amber knew that I had been wanting to try an American biscuit, we stopped at a restaurant chain called Bob Horton’s (I think that’s what its called) which Amber informed me has awesome biscuits, and she hadn’t been to in ages cause they don’t have them in Jersey. ANYWAY, there we stopped, and got our breakfast/lunch. Amber ordered a biscuit and something called Grits; which turned out to look like couscous or rice pudding, and taste like porridge… and I ordered a biscuit meal (consisting of a biscuit with eggs and a white gravy and a massive side of “home fries”) AND because they looked good, I was hungry, and I didn’t know the size of the meals, I also ordered a tasty looking pancake with apples and cream cheese filling… *coughs* both of my meals were HUGE… The Biscuit turned out to be something like a savory scone (that’s the best description I have of it) smothered in scrambled eggs and a whitish gravy/sauce that is beyond description (mostly because it had very little flavor). Home fries for those of you wondering – are like potato chips except cut into squares a couple of centimeters across, and then fried I guess… REAL healthy. Then the pancakes came out and they were a good 20cm across, 2 of them with cream, apples, caramel, and this vanilla cream cheese between them… I nearly couldn’t finish. But I did, much to Amber’s surprise.
From the diner we asked directions to the Falls, because strangely enough as you drive into Niagara there are very few signs or directions on how to get there. I guess when you’re a town with such a famous attraction; you don’t ONLY want to be known for that one thing…? After all, they have massive casinos and hotels too… and a thriving ghetto community (according to the girl at the restaurant who apologized for the fact that we’d have to drive thru it on the way to the falls – which we thought was quite funny)
We parked maybe 30 minutes walk from the Falls and trudged thru the reasonably fresh snow and ice to the falls, when we got there I went to get my camera out and realized that I’d left my memory card in the laptop when I was last transferring photos across. So we made do with Amber’s camera and got a couple of decent photos. But then we saw that there was a free car park right at the falls, so we decided to go get the car and drive back and take some photos with my big camera. Amber being Amber was more than accommodating and sympathetic to me for forgetting my memory card… but we won’t dwell on how great she is…
Anyway, since we’ve been in Toronto, we’ve been to the art gallery to see an exhibition of photos by Ansel Adams and some other guy that I can’t pronounce or spell his name. That was very interesting, some great photos, a lot of photos that were very familiar and have obviously been around for a very long time. And that is about it… On Amber’s last night in town, we went out to dinner at a restaurant called the Keg, which was a massive, beautiful mansion which served possibly the best meal I have eaten in ages, amazing. Great service, awesome wine, fantastic steak and mouth watering deserts… was a really nice night.
Since then… I’ve wandered around Toronto a bit… its VERY cold at the moment; the last few days have been around the -14 to -6C range… which Is interesting. It’s a strange feeling being so cold that your face is actually aching. I think I’m wearing nearly everything I brought with me clothes wise…
Talk to you all later.
If someone wants a sheep, then that means that they exist
-Antoine De Saint-Exupery
We left at about 10 am from Ithaca and arrived at about 1ish at Niagara, as we were hungry and Amber knew that I had been wanting to try an American biscuit, we stopped at a restaurant chain called Bob Horton’s (I think that’s what its called) which Amber informed me has awesome biscuits, and she hadn’t been to in ages cause they don’t have them in Jersey. ANYWAY, there we stopped, and got our breakfast/lunch. Amber ordered a biscuit and something called Grits; which turned out to look like couscous or rice pudding, and taste like porridge… and I ordered a biscuit meal (consisting of a biscuit with eggs and a white gravy and a massive side of “home fries”) AND because they looked good, I was hungry, and I didn’t know the size of the meals, I also ordered a tasty looking pancake with apples and cream cheese filling… *coughs* both of my meals were HUGE… The Biscuit turned out to be something like a savory scone (that’s the best description I have of it) smothered in scrambled eggs and a whitish gravy/sauce that is beyond description (mostly because it had very little flavor). Home fries for those of you wondering – are like potato chips except cut into squares a couple of centimeters across, and then fried I guess… REAL healthy. Then the pancakes came out and they were a good 20cm across, 2 of them with cream, apples, caramel, and this vanilla cream cheese between them… I nearly couldn’t finish. But I did, much to Amber’s surprise.
From the diner we asked directions to the Falls, because strangely enough as you drive into Niagara there are very few signs or directions on how to get there. I guess when you’re a town with such a famous attraction; you don’t ONLY want to be known for that one thing…? After all, they have massive casinos and hotels too… and a thriving ghetto community (according to the girl at the restaurant who apologized for the fact that we’d have to drive thru it on the way to the falls – which we thought was quite funny)
We parked maybe 30 minutes walk from the Falls and trudged thru the reasonably fresh snow and ice to the falls, when we got there I went to get my camera out and realized that I’d left my memory card in the laptop when I was last transferring photos across. So we made do with Amber’s camera and got a couple of decent photos. But then we saw that there was a free car park right at the falls, so we decided to go get the car and drive back and take some photos with my big camera. Amber being Amber was more than accommodating and sympathetic to me for forgetting my memory card… but we won’t dwell on how great she is…
Anyway, since we’ve been in Toronto, we’ve been to the art gallery to see an exhibition of photos by Ansel Adams and some other guy that I can’t pronounce or spell his name. That was very interesting, some great photos, a lot of photos that were very familiar and have obviously been around for a very long time. And that is about it… On Amber’s last night in town, we went out to dinner at a restaurant called the Keg, which was a massive, beautiful mansion which served possibly the best meal I have eaten in ages, amazing. Great service, awesome wine, fantastic steak and mouth watering deserts… was a really nice night.
Since then… I’ve wandered around Toronto a bit… its VERY cold at the moment; the last few days have been around the -14 to -6C range… which Is interesting. It’s a strange feeling being so cold that your face is actually aching. I think I’m wearing nearly everything I brought with me clothes wise…
Talk to you all later.
If someone wants a sheep, then that means that they exist
-Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
My second coffee and some snow…
I’m sitting in a little place called Collegetown bagels; I’ve just had my first not plain bagel – a pesto bagel covered in pizza topping. Great… my first coffee was a cappuccino, which was mostly foam, and what wasn’t foam was bad coffee… I’m hoping that my second coffee – a vanilla latte/cappuccino… (They got it wrong) will be better… I’ve also got a maple glazed donut. Just for something different… I’m currently sitting, facing the window at counter on a stool… watching light snow drift thru the air like heavy dandruff. It’s just starting to settle on the pavement, not much, but enough to see where it’s been… mmm… the second coffee is slightly vanilla flavored bad coffee… *shrugs* oh well… you can’t win them all… the donut is good. Now the sun is out, and I’m contemplating what I can do for the rest of the day…
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
New York, New York, New Years...
We left for new York city at about 3.30 on a bus that was mostly full… we all had to sit separately, and my seating partner was a massive black man who didn’t want to share and was spread out fairly well over the whole of both seats. So I sat right on the front edge of my seat and talked to Amber until we got to Newark airport and a few of the seats freed up so we got to sit together for the last 20 minutes of the trip… Coming into New York City was interesting; I don’t think maybe, it was just the fact that it was dusk and overcast… I don’t know… but it didn’t’ look really as big as I’d imagined it. Perspective is everything I guess. But we got in and the first thing that hit me as we squeezed thru the thronging masses was – strangely enough – how many people were there. And how many people actually spent money on stupid looking 2007 flashing glasses…
The forecast was rain, and it was pretty cold, but not too bad… we found a place to eat which was really nice, went upstairs and ordered a really nice bottle of Australian red wine, I had my second American steak… which as Amber has always told me, was very nice… I don’t know if it was THAT much better than how they do them in Australia, but it was bloody good. Then we headed downstairs and had a couple of drinks at the bar, which was quite nice…
Moving on we found a smallish bar a little way up the street that was interesting, we sat down and they had like really old books surrounding us, so we all grabbed a couple of books and had a look at them for a bit as we drank our assorted alcohols… after that we walked maybe 100 meters up the road and saw a sign that said “house of brews” we went up and it said that they have over 80 beers in stock, which for us was enough to go inside. As we walked thru the door we had just seen the sigh that said they have coopers pale, and we were all cheering, literally, the whole of the bar turned to look… we were like, ah, it’s okay, they have coopers *grin* .when I told the waitress that we were from the city that coopers is from, she said we weren’t allowed to have that then and we had to try something else. We were too drunk at that point to argue too much… well, not really that drunk, but… you know… she was hot… that was at about 10.30pm, and we had like a booth thing, and a big TV to watch the ball drop, so we decided to stay. It turned out to be a great little bar, and I would definitely say so far that its my favorite place so far in New York… to be fair, its out of 3; so… we’ll see next time if I find something else… we had an interesting guy come join us at one point… he was a pianist from Kentucky… first time in New York, very chatty, and he’d been drinking for the last 2 days or so… but, yeah, great guy, lots to say… lots of hand shaking and asking the same questions over and over… and he asked Sarah if she wanted to go home with him… but over all, he was harmless and quite funny…
The countdown was fun… we had hats. Of course Shannon and I, being our fathers sons, have big heads, so they didn’t fit very well. But they were there. We had noise makers too… but yeah, more stuff happened, but nothing so interesting that I can be bothered writing about… we left the bar at about 3.45am, at a guess… it was raining… we wandered relatively aimlessly for a while until someone suggested that we find the Rockefeller centre, which we walked past several times before realizing that they had turned the lights off of the big tree that everyone had been looking for… so then, still damp and frustrated by the blusteryness of the wind and the smallness of the umbrella handle, we walked in search of something open to eat in or have a coffee at… unfortunately we walked into the first place that was open. It was terrible, from the food, to the service to the looks we got when amber asked if she could pay by travelers cheque… rude, dirty and nasty… so that left me with a bad taste in my mouth, literally and figuratively… and we left for the bus terminal and had to wait about 2 hours before the bus was due to get in… Shannon and Sarah joined the many people trying to get some sleep on the hard tile floor, and I think I fell asleep several times while I was standing up… eventually I sat down when the bone aching weariness was too much to bear, and within about 3 minutes of my eyes closing a couple of police men walked thru telling everyone to stand up and kicking (gently of course) those that were too asleep to wake up straight away. I was up and on my feet at the first sound of a voice of authority, although it may have been 5 minutes before I actually realized that I was standing up and had taken stock of my surroundings…
The bus trip back was better… we all slept… then we got home and we all slept some more, we in at about 10.30, woke up at about 7, and then went back to sleep until about 10 the next morning… its amazing how much sleep you need to catch up on one night without any…
Right now, I am sitting in a mall in Ithaca NY, the first place I’ve found that I’ve been able to get internet so far on my trip, apart from a park bench outside the Toronto university library… about a week has passed, its been fun but relatively uneventful… if anything exciting happens, I’ll be sure to let you know… next weekend we’re planning on heading up to Toronto for the weekend… *shrugs* that’s all for now…
It’s about 5 or 6C outside, and it’s meant to snow, so I might head out into it and see what happens…
The forecast was rain, and it was pretty cold, but not too bad… we found a place to eat which was really nice, went upstairs and ordered a really nice bottle of Australian red wine, I had my second American steak… which as Amber has always told me, was very nice… I don’t know if it was THAT much better than how they do them in Australia, but it was bloody good. Then we headed downstairs and had a couple of drinks at the bar, which was quite nice…
Moving on we found a smallish bar a little way up the street that was interesting, we sat down and they had like really old books surrounding us, so we all grabbed a couple of books and had a look at them for a bit as we drank our assorted alcohols… after that we walked maybe 100 meters up the road and saw a sign that said “house of brews” we went up and it said that they have over 80 beers in stock, which for us was enough to go inside. As we walked thru the door we had just seen the sigh that said they have coopers pale, and we were all cheering, literally, the whole of the bar turned to look… we were like, ah, it’s okay, they have coopers *grin* .when I told the waitress that we were from the city that coopers is from, she said we weren’t allowed to have that then and we had to try something else. We were too drunk at that point to argue too much… well, not really that drunk, but… you know… she was hot… that was at about 10.30pm, and we had like a booth thing, and a big TV to watch the ball drop, so we decided to stay. It turned out to be a great little bar, and I would definitely say so far that its my favorite place so far in New York… to be fair, its out of 3; so… we’ll see next time if I find something else… we had an interesting guy come join us at one point… he was a pianist from Kentucky… first time in New York, very chatty, and he’d been drinking for the last 2 days or so… but, yeah, great guy, lots to say… lots of hand shaking and asking the same questions over and over… and he asked Sarah if she wanted to go home with him… but over all, he was harmless and quite funny…
The countdown was fun… we had hats. Of course Shannon and I, being our fathers sons, have big heads, so they didn’t fit very well. But they were there. We had noise makers too… but yeah, more stuff happened, but nothing so interesting that I can be bothered writing about… we left the bar at about 3.45am, at a guess… it was raining… we wandered relatively aimlessly for a while until someone suggested that we find the Rockefeller centre, which we walked past several times before realizing that they had turned the lights off of the big tree that everyone had been looking for… so then, still damp and frustrated by the blusteryness of the wind and the smallness of the umbrella handle, we walked in search of something open to eat in or have a coffee at… unfortunately we walked into the first place that was open. It was terrible, from the food, to the service to the looks we got when amber asked if she could pay by travelers cheque… rude, dirty and nasty… so that left me with a bad taste in my mouth, literally and figuratively… and we left for the bus terminal and had to wait about 2 hours before the bus was due to get in… Shannon and Sarah joined the many people trying to get some sleep on the hard tile floor, and I think I fell asleep several times while I was standing up… eventually I sat down when the bone aching weariness was too much to bear, and within about 3 minutes of my eyes closing a couple of police men walked thru telling everyone to stand up and kicking (gently of course) those that were too asleep to wake up straight away. I was up and on my feet at the first sound of a voice of authority, although it may have been 5 minutes before I actually realized that I was standing up and had taken stock of my surroundings…
The bus trip back was better… we all slept… then we got home and we all slept some more, we in at about 10.30, woke up at about 7, and then went back to sleep until about 10 the next morning… its amazing how much sleep you need to catch up on one night without any…
Right now, I am sitting in a mall in Ithaca NY, the first place I’ve found that I’ve been able to get internet so far on my trip, apart from a park bench outside the Toronto university library… about a week has passed, its been fun but relatively uneventful… if anything exciting happens, I’ll be sure to let you know… next weekend we’re planning on heading up to Toronto for the weekend… *shrugs* that’s all for now…
It’s about 5 or 6C outside, and it’s meant to snow, so I might head out into it and see what happens…
Bus Trips, Beer Pong, and Driving on the Wrong side of the road...
So, this is written a week after the fact, so I may or may not remember everything that’s happened over that time… I have taken some notes so… we shall see…
The Bus trip from Toronto to Rochester was interesting… the first bus driver was rude, but when we swapped busses in Buffalo the bus driver was fantastic, really nice, made jokes about his Aussies, and asked where our crocodile pants and knives were… but then had his ear chewed off for the ENTIRE trip by an American lady with an extremely annoying nasal droning voice, who talked about her family, her job, etc, the whole way there. The bus driver was amazingly patient; I on the other hand made use of my noise canceling head phones…
Our last night in Rochester we went to a party hosted by one of Sarah’s friends, we took a bottle of cheap champagne each, which made it a lot of fun…. When we were ready for another drink though, we were told that we couldn’t… so, eventually we made our way back to Sarah’s place, picking up a half carton of beer on the way, and I had my first game of beer-pong… THAT was fun… *grins*
So, I’ve now hired and driven a car in the US… and apart from turning the windscreen wipers on instead of indicating a fair bit… I think I did fairly well… I didn’t crash, and I got everyone from Rochester NY to Allentown PA safe and sound. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Driving on the other side of the car is interesting… working out that the majority of the car is on the right hand side of me instead of the left was probably the hardest part, turning and making sure that I didn’t take out my passenger side… a little bit disconcerting, but all good… We got to the airport and waited a little while while amber found the right entrance and stopped circling… and then drove the 40 minutes or so back to her place…
Amber’s parents are Great, and her sister was nice too… very teenager, but very much like her sister… who, of course, is great also... Amber’s parents did everything to make us feel comfortable and at home… Their house is gorgeous… and the power only went off once…
We did a lot of sleeping and eating, watched a few movies, and generally relaxed… so that was good…
Time for a new heading…
The Bus trip from Toronto to Rochester was interesting… the first bus driver was rude, but when we swapped busses in Buffalo the bus driver was fantastic, really nice, made jokes about his Aussies, and asked where our crocodile pants and knives were… but then had his ear chewed off for the ENTIRE trip by an American lady with an extremely annoying nasal droning voice, who talked about her family, her job, etc, the whole way there. The bus driver was amazingly patient; I on the other hand made use of my noise canceling head phones…
Our last night in Rochester we went to a party hosted by one of Sarah’s friends, we took a bottle of cheap champagne each, which made it a lot of fun…. When we were ready for another drink though, we were told that we couldn’t… so, eventually we made our way back to Sarah’s place, picking up a half carton of beer on the way, and I had my first game of beer-pong… THAT was fun… *grins*
So, I’ve now hired and driven a car in the US… and apart from turning the windscreen wipers on instead of indicating a fair bit… I think I did fairly well… I didn’t crash, and I got everyone from Rochester NY to Allentown PA safe and sound. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Driving on the other side of the car is interesting… working out that the majority of the car is on the right hand side of me instead of the left was probably the hardest part, turning and making sure that I didn’t take out my passenger side… a little bit disconcerting, but all good… We got to the airport and waited a little while while amber found the right entrance and stopped circling… and then drove the 40 minutes or so back to her place…
Amber’s parents are Great, and her sister was nice too… very teenager, but very much like her sister… who, of course, is great also... Amber’s parents did everything to make us feel comfortable and at home… Their house is gorgeous… and the power only went off once…
We did a lot of sleeping and eating, watched a few movies, and generally relaxed… so that was good…
Time for a new heading…
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Day1, snow and my face is frozen
Snow! I woke this morning after a night of beer and burgers with Shannon, and it is snowing. So good…
I took the advice of some seasoned travelers and tried to just sleep normal hours, so I think I went to sleep at about 11 last night… or there abouts. Woke up at 11 thismorning. Good thing we didn’t get the bus today, cause we would have missed it. Today is a day of wandering around, maybe catching a movie. We went and got breakfast/lunch at a cool little restaurant/diner place, now we’re just back at shannons room doing a few things before we go back out into the cold.
I love it.
Overseas rocks!
I took the advice of some seasoned travelers and tried to just sleep normal hours, so I think I went to sleep at about 11 last night… or there abouts. Woke up at 11 thismorning. Good thing we didn’t get the bus today, cause we would have missed it. Today is a day of wandering around, maybe catching a movie. We went and got breakfast/lunch at a cool little restaurant/diner place, now we’re just back at shannons room doing a few things before we go back out into the cold.
I love it.
Overseas rocks!
Blurred Horizons
Just a thought as I stare out the window of this American airlines flight to Toronto… it seems , today at least that the horizon is no more than a lighter, hazy mist in the general area of between earth and sky… no sharp line… I don’t know if it’s the weather, or if its pollution, I really don’t know… but it came to me a sort of thought… I guess… that it is sort of appropriate for my first day of my trip… yeah, I can see roughly where its going to end, but its hazy, there’s a line, but its not defined… clouds and pollution blur the details… I can see the basic outline of the landscape…
*Shrugs*
Who knows… But its fucken exciting…
*Shrugs*
Who knows… But its fucken exciting…
Legs 2 and 3...
Leg 2. Melbourne to LA.
Flight from Adelaide was completely uneventful… I did find that my Scull Candy noise cancelling headphones work wonderfully well. Very happy with them. I also found that short flight entertainment is imensley boring. My new book “Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman has started well tho, so that’s encouraging.
I am on hold with Telstra trying to change my phone plan, but I don’t think they’ve decided not to staff many people on boxing day - fair enough, I guess, it might cost them money… first call for my flight has just been announced, so more when I get on the plane.
On the plane:
And its not just any plane, it’s a big red one with aborigional artwork all over it… it looks really cool. But the seat is uncomfortable – and I’ve only been here for an hour, I can only imagine in another 14 how my arse will be feeling. One of the disadvantages of a window seat – you cant easily get up… obviously having a wall to lean against when you want to sleep is a huge advantage, but otherwise, its just another cramped seat on a massive red plane.
I could have guessed, I have a child, who supprisingly is not screaming sitting in the seat behind me. He is – however fairly regularly kicking me in the kidneys so that should be a hoot... I’m sitting next to a young couple who seem really nice, also on their way to Toronto.
Going through customs was ridiculously simple and no where near as scary as some people have made it out to be. Although it is meant to be worse on the other end of the Pacific where supposedly the Americans are rude and blunt… *Shrugs* that’s their problem… I got about $450 back at the tourist rebate scheme counter, which I am thrilled about. Everyone so far has been nice. All I have to worry about is my arse, and my kidneys.
The seats even have their own little screens in the headrests. Games, and movies all at my fingertips. And I wont even have to use my laptop…
Anyway – back to my book… more later in the flight.
My little lcd monitor in front of me tells me that there is about eight and a half hours until we reach our destination. We just experienced a quite wonderful sunset, but because of how fast we are going and the direction we are traveling, it really didn’t last long enough. Time enough however to have everyone scrambling for their cameras in time to get a photo. And now it is dark.
The kid behind me has just quietened after a good hour and a half of screaming and kicking my chair.
Looks like I just got to the toilet in time, as the line up has got ridiculous…
Probably should try to get a bit of sleep at some point… really don’t know what the best way to do this to avoid jet lag is… its only 5.30 Adelaide time, but sitting does make you tired. .. I might listen to some music for a while, maybe read some more… not much more I can say… I might even watch a movie until I fall asleep…
More later. *yawns*
Leg 3.
US customs, while slow and long winded, was relatively painless. And after getting into LA at about 7.45am and wading thru the fore-mentioned beurocacy, we were running late for our Toronto flight. (I say “we” I should clarify– the young couple from Melbourne who are working in Canada. We’ve been getting along quite well, we stood in line at customs for over an hour and they let me use their luggage trolley, and chatted: was good. Would like to catch up with them for a drink when I get to Toronto, they seem nice, and they said they don’t go out much)
I got a last call for “Masson” or “Manson” so that was funny. Because of this I had to re-check in, and the lady at the desk asked me if I wanted an emergency exit isle which has more leg room, which I was thrilled about, until the ginormous guy came and sat next to me, oozing out over both armrests and complaining about how cramped these smaller plains are. Then settled in and literally 2 minutes after take off, while we were still very steeply climbing, was snoring loudly and obnoxiously. So… screaming kid kicking me in the back for 14 hours, and now being squished against the wall by an overweight computer nerd, and hoping he doesn’t roll over on me and kill me for the next 5. So I have heaps of leg room, but no room for my body...
Great.
My first impression of LA as I stared down at the “Google-Earth”esque view was that of a massive computer chip… very ordered little squares, with the occasional dampener or electrode of a high-rise building. Then it got more into the hilly bits, which were quite nice, massive houses etc, but roads that look extremely poorly planned, winding all over the damned place… I guess its so the zillionaires can see how well their cars handle on windy roads… Crazy… Other than that, I don’t think it really feels that much different to the southern hemisphere. Fistly I guess cause another Qantas flight arrived at nearly exactly the same time as ours, and the whole terminal ws filled with Australians, and secondly, cause I didn’t’ go outside… it was just like Australia, except with a few American accents… and thirdly, cause I didn’t go to the toilet to see how high the water was, and if it spins the wrong way down the drain…
And its funny how some thing said with an American accent can sound hilarious… especially – and im not being racist in the least here - the black American stereotype way of talking… From what I’ve seen its not a stereotype at all, its true… imagine, if you will, a very large black American woman, security guard/customs officer, nice as pie, smiling at everyone, and as another security guard walks past, she calls out “hey! Tyrone, yo squeekin boy!” cracked me up… he had a squeaky shoe… *coughs* guess you had to be there…
Anyway, back to sleep I think…
I’ve had a chance to talk to the big guy sitting next to me… a doctor from Toronto, who’s just been to Brisbane for a day for something to do with doctoring… he works in Canada’s version of the Royal Flying Doctors… been interesting…
More soon...
Flight from Adelaide was completely uneventful… I did find that my Scull Candy noise cancelling headphones work wonderfully well. Very happy with them. I also found that short flight entertainment is imensley boring. My new book “Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman has started well tho, so that’s encouraging.
I am on hold with Telstra trying to change my phone plan, but I don’t think they’ve decided not to staff many people on boxing day - fair enough, I guess, it might cost them money… first call for my flight has just been announced, so more when I get on the plane.
On the plane:
And its not just any plane, it’s a big red one with aborigional artwork all over it… it looks really cool. But the seat is uncomfortable – and I’ve only been here for an hour, I can only imagine in another 14 how my arse will be feeling. One of the disadvantages of a window seat – you cant easily get up… obviously having a wall to lean against when you want to sleep is a huge advantage, but otherwise, its just another cramped seat on a massive red plane.
I could have guessed, I have a child, who supprisingly is not screaming sitting in the seat behind me. He is – however fairly regularly kicking me in the kidneys so that should be a hoot... I’m sitting next to a young couple who seem really nice, also on their way to Toronto.
Going through customs was ridiculously simple and no where near as scary as some people have made it out to be. Although it is meant to be worse on the other end of the Pacific where supposedly the Americans are rude and blunt… *Shrugs* that’s their problem… I got about $450 back at the tourist rebate scheme counter, which I am thrilled about. Everyone so far has been nice. All I have to worry about is my arse, and my kidneys.
The seats even have their own little screens in the headrests. Games, and movies all at my fingertips. And I wont even have to use my laptop…
Anyway – back to my book… more later in the flight.
My little lcd monitor in front of me tells me that there is about eight and a half hours until we reach our destination. We just experienced a quite wonderful sunset, but because of how fast we are going and the direction we are traveling, it really didn’t last long enough. Time enough however to have everyone scrambling for their cameras in time to get a photo. And now it is dark.
The kid behind me has just quietened after a good hour and a half of screaming and kicking my chair.
Looks like I just got to the toilet in time, as the line up has got ridiculous…
Probably should try to get a bit of sleep at some point… really don’t know what the best way to do this to avoid jet lag is… its only 5.30 Adelaide time, but sitting does make you tired. .. I might listen to some music for a while, maybe read some more… not much more I can say… I might even watch a movie until I fall asleep…
More later. *yawns*
Leg 3.
US customs, while slow and long winded, was relatively painless. And after getting into LA at about 7.45am and wading thru the fore-mentioned beurocacy, we were running late for our Toronto flight. (I say “we” I should clarify– the young couple from Melbourne who are working in Canada. We’ve been getting along quite well, we stood in line at customs for over an hour and they let me use their luggage trolley, and chatted: was good. Would like to catch up with them for a drink when I get to Toronto, they seem nice, and they said they don’t go out much)
I got a last call for “Masson” or “Manson” so that was funny. Because of this I had to re-check in, and the lady at the desk asked me if I wanted an emergency exit isle which has more leg room, which I was thrilled about, until the ginormous guy came and sat next to me, oozing out over both armrests and complaining about how cramped these smaller plains are. Then settled in and literally 2 minutes after take off, while we were still very steeply climbing, was snoring loudly and obnoxiously. So… screaming kid kicking me in the back for 14 hours, and now being squished against the wall by an overweight computer nerd, and hoping he doesn’t roll over on me and kill me for the next 5. So I have heaps of leg room, but no room for my body...
Great.
My first impression of LA as I stared down at the “Google-Earth”esque view was that of a massive computer chip… very ordered little squares, with the occasional dampener or electrode of a high-rise building. Then it got more into the hilly bits, which were quite nice, massive houses etc, but roads that look extremely poorly planned, winding all over the damned place… I guess its so the zillionaires can see how well their cars handle on windy roads… Crazy… Other than that, I don’t think it really feels that much different to the southern hemisphere. Fistly I guess cause another Qantas flight arrived at nearly exactly the same time as ours, and the whole terminal ws filled with Australians, and secondly, cause I didn’t’ go outside… it was just like Australia, except with a few American accents… and thirdly, cause I didn’t go to the toilet to see how high the water was, and if it spins the wrong way down the drain…
And its funny how some thing said with an American accent can sound hilarious… especially – and im not being racist in the least here - the black American stereotype way of talking… From what I’ve seen its not a stereotype at all, its true… imagine, if you will, a very large black American woman, security guard/customs officer, nice as pie, smiling at everyone, and as another security guard walks past, she calls out “hey! Tyrone, yo squeekin boy!” cracked me up… he had a squeaky shoe… *coughs* guess you had to be there…
Anyway, back to sleep I think…
I’ve had a chance to talk to the big guy sitting next to me… a doctor from Toronto, who’s just been to Brisbane for a day for something to do with doctoring… he works in Canada’s version of the Royal Flying Doctors… been interesting…
More soon...
Day of Departure – Leg 1 awakenings.
Adelaide to Melbourne.
My alarm went off at 5am this morning. I turned over, moaned, and pushed my wake up time back another hour… I woke up at 5.55 am got up and had my shower. At about 6.03 I heard the house vibrating and realized that I hadn’t disabled the alarm on my phone, and it had been going off for a few minutes. You have to realize something about my mobile phone alarm – it is un-relenting. It will beep at you in progressively more persistent ear splitting tones, until you get to it and turn it off, or until the battery runs flat. I very rarely even let it beep once, the first half vibrate is normally enough to snap me awake, that’s how light a sleeper I am. Having said that, if I am snoring it doesn’t wake me up… why is that I wonder?
Anyway, I woke up at about 6.30 well after my shower and last minute rushing around was over, and waited for a while until I felt it was sufficiently close enough to 7am to wake up Sunil, who had very kindly offered to take me to the airport. Thus saving me about $25 in taxi fees. As we drove to the airport we chatted a bit… I told him about my interesting week… frustratingly interesting, both good and bad, and neither of which I will recount for the world… as I’ve said before, Life goes on…
The day has dawned cool and clear. I’m glad its not the 40+ that I predicted, because I am wearing enough winter clothes to keep me warm (I hope) in the minus whatever temperatures that are bound to greet me when I get to Toronto in 30 something hours. This has served 2 purposes – first is that I can claim as much of the stuff as possible that I’m wearing at customs on the way out of the county in Melbourne, and secondly is that I could close my bag. It is very full. I am hoping to see it again in north America….
And here I am… sitting at gate 22 at Adelaide airport, waiting the last few minutes before departure, an empty take away coffee cup on the seat next to me… a little nervous. But still not fully comprehending where I will wake up next… sweating lightly in my Icebreaker merino undergarments…
More later.
My alarm went off at 5am this morning. I turned over, moaned, and pushed my wake up time back another hour… I woke up at 5.55 am got up and had my shower. At about 6.03 I heard the house vibrating and realized that I hadn’t disabled the alarm on my phone, and it had been going off for a few minutes. You have to realize something about my mobile phone alarm – it is un-relenting. It will beep at you in progressively more persistent ear splitting tones, until you get to it and turn it off, or until the battery runs flat. I very rarely even let it beep once, the first half vibrate is normally enough to snap me awake, that’s how light a sleeper I am. Having said that, if I am snoring it doesn’t wake me up… why is that I wonder?
Anyway, I woke up at about 6.30 well after my shower and last minute rushing around was over, and waited for a while until I felt it was sufficiently close enough to 7am to wake up Sunil, who had very kindly offered to take me to the airport. Thus saving me about $25 in taxi fees. As we drove to the airport we chatted a bit… I told him about my interesting week… frustratingly interesting, both good and bad, and neither of which I will recount for the world… as I’ve said before, Life goes on…
The day has dawned cool and clear. I’m glad its not the 40+ that I predicted, because I am wearing enough winter clothes to keep me warm (I hope) in the minus whatever temperatures that are bound to greet me when I get to Toronto in 30 something hours. This has served 2 purposes – first is that I can claim as much of the stuff as possible that I’m wearing at customs on the way out of the county in Melbourne, and secondly is that I could close my bag. It is very full. I am hoping to see it again in north America….
And here I am… sitting at gate 22 at Adelaide airport, waiting the last few minutes before departure, an empty take away coffee cup on the seat next to me… a little nervous. But still not fully comprehending where I will wake up next… sweating lightly in my Icebreaker merino undergarments…
More later.
Monday, December 25, 2006
A Serendipitous Christmas Day; the emotional eye of the storm.
It really really doesn’t feel like Christmas at all…
Christmas drinks at work were good last night, and I caught up with Damien, my best friend from primary school that I haven’t seen in probably about 10 years… so that was good. I got a card from my work mates and $160, which I was chuffed with… I was expecting maybe $50 or so… it seems I am reasonably well liked… monetarily at least.
All in all, life goes on… my Serendipitousness continues… and I’m finding myself in a quite content and peaceful state of mind. Maybe it’s the eye of the storm, goodness knows the last few months have been anything but emotionally calm, and who knows what the next few months will bring… Maybe I’m subduing all of my emotions and fears and hoping they go away. Right now I feel very little… which is probably a bad thing, because I really should be packing…
I would just like to add one thing before I go and have a shower and maybe think about packing some stuff… (And thank you to Caroline for my word of the day – Serendipity) I’d just like to say that timing sucks… but life is too short for regrets.
Here’s to Serendipity! May it continue to fill our lives with confusion and happiness! Cheers!
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties. - Sir Francis Bacon
Christmas drinks at work were good last night, and I caught up with Damien, my best friend from primary school that I haven’t seen in probably about 10 years… so that was good. I got a card from my work mates and $160, which I was chuffed with… I was expecting maybe $50 or so… it seems I am reasonably well liked… monetarily at least.
All in all, life goes on… my Serendipitousness continues… and I’m finding myself in a quite content and peaceful state of mind. Maybe it’s the eye of the storm, goodness knows the last few months have been anything but emotionally calm, and who knows what the next few months will bring… Maybe I’m subduing all of my emotions and fears and hoping they go away. Right now I feel very little… which is probably a bad thing, because I really should be packing…
I would just like to add one thing before I go and have a shower and maybe think about packing some stuff… (And thank you to Caroline for my word of the day – Serendipity) I’d just like to say that timing sucks… but life is too short for regrets.
Here’s to Serendipity! May it continue to fill our lives with confusion and happiness! Cheers!
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties. - Sir Francis Bacon
Monday, December 18, 2006
If you had to remember a city, today would be the day to remember it.
I have probably said it before, but I really like Adelaide. Today was a really nice summers day, mid 30s at a guess, warm breeze, lots of smiling faces. I have spent the day not packing, I might get a chance to do some tonight, but I don’t know… I think having everything organized so early has given me nothing to worry about, I’ll probably leave the packing ‘til the last minute, just so I don’t feel so anal.
Anyway, I’ve spent the day in the usual manner, mostly wandering around the city. Got a hair cut… last one in Australia for a while, and I made it practical (so I can wear a beanie) yet fashionable (I paid $59 for it… better f@%#*g look good). I also got a message from the travel agent saying that my Contiki tour stuff has come in (good thing it came in today, wouldn’t have had a chance later in the week…) that came in a really cool document pouch thing, which is a shame, cause I had already bought something that would do the same job… *shrugs*.
Then I sort of started walking in the general direction of the river, but for one reason or another (main reason is I couldn’t be bothered) I turned around and decided to head home, figured I could write my entry from the comfort of my air conditioned house, laying on my bed… but I got to the parklands at east terrace and it was nice and shady and so very very green and I decided to find a piece of grass and stop. So I’ve stopped.
So other than that; I’ve drunk 3 bottles of green iced tea. Which I have grown a taste for. And I’ve been walking everywhere in my crocs. Which now that they have stopped rubbing the top of my feet off, have become quite comfortable, and only leave black marks everywhere, which is better than blood any day of the week. And I’m trying to not think of how close I am to leaving… as excited as I am, its all a little daunting. I don’t think I’m afraid, but I’m definitely nervous.
In other news, I’ve found the program that I’m going to use to do my photos with and send them home, had a play with that yesterday, all pretty straight forward. I also downloaded the program that the Uni uses for the digital imaging part of their course. It’s a really cool program by Google called sketchup. And it’s FREE! Or at least the basic version is. Have a play @ www.sketchup.com . Good fun, and there’s a really good tutorial at the start that gives you some really good grounding. Also my “soup-n-salad” looks like it will be in at Crumpler before I go, which I’m happy about.
And that’s about it, I’m going to go read for a bit, and then continue not packing probably…
Anyway, I’ve spent the day in the usual manner, mostly wandering around the city. Got a hair cut… last one in Australia for a while, and I made it practical (so I can wear a beanie) yet fashionable (I paid $59 for it… better f@%#*g look good). I also got a message from the travel agent saying that my Contiki tour stuff has come in (good thing it came in today, wouldn’t have had a chance later in the week…) that came in a really cool document pouch thing, which is a shame, cause I had already bought something that would do the same job… *shrugs*.
Then I sort of started walking in the general direction of the river, but for one reason or another (main reason is I couldn’t be bothered) I turned around and decided to head home, figured I could write my entry from the comfort of my air conditioned house, laying on my bed… but I got to the parklands at east terrace and it was nice and shady and so very very green and I decided to find a piece of grass and stop. So I’ve stopped.
So other than that; I’ve drunk 3 bottles of green iced tea. Which I have grown a taste for. And I’ve been walking everywhere in my crocs. Which now that they have stopped rubbing the top of my feet off, have become quite comfortable, and only leave black marks everywhere, which is better than blood any day of the week. And I’m trying to not think of how close I am to leaving… as excited as I am, its all a little daunting. I don’t think I’m afraid, but I’m definitely nervous.
In other news, I’ve found the program that I’m going to use to do my photos with and send them home, had a play with that yesterday, all pretty straight forward. I also downloaded the program that the Uni uses for the digital imaging part of their course. It’s a really cool program by Google called sketchup. And it’s FREE! Or at least the basic version is. Have a play @ www.sketchup.com . Good fun, and there’s a really good tutorial at the start that gives you some really good grounding. Also my “soup-n-salad” looks like it will be in at Crumpler before I go, which I’m happy about.
And that’s about it, I’m going to go read for a bit, and then continue not packing probably…
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Entry 2 - A Giant Mug with a Bagel, and Sand Castles in the Mall.
So….
I think interesting is the best word to describe what happened today. Joan Lesley “international psychic” (I assume psychics aren’t limited by international travel) on first impressions, quite an ordinary older lady, sort of like a young grandmother in characteristics and familiarity… with a bachelor of psychology. She said some very interesting things. To start with she asked when I was born, instantly she was saying that I’d had a tough year…(after confirming what everyone this year has told me – that I don’t look 27) she asked when my ex was born (I didn’t tell her I had an ex – but I guess these days, who doesn’t?) and I told her. She proceeded to describe her and her entire family to me in fairly accurate depth and detail – even to the point of saying that the parents were into something like spiritual or religious or something (they are pastors). Spooky. Anyway, without getting too nasty, she told me exactly what she thought of her, what she’s like and even gave a sort of description of her. All very accurate. Then she asked me about who I was seeing now, and again, without going into specifics, told me that she liked her. A lot. I replied that so do I. and she asked why I was so worried about it, etc etc… don’t want to jinx what she said, but it was all very interesting. Told me about my traveling… said that the New Year was going to be awesome and that the next 5 or 6 years would be fantastic for me, a whole new start etc… Maybe in part I heard what I wanted to hear, maybe she used her psychology degree to read me more than her cards… but there was definitely some interesting things said. She finished the session by calling in the girl from the office and telling her to do some “cleansing and balancing” and ‘cause its Christmas, not to charge me for it (she was a master of the add on sale) and then she said to do something else which I couldn’t pronounce and under her breath said “and only charge him half price for that” *rolls eyes*. Anyway… they took me to the back room and told me to take off my shoes and socks and roll up the bottom of my pants, then I laid on my back on a massage table, they placed a weighted blindfold over my eyes and stuck some headphones on my ears and played elevator music to me with a background of twittering birds and heavy rain. I like rain, but the foot massage was even better. They did some other things that I’m assuming cleansed and healed and balanced me, but I would have paid $30 just for them to do the foot massage for half an hour. It was good. When they’d finished they suggested that I had a lot of pent up stress and that I should definitely come back before Christmas for another healing… I told them I was working right up until I leave and bid them thank-you and goodbye. One interesting thing is that Joan taped the session. That’s right. Tape. I don’t own a tape deck. In fact I know very few people that own tape decks. . . I think its time for her to go digital, I should have tried to sell her a CD recorder… with an extended warranty (at half price). As I left I was told I should drink plenty of water and juice and not cross my arms or legs.
Make what you will of that.
One interesting thing I did notice was the presence of a lot of Catholic symbolism; posters, wall hangings, statues etc. I’m not quite sure what the Catholics would think of that, especially when at one point Joan said that the Archangel Michelangelo (or something) was standing at my right shoulder protecting me… I mean, that’s nice of him, but I’m sure he has more important things to attend to… like peeling God’s grapes or something…
Then my schedule led me to the gym where I had an appointment to cancel my membership. The lady came over to me and asked me my name… gave me a puzzled look, went away, came back and told me that my membership was cancelled in July, and that I hadn’t paid anything since then. I’ll have to check my bank accounts, and to be fair, I haven’t actually checked that it has been coming out, I just assumed. But I never cancelled it, and according to the normal rules of gym membership, if you do cancel you should still have to pay out the rest of the 12 month membership costs, and I didn’t. So. That’s good news… I’ve saved several hundred dollars without actually knowing it. It doesn’t really reflect in my bank balance and I don’t know what I’ve done with the extra $39 a fortnight, but I am glad that it hasn’t gone to a membership that I haven’t been using.
Then while waiting for 6 o’clock to roll around I found a Starbucks and got a “Venti” mug of the coffee of the day, which was Verona… a dark chocolaty sort of coffee in a ginormous mug. They also had bagels there, and as I’m going to the states soon, I thought I probably should try one. I picked a Blueberry bagel, and after electing to pay the 75c for light cream cheese I watched as the girl battled with a bread knife to try to saw thru the dense donut shaped bun. I then waited 10 minutes for her to remember that after it had been toasted, she’s actually meant to give it to me, and smiled as she handed me the luke-warm bagel and said if it wasn’t hot to tell her and she could do me another one. Not being one to complain I said it was fine and sat down to my bagel and cream cheese and enormous mug of chocolaty coffee… and wrote some of this entry. I realized at one point that I was sitting with my legs crossed and quickly un-crossed myself.
Then I left for the Architecture info night. On the way I passed some very cool sand castle sculptures with a Christmas theme. Very cool, I guess if you have to make snow men out of something when its 40C outside, it might as well be sand…
The architecture information was very interesting… I really felt like I was keen to be back in that environment of learning and study. Good thing about the course is that it involves a lot of hands on stuff, very few exams and a lot of group work. All of which suits me fine. The model building looks really great, and there are a lot of excursions and field trips to go on… wait and see if I get in I guess.
Time to head home, the wind is starting to pick up and it’s getting quite cool (nothing to what I’ll be experiencing in a couple of weeks – but enough to raise the hairs on my arms and harden my nipples)
Anyway, I guess if I’ve gotten anything out of today, it’s the thought that if you are what you drink – then I’m a giant mug with a blueberry bagel…
Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing. - Randy K. Milholland
And it rolls around again - First Entry: 12 Midday...
Going to be a fairly full day today, shopping this morning was interesting in itself. I took a backpack and filled it with all the liquids and heavy stuff so my arms didn’t drop off… but it was seriously about 15 kg I reckon. That was my second workout for the day, as I finally motivated myself enough this morning to go for a run!
In about an hour I’ve got to leave for town… got that appointment with the psychic… that will be very interesting. They told me to have questions to ask her, and photos of people you want to know stuff about. Some things I think are probably best not to know, so I think I’ll just let her tell me what I “want” to hear… that in itself should be interesting. A few of my cousins have been to see various “seers” and have come back with spine tingling hair raising revelations or predictions… so… yeah… I’ll let you know.
Then I have to go to the gym and get them to cancel my membership. Such a waste of money that’s been. Should just tell people to get glandular fever – that helped me loose weight, since then I’ve never felt better. And I’ve started running, I honestly think that’s the key – exercise… stuff diets…
Then at 6 I’ve got an information night at Adelaide Uni about the Architecture course I’ve applied for. Don’t find out whether I’ve gotten in until about the 16th of January. And I’ll be somewhere in the US at that time…
But right now I have to go down and see if I can figure out how to extract the power supply from my PC… and take that to the place I bought the computer from on the way into town. Hopefully it’s that that’s not working, cause I really can’t’ be stuffed carrying the whole tower down there. And I’ve only got one more day off work before I leave, so I don’t have time anyway…
More later in the day.
In about an hour I’ve got to leave for town… got that appointment with the psychic… that will be very interesting. They told me to have questions to ask her, and photos of people you want to know stuff about. Some things I think are probably best not to know, so I think I’ll just let her tell me what I “want” to hear… that in itself should be interesting. A few of my cousins have been to see various “seers” and have come back with spine tingling hair raising revelations or predictions… so… yeah… I’ll let you know.
Then I have to go to the gym and get them to cancel my membership. Such a waste of money that’s been. Should just tell people to get glandular fever – that helped me loose weight, since then I’ve never felt better. And I’ve started running, I honestly think that’s the key – exercise… stuff diets…
Then at 6 I’ve got an information night at Adelaide Uni about the Architecture course I’ve applied for. Don’t find out whether I’ve gotten in until about the 16th of January. And I’ll be somewhere in the US at that time…
But right now I have to go down and see if I can figure out how to extract the power supply from my PC… and take that to the place I bought the computer from on the way into town. Hopefully it’s that that’s not working, cause I really can’t’ be stuffed carrying the whole tower down there. And I’ve only got one more day off work before I leave, so I don’t have time anyway…
More later in the day.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Aimless Wanderings... Results and Christmas Shopping.
So I got thru a day off without blogging… amazing. I think the main reason for this would have been the fact that I was actually uncharacteristically busy. I woke up at about 8, which is about normal for my days off... unfortunately gone seem to be the days of me sleeping in until 11am (or staying in bed until 5!) I got up and once showered and dressed I went to do my weeklyish grocery shopping. Came back, pottered around the house for a bit, and then called Amber, spoke to her for a satisfying and conversation filled hour or so… maybe a bit more, then decided that I would move my room aground.
I’ve been in my room now for nearly a year and its been the same the whole time, on Tuesday I moved it all around, made myself a heap more room, and only get to enjoy it for another 3 weeks… wish I’d done it months ago…it looks good… Bed in the corner, view out the double door onto the balcony if the curtains are open... yeah... looks good.
Then I checked the mail, in it was my stat test results. I did quite well, 166/200 and better than more then 90% of the rest of the people that have sat the test. Hopefully it’s enough to get me into architecture… I think the first round of offers come out tomorrow. I'll let you know.
Anyway, after that I went into town, didn’t take my notebook cause I had my bar course afterwards. So I wandered around town for a while… somehow hurting my leg in the process… felt like I’d strained a ligament of something on the side of my right knee, which was annoying.. but when I went to get something to eat from Woolies for my bar course dinner, I got some pain killers and some fish oil tablets… took 2 pain killers and a fish oil tablet, then another 2 painkillers about an hour later when it still wasn’t feeling any better… and its come good… still on the fish oil… someone told me it was good for aches and pains and stuff… and I don’t know if it’s the tablets or the fact that I’m just not in any pain, but… well, I’m not in any pain…
Went and booked a session with a psychic next week… will let you know how that goes…
Then I went to my bar course…last session and practical test. Got my results for the written test – got 48/50. And as happy as I am with that, it’s really not very surprising considering, as I said, that the teacher was going around giving us help… I think I did quite well in the prac. Didn’t spill the tray, poured 3 passable beers, messed up my fruit cup a little bit, but not too bad… think I did alright in everything else…
Then walking home at about 8.45 down Rundle Street, I walked past the nova cinema. Well, that’s not right, I didn’t walk past it, I walked into it… saw that a movie that I sort of wanted to see was on in about half an hour, and decided that since I’d had such a good day, and that it was a Tuesday so the tickets were cheap, I would watch a movie. The movie was A Scanner Darkly… interestingly made movie… cell shaded over actual filmed footage… strange effect, sort of messes with your head a bit… took a while for my head to get adjusted to the style. But over all, money well spent, and a nice end to a very nice day.
Yesterday at work was good too... the last few days at work have actually been really good… lots of people realizing its Christmas and deciding that they finally want to buy a TV… and I’ve found myself using the line “I’m leaving in 3 weeks, I want to do as many deals as I can before I go… blah blah blah” seems to be working, cause the last 2 days I’ve worked, I reckon I’ve done nearly 10G a day… so that’s good. If I can do that sort of thing every day before I leave, it should help the bank balance a little bit at least. I think I only have maybe 2 more days off work before Christmas...
Christmas shopping is hard…
Anyway, it seems like I’m really just dribbling today… no real continuity to my thoughts… Today I’ve done a bit of Christmas shopping (not much mind you…) wandered around town as aimlessly as my thoughts… it’s a nice day again, and again I’ve found myself down at the river front… watching some people building something on the grass… looks like maybe the flooring for a massive pavilion or something… anyway… enough for now… I’m reading a really good book at the moment and I want to get back to it…
See ya.
No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating. - Harold Rosenberg
I’ve been in my room now for nearly a year and its been the same the whole time, on Tuesday I moved it all around, made myself a heap more room, and only get to enjoy it for another 3 weeks… wish I’d done it months ago…it looks good… Bed in the corner, view out the double door onto the balcony if the curtains are open... yeah... looks good.
Then I checked the mail, in it was my stat test results. I did quite well, 166/200 and better than more then 90% of the rest of the people that have sat the test. Hopefully it’s enough to get me into architecture… I think the first round of offers come out tomorrow. I'll let you know.
Anyway, after that I went into town, didn’t take my notebook cause I had my bar course afterwards. So I wandered around town for a while… somehow hurting my leg in the process… felt like I’d strained a ligament of something on the side of my right knee, which was annoying.. but when I went to get something to eat from Woolies for my bar course dinner, I got some pain killers and some fish oil tablets… took 2 pain killers and a fish oil tablet, then another 2 painkillers about an hour later when it still wasn’t feeling any better… and its come good… still on the fish oil… someone told me it was good for aches and pains and stuff… and I don’t know if it’s the tablets or the fact that I’m just not in any pain, but… well, I’m not in any pain…
Went and booked a session with a psychic next week… will let you know how that goes…
Then I went to my bar course…last session and practical test. Got my results for the written test – got 48/50. And as happy as I am with that, it’s really not very surprising considering, as I said, that the teacher was going around giving us help… I think I did quite well in the prac. Didn’t spill the tray, poured 3 passable beers, messed up my fruit cup a little bit, but not too bad… think I did alright in everything else…
Then walking home at about 8.45 down Rundle Street, I walked past the nova cinema. Well, that’s not right, I didn’t walk past it, I walked into it… saw that a movie that I sort of wanted to see was on in about half an hour, and decided that since I’d had such a good day, and that it was a Tuesday so the tickets were cheap, I would watch a movie. The movie was A Scanner Darkly… interestingly made movie… cell shaded over actual filmed footage… strange effect, sort of messes with your head a bit… took a while for my head to get adjusted to the style. But over all, money well spent, and a nice end to a very nice day.
Yesterday at work was good too... the last few days at work have actually been really good… lots of people realizing its Christmas and deciding that they finally want to buy a TV… and I’ve found myself using the line “I’m leaving in 3 weeks, I want to do as many deals as I can before I go… blah blah blah” seems to be working, cause the last 2 days I’ve worked, I reckon I’ve done nearly 10G a day… so that’s good. If I can do that sort of thing every day before I leave, it should help the bank balance a little bit at least. I think I only have maybe 2 more days off work before Christmas...
Christmas shopping is hard…
Anyway, it seems like I’m really just dribbling today… no real continuity to my thoughts… Today I’ve done a bit of Christmas shopping (not much mind you…) wandered around town as aimlessly as my thoughts… it’s a nice day again, and again I’ve found myself down at the river front… watching some people building something on the grass… looks like maybe the flooring for a massive pavilion or something… anyway… enough for now… I’m reading a really good book at the moment and I want to get back to it…
See ya.
No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating. - Harold Rosenberg
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