S07e20 - In a "C" of Red

The 27th was Hockey Night in Calgary with my beloved Senators playing Calgary at the Penngrowth Saddle Dome.

7 of us where going, 6 Elias' and one me, all dressed in our best Ottawa gear ready to take a hammering from the home fans.

The really cool thing, well, in my reckoning anyway, was that we had all gotten tickets in the Sportchek Zone, which for those that don't know the SaddleDome is the nice way of naming the cheap seats. Not that its all that bad as hocket arenas arent massivly huge like the MCG for example and so the nose bleed seats are still pretty fair.

Naomi and myself however happened into a couple of season ticket seats in the 200 area which gave us an amazing view of the game.

The reseption on the whole from the home fans was pretty good and seeing as it was two Canadian teams playing feelings before the puck dropped where pretty even keeled. That of course changed a little once the puck dropped and when the Sens grabbed a 2 to 0 lead early in the second period, it was starting to get a little icey.

The ice was broken, then smashed when a 5 minute period in the 2nd offered the Flames 3 unanswered goals for them to lead going into the 2nd intermission .... by now, the home fans, full of liquid courage began to get a little cocky.

I'm not a loud obnoxious supporter in anycase and was just happy to be watching two NHL sides go at it.

We ended up going down 6 to 3 after tying it up early in the 3rd, but the experience of it all was simply amazing. The "C of Red" as the Calgary home fans are known where loud and vocal al night and lived up to their name as 80% of Flames fans had their home jerseys on giving the crowd a good dose of red. It also helped that the Sens are the same colours, so the crowd looked redder than ever on the night.

s07e19 - Xmas ... But Not as we Know it Jim.

Xmas started out like most other Christmas Days ... well, maybe a little different, because it's not too often back in Broken Hill do you wake up to a sheet of snow across the ground.

The plan was to go from where I am staying to a family members house which would serve as a HQ for the entire day.

Breakfast at 10:30am was amazing and was the perfect start to the day. Breakfast was followed by a trip to the Calgary Zoo which had been arranged by Naomi and her uncle Les who works as a handler at the Zoo.

The Zoo was closed for the day and so our tour was an unsanctioned behind the scenes tour of the zoo ...

So we got to the Zoo and Les first leads us off to the Lion enclosure where the lions are inside and ready to be fed. Wow, up close and personal wit h3 lioness' and the male, who we were advised to be wary of as the male tends to "spray" guests. It wasn't the male I was worried about after being in the enclosure for 30 seconds. The lioness at the very end of the enclosue, Teesha seemed to be kinda fond of me ... but not in a good way.

Everytime I made eye contact or even moved, she would growl a little. The lion handler explained that they really dont like the colour red, and that may be the reason she was so pissed at me .... unfortunately after a quick inventory of my clothing it was discovered that I wasn't wearing anything red and that she just plain didn't like me.

I'll admit it too, that despite the metal cage between me and her, i was shitting bricks, and not the small variety either.

From the lion's enclosure we headed back into the African enclosure where we each fed the Giraffe's and then patted the Hippo's. Thankfull the snakes where left in their enclosure as Les was shit scared of leaning over the 5m long Anaconda that was lounging infront of all the other snakes ... thank god for 5m long Anaconda's.

It was into the Gorilla enclosure from here where I got to first feed yogurt to a female gorila and then was able to feed the alpha male, which was crazy. The male is supposedly about as strong a 10 grown men and so was a little intimidating. His hands where huge and made mine look like a little kids, but he was pretty calm and seemed to enjoy the strawberry yogurt I was offering up.

On to the elephants and again, it was feeding time and so carrots and bananas where being offered up everywhere. They're crafty little buggers the elephants as they where constantly using their trunks to pat you down for food, and it wasn't a subtle prod either, they're shifty buggers who will quite happily pick your pocket for some food.

The tour, about 2 and a half hours in length was amazing. A big thanks to Les and all the other handlers at the Calgary Zoo that made this Christmas Day one to remember.

The rest of the day followed the usual Xmas day trappings ... a few presents here and there, way too much food and plenty of liquid refreshment.

s07e18 - How Do You Spell That?

With the holiday season all over us, it was time to celebrate some stuff, and with the world being a little more gray than black & white these days, my hosts over here in Calgary invited me to "Chrismakkah" which is a cross between the generic Christmas and the Jewish tradition of Hanukkah, celebrated on the 21st of January, which coincideds with the first day of Hanukkah.

The celebration is anything but a religious experience, although there is the subtle nods to both traditions ...

In preparation for Chrismakkah, Andrew invited me to help him make "Turducken" which for those that have never heard of this, is a massive turkey, stuffed with a boned duck, stuffed with a boned chicken.
Andrew had a bit of fun taking all the bones out of the turkey and duck and then cheated on the chicken by just stuffing it with chicken breasts. My part came in when it was time to stuff it and stitch it up.
It was all worth it as the Turducken was amazing and has continued to be amazing for the next 5 meals.

The actual night went brilliantly with all of us drinking and eating waaaaay too much, a nice little preview for what was to come on December 25th .......

s07e17 - This isn't 'real' cold

It's been a little while since my last blog and while nothing massively life changing has happened in that little time, there has been an adventure or two.
Most notably the fact that I went to Vancouver for 4 days to visit someone elses rellies. (Hey, you think visiting your own rellies is tough, try visiting someone elses!)
It was a good little break actually, one that I hadn't planned on doing when I left Oz about 5 weeks ago.

It's been almost 8 years since I last visited Vancouver and what would you know, it has changed a bit in that time. Most noticeably is that the city is gearing itself up for the 2010 Winter Olympics, a pretty big deal up in these neck of the woods and so the city of Vancouver is getting a major face lift, which I'm sure all the locals will be pretty happy with.
One thing they wont be overly pleased about is the several inches of snow they had while I was there. Now it might sound odd that a Canadian city isn't geared up for snow, but Vancouver really isn't. You see while Vancouver's surrounds are often white round this time of season, Vancouver itself doesn't usually get too much snow and so when it does, it doesn't cope well at all. So, when a few inches of snow drops in a day and the temperatures plummet the local villagers freak out. Luckily for me, while I was in freezing Vancouver (-10C) it was -48C back in Calgary ... fuck that, -48 is not what I signed up for!
While in Vancouver (well, at least near it anyway) myself, Naomi and Sebastian stayed in a massive house in Anmore which, I guess is about 45 minutes drive from Vancouver, which as I learned is only one of 11 different cities that makes up the Greater Vancouver Area (some other random facts include 30% of Vancouver is made up of East Indians while 20% is Asian*)

Anyway, Anmore is a little settlement up in the mountains, and when I say "up in the mountains" I really mean it. It takes 15 minutes to drive to civilisation and the backyard consists of trees, trees and more freakin' trees (aka a forest)
The community is rather select (land up there starts at around the $600,000 mark) but they still do the Christmassy thing and put up their lights, not that too many people see them as they are so far out of the way.
I was thinking one night that it might be cool to head up and photograph some of the more impressive house lights, that is until I was told that no one walks around there after dark because of the bears and coyotes that frequent the area .... WTF?
It goes without saying, I don't have any photos of the Christmas lights.

I got a couple of touristy things in while there (before the snow hit and the place became impossible to traverse) including Granville Island, the van Dusen Light Show and Grouse Mountain, which is a ski run 3,500ft up that over looks Vancouver and is as cold as a Nun's .....

*All statistics where provided by Peter Elias Statistics

s07e16 - The Towering Inferno

I introduced Canada to the "Aussie Burger" tonight.
OK, so it wasn't all of Canada, but you have to start small and so everyone in the house got themselves a bit of Aussie "tucker" for dinner tonight.

It was pretty surreal though as the burgers themselves had to be cooked outside on the BBQ during a pretty crazy blizzard. It was made all the more bizarre when Andrew decided to shovel the back porch with a hockey stick!

Anyway, for those wondering how these little beauties where any different to your run of the mill Canadian burgers, well that simple ... Beetroot.
It wasn't exactly 'that' simple because there was also beef, bacon, grilled onions, an egg, lettuce, tomato, cheese and tomato sauce crushed between two bits of bread. I was going to add some pineapple, but there just wasn't any room and gravity wasn't being kind already to these towering monstrosities.

Oh, for all the Aussies back home wondering why this made a posting ... well you see Canadians don't see the potential in beetroot quite like us Aussies do and tend to be really boring with their burgers, sticking to the tried and true beef, pickles, ketchup, cheese with maybe bacon and or mushrooms.

s07e15 - Who Woulda Thunk It?

After my long and harrowing "walkabout" earlier in the piece and after a hearty dinner, it was decided by Naomi that we would attempt to make it all the way across town to the Calgary Zoo to have a look at their winter light show.

It was brought to our attention that the zoo lights close to admission at 8:30pm and would shut down at 9pm. This didn't deter Naomi though and so at 7:45pm, myself, Naomi and Sarah bundled into the car and made a mad dash for the Zoo ... which I'm pretty sure I mentioned, is on the other side of town.

At 8:27pm, while the car was still moving, I was thrown out at the front entrance to the Zoo and told to buy tickets for the three of us and that we'd meet at the gate once the car was parked.

Sweet.

It looked pretty painless, pay a few dollars and go for a 30 minute walk and have a 'bo peep' at the light show which is supposedly outstanding. This was made a little more difficult by the woman at the box office who had to carefully inspect every coin I gave her , this right after she explained that we wouldn't have much time to look around "Oh look at that one ... haven't seen one of those before" .... for the love of God lady, just gimme my damn tickets already!

So with 25 minutes in we went, and I gotta say, that 25 minutes was some of the most fun Ive had on the trip so far. The lights where great and the company was outstanding which together made for a very enjoyable experience.

In hindsight, maybe the messing around on my part could have been toned down a little as I got covered in snow on more than a few occasions and therefore got a little damp, which probably led to the cold I have now (although I'm still going to blame Sarah for it)

Jokingly I made mention that at 9pm the Zoo staff would probably just flick the switch and leave us all in darkness ... which at 9:05pm, they kinda did, leaving us to navigate the Zoo in relative darkness. Which was fine as I the got to see all the animals that Zoo had to offer at 9:15pm which included Goats and Donkeys!

s07e14 - Previously on Lost

After being cooped up for a day or two and without a decent walk under my belt for a few days I headed off at 6pm on a walk around the small Calgary suburb of Tuscany where Andrew and Naomi live.

On my trek, I was supposed to walk up a hill about 30 minutes away to the grocery store to get some bread and stuff before calling home for a pick up.
So I walk outside and look around to get my bearings and decide that even though Ive never gone right at the intersection, my keen sense of direction says that I can get there faster and more efficiently if I go further into the suburb and out at the grocery store.

Unsurprisingly after an hour of walking I still hadn't made it to the shop and was probably further away than when I started, thanks mainly to a heap of dead ends and caldersacks on the way.

The walk was pretty sweet though as I got to cruise the streets looking at all the Christmas lights that where up and even helped Emma out when I shoveled the last meter and a bit of snow in her drive way.

"I'm not lost ... but misplaced" was my text message SOS and 15 minutes later I was extracted by Andrew before we hit up the grocery store which happened to be 150m away, right around the corner.

As I mentioned, the walk was amazing. I had my iPod on, so while I didn't get to listen to the silence of a suburban winters night, the walk was nice with my favourite tunes singing in my eardrums. The cold was refreshing too, and while it was probably in the negative, I was adequately dressed and so was toasty warm underneath.

s07e13 - Icicles at Dawn

After a moderatly warm day the first day in Calgary, day two started off with about 5 inches of snow.

Snow is a pretty awesome experience .... for the first week or two anyway. After that it kind of becomes slushy and gross, but the time being, its pretty cool stuff (sic)

It snowed al day today and probably dumped about a foot on Calgary, and while the mercury has hovered pretty close to the negative, it hasn't been so bad outside at all.

s07e12 - Up, Up and Away

It's been a few days and since I last put pen to paper I've managed to escape Toronto (just) and have made two thirds of the way across Canada to the province of Alberta, in particularly Calgary where I will spend the next few weeks staying with my very good friends Andrew, Naomi and their little baby Sebastian, who is 4 months old and already thinks I'm something quite odd as I seem to have the knack of making him giggle every time I look at him!

So why did I only "just" get out of Toronto?
Well, me and Baz and devised a cunning plan to move out to Mississauga for our last night in Toronto so that the ride to the airport for a 715am flight wouldn't be a long one. For those wondering, Mississauga is closer to the airport ... 'a lot' closer to the airport)
In any case we checked out of 'crack central' (Sherbourne Ave) at our allotted 11am and then took a 50 minute cab ride out to the Best Western on Dixie Rd, right next to the airport only to have reception tell us that our room was not ready yet and that we should come back in around 3 hours.

Brilliant.

So off we walked down Dixie ... which I know has a few retail outlets on it and so the walk probably wouldn't be so bad. Unfortunately we walked toward the more industrial side of Dixie straight into wind that I'm sure was coming straight off a glacier someplace.
We found refuge in a Mr Sub for about an hour watching the Canadian government stab itself in the front while chowing down on a delicious chicken sandwich. That killed an hour and in that hour we started getting snow. Not the cool variety snow though, wimpy little flakes that burnt up as they hit the ground .... very unsatisfying.
With 2 hours to go before 'check in' take 2, we ended up playing a few dozen games of eight ball in a little tavern just around the corner from our over night digs.

Well the rest of the day after that was pretty uneventful but the morning didn't start without incident with our airport shuttle at 530am being waaay overbooked and then after being promised exit seats on the 4 hour flight to Calgary myself and Baz where seated one row behind the exit seats giving the both of us a very cramped and long flight.

Andrew met us both at the airport and and gave myself and Baz a first rate "idiots Guide to Calgary" tour before dropping Baz off at his mates place and then heading back to his house out on the prairie someplace!

s07e11 - Frozen Coke

To say that I am ill equipped to handle what isn't even winter over here is an understatement. Mind you, I am coping much better than my traveling compadre Baz who finds it necessary to put 7 layers on and cover every inch of his skin even when its in the positives outside.

Its this rugging up that makes me wonder: How much is Baz actually missing?
I realise that for the most part his "softness" provides him with more warmth than myself, but on a few occasions Ive noticed little things while walking while Baz happily plows on, oblivious to what is happening outside of his hood, beanie and face warmey thing.


I any case, my time here in Toronto is about 10 hours away from ending, and while it has been fun, I didn't quite get to do everything I wanted, which included catching up with people. It's always hard to make the planets align when the time frame of alignment is under a week and I can't expect people to drop their lives just to catch up with me.


Tomorrow takes me to something new ... Calgary. I landed there once before but it was for a grand total of 3 hours, not nearly enough for me to say that Ive thoroughly scoped out the place. I know one thing about Calgary .... it's cold this time of year. Wow, there I go, on about how cold it is again. No more .....


It was only a week ago I was told by a "true Torontonian" that you haven't been ripped off properly until you've been up the CN Tower. I gave this another try and went up for the 3rd time now and while it is a little expensive for what you get, its still twice the value of Mandalay Bays shark tank!
Right after the CN Tower, I would have loved to have gone next door and done the Rogers Center (SkyDome) tour, but due to a heap of high school "Bowl" games, the $15 tour ticket was instead a $15 entrance fee to watch a few games, which wasn't quite as good as the tour would have been, but the 3 hours of watching kids play 'football' was a good time waster and mildly entertaining for the most part.





Now: Sleep
Next: Calgary

s07e10 - Space ... the Final Frontier

It's been pretty grey and gloomy here in Toronto the last couple of days and pretty cold out as well. Not too cold to do anything, but cold enough to limit movements too much. What is pretty cold? Well, the mercuriy hasn't really climbed much past 4C and has been down as low as -6C with windchill (not to mention the occasional flurry of snow and lengthy periods of rain)

So what have I been up to since last time I blogged? Nothing too exciting really. Got to catch up with some very good friends in Will and Natasha yesterday for lunch and coffee. It is always good to catch up with old workmates and find out what has been happening in their worlds since last time I was around ... which is rarely more than 18 months in anycase.

With the ordinary weather brings more inside time. Sometimes not the best when you're used to travelling solo and having your own personal space for long stretches of the time. In all honesty the inside time annoys the hell out of me because I really want to be out there somewhere doing things, but with the AUD still on the ordinary side and the shite weather it gets tough to motivate yourself to "get out there".

2 and a bit days to go now in Toronto. The rest of today and then all day tomorrow before a trip out to Mississauga for Thursday night which means that the trip to th Airport on Friday for a 7:15am flight wont be a long one or too early.

s07e09 - Sometimes They Get it Right!

How many times in your lifetime have the folks who bring you the weather got it completely and utterly wrong?
Lets turn that into a percentage, and its gotta be in the 80's or higher. They just never get it right.
So, when the weather service here in Toronto says that there will be afternoon rain and/or snow, I took it with a grain of salt and went out for a walk anyway. Sure it was heavily overcast, it was freezing cold and there was a fair wind whipping up, not the best conditions for a walk anyway but it could have been worse .... and was.
Momments like these rarely happen just after you're outside your front door so you can turn around and go back inside to your toasty couch/sofa/bed. No, instead, I was about 3km's away at the time walking away from where I was staying when the weather turned nasty. Luckily there was a massive shopping centre at about this distance (the Eaton Center) and so a little bit of shelter was sought while the initial bit of "shit" weather rolled over.

Once it looked like it was passed it was time to start the 40 minute walk back home, hopefully only in dreadful weather rather than the terribly disheartening weather from a short time earlier.

I didn't get far.

I got just across the road when I got slapped in the side of the head by a whopping great piece of snow. Great, snow .... this is rediculous. Well, it was because the brief flurry soon turned into rain which just plain sucks when it's 1C outside (thats not taking into account the windchill which would have had to have dropped the temp to something closer to -7 or -8C)
The walk home wasn't all that bad, although I was pretty wet, very cold and numb on all the bits that weren't covered.

Today's lesson .... don't go outside .... ever.

s07e08 - Poor Brass Monkey

Wit hVegas left in the dust, it was on to Toronto, Canada, my home away from home and one of my favourite places to just hang out and socialise.

Was it ever this cold though?

The answer is easily yes, but it's been such a stretch since last time I was in this kind of weather that it feels terribly harsh, although I am putting on a brave face and I am way more prepared for it this time compared to last time I lived through a Canadian winter.

It's only been in the low single digits and maybe just into the negative overnight, which shouldn't be too much of a change as it does occasionally get that cold back home over night, but theres always the days which hit mid teens and sunny, unlike here where its just cold .... all the time.

The Clarion on Sherbourne, where Im staying is a little better than I thought. Not palacial by any stretch, but for the price, its pretty decent. The neighborhood isn't the best, but I think I can deal with that. At least it doesn't smell like cats piss like the last place I stayed on Sherbourne.

Yesterday was the first full day in TO and it was basically a bit of a walking tour downtown and some people watching at the Eaton Centre. Downtown has changed a little, but not too much, I thankfully still know my way around pretty well.

The night before was getting into to town which included a tour of ... somewhere, by Sarah who picked me up from the airport and then took me and Baz out for General Tao's chicken where Baz became another immediate convert.

It's almost shirt and shorts weather outside today with the sun out and the mercury sitting at a comfortable 5C, so it must be time for lunch and a stroll .....

Australia - The Movie

The day before exiting Vegas with a few hours to kill that wasn't at a slot machine or gaming table, I headed to the nearest cinaplex to have a look at Baz Luhrmann's Australia starring the worlds sexiest man, Hugh Jackman and Australia's leading lady of the silver screen, Nicole Kidman.

I'd heard plenty about the movie over here in the media about how amazing the flick was and how it harked back to the golden age of cinema where movies where epic in scale rather than visual effects (or in Michael Bay's case big Bangs) Dammit, Oprah gave it the biggest 'thumbs up' ever which while it will probably ensure a massive box office gave me shivers when sitting down to watch it.

The story itself is indeed epic and does hark back to the age old romantic period drama of yester year. It folows the formula of woman meets man, man hates woman, woman hates man, tragedy brings man and woman together .... you know how it rolls.

With this formula in place the story wraps itself around the impending bombing of Darwin, which oddly enough, was treated as the fictional pat of the movie by one lot of American movie goers as they walked out ("it was good, but did they make up that whole bombing thing just for the movie?")

Overall, it wasn't as stiff as I thought it would be and blended a good mix of comedy, romance, myth and fact into about 2 and three quarters hours of cinema. The stroy rolled nicely and while a little predictable in parts, still kept you watching intently.

Kidman was good as was Jackman, but it was the kid who was probably the real star of the show. A little cliche'd as the "half cast" but an essential ingrediant that held the whole story thread together. It might be me, but I don't know if the aboriginal population will be overly happy to watch it, because it does tread awefully close to racial lines ... but as long as the wowsers realise its just a movie that is actualy trying to bring some recognition to the "stolen generation" they should be fine.

Its grand, cheesy but amazing theatre. A must watch on the big screen as the cinematography is brilliant.

7 outta 10

s07e08 - Our House ... in the middle of the Strip.

So with less than 12 hours left in Vegas and the US before jetting off to the cooler (sic) climes of Toronto, I thought I'd do a little rating on the Casinos that where visited on this trip ....

Tropicana (7) - It isnt the classiest of establishments, but it does the job and the rooms are brilliant for the price. The location is pretty sweet too.

New York, New York (6) - Looks nice inside and out, but just seems to lack some soul ... probably a little like its namesake.

Luxor (7) - Easily the most impressive looking building by night (its a huge pyramid) looks nice on the inside and has an awesome buffet. Get's a mark off because it is home to Carrott Top's Show!

Excalibur (6) - Looks nice inside and out. Didn't have too much to do with Excalibur but when I did the experience was OK.

The Palms (8) - Had the most fun here with the Star Wars, Star Trek and Happy Days slots. The food was good and the inside looked slick. It looses one because its closer to Arizona than it is the Strip.

Caesars Palace (8) - Awesome looking place that has one draw back ... its impossible to get out of. The Forum Shops are brilliant and the gaming areas are very well put together. Would be a one stop shop if the accomodation wasnt off the planet.

MGM Grand (6) - 'The Green Monster' as it was affectionatly nicknamed is a stylish enough place that lights up my room everynight with its glowing greeness. Looses a point or two for the drugged up lion in the lion enclosure.

Hooters (9) - It always helps a rating when you win, but lets face it, the place where the girls all wear small white singlets and little orange shorts is always going to be a winner.

Mandalay Bay (6) - Looks sharp and clean and entertained me for half hour with the Village People slot machine. Unfortunately it looses big points for the US$16.95 Shark Reef attraction that is only mildly better than Kings Aquariums in Creedon Street (Broken Hillites will know what I'm talking about)

Paris (7) - Still looks good, but didnt have much of a vibe going when I was in there.

I think thats about it. If anyone is thinking of coming over this may help, but just know that everyone has a different taste and this place has something for everyone, so what I loved, you may hate ... except Hooters cause that place rocks!

s07e08 - "Get off my Island"

The walk home from the Palms was ... interesting to say the least.

First off, we decided to walk home a little differently and took some back streets to get back to the Tropicana a fraction quicker than going the long way round down Flamingo and then down the Strip.

On the way we stumbled across Tommy Rocker's Topless Rock n Roll Club. Sweet, although the clincher was the massive neon sign that said '24 hour video poker'. In we go and to our horror theres no one playing poker .... or any toplessness for that matter.

Maybe its just a break in the fun, so we'll stick and stay for a drink.
We kind knew we where in for a long one when the manager walks up and tells the girl behind the bar that the only girl he could get is "on her way". The remainder of our drinks got slurrped up over the next 10 minutes before moving on ,,, in the nick of time mind you as the talent had just turned up.
Let me just say that the place was better off without any talent than the talent that just rocked up.

And so the walk continued ....

A new dilemma confronted us though when the sidewalk ran out halfway across the overpass of the Interstate (see Highway). With 8 lanes of traffic screaming by we had participate in a game of human Frogger to get home.
This was going to be tough, and made tougher by some clown who drove by, some 20m away and screamed for us to get off his road.
Obviousy by the fact that I'm writing this, we both made it across ... but there was some hairy moments and severl Emu'esk moments of road crossing!

s07e07- Dropping Benjamins

It's been a big couple of days over here in Vegas. The temptation of the gaming tables has been too much and after telling myself over and over, I relented yesterday and gave in ... in a big, big way.

No, I won't be coming home sans a liver or anything, I havnt been throwing wads of money around the place, but the frequency has increased.

Yesterday was a trip to the Hooters Casino, which is right next door ... sweet. For those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting a Hooters franchise, the casino is almost exactly the same idea. All the girls working the tables have the tiny white shirts on and wee little orange shorts. It's great, you get to slyly eye off boobs while enjoying a punt. Awesome fun.

Anyway, I sat myself down at the "Rack Jack" table where my US$40 lasted pretty close to 3 hours before I finally relented it to Jennifer, the well developed dealer at table No 1.

Tonight was a trip to the Palms where the Playboy Club is situated (can anyone see a pattern forming here?) Anyway, its about 6kms from the Tropicana, but the walk was nice and had built up a major hunger for once we got there (we, being me and Baz)

I'd like to say the Food Court got hit first, but while walking there I noticed the Star Wars gaming machines. I got to admit, I got more than a little excited and was sitting there slotting in a 20 before Baz could work out what I was hooping and hollaring about.

My 20 turned into 50 pretty quickly and I must say, I had a brilliant time. I'm not a big fan of sitting in front of poker machines feeding money, but this was waaaaay more fun than that. Sound bytes and clips where worked in brilliantly .... who would have thought gambling could be this much fun?

After my conquest of Star Wars and later, some food in my belly, we walked the floor to see what was around and stumbled on the Star Trek gaming machines. Similar to the Star Wars game, this one grabbed a 20 of mine pretty quickly, but I gotta say, this was a much more entertaining. The seat and game where connected with surround sound speakers and vibration speakers pulsing through the big comfy chair you sit at. It's old school Trek too with 60's Kirk pumping out some of his best lines when you win. I had a bit of win here too walking off with more than I started with which is always a bonus.

Could it possibly get any better? Well, the Happy Days games where pretty awesome too as you try to line up Richie, Pottsy and Ralph while being talked through the game by the Fonz. I guess the fun factor is always magnafied when you get 26 free games second push and double up straight away.

Anyway, the real reason for going to the Palms was to check out the Playboy Club .... which we didn't! (I did see a Bunny however ... and she was well worth the longing look I gave her)

s07e06 - Viva Las Vegas

Vegas is a crazy place.

No, I don't think you're quite getting me when I emphasis how crazy a place it really is. Unless you've been here, even the stories of its grandeur and excess don't live up to the real Vegas.

Las Vegas is a sprawling city nestled deep in the Mojave Desert seemingly near nothing spectacular. Well, there is that small canyon about 300mi away, but still, no reason to build something like this where it is or grow like it is. Clarke County (which is basically Vegas) has 2 million residences now and will have 3 million by 2018 (or so they seem to think anyway). The area is growing at about 5% per year which is just phenomenal.

In the movies when they 'offer' to bury someone and they'll never be missed because"it's a big desert out there" .. they aren't kidding. It really is a big desert and a fairly unforgiving too (I'm told)

It is my second trip into LV and so I at the very least knew that for the first minute or two you have to breath deep and resist the urge to point at things. Baz on the other hand couldn't help but be amazed at everything. For those that know Baz, he is pretty excitable, and for those that know me, I'm not, so it was a rather funny reaction inside the car as we drove down Frank Sinatra Blvd and then off onto "The Strip" (Las Vegas Blvd) to find our hotel, the iconic, Tropicana.

It didn't take too long after having the valet park our car and us getting checked n that we hit the Strip for a bit of a 'bo peep' and maybe a little bit of dinner a little later on at one of the fine buffets that the casinos have to offer.

The idea on day one was to just go for a walk and take it all in a little before committing to anything inside anywhere. This changed a little when we hit the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. A quick stroll through the Forum consists of about an hour of looking, then an hour or so trying to find an exit. The looking in shops was easy as the Versace, Armani and D&G stores where a little of my league (even the Niketown there was pricey).

After 3mi of walking down the strip it was time to head back and on the way we ran into an Outback Steakhouse. Now Ive been to several of these and besides the tacky Aussie stuff, they do do really good food, and seeing as both of us had been craving something more than just another burger joint, the Outback was where we ate.

I had the 32oz T Bone ... it was hard yakka getting through it, but I did and thoroughly enjoyed it. This T Bone was ridiculously big I must say. There where people walking past and getting full just looking at it.

After dinner it was time to womble back to the Tropicana where I intended to get a little R&R in my room for the evening. First though we both had a small flutter at the Roulette wheel before randomly dropping a dollar or two into the slots (useless those things ... Ive dropped about $10 in them so far and picked up one spit of 25c .... that's it)

Back to the room (see photo for the view that I have) where its time to kick my feet up and just do some writing. Heading to the Hoover Dam tomorrow, so that should be worth a look.

Might hit up the after midnight Hooters special tonight: 25c wings or $10 all you can eat ribs from midnight till 6am ... sounds like a challenge!

Oh, and I almost forgot ...

Girls carrying small dogs count: 15

s07e05 - Exit Strategy

It's been a few days now since I blogged last, and well, there has been a fair bit going on in that two or three days.
For those of you who are keeping up with the Twitter, a lot of stuff won't be that new, but for everyone else here's a few details on the last few days....

The day after the second trip to Universal Studios myself and Baz went on a walking expedition down LaBrea to Santa Monica Blvd to check out a Best Buy store down there that might help me out with my wireless problems.
The walk took in a stroll of about 5kms down a gradual hill. The shopping at Best Buy was fairly mundane and afterwards we took in a snack at Carl's Jnr. From here we walked away from our hotel up Santa Monica towards the Sunset Strip.
Unfortunately, 4/5th's of the way there, Baz piked out and decided that it would be time to start making our way back to our hotel ... via Heart attack Hill, which as far as I was concerned was just a decent slope, but Baz struggled his way with no feeling in either arm and sharp pains in his chest. you could actually hear him before you could see him ... it was pretty funny to be honest.
The walk encompassed about 10 to 15kms of walking, something that Baz will never, ever do again.

Mel's Drive In was on the card for dinner that night and while surrounded by memorabilia from the filming of American Graffiti, I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken breast and veg.

Moving on a day or so, we spent almost all of Saturday organising the car for our road trip. It took 3 hours to get out to there and once there where terribly disappointed that the muscle car that we wanted ... was gone.
So it was a big 'fuck off' SUV that was thrown our way ... a Chrysler Aspen ... in black.
Nice ride, but at 3 times the cost. Thankfully Baz decided to pick that up as I don't think I could have!

The ride to Las Vegas on Sunday was pretty fun. Took about 4 hours and included a stop off at Big Boy Burgers in Baker for some lunch before sliding into Vegas. I had the "out of the bun" chicken Sandwich ... and it was exactly that. Basically a chicken schnitzel in a small bun .... oh and it was good!

More to come on the drive and Vegas soon ....

s07e04 - Arrrgh, Thars me blow!

So, while walking down to the Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Blvd on Wednesday, I was confronted with this rather funny scene.

Now for those have never been to Hollywood Blvd, for a good portion of the day there are people dressed up as everyones favourite movie characters walking up and down the 'Walk' offering photos to tourists for a dollar or two in return.

You could say they're like buskers, but instead of crap singing or music, they're just imitating movie characters and probably getting payed reasonably well for it.

Anyways, this was one of the three Capt Jack Sparrows on parade this day, first being patted down and then questioned by LA's finest, the LAPD.

After Capt Jack had been thoroughly searched, the cops left leaving Capt Jack in a rather pissy mood ... savvy?

Unsurprisingly no one came near the poor bastard for a good hour afterwards.

(Incase anyone is wondering who else walks the 'Walk' so far Ive seen: Superman (2), Batman (3), Batgirl, Spiderman (2), Catwoman, Shazam, Tigger, Spongebob, Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper, King Kong, Yoda, Supergirl, Capt Jack Sparrow (4), the Joker, Homer J Simpson, some crazy dude in an orange shirt, Peter Pan, Captain America, Barney the Dinosaur, Big Bird, Kung Fu Panda)

s07e03 - Filler

WHAT?

Filler already? But you're only 2 posts into this whole adventure and already you're throwing filler at us?

Hell yes I am. Its warm out, Ive just walked about 15 miles and I cant be assed putting this blog into a coherent ... thing ... see what I mean ....

- Is Universal Studios worth the US$69 I paid to go to yesterday? Its a big "meh" unfortunately as only 4/5th's of the place was open. Not to mention that all the other times I'd been there the place was full of people. Sadly during late November, which is no doubt the off season for theme parks, it was a little bit baron. The lines where shorter this time around, but this just meant that after an hour you'd done everything you needed to do and was off home or to somewhere else to spend more money .... yay.

- There was a red carpet affair at Mann's Chinese last night for the movie Four Christmas'. Got a few fuzzy shots of Ted Dansen, Jim Belushi and Reese Witherspoon. Some of these folks take their paperazzi'ing pretty dang serious I gotta say.

- Turns out Baz isn't equipped to walk up hills. Me on the other hand found the 10 mile walk rather enjoying.

- Watched '007 - Quantum of Solace' yesterday. Reasonable movie, but a terrible Bond chapter. Was more suited to a Bourne storyline than that of a 007 adventure.

- I hate buses. Haven't been on one this trip yet, but one drove by earlier that gave me the willies!

- I am completely over hamburgers. All I want is a nice little bistro style feed that has something that isnt packed between two bits of bread. Thats pretty hard though as even half the KFC's over here don't have chicken, only the burgers. I never thought I'd complain about the over abundance of the hamburger, yet here I am ... enough is enough ... I want a steak!

- I still cant get over these short days. Its ridiculous how warm it is out but its pitch black by just after 5pm. Better get used to it I suppose as the days are only going to get shorter and colder from here in.

- Sorry for the lack of photos, but as soon as I get my laptop online, I'll throw a whole heap up. (Got a particularly funny one of Capt Jack Sparrow being searched by cops on Hollywood Blvd)

(Edit: Photos are up of this one in s07e04)

- Hooters was fun for lunch .... just steer clear of the 3 Island Hot Sauce on your wings. It isn't the hottest they have, but could require medical attention if left unchecked.

- Smartfood is yum.

- Go see the movie Role Models when its available in your area. Very, very, very funny movie.

- Touristy attractions Ive seen so far this trip: The Hollywood Bowl, Mann's Chinese Theatre, Universal Studios, Darling Harbour (Sydney), The Hollywood Sign, Sunset Strip (and not the one near home), Kodak Theater, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hooters, Hard Rock: Hollywood.

- It's kinda weird to be traveling with someone else. Its been a little tough for me as Ive always travelled on my own and now have to remember that I cant just up and walk out or do whatever I like when I like. It's a bit on the 50/50 side of things at the moment.

- It turns out you really can overuse your accent when away on holidays in a foreign country. It just takes some of us longer to work that out!

- The Spiderman on Hollywood Blvd is overworked and underpaid! (see photo)

OK .... thats enough from me .... got the beach tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have a story or two from that ...

Girl carrying a small dog count: 6

s07e02 - The Land of Milk & Honey

So, to bring everyone up to speed ..... I'm here, or there, whichever way you look at it. I'm in LA presently and have been here now just over 24 hours and I have to say, its been less than uneventful.

The plane ride over was, as you would know if you follow my Twitter, delayed by about 3 hours. We all piled onto the plane, only to be told that due to mechanical and technical problems that we should all jump off. Now I thought this was a mighty good idea considering that technical difficulties at 10, 000m where never good, so I was kinda happy to 'deplane', unlike about 80% of other passengers who believed that this delay was going to be the biggest headache they would face in the short term.

It kinda was, because it meant that you now had to sit around and wait another 3 hours to then sit for another 13 and a bit hours. Asses aren't meant to be punished in this way and don't take kindly to being sat on for such long periods. Mine hated me from about the 2 hour mark, so you can imagine the squirming I did for the last 10 hours of my ride.

The flight itself was pretty reasonable, although United are the only airline in the world without the personal screens on each chair and so you have to sit and watch a single screen at the front of each compartment. It was awesome in the 90's but doesn't work these days with even the dodgiest of airlines jumping on the personal entertainment systems.

Speaking of being slightly outdated, the youngest stewardess .... yes, they where all stewardess's' because all of them got their first flight attending jobs back in the 70's when that's what the title was.

Hideous and very hard on the eye ....

On to Los Angeles and well ... I guess it hasn't changed too much in the 18 months since I was here last.

The one big difference is the length of day. The weather is still in the mid to high 20C's but its starting to get dark around 3:30pm and is totally dark by just after 5, which is just mind blowing. In the summer, its sun up at 6am and sundown at around 9pm, which isn't that dissimilar to home. But yeah, the winter hours are a little bizarre, but I cant complain too much as its still relatively warm, which so I'm told is bit hit and miss this time of year.

Ive got a heap more on LA and Hollywood in particular, but I'll leave that for its own post in the coming days. I was hoping that it would be easy to blog once I hit LA seeing as our room (which is pretty sweet just quietly) has free high speed attached to it. Unfortunately my laptop is at its pedantic best this trip and doesnt like using its wireless conectivity meaning that the local internet cafe gets my $3.

Anyway, for the worry warts ... all is well and no, I havnt burnt myself to a crisp on the opening day or two of this trip. I have walked up several hills and almost been run over, but thats always going to happen ... isnt it?

Girl carrying small dog total = 4

s07e01 - 'In the Beginning'

Finally, after what seems like an etrnity, Im away. Not entirely away just yet, but 1500kms away from home is a pretty solid start.

My flight to Sydney wasnt a half bad one actually. It was the first one Ive had where Ive flown directly rather than stopping off in Dubbo on the way. It was also made a little easier when I was sat next to pretty like minded fellow who enjoyed talking gadgets and tech stuff almost as much as I do. Although he was kinda the polar opposite to me as he loved his apple products and Sony gameing consoles ... but no matter, the conversation, as captive as can be inside a small flying shell was none the less engageing.

It was a pleasent change to the day actually, and while I wont say that the first half of my day was disagreable or anything, but when youve only had 4 hours sleep and have a reasonably large event happening later in the afternoon, the last thing you need is to be tricked into attending a full Sunday church service, which just so happens to be the first I have ever been to ... and with just a little luck, my last.

It was my mates daughters christening, so I wasnt about to miss it, but the experience was .... well, not exactly for me. Thats as nice as I can put it without making it sound like I was banashed to a place of "much weeping and gnashing of teeth".

Organised religeions wierd me out .... and I guess they wierded Tom, who was sitting next to me out too as after a while he just zoned out and to pass the time started substituting the words "almighty" for "the force" and "satan" for "Darth Vader". Yeah, it was a little creepy, but then again, not as creepy as the choir!

Anyway, moving on to later in the day and Ive finally planted myself in my hotel down here at Darling Harbor about 100m away from the monorail and with easy access to everything that is downtown Sydney, something that I plan to check out on my day off between leaving home and flying abroad.

Not an overly interesting start to the vacation, thats for sure, but nothing is ever going to beat the last one (for those that came late, it included stomach cramps on the plane, a flat laptop battery and an ATM card that wouldnt work ... all in a space of about 2 hours in LA)

Next post will probably come in from the other side of the world ... when that'll be is a bit of a mystery as I still have a 13 and a half hour direct flight ahead of me and then probably a 45 minute taxi ride to my hotel after that, not to mention whatever is left over from today and tomorrow before my flight.

Prologue 2: Pack Man

Not that I am counting or anything, but I am 41 hours and 30 minutes away from flying out on vacation and it just occurred to me ... Ive done nothing to prepare for my departure.



Well, not exactly nothing, I have located my passport, which may just come in handy at some point in the next week or so ... oh, and my fur hat.



Hands up those who enjoy packing?

OK, now put your hand down and punch yourself in the face.

I hate packing, but its a necessity I guess .... unless your travelling to a nudist colony, which trust me, Im not.

Ah crap ... people at the door ......

Itinerary Beta 1.0

OK, so what is all this "gone traveling" guff that I keep mentioning is happening soon?

Heres a basic itinerary ....

16 Nov: Broken Hill to Sydney
18 Nov: Sydney to LA
23 Nov: LA to Las Vegas (Road trip)
28 Nov: Vegas to Toronto
05 Dec: Toronto to Calgary

Filler

08 Jan: LA to Sydney
12 Jan: Sydney to Broken Hill

The 'filler' is a bit of a TBA kinda area. I'm going to be in Calgary (or there abouts) for a good chunk of that (including Christmas) but otherwise, depending on the AUD it's all a little up in the air.

Yay for last minute international travel plans!

Prologue 1: 10 days to go

Where are the days going?

I'd like to say that I am super excited about my upcoming vacation to the other side of the world, but at the moment, I'm more gripped with fear than anything. Not because I'm worried about being so far away from home or anything, Ive been and done this almost a million times already (slight exaggeration but not too far off the mark) but in the next ten days I have to gather my stuff and be ready to jump on that plane on Sunday week with everything I need to survive out there till mid January.

There are a few dozen printouts that need to be made, winter clothes need to be dredged out, my Passport needs to be located, adapters need to be packed .... it really shouldn't be too tough, but then you look at next weeks schedule, which is kinda terrifying.
I won't go into it fully, but there's a chance I'll be packed and ready to go by Thursday next week because there won't be enough time to scratch on the weekend before I fly out.

The AUD is a constant worry at the minute too. I know there isn't a single thing I can do about it, but I can't help but check it every couple of hours. I gotta stop doing that 'cause all it's doing is adding to the stress levels (currently 1USD = 0.6887AUD)

As for this page .... I decided to jump off mySpace for this trip and try something completely different, although I will try and upload some gear back to it later, all the fresh stuff will end up here (as long as I can remember the username and password for this one ... I forgot the last blogspot one)

The itinerary will be up soon ..... watch this space ....