I'm Back

Just got in ^_^ the flight from SanFran was delayed (several times). But all in all no worst for wear. Cause of the camera problems it going to take a little while to compile all the photos, but i'll get it pulled to together soon enough. Now i just need to get my bills from Rob and see how many are already late ;)

good night all :D

~ken

On the way back

In Sydney airport again, wait through my first long transfer in my flight home. My food just came up, so i got to go.

~Ken

Into the fray

at some point in around Sydney:

Old buildings always seem to have a certain smell about them. Not a bad small per say, but a distinctive odour that's all its own. Sort of old wood and stale blankets. If you add some potpourri it would remind you of grandparents. The boarding house was down a long narrow alley way off the main street in town. One of these alleys you would swear your car could not fit into until you find the off street parking at its end.

The house itself is a hodgepodge of extensions added on at random every decade or so as needed. Yellowing white paint cracked and pealing in places giving the whole building a uniform creepy feel. The place was awesome. The birds in the attic (yes i am going to believe that they were in fact birds) settled down shortly around sunset.

The human body and mind's ability to adapt is quite amazing. We are suffering jet lag as much as our bodies refusal to adjust any further off (now that we are in NZ were its just at about 7 (edit) hours off, we are fine and back to normal sleep patterns). I cannot stay up much pass 7-8 pm and pretty much after 2 am I can't fall back to sleep. But thankfully between those times I am fully functional. Driving here is fun. Thankfully AJ has drove in Commonwealth states before and didn't find it too confusing. I however was dizzy and nearly sick trying to make sense what my subconscious was telling me was completely wrong. The first day with the rental car I did not drive until we were well outside the city and safely in a quiet state park. Four days later I drove through Sydney to get to the airport without problems. It still requires constant concentration but it doesn't seem so wrong now.

There is no coffee in this country (or at least what blue blooded Americans would call coffee), but they love their espresso. And because they are a progressive country its not to hard to find soy lattes. My new favorite thing in the whole wide world ^_^ I think I have drunken more coffee here then I have in my whole life.

Cheers all,

~ken

Almost done

Well getting down to the last day or so, be stuck in airports in one way or another starting tomorrow evening until i get back :(

trip has been a blast, i am getting very jaded about stunning vistas, and i am kinda looking forward to being home a little. I have more blogs to post at some point about the trip, but will probably have to wait until i am home. I'll probably be typing up different stories about this trip for a while. :) well sleep calls soon, later

~ken

Hi oh

So I am in Picton, NZ. Blink and you will miss it. I am in a Communist themed bar and restaurant, have a half of pint of beer in me, and they have a free Internet terminal. Things are going well. ^_^

Moving on

Leaving Wellington today. I been making day trips north with another tag along that was getting sick of the city. Found some rather wonderful places to visit within a short drive. Have many pictures to show all of you once I get back.

That is of course wonderful pictures up to the point at which my camera crapped out on me. It seems in the course of my travels the camera has taken a liking to the taste of fresh batteries. At this point a brand new battery last about four hours or four pictures whichever comes first. Although i guess that's what I get for buying a $80 Kmart special camera. I should be thankful it has lasted this long. Luckily other people have their own cameras with a lesser hunger for power packs, so I'll just have to compile the pics once I get home for varying sources. (Oh for any family reading this and wondering what to get me for X/mas/B-day later, I am starting a camera fund, give accordingly ^_^)

As my time here comes to a close, I reflect on things I have gotten accustomed to here that I will not find back in the states. One of which (and high on the list at that) is meat pies!!!! By far one of the greatest accomplishments of pastry cuisine ever to work its way out of a baker's oven. Its a small flaky pastry pie shell (much like an apple pie shell) filling with tasty goodness. My personal favorite (short of the veggie pie at Mr Pie Face on the streets of Sydney, if you can find one get it!!!) is the egg and bacon pie. Its simplicity in motion. Take the wonderful shell, drop a couple eggs into it (don't bother mixing the egg up, would only ruin the experience) chop up a couple pieces of bacon (think more like Canadian Bacon, not American style) put a top on it and bake in the oven until flaky and happy goodness for my belly. I have been getting up each morning finding different bakeries to sample which one I like best. Its a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Well, I think i am going to walk down to the water and find a nice spot to read. Still have some time before I need to meet up with AJ again to head off for the ferry. Its a tough life. Later all :D

~kw

Foiled again

Sydney, 09/17/08

Perhaps they get asked the same question too many times, or its just the fact they want to do everything differently then how one would expect the world to work. But toilets in Australia (and new Zealand) do not swirl. No swirling action at all. Neither clockwise or counter-clockwise. Aussie toilet just dump water from all directions and push any contents straight down the pipe. So when someone ask you which was does a toilet flush in Australia, you tell them that its a trick question. One final interesting side note in the toilets in that most have two flushing modes. A little flush and a big flush. The only thing I have found that the little flush ends up doing is causing you to waste more water when then you have to push the big flush to finish the job.

Today was beach day. In the morning we took the train out to Bondi Beach. Its a sleepy little beach town within spitting distance of Sydney. It was cute. the shear cliffs into the ocean were breath taking and the people really friendly. At the beginning of the Bondi Beach hike, you go look at the Aborigine carvings. To do this required walking straight through an active golf course that shares this site. And the other then being asked by one old man to move over a little to the side some so we wouldn't get hit by his bad drive, no one took any notice of us.

Upon returning to Sydney, we got a rental car (an automatic) and drove south to the Royal National Park and Garie Beach. Garie Beach is a quiet undeveloped beach that seems worlds apart from Sydney which is really only minutes away. The beach is surrounded by shear cliffs and valleys with small streams flowing slowly in to the sea. I loved it!!! as you walked around you could feel the stress leak out of your body and seep into the sand like the small streams flowing from the mountains. This has been a good day.

In New Zealand

Made it to New Zealand today. All is well, been having a great time. Going to post more once i have a better Internet connection. Have about 300 pictures so far ^_^!!! check back soon, hope to have more posted shortly.
later all
Ken

Off Kilter

Sept 14 San Fran 9pm (local time)

There are a few constants in life that never change: little Asian tourist shops all look the same, sleep and travel for me are two completely unrelated things, and if something could go wrong it most certainly will.

The first leg of the trip started today. I had been sleeping well for the last couple weeks, but last night I might have gotten an hour or two. This of course happens every time I travel so I gotten used to running on sever sleep deprivation. I don't even understand why I bother trying to sleep on the plane. But as I said, I have experience traveling like this, Sleep? I don't need no stinking sleep.

The layover (on the way out and back) is the buetiful and hilly city of San Franisco. And when I say hilly I mean HILLY!!!! I may need to redefine my standard of the term 'hilly' to be synonymous with SanFran. I have never seen a city built on such a steep gradients. I understand why they are afraid the sity would slide into the ocean if there is a major earthquake. I can't see why it doesn't do it on its own on a nice sunny day. You can't drive here. It makes DC look logicly organized, and then the previously mentioned hills. The mass transit is surprisingly well designed to ensure people get to see their great city on foot. SanFran is a city to walk through.

The weather was great, and I got a couple good pics of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. We walked over most of the down town area. And as far as heart of the city goes it is one of the nicest major cities I have been in. Hell even the Hobos are well maintained and have different little gimmicks and shows to actually earn your money. I am glad AJ talked me into this eleven hour layover. I would love to fly out here again as a starting point for a west coast road trip. ^_^

So far only one major snafu. My VISA for Austrilia for some reason did not get linked to my passport. Thankfully the international terminal here in SanFran was not that busy so they issued me a new VISA (for an extra fee) at the desk. At this point I couldn't care less as long as I don't get kicked out of the country once i get there.

On a side note, In the international terminal here they have a shower shop. After flying on a plane all morning and then walking around SnaFran all afternoon. that was the best eleven bucks I have ever spent at an airport!!!!

over and out

All is well

We made it to Sydney. The flight was crazily long, but slept through most the of the SFO to Sydney arm :D I have a blog entry written up in my book about the San Fran layover but i only have 14 minutes on this terminal so I'll post it later. So just a quick check in, all safe and sound. ^_^

Curse of the PawPaw

This morning i found at my desk a little surprise of a bag of unidentifiable fruit. Finding random things left at my desk is not that unusual and lately fruits and vegetables have been appearing more times then not. So when i saw this bag of plant material on my desk i simply assumed it was more summer squash, which has been the norm lately. But when i opened said bag the over powering smell was not that of summer squash. I examined the strange green lobes. they were soft and wet squishy sound when pressed. the smell was something like rotting taro root, if that could be imagined.

Knowing that this bag of unnatural fruit came for only one likely source, i questioned him about the origins of this vile bag. The fruit as it would seem comes from the PawPaw tree. And according to Wikipedia:

is a small fruit tree native to north east america.

Pollinated by scavenging carrion flies and beetles, the flowers emit a weak scent which attracts few pollinators, thus limiting fruit production.

Larger growers sometimes locate rotting meat near the trees at bloom time to increase the number of blowflies.

I placed the bag in the trash in the break room. I could still smell the fruit for the rest of the day. The worst part is "Paw-paw" is what i used to call my grandfather. Now i kind of feel bad calling him that all those years.

the coming storm of stupidity

So tropical storm whatever her name is is going to pass through here sometime tomorrow. This was part of a conversation between Greg and I in which we discuss the coming storm of stupidity.

(04:21:52 PM) Greg: I'm looking forward to a good storm
(04:21:56 PM) Ken: :D
(04:23:03 PM) Ken: do you have your stockpile of toilet paper and bottled water? ;)
(04:23:09 PM) Greg: and duct tape
(04:23:12 PM) Ken: :D
(04:23:15 PM) Greg: :-)
(04:24:02 PM) Ken: now place the duct tape as an 'X' across the windows of your house
(04:24:08 PM) Greg: heh
(04:24:12 PM) Greg: so the windows don't shatter
(04:24:13 PM) Greg: of course
(04:25:40 PM) Ken: well, they are going to still shatter, but the glass shards will stick together at lease where the tape is, which of course just makes a sticky sharp tape monster of death, but still it beats nothing
(04:25:59 PM) Greg: ha