One Mile From Mexico & Pink Hazy Skies

A blog about San Diego & LA (part two)

 

The bus to San Diego was our first Greyhound trip, although a short one, 3 hours, it was long enough for us to understand how much pain it was going to be travelling by them.

However, we did survive, and we ate a tiny pizza and got into a cab that didn’t know how to get how we were going. He was pissed off because we didn’t know the directions to get to the place we were staying. Once he eventually got directions, we embarked on a journey that we thought may never end, as the urban sprawl disappeared I looked at Megan, obviously in a state of panic, the buildings got smaller the further we went, and I watched the buildings that looked quite sturdy and as we went on, I saw buildings that would probably collapse if they were sneezed on.

The sign on the side of the road said “Mexican Border – 3miles”.

Next sign “Prison”

I watched the meter on the cab get higher and higher and the panic was taking a stranglehold on me.

We arrived at the hotel which was one mile from the border and in the middle of nowhere. I paid the cab driver.

What had happened was that Megan knew the place was fairly close to the border, but had forgotten to tell me, but didn’t think it was as close as one mile!

 

We looked around for a while, there were no lights on in the office of the motel, there were no lights on in any of the rooms……….we managed to find a tiny sign on the window of the office that said that we needed to stay in the motel that was next door because the one we had booked, 2 days prior, was under reservations.

We checked in and set up all our crap, macbooks being first thing opened and showers being first things had.

 

With only a few days in San Diego, we decided that we needed to pack everything we could do into a short time frame.

After figuring out the buses and trolley system, we entered the San Diego Zoo.

We had a load of fun at the zoo, we saw camels, meerkats, monkeys, gorillas, pandas, lions, hippos, bears, tigers and flamingos. I’m sure we saw a whole lot more, like the snakes, but it was such a massive zoo that we saw so much it was fairly overwhelming.

We managed to get back to the motel earlier than expected and decided to go for a walk down to what we were told is the ‘grocery store’. Once we got there, it was actually a factory outlet mall, and one Kmart, so of course we were down there until almost 11pm, just looking around and being stupid.

 

The next morning we awoke to set out back to the same area, but this time to Seaworld. This time we knew how the public transport worked, so we had it completely sorted.

Through the gate we decided to do the ride first, which is a rollercoaster that looks like you can get pretty wet on, so we figure we can dry off if we do it first thing in the morning. We did not expect to be in the front row of the rollercoaster, although extremely fun, the end was result had us looking like we had just jumped into a pool fully clothed and we were damp for the rest of the day.

Again, like the zoo we saw a plethora of animals including, manatees, whales, dolphins, penguins and a walrus.

On the way down to the underwater area where the viewing deck was, there was this weird looking wall that had a description of arctic temperatures on it. The entire wall was made of ice, with pennies and dimes buried deep in the ice. It was the strangest thing I have seen in a while and I stood in front of it, strangely hypnotised by a huge wall of ice.

Megan and I were almost finished at Seaworld when we sat down on some chairs and prepared ourselves for Seaworlds main attraction, Shamu and the whale show.

Once seated, the giant screens at the back of stage started to show a video……..a military video, I said to Megan “that’s a bit odd” but let it pass, and the video finished and everyone started clapping and cheering, including myself and Megan gave me this strange look and said “they are clapping the troops” and my response was “bullshit, why the fuck would they be clapping the troops, the whales are about to come out and do their show, that’s what everyone is clapping for”

A lady then came out to introduce everything and asked all the troops in the crowd to stand up and have everyone applaud them for their services.

I was stunned, after a few seconds of this happening, I turned to Megan, completely confused by whole situation and managed to say “what the hell does this have to do with Shamu?”

 

Our plans had changed, and rather than going to Vegas from San Diego, the following morning we got on the bus and headed back to LA, although this time, we were heading Orange County, where Chris would pick us up, so that the six of us (Jenae & Chris, Big Sal & Nat, myself and Megan) could hang out and have an early birthday dinner for Jenae. Afterwards we went to the house of Jenaes cousin, as they were having a shindig, but, with the 4 of us being exhausted and watching a hilarious movie called American Movie, we left before the drinking became insane.

Back in LA, with its beautiful hazy pink/orange sky from the lights, staying with Sal & Nat.

 

The next morning after waking, we went to Sals favorite comic store, which I fell in love with right away, then we ate some amazing ice cream.

That evening we would be going to Dave & Busters for Jenaes birthday celebration.

For everyone at home, Dave & Busters is basically a Timezone for adults, so there are bars there and a restaurant.

 

Sal, Nat, Megan and I arrived at Dave & Busters earlier than the others, and sat down to have a meal at the restaurant, I was armed with a Long Island Iced Tea. We ordered the food, and we waited, and waited, and waited. Nat asked the waitress when our food was coming, and she said there was a problem in the kitchen, which then caused the head waiter to come out and tell us that he heard we were upset about the food and that they would look after the meals. Which was awesome.

Once the food finally arrived, it was excellent, and devoured pretty damn quickly.

 

The games begun, we played and played and collected more and more tickets as we saved them for an overpriced item in the prize department.

Nat won big on a game, she held enough tickets to almost buy an entire XBOX 360 GAME! However, the amount of tickets she held would probably be enough to build a house from.

We drank, laughed and had a great time with all our new friends.

 

Sunday was a great day, we went back to the very lovely home of Nela and Galo, we watched Knocked Up, ate wonderful food and Ecuadorian dessert.

We met Sals nephew Damien, who came with us while we went and saw Santa Monica pier, which was amazing, a pier filled with stores, rides, games and anything imaginable.

On the drive we saw the house from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and many other massive properties.

Johnny Rockets called us for dinner, Sal & Nat sat in the front of the car, me to the left, Megan in the middle and Damien to our right with DS in hand playing games with such force that you would not believe.

We ate and then went to watch the freakshow of buskers that were forming all along the walkway. Musicians, contortionists, 7 year old singers and a fat man with a monkey…….thats right, a fat man with a monkey. The monkey was wearing a little outfit with a hat and would shake peoples hands for a dollar…..Megan took a photo of the monkey, which caused his owner….whos name I believe was Jabba to yell at Megan and tell her that taking photographs of his monkey cost money. We walked away, originally excited to see a monkey, to feeling rather sad that the monkey was kept prisoner by this fat, disgrace of a man.

 

The next day was our final full day and evening in LA, we went to the mall and spent all day there, looking in all the stores that we could. Watching a water fountain show and dreaming of buying a Holga camera to take around with us.

Sal & Nat met us for dinner and we saw Pineapple Express at the theatre, which we all loved and all had a good laugh at.

We took some last time apartment photos of the 4 of us and went off to bed.

 

The next morning, we finished our amazing time in LA, as Sal & Nat drove us out to the bus station and said our LA goodbyes, as we would be seeing them in Vegas.

Even still, it was sad for us to leave LA.

We were extremely lucky to be shown around LA by such amazing people.

Ever since I can remember I have wanted to go to LA, and without Sal and Nat, it would have been impossible to see all the incredible things that we saw while we were there. Jenae and Chris were an amazing help.

We were lucky to make 4 incredible friends who we know will be friends forever, even if we don’t get to see them often, we owe them bigtime.

 

After a few hours on the bus, I realised that we were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert when the drugs started to take hold…..

 

 

 

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

 

BJ

Some may never live, but the crazy never die

 

                   -a blog about LA (part one)-

 

Sunday August 17th : 11:38pm (Roswell, NM time)

 

In your life, you are going to meet/work with people that you don’t get along with at all. You are going to meet people that you have a beer with after work is out. You will make friends then lose contact.

You meet malicious people, you meet wonderful people.

I can guarantee right now, you will NEVER meet people as kind, warm, generous and loving and Sal & Nat.

And before I start my stories from where I left off last time, I would once again like to thank them for everything they did for us while we spent the last 2 weeks with them. They were an amazing help and its very rare that you will meet people in person for the first time and become life long friends with them.

That’s exactly what happened.

 

So……

 

We landed in LA, Megans ‘spew-bag’ or rather ‘spew-bags’ from the airplane now full, we grabbed a few handfuls as we walked down the aisle of the plane for the car ride back to Sal & Nats place.

Walking very slowly and carefully we made our way through LAX, until we saw the glass gate with Sal & Nat waiting for us on the other side, camera ready, and smiles on their faces.

After all the greetings, hugs, handshakes, I stood and waited by the baggage claim for what seemed like hours.

Our bags came, we were taken out to a beautiful little Chinese place for lunch, but not before Megan filled up another bag with vomit.

 

After eating, we got our bags settled into the apartment, we would be sleeping on the floor, on a mattress, by the kitchen, with a few inches of space for Sal and Nat to walk past if they needed to do so in the morning while we slept.

Once settled, we were back in the car on the way to Costco to buy some supplies for the week. HOLY CRAP, I have never seen such big bags/packs/cases of things in my life, and the prices being so cheap, one Benjamin Carter almost shit himself in excitement.

 

First nights sleep went well, with Megan being sick and me exhausted, sleep was well earned and it was also well needed, because the next day, we were going to Disneyland and although still very sick…Megan was coming with us.

 

I have always been told how wonderful Disneyland is, how amazing it is, how beautiful it is……I could go on and on like this all day, but I wont. Lets just say that I didn’t believe any of these people. Until I was there, I was overwhelmed by colours, rides, hats, food, and most of all, fun.

We had Nat, our own personal tour guide showing us where everything is, knowing where every restroom was just by having a quick think about it. With Megan still feeling sick she found it difficult to stay in some of the longer lines for the rides, but she toughed it out and we still went on all the rides that we wanted to, well almost all of them, we ran out of time and didn’t get to do a few of them.

The fireworks show was the highlight of the day, we sat on the concrete in front of the Disney castle with hundreds of other people. Then the fireworks started and I have never seen anything like it before, the perfectly times fireworks and lighting were amazing.

We proceeded home after a few more rides, and the 3 of us (Megan, Nataly and myself) falling asleep in the car was probably a sign of our exhaustion.

 

Upon waking, we were on our way back to Disneyland, but this time we were on our way to California Adventure. Unfortunately, both Sal & Nat had to work so we didn’t have our friends to hang out with all day, but we did pretty well.

After they did finish work however, they came back to Disneyland and joined us to watch Disney’s Electrical Parade. Which is one of the craziest things I have ever seen, but I could watch it over and over and over. I loved it.

 

With Megan feeling better, the next day, we slept in until around midday caught a train out to Universal studios where we spent about 8 hours, taking a tour of the studio and going on the rides they had, just enjoying the experience.

Now I honestly thought I would enjoy Universal more than Disneyland, but I didn’t, I still enjoyed it and had fun there, but I think I could spend every day at Disneyland and still enjoy it.

Sal and Nat met us out the front and we went to dinner at Buca, an Italian place which has servings that could possibly feed a small country. We ate and laughed and were amused by our waiter who looked like Nicholas Cage and spoke at about 100 miles an hour.

Then, we were shown………the pope room. A room where the popes head sits on a lazy susan and can be rotated around with ease. Unfortunately, this room is for people who have parties of 14 or more people. Yet still awesome nonetheless.

 

After we had another decent sleep, Nataly only had a half day of work and decided to show us around some parts of LA.

We went to The Secret Stash, which had Megan nearly peeing her pants with excitement as we got close to it, we went to Rodeo Drive, saw where Sal & Nat had their first date, went to a really cool store called Japan LA, went to a big comic book store.

That evening all 4 of us went to the Orange County fair and met up with Jenae and Chris.

Whilst here we went on a rollercoaster that no one should ever ride on, I ate a deep fried burger, Chris’ photo was on exhibition after winning 3rd place, petted some goats. But most of all….I WON A GIANT GREEN GORILLA! That’s right, we had a few tokens left so the boys (Chris, Sal and myself) all decided to throw some softballs into massive milk jugs and if you get it in, you win a prize, I was complaining to Megan that “no one ever wins at this stupid game, the carnies rig it so that it is impossible to win”. Of course on my first throw, the ball went straight in and I got to choose a giant stuffed toy of my choice, so of course it was a giant monkey.

 

After waking the next day we lazed around a little in the morning until we went to a burger place that one Drew Domkus constantly raves about In-N-Out Burger, goddamn that’s a fine tasting burger, there were also chili fries from Tommy’s included as well.

We took the food back to Nats parents house where we met her parents Galo and Nela and her brother Paul who were lovely.

As we ate, Galo and Nela shared stories with us about Nat as a child, Ecuador and tales of their travels. Lots of laughs were shared, and good food was eaten.

After we ate, we took a trip to Hollywood, we saw the sign, we went to the Chinese theatre, we saw Scientologists trying to do their thing and Scientologist protesters stopping them from doing their thing, we drove on Mulholland drive, we looked out of the hazy sky down onto LA, and we went to the observatory which was lots of fun.

That evening we went to one of Sal & Nats friends birthday celebration at a bar called Seven Grand, once we had passed the line and walked up the stairs, there were rabbit skulls covering the walls, they were displayed like deer heads after a hunter has mounted them……on the wood, not have sex with them……well maybe the hunter did, im not sure, he can do whatever he wants in his spare time.

With us all feeling exhausted we left early and went back to Sal and Nats and watched Office Space.

 

The nexy day was our last day at Disneyland, unfortunately Sal couldn’t make it there with us, so we went with Nat and we met up with Jenae, Chris and Chris’ sister Jenni……oh, and some weird bald guy that should have been named Tom. We did all the rides that we missed out on the first 2 times we went to Disneyland and saw the Fantasmic display, which was a crazy water show with pirates and Mickey and pretty much some strange things, like the water lighting on fire.

 

On our last day before we headed out to San Diego, Nat took us to work with her so that we could go bowling later in the evening. We walked around and had a look in the museum that is near Nats work.

We went into the Bodies exhibition, which is set up by mine and Dads favorite man………GUNTHER!

This was a disturbing walk through exhibition, where the actual bodies have been dismantled and posed in strange ways, the skin has been taken off most of these dead bodies, sometimes down the bone, sometimes everything has been removed apart from veins and arteries.

As we came to the end of the exhibition, we walked out to see an ostrich and a giraffe that have had the same treatment as the dead humans, skin taken off (in some places) and insides exposed. I was able to get close enough to the ostrich to smell him……so I did.

We walked through a HUGE rose garden and saw an airplane and space shuttle museum as well, before heading back to Nat, when we found out that the bowling plans have been changed and that we would be having a lazy night instead, which ment that we could play Rock Band, which we don’t have at home, so we played drums and guitar for a few hours before heading to bed. A good night was had by all.

 

The next morning we went to the bus station to head out to San Diego.

 

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

 

BJ

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes my arms bend back

Friday 1^st August – 9:32am (LA time)

 

Loose stones and dirt crunched under my feet, the darkness of the woods surrounded me, the crashing of water echoed through the woods. Six other people and I walked down a hill that was riddled with holes, roots, sticks, rocks and anything else that could possibly make you fall.

We had no light, nothing to see what was ahead of us.

A set of stairs led up to a tiny cage that seemed to stretch on forever, a small wooden boardwalk followed. That’s when I saw it, two cascading streams of water falling from so high up, illuminated with the huge floodlights that were back up at the top.

The only thing that went through my head…. “welcome to Twin Peaks”

 

Well, that wasn’t the first time I had been to the falls…..but I think I should start from the beginning….

 

Megan and I had finished our stay in Seattle and went to the airport to meet the lady who was giving us a ride to the Twin Peaks Festival, so once we all met up and were all settled, we drove out to a beautiful little town called North Bend.

North Bend was one of the filming locations for the TV show ‘Twin Peaks’ it hosues the Mt Si Motel, which is seriously one of the creepiest places I have ever seen.

The RR Diner (now Twedes) which is home of damn fine coffee and cherry pie.

 

We stayed in a little room in the North Bend motel, which despite what people kept telling us, was really, really nice. The view of the mountains when standing out the front of our room was unbelievable….we tried to capture it on camera, but its impossible to capture something that amazing and that beautiful on camera and do it justice.

 

That first day we were there, we went to Twedes for lunch and I got a burger, but was amazed that I was sitting inside the RR Diner.

The evening was ended with a night at the Moose, which is a local bar there, apart from the Twin Peaks Fest patrons, there was 1 other person in the whole bar.

Drinks were nice and cheap as well, I got a fairly large beer and Megan got a vodka/lemonade for $5.50….which is pretty damn good.

 

The next day we signed in at the ‘Twin Peaks Town Hall’. Despite my feeling sick, I managed to down one donut and drink a few cups of coffee, the Twin Peaks trivia was held here, but alas, I felt way out of my league and had much more fun watching the other contestants battle it out.

That night, we drove into Seattle for the Lynch movie night, which is held at the Seattle Art Museum, which is one crazy building.

There were 7 of us in our group when we went for dinner at an amazing little Italian place where Megan and I shared 2 plates, one of pasta and one of a beef salad.

Then ONWARDS, to the Seattle Art Museum.

We were treated to about an hour of short films, including one from David Lynch himself, which he sent himself and Twin Peaks up, it was excellent.

Then the main attraction, we saw Jennifer Lynch’s new film ‘Surveillance’ with Bill Pullman and French Stewart.

I LOVED this movie, I didn’t expect very much, or even expect myself to enjoy it. But I had such a good time watching this movie and is one I would recommend to people.

 

The next day was the Twin Peaks filming sites bus tour where we saw a hell of a lot of filming sites from Twin Peaks, much more than I thought there ever would be.

We saw Snoqualmie Falls, Ronettes bridge, the Roadhouse, the diner used in FWWM, the bookhouse, Salish Lodge, and a few more that I cant remember.

That night was the celebrity dinner with people like Piper Laurie, Kimmy Robertson, Charlotte Stewart, Paula K. Shimatsu-U. and John Neff.

It was a great night, I got my photo taken with Piper Laurie, damn I was nervous when I met her!

After the dinner was said and done, I was filled with a few beers, we went back to the motel and Megan wasn’t feeling great, she decided to go to bed and a small group of us decided to go on a secret filming locations tour, which is where the start of the email takes place.

That night I got back to the motel at around 2:30am, Megan sat up in bed and she did not look good at all, she was extremely pale and she thought she needed to vomit, but couldn’t.

 

The next day was our last day of the festival was the farewell lunch at which Charlotte Stewart and Kimmy Robertson attended. I bought a limited edition print from Charlotte of when she was in Eraserhead. Which is really amazing, she only made 7 of these and I HAD to get one.

Megan still not feeling great didn’t eat too much and we both got soaked with the crazy rain that hit us.

 

After there we went back to the airport and caught a cab into Seattle to the bus station where we were told that all the buses had sold out and there were no spots available, which is rather odd, because the lady we spoke to a few days before said to us, “no no, the only bus that sells out is the last one of the day and its very rare if that happens, but all you need to do is show up one hour prior to your bus leaving and you will be able to get a seat”.

Well…..we showed up 3 hours in advance, and still didn’t get a seat!

We waited and waited and waited, but still nothing.

We had no idea what we were going to do. So we called Sal and Nat and told them we may be running a little late getting to LA and told them the situation before the phone cut out and we ran out of change…..

I eventually cracked the shits and we went to find somewhere to stay for the evening. Once there, with Megan feeling even sicker than she already had, we made the decision to fly to LA. So we booked our tickets and caught a cab out to the airport in the morning, where we waited for a few hours, boarded our flight and headed to sunny LA.

 

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

 

BJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Station Is Non-Operational and musings of the second coming

Tuesday 22^nd July – 11:17pm (Seattle time)

 

Yowzers.

 

What a crazy week its already been.

It feels like we have been away for at least a month, when really its only been 9 days.

We flew into Seattle on Saturday and when we landed we waited for over an hour for our baggage to finally arrive, then I went to call the place where we were staying only for the lady on the other end of the phone tell me that “im sorry, I don’t have your reservation here”……which of course didn’t go down very well with me, who at this stage has been up for about 30 hours, I swore a few times and I believe I said something along the lines of “get off your fucking arse and look”.

That did the trick. We have been happily in our room ever since.

 

That aside, Seattle is an amazingly beautiful city, with many hills, friendly people and incredible views.

 

On Sunday we decided to go into the city and have a look around. We found the market there and OH MY GOD, I have never seen anything like it, right away I knew it was going to be chaos.

But in we went, past the big bronze pig (Rachel) and into the market, there were stalls for nearly everything, candles, honey, magnets, jewellery.

Buskers were on every corner with things from guitars to accordions to a stick with a piece of rope attached.

We walked around for a while, got lunch from a tiny little deli and sat on a hill overlooking the dock and the water.

 

Seattle is a place where being hired for a job is all about the amount of tattoos and facial piercings you have. The more you have, the better suited you are for the job.

Of course this is my kind of town………..EXCEPT……

 

The public transport…..no scratch that, the transport system here is shocking.

Shall I give you our example from yesterday?

Okay.

 

Megan and I woke up at around 10ish, which has become a normal thing to do on this trip which is nice.

We decided that we would go down to the cinemas and see The Dark Knight, we both have a love of Batman that is shared with our beautiful friend Shaun back home, and I wanted to see the “Wooden King’s” last film.

We saw that the closest cinema was 3.7 miles away, which was fine, we would have a nice walk, take in a bit more of Seattle.

We made the walk quite easily, until we got to the cinema and said that we would like 2 adult tickets to see The Dark Knight, when this is what came through the little speaker on her window…

 

“sorry, we aren’t showing The Dark Knight here, for that you will have to walk 2 miles down the road”

Our jaws dropped, how could a cinema not be showing the biggest release of the year!? If not the biggest release of all time?

 

Anyway, we were defeated, the long 3.7 mile walk had taken it out of us, we were hot, sweaty and now quite annoyed.

We decided we would walk that extra 2 miles and see this movie with Megan exclaiming “this better be the best fucking thing I have ever seen, otherwise I’m gonna be pissed”

 

We saw The Dark Knight, it was amazing, as always Christian Bale, Gary Oldman & Michael Cain did not disappoint. But there was something I was not expecting….

The last movie Heath Ledger completed, was his only good acting performance, and it will be sad we will not see anything from him again, but goddamn! What a swansong!

 

The movie finished, the time was about 9pm, we tried calling a cab, but had no luck. So we went into a local Vietnamese restaurant and asked if they had a number for the cab company that we could call, they were extremely helpful and called a cab for us.

 

Forty five minutes later, they called another cab for us.

 

Half an hour later, the waiter who had been so apologetic for the cab not coming had finished his shift and asked us where we were headed. We told him, on International Blvd, near the SeaTac airport, he told us that he lives down there and asked us if we would like a lift.

As we had walked for over 4 hours, we don’t know the city, it was 11:15pm, and we were so tired and just wanted to get into bed, we accepted this offer.

Megan sat in the front and I sat in the back, Jesus DVDs were stuffed into the backs of the seats in front of me, the radio station was on a Jesus talkback station, and he had a few religious armbands around his wrists.

 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this guy may just be the reincarnation of Jesus, he dropped us in the carpark of the hotel and refused to take any money, even for gas.

I was shocked and so, so, so gracious for this generous man, who talked to us about how much he loved our accent and how we wants to visit Australia one day.

 

That’s all for now.

 

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

 

BJ

 

Aloha & Mahalo

Wednesday 16^th July 11:15pm – Hawaiian Time:

 

Aloha

 

Air conditioner set to coldest setting – check

Air conditioner set to highest fan speed – check

Music via headphones – check

Twitter activated – check

Washing hung around room on picture frames, in drawers, off lampshades? – check

 

We arrived here a few days ago now, at 9 in the morning after being up for over 24 hours already.

This time I had no dramas at the airport, although Megan had trouble with an airport guy who was named Skeletor, the boney fuck, who asked her a million questions, while I was done in maybe two minutes at maximum, she was about seven or eight minutes. Where is He-Man when you need him to slay the evil Skeletor. BY THE POWER OF GRAYSCULL

 

We walked around for a while before being able to check into the hostel, although they did let us put all our bags in storage so we didn’t have to lug them all around with us.

 

The day seemed to last forever and we ate and swam and then once checked in we met our room-mate for the next week, Lewis, who is from Australia as well.

 

We have spent the time since the first day being lazy and lounging on the beach, swimming around, walking the international marketplace, pretty much just walking everywhere.

 

Oh and Dad, if you think the TV ads at home were bad, that Bankwest ad is even amazing compared to some of the shit they show on TV here.

 

I find it odd how when you buy things in US that say on the packaging that they are $1.98, when you take them to the register they are $2.10 or something like that…I don’t understand why Sales Tax isn’t automatically added into the price like it is at home……I don’t know why, maybe I have been spoilt too long with tax being added into things I wish to buy, but to me it just seems wrong to pay more that is on the pricetag. Perhaps I am being raped by the American tax system. Perhaps not. More than likely not.

 

We fly out of here on Saturday morning, the 19^th, my lovely friend Rins birthday. When we stop at San Francisco airport I will be calling her to wish her a happy birthday. Hopefully we get a chance to be able to do that.

The Twin Peaks festival is just out of Seattle and Megan and I are both extremely excited about going and eating an endless amount of donuts and drinking an endless amount of coffee, it shall be grand. However, I think I will miss the beach, I like being able to walk two minutes down the road and being able to get in the water and swim around for a few hours without a care in the world.

 

Anyway, right now I don’t have much to say, nothing exciting, no stories as of yet, we shall wait until I lose a finger or something like that…I hope that doesn’t happen, if it did, I would have probably have been finger fencing with a swordfish, so I would deserve it.

 

Mahalo

 

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

 

BJ

 

 

33,000 feet

Sunday July 13th 9:43pm – Melbourne time:

33,000 feet above the largest ocean on earth and having finished a meal and two glasses of wine, I sit next to Megan who reads her trashy-as-fuck magazine, a movie that looks really dodgy by the name of “Clay” plays on the screen located above the middle isle and my iPod is playing the sound of Bodyjar’s “One In A Million”.

 

We said goodbye to everyone and everything we know and love this morning at 11am. Tears, hugs and kisses were had and we strolled through the two sliding metal doors to take on our adventure.

 

All went smoothly at Melbourne Airport, where staff were friendly and joked about their boring jobs.

 

However….Auckland was a different story…

 

We arrived in Auckland and everything was going well, we had looked around and laughed at various things…especially Kiwifruit filled chocolates…..what a stupid invention, they looked rather disgusting. Of course whilst walking through the airport, mullets were spotted and giggled at by the two children from Melbourne.

 

With 25 minutes left until our flight was to board, our gate was announced, so down we went, down the two story escalator to Gate 9….which is now my arch nemesis….or at least the lady who ‘worked’ there is my arch nemesis.

She called me up to the front desk “If there is a Benjamin Carter at this gate, can he please report to the desk”….or DISK as the NZ’s like to say.

So I went up to see what was up.

She told me that I was wanted at the Transfer Station because they have found a problem with my luggage.

So I went and got Megan and this time we had to take two stories of stairs up to the transfer station, once we got there I showed the lady my boarding pass and passport, she checked with the guy behind the desk and he told us to go and wait at Gate 9….however, this was a little confusing for us…as the lady at Gate 9 had just sent us up to the Transfer Station…..

After a brief chat with the helpful people at the transfer station, we had decided that the lady had called out the wrong name, so back down we went to Gate 9.

We got back there and resumed the sitting position, after about 5 minutes, not only was I called up but also “Megan Newman, please report to the front desk”.

So we both went up and resumed argument with the Gate 9 lady, she tried to convince Megan that Megans name was Tammy, and then acted like a dick and told us once again to be seated…..this lady is evil….avoid her at all costs. Her haircut was dodgy as well……she was a shifty character.

 

Everything has gone very well so far. Except that on the first flight I had my own personal screen and got through 80% of ‘There Will Be Blood’……unfortunately for me, our second flight, although with the same airline, does not have the luxury of headrest screens. However, one day I will se the end of that film…..mark my words Air New Zealand…..I will see it if it’s the last thing I do.

 

Hopefully an update is due a few days into Hawaii.

 

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

 

BJ

Sleep Deprivation

The problem with working until midnight is, your brain will not turn off for hours afterwards, it is now 3:00am.
I feel incredibly tired, yet I cannot sleep. This poses a problem for me, as I have to be up in 4 hours.
So here I sit in bed, looking at Facebook, following up some posts on some forums, checking my 365 feed in Flickr, checking news updates (right now Sam Newmans prostate cancer tops that list), trying to find a good instant message application that lets me use webcam and microphone abilities, editing my photos in iPhoto, listening to either Dawn and Drew, or the new NIN album (Ghosts I-IV), its been this way for the last 2.5 hours.

The oxygen to my brain is beginning to run short as I am yawning about every 20 seconds or so….but still, sleep has not taken its hold yet. Nor do I feel like I could sleep.

(the news now tells me that 10 Australians were held captive in China before their captor was shot dead)

Im falling behind in my podcasts…..I BLAME YOU HUTCHINS!!!
I have finished listening to the last ‘7th Son’ episode last week and completely caught up with Hutch’s ‘Ultracreatives’ today….and as Sigler would say ‘DAMN YOU HUTCHINS!!’, you now have me listening to Mur Lafferty’s Heaven….once again causing me to fall behind in my beloved Dawn and Drew show….although I am slowly getting there tonight.

Tonight (6th March), Megan and I will make the trip into the city to see WEEN.
Im pretty damn excited about this, but my excitement doesnt even make up 1/100th of how excited Megan is, and of course, myself being the excellent boyfriend I am, have found pictures of the Australian merch and also setlists and emailed it to her for her morning viewing.

Friday night (7th March), Megan and I will be making the trip to the city again…..this time to a nice old theatre to see Iron & Wine. This is the show I have been excited about for months. Im really hoping that Sam and co. will blow me away.

Saturday night (8th March), mayhem will ensue with a group of us hitting up Taco Bill for a pre-drinks feast, then move into Chinatown, ready for an explosive evening of karaoke…..I hope the group is ready for a mean ‘Enter Sandman’ from yours truly.

I feel that this note is getting rather long as I am trying to spill as much shit as I can out of my brain so I will hopefully be able to finally get some rest.

Our around the world trip is booked, we fly out on July 13th. This is very, very surreal, the fact that we will be out of the country for 5 months blows my mind

Hopefully by next week the Seaweed & Saltwater music-cast will be finished up and made available, Im having a bitch of a time figuring out all my new equipment….even though it isn’t that complicated. But once thats all done and I do a little editing…..5 songs of pure golden joy will be available, in podcast form, through iTunes.

Anyway, this note has become long enough, (and boring enough for everyone reading) that I should end it and bury my head in my pillow.

Thanks to anyone who had the time and patience to read through my rambling, scrambled, sleep deprived words.

Until next time,

out.