Out Before the Town Wakes Up

Well I was up early again this morning. Got to have a yack with jeremy about footy and perhaps a MLB endorsed Australian baseball league. I was planning to take it easy this morning, maybe do some washing for Sherry, but instead she offered me a lift downtown so I hurriedly scoffed down some brekky (2 vegemite muffins and 2 cheese and ham muffins) did my other affairs and waited for her out on the street.

So she dropped me off just outside the musuem at 8 AM, and after feeeling a bit stupid walking up and down the one 50 foot stretch of pavement three times i decided to head to the next stop on the Red tile tour: The Rochin Adobe.

As you can tell it doesn't look like the other adobe's and that is because it was built by American colonists.It was built in 1855 with bricks salavaged from teh Presidio walls. The cladding was then added over the bricks, I walked straight past this initially, thinking it was just some cool house. I actually walked all the way around the corner down to the hospital thinking that it may have been place. Then on watching the podcast again I recognised the pink weatherboards.

The next stop just up the steet is the El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park. Once again another place that doesn't open until 10 in the morning. So i walked around took some photos. This building was actually cut in two to allow a road to pass through. Across the other side of the road is the rest of the building. I felt like a crook trying to open the doors on the sly - I wonder if these are opened for the tour.

Next stop was the Post Office. Out the front was a small garden with the American Flag - unfortunately flacid due to a lack of wind. You could sense the history of the place in the interior.

The Lobero Theatre was originally founded in 1873 asw an Opera House. It was rebuilt in 1924 and to this day is California's oldest continuously operating theatre.

This was taken from the carpark across from the theatre. I tried to get some cool shots of the Post Office too but none really worked.

I was home by a bit after 10am. None of the shops were open, i didnt really feel like sitting at a cafe by myself, but also couldnt be bothered with subway or Maccas either. I thought about catching gthe trolley down to the beach and in hindsight probably should have.

But had a good day at home with tunes, I think I cracked a beer before lunch, and had knocked back 3 Heineken's before 3pm. I then fell asleep on the couch and only woke up when Sherry got home.

We then went down to Borders. I had a massively running nose. Sherry got the new Dan Brown book. We looked in some clothes shops and spoke to a girl who looked mature but wasnt 21 so couldnt drink. Sherry gave her the 'Melbourne is the city with peronality talk - which is really true and makes sense'.

We ate at California pizza kitchen. The food was okay but we were suprised it was so expensive. I don't think we will go back there. I had a Cheesburger pizza.

After leaving we spoke about the Afro-American Tipping cycle - whereby they tip less because they get worse service, aren't always seated as quickly etc than Caucasians, but how staff know they tip less so don't serve them as well. A unspoken cycle that goes on throughout America.

We then went to the Chemist and bought a few supplies. Nearly bought Contra 4 for the DS. But ill give you an interesting comparison below. Which is better?

At Califronia Pizza kitchen Sherry and I had 1 Heineken each at $4.50 per stubbie not including tax. At the drug store i bought a 1.75 litre bottle of Grants Scotch for $18.95.

A quick walk

Where is the NFL? I can't find it on anyh oif the stations. The U.S Open men's final was on so I watched Fedorer slef combust and loose at Flushing Meadow for the first time in 2200 days. True story. Sherry finally got home around 6.30. We then went and picked up Leslie and headed down to the park for a walk around. We then headed to Ralph's supermarket. Didn't get too much apart from some snags.

After dropping Leslie off we came home and had Burito's. I think dozed off on teh couch pertty quickly. I had been up for 22 hours so bed was looking like a good option. I'm beat. First full day in the books and on the blog.

Red Tile Walking Tour Part One

Well I woke up really early today. Would have been i'd say 12.30 or so in the morning. I set the computer up and connected to the Valerio network. Had a voice chat to Gaz and Dangas before Gaz played teh 'When i saw Whoa! i mean Whoa!' sound bite way too loud so i had to hang up. hahah - Check out the question mark i made with my colon. hahaha. Was good to talk to those boys. Did the standard texting then and also had a chat to jeremy later on. Its now 6am and i've also got everything up to date. Ah sorry. All this typing makes me feel like a squirt.

Sherry woke up around 6.35 or so. It was starting to get light. Sherry then wanted to put the coffee on but realised we were way down on milk. So I said i'd go for a walk and get some. There's a deli on the corner of bath and whatever else, but its only 2 blocks away. I got there but the place was not open yet. It said 7 on the window and it was 7. A really well tanned guy shouted me a free paper. He said 'Morning' and he sounded Indian. 'You want one white feet?'

It was a pretty muggy morning. Nicde ot be out and walking with most of the town still in sleep mode. Pity the store owner was too so I waited until 10 past and then walked off towards State St just hopingthere would be another shop on the way., There was one - but their fridge had no milk, so on I pressed to State Street and Cantwell's Market. Success! But geez a bit of a hike. Got back around 7.30 and Sherry had the Californian equivalnt of Sunrise on.

The top stories of the day

- Serena Williams losing a match because she threatened to ram a ball down a linesperson's throat - costing her 2 points and the match

- Kanya West interrupting the acceptance speech of a girl and saying 'Beyonce's video was the best' Beyonce then allowed the winner of that award to come up when Beyonce won another award to give here a cahnce to give an acceptance speech.

I spent a good chunk of the morning looking through the local guides to get an idea of what was on around SB. Turns out that The Killers played last night at the bowl. Bugger! I would have done a big day out effort i reckon. Not much else coming up apart from the Coastal Music Festival which we will go to on Saturday. Ben Harper, G Love and Special Sauce haha - and then on Sunday and Monday i think we are off to Disneyland. So it's going to get busy quickly.

Also sussed out the local college football, ice hockey and baswketball. Movies too, and monday night football at The Sandbar looks good. But i got tired of sitting around home quickly. Luckily I stumbled onto a podcast which was a self guided tour of downtown Santa Barbara. I left home around 11.30 - ran into Janet so said high and also met the lady from Alabama.

Unfortunately the head phones were not working so to listen to the podcast or music in between i would have to play it through the external speaker. So i played a few tunes before i got to the second stop on the tour. The first stop was the Courthouse which Sherry and I did last time. So first stop was the Public Library. Once there i fired up the podcast and low and behold the voice over was J. Peterman from Seinfeld! At least he made sense on this podcast.

The gallery off to the side was pretty cool. Some interesting artwork. There was a fair bit of artwork with numbers next to them. it turns out a jury of critics was baout to judge which paintings shoudl be admitted to the collection. I got kicked out for this.

I then walked into the main public library and it was quite impressive, Massive windows, a couple of murals and lots of people. It was opened to the public in 1917. Fun Fact 5

There are a lot of fountains in Santa Barbara.

I then tried to pop into the gallery, but it is shut on Monday's, Two older Enlgish folk were the guinea pigs for that and let me know as they were also following the red tile walking tour. I then walked down La Arcada. Sherry and I had already been down there on our last trip, but it was good to go down as part of a tour. De0igned by Myran Hunt who is responsible for over 500 architectural plans across California including the Rose Bowl.

I can only guess that they wanted to get some sun on the their shells.

That guy is Benjamin Franklin. Doh!

I then walked down State Street a bit more and was asked directions by a latino guy wearing a Tomlinson jersey, He even called me 'brother'. Didn't bother me but i thought the miss use of that word over here was a feux par. Anyhow.... Walked to Gamestop and Bought Tecmo Bowl Kickoff for the DS. Quite possibly the last ever DS game i will ever buy. Got it for $16 U.S which is around 21 Australian so why the hell not?

Next stop on the tour was the El Paseo. Its a photographer's dream. I did my best. It's claimed to be the first Shopping arcade and was opened in 1927. If anyone knows of any rooms for rent - either for commercial or personal use let me know please.

Right near this equisite paseo is the Casa de la Guerra, This was originally the home of Commander Jose de la Guerra and was completed in 1827. Just to the right of this photo below is like an outside courtyard and this was a popular gathering palce in the 1920's. really cool architecture. In fact - all of Santa barbara is just an amazing place - even the ones that arent mentioned on the tour. Every building has some Spanish Influence.

There's a plarque in between those green bushes and just here the first ever Santa barbara council meeting was held in 1850. This area here is known as the 'Plaza de la Guerra'. I expereienced a council meeting of different sorts just off to the right of here as some middle aged - fairly well dressed man tried to sell me drugs. He even showed some medicinal marijuana certificate. He first came up and said 'have you seen Mike anywhere?'

I don't think this place was part of the tour but just looked cool. Had the standard fountain in the middle and was U-shaped - a theme that im beginning to understand is not just an annomily around here.

This fountain is located just off the oldest street in Santa Barbara called 'Presidio Avenue'. A guard's house was built here in 1840 to keep the Americans at bay. 6 years later the Mexicans were overrun. This fountain area was designed in the 1920's to 'help you take a load off'

Across the street from Presidio Avenue is the Lugo Adobe. As J. Peterman says 'it's like being inside a painting'. It was built by an early descendant of Luis Lugo, an enlisted soldier of the Presidio compound across the road.

The musuem just next to this was closed. So both the musuem and gallery are closed on Monday's. Ah well - I took this as a sign that i should call it stumps for the day. It would be a bit of a walk back and I wanted to make sure I was home in time for Monday night football.

I stopped in at Radioshack on the way back. Found some headphones for 10 bucks. At first i tried to have a look at them but couldnt get them off the rack. After buying them i pulled them out of their packet, whacked them on and bopped all the way home with 'Check My Brain, some Prodigy, Doors, and The Game.

I made it back by about 3.10pm so had plenty of time. I then stared uploading all these photos and then snacked on pistachios, jerky and grain chips in preparation for the football.

AMERICA the 2nd - TOUCHDOWN MURRAY!!

Well, finally we are down on the tarmac. The plane taxied again around the back and tugged in to the actual gate. Then was the part everyone coming to L.A knows and loves - CUSTOMS!! My god - can it suck anymore? Well yes it could i guess. The border security staff just take so long to process somebody, and when the machine crashed that was serving us the line didn't move for 20 minutes. So yeah me and the guy talked to another girl who was on her way to Toronto. Finally we got to the front and then the girl and I got shifted to another queue which meant we had to wait even mroe time. Then guy gave me a decent amount of grief before he moved me through. Certaily no pleasantries from him. We are just cattle to them.

Once that was done the hard work was finished. The bags had been taken off the carousel and the girl and i were both allowed to pas through baggage clearance without getting them searched,. And then i saw Sherry! Great to see her. Sherry couldnt find the parking ticket initially, but soon we wer off in another bloody cream PT Cruiser. haha. We stopped off at Denny's on hte way home. I had a choc shake and god they taste even better than i remember. I also had a Philly Melt with prime rib meet.

Came home and i was pretty stuffed. Sherry unpacked nearly everything for me while I had a shower and watched NFL. Saw a bit of the Cleveland v Minnesota game. Then Sherry woke me up around 5.30 for the Packers Bears game. The first play I ever saw green Bay involved in saw them give up a safety. hahah Thats got to mean something. The next play they fumbled the ball over for nearly what would have been a touchback but was isntead rukllked out of bounds,. The ruling was evfen challenged by Chicago. The half time score was 10-2 apparantly that score has only happened 3 times in the history of the NFL. Oh yeah - Bob Costas. You are a retard. You interview one of TV's biggest personaliteis and you have completely stuff up the interview by having no understanding of laughing at the guests jokes, or allowing for satellite time delay. I was embarassed to watch it. i can only imagine how Jay Leno feels. I wish I could have stayed awake but I was just so tired. I owe Sherry an apology when she wakes up. I wasn't too complementary of her spag bol. I think I was trying to pick a fight - or more makea point about the way people complement the chef on their cooking. I didnt wake up until midnight. Woah! Its getting light outside - Its 6.17 AM Monday morning here. Ive been up since 1 am plugging in my laptop and blogging about my trip so far. i might also try and finish off last tr\ip as well. I couldnt finish it due to the internet crashing for the last 3 days i was home.

America the 2nd - The Arrival

SUNDAY 13th SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE - 4.40 AM. The airport is dead early in the morning. I'm sitting here at Gat 5 of the international terminal at Tullamarine Aiport at 4.20 am and their is absolutely no one here. Arriving at the airport you would be forgiven if you drove up turned around and driven home because the place looks closed. Mum got the Plum carpark right near the level one elevator, and that never happens. In fact - the only time we saw people was at the check in counter where there were around 20 people in the line. No other check-in counters were open. I was randomly chosen for an explosives search/ Well not random - I was the only person around. Mum asked a hundred questions at the check in counter - I'd rather her stress than me i guess, but it was all in control. She did really well actually. The high point of the morning was at home when at 2.30 am just as I was zipping up the case we found a lock on it, which was locked, preventing me from putting my own lock on, to lock the bag. Everything had gone relatively well up until then - I had even allowed enought time for some breakfast before I left, Mum's good with the bacon - but uses too much oil in general. And then the lock happens. Anyway - Mum pulled out the mass saw and staretd going at it. But she then found a small pari of bolt cutters and it was off in a jiffy. This put us 5-10 minutes behind schedule, but Mum had a great run in along the Prnces Highyway. In fact, all up i reckon it only took an hour 5 minutes to get to the airport from home. Nearly as good as the complete run in on the Monash. Those roadworks better be finished by the time i get back or there will be hell to pay. I did not sleep a wink last night, and conisdering i was coming off a big day with the McPhee's wedding, I thought I was guaranteed to sleep a fair chunk out of the plane trip. I had to be up by 2 AM at the latest which let's be honest, is usually the time i like to go to bed. But honestly i was pretty anxious the whole night, nervous in fact. At first i wanted to make sure i had all the right Apps downloaded for the Iphone, and then it was a race against time to get the thing charged. So I went to bed with about 4 hours or so to spare before I had to get up. I tried to get some sleep but instead watched Sopranos and periodically checked to see if the phone was charging up. Well it turns out i didnt even plug the thing in correctly on the charger so i only had arounds 20% battery the whole flight. I remember looking at it and thinking - is that even charging? it still looks low.' Well yeah it's not plugged in fool. I'd been umming and ahring as to whether i'd take the original Ipod on the trip, this little incident sealed the deal. At least i can leave it permanently in the IDoc at Santa Barbara and just keep my phone for the road missions. Also brought the NDS, which was the plan all along. But yeah i was hoping to have just enough Iphone battery life to take some snaps and play a few games. Usually I would have been a bit more distressed with the Iphone charging mishap but since Sherry had left it had been a week of mayhem anyway, so I took it pretty well. First The Internet and phones went down, then my Iphone screen played up and I also found out that Janet no konger had espn, vs and tnt on her televisions - so there goes all my sports watching just like that. Honestly, if my Iphoner could not have been fixed I would have bought a pack of ciggies. The drive down to Fountain Gate was insantiy, I was just so on edge. So they were the low pounts. I did have some high poiints during the week. The phone i could easily fix from home so that was cool. I went around and played with Callan. He's commando crawling now and loevd the Iphone. Mr T and Arnold Schwarzanegger especially. An he loves glasses of water too. Had a hit of cricket with Dangas. 'I don't do 6's' haha. And then smack! smack! the biggest sixes in the history of cricketness. Dang also had picked up the ncie 'help it on its way clip over the 3rd man fence'. And also the simulfark. That was funny too. Rodders and I also squeezed in an abbreciated Heroes 5 session. That was a let down, orginally the day was going to be movies, tunes, heroes and everything but people have different priorities in life and I have to accept that. My Necromancy Army is tough as. Around 255 Vampire Lords. Ooh yeah. And i'd just begun building up another town. Rodders got smashed by 95 Ghost Dragons and called it quits.

I fell asleep pretty quickly on the plane trip to Auckland. It would have been around 30 minutes, but it felt like no time had passed before the Kiwi lady next to me was saying 'Wake up, breakfast'. But suer enough it had been around 10 songs worth as i remember checfking it after i woke up. It was song 12 out of whatever and playing was the last 20 seconds of "my Summer Vacation' by Ice Cube. So i then hammered down my second breakfast of the morning. I dont mind the airline's scrambled eggs. This one was good becfause it came with bacon, tomato and a vegie cake as well as teh standard fruit muffin and pre-cut apple. Even better they had tomato juice, How kick arse. At hotel's they have every drink under the sun excluding tomato juice and then you jump onto a plane and they have it. So yeah i enjoyed that juice and then i instructed the Kiwi lady ion the ways of effective rubbish stacking. I also talked to an old guy sitting next to her before we had taken off. He had some very interesting stories about fires in 1959 in Gippsland. He said how he was driving past Orbost on his way to Malacutta with flames on branches over hanging the road. He also stalked abotu a mysterious plane that was spotted over Sydney before the times of radar. And mini-subs too. I heard a cool song by the Game which featuerd Nas. The song went for over 9 minutes, but is a 4 star song right off the bat. That is unless the sound that was coming out of teh dud headphone was Elton John or something. If that is the case it's no dice to the rating Swing set style.

The song is called 'Why you hate the Game? off the Doctor's Advocate album. SUNDAY 13th - 11.30am AUCKLAND. (9.30 am AEST) My bum, was sore as so I was looking forward to havinga walk around Auckland Airport. As we approaced the airport I got to see some great views of Auckland and its surrounding countryside. It was all really grfeen and lsuh, like looking down at a 400 hole golf course.

Once down on the ground I found i had around 100 minutes to kill before the flight to Los Angeles. What to do. What to do. After having a quick look around the concourse shops i went to the publics which aided my comfort level considerably. 2 lots of breakfast in a row is good for energy but not good for other parts of the body. Pretty noisy toilets haha. And No, not from me. Sicko's.

The terminal here is pretty interesting. One big board shows all the flights coming up over the next 2 hours, but only the ones scheduled for departure within the next half hour have a displayed gate number confirmede on the board. So you really need to hang around this area until you know what gate you are boarding.

After growing tired of walking around i looked for a seat, but it wa pretty packed because everyoen wanted to see the Departure board. Wth over 80 minuts still left i wasn't stressed about seeing the board constantly so i found a row of seats on the way to some other gates. I sat down there and low and behiold there were 2 power outlets near the seats. i wasn't sure whether it was legal but i thought i'd fire up the laptop, plug in the ipod cable and try to charge up the iphone for the next 45 minues or so. I got it up to around 40% i reckon. Also squeezed in some Peggle in duel mode. I only had it on normal, but sill only won 3 out of 8 games. Good challenge that's for sure. After 25 minutes i packed up and looked at the board seeing that QF25 was set to board at Gate 9. Down the esculators i went and sat down ready to board for the last part of my journey to Santa Barbara and Sherry.

Awesome. The flight was carrying a light load. So i didnt have ayone sitting directly next to me, so if teh aisle guy moves i might get some solid sack time in. I want to stay awake for the green Bay vs Chicago game that starts at 5. I'm not to sure about the head stewardess. She's a bit of a Mrs Russ and realy fumbled over teh initial instructions. TV PLAN (let's see how much of this I actually watch)

Movies - Terminator 4, The Hangover, Star Trek, Night at the Museum 2, State of Play, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I love you man.

Sport - Thrilla in Manilla.

TV - IT Crowd, Two and a Half Men, How I met your Mother, Thank God You're Here ande Flight of the Concords.

Yeah! Just got a high score in Le Mans. 136,010. Time goes quicker oncfe you hit the 100k checkpoint. This is the coolest game. And it was one of the first games i ever owned. Both ways, haha - harder now with Iphone controls.

Had a good chat to the guy sitting next to me. Turns out he has a really fascinating job. He has to re-design airport terminal layouts to allow for mroe gates. At the moment he's looking a satellite image of Calgary aiport which has 8 gates and it needs to be increased to 10. He'd really drawn the rough end of the stick only finding out on Thursday that he was off to Calgary, Vancouver and i think Mexico, returning on a wednesday night flight and then expected to work Friday back in Melbourne. PFffffffttt!! But we had a good chat about basketball, I discussed my theory of re-branding Austrlaian Basketball, making better use of of international heroes and improving exposure to the best players in the world - as I had in the day with Jordan, Magic and Bird. SUNDAY - 13th 1.00 AM WEST COAST TIME - SOMEWHERE OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN

I reckon i squeezed in half an hour of sleep, I'd been watching Terminator 4 - pretty hard to hear with my headphones even on full. I slept i reckon through the first 1/3 maybe? Was kind of interesting. It had some classic Terminator moments, exploring the humanity of humans. But then it also ventured into other aspects which werent as compelling as a standard Terminator plot. I give it 3 stars. Then i watched the first half of Star Trek. Haha - gee the guy playing Jim Kirk is a pissa. But yeah got sick of not being able to hear anything so stopped watching movies. TV worked better and i watched an episode ot the IT crowd and 4 episodes of Two and a Half Men. I also broke this up with some Metroid Pinball. God i sucked. I guess that's what i get for starting on Pirate Frigate. As good as Tallon Overworld is, dyametrically opposes the baddness of Pirate Frigate. Well it justs too easy to lose your balls. I couldnt play in stereo phoneness heaven either with my headphoners issue. So yeah i couldnt listen to music really - only with my ear monicle. and i couldnt watch movies coz their headphones were shit. I did had an okay time playing N+ (unlocking the red ninja) and also Pipe Mania. Had my third breakfast in what seemed liked groundhog day. More eggs, snasusage, and all those other trimmings Although this time the scambled eggs tasted crunchy in parts and the sundries were not as good. Had a quick chat to a guy from San Diego so he was keen to see the Chargers play. Touching down in around an hour. The sun is starting to lighten up the plane wing. Very very low cloud around Los Angeles it looks like today.

Stella and Doug's Wedding - Saturday 12th September

What a special day for Stella and Doug. They were bold in their choice of a beach wedding considering the Melbourne weather, but luckily on this day the God's smiled upon them. If the wedding had of been yesterday there would have been sand everywhere as the wind had been ferocious, Speaking of ferocious, how about Stella? She sure looked ravishing in her dress. Her hair looked amazing. She was smart to go for the more traditional arrival via car, than one via waterskies or via parachute (involving a dummy and the chute not opening, then Stella pokes her head out from out the back - Suprise!' Carlos, Jarra and I all had a good chuckle.

There were loads of people. Doug must have a big family. The weather looked gloomy and at one stage 2-3 drops were felt. but that was all. Katreen gave a weird Dr. Seuzz speech (cousin of the more popular Dr. Zues).

It was a good ceremomy, a bit hard to hear anyone but the celebrant. I don't know whether Doug and Stella had chosen what words she would say 'Doug & Stella would like to now bring their private love life out into the public' was a most amusing line, even drawing a wry smile from the groom. After some of those comments Stella's older relatives needed a cup of tea. Well not really, but it's part of the Chinese culture. I was really impressed to see them follow some of the more traditional customs. The tea ceremony was a special part of the ceremony.

Look it's true - We did get married. We have a certificate to prove it.

We then all posed for the photographer. Doug was not not to come in front of Stella. It was then a walk back to Doyle's Hotel for the reception in the Nepean Room. There were 8 tables not including the bridal party, so all up around 80 people. Familiar faces around including Jamesm Clint, Chris and Andrea on my table.

Kylie is 4 months pregnant and married. Annagha and John have been married for nearly three years now. They had roughly 350 people at their traditional Hindu wedding, which involves gas and fire. Sounds like it would be a smelly and dangerous occasion.

Everyone gave a good speech. Andrew - Doug's 2nd oldest brother was the MC and not only gave a good speech, but also introduced everyone well. Michael Chong, Stella's Dad was described as 'a cunning linguist, humourours and caring and lastly "Number 1 Bullshit Artist"

I wasn't sure where Doug's father was going with his speech, but in the end finished off well as the McPhee boys welcomed Stella into the family with a traditional Scottish hand slapping tradition. Stella's cousin, i think, also made everyoen say cheers in Chinese but you do it really loudy 'Yaaaaaahhh, Soooooooooong'. Although i just yelled out "YA SOUNG!!!" really quickly while everyone was still only a quarter of the way through the first 'Ya!'

Then came the Lemon Meringue Cake. What a great idea. The cake was made up of heaps of mini's and instead of handing them out to guests - the happy couple threw the cakes at people. Well not like a full caning - just a gentle toss to make it easy. It could of got very messy. Stuart, Doug's eldest brother, was keen to up the ante however, shaking Doug's hand with a pie in hand.

Stella and Doug's bridal waltz was really touching. A perfect way to display their love for one another. It seemed to be a tradtional chinese dance, but they were amazing.

Doug, Andrew, Jamie and I all had a 4 muskateers cheers. Was a good moment. Then there was the garter toss. Doug was blindfolded and spun around. Stuart then put his leg jup in front of Stella's causing Doug to touch up Stuart instead of his wife. Stella then put his head under her dress. The boys were then forced to limbo under the garter. I did a nice John Travolta knee slide and also an 'On your marks, get set, go! run through the tape' move.

Doug and Stella are off to Fiji on Monday. Heopefully we will all catch up sooner rather than later. Some winery tours, some pool at the RACV club with Andrew, and poker nights at Marty's all have been suggested. But once again, what a perfect day for a percect couple. Congratulations to both of you. It was a privilege to be there.

Farewell Australia Party

Phew! Boomshanka. Just a quiet relaxing afternoon with a few light snacks ended up being a pretty sizeable affair. I'd done a fair bit of tidying the day before and also had gotten the ribs marinating nicely. So all that was really left was a quick table wipe down and to organise Boston. By 12.30 it was underway. I went and picked up Rachel and Erin from Berwick train station and as I pulled up the train was just pulling in to station. Smart move on my account to have them meet me on the Berwick side of the station as it saved me having to drive over the tracks. Would have been stopped by the Boom Shake Shake Shake the room Gates for sure.

We went to Woolies, Shelley went to the supermarket while Erin and I went to Dan's. Wasn't plannning on much but ended up buying a bottle of Contraeu, red bulls (it's an incredible energy drink) and beers. Oh yeah and ice. So there was a bit to carry back to the car. So it was the four of us for a while, and then everyone seemed to arrive in a convoy. I think first was Renton and Tracey, then Felicity and Trent, Rodders, Jeremy, Amy and Caz, then i think it wa Sharee adn then much later on Doug popped in to say hi. This wa at about 10.30pm when we were all pretty sore and sorry. (10.30 haha. we did start early though) It's become a bit of tradtion at mine to do shots. This time we had 5 punters in the line-up (me included) to do Skittle Bombs. I had my first one of these a little bit under a week ago at Doug's Bucks Night. So yeah we smashed those - Renton, Shelley, Erin, Sherry and myself. Doug if only you'd been there a bit earlier we would have had 3 out of the 4 there.

The bottle was finished by about 7 or 8 i reckon. I think i had about 5 skittle bombs and then scotch with red bull. (no idea what thats called - possibly alcahol abuse?). But yeah we had plenty of good American food. The only thing that i think we could have done with more of was rolls for the mini hotdogs. But the ribs. Haw Haw. Missaspeaka! Those ribs were off the hook. Plenty for everyone - really juicy and soft. We also ordered a couple of pizza's later on which went down really well. Rimmer did real well out of it as well - getting to lick one of the U.S.A plates clean and a fair bit of cheese in a can. Probably not the best thing for dogs.

The Renster and I had the Arnold thing going most of the day. Bit of 'It's a Trap!' with Rodders. But yeah - I cant remember much else that was said. All I know is that I had a blast. But yeah it was reallygood to see everyone. Thanks to Fliss and Rachel for the prezzies too.