June 30, 2005

Definition of Ironic

 Sprinting a kilometre up hill to catch a bus you decide you won't take once it arrives. ... good exercise though I guess, lol.

Trip update coming soon — I have a stack of photos to process first, and have been busy with work ;)

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June 22, 2005

This Country Is Weird

At the local supermarket... 1 litre bottle of Smirnoff $12, 1 litre bottle of Bacardi $16... and the cheapest rubbish hair gel/wax? 22 bucks!! Hmmm, maybe I should just give the Bacardi to everyone I meet, then it won't matter what my hair looks like... lol.

Turns out all alcohol is duty free here. America—an alcoholic-with-bad-hair's wet dream.

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June 21, 2005

Strange Karma

Monty Python Hand of God

I was down in Santa Monica again today, Venice beach actually, after the bus trip from hell I might add. I had managed to get on a nondescript 761 line bus that happened to go out-of-service half way though the freakin' route, stranding me on Ventura for like 40 minutes... anyway, enough of me bitching bout buses.

This time I'd taken my board to skate the Boardwalk between Santa Monica Pier and Marina Del Ray. So I was skating along when this incredibly hot chick skateboarded past the other way, so the obligatory 180° head turn soon followed...

It was at this point that my board hit the only unskateable gap in the pavement, and I went flying like some Monty Pythonesque Hand of God had come down from the heavens and Bitch-Slapped me off my board, landing me some 4 metres away—hard, it completely knocked the wind out of me. The strange thing was, it was the *only* unskateable gap in the pavement (I checked on the skate back) and not only that, two-thirds of this 2 inch gap was in-fact filled with asphalt. It appears I rode into the unfilled third of the only gap in the entire 10km Boardwalk whilst checking-out this girl... Strange karma or what?! Spooky... needless to say, I might just watch where I'm going from now on, lol.

Great hall locations: Travel , United States  |  Talked about by: 1 Fraggles

June 20, 2005

Damn, I Want One Of These...

Portable Rotary Phone and it's Tri-Band, hehe, link

"It's a GSM cell phone built inside an old rotary phone. You pop your SIM card in, it dials out, rings and acts just like an old fashion phone."

(though txt'ing might be a bit of an issue, hmmm...)

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Crazy Thermostat

We've had earthquakes here all last week, 3 or 4 of them in fact. The biggest one was the one centred just out of Downtown LA on Thursday (5.2) which shook the apartment up pretty well. Apparently they're fairly normal for around here, but still slightly disconcerting nonetheless...

On Thursday afternoon I headed down to the UCLA Hammer Museum, which has free admission on Thursdays ;) They have an interesting selection of oil paintings, engravings and drawings. It was the first time I'd examined pointillist paintings close up—It was quite interesting to how movement and detail where represented by different stroke lengths. However, the highlight of the trip were a series of 1850's French newspaper cartoons, by Honoré Daumier, which were both interesting and a fun way to test my French by reading the captions underneath.

The rest of the week and weekend was pretty uneventful, mainly work... I when down to Santa Monica beach on Saturday—it was last day of my weekly bus pass, so I wanted to get value for money. Other than that I've managed to come down with a bit of a cold, (my nose has been running marathons), so have been walled up in the apartment resting and trying to better, which hasn't been helped by the fact it's been stinking freakin' hot the last few days.

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June 12, 2005

Earthquakes & Disneyland

After being awoken by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on this morning, we headed off to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for the day...

It was my first time to the California Adventure park, though I've been to the normal Disneyland one many times. The california one certainly has a different feel to it, personally I probably wouldn't buy a ticket for just it on its own, however it's definitely worth visiting. Disneyland The best part was the California Screamer Roll-a-coaster, fast and smooth-as due to it being electromagnetic, I was right at the front too! The Hollywood Hotel of Terror was really really cool, kind of a 1930's themed hotel twilight-zone ride. I also saw/when on Soarin' Over California, Muppet*Vision 3D, Orange Stinger and Redwood Creek Adventure Area among others...

In the actual Disneyland, I when on the a few of the smaller rides (Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Storybook Land Canal Boats, The Tree-House, etc) as I've been there quite a few times and been on most of the major rides a lot in the last few years. Of the major ones I did Indiana Jones (and managed to get some inside photos this time around too!), the Matterhorn (this one is compulsory ;), The Haunted Mansion (which has been recently refitted with new technology and is heaps better now), Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean and the new Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. This is an interactive ride where you actually shoot stuff, get points and compete against your friends for the highest score. It rocks though I got my arse kicked by Mike & Wendy, however they have both been on this ride several times before... ;)

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June 11, 2005

Saturday, Seaside & Shopping

I spent saturday afternoon down at Santa Monica Pier (& Beach), and did a bit of shopping (and generally looking around) at the 3rd Street Promenade.

Santa Monica Pier/Beach

The pier is fairly similar the ones found in Britain, with a faris wheel, small roll-a-coaster and the usual food and entertainment stalls. A word of warning, the coffee at the place on the pier was absolute shit—lukewarm, over-extracted and cost me $4.33, avoid at all costs!! The beach was good and reasonably clean, not quite so crowded as it is down the coast at Venice, etc. The water looked a bit dodgy though, so I didn't go in there. Btw, I have the ugliest beach towel in the history of the world, well it was the best of a bad selection at the only place near where I'm staying that had beach towels... It's yellow, orange and purple striped, and I'm sure you can see the thing from space cos' it's so freakin' bright! lol

3rd Street Promenade

The Promenade was cool too, it's very pretty this time of year with all the trees in bloom. Got a new pair of jeans and some shirts from French Connection. These jeans are the coolest jeans in the history of the world, if I do say so myself, lol. I haven't owned jeans for about 3 years now, cos' I couldn't find any I liked (or ones I liked that I could afford), but these rock... they sit super low on the hips and are wide-legged and flared—the style is called slouch. Also on the Promenade is the first Starbucks Hear Music store, these stores have little consoles where of you can listen to music and build custom cd's (complete with printed artwork) from their huge selection of tunes while you have your coffee. I'm planning on going back for further investigation to see what tracks I can dig up— some nu-jazz would go down well :)

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June 7, 2005

Arrgh

Los Angeles, CA

I'm still coming to grips with the shit that's gone down in the last week, however to cut a long story short, I'm staying at Mike's place again and have my feet on the ground once more. I now have a supermarket club card (and am saving a bomb on my groceries), have figured out the LA metro system (buses & trains) and am now trekking all-around the greater LA area.

In other previous news I met comedian Christopher Titus, from the Titus Show and Rides on the Discovery Channel, found out that Pink's house is just around the corner from here, and that they were filming a movie right outside the apartment the other day and I didn't realise! (at least until I saw 14 truck trailers parked up a long the street, lol!)

Los Angeles, CA

I'm heading down to Venice Beach this weekend, and am thinking about going to Disneyland sometime next week—depending on what my work schedule is like. Was down near Compton / South Central today, don't think it's nearly as dangerous as people make out, though I prob wouldn't want to be there after dark. Everyone I met was quite pleasant, in fact I've met nothing but a string of really nice people all over LA today (did about 6hrs travelling today). All in all I'm quite happy in the city of angels—it's starting to feel like home.

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