Home sweet Floridian home

Ok, let me try and sum up the Bahamas in a few short points:

- The most rubbish lying around I've ever seen.
- The most run-down places I've ever seen.
- The clearest water I've ever seen.
- The most stray dogs I've ever seen.
- The most pot-holes in roads I've ever seen.
- Surprisingly expensive.

Actually, that summary only applies the New Providence and Paradise islands. I have approximately 700 more islands to visit to get a real feel for the Bahamas.

We stayed at a place called Orange Hill beach inn, and it's run like an episode of Fawlty Towers. Bloody funny stuff. It was a simple place, comparitively cheap, and just opposite a beach that had sand like icing sugar. The people who ran it were some of the nicest people I've met.

I ran into the "Grass? Weed?" guy again. I swear, he works subliminally. I was walking around a corner and he was coming the opposite way and he said "Grass? Weed?" and just kept on walking. I was left standing there wondering if he actually said anything at all or whether I just imagined it. There was also a peanut guy who seemed to be all over the island (New Providence island) at one time.

The Bahamas was in a real mess, but that's probably because it got pummeled by a stack of hurricanes. I got to see a lot of it because I hired out a car and went cruising around with the family. The roads were in shocking condition and I got a completely flat tire, whoops, tyre at one stage plus another one that was on the way. It was also a bit weird driving on the left side of the road in a left hand drive, as is how driving is done in the Bahamas.

One of the ways we got into Nassau from our hotel before I hired a car was by the Jitney service, and it only cost a dollar. All the locals use it and the drivers try and pile as many people into the bus as possible. One of the drivers had a picture of Jesus Christ on his windshield, and he put a tape into a VCR and proceeded to play a Gospel movie for the duration of the bus trip. It was like a mass conversion attempt.

Well, I'm a bit stuffed so I can't be arsed writing anymore. Perhaps later I'll post some pics with some pseudo-witty comments from the trip? Yeah, that's about as likely as me posting up all the other pics I've been meaning to get out there. I must note though that a record was achieved this week with the number of views of my webshots account. Out of the 267 views, 251 of them were from the Fantasy Fest album. Not bad! I'll have to remember to appeal to the basic human (male) desire to see scantily clad women. For the ladies reading this, sorry about that. Your only hope of seeing any studs in my pictures is if there was a guy standing in the general vicinity of a scantily clad female, and even then he may be out of focus. What I'll have to remember to do is increase the depth of field by setting a higher f/stop and slower shutter speed when taking pictures so more flesh is in focus. Hehe.

I'm in the Bahamas, mon

and it's been quite an experience so far. I rented out some rooms at a place called the "Orange Hill beach inn". It's quite unlike the normal resorts you see around this area, but that's exactly what I wanted - to get away from that sort of stuff. So many people come here to the resorts and end up spending most of their time gambling in Casinos. We had an authentic Thanksgiving day meal at the inn last night - it was pretty nice. So far I've seen a place burning down, a guy ask us if we wanted to buy some weed, and some crazy arse drivers. Lots of damage around here due to the hurricanes that came through a couple of months ago. Anyway, my internet cafe time is up and I have some sightseeing to do! checkya.

Time for an update, me thinks

I am soooo bloody tired at the moment. I drove my family back from Orlando last night. It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive (the actual time of course depends on if you feel like driving 20 MPH over the speed limit, like everyone else does) and we only left DisneyWorld at 12:15 am. Yeah, the Magic Kingdom is cool and all, but I found myself going on the Space Mountain rollercoaster-like ride three times. It was the only ride there that could appease my desire for rollercoaster thrills. I probably did the wrong thing at one stage by driving past Universal Studios' "Islands of Adventure" and saying "look, there's the Hulk ride!" After that everyone didn't really want to go anymore, and it seemed fairly pointless going to Islands of Adventure after that :-(

I'm in for another pretty full-on week. This Thursday I'm heading off to the Bahamas. The tix and accommodation are all booked but I still have to organise what we're going to do once we get there. oh, it's a hard life, yes :-)

Hats off family (and Arnott's)

I picked up my family from Miami airport last night and took them down to South Beach for a quick drive. My bro seemed to take notice of the rims on the cars quite a bit, and Mum was trying to get over me driving on the other side of the road. Dad was pretty chilled out it seemed. The extra bonus of my family coming over was they brought a lot of cool stuff with them (at my request)

1. TimTams (Ten or so packets)
   
2. Cherry Ripes
3. Milo (REAL milo, the stuff you can eat straight out of the can, not the crud sold over here)
4. Vegemite
   
5. A cricket bat
6. An AFL football

So it seems I'll have to team up with some Aussies, head down to Fort Lauderdale beach and show those Americans how to kick a football properly. The TimTams have been an absolute hit today. I've had people coming back asking for seconds and OMG it's so good to actually eat a biscuit that tastes that good! My personal record with TimTams is 7 packets in 2 days. I did that during Uni because there was a chance to win $50,000. Unfortunately, I never did win but the TimTams were on special anyway and I was only feeling slightly sick for no more than a day.

Weird day at work

I met my technical lead for the first time today. She looked absolutely nothing like I thought she would (well, I only ever had a faceless person in my head like the people who appear in dreams), but heck, it was a bit mindblowing. I've been working with her for 5 months now and this is the first time I've seen her. Of course, I made myself look like a total dumb-ass on several occasions today. Here's to tomorrow and more opportunities to make myself look stupid!

F-A-U!

I've got a bloody FAU (Florida Atlantic University) College football chant in my head now. I'd like to thank the girl (who sounded very much like a guy) sitting right behind me during the game for getting it stuck in my head. FAU got absolutely flogged by New Mexico State, but hey, it was still pretty cool to see a game of college football. I got the tickets for free too!

Anyways, pics from the basketball game are here.

NBA game - Heat vs Mavericks

Wow! I just came back from watching the Miami Heat play the Dallas Mavericks. Heat got whipped, but I did get to see Shaquille O'Neal, which was pretty cool. The game entertainment was pretty cool and the whole place was pumped up so much! They play a whole lot of power songs throughout the whole night to keep the vibe going. It's just amazing how much energy there is going around the place even before the game has begun.

Tonight was supposed to be the big night where I tested out my new telephoto lens, specifically designed for sports and nature photography. There was a sign that said "no flash photography". That was cool - from where I was sitting flash photography would've been useless anyway. I walked up to the guards and they said "sorry sir, we can't let you in with the bag". I said, "but it's only got my camera stuff in it". I showed them my lens and they said "sorry, we can't let you in with professional photography equipment". I was stunned, shocked, and a little peeved. Then I thought "hehe. They said professional". I said "well, how about this lens?" and I pulled out my normal lens. They replied "haven't you got anything smaller?" and I shook my head. They said as long as the lens was under 6 inches it was ok, so I had to go in with my normal lens only. I hope this doesn't happen again. I'm going to get really pissed off if I go to sports games and I can't use my new lens.

There were some celebrities there as well which was quite a bonus - Boris Becker, Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova. Pretty cool, huh? I was able to spot Boris Becker in the audience and got a snap of him. I was only able to get a snap of Enrique and Anna up on the scoreboard as I couldn't find them in the audience. Pics are coming soon (once my slow arse computer finishes processing them :-(

Fantasy Fest pictures - part 2

The non-worksafe ones. Ok, some of them are probably sorta worksafe in some parallel universe, but whatever. Click here to see them in their raw glory. Note: Yes, some of the pictures contain nudity, so don't click on the link if you're easily offended!

I'm a rollercoaster junkie

Orlando absolutely rocked again. On Saturday the Kennedy Space Centre was just amazing. Today (or Sunday), the Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios were just plain fantastic. Although after going on just about every ride there was, and going on "The Hulk" rollercoaster 3 times and the Dueling Dragons rollercoaster twice, I can safely say my voice will not be with me tomorrow (oops, I mean later on today). I wouldn't be surprised if I slept all day through Monday. Hell man, I gotta get to sleep.

P.S. Boss, you were right about the "Chunky Monkey" icecream from Ben and Jerry's. It's awesome!

To Orlando

Sorta got a big weekend planned. I'm leaving tonight with a work mate to go to Orlando. Tomorrow we're going to visit the Kennedy Space Centre and probably kick on to downtown Orlando for some nightclub action. Sunday we're supposed to be visiting Universal Studios, and then it's back home Sunday night. Rock on!

IQ vs President voted for

Heh, I know statistics can be used and abused to make any point, but I couldn't help but chuckle at this table showing US state, IQ and who they voted for. Also, another table showing US state, average income, and who they voted for

Wow

Talk about a trip down memory lane. I found this website that had scans of the original Zelda 2 manual from all those years ago. I remember playing it when it came out, and it was the best game ever. I was so innocent back then that even this picture from the manual wouldn't have raised an eyebrow.

My 'new' iTrip

I got angry at my iTrip on the way to Key West. I was pi$$ed off with its poor transmission range and the fact I had to keep on changing the radio tuning. I guess it's because there are so many radio stations here in Florida, and to give it some credit it seemed to work better the further away we got from Miami. But that didn't stop me from hacking it apart and trying to liberate the aerial.



Hopefully the transmission range will be a little better now :o) If not, I'm going to hook up a wire clothes hanger to it.

Fantasy Fest pictures!

Well, the reasonably worksafe ones are here

Wow

I just watched Senator John Kerry give his concession speech, and I thought it was just amazing. I nearly caught myself saying "Go America!", and temporarily forgot that he wasn't going to be President. He sure spoke and acted like one. Damn.

What the heck is going on?

I'm sitting here watching TV, monitoring the Internet here and I just can't believe what is going on with this freaking election. I'm trying to understand why so many people are still supporting Bush, globally seen as being an incumbent fool. I was talking to some Americans today who I thought were quite well versed with what was going on in the world, and they're voting Bush. I'm like (swear word warning) "what the hell are you doing that for? You're being fucken lied to! Where the fuck do you get your information from???" Ok, I didn't say that but I put it through a nice language filter so they didn't get too offended. And yes, politicians lie - but can you really top the Bush administration? Lying to go to war? Nobody could answer my question by the way. I got these paltry answers of "going by gut feeling", "choosing the lesser of two evils" (WTF?). I just don't understand.

Some people over here have been nearly offended that I should have such concern. Well America, yes, you're the most powerful country there is. You're number one. But when are you going to realise that you're not the only country on this planet and that being number one ACTUALLY carries some responsibility with it? Here are my words should Bush win: The next time that *your President*, propped up by his absurd administration, blindly staggers his way through an embarrassing speech, plans on occupying/destroying another country and alienating many others, and sends many troops and innocent civilians to their death for false reasons - I hope you feel proud. Johnny will likely be Dubbya's butt-boy and we'll be dragged along too. Fantastic!

A pretty standard weekend in Key West

I didn't get up to that much. I got some good sleep on a water bed Friday night but had to have a cold shower Saturday morning. I watched a parade Saturday night. I got about 1 or 2 hours of sleep in the back of a car Sunday morning. I bailed a friend out of jail Sunday afternoon and then went home Sunday night. A pretty standard Key West experience.

...

Ok ok, yes that was the most insane weekend ever and I'm having a hard time both staying awake at the moment and digesting what actually happened. I've got a stack of photos that I took; unfortunately I can only upload *some* of them to my Webshots account. Those photos will be the worksafe ones. The rest are *not* worksafe (lots of body paint and not very many clothes) and I'll find somewhere to post them. Stay tuned! (I'm sure you will now).

To mum...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!


from Kristian.