In Orlando and out of south fla

I've just arrived in Orlando for a halloween festival and I must mention just how glad I am to be out of South Florida. Hurricane Wilma was the first real hurricane I've experienced. From watching amazingly stong winds blow down trees early Monday morning to living without electricity, phone or drinkable water until I left this afternoon, it is something I don't really want to experience again. The experience was worthwhile, yes, but that's enough thanks. One of the most dangerous things I've had to do is drive around without working traffic lights. The traffic lights weren't working not only because there was no electricity, but because in a lot of cases they just weren't there anymore. Trees everywhere were down. Powerlines were strewn across roads. The scenery changed so much that I drove past an entrance to a street because I didn't recognise it anymore - and of course a lot of the street signs had been blown down. There were massive lines for car fuel at the few pumping stations that were working (there was no power to pump the fuel so some stations had to get backup generators in). The only time I really bothered with a car was to visit friends and to find reception for and to charge my cell phone. All the other times I travelled about was on a mountain bike to pick up water or get cell phone service.

Forget all the rest of the hurricanes I've been through, they were nothing compared to Wilma's effects on South Florida. For the photo curious I have lots and lots of pictures but I don't have the tools to post any of them yet to my flickr account.

So now I'm looking forward to a hot shower, decent water, hot food, working traffic lights and no curfews... and hopefully when I return to Fort Lauderdale Sunday night I'll at least have some of those little conveniences back.

Adios.

Riding out the storm

Hopefully I'm able to hit "publish post" before the power goes out this time...

Wilma is nearly upon us (as in, the worst is yet to come) and not long ago I was woken by the howling winds outside my bedroom window. It's still pretty dark outside. I added another notch to my belt of experiences in the US, that of putting up hurricane shutters. I was able to convince my flatmate yesterday that this would be a good idea so we spent a few hours figuring out how the shutters got put up. That was a downright pain in the arse but we got the big windows on the bottom floor shuttered up as well as a top floor window that was pretty large.

This hurricane is also pretty interesting as it's the first strong hurricane that has come through these parts since I've completely moved to the US. So, my feelings about hurricanes are a little different this time. I'm not as excited about them this time around because I'm living in my own place (well, I rent) and I have my own car which I worry about.

I did get the opportunity to have a hurricane party with a couple of friends Saturday night. We had lots of good food and drank a few hurricanes. It was a fantastic night and I even learnt how to dance a bit of salsa and meringue as the host of the party was also a latin dance teacher.

Wow, it's getting really windy out there now. I can hear debris being blown about and when it was dark before you could see a massive flash of light as a transformer blew and the power cut out. The power always seems to come back on though.

This is the 6th time I've attempted to post this update due to power problems. I'm going to hit that "publish post" button quick smart as I think power around here ain't going to be on for much longer.

Friday morning therapy

Ok, so I've just arrived at work and I'm feeling a little better this morning, but I think I need some music medicine to get the rest of the bad demons away. I'm going to see if this little concoction will work:

Writing to reach you - Travis (to match my mood)
Easy - Faith no more
I feel loved - Depeche Mode
Sweetness and light - Itchy and scratchy (classic track that one)
I still haven't found what I'm looking for - U2 (awesome, awesome song)
Last train to trancentral - KLF
Anything but you - Way out west (awesome dance track)
No leaf clover - Metallica
Hold your colour - Pendulum (wickedly awesome DnB from some Oz guys)
Feelings - Shy FX and T Power (nice DnB track)

Yeah, I reckon that'll do quite nicely.

Florida Panthers, Hurricane Wilma and other stuff

I've just gotten back from another Panthers game, and this time they won! This doesn't happen that often when I go to watch a game. It seemed for a while there that I was not going to see a Florida team win in any of the baseball, basketball, college football or ice hockey games that I went to watch. One thing I was hoping to see was a bit of fighting action. Call it the neanderthal in me but there is a saying that goes: "I went to watch a fight and a hockey game broke out" - and a bit of a fist fight always adds a bit more to the game. Yes, how primitive of me. However I must let it be known that I do not enjoy watching boxing. Not in the slightest.

Onto other stuff, hurricane Wilma apparently has its sights set on Florida. There is a lot of talk around work about this one. Maybe Wilma won't amount to much but I can say this: I really hate the name Wilma. Anyone who names their child Wilma should get some therapy in my honest opinion. I can't take a hurricane with the name Wilma seriously. I'm really getting sick of the whole hurricane thing as well.

The whole blog thing. Originally this blog was created to update people back home with my journey to the US. This journey was only supposed to last 3 months but it of course ended up lasting a lot longer and now here I am living in the US. Newsflash: That was my original intent. At some points I really wanted this blog to be a venting spot for things that frustrated me. Relationship oriented. Work oriented. *whatever* oriented. But I have a fair idea of who reads this so I don't feel compelled to write down everything I want to because at the end of the day I'm a pretty secretive person and I really don't want people to know me that well. Maybe I want to keep up some sort of illusion that there really is more to me than it seems.

But you know, that's where music helps out because right now I'm going to go play the piano and then play the guitar and then perhaps I'll sing a song about an ex-girlfriend from a couple of years ago who really screwed me around. I've got like heaps of other songs in various stages of being completed at the moment. I just need more skills to get them to a point where I can say "I'm happy with that". The thing is, they range from classical to house and I don't really know how to finish them. Yet.

Now that I've been writing a while I feel compelled to hit "Save as draft" or maybe even just close the page to delete this whole post. But you know what? I'm just going to hit "Publish post" and let the chips fall where they may.

Whatever and ever, amen.

PK is still in da house

It's 12:20am, I'm in a writing mood. I actually went to see Santos Renuentes play at a place called Hoy Como Ayer in Miami. The section of Miami this place was located in is known as "Little Havana" and it lived up to its name as I was surrounded by Cubans and the place had a very Cuban-like atmosphere (well, that I could imagine anyway. I haven't actually been to Cuba yet). But hey, the DVDs they were playing before Santos Renuentes began sounded a lot like Buena Vista Social Club. Santos Renuentes were good again of course. So I won't elaborate any more on that.

I did get a bit tipsy at the start of the night before Santos Renuentes came on. They were supposed to start at 8:30pm sharp - that's exactly what the flyer said. I got there 8:30pm sharp, got let in at 8:45pm and then they didn't actually start until 9:30pm. I had to fill in the time with a couple of beers of course... on an empty stomach. Hello PK!

Anyway, Omar the bassist asked me to send a message to his girlfriend who could not make it to the gig. So I wrote this:

"¡Hola! ¿Como estas? Anyway, it's PK here. Not Kristian. Kristian left the building a couple of drinks ago. Truth be known, I ordered a presidente but they gave me two. Maybe they heard me say "duo presidente". They couldn't understand the accent or something. Hope your study is going well and all. Damn, Cubans have no concept of time. 830 sharp my arse."

But, it makes me a little sad. People actually prefer to see and talk to PK than Kristian. PK is more fun apparently. Whatever.

DISCLAIMER: I really don't have a split personality or anything else like that. I just use the alcohol as an excuse so I can act like I really want to without people raising their eyebrows *too* much. Really, it's true! :-p

Coldplay in Adelaide?

Nah, just messing with ya. I think it unlikely that Coldplay would visit the fine city of Adelaide for one of their tours in the near future. I thought there was hope though when I received a Coldplay newsletter stating more shows in Australia, only to find that they were scheduling more shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Bugger.

At any rate, I'm not in Adelaide and I got to see Coldplay a month ago. They were pretty damn awesome of course and I don't know why I didn't mention that fact on my blog. Perhaps I did... I dunno. Here are some shoddy pictures from the concert taken with my phone camera:




and would you like to see a picture of a wankerchop? Here is one:



Pre-coldplay (during the Rilo Kiley set) this guy was more interested in playing a game on his phone than talking to his girlfriend. I award the "tosspot of the month" award to the wankerchop above.

Congratulations Steven and Carrie!

My long, long, long time friend Steve W called me from Australia just before I was due to leave for New York to inform me that he was now engaged to Carrie. This didn't come as a shock to me at all of course. But heck, it does make me smile a bit when I think back a few years to a particular pub crawl... Steve did you really know what you were getting yourself into? Haha! I kid, I kid :-)

Again, congratulations!

Updated photo sets

I've been going along and updating photos in various photo sets, mainly because I've visited those places more than once and I've been hauling my trusty DSLR along with me. Sets that have been updated are:

Around Florida
The Keys
The Everglades

Oh, quick point about the Everglades, I noticed this story a couple of days ago about a python taking on an alligator. Wow.


Sailing boat along Key West waterfront
Originally uploaded by daecks.

Performer in Key West
Originally uploaded by daecks.

New York City roundup

All I can say about New York City is "wow". What a city. I found myself not wanting to return back to Florida after spending time in NYC. Here is a quick summary of what was accomplished:

- Helicopter flight around Manhattan
- Boat cruise around statue of Liberty
- Saw an off-broadway production "Slava's snowshow"
- Saw a lot of of the districts in Manhattan - Soho, Meatpacking district (nightclubs are big there), Harlem, Times Square, Chinatown, Financial district... the list goes on and on
- Walked across Brooklyn bridge
- Saw comedy acts at Dangerfield's club
- Jazz at a place called "Smalls"
- A funky salsa-like band at a place called "Cafe Wha"
- Museums including the Intrepid, Guggenheim and museum of modern design.
- Walked though Central Park
- Went up the Empire state building
- Tour through NBC studios
- Whilst travelling on the subway, saw the following: some guys doing flips in the middle of the car; some mexicans playing some mariachi-like music; a guy with a bass guitar playing "my girl"; a preacher woman telling us all to repent.

I did not in fact get to see any of the shows like Dave Letterman, the Daily Show nor in fact did we get our mugs on the Today show (that turned out to be way too early in the morning). The shows actually required a little more planning to see. There is always next time I guess, and there definitely will be a next time. Hopefully for an even longer time :-)

Photos have been uploaded here

Start spreading the news...

Well, I actually leaving tomorrow, but *finally* I am heading off to New York. This ain't a real short trip either as a friend and I are going to be there for 6 straight days. This is also the most unprepared I've ever been for a trip as well, in terms of planning what things to see and do. But I really don't think too much preparation is needed, right? Apart from the obvious places to visit (statue of liberty, times square, empire state building, yadda yadda yadda) these are some of the other things I want to do:

1) Watch "The Daily Show".
2) Watch the David Letterman show.
3) Get our mugs on NBC morning news.

There are other things, can't remember them at the moment, maybe I should plan this better...

Florida Panthers

The NHL ice hockey season is back and so I went to go watch the Florida Panthers play the Carolina Hurricanes. Unfortunately the Panthers lost in penalty shoot outs 1-2 but it was still a pretty good game. There was even a fight where gloves came off, as did helmets, and some fists got thrown about. All in all, just what I expected :-)

Pics from the phone

Errr, unusual welcome message:



How icecreams die:



How is this pronounced?



No comment required.

Takeaway Hooters

What's the freaking point?

Old skool

I just learnt that Ministry of Sound have released a new album called "Back to the old skool" and it's got some wickedly old tracks on it. Saying that though must mean I'm getting old. Is 26 really that old?

Anyway, I think this album would be most appropriate for a rollerskating farewell party.

I now have my car

I finally picked up my car last Friday. Over the weekend I've been pinching myself because it really doesn't seem true. It took such a long time to get the car, mainly because the title to the car got lost for a while. Without that title I could not do a damn thing.

As it turned out even though the title arrived on Friday, I nearly didn't get the car that day because I forgot about state tax on the car and didn't have enough cashola on me. I had to go to an ATM and withdraw more cash. I had hit the limit for that day on my US bank card so I tried my Australian bank card. It did not work. I tried it in several more ATMs. Still no go. I had to go back to my bank at work and withdraw more cash from my US account. Over the weekend I found out why my Aussie card was not working. Apparently the bank had blocked the card because some wankers in Malaysia were fraudulently using my card details. Nice.

So to summarise, this is what I had to go through to get my car, starting from 5 weeks ago:

1) Inspect the car and shake hands with the previous owner to agree to buy the car.
2) Get a bill of sale signed by the previous owner, myself and a witness so I could get a loan through my bank.
3) Wait a couple of days for the bank cheque to be ready and then send it to the lien holder via USPS express.
4) Get a call from the previous owner a few days later that the lien holder had not yet cashed the cheque.
5) Find the tracking number for the bank cheque and verify that it had been received by the lien holder.
6) Verify with the bank that the cheque had been cashed. It took 2 weeks for the lien holder to cash the cheque.
7) Get my insurance ready and going as I was expecting the title any day.
8) Receive a call from the previous owner that he had received details about the transaction from the lien holder. I had not received anything. Waited a week (my bank insisted they would contact me if they received anything).
9) Check with my bank if they had received the title. Nothing had yet been received.
10) Had to put my insurance on hold for a while.
11) Check with previous owner what address the previous lien holder had sent the title to. Initially they said the wrong address. Check again. The second time around they stated the correct address.
12) Check with bank whether they had received the title. They had not.
13) Start a process for getting a duplicate title since the real title was considered lost.
14) Found out this process didn't need to be started, as the bank headquarters said they had received the title and had sent it to my local bank 2 weeks prior.
15) Check with local bank whether they had received the title. They said they hadn't, although in the next week it just turned up.
16) Got my title! Put my insurance back to previous levels.
17) Went into the county offices to get my car registered. Forgot about the state tax. One of my cards had been fraudulently used and was barred. Had to go back to the work bank to get more money out.
18) Went back to the county offices and got my new number plates.
19) Went and picked up my car that same day, last Friday.

And now I will have to post up a picture, so let me put in a reminder:

INSERT PICTURE OF FIRST OVERSEAS CAR HERE!!!!!!

Photos from Chicago

UPDATE: Doh! I forgot to set the proper viewing permissions on the photos. They should all be viewable now.


Are now online here

They include pictures from:
- a downtown Chicago river cruise (Chicago has some awesome architecture)
- a visit to a blues bar on the first night of my trip
- Northwestern University in the Evanston area (the monarch butterfly and squirrel pictures)
- A Baha'i faith house of worship
- Pictures taken from Sears tower
- Pictures of Millennium park
- Subway pictures

and I think that's about it.

There are no pictures of a chocolate milkshake from Wiener Circle, a place where at about 4am in the morning you can get a Chicago-style hotdog, verbally abused and shocked. There is no change from a $20 note for a hotdog and a "milkshake" that you can get from an African-American woman. The milkshake, by the way, is not listed on the menu.

Chicagoland

First off, I'd like to thank Su-Yin and Chi-Hoong for being fantastic hosts and laying the groundwork for an absolutely bloody awesome weekend in Chicago. I had a blast. I can't write about everything that happened because that would constitute a best-selling book, and this is but a blog. I'll post updates when I haven't got writer's block.

UPDATE: Before I hit the sack tonight, I must share the lack of luck I had when journeying back from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale. I was feeling pretty damn sleepy when I arrived at the airport and thought I could use the extra space afforded in Economy Plus class - a whole 5 inches of extra leg space! - to help me get to sleep. For the privilege I had to pay an extra $30.

However, when I got to my seat I could not believe the size of the guy sitting in the window seat next to me. He was massive. He was so big that his arms rested horizontally on his stomach. There was no way in the world that the arm rest that should have separated us could have been pulled down because a fair bit of his body was on my side of the seat. While I had some extra space to stretch my legs I had very little space width-wise. Fantastic. Not only was he big but he also seemed to be putting out a lot of body heat. I couldn't get enough air conditioning on myself to cool down.

Needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep on the flight back. I would have taken a picture of this "little" scenario with my phone but the field of view of the camera was too narrow.

Farewell Robbie

This is somewhat of a sad post. I just learned that an old friend who I went to primary and high school back in Australia died in an motorcycle accident last night. Although I didn't keep in contact with Rob much since I started Univerisity, there are things that come to mind when his name is mentioned:

- Him not allowing me to play on the play equipment with the other people in my class back in early primary school. I don't know why he did that, but I remember standing up to him one day and saying something like "I will play with my other friends because I want to!" We got along fine after that.

- His brother Brian elbowed Steve in the stomach during a (was it 300m?) lap around the oval on sports day in primary school. I was asked if this ever occurred and I said "no". I could have said "I didn't see it" or I could have actually stood up for Steve but I didn't. I'm pretty sure I did see it happen, and told Steven I saw it happen, but I said the opposite anyway. What character I had back then!

- His ability to get on Damo's nerves in highschool. Rob knew exactly how to pi$$ him off. Awesome.

- Him playing in our hockey team in the early days. Yes, that fantastic 1987 grand final picture of me with the big head. I'm pretty damn sure Rob was there.

- Him working at the winery.

- His 21st birthday party. I recall watching a Marilyn Manson concert or something like that there.

- The fact that he rode a motorbike.

- And last, but most certainly not least, his obsession with video games. I remember Chad and I went to visit him at his place but pretty much the whole time he was playing the Playstation 2 while we were talking to him. He loved his video games.

- Did I mention he liked video games?

This is the one thing bites the most about being all the way over here. Whatever happens to someone back home I feel so completely displaced. I would love to be back in Australia right now and just be with my friends to chat about Rob.

RIP mate.

Chicago

I've been looking forward to this afternoon for a while now, for it is this afternoon that I fly off to Chicago to visit "Choza" and "da Boss". I've got a list of places I want to see and a lot of things I want to do. Hopefully I can forget about the backlog of work I have to do at the moment. There is so much stuff I have to get done it's incredible. Ahh well, such is life.

The return

This is the first post from my new apartment in the US. My flatmate and I just got the wireless network up and running and everything seems to be working a-ok.

From the gap in the blog postings you may have thought that I had run out of steam. Not so. I've just come back from a long weekend of partying in Key West, frolicking with alligators and having an awesome sing-a-long/play-a-long session at a friend's birthday party. Prior to that I very busy with work and trying to tie up loose ends over here in the US. To those of you I have promised things or have e-mails to reply to - you know who you are - you'll be hearing from me in the near future.