must get more sleeeeeeeeeeeep
O boy I tell you what. I don’t know how I did it on holidays. Had the first night out on the town fully drinking last night since i returned in country. And today I am just shattered. Slept till 1pm this afternoon. I really don’t know how I did it. I was always up within a few hours of going to sleep, always managing to be awake all day. Today I have just been a walking non sensical blob (nothing much different there).
In other news, the mo has been shaved due to a bad trimming accident, where a botched job meant having to shave the whole thing off, although I probably look much better without it. Haircut, mo shaved, I hit the town looking good. Didn’t pick up though (on par there).
Been invited to sydney for new years, unsure if I am going to go yet, dunno where to stay and dunno if I will be working or not as roster has not been released that far in advance (i think im like halfway through december at the moment). So not sure what to do. I would love to catch up with some of the people from the states trip but not sure if i can afford to or even get down there etc.
anyway photos from last nights shenanigans.
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| BTC's Birthday |
I heart Planes.
There is a reason I love nothing more than going to the Airport and taking photos. Yesterday morning was a good example of that. I went out really to get a photo for my friend Katherine of her check flight with the Airline she is working for. Was going to be a quick stop at the airport. Well when i woke up things didnt go that way to begin with. I was planning on getting the new Etihad flight as well while I was there as it was around the same time. Except yesterday it was almost an hour early. So I dashed off to the airport quickly to make sure I didn’t miss out.
Luckily it happened as a hell of a lot of aircraft I had not shot before came in. To mention a few:
* Virgin Blue Embrarer E170
* Freedom Air Warner Brothers Scheme
* Jetstar Titans Scheme
* Eva Air
* Japan Airlines 747-400
* OzJet
And lots of other goodies. If only the Pink Dash 8 had of come in then I would of been in heaven (turns out it was in Tassie).
Thats one of the reasons I love this hobbie. A simple trip to the Airport can bring me lots of good photos but also allows me to possibly see things that I have not seen before or will rarely see. I love it! I don’t care what other people think. It may be nerdy, it may be silly to some, but its what I love.
Ghosts, Gouls and SUGAR!
Yes it is that time of the year again. Its Halloween. That means that little boys and girls will try to roam the streets in the endless pursuit of their favourite friend. Sugar. Unfortunately for most kids, Halloween is more of an american thing. However most adults my age will see it as any excuse to get dressed up and get fucked up. So endless weeks of Halloween parties happen. Hell I am going to one next friday.
The good thing about these parties is usually the hottest girls will wear the least which is great for everyone! Me though. I am not quite sure what to go as this year. Part of me wants to just grab a sheet, throw it over my head, cut two eye holes and ta da.. Ghost. One part of me just wants to grab my army helmet (used it for an avis party last year and it has since been repainted and looks spiffy, although it could do with a clear coat or something like that to make it shiny) and just go with that. However another deep down part wants to go all out, however then my wallet pipes up and tells my brain to STFU and get back to work.
So at the moment unless I can find a white sheet, *edit found one* then i will just use the helmet. Halloween parties are always a good excuse to get drunk. Cause if your face is covered. no one can see who you are! Which means you can drink yourself stupid and chat up all the randoms you want!
Another good thing about halloween is all the sugar! gotta love sugar. one of my favourite things beside alcohol. I mean who doesn’t like sugar? So since we are having a food day this week, we are having a Halloween food day. So usually when I want a really good sugar rush and I want something easy to make. Rice Krispie treats to the rescue. When I was in the states in Orlando they had big Rice Krispie treats but they had them all flavoured and with stuff in them like m&ms, skittles etc. So I took my usual Rice Krispie treat recipe (which is pretty much marshmallows, butter and rice bubbles) and poured them into the tin over a layer of M&M’s. Had lots of mixture left over so made a Rice Krispie cake. I haven’t got photos of the end product yet but when I do, I will throw them on the net somewhere.
Braiiiinnnzzzzzzzzz
So a couple of weeks ago I received a Think Geek care package. Inside was some random stuff. A Little metal Bender figurine, My “I See Fragged People” band, some hazardous waste lunchboxes and a book that I had wanted to read for a while. The Zombie Survival Guide. Not really like any book I usually read. This book seems to be semi serious & semi comedy. It’s hard to tell exactly which one it is but it is a good read. Zombies, Pirates and Ninjas’s seem to be a staple for the internet community. Ninjas and Pirates are always constantly being fought over which one is better but Zombies is like this endless topic that everyone knows about. So I decided to get the book and read it.
The book is full of so much information pertaining to how zombies arise, where they came from, the different sorts of outbreaks and also how to deal with an outbreak. The book goes into quite a bit of detail about the ways to escape zombies but also how to hunt zombies and ways to dispense with zombies. I’m enjoying it immensly.
Bessie has also had a good day today. I pulled her open today, gave her insides a good cleaning and swapped out some old parts and put in some flashy new ones. Enough of the suspect female references. Put a new Video Card and some ram into the PC today. 4 x 1GB DDR2 667 DIMMS today along with an Asus EN6800GT 512MB Video Card. She is working sweet right now I tell you what. Battlefield runs like a wet dream. So smooth and loads UBER fast compared to what it used to. Love it! Bessie wont need a good update for a while now (till the CPU’s get a decent update in speed but till then, she can sit and relax for a while).
not a very exciting weekend this weekend but I might be heading to the airport tommorrow to get a shot of “pinkie” which is Qantaslink’s new Dash 8-Q400 painted half pink. Work is not doing to bad however my co worker (there are only 2 of us in groups) has decided she is going to resign so it means I will be on my own for a while. DAMMIT! Hopefully they hire soon!
Slacker!
Yes I have been slack and not updating. Then again nothing really that interesting has been happening. I’m off detox at the moment, although only really had 1 beer since Sunday. Work has been pretty full on the last few days since there is only two of us in Groups and my co worker has been off sick. Last weekend I went to the OCAU meet. Didn’t drink though (which was a dumb idea cause I would of had much much more fun!) but still had a good time. Went to Brewhouse, Omalleys for dinner, Bowling at Strike, then onto the Brewhouse again for a little while. I went home early as I was intending on going to White Water World the next day but I stupidly fell over. O how smart am I! Took a nice big chunk out of my heel and then also a few big chunks out of my shins. I’ll live. Just like Uncle Chop Chop says. Harden the FUCK UP!
In other news I have found an awesome little extension for firefox called “Bork Bork Bork”. It changes all of the text in any website as though the Sweedish Chef from the Muppets is talking. God its funny. Sadly though when looking at my own website I can pretty much understand it. 🙁
I think thats all I have at the moment. Pretty boring life at the moment. Might take some time out on the weekend and go take some photos somewhere. Maybe some night shots in the city with the new lens. l8r
Why so many!
So during the trip to the USA I took around 2500 photos. I don’t think I have ever taken that many in such a short duration before. I don’t think I will ever do it again! It has been a nightmare working on all of the photos. I have finally finished touching up, resizing, watermarking, scanning, sorting, captioing and uploading all of the photos.
More photos have gone on the net since the last update including a folder dedicated to just the shots taken of the Aircraft in the USA. I had a good time spotting in the USA. Would of loved to of had the time to do some serious spotting but didn’t. Closest I got to it was at JFK while waiting for my flight I had a beautiful shot of the runway from the Terminal 7 food court, that was until a British Airways 747-400 blocked my view when it pulled into the gate (bastards). Also some shots from the Helicopters that I went on along with the Heliport at Manhattan.
Of the photos that I have uploaded is my first ever Panorama shot. This was taken at our final stop in the Grand Canyon on our way out of the Canyon to Monument Valley. The photo turned out pretty good considering. Not 100% happy with it but it is not to bad!
Back at work now, trying my hardest to get my head back into the groove and it is slowly happening. I think once I have to start looking for somewhere to live, the world is gonna come crashing down fast! One departure at work this week I was a little saddened to find out about. Katherine Laing, a beautiful girl, who turns out to be a bit of a spotter as well has left. She was a very kind and lovely person and I would of loved to get to know her better as we only really started talking after the conference like 2 weeks before I left for the USA. It sucks! Life moves forward though.
Anyway below is the link to the new folder for the Aircraft shots along with another link to the USA shots. Also I have updated the Photo page with information on my new camera since I broke my A10 while I was on holidays.
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| Spotter Photos USA |
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| USA 2007 |
Home again Home Again…
So I’m home. The flight home in Business was well worth the $$$. The space, the comfort, the privacy, all add up to an experience that I must go back to. The Business Class suites (yes they are called suites on Air NZ) were just so comfortable. I managed to get 3-4 hours sleep which for me is a miracle. And in the little privacy of the suite your able to just sit back and watch movies if you want and you won’t really disturb the person next to you which is great. I managed to watch only a couple of movies and a few tv shows because of the sleep and got off in Auckland after a wonderful Supper (4 courses) and Breakfast feeling amazingly refreshed. Went to the lounge in Auckland and cleaned my teeth etc and missed saying goodbye to Amy 🙁 Amy was rushed off to her next flight as we arrived late so she almost missed her connection to Wellington.
My flight from Auckland to Brisbane was uneventful, watched a few TV shows and just relaxed as the final 3 hours of the trip sank in. I got home realising it was all over. Depression didn’t really set in I guess thankfully as I know during the tour we talked about how rough it can be coming home from a big trip and just feeling like its back to the grind. I didn’t get that feeling (yet) thankfully. It was wierd to come home and a lot had changed. Beattie no longer Premier (WTF!), the dollar hitting an all time high while I was away (dammit!!!), Mum and Dad had been away and even they had been out of touch. I had changed a bit from this trip, I realised I need to be more tolerant of other people and have looked a lot more at the history of things. Hitting all the museums and memorials in DC (a lot of them War memorials), part of me sort of looked at the memorials and saw just how much people sacrificed for our freedom and I know that I need to pay that back by being a good person.
So after one day off and catching up with Suzanne & Brendan and hearing all the stuff that has been going on, caught up with the lovely Yena and told her about her body double in Cairns. Lizzie in Cairns scared the crap out of me as I thought it was Yena to begin with and I was like “WTF she didn’t tell me she was coming to Brisbane” but all was fine and Lizzie was a great person, hopefully can catch up with her in the future. The big thing that I have been doing since I got home was unpacking and putting stuff away. My 2nd bag turns out was screened in NY or LA as it was opened and a nice little note was placed inside my bag by the TSA. I was a bit suprised that it had happened but I didn’t have any locks on it which was probably a good thing in the end.
I have been working on the photos I took which worked out to be a total of 2500 photos. I still have to work on my panorama from the Grand Canyon (i’ll probably do that on the weekend) and still scan in all the group photos, but I have cut the 2500 back to 379, touched up, adjusted, removed red eye where needed, captioned, ordered and reviewed everything and now they are online. I could not believe how long it has taken with all of these photos. Captioning them last night took almost 2 hours! plus another hour to save them all and then upload them. But I want to share all the photos with everyone so they can see the amazing things I did. Some of the shots from the Canyon look stunning!
Anyway it is time for me to go to work. 2nd day back. Found out yesterday when I got to work that I am now permanently in Groups which is good as I don’t have to worry and can just put my self back into concentrating on work for a while. It has been good to be able to just relax while away, come home refreshed and now can start a new chapter in my life!
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| USA 2007 |
Homeward Bound
So its all over. All that is left now is two more flights. But first ill finish off New York.
The last couple of days have been pretty full on, lots of walking and I mean LOTS! My feet are killing me, I have two busted blisters, plenty of new calluses and hard red feet. Boy I can’t wait to get home to sitting on my ass all day at work so I can give my feet a rest. I did all my big souvenier shopping (the tshirts etc) on Canal St. Also picked myself up some nice cologne. It was pretty cheap as well ($25). I realised after searching all of Time Square that is was nigh on impossible to get the jersey I wanted. So i did what any self respecting net addict does. Bought it off the net. $350 later and its all ordered and I will probably beat the jersey home. I realised once I bought this though that I have spent a HELL of a lot of money on this trip. But part of me doesn’t care. I had not even touched the $25k that i put aside of Grandma’s money for this trip. So in honour of her (see previous posts) I am finishing this tour all out (i’ll get to this soon).
Saw my first Broadway Musical on wednesday night. The only tickets I could get was Legally Blonde (which means i will be flying to Melbourne for a weekend to see Spamalot I guess). It was not as bad as I expected. Lots of hot girls wearing very tight clothing dancing round on stage. What more could a male want!
My final day in New York was spent doing my optionals and some more general sightseeing. I visited Foley Square (where they tape the outside court scenes for Law & Order) and I was going to go find 1PP (One Police Plaza) but couldn’t remember where it was. I had lunch at the Carnegie Deli. Now this place is apparently an Institution for anyone in search of good food. This place piled the food up high. Higher than anywhere I have ever seen. I decided to skip a sandwhich and go for a Tuna Melt (one of those famous american things you always hear about). It was HUGE! I made it through one half and a bit but it was DAMN good. Worth every cent (the food was not cheap but it was DAMN good). Finished up my final night in New York dressed up with all of the beautiful girls enjoying a good night out on the town. We hit a bar in the lower east side which was just very very unusual but I was so tired I went home early (around midnight).
Now that I am on my marathon journey home I am going to enjoy it in Business Class. I could of had it the whole way through but American Airlines cancelled their flight to LAX so they bumped everyone to my flight sadly. It was very very crap. I had a shitty flight with UA. The leg room was good but some wanker spilt an entire glass of red wine all over my pants (they need a wash anyway but thats beside the point). Thankfully he gave me $20 to cover cleaning costs. Once I got to LA, I was fed up with the whole economy thing and decided to hit them up for an Upgrade. I didn’t care about the costs as I wanted to enjoy the end of this trip rather than being grumpy. So I spent the $4000 USD to upgrade and I am now talking to you live from the Air New Zealand Lounge in LAX.
Currently waiting for Amy to get in off her flight so I can tell her to come up and join me and then we can both spend some time just wishing this trip would not end. 30 Days of travelling so far, 23 States, A lot of money, 2 days where I did NOT drink, and a hell of a lot of brain cells and liver function killed along the way.
Time of my LIFE!
Current Location: Los Angeles Airport (LAX) – Terminal 2 – Air New Zealand Lounge.
Early Show
Well New York is pretty damn nice. Ive been exploring for two days now and its pretty good. Yesterday started with lots of traffic delays. Getting around by car or bus in NYC is almost impossible at the moment. The UN is in session so all the delegates are staying in town and all of the streets are blocked off. Damn impossible to move around in a bus, but thats what we had yesterday.
Ended up replacing the camera I broke with a new Canon SD1000 (unsure if this is a model back home but who cares it was $215). Went to the Statue of Liberty yesterday and it was great. So much smaller than I thought but still cool none the less. Went to the World Trade Centre Site (can’t call it Ground Zero because its being rebuilt). i was a bit wierd as it is now pretty much looks like another construction site. Last night had some traditional New York Brick Oven Pizza and it was awesome and also a Grays Papaya hot dog. All three foods for New York are complete: Bagel, Hot Dog, Pizza.
Today went up the Empire State Building, walked 5th Avenue and then explored the lower end of Manhattan and China Town. Did all my dodgy I heart NY shirt shopping on canal and got 7 for $10. Better than most places were offering. Also picked up some H2 Cologne. Hopefully it smells ok. Also early this morning we all headed towards Central Park South to the CBS studios for the taping of the Early Show. I got on TV for a good minute or so as I was right behind the people being interviewed holding a contiki banner. Tonight we are off to Broadway. Sadly Spamalot sold out just as I walked up to the window. Couldn’t get any of the shows I really wanted to see, so like my sister told me to I’m seeing whatever was available and that was Legally Blonde.
Went searching for my NFL jersey but NO ONE had anything so it looks like I am buying it off the net. Ordered a #54 patriots authentic for a total of $350 USD. O wells!.
Tommorrow will be heading around Central Park, hopefully the weather holds out so that the Helicopter Flight and the Beast go ahead. Talk soon.
Mal
Current Location: Hotel Beacon – New York City!