posted
Now, if you came to Poland instead of New Zealand, I could perhaps complete my new quest for Canadian babies.
Posts: 5700 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Besides, I don't think John would have approved of Taal and me producing babies in his swimming pool.
Posts: 5700 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I will post pictures as soon as I am able. I took a whole bunch today. This is the most beautiful country I have ever been in, bar none (that includes a good chunk of Europe, the Middle East, and of course North America).
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
I think so, though I don't intend to do any LotR-related things. I do, however, occasionally look out the window and think "oh, we're passing through Rohan."
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I've been writing a travelogue of sorts. Perhaps at some stage I'll set up a travel section on my website and document my trip. That'd be kinda fun, though I suppose I may not have time until I get back to Canada later next month... In any case, here are some highlights so far:
Day 1: We flew Halifax-Boston (YHZ-BOS) on a little Dash-8. Great planes. Boston's public transit is pretty cheap.
Day 2: BOS-LAX was on a 757 (oddly, the overwater model). I always get window seats so I was front row centre for our little tour of America. Once you get to the middle, America looks pretty big and brown. We did a sweet flyby of the Grand Canyon that was really, really cool. That sucker is enormous. LA is big and smelly, and the airport shut down the afternoon we were there because of communications problems. Fortunately our flight wasn't delayed, and even more fortunately we got to wait in the executive class lounge (mum and dad flew business class while I was relegated to sitting with the proletariat). The lounge offered comfortable seats, free food, free drinks (notably nice New Zealand beer), a big-screen TV (not, sadly, tuned in to the World Cup of Hockey -- which Canada won! Woo!), and computers for internet access and whatnot. I wasn't able to post, though; some weird browser configuration (cookies blocked, perhaps) resulted in Hatrack telling me that there was no one registered with the name "twinky." I suspected that I had been banned.
In any case, we got on the plane okay (a 747)...
Day 3: ...but I couldn't sleep. Boo! So I watched Starsky & Hutch, 13 Going On 30, and an Inspector Lyndley mystery. The flight was 12 hours and I slept perhaps two. This was madew up for by the ease of our Auckland-Christchurch flight and the supreme coolness of the Air New Zealand staff, who came by every little while and insisted that I drink some water.
The Rest: Well, I met a lot of family. A LOT. Fortunately I get on pretty well with all of them, which is great. They're a cool bunch. Touristy highlights of the last few days include a rugby game at Lancaster Park (er... Jade Stadium, I guess, but dad refuses to call it that) -- Canterbury gave Southland a sound thrashing (52-13 or something ridiculous). We got to watch the game from the Committee Room because dad was on the Canterbury rugby union for something like ten years and has lifetime seats in the stadium for his contributions to the game. So we were sitting in a perfectly located glass-walled room and had a spectacular view of the entire field (and, at halftime, the cheerleaders). I actually understand how rugby works now, more or less, so it was great fun to watch even though I had to get all dressed up.
Then yesterday we went on a driving tour of the peninsula Christchurch is sort of on. We were out that way to go to a rugby game, one of my... well, I guess he's my step-nephew, but that sounds kind of lame, I think of them more as cousins... in any case, he was playing in a 64 kg and under tournament. After the game we drove around on what I'd call mountains but were actually only just hills. This was what looked like Rohan, only way better because of the Pacific ocean. I took a zillion pictures.
Right, time to shower and start the day (it's 9 AM here). Further bulletins as events warrent (points to anyone who catches that sly reference).
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AJ, My dad played rugby until the concussions became a mite too frequent.
Rivka, I didn't really get a very good impression of LA. The sights I took in included the airport, a Days Inn where we slept for the afternoon, the Arby's next to it (which served good sandwiches), and two porn stores whose presence I noted with some amusement (one was adjacent to the Arby's, the other was across the street). And that was LA.
The air was, however, very smelly. Here in NZ, however, the air is distinctly NOT smelly.
Today's update:
Today was comparatively low-key. We got up fairly late and roamed around downtown Christchurch with no plans. The town square is really nice, and the town hall has some seriously cool spherical fountains near it. The cathedral is nice. Then we went to visit another of dad's old friends. I had a grand time with them, actually.
After the visit we went down to the beach. The Pacific Ocean is pretty nice. (Did I mention that the cool thing about flying transpacific on a 747 is that you can tell the world is round?) We went out on a long concrete pier (maybe 200 m) -- I'd've said NZ is pierless, but clearly it is not (awaits groans from the audience). The pier was attached to a library-cum-community centre, which was really cool. They had listening posts with various genres of music, they had PS2s and beanbag chairs, they had a kiddie room, a café, and internet terminals. Oh, right, and books. It WAS a library, after all.
There was someone doing a massive piece of sand art on the beach. It's probably been washed away by now (the tide's coming in), but it was really impressive.
Then we went grocery shopping. I swear that if I ever get married it'll be to a Kiwi, the accent is just too much to bear. I get shivers. If the health care system wasn't two-tiered and I didn't have my parents to think about, I'd move here in a heartbeat.
Oh, yeah. I had a Hatrack dream last night. Not sure what brought that on. All I remember is meeting AJ in a hotel lobby and getting a big hug.
posted
*laugh* So you're evaluating L.A. by the airport and surrounding area? Much of that isn't even IN Los Angeles (it's Inglewood)! And certainly it's hardly representative.
*muses* I bet you're returning via LAX while I'm out of the country. In any case, you likely don't have time for me to take you on a tour -- however brief -- of some of my favorite spots in L.A. 'Tis a shame.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Right, which is why I mentioned LA only in passing. It IS big, and you can't deny that it IS smelly (Edit: By 'smelly' I pretty much mean that it's a big city. Cities reek of car exhaust to me, and I noticed it especially in LA). Both of these things are true.
On the way back I'm only passing through LA, not stopping there. We won't even have time to leave LAX before heading on to Vancouver.
I'm not doing anything tonight (unless my step-nephew Hamish calls, in which case I'll be taking in the Christchurch nightlife and a large number of alcoholic beverages, but I believe he's working), so I plan to chip away at my book (Cryptonomicon), perhaps play some GBA, and maybe flesh out the skimpy bits of the travelogue/diary I've been doing. Oh, and write some postcards.
We have made an itinerary of sorts, which means that I can now pinpoint with pin-like precision (unf, dig that alliterative action, baby) the juncture at which I am most likely to meet the lovely tt&t.
Woo for Hatrack.co.nz!
I have also written a postcard. It will be mailed (hopefully) tomorrow. It contains, among other things, a marriage proposal.
("It felt weird to START filming with Mal's death...")
In other news, I love my iPod. I'm sitting here, nearly as far as I can get from my birthplace, and listening to all of the same tunes that I was listening to last week on the other side of the world -- and what's more, on a better stereo. Actually (begin digression), the friend we were staying with earlier on had some sort of $4k überstereo, it was flat-out orgasmic to listen to. After we went on our tour of the hills and whatnot the other day, I ran straight to his stereo and listened to Stralafúr by Sigur Rós (and, I confess, got shivers because it was so beautiful to hear through such high-quality speakers).
Anyway, back on the subject of the iPod, it also contains backups of all of my important data from home, including a bunch of pictures, which came in useful just now as I emailed one to tt&t to help her recognize me. Woo!
Bedtime. I still haven't fully gotten over the time shift. Being 17 hours out is awkward.
quote:Much of that isn't even IN Los Angeles (it's Inglewood)! And certainly it's hardly representative.
Eh? Is Imperial the dividing line? Because I was pretty sure LAX was in El Segundo, what with it having been right across the street from my old office building. And come on, when you're as far away as Canada, even Orange County counts as L.A.
...
Actually, from what I can tell, Imperial is the dividing line, but LAX is mainly in Westchester, which is apparently actually part of the City of Los Angeles. Inglewood doesn't go west of La Cienega, at least not near LAX.
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I was not referring to LAX itself, but the hotels and such nearby, which I assumed twinky was reacting to. While some are in L.A. (and some in Westchester), I think the majority are in Inglewood.
Today we're going back to downtown Christchurch, there's an art gallery and a museum and some other stuff to see. I may go paddling/kayaking on the Avon river if it warms up a bit.
Further bulletins as events warrant. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:I was not referring to LAX itself, but the hotels and such nearby, which I assumed twinky was reacting to. While some are in L.A. (and some in Westchester), I think the majority are in Inglewood.
Ah, could be, could be. I'm not really sure where the airport hotels are, so I bow to your superior and more native knowledge. Still, while the LAX area is nowhere near the best part of LA, it's not the worst either. At least, I'm pretty sure it isn't. By the way, where do you really stand on the LA / not LA breakdown? It's been my experience that Angelenos are usually pretty specific when talking to other people from the area, but are pretty forgiving when people from outside include other cities or even counties in "LA."
Um... Sorry to wreck your New Zealand thread, twink.
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posted
S'ok. Nothing can spoil my good mood today, because...
Today so far: As advertised, we went downtown again, stopping to go to the Christchurch art gallery, "Te Puna O Waiwhetu." Just before that we drove right round the old teachers' college where dad went to school and ultimately taught for quite a while. I mention this because our tour guide in the gallery (which is free, by the way) turned out to be one of dad's former students, and she remembered him on sight. (The more time I spend here the more I realize just how amazing my dad is and how many lives he's touched over the years. It's unbelievable.) In any case, we went 'round the gallery, which actually has some lovely works (and some not-so-lovely modern foolishness, but that's ok). Also, the building itself is gorgeous -- sort of like the Guggenheim in Spain only in glass and IMO much nicer to look at.
After the gallery, we drove up the port hills through a wealthy district called Cashmere (pronounced "Kashmir" but not related to the marvellous Zep song). We had tea and scones at the Sign of the Takahe (and were served by a tall, slim, dark-haired, STUNNING waitress with a shivers-and-chills sexy accent who very obligingly took a picture of the three of us), then went over to a great look-off point near the restaurant to take some gorgeous pictures. The trouble with the pictures is that dad forgot the USB cable for his camera back in Nova Scotia, and the one that belongs to my camera doesn't fit. We've borrowed about a million cables from friends but none of them has the right camera connector. So now we've got a memory card's worth of pictures but no way to empty the card to take more! Fortunately we have my digital camera (which is older and not as nice) and and also mum's conventional point-and-shoot. We'll manage, I guess, but it would be nice to have that cable.
Later this afternoon we're going out to visit my eldest step-sibling and his family again. Unfortunately his eldest son, Hamish, won't be there (I get along very well with him because he's only four or five years younger than me), but it'll still be a good time because the family are all pretty awesome.
Tomorrow we depart on the first leg of our trek to the North Island; we're heading up to the Queen Charlotte sounds to something called a "batch" (it seems to be a "cottage") that one of my step-siblings and his family just bought. You can't drive there, though, so we'll park the care in Picton on the coast and he'll pick us up in his snazzy new boat. How he can afford this stuff I'm not entirely certain, but mine is not to ask such questions.
posted
*laugh* I'm geographically impaired, so it amuses me to have my word taken on any geographically-related issue (even when I'm relatively certain (mostly because I helped a friend find likely hotels a few months back) that I'm right).
As far as "in L.A. / not in L.A." I was mostly defending L.A. Some of my favorite bits of L.A. are in Venice, Beverly Hills, and so on. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Oh, right, I forgot tonight's update. Tonight was family stuff, which was really cool because I introduced my 15-year-old step-nephew to Tool. He's into Metallica and other heavy stuff, so I'm just giving him a little nudge toward the cream of the crop. He likes dirt bikes. He's got a guitar, though he doesn't play much; I played it a bit last time (he was most impressed by my Metallica repertoire and also my quick rendition of the first Velvet Revolver single) but this time his younger brother showed off his own musical talent: the youngest one, I discovered, is an astonishingly good bagpiper.
Also, their dog is big and agreeable.
And they drink. More than I normally would at this sort of social gathering. That appears to be a family trait, though, because all three half-brothers do it (and of course I have to keep pace with them, you know, ego and all that). I find it very difficult to think of the three brothers as my brothers, though (and it's impossible for me to think of their wives as my sisters, that's just a non-starter). The youngest one is nearly double my age. But I can't think of them as uncles, either, because uncles were always much older than that -- closer to my parents' ages, obviously. So I guess I think of them as some weird hybrid of uncle and cousin. Their kids I definitely think of with cousin-feelings, though some of the younger ones make passable nephews.
Thankfully, though, there is no weirdness, just lots of wholesome goodness, so at the end of the day it doesn't really matter how I think of them because we have a good time regardless.
It's only quarter to ten, but we're getting up early in the morning so that we can drive up to the Queen Charlotte Sounds... so I'm going to bed with my GBA and my copy of Cryptonomicon (which, incidentally, is a great book so far -- Neal Stephenson).
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This just all sounds so wonderful. I'm glad you're having a good time. Insanely jealous, too, of course, but mostly glad. Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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