My Year in San Francisco - Scott Millar

Last stop before home...

2009-11-17T06:05:00.000-08:00

I've been home over three months now and well it's been a while since I last posted. My last post was when I was in Arizona. Lots happened in America before I left so i'll start with that first.

Vegas...

My time in Arizona was coming to an end. I had to pack my backs again and I move on. So it was Chelsea's friend, Madison's 21st Birthday... We, being, Chelsea, Stephanie, Megan, Clinton, Derek, Madison and I ... went to Vegas for a few days... we got drunk had fun and spent alottttttttt of money. The first night we decided to go get something to eat. We went to a cool little restaurant I forget it's name now but we had to wait 30-45 mins...for a table so we go up to the bar on the 3rd floor and have a drink while we wait. Right as the pager goes off...one of the barmaids comes up and says 'We need someone to dance for this Bachelorette party downstairs can one of you boys do it?' ... WELL... all the heads turn... to me... DO IT DO IT SCOTT PLEASE DO IT... i refused at first but when there were to Frozen Margarita's offered i could barely turn it down... so there's me giving a lady to wed... oh yeh she was a stranger... a wee dance in the middle of some dance floor around a bunch of drunken crazy screaming ladies... so yeah there's a few pictures to have a laugh at but I'm not gonna put em online so if anyone actually reads this i'll show ya the pics... I got my 2 drinks... and a dollar bill too... anyway after an amazing meal we headed to 50 Cent's night club in the Bellagio... 'The Bank' ... of course from experience in Vegas... it's expennnnnsive... so we get drunk in the hotel room before :)...expensive cover for the guys...girls go free... that's how Vegas is. The following day we had a pool day...chillin' out catchin' some rays... its all gravy.... our plans that night... dinner with the birthday girl then out to Prive... a club in our hotel... again... boys gotta pay cover... girls go free... My flight is early the next mornin' so I don't get crazy drunk but enough to have a better time sober... :) I had a flight to catch the next day. I said goodbyes to Chelsea... in the morning and Megan and Derek where driving back to Az so they gave me a ride to the airport that morning. I had one more stop... and that was Miami Beach, Florida.

Buenvenidos a Miami...

My last stop before home was Miami Beach. Wow was I excited. I couldn't wait but I must say I was nervous... now of course its to be expected...I was living in a hostel with a bunch of people on my own. I'd never travelled anywhere without knowing who I was staying with... I got to Miami airport, managed to figure out where to get a shuttle that would take me to the hostel. I met a girl on the shuttle, forget her name. In fact I don't think I asked her. She was British. Anyway, I arrived at the South Beach Hostel around half 8? I was a little tired. There where a lot of people outside having fun and what not. There was a bar in the hostel along with a pool table and some computers in the lobby. I checked in, the girl was a bit rude and abrupt but then again I couldn't blame her... Some people are just born arseholes and well I think she was. I was in room 123. I shared this room with 5 guys. One Spaniard, Xavi, One Italian, Andrea, One Slovenian, Peter and Two French, Yann and Nico. They made my trip to Miami. They offered beer and where extremely welcome as soon as I arrived and we had a party before going to a bar.

The next day I went to the beach. I normally hate the beach. Not this one. The sand, the sun and well the water was warm like bath water. I got sun burnt. I met with the guys again and played some football while the sunset. I wrecked my foot. It's still sore til this day, thanks Andrea. HAHA.

I went to Millionaires' Row where I saw celebrity's houses. Gloria Estifan, P. Diddy's and the house from Scarface too. Fun. I went out to a few clubs and made a few more friends at the beach who where from Montreal, Canada. My time in the states was drawing to an end :(

Next stop .. Home..

After Miami it was time to go home. It was sad. :( My last few days in America were a little bit overwhelming if I thought about it too much. S0 I tried not to. However there was excitement there. A few hours and I'd be seeing my family again :)

Chelsea's Power Hour

2009-08-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Made alive to Phoenix. Currently in Tucson for a night... goin' out wit da lads down here. Went and watched District 9 in the cinema. Its pretty messed up. Good all the same though. The passed few days have been exhausting. I arrived into Phoenix Saturday evening at around 7/8pm I can't really remember... was collected at the airport by Chelsea and her friends then headed back to her house to prepare for her Power Hour. We went to dinner first then headed back to hers then everybody went out to Big Bang. An underground piano bar on Mill Ave. in Tempe. Was pretty cool ... expensive drinks though :/ after that we headed back to Chelsea's where the drinking games and the crazy dancing began. Oh Lordy... the pictures are below it was crazy fun loved every minute. It lasted til 5 when everyone started to fade.

The following morning... with a thumpin' headache and a tongue like that of sandpaper. It was planned that we shall go to Boston's for Bloody Mary's and wings... before we headed to Chelsea's parents house with her family and stuff. So we had a few shots :/ 1pm shots at 1pm who does that? lol... apparently we do now... anyway yeh so we're hammered before we even get to Chelsea's Parents house. Anyway we left Chelsea's and then back home before going for a few beers and pool and Doc & Eddy's. So tired at this point.

On Monday pretty much did nothing. Went for lunch with Chelsea and booked my bus ticket to Tucson. Then had Dinner with B and Stephen. It was niceeeeeeee. Went back to Chelsea's and watched 'Push' i thought it was pretty good. Better than my expectations anyway.

I then woke up at 6am and Chelsea dropped me at the bus station for my trip to Tucson. Here i am now. So we'll see how tonight goes ... going to a few bars later :)

PHOTOS WILL GO HERE FOLKS > Internet is wayyyyy to slow... sorry... also please be patient for the Vegas and Miami blog entry... i've just been soakin' in the sun and having way too much fun!

O'Hare's Cold Floor

2009-08-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

Well right now as I write this ... I'm sitting on the (cold) floor at Chicago O'Hare airport there are seats but its crowded right now. I traipsed around terminal 2 trying to find an outlet where I could give my laptop some juice and well the only place I could find one was in the corridor between the E and F gates ... where I sit right now so there's no Internet, wait, no FREE Internet. I could have some but I ain't paying'. So I'm writing this into a word document and I'll paste it into my blog when I get some connection.

I'm on route to Phoenix I had a 2 hour connecting flight from PHL airport to ORD Chicago Airport then I have a 2 hour lay over here in Chicago before a 3 hour flight to PHX Phoenix.

I had so much fun in Philly as always. I want to thank Tim for the entire week It was great and I really enjoyed my time there although I was only there for a week it felt like a month and Tim's company is always superb. It went by way to fast. I got 2 weeks before I begin my journey home. First like I said, Phoenix. Chelsea's birthday. 21. Her birthday's tomorrow. Get ready for the Power Hour of the century tonight. She's gonna get 'shwasted' her word not mine. I'll have my camera and maybe some blackmail photos will be on the cards? Watch this space.

Come on babe, why don't we paint the town...

2009-08-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well I went to New York City yesterday in the hope of catching a Broadway show. There's a booth in Times Square called 'Tkts Booth' which gives discount tickets to the shows. Only catch is you have to wait until the day of the performance. We didn't care. So Tim drove to Trenton, New Jersey and we caught the train from there to NYC. We arrived in NYC around 12/1PM and made our way to the booth. We're walking through Times Square (which is choc-a-block with people), and there was lots of people advertising for all the performances on Broadway, handing out flyer's and what not. I originally wanted to see Avenue Q however it woulda cost a hundred bucks with the Tkts Booth, second choice was Chicago. In terms of cost of tickets, Chicago had a the better deal. However with Tkts Booth it would have cost 100 bucks too. One of the flyer's i had was for Chicago where you could get orchestra seats for 70. So we got those seats. And where set for Chicago at 8pm.

I had been to New York before and have done all the sight seeing before so, after lunch, Tim and I just went to a few bars had a few beers. It was fun. Before we new it, it was 6:30pm so we made our way back to Times Square for the show. It was amazing. A great performance. The show finished at around 10:30, and we wandered around times square for about thirty minutes, got an Ice Cream before heading back for the train. The train was wayyyyyyyy slow, we ended up getting to Philly at around 2:30AM... passed out. Anyway it was an excellent day and the photo's are below :)

Fourscore and seven years...

2009-08-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Washinton DC - Day 1

I hit the road with Tim headed for Washington DC on Monday morning. It wasn't that early of a start to the day as we had planned on getting a room and spending the night there instead of cramming everything into one day. We drove along I95 and I'd never been in 4 states in such a short amount of time. It takes about 2-3 hours to get to Washington DC from Pennsylvania driving through Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. We stopped in Maryland for a restroom break but then we headed off and finally reached our destination. We checked in to the hotel and headed Downtown to see 'The National Mall' which is where everything is. I saw the Washington Monument ... that's the obelisk in the pictures ... so we headed in that direction and then we saw The White House so we walked over to that and then back to the monument then along the mall towards the Lincoln Memorial ... few pictures ... you know that big old statue with Abraham Lincoln sitting on the seat? Yeah that's the Lincoln memorial... its cool. There were a few more memorials in the area. One of which was the Vietnam Memorial. My first impression (to Tim) "what is that a hole in the ground?" We got closer and wow it was so touching. Basically, there's a bunch of panels with a list of names on each and the names are of all those lost during the Vietnam war. You can see it in the pictures below. Pretty incredible and very very sad :(

Anyway we headed off again back around to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) memorial... pretty cool all about his life and stuff. Then round more to the Thomas Jefferson memorial. We then kept walking reached the Holocaust Museum, but it was about to close, I got a pamphlet though. Then further back to the mall then started in the opposite direction of the Lincoln memorial, towards the Capitol Building... walked around the outside and we planned on going inside if possible the next day. We then marched over to the library of congress which was closed too (it was around 5/6pm). We planned on going there the next day too. Passed the Supreme Court, back down towards downtown DC to get some dinner in this really cool yummy restaurant which matched my budget perfectly. It was a restaurant/brewery... couldn't beat it really. Decided it was time to call it a day, we walked about 6 miles ... lol ... I was tired plus we had to get up early to make it for the tour of the capitol and to see the library of congress.

Washington - Day 2

We checked out of the hotel and made our way out to the Capitol building for our tour... it was pretty cool I'm not gonna lie ... learned a lot of American history. It was kind of like Stormont? Except much bigger? I think? I dunno ... lol ... Anyway from there we where able to 'Tunnel' to the library of congress where they have EVERYTHING. Ton's of archives of footage, books, anything. Pretty cool. Then we headed towards the 'Newseum' basically a museum of news. It was incredible. Best museum I've ever been too i couldn't believe all the information they had. front pages of news papers dating back to the 1500's. Crazy. With various screenings of news history, sports history and a 4-D movie experience, which was awesome. They had an exhibition about crime and mobsters and gangsters. It was really cool. My favourite exhibit was the Pulitzer Prize Gallery. You could see all the Pulitzer Prize winners for the past 40 years. There was also interactive videos of the photographers talking about each photo and the article which matched it. It was something else. They had an exhibit for 9/11 which was heartbreaking. They had the antenna which stood on the North Tower on display along with a step by step time line of what happened as well as a few screenings of different experiences. With a wall of front page's of newspapers from all over THE WORLD. Anyway we kept on going around... it was approaching 4:30 and we had one last thing to see which was the Terrace on the 6th floor. Its like a balcony of the newseum, with a great view of the Capitol Building. We decided it was time to leave so we started heading out then i notice the 'Fotobama' gallery which is a series of photographs of America's latest president, Barrack Obama. I'm reading the captions with my finger. 5 minutes later, I hear a voice, (which at first i thought was hades) in my ear, saying 'Please..DO NOT TOUCH'. I jump, turn around and there is this adorable old lady. I didn't think it was that big of a deal I mean it wasn't like i was touching the queens crown or anything(there were no 'Do not Touch' signs.

Anyway we're done and try to find the exit...
lets call her 'Mouthy Maggie', walks away. We head in the direction of the elevator, when all of a sudden...

Mouthy Maggie: The stairs are over there.
(At this point Scott is very tired. He doesn't want to walk. He points at the elevator and is about to speak... when..)
Mouthy Maggie: That elevator doesn't bring people DOWN. It's to bring people up to the 6th floor.
(It then goes through Scott's head as to how people get down. Maggie points out her pass... Scott clearly a little bit agitated and starts to lighten the mood and start to play along and tease Mouth Maggie... )
Scott:Oh so why can't we go down that elevator?
Holds a key card in the air which is currently wrapped around her neck.
Scott: OOH... can you buy those in the gift store?
Mouthy Maggie: I work here...
Scott: Ohh OK. I see. So there is no elevator down?
Mouthy Maggie: There is one over there but its broken.
Scott: OK, I think we'll take these stairs.

FIN.

So that is the Mouthy Maggie story. I'm can't help but chuckle a little as I type this. She was a very sweet lady and she did a great job directing us. :) Thanks 'Mouthy Maggie'

We left the Newseum and headed out of Washington and figured it would be best to just grab something to eat for dinner on the journey home.

We got back to Philly around 9:30PM. Watched 'The Hangover' before falling asleep.

I'm spending today in Philly, before heading off to New York for the day tomorrow. We're gonna try and catch a show on Broadway. I'm super excited :) Until then folks! Enjoy the pictures!

Walking the National Mall ...

Library of Congress and Capitol Building

The Newseum ... forgot to mention the pieces of the Berlin wall :)

The Eagle has Landed...in Philadelphia

2009-08-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

I made it East Coast yesterday evening... boring ass flight... no TV entertainment, my iPod battery dies with 20 minutes of battery life in my laptop... boring, I slept though ... went to a few bars last night and had a few beers.

Today had a lazy mornin' in bed I didn't get up til like 11:30 before goin with Tim to get some groceries in the Reading Terminal Market, for dinner (Tims makin' it right now) smells good too. We drove past 'Capogiro' an ice cream/gilato place that I went to last time I visited and it was in today's newspaper and mentioned that Michelle Obama (America's First Lady/President's Wife) and her daughter ate ice cream there last week .. maybe I'll meet my first celebrity in Philly? anyway It is wet so we went to the movies and watched Julie and Julia. Its a 'nice' movie perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow I go to Washington DC I'll maybe see the president. I'll say Hi from you to him.

I left my heart in San Francisco.... But I know its in good hands

2009-08-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

So yeah as the saying goes it does happen. I can't believe it. I fell in love with the San Francisco insane. I love it miss and made some incredible friends there. I think I've covered everybody in previous blog posts but theres one person that still needs a lot of gratitude.

Tony's been my support and anchor throughout most of my year here in San Francisco. He's helped me grow in so many ways that I could have only imagined before. Times got rough for both of us and we stuck by each other. Most of my time in San Francisco was spent with tony and I cant wait for him to come to Ireland. He helped me to the airport (with all the crap I have) and when I got into line for security, I was gurnin' like a baby. Thanks for everything Tony, I really will miss you and the Ewok memories and amazing times that we shared will never be forgotten. I'll be back :)

As for San Francisco, I am keeping my heart there … that way I do have to return to such a beautiful city. I'm not done with it and its not done with me. See you soon San Francisco!

Discovery #901 – If you visit Discovery Kingdom you'll need more than one pair of undies

2009-08-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well as it was my vacation, Tony and I went to Discovery Kingdom. A theme park outside San Francisco, in Vallejo. We took the Bart to El Cerrito Norte, and then had to board another 2 buses ... took us what seemed for ever to get there but we arrived at Discovery Kingdom about an hour and a half later ... I was shit scared (sorry for the swear word but if you saw 'Medusa' you would be too) … well now I normally chicken out when it comes to Roller coasters like that one. I get all excited then, I start to bail ... not possible when you go with tony … he had me on nearly every roller coaster. 'Medusa' was the mother I was scared most for it so I tried to procrastinate this one … with every other roller coaster, First we did this 'white water rafting' ride and we waited about an hour in line ... (waste of time to be honest, i did want more thrills) 'Boomerang', 'Kong', Roar and I even managed to squeeze lunch in there too. Then it was time... I couldn't procrastinate anymore, and 'the line's too long' doesn't work with tony. ANYWAY this roller coaster was nuts... I did go on it... peer pressure but BOY did it get your Adrenalin goin'. The first drop was longggggggggg but it was great... I probably could have went on it twice if I wanted to wait in line. It was a fun day, the park itself isn't just rides and roller coasters. It also has animals, kind of like a zoo but they put on animal shows, one in particular I was busting to see was 'Odin's Temple of the Tiger'. It was obviously a tiger show but to see these animals was unreal the size of them, and to see them swimming and eating in the water. The pictures are below ...

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

2009-08-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

Went to Santa Cruz Beach Board walk... pretty cool place... kinda like Portrush. Arcades, tickets, amusements, rides, roller coasters (an 85 year old roller coaster at that), candy floss, ice cream, funnelcakes (yum) ... Infact its better than Portrush. Took Caltrain from San Francico to San Jose then took an easy ride on the bus. Anyway the pictures pretty much say it all... fun fun fun ... !

Break the rules and you go to prison, break the prison rules and you go to Alcatraz

2009-08-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, which was Jo's last day in San Francisco, I thought it was finally time to visit Alcatraz Island. Jo, Dave and myself all went across to the penitentiary prison and of what fun we had. First off, for those who've never heard of Alcatraz is an island, located 1.4 miles from San Francisco. We took a ferry across to the prison. It was cool, you could just walk around the grounds and see things like what the prisoners did when they where bored etc. It was also great to see what you saw in the movies, got you geared up to watch 'em too like 'The Rock' and 'Escape from Alcatraz'. There was an audio tour which guided you through the cell blocks but wow was it intense it was realistic with sound effects and you walked around the cell blocks hearing a range of different stories that went on in that very room ranging from crazy escape attempts to mad prisoners rioting ... it was an unreal tour and I could probably do it again! Anyway enough blabbing on ... here's some pictures ... check out the view of the bay ... and the solitary confinement.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes - How do you measure, measure a year?

2009-08-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Wow...well its been a year at Extranomical...what a year! Where'd the time go? It flew in... It feels like I just arrived here yesterday :( I've grown so much as a person, I wouldn't know where to begin describing. This has been a great experience for me and it's sad that it has come to an end. Anyway my last day of work was on Friday ( July 31st)... And its now VACATION! woohooo! I got a week in San Francisco hanging with the homies that haven't left yet, then a East Coast to Philadelphia ... then I hit the heat in Arizona for Chelsea's Birthday(its gonna be HOT) in Phoenix, then Tucson with some friends from camp (hopefully) then to Las Vegas once more (with Chelsea) then last stop is Miami were the beaches are at :) I'll keep you posted if I manage to have some free time at the airports :)

There is a few things I would like to say before I take off gallivanting around San Francisco. I've left the Vantaggio ... I'm not the only one to be checking out this weekend... all of my Family there have left... and the 'next generation' of students have arrived. We had a party on Friday ... super fun drunk times ... like always ... the party at Vantaggio was off the hook ... great food and great drink and great times. The party started great ... Roly made some GREAT pasta... and then Jo had made her famous Sangria ... the Irish in the Vantaggio ... now 4 of us, decided to start singing (like the Irish do after they've had a few) ... then we're greeted with two guys ... in Uniform ... haha yep the cops. There's a saying somewhere that goes something like 'you know the party is good if the cops show up' so yeah... we were too loud apparently ... anyway they left... and it was all good, the party still continued... everyone got happy VERY happy... some even fell asleep because they were so happy! Those who where still awake decided to go to the Temple Bar (which was only a block away) for a karaoke sing song. I hadn't sang at Karaoke since I've been in San Francisco... I love it :) anyway after that it was time to call it a night ... I had to check out of the Vantaggio and go to Alcatraz (that's a post to follow) the next day...

Just a few words now... sob...

Extranomical Adventures - Thanks guys, I had a great year and met a lot of really great people. It was a pleasure working with everyone there and I will miss you all... I hope that my job in the future involves as many cool people as you guys. Your support throughout the year has been great and the opportunities provided I feel are once in a life time. Thanks a lot to everyone at Extranomical.

Vantaggio Suites - My main home throughout my stay... I made lots of friends there to whom are friends for life... I've already mentioned my goodbyes as all my really close friends have already returned to there home countries... First of all, Jo, thank you so much for being a great friend, you're a great person, I will miss you but I will see you you are a friend for life and I'm coming to Venice to see you soon! (you're coming to Belfast too). I love you Jo! Then the staff at the front desk, Megan, one of my chums... a learned a lot from her and times did get tough through the year ... we helped each other out... thanks Megan! Sen, (works the grave yard at Vantaggio) I would come home from a night out on the piss and have serious drunken conversations(he'd be sober of course) with sen... Funny times!

Dave - My roommate for the year. Being totally honest when I say this, I don't think I would've asked for a better roommate. You where extremely understanding and it was great hanging out and talking with you. We'll hang out one last time before I leave San Francisco. Thanks Dave!

So I've checked out of the Vantaggio. My closest friend, Tony, has provided me with a room for a week. So I got somewhere comfortable to sleep for a week. :)

Like I said the next post will be Alcatraz... but below are the pictures from the parteee!

You've been here 11 and a half months and you haven't been on the cable car?

2009-07-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Yep the title says it all... I'd been here so long... and I hadn't been on the cable car yet...whats the big deal ... I was here for a year... living ... i wasn't a tourist... the end is approaching so now its time to cram all the touristy stuffs in :) So I took a ride on the cable car! I went with Justine and oooooooooh what a fun day we had. There are two cable cars in San Francisco... the one were all the tourists get on and there's a huge ass line which goes up Powell St. Then there's the one that goes along California... where there is no line for waiting. PERFECT! So our little day started there... we hopped on the cable car and headed along California and I stood of the side too of course... and it landed us at market st. We head towards the Ferry Building and we find a Ben and Jerry's stand - giving away ice cream - HA I don't hate it... We eat our 'Flipped out' ice cream then head to the ferry building where there's like a little market stores pretty neat... then we decide to walk towards a little park called Levi plaza where we hung out had a little chat about life and what not...then Justine tells me that there is a Levi's office (Yes, the jeans) and says that its got an exhibition... I'm like LETS DO IT so we did...and it was cool lots of Levi's history kinda like a little Levi's museum ... (yes about the jeans) After that we went to china town had a walk around before heading home for nap nap. Check out the photos!

You can never step into the same river, new waters always flow on to you

2009-07-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

Today I grew a set and went White Water Rafting... Basically it's the dogs balls. I'd never done this before. Banana Boating, yes. Canoeing, yes. White water rafting was something else. I was excited, then you sign the liability release forms where the first line reads 'You are aware that you may die' ... Luckily I brought spare undies...

I took the tour with Extranomical Adventures, with Curt as the tour guide ... we headed to a place just outside Sacramento called, Camola? I forget the spelling ... but anyway the rafting was on the South Fork of the American River and this was lead by American White Water, which was OFF THEE HOOK! Our raft guide was called Patrick, he got us down those rapids easily... he knew what he was talkin about and told pretty cool stories from the Gold Rush period - (I'm not gonna go on but it's the times of Cowboy's and Indian's and they used to look for gold along the river)... Anyway some of the rapids names where a little bit 'intense' for a better word for example one was called 'Meat Grinder'. The last rapid was the best... 'Trouble Maker' where some pretty cool photos where taken. They're below... see if ya can find me! This was probably a one of the highlights of my year... I got lucky that Extranomical was running this tour!! Thanks Extranomical!!

P...P...P...P...Pokerface

2009-07-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

I never new how to play poker... I 'played' once before... when I say 'played' I had a few too many drinks, and was relying on my 'team-mates' to help me out... I was put out first round...so, I took it upon myself to play some poker.

There was about six of us here (Vantaggio Family) playing in the kitchen (about 3 of which knew how to play) with my new choice of drink (Bacardi) in one hand and my cards in the other I was ready to hold em, Texas style... I didn't win but I held up pretty good and was feeling a little buzz from the drinking at the end. Check out some of the pictures.

Sayonara Maia Ito

2009-07-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

One of my bestest buds here at the Vantaggio, Turk St left us... she headed back to Japan for bigger and brighter things reflecting her personality of course. When you see Maia she brightens your day, lifts your spirits and she doesn't even have to try.

I'll see you in Japan Maia!!

Scottie xox

Japanese Sushi Party ...

2009-06-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

As most of my frequent blog readers are aware, i've taken a likening to Sushi. My Vantaggio Family took it upon themselves to organise a Japanese Sushi Party. Yummy. Joel, Maiko, Roly and Maia made the sushi and the other Japanese food too... which was off the hook(my new saying), and there was enough sushi to go around... the party was great and plenty of extremely drunken times to be added to the collection.... I have some pictures... Check them out ...

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me

2009-06-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Chrissi Leaves...

Ok one of my really close friends, Chrissi, left San Francisco last month. She returned to her home country as her year at Extranomical adventures had came to and end. I miss her so much, she was a really good friend and i wish her all the best for the future...and of course I'll be making the effort to visit her in Germany! :D So Long Chrissi...

Bettina and Marie say farwell...

Bettina, from Switzerland and Marie from France said goodbye and headed on to exciting adventures... Marie went back to Marcielle and Bettina to Argentina. We had a sushi party to mark their leaving, sushi, booze and fun times(lots of it). Then we had lunch in an amazing Thai restaurant before heading to Bi-Rite for ice cream :)... I'll miss you guys...

Naomh Drops In...

Naomh had finished school in Montana, where she was participating in the BEI programme for her placement year, and was then living in Livermore with her friend Kathleen. Livermore's about 30 minutes to an hour away via BART. Anyway, Naomh and Kathleen came into San Francisco for the day. I showed her around some places in the City while we had a major catch up, before running out of time and taking her back to the BART station. It was fun seeing a familiar face :D

Chelsea visits for a weekend...

Chelsea FINALLY came for a weekend in San Francisco. She came with her friends earlier in the year and she did the typical touristy stuff such as Fisherman's wharf, golden gate bridge and the cable car (which i still haven't managed to do yet). I decided to take her to a few places which are hidden in the city...and some places she wanted to go. :) She arrived Friday night, we went to 'SF's Best Drag Show', which was great fun! The next day we wandered around and hung out in the park before going to watch the Disney Pixar movie, UP! in 3D, it was FAN-BLOOMIN'-TASTIC! Worth a look! She left sunday afternoon. Again it was fresh to see her, I'll see her again in August in my travels after my work here :D

After friends leaving and friends visiting, I'm starting to realise that my time here in San Francisco is drawing to an end this time round ... I've got 6 weeks left ... I've made some really cool friends here and I'm going to make the most of the time left here...but that's another blog entry... For those back home ... I'll see yas all soon :D

I can trust my friends. These people force me to examine, encourage me to grow

No more Slacking!

2009-06-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hey all. How is everyone? It has been a while. Sorry. My laptop went through a crisis. The hard drive of which, failed on me one day and its been none responsive since(bad times). I would turn on the laptop and see 'operating system not found' then I checked the BIOS of the system, and the hard drive was not located. I have not been able to get anything back from the hard drive(for now) that includes any music that was on there, ... which was alot ... all documents but the main thing ALL my photo graphs from this trip are also gone...(very bad times ) however, i did get a new hard drive and my laptop is working. (good times) I am still currently trying to get my hard drive recovered, I'm not giving up :(

Anyway...

I had to complete a report for university that also took some time to complete and explains why i aint blogged in so long.

I've gone through the past month sifting through memories and took the liberty to post them now.

Happy reading... :D

Shaken Not Stirred

2009-03-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was working the evening shift, so I didn't have to work the evening shift, I awoke at around 10am. By 10:30 I was just laying on my bed, Justine, was on Dave's bed, her and I were just chatting while i was doing my thing on the internet, facebooking and checking the emails and whatever...then all of a sudden there's a gentle shake. This 'shake' was an earthquake! HA i could barely feel so it wasn't extreme but Justine felt it too(so i wasn't crazy and imagining things). I checked it out on google, and low and behold. it measured 4.3 so it was just a minor tremor, and the details can be seen here! It wasn't that scary, it was just gentle, i did get a little bit excited :)

Oops I forgot to tell you!

2009-03-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

I don't remember telling you guys that I seen my first celeb? Well it was a few weeks ago and I guess I didn't really have the chance to blog back when it happened. But anyway so I was at a restaurant in the Mission District having breakfast at a place called Boogaloos, and I sat down, and i said to Tony... i think i just saw my first celebrity in San Francisco, look left....and tony seen him... and recognised him too but we couldn't put a name to his face... he had just finished his breakfast... I could remember him having his own sitcom, 'The War at Home'... and I'd seen him in a few episode's of 'Friends' too you may also have recognised him in 'Prison Break' too... don't too excited he isn't A-list. So I asked the waitress (after he left) if she recognised him... she couldn't remember his name either! By this stage it's bugging me... so she asks her colleague and well he knew his name. Michael Rapaport! I heard it and obviously realised... a lot of people would hear the name and not recognise it until they see him...so yeah...I took the liberty to Google him for you :)

My one of my dearest bested friends, Chelsea is in town, so im off to meet and greet her and her friends :) The sun is finally out and I love ittttttttttttttt :D

Maia Ito - A Midsummer Nights Dream

2009-03-21T16:15:00.001-07:00

Last night I went to a Ballet Performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream which was a production of Diablo Ballet. My friend Maia from Japan, starred in it. She was one of the fairies and she invited myself, Tony and whole bunch of other really cool people to go and watch it with her. It was a fantastic performance and I just want to congratulate Maia and everyone else who starred in the ballet on such a great job they did!

Well Done :D

Defying Gravity...Wicked the Musical

2009-03-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

The day finally arrived...Wicked, I was so excited and had been excited to see it... I'd been reading the book...aiming to get it finished before i would see the performance...I didn't finish it but i will...but the musical is totally different than the book,

The book has alot more characters in it
The book is ALOT darker
The book's plot is totally different
The book's more adult

So the row I'm sitting in, there's a mother, a father, and their son...and some friends it seemed like next to them. The dad's discussing with their friends about the book and how he's reading it to his son. Now the son, is probably no older than 11 years-old. I over heard that they had only started the book and what not but if the dad is reading the book to his son I realised, how's he gonna explain the 'steamy' chapter? lol... anyway i don't wanna give too much away but read it! its Wicked :)

I can't wait to finish the book...but I loved the musical and i think anyone would! In terms of which is better? i think i preferred the book a little bit better but that is just slightly. I don't know its too hard to say. I loved the musical and i loved the book. The actors/actresses and the set...which i have a picture of was all great...there might be some things on YouTube which you could maybe check out...but there's this one musical number called Defying Gravity which actually sent shivers down my back...you've probably seen it on TV or something if not...search for it or go see the musical and look out for it! Great Performance! :)

For those a little confused as to what it is, I'll recap; Its a musical based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, which follows the life and death of the wicked witch of the west, Elphaba, her sister, Nessarose and the 'good witch from the north' Glinda. I watched the wizard of Oz A LOT as a kid and my parents will vouch for that and I'd say its one of my favourite movies of all time. But I'd say now that I've seen the musical and read the book, you kind of see oz differently. If you read it you know what i mean :) But I'm done with this post for now.

St Paddy's Festivities :)

2009-03-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

The weekend before St. Patrick's day they have a parade out here because its not a public/bank holiday. There was a proposition during the elections attempting to make St. Paddy's Day a public holiday...i work on a schedule where there are no such thing as holidays, but I'm guessing the prop was unsuccessful as others had to work. Anyway I checked out the parade...well what was left as i arrived somewhat late. The parade was over but there where irish food stands with the attempts of Irish cuisine, gazebo's with booze flowing (they were cornered off...san francisco is changing...on event's like this you could just drink publicly), Irish bands singing christy moore songs and stuff and a little man wandering around selling 'lucky irish beads' which were clearly just mardi gras beads...anyway alot of green was to be seen as you'll see in the pics below...

On St. Paddy's day however... it was a 'neighbours'(Rodrigo/Ro for short-he lives in the building...) birthday so a little party was happening in the kitchen that evening...i had the late shift...so i was kinda late...i wasn't really in the mood to party but i had a beer (it wasn't green) of course...and that was that :) It was fun...check out some of the pics from this below too :D

Another Dr...without a degree!

2009-03-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hey so i had a pretty eventful 2 days off...(Thursday and Friday) I decided to go for a few drinks and boogie on Wednesday night ... then on Thursday with my head in a somewhat of a spin, i decided to head to the gym. There was another Prop 8 rally that day...i went down to check things out...not much goin' on tho...i had a few beers in the afternoon and whilst at one bar some 'owl (old for those who aren't from Northern Ireland) man decided to analyse me. He didn't know me...it wasn't your average conversation...first off he said i was tense...he then said i was the only thinking...i was like WTF? can you go away? so then his reaction...'you're also extremely ... sensitive' ... i left the bar... all the world needed was another Dr. Phil! I went to another bar were there were no creepy people would bother me :)

Daft Punks with alot of time on their hands?

2009-03-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

I was told to check this video out on youtube and it wowed me. Now I find sometime and motivation to blog about it... These guys must have put alot of time and effort into this choreography....but the words on their bodies are the words to the song 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - by Daft Punk' (if you hadn't figured it out)... Enjoy..oh there was an original before this...but this was the first one i came across...so...yeh... check it out if you haven't seen it before!

I feel it in my fingers...yes...its wet, wet, wet!

2009-03-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

First off, sorry for that cheesy title ... but the weather was poop here the past weekend...raining miserable and being hungover just does not help. On Saturday I hung out and cooked the good 'ole Chicken Curry with Chrissi. On sunday...it was raining...all day. ugh. so i did my laundry... but then i went to Berkeley and had kick ass beer and BBQ chicken pizza in a place called Jupiters... then wandered University for a bit before heading back to the city.

That evening, i met Joey. Tony's friends, Frankie and Tom who are roomies decided to get a puppy. This puppy is Joey. He rocks... check out his blog and go meet him too!!

That's all for now!

Vegas Roadtrip

2009-02-25T21:21:00.000-08:00

Vegas was pretty cool... I'd never been to Nevada before and it was nice to get away from San Francisco. Here's my trip...

Friday: Departure 0400 Hours

Tony (the driver) and I headed for Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas is pretty far and we thought lets save some money and drive...LOL HAHAHAHA OHHHHHHH BOY...driving down the highway playing a few games keeping us entertained... pphftttttttttttttttt... doof... doof... doof... doof... dooff...we popped a tire...not pleasant in crisp cold air of that friday morning... well... now i know how to change a tire but they had like this highway patrol ... like the AA but free... and they helped us out big time... but then we had to get a new tire ... so we stopped in Merced and got a new tire and headed back on the road. It set us back 2 hours travelling :/ which suckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkked but we made it to vegas... at around 4PM... long ass drive but hey we made it...we were tired but we headed out to the strip that night...check out the pics from the strip...

After eating junk food the whole journey to Vegas, it was decided that we wanted a decent meal. We wanted a Steak. So we went to a restaurant called the Strip House. A little bit pricier than what we had expected...but it was vacation and well after the long drive we both decided the steak was deserved... it was a damn good steak too!

Saturday: Hoover Dam and Boulder City

On Saturday we ventured to Hoover Dam and we took the tour. I was so excited... being a big movie fan i couldn't wait to see this landmark which is in a bunch of top movies... Transformers and James Bond being the ones stuck in my head but yeh. The Tour was great we actually went inside the dam, and it wasn;t that expensive either and it was really interesting and after taking GCSE Geography in school i now know how dam's work HAHA... here's the pics :D

On route to hoover dam we drove through Boulder City where I noticed a little brewery where i had to stop on the way back for a beer. It was the brewery's 2nd anniversary and they were having a big par-tay. It was pretty cool and the beer was great too.

Ok now i have no pictures of the Boulder City Brewing Co. because well the battery in my camera died... :( bummer.

Saturday: Old Downtown - Fremont St. Experience.

Instead of going home after hoover dam etc...by the time we got back to Vegas it was already around6/7 and getting dark...so we just headed straight to fremont st. which was our plans for that evening. Fremont St. has this huge tv screen and its like a roof of the st. Now...the battery in my camera was dead...so i bought a Ghetto disposable single use camera...the pics didn't prove so good but... there was some life in my camera...so i got some pics...

Probably one of the highlights of the Trip was the fountain outside the front of the Bellagio Casino. The famous fountain lights up on the hour every hour....the fountain goes in time with the beat of the music... pretty cool huh... it looked like fireworks! good thing i got it on vid... :D You might here me singing too HAHA ... enjoy...

Sorry Folks :/

2009-02-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

Alright so i've gone passed the half way point of my time here. I've been spending the past few weeks reflecting on what i've experienced, the ups and downs of the past 6 months. Oh what fun i've had out here and i got another 6 more to go :D wahoooo hopefully they're gonna be as good as he first 6 if not better :)

I'm sure if you are a regular reader of this blog then you'll have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. The number of posts per month have been getting smaller and smaller. I try but i'm just having too much BLOODY fun :D (that and im just a lazy ass) so... what have a been doing?(apart from being a lazy ass)trying to party hard(probably making me the lazy ass)...planning trips, outings, attempting to save money when i always dip into my student loan :/ ... hey im still a student im allowed to do that :)

So here is an outlook of what lays ahead...

Nobody can see the Great Oz! Not nobody, not nohow!

Since the finish of my most recently completed read, 'Tales of the City' ... i needed a new book ... the Broadway hit musical Wicked, has returned to San Francisco ... so i figured, i'd read the book... also ... hahahaha I'M ONLY GOING TO SEE IT! for those of you who don't know what it is or what its about, basically, its the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba) from The Wizard of Oz. I'm in the middle of the book and so far, it's covered her birth and her life at college etc...its pretty interesting... anyway i go see it on March 19th so watch this space, i promise to let you guys know :) Its been running for over a week and well they turned San Francisco City Hall green for its opening shows. Check the pic out.

Raise 'em, Hold 'em and Fold 'em - I'm goin' to Vegas

So yeh...you guessed it! I'm going to Sin City, Las Vegas!...just for a mini vacation but it should be great fun. Of Course im kinda broke...living in San Francisco, so i won't be raising the stakes too high...but i'm goin for the jackpot on the nickel machines. (5 cent slot machines) and i'll maybe play some blackjack and craps while i'm there...3 things i need to do in Vegas...

Visit Hoover Dam
Visit at least one famous Casino(Probably just the Bellagio :P)
Get arrested(relax that was a joke)

Yeah so its gonna be great fun...I leave for vegas on the 20th Feb for 3 days...driving down...the hotel looks NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEE so keep an eye out :)

It's probably time...

2009-02-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

Last week was Super Bowl Sunday, and well there were a great deal of new commercials released. As so many people are watching Superbowl its a perfect advertising opportunity and companies invest in advertising. One commercial which caught my attention was this Career Builder one. The reason why I'm posting it...is because its straight up laugh out loud funny. So enjoy...

Hunger finds no fault with the cooking

2009-01-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

Scottie's Bday - Ravioli

So last week it was Scottie's B'day and Tony wanted to cook for his friend so...i helped him...We made ravioli with shrimp ricotta from start to finish. I'd never made ravioli before... except Chef Boyardee or Heinz in Tomato sauce...but they were gooood. Was great craic... with Robledo Pinot Noir. Yummy. Of course there was great birthday cake too. Chocolate and strawberries...cant beat it with a stick.

A taste from home - Potato Bread

So i figured i'd treat my friends to a little home cooking. They always ask...what does irish food taste like so...i attempted to make some Irish Potato Bread... attempted being the main word...

We forgot flour...but...there was corn bread mix :/ so we used that and well i guess...the recipe said that we needed 'Irish Butter' i couldn't find kerrymaid unfortunately. Anyway...so we mixed up the recipe...actually one thing i noticed this recipes on the net NEVER make sense...ive tried following that stuff online before and well once when i tried making french toast (eggy bread) i got banana flavoured scrambled egg...but thats another story...for another day...back to the potato bread... so we added some sausage to the mix...and fried it in the pan...so effin good! :) i was well proud... improvisation goes along way... here's the pics...pity you can't taste em..not the pics...the potato bread.

Oot and Aboot

2009-01-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

So yeh, i been out a lot! Hence the lack of blog posts...heres some pics of me getting drunky with some friends...i'll upload some more when i get a better net connection!! :D In the pics are Myself, Tony, Dean, Chrissi and Ina.

Goodbye 2008! - Part Dos

2009-01-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

SOOOOOOOOOO I thought that the fireworks where at the Golden Gate Bridge - They weren't... BUZZ KILL - well no... They where down at the Oakland Bay Bridge - they where still awesome lots of people and fun to be had... sky's were clear - no fog :D woohooo :D Chrissi, Ina, Tony and I Headed for the Embarcadero - We had our little flasks filled with happy juice we drank alot - Anyway Here are the pics...

Happy New Year San Francisco :)

Goodbye 2008! - Part Uno

2008-12-31T16:00:00.000-08:00

Well its New Years Eve 2008 and im working...until 10pm... in the office til 8 then on call til 10...its not too bad it means i still get to see the fireworks when we're bringing in the new year.

Its about to hit midnight back home so this is a little Happy New Year for you guys celebrating long and hard into the night. This entry is scheduled to post midnight for your guys so enjoy.

My plans for this evening after work are to go see the Fireworks at The Golden Gate Bridge! It's gonna be fun...I've got booze which I'm stoked for :D So yeah watch this space for pics in the next few days.

Happy New Year to you:)

He who breaks a resolution is a weakling;
He who makes one is a fool!
- F.M. Knowles

School's Out...

2008-12-27T15:18:00.000-08:00

Chelsea took me to her school campus today, first we went to einstiens and had bagels... yum ... cream cheese ... came back to her house and took a nap... Then Chels, Kels and Hemi (Kels Puppy) went to ASU. We took a walk around the campus, which was nice it was a little nippy out but it was nice to see her school. I wish my school looked as cool as that. Tonight we're going out for dinner tonight with her parents. I'm excited... just like old times, anyway I need to go and get ready now.

Merry Christmas! :D

2008-12-25T23:54:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone :D

Its Christmas :D what a great few days its been here in Arizona. I've been staying in Chelsea's house then for Christmas Eve I spent the night in chelsea's parents house, cos thats where Santa was going :D

Christmas Morning, Chelsea's Grandparents made breakfast yummy and there was a stocking for me packed with goodies. It was so cool to have christmas with another family. It was tough though. I missed my own family this christmas, but i had the support of Chelsea and her family. There was PLENTY of food and drink - lots of fun of course.

Right now though, im sooooo tired so im cutting his post short. I'll have a few pics up soon.

Nighty Night

Vacation's begun...

2008-12-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

I landed in Phoenix, Arizona last night... and seeing Chelsea at the bottom of the runway... AMAZING...i know this christmas ... is going to be AWESOME ... but yeh... so im just hanging in chelsea's with Jake, Paige and Steph. Of course chels and i are here too... we got stoli's and grey goose... anyway paige's house... ok now wait theres Christmas lights in Northern ireland... TACKY... paiges house has lights outside...this...is ART alot of thought went into this... so the lights flash in time to a certain radio station.... ridiculous? no pure amazing!!! Check the vid.

I had planned on making a trip to Tucson but... i got sick so I couldn't so apologies to the peeps down there expecting me. :(

My Bad...

2008-12-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

Well i guess i've started slacking in my blog again... sorry about that... anyway alots been goin on... again gettin stuck into work and stuff and well social life as well making alot of friends and alot of great people... enjoying my time and making the most of this experience... but like i said, theres alot goin on... so i'll give you a little taster of wat i've been at the past few days (besides working and getting drunk) ...

A few Sunday's ago was the Office Christmas Party. We went to Asia SF. The food and drink was incredible...kinda worked like family style tapas...in total there was 18 of us...that includes all the office staff and the odd driver and ofcourse guests if people chose to bring...so anyway...Asia SF ok...now if you hadn't realised already that San Francisco is little CRAZY... this post will surely show you...

Asia SF is a restaurant/bar/club where all the barmaids...well arn't maids at all... they were trannys ... you know drag queens... which you see here alot but... these could pass as women...the looked like it (sometimes) you'd be surprised...well until they opened there mouth i guess... anyway our waitress was Vivica lol she was really great craic...they all put on a drag show... wow they could dance... and it was a great night and enjoyed by everyone... awesome experience!

Heres some pics...

I was working the next day so i didn't party too hard... it wasn't too late of a night either. Other than that i've just been wanderin bout the city. Getting the odd bit homesick... but that was inevitable... its getting into the Holiday Season, but next week i go to Arizona ... im goin for a few days so it'll clear my head. I can't wait. Then i'll get home in time for New Years... my plans...are up in the air right now...i hear there's fireworks at golden gate bridge though... so its lookin like that for now. Oh i went to an IMAX movie... ' The Day The Earth Stood Still' it was ok...loved the Imax, but as far as that movie was concerned...it was just ok...anyway i think i'm done bloggin' though i can't help but think i've missed something...so just watch outtttt! :)

Byeeee, let the weekend begin.

Never Blend In.

2008-12-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, there was a movie premiere right here in San Francisco's Castro Theatre. It was the Premiere of the movie 'Milk'... it had a full cast, Sean Penn, who plays Harvey Milk in the movie, alongside James Franco and Emile Hersch who were also there. However I didn't know this was all going on...or else i would have been there...i didnt realise til i got home from work that evening and seen it on the tv...that was the week after i partied a little too hard the weekend before...so i was wrecked...

Anyway the movie was released Nationwide 2 weekends ago...and i went to see it at the weekend past... WOW is all i can say. I learned so much about San Francisco's culture. Basically the movie is based around Gay Rights Activist, Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay man to be elected into Public Office in America. I never new who Harvey Milk was before I came to this city. Turns out he affected the lives of every minority group out there. I learned so much about the city and actually getting to watch the movie in the city where it was made, and watching it in the Castro Theatre that you can actually see in the movie. They fixed the lights on the Castro Theatre sign for the movie. At the end they showed the cast against the real people...they seemed to get it pretty acurate and the acting in this movie is incredible. So if you ever see the movie...which i think you probably should :) ... remember...'Scottie's been there, the lucky duck :)'

Row, Row, Row your boat...

2008-12-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was sooooo much fun...on Friday...Tony and I were suppose to drive to Big Sur...unfortunately all that Turkey made me too sleepy...and i didn't get up early enough to go...basically ... its a long drive...so we were going to go to Berkeley... then decided to drive to Monterey instead... it was about a 2 hour drive... with Starbucks in between... I recommend getting a Grande... even if you NEVER do... anyway after that...we bought our lunch in Safeway (Monterey is WAY too expensive) ... we headed to the boardwalk first...was cool there was a really cool candy store...and they were making Salt Water Taffy and wrapping it in this CRAZY little machine...i never took a video...wish i did but it was really fast...it was like something from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory good times... we walked to the end...of the board walk where we could see out into the sea. There were sea-lions and sea otters...AWESOME...how much fun it would be to be a Sea-lion...just layin' on a big ole rock all day...until its time to eat of course... but yeah...we headed to Cannery Row...with our sandwiches to watch the Christmas Tree Lights to get switched on...totally Cliche American of course...carol singing...reindeer's... as cheesy and corny as it was....its Christmas... and it was pretty cool...I wanted something for desert... but we waited til we got home... I had a brainwave.. PIZOOKIE!!!!!!! hahahaha Yummmmmmy ... so we got back to San Francisco and we made pizookie... IT WAS AMAZING... for those of you who do not know what a pizookie is... its a Big cookie...but its not cooked the whole way through...so its not quite done...and goo-ee and soft and so damn good! so you fire some ice cream on top... Delish! :) ... Long day it was very tiring...alot of driving...so i slept goooooooood :)

The next day... i was going to blog about Monterey...but then i figured meh...i wanna do something awesome... so i was going to Golden Gate Park... and Tony mentioned pedalo's and row boats somewhere there... so we went! we got a row boat...with the sneak of some beer on there too :D woohoo...tony read his comics...GEEK and i row'd row'd my boat around the little stream :) it was fun...that night we went and had cocktails in a place called Olive...its in the Tenderloin...I mean RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE...wow is it hidden...its so nice inside like a totally different world. Anyway fun times to be had...Dave came too which was coolio :D anyways...my dinner's just arrived at my table here so...I'm gonna go eat... if anything exciting happens ... you're the first to know...(probably)

Peace

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-11-28T11:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Thanksgiving...its an American Holiday where they celebrate and all get together to give thanks...and have a feast basically...and i mean have a feast...they don't hold back....so Kelse, a work colleague invited us internationals to her house...she lives in Redwood City and we took Caltrain. We being, Saori, Min, Dave and myself. I could have swore Lenny Kravitz was on there...he looked so much like him...thinking about it and looking at pictures of him online and what not ... i'm not to sure it was him ... and why the HEC would he be riding the caltrain? ... anyway...Kelse and her family had huge amounts of food...Turkey, Ham, Brussel Sprouts, Red Cabbage, Mash, Gravy, Stuffing...and yes mum i ate the lot...sprouts n all...the sprouts where made following a German recipe...(Kelse has German relatives...) they tasted soooooo good...After a huge feast... i was so tired... probably because of the Tryptophan in the Turkey(it makes you sleepy) :) hahaha...we then had desert... Pumpkin Pudding, Cherry Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Mince Pie and Apple Pie...with fresh cream and ice cream too :) YUMMY ... after we played 'Taboo' great craic...we then headed back on the 9.40pm caltrain...i then met up with Tony and his mate Carlos and went and partied...so a fun day all in all...

I just want to thank Kelse and her family for there hospitality yesterday...it really was nice for someone to consider us who had no where to go on Turkey Day and i had so much fun :)

Also, being Thanksgiving, I just want to thank you all back home and here with me in the States for all your support...sometimes it gets tough out here and you guys help me through it all...so...Thanks :) I miss you guys

Off today and tomorrow, dunno what it holds...but its gonnnnna be funnnnnnn so watch this space :)

One hot, fall afternoon in San Francisco,

2008-11-14T17:21:00.001-08:00

Last night I went party...perhaps a little too hardy...had fun though...tired today...but i had a series of errands to run...first off i had to lodge a paycheck into my bank account as there was a mess up with the first payroll...then i figured i'd go get a state id... I needed to get a state I.d. before christmas because i'm goin to see Chelsea in Arizona, and i'm a little bit worried to use my passport since it was dropped in the water so...with the state i.d. i wont need my passport(i don't think) so i went to california DMV to get one...Now i was expecting the DMV to be like the DMV in the Simpsons...you know where Patty and Selma (Marge's sisters) work...and it totally was haha...anyway, as i didnt have an appointment...ihad to wait...an hour... and being so tired i think i fell asleep :S there were hundreds of ppl...renewing their driving license's taking their driving tests... so i applied for that and should recieve it in a few weeks (hopefully) i then went to Alamo Square... i hadn't been there yet ... but i wanted to see the 'Painted Ladies' which are famous colourful Edwardian style houses. They are known to be called 'Postcard Row' and are in the media all the time. The houses were built between 1892 and 1896 and are the few to have survived The great San Francisco earthquake anyway...They were coooooooool... i got pics...and along with them various attempts to set up the self timer so i could get in the picture myself...i then fell asleep on the grass in the sun...now im here in cafe flore...writing my blog... it was incredibly hot today...well for autumn, they call it fall here... cos of the leaves ya know? ... I forgot the lead for the camera tho...so the pics will follow when i get home. Plans for tonight...i dunno maybe a movie...and a few drinks...i dunno :) have a good weekend...if anything exciting happens tomorrow .. i'll be the first to let you know...

When Lawnmower's Attack

2008-11-10T19:24:00.000-08:00

There i was mindin' my business and chillin out then out of the blue came this HUGE ASS LAWNMOWER comes outta no where...straight for my hair...not really...i just shaved the head... ugh don't some of you wish you were as rebellious as i am?!? HA...anyway...the weird thing is this ...everytime i normally get my hair cut...im like...'its wayyyyyyy to short' or 'i hate it' but no...ive never had it this short..and i like it...plus i feel like a badass...no wait...with 2 d's (baddass) just want to get that emphasised...so im getting used to this hair...its a little cold but hey i can put a had on and not mess i my hair...anyway peace out

Yosemite National Park - Waterfalls and Big Trees

2008-11-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

Ok so at the weekend ... being off...Chrissi and I both decided to go on the Total Yosemite Experience tour... which brought us to Yosemite National Park which was awesome!

Cool water falls...its soooooo cool...nice views of the El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosmite Valley... B-E-A-UTIFUL ...I love it...Yosemite is situated 4 hours east of San Francisco. With a stop at Raley's on the way there (Probably the best super market ever?) Fresh food...and its cheap(er) than most supermarkets here in San Francisco...anway basically...pics are below...and no...Yosemite Sam was not there ... Unfortunately...still incredibly fun none the less :)

Barack Obama - President of United States, USA

2008-11-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

WAHOOOOO!

Obama has been elected President... and the place went NUTS! Love it... I'm not one for politics at ALL, but I was excited... I ended up staying a little late in work and i was just listening to the radio and i was all excited...American's made it out to be a sport... it was like the olympics HA... but I heard there was a huge party/rally in Castro... for 'No on Proposition 8'... which debated on whether same sex marriage should be banned or not... INSANE... people climbing buildings... and dancing to the music... it was alot of fun...though I work the next day...so i couldn't party on a school night... especially if i started at 7 :/ anyway...after work i went to Ron's watched the rest of the election results...then headed for dinner...after dinner we were walkin down the street and theyre is HUGE crowds cheering and what not outside a bar...they're watching Obama's victory...I was like wow...the passion these guys here had for Obama was insane... It's so cool to be here in the USA and experience a part of something which will be remembered by all... The elect of the first African-American President... It was cool as :)

Like everything else...there were Parodies leading up to the election...comical images, videos and websites... I was shown this website and I was hooked on it... i couldnt stop going on there and clicking... building up to the election...they kept updating and making more things clickable... it has Palin sitting in the presidential chair and you could click everywhere and you'd here her stupid quotes and crap that she talked...'Joe 6-Pack' and 'Joe the Chair' are to name a few... check it out .. Palin As President.

As Barack Obama won the election and is now President of the Unite States this is how the site looks now... Barack As President.

Another image...which I'm sharing with you was sent to me by a friend.. i thought it was hilarious...its got Obama and Sarah Palin in there and its from 'Dancing with the Stars' ...not a bad photoshop job either...

Anyway, im gonna shoot on here, back home for a beer and movie I think...catch you guys later this week hopefully...

Scottie

Halloween in Frisco!...Part 2

2008-11-01T22:46:00.001-07:00

Wooo...I'm so HUNGOVER...we ended up in the Elbow Room. I got in from work at around 9pm and it took me an hour to get the make-up on... i hate that i wanna be a perfectionist...anyway we met Chrissi at church and headed for the club...lots of cool costumes... It was a fun night. Some guy bought us tequilla shots...i was like HOLLA! *high 5*. There was live bands playing...it was alternative music...but we could still dance to it...wasted i was...Dave and I walked home...and there was a crowd of people walking towards us...there costume was unbelievable...they where all dressed up as the bad guys from the super mario video games...AMAZING... They had everyone there...i just wish i had a camera to have got a picture with them...

Anyway...my costume...6 bucks walgreens...looked pretty cool...check out the pic below...Chrissi brought her camera out with her soo...watch this space..i'll upload them when i steal them from her :)

Halloween in Frisco!...Part 1

2008-10-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

I had evening shift tonight (Thursday 30th) and I also have it tomorrow night (Friday October 31st Halloween Night :D ). And well i left my halloween costume extremely late...i just got it tonight...i left work at around 8 ... waited for about 20 mins on the bus...got to Van Ness where i would rush to walgreens and get some sort of costume before it closed at 9...8:45 im racing up van ness to get to walgreens to get this last make up pack on the shelf ... SUCCESS :) so its this ice make up...was only 6 bucks... cheap compared to what you would pay at halloween stores...it should look cool...at the moment we're goin to halloween at the castro...however its not at castro. Last year they closed it for some crazy reason...but its in ATT Park tonight...so thats where we are going...it'll be crazy coming home from work tomorrow night...the calls will be transfered to my cellphone and i'll be getting ready...hopefully the phones aren't that busy...so until then :)

Farewell Ali

2008-10-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

Two of my friends leaving in one week...first Karyne...then my friend Ali! :(

Ali, a work colleague...has returned to Turkey :( ... hes a legend...i'll miss him so much...i learned alot from that guy...not only work but...as a person...WOW! He's got ALOT of knowledge in his head...what's worse is he knows more about my own country than I do! He was a cool guy. He introduced me to Cafe Trieste...the amazing little cafe in North Beach (Italian Town) and for his last night here...Dave, Ali and I(Saori from work joined us later) went to A La Turca, the Turkish restaurant we went to before ... D-Lish ... then we said goodbye to blondie, the turk, look stop. He too came out for my 21st B'day...the kindness from this guys heart was crazy...he will be missed!

Tesekkür ederim Ali (Thank you - Ugh I could never say it LOL)

Scottie

Farewell Karyne

2008-10-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

So yesterday my dear friend Karyne had a farewell party. She's going back home to Brazil. She came out for my 21st and I love that she was a part of it. She is the coolest ever...I'm going to miss her so much so Cheers Karyne! I forget the Portuguese word for Cheers so... We were spose to have her party in Golden Gate Park but it was too cold so we went to Vantaggio O'Farrell, (where my crib used to be) it was fun. Diogo was there and Mariana came later. I met loadssa other people too ... it was fun...they made hot dogs...and Brazilians crush crisps (chips for my american readers) over the hot dog? YUMMY t'was good. Then the Brazilian music started...of course they had me up dancing...or making a brave attempt at it! 'Just samba, Just Samba' HAHA good one! Anyway like I said, it was sad to say goodbyes...i'll never forget her...she's a legend :)

Thanks Karyne x

Red Bull Soap Box Derby

2008-10-19T22:01:00.001-07:00

Well the weekend landed :D ...then took off again :( I went out to a bar on Friday...had a few drinks and a boogie...not too drunk though as on saturday was THE RED BULL SOAP BOX DERBY in SAN FRANCISCO ... Great Times! On saturday morning i headed to Michaela's (another German friend from work) house for breakfast. Bread rolls, scrambled egg, ham, turkey, tomatoes (toe-matt-toes as opposed to toe-may-toes) and cheeeeeeesy and Orange Juice too...but then we headed to Delores Park where the Race was to begin. MASSES of people! I couldnt believe the amount of people there. So many people at this park. We heard an announcement that there was an estimated 60,000 people...then 75,000 and then i heard someone say there was like 100,000 or somethin i couldnt believe it! ANYWAY, The Red Bull Soap Box race is where people build there own little go-karts so to speak...there were 36 teams that made it into the competition and they Race down Delores St. Before they start the race they must perform a 'skit' so to speak so they would have there 'go-kart' and be in costume to match it. They then get marked on 3 things.

Speed (The amount of time from the top to the bottom)
Creativity (The amount of effort in there car and costume)
Showmanship (The performance of the team...the skit etc)

Some of the car's where, A Rubik's Cube, 'The Breakfast Club' - The car was a frying pan and each member of the team was dressed as a piece of an ulster fry, ie. Bacon, fried egg, toast etc...then my favourite was 'The Kiss Team' where each team member was dressed as a member from the band kiss and the car was designed as Gene Simmon's Tongue. We where standing half way down the course and we weren't really sure of what was going on. But we heard Crazy Nights by Kiss then this Tongue racing down the hill. I didn't get a picture of it though :( but you can see the pics below, but im goin to sleep now. I bid you good night. There will probably be more pics to follow as Michaela took some too :)

Blue Angels Fleet Week San Francisco

2008-10-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

Lets start with... I love this place? I hada great 'Weekend' I got off work at around quarter to 5 on Saturday and got my hair cut. I wanted to go somewhere a little bit cheap so i asked around... Supercuts seemed to be the one to go for a cheap and less expensive hair cut than last time ... 20 bucks :/ and she wasn't gentle with my hair... she just got tore into it like *insert your own teen slasher horror movie character from the 80s in here* anyway...after about 2 hours whining bout how i hated my hair (its a tradition) i've come to terms with it... i like it now :) so... i had a power nap...and got ready to go out and parrrrrrrdy...i went to an Irish Pub called Irish Bank and i made a friend :D wooohoooo... Dean... he's a cool guy... we're headin out to party this weekend too hopefully...its tough week this week...im tired and its only tuesday :/ but i've got partying to look forward to and the Red Bull Soap Box race on Saturday. But i'll come back to that in a bit...so we got more beers and all headed back to Dean's he lived far away so we got a cab...and the cab driver was the coolest ever... ANYWAY we watch tv and theres the American version of Kath and Kim with Selma Blair as Kim, i forget the girl who plays Kath is... but you cannot Americanize Kath and Kim... that's all i can say... well i also think it was rubbish... completely crap...but then i passed out drunk.

So.... it was then sunday... and i made my way to Fisherman's Wharf, it was fleet week in San Francisco, where all the sailors and guys from the navy and stuff from the sea come to different cities for a week. Also there where air shows so i got to see the Blue Angels...i guess theyre americas version of the Red Arrows...they performed alot of stunts etc... it was cool it was a cracker day check out the pics below...

So, damn working in San Francisco is tough, theres too much going on...This weeks gonna be long ...4 early shifts in a row...the past 2 nights ive done some over time...worked 11 hours each...so i came out just after the time i was spose today and i'm in a cafe, using there
wifi with a relaxing beer...its nice...cool music...chillin out for my 3rd early shift this week tomorrow...ROLL ON FRIDAY :) gonna go party then... Red Bull Soap Box Race on Saturday...where people build there own Go Kart so to speak and race down a track...fastest time wins i guess... Should be fun...im going with Michaela from work. I'm super stoked :) Until then...

Scott

Livin' for the Weekend...

2008-10-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Alright its Friday evening...im chilling in a coffee shop...with my Lemon Rose Tea, laptop and crumbs from a Snickerdoodle cookie which I just devowered...the net back at our crib is down...soooooo im here at Peet's Coffee shop just down the road...still lovin sf...well its the weekend(kinda) im working tomorrow...but its my last add on day...which means next week i have 2 days off...so that'll be good but as of tomorrow evening...im gonna get some liquor into me...seems like too long and i need some alcohol into this blood stream of mine...

where i shall be who knows but I needa get my head showered...and pardy hardy...as i'm off sunday...well :) lets just say i dont intend on staying too sober!

My battery died in the coffee shop :/ and there was no sockets for me to plug it in...so after numerous attempts to fix the internet here in our room...i finally got it...woohooo...and we are here watching WWE Smackdown (used to be wwf back in the day and its still as fake and cheesy as ever!) anyway...so for all you back there who used to watch it and don't anymore here are the updates...WWE still has all the favourites, Big Show, The Hardy Boyz, amongst some other randoms who I dunno...but...Triple H is still in there and he holds the WWE Championship belt...Chris Jerico...is currently the heavyweight champion...where he will be facing the #1 Contender, Batista, (who is currently my favourite) at Cyberslam...this months event I think...but the viewers get to vote for a Special Referee... they choose from Randy Orson (I haven't watched enough to know who he is), Shawn Michaels(yeah, the Heart Break Kid from way back) and the ONE AND ONLY... STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN! IM like yesssssss you crazy americans better pick up yer phones... 'And thats the bottom line, cause Stone Cold said so!' Ha I love it...anyway... back to real life...i got the early shift tomorrow so its late...and im gonna wrap this post up...peace out...

Scottie

Love is Free - and so is San Francisco's sexual culture

2008-10-07T21:29:00.001-07:00

Ok on Friday, Chrissi, Ali and I decided to take Extranomical's Sex in the City tour as there where free seats on the van...LOL...it was fun...learning about some cool stuff about the city and some stories which were funny...'A Cable Car Named Desire' to be one...of course there where alot of more 'highlights' on the tour but this is for all to read i wont go into all the gory details...you can use your own imagination! HAHA...

Anyway moving onto Saturday...its Lovefest...kind of like the love parade in Germany...only in Love fest is in San Francisco...it was the third year of it...basically its a lot of floats and stuff that go down market playing house and dance music...finishing up at Civic center...the parade started at 12pm and then when they reach civic center...they carry on and its one crazy party until 10pm...it doesn't end there...you move to the after parties (clubs) but unfortunately I was working...so I met up with Chrissi after work and partied for a little while it was cool...it was free...thats what i love about the city...youre never bored!!! Check out the pics :)

By the way...right now...theres a homeless guy right next to me...shouting and talking to himself...i wish i could understand him :( its scary yet hilarious at the same time...but picture this ...hes wearing a camo shirt...tanned quarter length trousers, curly hair and sunglasses(the tags still on there) LOL and then me...next to him...its hilarious :S lol

Only in San Francisco...

2008-10-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

Ok so...like I've said before theres always something going on here...and the past few weeks ive attended various fairs to experience stuff..and all i'm gonna say they where something else...as theres alot of people reading this blog...i'm gonna keep it suitable for all ages...lets just say it was 'leather themed' so i'll skip the first fair and move to the second...on Sunday (5th) i went to Castro St fair...it was cool...learning alot of history about SF and hangin out with a beer...and with lots of entertainment i had fun...check out the pics below...and by the way...the mad hatter tea party guy in the middle...had glitter lots of it!(i hate glitter...i fear it!)

Scott will fix it for you...(rant)

2008-09-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Ok so my ipod...just under a month ago i borrowed speakers off somefriends...and well the tip of the jack broke off and was stuck inside my ipod...i took it to 'Genius bar' (Genius my back side) and they took it out back..and returned with my ipod...'sorry we cannot remove whats in there...we do not have tweezers small enough or even strong enough to pull it out...' so i asked what i should do? and what they suggestedwas a drill!...for me to drill down that tiny little hole...you know? like wtf? how am i spose to do that? he's like i dunno we dont have the tools here to do so...where can i do it?...i dunno he says...he said you may need to get it replaced...how much? $150 or something like that...i was like ha watch me...soooo...after looking around little phone unlocking stores etc...i have no luck finding where i can get this thing fixed...so i google...numerous times...and people suggest superglue etc...now my hands are shaky as hell so i'm himm'n and haa'n on whether to this...then decide...wat have i got to lose? i mean ive tried everything else? soo! i get 3 paper clips...and super glue and get ready to pull this sucker out...and im obviously a wreck...hands shaking more than ever...and decide i need to build some sort of contraption to do this steadily...so i super glued 4 pennys(they still call one cent a penny over here) together...and stick my 3 paper clips together and then mount it onto the tower of pennies...i put some super glue on the end of the paper clips too and gently slide it into the whole...letting it sit for 15 minutes...i return...to pull it out...and BAM! It pulls the sucker out! i was like sweeeeeeeeeet...so i now have music! so if anyone gets the tip of their headphone jack stuck in there ipod...thats how you do it... seeee below :D

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

2008-09-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Apologies to all who read (not alot) for not writing here sooner. Not much has really been happening...im able to drink now...so that might explain the less blogging but i'll try my best not to replace my blogging time with booze drinking time. I've also got a rather large todo list in work...so...that also might explain it.

At the weekend however, i was working Saturday then i went to a movie in the park (gotta love em) i bought a blanket to sit on etc and Chrissi and I went ... it was in Delores park...the place was packed, i'd never seen one of these with soooooooo many ppl before. But after...YaChing asked us to a sushi party...so the movie finished and we went it was a dudes birthday...and there was a sushi chef making the sushi...putting it on the plate...and it was getting sent off...chrissi and i were rigt at the front so we were certain to get something...it was delicious :) i like sushi and i think ive mastered chopsticks :) wooohooooo not bad :D

Ok then on sunday...we moved for a third and final time to Turk St...now i was scared of moving here...i heard the neighbourhood wasnt nice etc...BUT I LOVEEEEEEEEE IT...HUGE ROOM...GREAT VIEW ack its amazing...and the beds dont squeek as much :) it is a bit far from everything but i have a bus pass now so i can just jump on the bus...so its good. Working uuntil sunday this week...making up the time so i can go visit Chels for christmas so...needs must...but ive a lot of work todo as well as a staff meeting tomorrow and a meeting with rodrigo and dave on wednesday. so...until then maybe i'll get another blog in later this week...

..He really is 21...

2008-09-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

Woooohooooooooooo im now legal in the state of California!

Finally i can drink alcohol(legally)..i can stop for a pint on the way home from work...:D had an amazing night last night...we (Chrissi, Dave, Ali, Karyne, Karyne's friend(i dont wanna get the spelling of her name wrong) and I) went to Haight Ashbury and landed in Hobson's Choice...and the we are at the bar...and he wants to see our I.D. and someone said to him...'It's his Birthday' so he rings the last orders bell and makes the WHOLE bar aware...then he comes back...laughs and says 'He really is 21 and laughs...then he drops my passport into water! My effin VISA!...its all running and stuff...(it sounds worse than it is) but i was like Ree Ree...but we get our fat tires, go sit down, and im putting pieces of toilet paper between each page so they dont stick...on i slight downer from the passport incident, i wanna go to a night club and BOOOOOGIE...so we went back downtown and went to this night club called 'Slide' which is appropriate...as the club is downstairs you slide down into the club...but it was closed as it was Sunday...but still cool tho...we took the stairs.

Being Sunday, there wasnt many people there the whole night...music was good though...alcohol was pouring i had a GREAT night and just wanna take the opportunity to thanks everyone who came out and to Dave who helped to spread the word...and to those who couldnt make it...we'll party another time :D so until thennnnnnnnnn!

I got work tomorrow now...so sleep...g'night :)

Ah Non-American Cuisine...Pt 2

2008-09-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Dave and I went to a Japenese restaurant and we had sushi...it was nice...i liked it...however you eat with chopsticks...i can nearly master them...big things i couldnt lift and i was embarressed as EVERYONE knew how to use them...i didnt wanna ask for a fork...cos that would have been even more embarressing...so thats the challenge i've set myself...to learn how to eat with chopsticks by christmas :).. back to the sushi... we split 2 appetizers:

Tempura(deep fried shrimp)
Gomae(Spinach in like this seafood sauce)

Both delicious of course...then we split 2 main courses:

Crazy Roll
Spicy Roll

Again...really suculant and fresh too...you could see them making them at the sushi bar...you could sit there...but this being my first time...we chose not to lol

Blockbusted

2008-09-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

Ok so i want to rent a dvd? Simple...go to Blockbuster with id(passport) and sign up...No0o0o..i go and ask how i sign up...you need a state i.d. and a credit check...so...i'm waiting on my Social Security Number to get my state i.d. but i go into work the next day...and Ali...says his friend just registered with his passport a few days ago...

So Ali takes me to Blockbuster as he has to drop his friends dvd back to the shop for him and i ask...what do i need to sign up..."valid photographic i.d. and credit/debit card" ..."i can use my passport?"..."Yup"....i didnt have my passport with me at the time...so i cant sign up today...i'll come back tomorrow

I grab my passport the next day and take it to Blockbuster...i pick the dvd i want and go to the desk...lift the dvd from the shelf make my way to the desk pick up the form...and hes like 'State i.d.' he wouldnt take my passport as form of i.d. i explained my situation and that i was here the day before...'Sorry its been like that all year im afraid...'

Anyone else smell B.S?

Annoyed me so much but Dave and I reminissed to our young childhood days in Portrush...the one store...called Grahams? I lovedddd it <---just thought i'd fire it in...anyone else remember?

BYE :)

Ah...Non-American Cuisine...Pt 1

2008-09-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

Alrite...awesome night last night followed a long day at work...loved it...i got a package from home...wooohooo my b'day package...course i opened it...so there was some TAYTOOOOOO :D woooop woooop gonna bring em into work on saturday :) let Americans and Germans and Australians and who ever else is in try some crisps(not chips)...

anyway so i wanted to try this Turkish restaurant Ali had been talking about in work one day...and he said we would go so we did...and it was amazin...i had this Shish Kebap ...(Sheesh Kebab) totally different meal...than i've had...then we went to Northbeach to this little Italian cafe...i cant wait to go again! the atmosphere with this really cool band playing etc...but...ok so the cafe is famous...aparently its one of the first cappucino place right but thats not all(could be wrong about that buttttttttttttt....if you combine the following

+ +
Francis Ford Coppolla(Dir. - GodFather), Mario Puzo (Writer - Godfather), Cafe Trieste

So if you hadn't guessed already...You only get THEEEEEEEEEE Godfather films...yeh in this cafe...it began! I was like woooooooooooah! :D Coppolla was here...and he sparked convo wit Mario i guess...read the book and said 'Lets make a movie' lol but yeh it was cool everyone was so nice and friendly and i met some really cool people...there was this guy painting the band playing...it was so detailed...cracker paintings...cracker music...cracker people...cracker music...all it needed was a beer...and it would be cracker times! wait...no it was already cracker times...but you get wat im sayin...(roll on Sunday:D wooohooo)...after the band the place was closing i guess and everyone left...but only to outside where the after party was...was cracker...street party :D lol...FIN ... part 2 to follow :)

Feeling hot, hot HOT...no really my tongues on fire

2008-08-31T13:21:00.001-07:00

Alrite sooooo...as Dave n I are moving to Vantaggio tomorrow but we are working...our belongings needed to be moved today..so right now...its all being stored in Chrissi's(a work colleague)room whos staying in Vantaggio too. Thanks for that Chrissi :) ...and as we were moving our stuff...its roasting outside btw...we see Valerie...walking up...surprised at the shear chance of seeing her...we(Valerie, Ya Ching, Dave and I) go for lunch in a chinese...i get Kungpao Chicken...now i asked Ya Ching wat it was and she said it was a little bit spicy...now i like spicy food...so it comes, all colourful with carrots, zuchini etc and i take a few spoonfuls...and its a little bit spicy and ican handle it...next thing...its SPICY...extremely...like i thought my tongue was on fire...thats what it felt like...and i said to Ya Ching that it was more than a little bit spicy...and i ask her...wat the red things where...'oh we dont eat them'... of course i'd just only gone and eaten a dried chilli...THE WHOLE THING...after numorous gulps of water i could eat again...tho i couldnt really taste it...but i ate anyway...

I split from the others...saying farewells to Valerie and headed for the park...i read and i think my face is a little read...but there was another concert thing on...there always seems to be something...it was a Brazillian concert...was cool chilling and reading and sleeping...i start at 7 tomorrow so its good night from me...

Sitting on the dock of the bay....

2008-08-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Today I took a stroll to The Embarcadero. The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront roadway of the Port of San Francisco. I walked the whole way from one end to the other viewing all the piers and boats ending up in Fishermans Wharf...the weather was nice, so i enjoyed the stroll...you could say its the Blackpool of San Francisco? Touristy and stuff...was nice had a clean atmosphere and alot of little shops ..there was one of those antique shops, that sell likes of signed movie posters and plaques and stuff and there was a LEFT HANDED SHOP (thought this was funny.. im not left handed so i hope no ones offended)...they also had a Bubba Gump Shrimp(but thats old news now)...but then i heard clapping and this voice over a speaker...there was some kinda show running...so i walked towards it and it was this little stage where this girl was acting and stuff...and there was 2 ppl from the audience up there...she was hilarious...she was a street performer...you can see the video ive put together of her... below...so i carried on with my journey...to where i could see Alcatraz(Just about)...it was foggy out there...couldnt really see it :( booohooo same with the Golden Gate Bridge...could only see the top of it...so i carried on round passed the sea lions(or seals) sunbathing...back onto the road...and theres break dancers...which were cool i guess...i got them on vid too...so i walk on up and theres only JOHNNY ROCKETS burger joint place thingy...but i dont have enough cash (i had 10 bucks)so i keep walking for a wells fargo or an ATM ... no luck...so 4 or 5 blocks up the road... IN AND OUT! Amazing(another fast food place...to which i could afford with the money in my pocket)...so fed and watered...i decided to head home...up leavenworth...on my journey home i pass lombard street(the windycrooked one)...i didnt take a pic tho cos 1 i was on the phone...and 2 ... i know i'll see it again...so watch this space :) mannnnnnnn was this a long walk home...up and down hills...burnin off my dinner...and wow am i tired...was considering a movie but think i'll leave that til tomorrow night maybe...we move on sunday/monday...so gotta get ready for that...fun times...anyway enjoy the pics vids...peace out

Scottie

Kiss me 'Honey Honey' Kiss me

2008-08-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

Sooooo...at this moment in time im having a late dinner in Honey Honey Cafe...its got this incredibly fast(free of course) wi fi connection so im uploadin to bebo like a mother...

today was a tough day...i was stressed a little bit...paniked a bit with the phones and stuff but it was all good...im starting to get used to it...cant wait to sleep im so tired... not a long post this time but at least i found free fast wifi ... so i'll come back sometime when ive somethin major to talk about...

This week in a nut shell...

2008-08-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Ok...The past week in a nut shell...

Monday - SES San Jose

Today I was at the Search Engine Strategies conference, in San Jose...wow...lots of REALLY smart people...i understood some of what they where sayin but most of it...man i had nooooooooo clue. It had various sessions with discussions on Optimizing search engine results and reducing the bounce rate on sites(not important if you don't understand :P) etc so I learned alot. Met a few cool people...not from SF tho...so im still on the hunt for friends... :/

Tuesday - Google Party!

OMG...AMAZING ... we went to Googleplex...(HQ) for a special glow in the dark dance party...wtf? i still cant believe how amazing Googleplex is...anyway with beer on tap...for free alllllllll night...and welll they arnt that smart up there at google...thats all im sayin...with free food, free beer, free amazing glow in the dark tshirts, this amazing pick n mix set up, video arcades...everything...they had a rock band...thing where you could go sign up and go on stage and play rockband lol...of course extranomical got up...tho i was the 'Photographer' (at my own accord)...they went out within like a minute ...but they rocked. Google's like geek heaven? If you seen this place you'd wanna work there...geek or not...and the ride back to the mini bus was amazing...if you didnt know....google have bicycles to ride you round campus...and well...we all took a ride on the bicycles back to the bus...so...with a beer in my hand and steering the bike with one hand...i pretty much had it under control...except...to slow the bike down... you gotta pedal backwards!...course not realising and in a state of panic...i almost went into the sprinklers...bad times...no beer spilt tho...good times... :)

Wednesday - Planes, Trains and Automobiles
So trip advisor...the travel search place..were hosting a screening of Planes trains and automobiles..in union sq...for free! It was class the place was packed the crowds where huge...but basically i love this film and it was really cool to experience it with soooooo many different people...though the lady behind me kept talkin crap... :/ but it was awesome...

Thursday...nothing exciting happened this day...tho it was my second day of the morning shift...'7am - 4am' is the scheduled shift...tho i stayed to almost 6 it was so hectic...the americans and their long hours lol...grrrrr...but yeh im answering phones and stuff so im gettin used to some of it... :)

Friday...today...im off work ... sitting in the park...chillin about to go read my book and catch a few rays for a few hours...fun times i love it...on my way up to this internet point...a lady named Natalie commented on my shirt (my Wierd Al 'White and Nerdy' One)...and we chatted for a wee bit...she was cool...looks like im making friends? well its progess...time to go read and see if i can make some friends :D

Got any Halle Berry Donuts?

2008-08-16T11:42:00.000-07:00

Alright, so i went to my first concert last night! I did it...for those of you who didnt know... i set myself the goal of making it to a concert this year...well i did...and i went to see Wierd Al Yankovic at San Mateo County Fair. We (Adam, Valerie, Dave and I) took the caltrain to Hayward and walked to the expo hall...fun times were had...it was like a carnival outside with the concert being inside the hall. Ferris wheels and not coconut shys but similar galore. Was cool...The concert was excellent...extremely funny and very entertaining. He played Eat it(MJ-Beat is parody) and the ebay song...plus many more of course...he's a LEGEND. I put a little video of the concert together for ya all to have a look at. Sorry bout the shaky hand and if the quality aint great but yeh ive moaned about this connection to the internet before. Enjoy...im headin to the park to read and chill out :)

Christian The Lion

2008-08-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

Ok so today in work...Ali, had asked me if i had seen the video on youtube...I thought it was gonna be this crazy super funny video...turns out...it wasn't after i watched it. It made me think of you guys...now i know im only here for a year and its not really that long...but i just thought of everyone back home...i'll not forget ya all and not a day goes by i dont think about you all...so here the vid. Peace out

Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century

2008-08-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

Ok so this weekend was class and i got a tan :) (farmers)

Friday...

Alright so my last day of work this week, was a little bit more action packed...i started something other than websites...the dreaded Javascript...it was fine...dave worked on the image thingy and i reworked some old js...was hard at first but i got there. It had to generate a voucher that the user put in so it could then be printed. I got it in the end. :) Went home then hit the movies....PINEAPPLE EXPRESS...AMAZIN if you like superbad i totally recommend it...if not then i dont...its a stoner movie so...be prepared but watch for James Franco he's hilarious in it. so that was friday home...stayed up quite late watchin tv...sleep

Saturday...

Dave went to Santa Cruz today, i wasn't up for it so i hung back and chilled...i had to sort some stuff at the bank then i went for a walk towards Castro and Haight. That place is different...Haight is so peaceful. I stopped at Duboce park and read my book. It was sunny but a bit windy. There were sooooooo many people with there dogs it was fun. I had my map and people where asking if i knew where i was going and stuff it was nicer than downtown sf. Seemed like a family place to live...though people keep saying that there are 12% kids in San Francisco? Everyone has dogs.

There's a movie theatre that shows old movies...amazing much? they were showing labyrinth...AMAZING MUCH?? i wasn't up for going but i grabbed a leaflet with the times of future shows etc.

I went for my dinner and had amazing shepherds pie not as good as my mums tho(nothing ever is). The waiter gave me this paper...called 'The Onion'. Adam had spoke of it. Its a satire newspaper...funny though. I read in it that in union square they were showing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I WAS LIKE COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL i walked back to downtown after dinner and went to union sq and the movie was starting...but i was too tired so i just headed up home and watched some tv and chilled before snoozing off.

Sunday...

Today was spose to be a non eventful day but turns out it wasn't
My original plan..go hang at the mall with the hope that the wi-fi would be fast enough there for me to blog some more pictures...turns out there is no wi-fi...The 'Metreon' have free wi-fi so i walk...and i decide to go into Old Navy as i pass...i find 2 t-shirts...both with 50% off lowest ticket price...so it was like 5 bucks for the 2 of em...BARGAIN...so i went to metreon...wifi wouldnt conect...bummer so i tried going to the next floor up...and sat out in the balcony...almost had it but couldnt be bothered...but as i sat out in the balcony of this place...i hear music? i look over and theres masssssses of people in Yerba Buena Park...turns out its Pistahan Festival...
A festival of Filipino culture and cuisine. There was Filipino Music, Food loads of stands promoting stuff...so i sat in the grass and read my book and lay in the sun listening to the music and watching the shows...all day pretty much it was nice...the weather was fantastic...sun beaming...i got a nice farmers tan...i done a few groceries had homemade mango ice cream and headed back up home.

So that was my weekend...Dave came home...we went and had some Mexican food YUMMEE i love it...another week at work...Monday to Thursday off Friday and Saturday... got Adam's leaving party and Dave and I's arrival do on Tues...so i'll get to you about that later in the week...for now... i bid you good night

Scottie

Follow the yellow piss stained brick road...

2008-08-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

Hmm so settling rightly in work...still taking everything in ... with difficulty i guess but i've jus been working on one of Rodrigo's tour websites for him...nothin too insane YET... but yeh tomorrow...TFI Friday...off saturday and sunday...gonna go see the sights myself i think go for a walk and see things myself...best way to experience it...like today...when we were walking home from work...it was myself, Dave, Adam...the intern from last year,(whos leaving in a few weeks to go back to UUJ for final year), and another dude from Turkey called Ali...(hope thats spelt right)took a detour home from work and decided to go to Tenderloin...so we'd been warned of it and what the neighbourhood was about...crack on streets etc...meh...yeh they do...its crazy...and theres alot of homeless people which is sad then we came to the bottom of Jones, which is the street that we live on tho we dont live down here...(Thank God) and starting headin up(we're still in Tenderloin at this point)it was right outside this park...and theres cars parked in the street...and dogs pee against car tires everywhere right?...well in the Tenderloin...people do...NICE...this dudes just pissing against a car...SICK...i was like w.t.f. MATE...and jus when i thought i'd seen it all? we pass this street where there are MASSES of crack dealers on the street...nuts...jus openingly selling...but thats not it...HA this next bits hilarious! We pass this dude...he seemed to maybe be no younger than 35 but no older than 45...and he looked like a homeless person but the 'lady' he was chatting o seemed dressed too fancy to be homeless...so we continued walking up to pass them and she turns and she says to us 'Ummm where you boys been all my life?' as we pass...she feels daves ass...well when i say feel...we think she was probably tryin to pick pocket him...but still...dave felt ever so violated. rather him than me...but yeh the past few days have been rough...I mean some places we've been for food have been gross...lunch today was probably the worst...it was funny it was cliche american diner ... the old dude with the paper...the 2 mexicans one with hood up...then some big trucker lady, with pig tails, dungerese, tattoos, and some sort of moustache strolls in and pounces on the stool...she like stepped right over it was funny. So thats so far...i'll keep you posted as to how i get on this weekend :D

Adios Amigos

Picturesssss :D

2008-08-03T12:29:00.001-07:00

Some pictures from the wine tour...

I'm Mr opportunity, and I'm knockin'

2008-08-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so I had my first day on the job...it was fun..everyone in the office is cooooool...long day tho, i worked 8am until 5pm and it was so long but everyones so nice its alot easier. They have a pet dog(Bob)..well i think it's Ralph's but he brings him to work. It was good, first task is to build a website for winecountrytours...its fun...tho its not like university... Been doin alot of training with the phones and bookings though its all goin in one ear and out the other there is so much to take in. So hopefully i'll get used to things...Phones have been going non stop in the office as its a busy time of the year. I'm in work tomorrow and off Sunday. I'm gonna go chill and watch tv...adios

Scottie :)

I <3 Wine Country

2008-07-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

We got to go on another tour today...we went to Sonoma...Wine country it was amazingness :( i loved it. Though not being 21 I wasn't able to get to taste the wines ...however i'll get back there 5 weeks and i'll be of legal age to drink again and I can get sloshed on free wine :D yeehaaaaaa :D lol...anyway it was another long day....start work tomorrow first day...nervous much? IM not that nervous though its my first day on the job so thats just stating the obvious but i am excited. Who knows whats instore...so until then...nighty night

Monterey Tour

2008-07-31T19:15:00.000-07:00

Touch Down San Fran!

2008-07-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Right ive finally got some sort of blog up...i'll fix it when i have the time... :) but enjoy

Ok so we're here...landed in yesterday approx. 12.30pm though there was a delay with luggage...poop...but other than that the trip was ok...long and uneventful...but ok.

Took a while to get this blog up and going as I was extremely tired after the flight though Rodrigo picked us up at the airport and took us for lunch. He recommended a little mexican restaurant/cafe...it went by the name of 'El Torlito'(i think i cant really remember...though i do kno it means little lighthouse in english)...was a great feed...was so full...or 'tight' according to dave and his northern ireland lingo which i have never heard of :S anyway after lunch we made our way to our accomodation for the first month.

GAYLORD SUITES...yeh...the first thing that comes to your mind came to mine when i first heard the name...but its all good...although i'm in San Francisco, this is just a normal hotel/appartment block thingy...but its nice...ive still to take pictures but right now its a mess so when its tidier i'll fire them up.

We stocked up the fridge after we freshened up and took a stroll to Westfield Mall. On route, there was this one man band...and he started taking the piss...dave has a vid on his blog...which i'll hopefully get off him...when you see him looking over and shouting at the direction of the camera...that was me he was on about...but we got our fridge filled with items for breakfast. We arranged to go on the tour to Monetary today with Julie as there were spaces available.

I woke up at 6 today with the bus picking us up at 8.20 out side the hotel...probably with the jet lag etc...it was quite dull outside though from watching the weather forecast it was said to be as hot if not hotter today than it was yesterday...the bus pulled up as we stepped outside.

Our trip to Monterey and Carmel to was AMAZING... I'd heard of neither of them(apart from the info i'd read on the extranomical website) or any of the place's we'd stopped at. Our first stop was Pigeon Point Lighthouse. At first it seemed just like the north coast of northern ireland...as the fog hadn't lifted yet...it was bad when we where heading there but from the light house we could see it lifting up ahead as the sun was out at a beach further up the coast...we were then taking a stop before Montey to grab something to eat to hold us until lunch. We stopped at 'Whale City Bakery Bar & Grill' ... i probably had the best tasting croissant EVER?!?!? it had seseme seeds on top with like turkey and cheese...but the turkey and cheese were baked inside...YUM! i had a peanut butter cookie which i would normaly get excited about cos i love cookies but this croissant stole its glory...we then hit the road to Monterey which was like a little seaside town...i fell in love with it and i want to move there right now...it seemed very touristy but hey...i'm a tourist! with an hour and half to dander about and possibly grab lunch... we did...i wasnt hungry and i knew there was an opportunity to eat at carmel too but was warned it it was probably much more expensive so i ate in monterey.

My highlight in monterey was 'Bubba Gump Shrimp & Co' ...its a restaurant chain which all started from Forest Gump...it was a shrimp restaurant we were gonna have lunch there but there was a hugeeeeeeeeeee line to wait and we didnt have enough time but we checked out the menu...if you've seen the film...you' know that shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it.

After meeting up with the rest of the group we headed for Carmel via the 17 Mile Drive. Its a road which goes through Pebble Beach and The Del Monte Forest...it was a nice scenic drive we seen many bays such as the spanish bay which got its name because the spanish set up camp when searching for monterey. Another landmark was bird rock...its home to countless shorebirds which is kinda obvious but also harbour seals and sealions you can see the video of this and david rambling on as he was recording too...but there were the most tame squirrels i've ever seen...they would jus come right up to you're feet. This drive was basically through a golf resort which housed guests and people lived there also...the houses where REALLLLLLLLLY EXPENSIVE.

Anyway onward to Carmel...this was more expensive we seen many realty places(estate agents) and there were houses for sale in carmel and along the 17 mile drive...the cost for one of the houses was 15 million dollars...though aparently they go right up to 40 million dollars...yikes...but what ya expect when clint eastwood used to be the mayor? ...the beach here was beautiful with white sand...i had to dip my feet in...of course i wrote 'imd rox' on the sand...because it CLEARLY does...i also discovered that i wanted a dog...that would chase frisbee's into the water...and run away when the wave came...was fun...back on the bus with the troops again...headed home...

We had one last stop before hitting SF gain...Garlic World...it was a store which sold pretty much general items...fruit...drinks...crisps...candy...condiments...but it was a GARLIC STORE...yeh most stuff contained garlic sauces...garlic sweets...even garlic ICECREAM...i just bought crisps and ice tea mind you. Back to foggy San Fran...

We got back to the hotel...man i was wrecked...we hung out here and decided to go for din dins...not too far as we were both shattered so we can see a few restaurants from our room and headed down the street to 'Kim Thanh - Vietnamese & Chinese Seafood Restaurant' it was nice...but ok im tired and dave needs on here...so i'll post again later this week as to how tomorrow goes but aye...nighty night. Ok im sorry but the pics are taking forrrrrrrreverrrrrr to load...i'll get em up some other time...i must sleep night once more... :)