Back in Singapore

Hey!– we’ve been back from the US for almost two weeks now – and it seems to have gone so fast by comparison. We got upgraded on the 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Japan (I think because of all the extra special security screenings I went through – but that’s another story). Needless to say Business Class to Economy is like comparing a comfy bed in a nice hotel to a box in the rainy cold street. No wonder it costs so much. So the 14 hour trip took about 2 hours before the transfer and ‘downgrade’ for the 7 hour flight from Japan back to Singapore – a flight which seemingly took about 40 hours. People – fly business class at least once in your life!

Ok so we got back to Singapore and our car was ready for pickup. As expected the sexy young sales assistant had forgotten absolutely everything we had told her – bloody useless. If you ever buy a car get it from an old ugly guy – he will do what you want – the young good-looking chicks just wing it and stuff-up big-time. It was a friend of a friend thing but seriously – when buying expensive goods, look for the old guy that really needs the commission and doesn’t want to stuff up. I could go into details about her name being ***** and the company she works for being Cycle and Carriage, but I won’t … oops.

Anyway – about the car. Yup it’s the most expensive vehicle I have ever owned. It costs 47k SGD for an off-peak car (7pm –> 7am + Sunday only) and it was … well not exactly a BMW. It’s a Kia. *sigh* But it’s got leather and it’s nice – really! No – really really!

That’s about it for this entry. Fen’s getting back to work and I’m working out what I want to be when I grow up (which better be sooner then later I tell you). Till next time ….

Oh – write to us eh? You can reach us at peter.kenny@gmail.com. That’s me by the way. Chickie babe thinks that everyone reads every blog so she’s worried to give out personal details.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Pete.

San Francisco and surroundings

Hello again. We've been in a bit of an internet black-out for the past few days whilst we explored the Californian coast and Yosemite National Park. We're now in San Francisco for a few days to end our journey so I thought I would do a post showing what we have been up to.

MONTEREY & CARMEL

Recent weather on the West Coast has been pretty wild. In fact there were 25-feet seas predicted for the coastline and in certain parts I can definitely confirm that was no exaggeration. Naturally the wet-suit covered surfers were out in force trying to kill themselves but I have no idea how they read the waves. Looking out to sea, all looked calm until the waves reached about 100m from shore where some rose to over 20-feet - it was amazing to see, and it did seem to perplex some of the mad surfer-dudes as well.

Anyway, here are some images from Monterey - a mere 2 hours drive south of San Francisco.

Depicted above is my next house. Since travelling to CA I really like the place. It's a far more modern city then NY or Chicago and within a few hours drive is just about - well everything. Unfortunately it is so hideously expensive that I'm just going to content myself with the photos and the dream.

Above are some smaller waves from the day, and below is - well - we thought it was just a nice picture.

I should note here that there is a 17 mile drive around a small portion of the coast - but they charge you to drive on it and we already had all the pictures we needed. In other words, we were too cheap to cough-up the $10 USD just to drive around a few golf courses.

YOSEMITE

Now this place is magic. On our first day in the park the weather wasn't that great but the splendour still impressed. Comparing it to O'Rielies and surrounding areas in the Queensland Gold Coast hinterland is reasonable - but it's more accessible.

On the second day the weather gave us a break and Yosemite looked simply amazing. Everywhere you turned there was a photo opportunity. On a nice day here's a small sample of what you may expect to see ...

ALCATRAZ

Alcatraz was a fort before it was a prison. Most people know of the history so there is little point repeating it. What I can say is that it is very much smaller than I had anticipated - and quite run-down. Apparently movie rights have enabled the park rangers (yes - it's a national park) to preserve some of the buildings, but as you can imagine, 200 years of salt spray has taken it's toll on the largly concrete and iron structures. Still, it was worth a visit and also gave us a great view of the city and bridges from the bay.

SAN FRANCISCO

By far and away the most modern of the American cities we have visited, San Francisco has it's own unique charm. Basically if you move to America this should be your #1 destination - in my humble opinion. Unfortunately friends I have here have described it as - well - expensive. And I can understand why. Anyway, here's a few happy-snaps.

Well that's pretty much it for our US adventure this time. We now have to look forward to another 20-something hours on United Airlines (*shudder*) till we're back in Singapore. For those that have kept up with the adventure - thanks for your comments and e-mails.

At this stage I intend to keep the BLOG going, but from now on you can expect the entries to slow down a tad as normal life resumes. However, I'll try to post something every few weeks rather than sending those impersonal emails to everyone. I hope you all have a merry Christmas and a great new year ahead.

Cheers ... Pete & Fen

Chicago

First discovered by “whities” in 1673 (before which it was inhabited by the Indians) it took over 100 years till 1779 for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, an African American (go figure that name!), to build the first permaent settlement at the mouth of the river just east of the present Michigan Avenue Bridge on the north bank. After that it’s your guess what happened to the poor Indians …

Since then Chicago has grown to be America’s third largest city with a population of 8,567,571 trailing only New York (18,252,339) and LA (12,018,068) but still larger (based on population) than London (7,619,014). It’s big!

Surprisingly enough it’s easy to drive around (at least on the weekends) and it’s very picturesque.

What is perhaps even more surprising is that anyone would actually live in the "windy city". I mean 12 degrees F is groovy for about 10 seconds but after that it just plain hurts. Let me fill you in ...

12 degrees F is about -11 degrees C. Then there’s the wind that drops it about another 3-5 degrees C. So, that’s like -15 deg C after 6pm at night. It’s farking cold! And people actually LIVE further north in CANADA. Damn! There are some seriously mad bastards in this world!

This photo (above) shows Chicago as seen from the south. It’s a really nice city – quite clean and people generally seem to go about their own business quickly (or perhaps that’s the -12 degree C maximum daily temperature – who knows?)


Old buildings – there are plenty of these around Chicago – something that surprised me completely. To be honest there are not quite as many as Boston, but they are of much grander proportions.

Great weather – if you’re a polar bear! I haven’t bothered to find out if Lake Michigan freezes over completely, but near the shore line it certainly makes a good attempt. The ice-sheets are about 2 inches thick at the moment – and it’s still autumn!

Below is shown the sandy (snowy?) beaches of North Chicago. Yea – the light blue stuff that looks like water is ICE. There is a sign nearby that says that the beach is closed during the non-summer period. It just has to be the most useless sign in the world. Did the sign makers honestly believe anyone is going to be tempted to boogie-board in the Winter?

By the way – underneath those sandy spots is more snow.

Now don’t be alarmed – the following image is REAL. This feast my friends is a deep-dish pizza. Its 12 inches across and 2.5 inches deep. And - after a morning of brass-monkey weather there was no better sight for a late-lunch. (We did not eat dinner!) As a matter of fact I donno if I ever need to eat again - but we did finish!


I believe we have evidenced one reason Americans call Pizza by another name - ‘PIE’. It’s not that hard to work out – it is a PIE! But I gotta say – it was niiiiice!

Well that’s it for now. Tomorrow we are off to warmer surrounds – California. Till then I will leave you with a picture of two people who are really starting to miss the equator ...

More Champaign.....

It’s not that hard to find your way around Champaign once you recognise the three big landmarks and learn some basic triangulation skills. The three landmarks include the UIUC Assembly Hall below, a building that is over three stories and has a pointy-top and a somewhat energetic chimney stack. Learn these three things and you can find yourself from anywhere – which is handy and saves referring to any maps after you’ve been here for more than one day. Yup – not exactly a sprawling metropolis.

UIUC Assembly Hall

A drive out of Champaign takes you into what Fen and I affectionately call “the big nothing”. From what we can determine from visual inspection it’s ICE FARMING.

During the drive, there are isolated houses or farm houses every few miles within the “Big Nothing”. I reckon the one below is Lincoln's house although Fen believes everything I say is pure BS ...

Lincoln's house?

Nice big trees surrounding the house

As a last stop before the sun went down we stopped at Alton Vineyards and we were immediately assaulted by the anthesis of Mr Tibs – an Australian (Ipswich) cat of some notoriety. This cat “Mr Tibs 2nd” is the most friendly cat in the world, and it obviously worked for him because he is also one of the fattest. He greets you at the car, follows you around and if you stand near a rail he will jump onto the rail and onto your back before you can utter the word “no”. Once in position he takes quite a while to remove especially when he finds a large warm hairy mammal (guess who). Here he is with another of his newest-bestest friends ...

Mr Tibs 2nd

Champaign anyone?

Well we’re slowly making our way back to the West coast. We caught a plane from Newark to Chicago and picked up a small car and drove three hours to Champaign Illinois. I was happy that there was no snow, no sleet and no black ice. Now this place seems nice – like those “country towns” you see in the movies. Actually if you’ve been to Armidale in NSW, it’s just like that – a university town in the middle of nowhere.

This is my first experience with a left hand drive vehicle and so far I have only found myself driving on the wrong side of the road once or twice and it was quickly corrected without incident. Getting into the car however was more of a problem and I am often left without a steering wheel while Fen finds herself with a big round thing and lots of buttons in her favoured position. (I swear she has no idea why one would ever use a steering wheel and considers it magic/fate that when you set off somewhere you actually end up at the desired destination)

Better say no more about the “magic” of vehicular transport and get back to real-world problems…

Even when seated in the correct position it’s a fairly difficult task to use the electric window controls to select a gear; infinitely forgettable that the indicators are on the lhs - BUT far and away the most difficult thing about LHD cars is finding the rear-view mirror whilst gazing open-mouthed into the distance out the driver’s window! Other than that it’s a doddle!

We have only been in Champaign one day so we haven’t taken many photos. We’re expecting snow and “freezing rain” (whatever that is – but it doesn’t sound pleasant) over the next two days – but with luck some photos will be posted shortly.

Until then “happy holidays”

NOTE: You can’t say “Merry Christmas” anymore because, apparently, it offends non-Christians. Personally I find the whole thing ridiculous and if you celebrate Christmas you call it Christmas, if you celebrate Chinese New Year you call it that; and if you celebrate the birth of Henry Jones’ first cousin’s pet pooch you call it “Fido day” (or whatever). However be warned – “Happy Holidays” is coming your way soon – so enjoy a “Merry Christmas" while you can.

SUGGESTED ACTION: Greet the first person who wishes you “Happy Holidays” (and it will happen) with a swift blow to the rib-cage – and a brief “same to you buddy”. After all, why should we let over-sensitive, over-paid American shopping-mall trash hijack Christmas? Leave me a comment – is this suggested action too political/insensitive?

A second look at New York

New York is big. Like – it’s really big. It’s not quite as hugely-big as the universe, but it takes up a fair chunk. And I’m only talking about Manhattan Island.

Seriously when you are standing atop the 86^th floor of a building (Empire State) in which 18,000 people work daily (yes – that number IS correct) looking down at the multitude of buildings, apartment complexes, parks etc., It really does impress. In fact, on the scale of things, it makes Singapore looks like Brisbane, Brisbane looks like Mt Isa and Mt Isa looks like a sheering shed 49 miles SW of Burke.

The public transport here works like a dream. Yes it is old, rough and definitely not wheel-chair accessible BUT it works.

Seven bucks buys you an all-day rover type thing on the subway and bus way. The buses are easy – they just circulate (mostly) around their name. Eg – 42^nd street has a #42 bus that runs E-W along 42^nd street. If you want to go N-S then take the subway. In like 5 minutes you can get from one end of a large city to the other – similarly if you don’t know the difference between ‘uptown’ and ‘downtown’ and jump on a #1 you can end up in Harlem in about 3 minutes. Not that there’s anything wrong with Harlem; but we were trying to go the other way.

The stations are old, rusty and worn-down. Probably the whole subway system is the same, but you have to admire something that began almost one-hundred years ago and is still going. Since then of course it has grown substantially. Wikipedia has this to say:

New York City boasts the most extensive network of public transportation in the United States. The world-famous New York City Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It is the most extensive subway system in the world when measured by mileage of track (656 miles of mainline track), and the fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4 billion passenger trips in 2004). The subway system connects all boroughs except Staten Island, which is served by the Staten Island Railway via the free Staten Island Ferry (which connects to the 1 subway line). The city is also served by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's PATH subway system, which connects the borough of Manhattan to New Jersey. In addition to these, city residents rely on hundreds of bus lines, both publicly and privately operated (many to be taken over by the MTA sometime in 2005), which serve nearly all areas of the five boroughs. Because of the extensive mass transit system, many New Yorkers do not possess cars or even driver's licenses.

South Ferry Terminus #1 Train

Ok, enough about the public transport. We had to decide what we really wanted to see on our second day - and what was optional. The list was as follows

1. Empire State (already done – tick)
2. Madison Square Garden (done – tick)
3. Statue of Liberty (ah – it was made by the French so who cares). In fact they should name it “liberty freedom statue of freedom girly-freedom-thing” or something like that just to stick it up the Frogs. (Sorry – sometimes sarcasm just engulfs me – it’s all those f’ing freedom fries I’ve been eating). // side note: I asked for chips tonight at dinner. Was told “we don’t have chips” – I said “sorry I meant fries” - “sure no problem but we don’t sell chips”. “Same thing”. “No there’re not”. *bite tongue* // Anyway we decided to skip a close up look at the statue of Freedom (or Liberty – depending on if you hate the French or not)
4. Times Square. Like WOW! Never in a single second has so much advertising been stuffed down my throat. (I could make a few dubious comments here; but I’d need to split the blog into a G and R rating so I’m not going to bother)
5. Grand central station. Yup – it’s grand and central. In fact it’s perhaps the most magnificent train station I have seen - or ever hope to see. Picture included below. If you ever travel to NY you simply must look at Grand Central.
6. NY Public Library. This library is yet another magnificent building. There is little to be said that could truly grasp its splendour so I’ll just throw in a few pics.

Ok, there was one more decision that needed to be made – but before we get to that here are the promised photos so far …

Times Square

Grand Central

NY Public Library

Ok, so we got a little time left.

“What do you want to see?” says I

“What about shopping?” says she

“What about big boats, Concorde aircraft and other cool stuff?” say I

“What about shopping?” says she

“What about not?” says I

“Sigh!” says she – so off we go to the “Intrepid Museum”

The Intrepid was an air-craft carrier built towards the later end of WWII, and later re-fitted for jets during the Vietnam War. In the same museum happens to be a Concorde – oh what a shame those things are no longer flying – so beautiful.

So I’m pleased to report (that rather than photos of MACY'S department store) I can put up some photos of some really cool stuff. Here they are …

USS Intrepid

British Airways - Concorde

Flight Deck - Concorde

Blackbird

Deck of the Intrepid - Sunset

New York

Hi groovers - Fen here. Peter asked me to write something in the blog. I'm not exactly sure what to write, so I'll just post a few pictures of New York from yesterday's adventure, which includes a trip up the Empire State Building (86th Floor), and a trip down to South Ferry on the tube (on which we got lost and went the wrong way for a bit) to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty at sunset.

Empire State Building - and view of North Manhattan Island from 86'th floor

View South from Empire State showing Financial District of Manhattan Island

Statue of Liberty -Sunset

Manhattan Island - After dark