today's my birthday

Its a big Hip Hip Hooray for me today as I turn 36. I went out with a few friends last weekend for bit of a party bash, and had heaps of fun. Started off at Kate's place with a few vodka tonics, then headed into the cross to the Darlo Bar. Unfortunately the place is undergoing some renovations but over all it was a good choice as a starting point. From there we headed to the Burdekin via the Oxford Hotel. Since the renovations there it hasn't been the same.. It looks more like a Woolshed than a bar, and I always expect some impromptu line dancing to begin, something similar to Johnny Rockets when the staff get up and do some crazy dancing. The Burdekin was ok, I mean it's just a bar to hang out at and drink away. Carl the bartender commented on my new beard, don't know if that's good or bad when one has only been to the bar four times in total and the bar staff are picking you out of a crowd and saying hello when you have new facial growth that makes you unrecognisable to some of your friends. After the Burdekin we headed to Q Bar. Now this a joint that I haven't been to since my straight days with my last girlfriend. The line was long to get in, and Kate had already been there earlier and had been stamped on the way out. So another trick that I don't for awhile was the lick of the wrist and pressing her wrist to mine. It came out perfectly and one flash of the stamp to the bouncers and I was in. :)

We danced the rest of our night away and any question about my sexuality was probably soon taken care of when I did my pole dancing display with a pillion on the dance floor. Oh well a bit of harmless fun. Kate and I were the last ones standing and called it quits at 8am, well more like our lack of funds made us quit and head home. No point staying if you cant have another vodka tonic.

Last Wednesday night I had dinner with Juzzy and Adam, two of my favorite people. I have so much respect for them. They are both quick witted, very funny, and extremely intelligent people of the world. I was looking forward to having a simple pub meal with them. Juzzy asked me out to join her and Adam as we hadn't seen each other since her b'day a little while back and because she was unable to join us this evening. Unfortunately, from my point of view anyway, a crew of tag-a-longs joined in and it wasn't completely the evening I was hoping for. But I had been fore warned of this, so I wasn't suprised. But I did get to sit down for about 30 mins with Juzzy before the crowd arrived and discussed my new beard and websites that I should visit to get ideas on how to shape and groom it.

Today I got a call from my folks to wish me a happy birthday. Pamela actually sung happy Birthday to me over the phone, so cute. I'm picking up a rental car this afternoon and driving back up to Port Macquarie tomorrow to spend the weekend with them. I can feel a sickie coming on on Monday as I wont be back home in Sydney until that evening. Little Will from San Francisco called me too bright an early. He has spoiled me with many bits and pieces he sent through the post.

Tonight I am heading to Kuleto's in Newtown for cocktails with my friend Adam and Dean. Happy hour is from 6pm to 7.30pm so I'm going to try and get there in time to at least buy one round for myself of 2 for 1 cocktails. Wont be getting to wild though as I have that drive tomorrow to mum and dad's. Urgh! Five hours of driving.


The model shot prior to heading out

Rodney and I at the Oxford Hotel

Brendan, Suzie, Kate and I at the Budekin Hotel

Merrin and I at the Budekin Hotel

Greg and I at the Budekin hotel

Suzie and I at the Budekin Hotel

Kate and I at the Q Bar

Kate and i at the Q Bar. last drink before heading home

weekend at Brian and Pam's

I spent the weekend at mum and dad's, or should I say I came close to not spending the weekend at mum and dad's. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8.20am Saturday morning meaning I had to be up and out of the house on my way to the airport no later than 7.15am. My friend Kate had volunteered to drive me as she was working that day anyway and would use it as an excuse to get up early so that afterwards she could complete some house chores before heading off to work. The Friday night was going to be a quiet one. We had a friends birthday dinner and there were only five of us going, including the birthday girl's new boyfriend. Prior to leaving for the restaurant I had said to Kate that I wanted to be home by midnight due to our early start, she said no problem.

We went to a Turkish restaurant in Glebe. It was great food and the night was a hit with good conversation, plenty of laughs and plenty of red wine flowing. By the time we left the restaurant we all had changed our tipsy minds that we should go out for a couple of more drinks at one of our locals. The night went on and on and we were having way to much fun, which was evident by Kate and I getting back to her house at 3.30am and very very drunk. We decided that we would do something quickly on the computer and while I was getting it set up she went off to make us more Vodka Tonics. She cam back and placed both drinks down on the table and then disappeared. Come 4am with no return of Kate I went searching, and there I found her tucked up in bed deep down under the covers sound asleep. I took this as my que and left her house to walk home, to which I myself finally crawled into bed at 4.15am. Thank goodness she just lives around the corner. My luggage was already packed and my clothes for the trip already sorted out, so all I had to do was set my alarm to wake me up in two hours and all would be sweet. Why do we think that when we have a deadline to do something and we go out and get trashed only to get home just a couple of hours before we again need to be up, that we are going to not sleep through an alarm? In my state that's exactly what I thought only to wake at 8.35am, ten minutes after my flight had left. I called Kate then called my parents to then call Qantas to see what my options were. No wonder the bastards have just reported a $1.03 billion dollar profit as they made me buy another one way ticket on the next available flight, and in that fare I again had to pay all the taxes and airport charges as well as them charging me a $25 over the phone booking fee. Its day light robbery. Kate finally dropped me off at the airport a few hours early, so I popped myself into the Qantas Lounge and proceeded to fill myself up on their free fruit salad's, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, cheese platter, bread rolls with cold meats and coffee. Meanwhile Kate was already running late for work by the time she dropped me off and was no stuck in traffic heading back into the city from the airport.

Finally I boarded my flight only to be delayed due to a late flight coming in that had people connecting to ours. I was hung over and it was hot and uncomfortable in this small plane, a Dash 8. I thought I was as going to die. But not die as much as my mother thought I was going too as we came into Port Macquarie. It even felt a bit touch and go for me. Our decent was steep, fast and the plane slightly tipping to one side. My mum said from watching its approach that she could tell we were going too fast and the last thing she wanted was to come to the airport to greet her son only to watch his plane crash and burn. The plane didn't crash and burn, but did came to an almighty stop. The seat belt was thankfully tight and low across my waist as otherwise I was sure to head but the seat, if not the passenger, in front of me.

I had a great couple of days with them just maffing and talking about my plans for the future in regards to my wanting to move to the States to live and work for a few years. Dad also dropped the bombshell over dinner on Saturday night saying that it gives him the shits that he doesn't have any grandchildren to doat over like most of their friends. It was very uncomfortable for me being that the likelihood of me producing any is very small indeed. I could only respond by declaring that he better not be thinking that its my fault, to which he did say that he wasn't. But how was I to take that? Being the only child in their lives and not having the opportunity to give them that and then have it thrown in your face. I know my dad loves me for who I am, and yet one day he may still get what he wants. But for now its not going to happen.

Sunday we went out for lunch at a vineyard. I had great food, dad said he like his, but mum had trouble with hers. We knocked back a bottle of red over lunch and chit chat and then headed home to chill. I love chilling and think everybody should do more of it. A storm developed during the early hours of this morning. It woke me at about 4.30am and went through until 6.30am when I finally fell back to sleep. It was blowing an absolute gale and the rain was pissing down. I was beginning to think that maybe my 9.40am flight will be indefinitely delayed, but from mum and dads place you can at times hear the planes taking off if the wind is blowing in the right direction and at 6.30am I heard the mornings first light leave. I can only imagine what it would have been like for those people on that flight. It would have been as rough as guts during take off and climbing to cruising altitude. By the time my flight came around the winds had eased but the rain was still bucking down. We left and hour late and I finally got to work at midday. I couldn't really give a shit about getting in late, and apparently nobody else did either.

home and so over flying right now

At least the flight home wasn't as bad as the one over to San Francisco, but it wasn't smooth sailing or pleasant either. San Francisco airport was a breeze, but LAX what a fucking mad house, and a hole. There was a computer glitch at LAX which had prevented inbound international flights from being processed. So my flight out of LAX was delayed by 2 hours, and after take off the pilot advised us of the problem and also mentioned that there were planes still on the tarmac with passengers aboard that had been sitting there for between 5 to six hours, and that we were one of the few lucky flights allowed to leave. The two hour delay wasn't a big issue for me as I had a 4 hour lay over in Nadi Fiji anyway, so be it in LAX of NAN it wasn't going to be any different. EXCEPT! LAX is a hole. Its a run down airport with no facilities for passengers once you go through security. There was insufficient seating and people were sitting and sleeping on the concourse floors. The gate areas were jammed packed with people, it was a nightmare.


My gate area at LAX and the surrounding concourse area.

homeward bound

The last few days in San Francisco have made up for the shit flight over, never doing that again....QANTAS direct flight next time. It feels as though a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders by meeting Adam and having a positive talk with him and with Gloria. I went out to dinner with little Will at Circa on Thursday night for a great feed of seafood and then on for a few drinks down at the Castro, and laid in bed all day Friday just chilling. Last night I finally caught up with my girl Courtney and with my boys Scott, Johnny and Kamron. It was good to see them all and to knock back a few drinks during Happy Hour. Got to love those two for one free pour gin and tonics at Badlands. Saturday was packing time and lunch with the two Will's, before then killing time waiting for my ride to the airport. Where did this past week go?


At dinner with little Will at Circa

With Scott & Courtney at Badlands

its all now falling into place

Up until Thursday morning I had thought that this trip was going to be a total waste of time, energy and money in relation to sorting out any job opportunities. That was until the phone call from little Will saying that he had gotten in touch with a representative from the employment agency I mentioned in my previous blog write up. This agency is based in Seattle and this guy happened to have been in San Francisco for a day and was leaving for the airport in just over an hour and to give him a call. I called him and he told me to come down for a chat over coffee, but it had to be right away. As I'm getting my shit together I'm also getting calls from a contact of little Will's, Gloria, who works for New Resource Bank. It was like O.M G everything is hitting me at once. I had a great chat with Gloria over the phone as she had received my resume and wanted to talk further about it. She was passing it up the line of her management as well as circulating it to contacts at other organisations. After our chat I was then racing out the door and down the steep S.F hills to meet up with Adam, the representative from the employment agency.

I met up with Adam, another Australian around my age, who's job it is to assist Australian getting work in the U.S. We spoke about his role and what it is that his company offered to people such as myself. We then spoke about my skills and education and what it is that I wanted to do for myself. I could see after my meeting with George on Wednesday that went totally wrong for me that this was the perfect opportunity for me. The employment agency would do all the paperwork for me, assist me setting up in the U.S with such things as Social Security numbers, bank accounts and credit cards, accommodation and job search assistance. The agency took care of all my tax obligations and such knew the tax system and all the tax benefits that I was entitled to. Yes there is a on-going fee for this, but it is small and all the stress and worries and tax obligations are all taken away from me. What is also taken away from me is the uncertainty of retaining a job and thus my work visa. If I was directly employed by another a company, my work visa would be tired to that job and company. If the I was to loose such position I would automatically loose my visa and have ten days to leave the U.S, but with being sponsored through this agency, if I was to loose employment they would put me on unpaid leave for up to six weeks to allow me to find alternate employment, to which they would then again subcontract me out. Its perfect, well I think so. Adam was a great guy to talk to and came recommended by the lady, Pam, that is soon to be working at little Will's radio station. Pam said that Adam changed her life for the better, and is the best thing she ever did.

I am sure that this is the right move for me. Adam is going to set me up with my visa and my resume is already circulating getting my name out there. I don't see any reason why I cant be fulfilling a dream soon. It is meant to be, why else would the day after my dreadful lunch meeting with George would Adam happen to be in San Francisco for that day and immediately make contact with me to say that he was eager to talk to me.

that interview didn't go so well

After that ridiculous flight over, my bags arrived via courier Tuesday just before midday. By this stage since I didn't know what time my bags were going to arrive and I was getting hungry. Since I couldn't leave the house, little Will was on his way over bringing me a subway sandwich. After lunch we both headed off to my haircut appointment that little Will had set up with someone he knew. The appointment was for 2pm and we arrived on time. As always with hair salons, they were running a little behind and we were asked to come back in 20 mins. We came back and then little Will and I sat there from 20 past 2 to 3pm. At this stage I was running on a short fuse when Will asked this guy he knows how much longer, to which he replied another 20 mins. That takes it to an hour and twenty minutes. I did excuse myself and left to go out for a smoke and little Will came outside with me. I bitched an complained as up to this point no one thing had gone my way. During this bitch session this guy calls little Will to explain that he had another 3 hour appointment just about to arrive and if I could reschedule. This guy knew I had arrangements the next day to talk to a guy about a job and thus why I was getting my haircut. I stormed back in, grabbed my stuff and meanwhile he tried to explain how it had been a stressful day for him. Stressful for him! Well that didn't go down well with me and obviously came out in my facial expressions. As I stomped down the stairs and looked back, I see little Will make idol chatter with this guy he knows, to which I yell out back up the stairs 'hurry up I havent got all day'. Obviously that was enough to upset this guy of who later called little Will to hurl abuse at him for my attitude and how I made his client sitting in the chair feel uncomfortable. All I can say is that that afternoon I got my haircut elsewhere at probably a third of the price and it is just as good. In fact I'm extremely happy with it.

So its now Wednesday and I'm sporting my new do, dressed up and heading to the arranged lunch to talk to a guy about a job. I have had severe doubts over the past weeks leading up to this as the papers back home have been full of news stories about the state of the sub-prime housing market in the States. Story after story was being reported and how bad the market was and I had my concerns that it would flow onto all areas of the economy. During this lunch my fears were realised. The offer of a position with this company had been withdrawn. What I haven't mentioned previous was that this job offer was with a Mortgage Brokerage. From the time I got to Sydney airport, to arriving in San Francisco with no luggage, to the hair appointment that went all wrong, to the withdrawal of the job. It just wasn't going to happen for me.

After the disappointing lunch meeting I went back to little Will's office where I met his fellow workers, including the owner of the radio station and his wife. They told me how they just hired an Australian women through a employment agency, where by this employment agency did all the sponsoring and then sub-contracted her out to the station. It sounded just like what I was looking for and asked if I could get the details. We will wait now and see what happens

air travel from hell

Normally my flights to the west coast of the USA would be direct and on QANTAS, but this time the airfares were extremely expensive so I thought I would take a cheaper fare flying with Air Pacific via Nadi, Fiji, to Los Angeles then onto San Francisco. I knew there were extensive layovers and for the life of me I don't know why I went with it. In hind sight it was awful and terribly frustrating.

I booked with Air pacific as I wanted to earn points on my American Airlines frequent flyer account. I have a shit load with Qantas and in hind sight here too I should have just cashed them babies in. I hold Platinum Status with American Airlines and I thought that since I'm earning points with Air Pacific that all my benefits would also flow through such as checking in via the first class counter and getting access to the Lounges. I still managed to check in at the first class counter as it seems the check in clerk knew just as little about what airlines are under the OneWorld program as I do. When my AAdvantage member number didn't appear on my boarding pass I asked how was I suppose to get access to the lounges. She told me that all I had to do was show them my American Airlines AAdvantage card and I would be let in. Hell No!!! I get there and was promptly refused as even though Qantas holds a major stake in Air Pacific, Air Pacific is not a OneWorld airline. Great so here I am at the airport, Monday August 6th, 3 hours before my flight and now I'm going to have to sit around the concourse bored out of my mind. Half an hour before my flight was due to leave we had not even started boarding the aircraft and a announcement comes across advising that my flight out of Sydney was delayed indefinitely due to the ground mechanics noticing a crack in the tail end of the fuselage. Not only was it indefinite, but if the mechanics and Boeing decided that there was no repair that was safe enough to consider the plan air worthy, then it would be grounded. Thankfully after 2 hours the repair had been assessed and passed Boeing and another hour after that we were taxiing off.

The knock on affect to this was of course we were late arriving and then leaving Nadi, which means I was late arriving into LAX. My original flight from LAX to SFO was and hour and a half late, so I was still able to check in for this. I arrived in SFO 25 hours after first checking in at Sydney. Still wearing the same clothes and so looking forward to getting to the house of my very good friend Will, showering, changing clothes and then heading out to dinner with him and my other good friend Kevin who was in from New York City just for the evening. It was 7pm local time and dinner was at 8pm. I could make it as its only a quick train trip into downtown and then a taxi up the hills. I waited and I waited for my luggage to come off the carousel, but alas mine and about another third of the passengers luggage didn't make it. How does luggage not make your flight when you have checked it it over an hour before the flight departs? The line for baggage service was long and it was now 7.30pm. Another few more delays, such as just missing the train, meant I finally got to Will's place around 9pm. My other boy, little Will, brought me over clothes that he had bought me while he was at the Palm Springs outlet malls only a few weeks earlier. It was nice to have some fresh clothes, but I didn't have time to take advantage of a hot shower to cleanse myself as we had to run off to meet Kevin. i finally arrived at 10pm for my 8pm dinner.

the week in review

Phone sex just took on a whole new meaning – and who knows, maybe all those long-distance relationships on the rocks will soon be saved thanks to the Japanese. THE Japanese love technology so much that now even sex toys are on the cutting edge.

The Japanese have launched a revolutionary new vibrator called the gPod, which can be plugged into a variety of different audio devices to vibrate in time with changes in sound.

The “gPod”, a phallic-shaped vibrator, is designed to respond automatically to sounds picked up by an accompanying handset, which can plug into anything from a telephone to a music player to a television. OMG what will they think of next.

Three more sleeps until I fly out to San Francisco