Category: Uncategorized

First off, I’d like to thank Su-Yin and Chi-Hoong for being fantastic hosts and laying the groundwork for an absolutely bloody awesome weekend in Chicago. I had a blast. I can’t write about everything that happened because that would constitute a best-selling book, and this is but a blog. I’ll post updates when I haven’t got writer’s block.

UPDATE: Before I hit the sack tonight, I must share the lack of luck I had when journeying back from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale. I was feeling pretty damn sleepy when I arrived at the airport and thought I could use the extra space afforded in Economy Plus class – a whole 5 inches of extra leg space! – to help me get to sleep. For the privilege I had to pay an extra $30.

However, when I got to my seat I could not believe the size of the guy sitting in the window seat next to me. He was massive. He was so big that his arms rested horizontally on his stomach. There was no way in the world that the arm rest that should have separated us could have been pulled down because a fair bit of his body was on my side of the seat. While I had some extra space to stretch my legs I had very little space width-wise. Fantastic. Not only was he big but he also seemed to be putting out a lot of body heat. I couldn’t get enough air conditioning on myself to cool down.

Needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep on the flight back. I would have taken a picture of this “little” scenario with my phone but the field of view of the camera was too narrow.

This is somewhat of a sad post. I just learned that an old friend who I went to primary and high school back in Australia died in an motorcycle accident last night. Although I didn’t keep in contact with Rob much since I started Univerisity, there are things that come to mind when his name is mentioned:

– Him not allowing me to play on the play equipment with the other people in my class back in early primary school. I don’t know why he did that, but I remember standing up to him one day and saying something like “I will play with my other friends because I want to!” We got along fine after that.

– His brother Brian elbowed Steve in the stomach during a (was it 300m?) lap around the oval on sports day in primary school. I was asked if this ever occurred and I said “no”. I could have said “I didn’t see it” or I could have actually stood up for Steve but I didn’t. I’m pretty sure I did see it happen, and told Steven I saw it happen, but I said the opposite anyway. What character I had back then!

– His ability to get on Damo’s nerves in highschool. Rob knew exactly how to pi$$ him off. Awesome.

– Him playing in our hockey team in the early days. Yes, that fantastic 1987 grand final picture of me with the big head. I’m pretty damn sure Rob was there.

– Him working at the winery.

– His 21st birthday party. I recall watching a Marilyn Manson concert or something like that there.

– The fact that he rode a motorbike.

– And last, but most certainly not least, his obsession with video games. I remember Chad and I went to visit him at his place but pretty much the whole time he was playing the Playstation 2 while we were talking to him. He loved his video games.

– Did I mention he liked video games?

This is the one thing bites the most about being all the way over here. Whatever happens to someone back home I feel so completely displaced. I would love to be back in Australia right now and just be with my friends to chat about Rob.

RIP mate.

I’ve been looking forward to this afternoon for a while now, for it is this afternoon that I fly off to Chicago to visit “Choza” and “da Boss“. I’ve got a list of places I want to see and a lot of things I want to do. Hopefully I can forget about the backlog of work I have to do at the moment. There is so much stuff I have to get done it’s incredible. Ahh well, such is life.

This is the first post from my new apartment in the US. My flatmate and I just got the wireless network up and running and everything seems to be working a-ok.

From the gap in the blog postings you may have thought that I had run out of steam. Not so. I’ve just come back from a long weekend of partying in Key West, frolicking with alligators and having an awesome sing-a-long/play-a-long session at a friend’s birthday party. Prior to that I very busy with work and trying to tie up loose ends over here in the US. To those of you I have promised things or have e-mails to reply to – you know who you are – you’ll be hearing from me in the near future.