Kiwi Ingenuity

Who said Kiwis can't fly???

A few things about me...

I Miss You by Blink 182

"The unsuspecting victim Of darkness in the valley We can live like Jack and Sally if we want Where you can always find me" You grew up a lot in 2004. And it was mostly a very good thing.

What 2004 Hit Song Are You?

You Belong in the UK

Blimey! A little proper, a little saucy. You're so witty and charming... No one notices your curry breath

What English Speaking Country Are You?

You've Experienced 56% of Life

You have a good deal of life experience, about as much as someone in their late 20s. You've seen and done enough to be quite wise, but you still have a lot of life to look forward to.

How Much Life Experience Do You Have?

Your Summer Anthem is Best Of You by the Foo Fighters

"I've got another confession my friend I'm no fool I'm getting tired of starting again Somewhere new" While you may seem bright on the outside, your insides have a distinct angst flavor.

What's Your 2005 Summer Anthem?

Your Hair Should Be Purple

Intense, thoughtful, and unconventional. You're always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

blatant plug

I must quickly plug the bar of Waxy O'Connors - Quite possibly the coolest and most well decorated pub in London. It had what seemed to be a petrified tree inside, with all kinds of split levels and different nooks and crannies. And great Irish music, with the novelty of the musicians sitting at a table, so the patrons had to stand around (which is actually better). I think I may make this my local. Though since its in Leistcer square I guess its a bit far away!

Snow!!

So I woke up this morning to something I have been waiting a long long time to see in London, snow! In what is apparently the heaviest snowfall since 2003 (whoop-dee-doo, what a record snowfall it must have been!), Hyde park, well the bit near me, was under about an inch of snow. Fortunately I woke up early with good intentions of going to the gym but that soon got cancelled for a quick expedition into the Hyde for some "snow-in-the-city" photos. Apparently there is more on the way tonight... (And yes my Canadian freinds I know it is a lame snowfall but its exciting for this kiwi who's never seen snow in a city before ;)

There's a little bit of snow on the roofs of these phone booths. I get my weekly TNT magazine from behind them each week.

Snow on the bikes on Bayswater Road. It wasn't actually that cold considering...

A "long and winding road", alright, just a path in Hyde Park that heads towards the lake. One day the lake will freeze over again (there are warning signs for it), and I'll go ice skating on it...

The Princesses Memorial playground. I wish I had a snow covered playground when I was a kid!

Picnic tables... Not much of a day for it really!

It's a beautiful park when its covered in snow.

Me and the park, not too late for work!

Tube Trauma

So I'm on my way to work, early this time, with a Metro in hand and wishful thoughts about going to he gym. I'm somewhere around Holborn or Chancery Lane, just a few stops from work, reading yet another article about carbon and the environment. I look up to see some guy sliding down the wall, it looked odd, like he was just sitting down, but it was obvious something was wrong when he just kind of flopped to the side.

For quite a few seconds everyone just looked and didn't know what to do. It was as if everyone was waiting for him to just sit back up, but of course, he didn't. The person in the seat next to him cradled his head so it didn't bash against anything, but that was about it. No one else did anything or seemed to know what to do, They just stood there like dumbfounded elephants. So I stepped in and decided it would be a good idea to stop the train from closing the doors and taking off again. I pulled the Emergency level hard. It pulls down like one of those big levers you see in the movies like in Frankenstein, but then it slides out with a solid click. It felt as if I actually was stopping the train. Quite a bizarrely powerful, in total control, and doing absolutely the right thing kind of feeling. It was quite surreal actually.

Then I crouched down to see what was wrong - I was right at the front so I don't know if people were actually trying to do something at this point, but I managed to talk to the guy and it turned out he had just fainted. Lucky because I wasn't so sure I would have known what to do if it was anything else. I didn't really know what to say so I asked him if he wanted to get off the train, which he said yes to, (go figure!), so another big guy mostly pulled him up and we helped him out to the seats. People still seemed completely dumbfounded, and my instructions, "Please put my bag on the platform", seemed to take quite a bit of repeating for some to get right!

It turned out this poor guy had fainted on the way to work and was heading home and had fainted again. I don't know what was wrong with him but I hope he was ok. I ended up leaving him with the station guy who said he would look after him. I suspect an ambulance probably came but I don't know. Perhaps I will try and find out tomorrow.

What really got me about this whole experience though was that no one did anything for quite some time. Its pretty obvious what had to be done - Stop the train and find out what is wrong with the guy. Get him off the train. Let train carry on. Simple, but people were just quiet, unsure of what to do, and holding back for some fear of something. I certainly surprised myself by pulling the emergency lever to stop the train and tell the driver someone had blackedout. It was only after that that people seemed to do anything (though I guess I was already doing most if anything that could be done!). I'm glad I did it though, there was something empowering about it, and I think for a fleeting moment there I felt a glimpse of what it is like to be a hero, and its true what they say, you just did what anyone would have done. You just reacted and didn't think and you hope that others would have done the same for you. Your not a hero but just someone who helped out a fellow human being in a time of need. Maybe there isn't all that much to being a hero afterall.

So ends my exciting day on the tube...

Where?

I've added a little map that shows where in the world my blog has been read from. So far just London and Alberta by the looks of it! Guess a few of you don't read my blog so regularly eh! Shame on you! Haha just kidding!

So I've worked out just three more weekends to go until I go to Egypt. Not far away now! Can't believe I have another holiday planned so soon! I guess I am very, very lucky to be able to do this. I'm glad because whatever happens at the end of this year I will have seen everything I planned to see, mostly, so I guess it wil be a challenge to find new and interesting places to go!

I'm still liking the idea of a road trip around Europe, so will be investigating that project soon...

One year of carbon

So I've planned my next holiday, after much research, indecision, and general um and ahhing, I've settled on Egypt for two weeks. I'm really looking forward to the sun and the beaches in particular. Its just way too grey here in London!

So as part of booking the trip I got directed to http://www.climatecare.org, a website that calculates your carbon emmissions and how much it would cost you to offset that (I assume by planting trees etc, didn't get that far through it). Apparently with all the travel I have clocked up I've used about 9.76 tonnes of CO2 which would cost 73quid to offset. Its a great idea but I feel like you aren't getting anything for it - and wouldn't it be better to promote ways of travelling that are not simply offsets (and allow you to consume without concern for what you are putting out, and worse, allows the rich to consume more). Therfore I propose that we all travel in Egypt by Donkey instead of bus, swim & walk instead of fly, and refrain from eating too many beans lest our methane emissions add to the global warming crises.

And crises it almost is, if you can imagine a crises of a warm winter in London. But I'm told it is highly unusual for a winter to be this warm. We have topped 10 degree celcius almost every day for a month now, except its more like 12 or 13. I am most disappointed in this global warming, which has robbed me of not only a white christmas but a proper cold winter as well. Though I suppose most UKeans don't mind the relatively warmer weather!

Miss Sarajevo

I cannot believe where I just booked my next holiday with mum - we are going to Croatia, but we are going to start our trip in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In tribute, here is a video all about the war in Sarajevo, by U2 and Luciano Pavarotti. (Its safe to go there now, in case you wondering!), but it will be interesting to see a city that recently had its soul bombed out of it. Read about it then press play...

Bill Carter's award-winning documentary Miss Sarajevo chronicles one of the more bizarre events of the war in former Yugoslavia--when several artists mounted an elaborate beauty contest under mortar fire. The camera follows the organizers through the tunnels and cellars of the city, giving a unique insight into life during a modern war, where civilians are the targets. The film captures the dark humour of the besieged Sarajevans, their stubborn refusal to be demoralised, and suggests that surrealism and dadaism are the appropriate responses to fanaticism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNqMGsVWDEk

American Beauty

As we were walking back from Times Square in New York we saw a quintessentially cultured moment of Hollywood manufactured American culture - the plastic bags and the leaves, blowing in the wind, caught up in cyclonic breeze in an empty lot between two high rises. And yes, there were plenty of people standing around taking photos of it.


While there is something mysterious about the wind and what it can do to things caught up in its fracticious ways, I imagine most of these people were just tripping on drugs or just tripping on being in New York for new years. "Oh Look its a plastic bag! Blowing in the Wind like on that movie American Beauty! Better get a photo of quick!"


Here's another artificially manufactured piece of culture which shows more how the outside world views America than the other way around.






ps, why am I so cynical about things today??!!

Ice cream anyone?

So I'm browsing the gumtree to see how much a Kombi van might be if I were to go on a road trip over summer, and what do I see instead?

An ice cream van for a mere 1,700 quid !

Ice Cream, Ice Cream! Get your Ice Cream here and help fund my trip around Europe!! I can see it now, pulling up at such and such a busy tourist attraction, selling a few icecreams, then heading off to do the tourist thing for a little while. The way summer gets over here, I'd be sure to sell a gazillion of them and probably fund the entire trip!

Shame I don't have the right to work in Europe, but maybe there are ways and means of making it work. ("Well, I wasn't selling any ice cream officer, I just like to travel in style! Would you like a free ice cream by the way?")

Well admittedly it is a bit of a dream and maybe not that much of a reality, but it was interesting to see just how cheap cars are here. Well, cheap relative to NZ, but then I guess being that far away from the rest of the world is bound to make us have expensive cars.


As Alex rightly pointed out at work today, I'd need to buy a righthand drive car for Europe, which would then be the wrong side for the UK. So its a bit of a tough call as to what to do. I may have to settle for a motorbike!

And they're off! 2007 takes the lead!

So,

Just got back this afternoon from New York and the so called best place to celebrate new years in the world. I'm a little bit tired and grumpy after my flight was delayed, meaning I spent 10 hours at airports (even had a 30 minute delay in getting my baggage at Heathrow!), and 7 hours on the plane. So I'll try and be as positive as I can!:

Wednesday 27th:
Need to leave earlier than I thought, race around packing at the last minute. Very unlike me to be this disorganised, it must have been the great Christmas orphans party we had at my place with Pete, Toni, Craig and Kim. Arrive in the late afternoon and get lost on subway not once but twice because I've been there before and don't need to look at the map. Get to what I think is my hostel. Turns out it actually is, which is lucky, because I couldn't find the bit of paper with the address or the name on it! Luckily it was on the same road as I stayed on in June and I had walked past it many times). Went out to Hoboken in New Jersey that night to have dinner with liz and her Friends who were having a birthday. Was a good meal that reminded me much of the Mexican cafe back in Auckland. The PATH train that goes under the harbour is incredibly deep. I wouldn't like to be caught under there.

Thursday 28th:
Liz and I walked across central park and went to the metropolitan museum of art. This was fantastic among the best was the sculptures removed from Egypt that were otherwise going to be flooded by the Aswan dam. We managed a few good bites here and there, and then did the Rockefeller Christmas tree which must surely be the biggest in the world, plus the Saks (I think?) Christmas displays and then the nativity in St Patricks. I also became the proud owner of a 5th ave towel (from the NBA store), my first major purchase. (Chicago Bulls of course!). This day was punctuated in a lesson on identity theft - apparently someone had hacked into Liz's AOL messenger and was talking to all her friends pretending to be her, either just fishing for information or just playing a rather OTT and nasty practical joke.

Friday:
Slept in. Times Square (like everyday!), picked up hockey tickets. Probably got lost on the subway again. I think went to a comedy show with Glenn and his friends this night or the night before. My memory is fading already.

Saturday:

Hello out there, we're on the air, its HOCKEY night tonight!

Yes it was the New York Rangers vs the Washington Capitals, live at Madison Square Gardens (what a phrase!). And what a game it was. I was about 10 seats to the left and 7 rows back from the goal. There were two goals right in front of us, plenty of good old fashioned stoushes and just an unbelievable atmosphere. This really was the highlight of the trip and I am so glad I went. After watching the Stanley cup through May and June, this game lived right up to that level, it was intense and hard fought, even though the Rangers had a solid 3-0 lead at one point. The fighting was incredible. What I don't remember from the SC is that the umpires just stand there and only break up a fight if they fall over or one gets shoved against a wall. A one on one fight while both players are still standing is fair game!!! I couldn't imagine that in rugby, it just wouldn't happen, but then I guess rugby players have less gear on and are freer to do a lot more damage. I also met up with Katie, Josh and Bree. Apparently the whole idea of going to NY for new years was a drunken promise we made at last years new years somewhere in between the road cricket/blocks/fires and jelly wrestling. I don't actually remember it but its pretty cool that we made it!

Sunday:
Caught the ferry to Staten Island. Nearly got into a whole lot of Hijinks when we figured out how to sneak into the ballpark that overlooks the harbour to Manhattan (Its an awesome location!), but thought better of it when we realised the police station is across the road and their number one hobby is to shoot moving targets. (Nevertheless, the temptation to do a home run was strong, and one of these days I'll figure out how to play some cricket at Lords). We also saw the World Trade Centre Site which is getting fairly well developed though it is still mostly a major hole in the ground.

And of course, This was the big day, the day the ball dropped and we rang in the new year with a million other people in Times Square. So we walked up from my hostel (who graciously put on a free dinner), from 30th street all the way up 8th ave to 59th street, where we charged through the police barriers, survived the searches, and then made our way back down to 51st. We were eventually let into the section for 50th street, but couldn't quite see the buildings where the ball would drop.

Now unfortunately here's where I have to give NYC a caning for what was a shoddily organised event that for me was fairly disappointing in terms of it just not reaching its potential. Perhaps my expectations were too high but here is how I saw it:

Supposedly 1 million people attend, year after year, and NYC wanted to regain the top spot after Las Vegas has held it the previous few years (being the best new years celebrations that is). Now the logistics of it are massive, and the NYPD did their finest indeed and that was great. I certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a mob of people trying to push their way into Times Square! Knowing that 1 million people attend, you would think that they would all be included in the celebrations, but no, you have to squeeze into Times Square around 6pm with no food, drinks or toilets, and stay there in the freezing cold until midnight. You can't leave your "pen" as you wont be allowed back in.

So here's a few simple improvements they could make for next year:

• Put TV screens and (most importantly) Speakers on every corner and CRANK up the volume so people north of 45th can actually see and hear what is going on up there.
• Confetti Confetti Confetti! More of it, and off every building on Broadway so everyone gets some.
• Portaloos, Hello!!!
• Let in food and drink!
• Publicise the event and whats happening when and where and how to get to the best spot. (The only information we could find was based on last years event)
• Fireworks, more please (we couldn't see them anyway, but I'm sure they can crank them off the top of every building instead of just a couple in Times Square!).
• Actually do something awesome, like, where were the fighter jets screaming up broadway on the stroke of midnight??!!
• Drop the Ball, properly. NYC really did drop the ball in terms of organisation, but I'd like to see the ball dropped from a great height and left to SMASH into the ground proper. Not this slidy-idly thing that it does. (What a boring tradition really!)

Anyway, despite NYC dropping the ball in terms of their event management, it was still an awesome night and just crazy to be in amongst all those people and just to experience New York in that way.

Monday:

Still feels like today except now its tuesday. Delays and breakdowns were the story of my trip home. We managed a great feed at the New York Hard Rock cafe, then walked across to the NBC studios and had a look at thier shop. I made it to JFK about 4pm (plane was delayed, everyone was shattered, so everyone was sleeping on the ground - cold hard marble tiles) and eventually left about 4am on the plane. Thankfully slept most of the 7 hour flight and made it through immigration no problemo. They seem to like that I work for a bank. The questioning seems to stop once I say that. Then the baggage thing broke down to add to my delays, as if I hadn't spent enough time sleeping at airports like a homeless person!

And here I am, about to go to be before I fall asleep at the controls of my computer!