OZ/NZ Day#14
So I guess we’re going to be doing this recap backwards. Sunday morning (July 26), we checked out of the hotel and headed out for a final walk in the city. First we grabbed some breakfast…
…in the hopes of also finding some free wi-fi (which New Zealand is sorely lacking). Tummies full, wi-fi empty, we took to the streets for some window shopping. We found some interestingly named shops, such as…
After that we taxied it up to the airport. Even though there were buses and shuttles that we could have taken to the airport, someone didn’t want to drag her 2 pulley suitcases down the street and someone else didn’t want to get his camera stolen on the public transportation. And for our final meal in New Zealand, we went for something really New Zealandish…
And for my first meal in America I ate…
…for comparison’s sake I ate the same meal. Surprisingly Burger King seems to be very New Zealand. There were like 5 in a 3 block radius, with only 2 McDonalds in the same area. Observant readers will notice that the NZ fries are thinner than the US fries, the NZ are more like McDonalds. The US fries have that crunchy exterior and mushy inside. And the US double cheeseburger was only available with bacon, draw whatever conclusion that you wish. Not pictured is the small drink that the NZ meal came with (and a proportionally sized thin straw). But you’ll have to believe me, and compare it to the US giant cup and thick straw…
OZ/NZ Day#14
So, I’ve been back from holiday since Sunday night (or more accurately really early Monday morning). Sorry for the lack of posting, I’ve been busy either working, sleeping, and/or attempting to sleep. Because I was smart enough to schedule myself to start back at work on Monday morning. Brilliant. I’m living on my Jet Lag Pills and B-12 during the day to stay awake, and Benadryl at night to get to sleep.
We left Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday July 26 at 3:00pm, and I arrived in Fairbanks on Sunday July 26 at 1:00am (only an hour behind schedule). So that’s only like a 10 hour journey, unfortunately it felt like 29 hours. It was like 12 hours from Auckland to Los Angeles (which now being a US citizen, Customs seemed a lot easier to get through).
It was another 2 1/2 hours to get to Seattle. And since my itinerary says that I have like a 5 hour layover here, I took the initiative and got a standbyed for a flight that left 2 hours earlier. Huge mistake. Within like an hour of arriving in Fairbanks, some part broke on the plane, like a gauge or something, and we had to land in Anchorage to get a new plane. Like 10 minutes later after landing we board the new plane (a Make-a-Wish Foundation branded plane with a giant painting of the Genie from Alladin on the tail), and we’re all ready to go, but the lights on the left side of the plane have lost their primary power source and must be rerouted to run off the back-up generator. This took an hour to fix, during which time the First Officer had gone over his allotted work time for the day, so we had to get a new pilot. So we got off the plane, and waited…
So on our third attempt, we are finally on the 45 minute ride to Fairbanks. Thankfully my bag didn’t make it on the earlier flight that I was on, and went on the later flight I was supposed to be on, which arrived 1 hour before I did, so it was waiting for me when I arrived. A quick taxi ride later and I was safe and sound showering off the past 30 hours of flying at home.
How To Brush Your Teeth In The Airport
Made it to San Fransisco. My mum told me to watch out for the Baklas. Jokes lang…. Although I’m totally not used to seeing this many Asians.
I got some of these disposable toothbrushes with the toothpaste already inside. They do provide a cool minty feeling in my mouth which us better than that I just woke up from a nap moist feeling in your mouth. I’m just sure about the actually scrubbing of the teeth. I would says it’s poor to below average in that regard.
Also it’s nice to see the sun setting. Haven’t seem that in a while.
Where Am I
Okay I’m not that Cool of a Kid because I can’t figure out how to link up pictures on my flickr to here on my iPhone. I guess I’ll have to paint a picture with my words (sorry for you my strokes are big and sloppy and full of grammatical errors). I left my condo at 5:45 am to get to the airport in plenty of time. Because it seriously takes 45 minutes to board in Alaska. The Stewart making the safety announcement did the whole thing in a Star Trek theme. I will give him props for staying in character the whole time, but that early on the morning it felt more annoying than entertaining. So sitting in the Seattle Airport waiting for my next flight.
I had some fish and chips for lunch, because it was the shortest line and it will give me a greater appreacition foe fish an chips in Australia. I took a picture of it but I guess you’ll have to go to my flickr to see it or just look below, no lower, yeah there you go.
Where’s My iPhone
I was finally ready to be part of the Cool Kids Club, and get an iPhone. And I had one, a fancy new one, and I was excited, and then sad. The one physical button (home button) didn’t work (I think you could classify the volume, on/off and vibrate thingys as switches not buttons, only because you don’t so much as depress, but move back and forth). For serious. So Apple sent me a new one yesterday, and the home button works, but I can’t activate it because Apple sent me a phone that is locked for use in another country. Currently I sit uncool, until Apple’s system re-registers my phone for use with AT&T, which takes 24 to 48 hours. I’m not even angry about the whole mess. Sure it seems highly unlikely for so many obstacles just to get a new phone, but it’s just a phone. It’s not like they amputated the wrong leg off me. And I get to earn Fruit of the Spirit Badges. Here comes another Patience and Peace badge. Results. In the meantime please ignore my iphone nakedness and enjoy a video I took over the weekend with my now gone iphone.
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Happy Birthday To Me
Sadly I didn’t get the coolest present ever, some wicked macho facial hair. But I did get everyone in the pharmacy to believe that Birthday Mustaches are a real thing. They each wore one for a least a bit, most of them had to take it off due to the gasoliney smell. Also we are totally having a Mustache Party when I get back into town.
When Do You Go On Vacation
Only 5 more days until I leave for Australia (and one until my birthday/hint, hint). And I figure it’s been at least 10 years, maybe 11, since I’ve been there, so I thought it prudent to watch some Aussie Telly, you know to reacquaint myself with the culture and attune my ears to the accents.
Hit up the Read More below……
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Where Have You Been
It’s kind of been crazy at work, we need like 2 more techs but blah blah blah I don’t want to talk about work when I’m not at work. But we’ve been running around like……
So this place has been kind of dusty lately, so to tide you over until I got the time to write something proper here you should totally read up about Asian Poses here. And more pretty Asian things here.
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