Such a spin out....

It's my (Nick's) first go at adding to the blog so bear with me. As i write this from the comfort of our magnificent super 8 hotel room in massive menomonie, im finding myself disturbingly distracted by the adds for stool softener on tv. they advertise anything over here. tv is itsown tourist attraction. funny on the surface, but pretty bloody offputting if you actually think about what they are pushing and how they are trying to sell it...

anyway ive got plenty of other interesting musings that i will elaborate on in future posts, but for now ill just kick off my debut with whats gone down in the last few days.

we went to the 'outback steakhouse' for a feed a few nights ago and what a trip that was! so much naff 'aussie' paraphenalia on the walls and crappy references in the menu, we just had to laugh. and then cringe. but hell, it seems to work, it was bloody packed! and the foodwas good, to be honest. although i must say the whole tipping thing is gettinga bit much.... these waitresses (pretty much always chicks) are just waayyy too perky and its obvious its for the tip, sometimes you feel like just swatting them away and telling them to "piss off and we'll get ourselves a beer when were effing ready!" but whatever, thats the way it is, and we respect that. and then inevitably leave a bigger than usual tip because were aussies and dont want to offend the poor, harmless, innocent, geographically ignorant little dears...

Next day we thought wed go for a walk into uptown, a place recommended by the bartender at bubba gumps, who got an extra few bucks for his troubles, like the rest of em do. though half way through this 20km 'stroll' i was cursing his name because i thought he'd definitely sold us the farm on this one. got off the train and ended up walking through midtown, which is actually west of uptown, both of which being south of downtown. you figure that one out! midtown, we later found out thanks to google, is pretty much the only unsafe suburb in minneapolis. so here we are, cruising through the ghetto, waving a camera around, with a big neon 'TOURIST' sign over our heads, and we gradually felt more and more uncomfortable. like we were being watched. i guess thats coz we were.... every car that doofed past seemed to have a young hispanic driver in a white bonds singlet, arm resting on door, looking at us thinking to themselves 'if this was dark, they would be so mugged by now'.
we made it out though. with our wallets and camera.
we made it to uptown and had a few beers on this rooftop bar which seemed to make the walk down mugging boulevarde seem worth it. the view of the city skyline with a beer was amazing and we could of sat there all day. but we needed food. and food we got man! 'famous daves' was the name of the joint. an all american rib and steak joint. my god. ive never been genuinely scared at the sight of food being put on the table in front of me... but its my fault for ordering the monster ribs at lunch. i should've known by now what to expect from foodhouses in this country. this rack of ribs i ended up with was apparently half of a pigs chest and stretched about 2 feet across the table. i was feeling full just looking at the bloody thing, but i had a good old aussie crack at it but failed dismally at rib 8. although i got a congratulatory comment from this over-perky waitress (to maximise the tip, no doubt) which restored some of my pride in my manhood at least.

yesterday we thought we'd have a 'quiet' day before travelling to menomonie so we went to the mall again and caught a movie. then went to a bar just next door to the cinema, still in the mall. planning on only a quick beer or two, we ended up having a chat with the bartender, and also ended up slamming shots of grand marnier 'on the house' with him while he was still pulling beers for the other plebs in the house. i think he was tryingto get the aussiespissed for a laugh but whatever, we'll take it. and thats service that will earn a tip from me any day. needless to say, 4hrs later we stumbled home. netiher of us can remember getting home actually and apparently i went and bought a 12pack ofbeer from somewhere. passed out by sundown. oh well it helpedus get over the last remnants of 'jetlas' that may have been still in the system anyway.






A 'big bloke beer' at the outback steakhouse. Lauren thought it was so good, shed get the boobs out...



















The wall at outback steakhouse. i bet if i actually asked the for a tooheys id get a stupid puppy dog look from the waitress, followed by 'wha?'









midtown. scarytown. oh well. chalk it up to experience.















what was waiting for us after midtown. a nice relaxing sit down where we didnt need a bulletproof vest.













beer from the rooftop bar in uptown. we werethinking itd be a sweet sunday session joint. its called stella's fish cafe if you wanna google.













the ribs. i think my face says it all.














giving it a red hot go.











you can buy a gun here, and you can go shoot someone somewhere else. just not on our turf, coz we dont want the paperwork.













everything tastes better out of a coconut. laurens got 3 coconuts out in this one! haha.... awesome.

Jetlas strikes... me.:(

Sighhhhhh.We've been so good! Tuckering ourselves out during the day, and even with an afternoon nap, managing to sleep through the night. Until tonight. It really sucks. Especially because Nick CAN sleep, so I'm probably ruining tomorrow for him as well. It's 3:20am...and after sleeping from about 10:30 til 2:30, suddenly I'm wide awake.

Anyway, suckiness aside, I thought I might put in a brief chronology of the last few days. Nick's said he'll dothe next properpost (with pics) because it is a really frustrating process uploading photos on mini computer over wifi. So, thought I'd also give my thoughts on Minneapolis as well :).

Day 1 in Minneapolis - arrived Sunday lunch time, Walmart visit, nap, walked and got pizza (DELICIOUS, and notthe deep pan kind, just beautiful fresh homemade sauce and fresh ingredients on a thing tasty crust. Loved it. Then, beers (to help with sleep) and bed.

Day 2 - Up pretty reasonable time, missed brekkie (major sad face) then walked to Mall of America (3km) and around the Mall (several kilometres in itself). Lunch was an awesome fresh mexican place in the oversized (surprise surprise) food court. You could chose between Fajitas, Enchiladas, Quesadillas, and then Fajita style Quesadillas, Enchilada style Fajitas etc. Just ordered the first thingI saw rather than stuff around trying tounderstand the difference. Home (another 3km) for a nap, then back for dinner at Bubba Gump's (see pics in previous post). Walked off friedy goodness and the many beers. They come in 22oz. Quite ungainly, seeing as a pint is apparently 16 oz. It was here that the bartender advised us to go to Uptown if we got a chance, and was soooooo much better than crummy old downtown (so he said). You have to show your ID everytime you get a drink here, quite tedious, considering how crappy the Queensland licence is, but noone's refused us service yet (for any reason :).

Day 3 - Walked to Mall and caught light rail into city. Walked around a bit, and went to Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. I reckon Downtown actually rocked. So clean, and green parts everywhere really.Walked through the uni in town, and saw old mate squirrel, and it was just...so liveable. Lots of cute little town-homes (as they call them) and such a safe and nice vibe. Did a few more kms, saw the Minnesota Twins baseball park (Target Field, Target actually has its main office here) and then home to Mall's monster foodcourt and 'italian' lunch. Then Nick takes over from here with next 'real' post...

But I will say that NOONE has guessed our accent, and they do struggle a bit to understand. One guy guessed NZ, which really wasn't too bad. But on whole... they have no clue, and actually generally really polite so noone's really asked, even when the confused expression crosses their faces.

Quote of the trip so far, when gettingour crappy IDs checked by confused Minnesotan girl in an outside alley-style bar (they obviously have a massive inside, seeing as it kinda snows here in winter, a lot) near Twins stadium:
"We don't even have 17 months in our year here"

It was funny and sad at the same time, that she didn't know that other countries do their dates differently - and that we don't have a funky year.

Close second though, while being bailed up by one of those godawful stall-holders in the mall (a girl whosaid she was from Israel, conincidentally the same country as the crap she was peddling came from)... and AFTER a short conversation... "where are you guys from? You don't look like you're from around here" (tookit asa compliment, but all the girls my age are either fat or are fake blonde and tanned, athletic clones) "Australia"... "Do you speak english?"

Minneapolis. We're here! And we're exploring!

Welcome to Minnesota!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arrived Sunday lunch time and it was SO hot. Disgusting really.And we suffered through a Monday like that too (all the while walking ridiculous distances... baptism of fire, kind of like the initial trip here). Around 30 degrees but really sticky. I had no concept that it could snow heavily for months of the year here, but then be so ridiculously hot. I knoooow it's heaps worse because we came from winter, but really... those first couple of days were pretty unpleasant. But the room's ac'd, and so is everywhere else (apart from the walks) so it was really completely fine, but not nice.

Below is a copper. On the beat. On-a-freaking-Segue!!!! (Segway, the brand might spell it,but anyway) how COOL! Minnie cops have street cred.

SQUIRREL! (Watch "Up!", for anyone who hasn't seen it. Meanwhile, that movie rocked and squirrels are so fast. They just bounce like little ninjas off the ground and off the tree. So want one.)

The creatively named "Cherry on Spoon Bridge" (or some variant) at the Minneapolis Sculpture Park. The first thing we saw in person,that we'd actually looked up and said we'd go too. It was so awesome that Nick humoured me and had a pic. Awwww. He IS awesome (or I'm a bit drunk. Or "all of the above").

Has anyone seen a pub with a lawn bowls joint on top? Yep. That's "Brits' Pub". Yes, it is completely awesome.

THE Bubba Gump's, of Forest Gump fame. Cool, yeah? And the most delicious seafoood meal. The Onion Ring Tower, which we had as an appetiser, was: 1) twice as big before I remembered to take the pic; and 2) a horrendously bad idea,on topofthe massive meal.
Both had the 'Bucket of Trawler Trash' or something. Also, see the sign "Run Forrest Run"? You actually have a little fliip sign on the table that lets the peeps know you need service, or that you're fine. So handy. Makes the staff actually deserve their compulsory tip ($1 per beer,when you're at the bar, and $10+ % if you pay for a mealor drinks at the end. And yes, we've actually been doing it.Not easy to get used to though, but the service is sooooooo good over here, the people mostly deserve their tips anyway).

Also sat at the bar after tea, and got told by the bartender that a better spot to go (that the city) was 'Uptown'. Which relates nicely to the next post... You'll want to read that one (teaser again...).

Below- Microtel Bloomington. Home Sweet Home while we get rid of the jetlag, and explore Minnie. $55 Aussie dollars for the first 3 nights, then we re-booked to fit our Menomonie trip around Nick's mates, and had to get a King... for $80 US for the next two. Absolute bargain, straight across the road from Walmart and 3 km from the Mall of America- you MUST look that up. Google it... NOW!

Like Beyonce said "to the left, to the left". That's the themepark. In the Mall of America. It'snot the only one, either. There's also LegoLand and SharkWorld. Way cool. But the Mall itse;f is the biggest building I have ever seen. 560 shops. It's honestly consumerism gone mad. There are stores selling (only) MMA shirts, (only) made-to-order Teddy bears, (maybe 3 or 4) selling ONLY local sportingteam paraphenalia... We bought SFA actually, but if we weren't backpacking, and had heaps of dosh... we both said we'd have an absolute field day in there So many varieties of clothes.

First beeries (yes, this post is completely out of order... again) - these were bought as soon as we got to Minnie, and were attempting to stay up to a normal hour before sleeping, to avoid jetlag.

As a side note - these beers were bought from Walmart... very convenient. Crazy thingis - we did not see small sizes of anything ANYTHING. Gallons of milk, 400g dips... and this applied to the portion sizes we saw at all foodie houses. And it was both awesome and horrifying, as you will see from the next post... (TEASER!!! Absolutely SHAMELESSSS :).

In transit...

I'm not going to lie. The transit was absolute hell. I can't say it was a baaad idea to go sttraight through from LA to Minneapolis (instead of staying a night or two there) but it was like we'd already run a marathon by the time we got to LA. And that was even though we scored sweeeeeeeet (oh my god, I don't know how w'd have coped otherwise) premium economy seats in the seating. MORE leg room, wider seats, quieter... not quite business class (not that I'd knowwhat that's like) but it was so good. I reckon Nick slept,of,an hour (in the 13 hous) and I was about 20 minutes. So, not a great trip, considering we went through a 'night' into yesterday, but it was an OK start.

Which was quickly effed into eff town (so justified, when you hear what happened) when we landed at 6am, instead of the 11am that our original itinerary said. Which would have been fine, if we were staying in LA (althugh we would have had to kill some time before checking in somewhere) except that we weren't. We had another flight, at 11:30pm. Tust me, 17 hours in an airport, after a 13 hour flight is terrible. We each caught a bit of sleep, but I had the 'most' at a coupleof less-than-an-hour-catnaps.

Then it was fly to Atlanta (going through another 'night', that messes with you so hard), a couple of hours stop over (and some delicious Popeye's breakfast... i.e. the breakfast biscuit. 'Biscuit' is like a cross between a scone and an english muffin and is so tasty. I'm definitely moving to the Deep South. After I lose the moajority of my original teeth in the UK, of course), and then onto Minneapolis. At lassssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttt!

Not surprisingly, there aren't any photos of us in transit (or any that made it through my tasteful editing process of 'do I look awesome and, if not, is it hilarious?') but I did take a pic of the first thing that blew my mind in the USA...

It seems weitd, but noone mentioned that the toilets have about 10L of water sitting in them. All of them. Frigging awwasteful, but let's leave it at "I think it makes public toilets a more pleasant place to be". This is my last gross post for a while, I promise. Next.... beautiful Minneapolis. Tempter, much?

Goodbye to the fams and the respective home digs (that's "homes" for all the oldies)

Here's the view of the house on the farm (left) and below is the view from the Harrises' (Ahhh, pluralisation AND ownership!!!) deck -and the next one is a view back to the farm house (mine) from one of the ridges up the back. The house is the white speck. Cool, huh?

The next pic is the goodbye dinner with both families, minus Kristy and Ryan, who were moving that weekend (SHU-DDER... it'sstill too soon to talk about the horrrors of moving house, really)

The next is the same... except earlier in the night. It's the Spring Hill Hotel, and the food is yummo. Even better than Terrace Bar, I reckon. And we totally tore the place up the next day!

Goodbye to the Lismore kids

It's been 10 days since my last blog post (all the lapsed Catholics out there would understand that one... although you have to believe to start with, to actually lapse yeah?)

So the point is - I'm sorry. It's been too long, but it's been eventful. We've done a fair few kms (in planes, and on foot, but I'll get to the 'on foot' part in moreappropriately named blog posts... MINNEAPOLIS!!!)

So anyway, Saturday 14 August 2010 we went out with the Harrises as well as Gai's (Nick's mum) sister's fam and Ryan's (Kristy's bf) parents as well. To the Terrace Bar at the Richmond in Lissy, and it was yummo. Anyhoo, after that we went out with the Lismore kids, had drinks galore, and everyone ended up in different places, so it didn't feel too bad that we (Stace, Nick and I) got rejected straight up from Mary's and ended up in another place (the Standard?) with about 6 other randoms, with Stace and I crazy dancing the night away. I mean - 6 randoms, who cares? I know they thought we were cool though. Who wouldn't?

In no particular order...

Kyles and me the next day, after watching Stace play. Ummm, goals galore for that girl! Have no ideahow she managed the game, let alone score goals! Considering we were (cough cough) a bit dusty after a few hours of crazy dancing the night before. So... apart from the pain she clearly went through playing, the goals say
no harm done" I reckon.

Nicko, Kyle and Willie. Action shot...

Some guy (???), Stace, B and Dogger - believe it or not,this is the BEST one of Dogger. There aeabout 7 of him with various people, and none facing the camera or with eyes open. Stubborn bastard :).

Stace, B and me. Doing a Dogger (I think)...

Randoms. Pffft.

Nick, Kyle and Willie (whose lovely lady is soon to have their first child... YAY!!!)

What comes before Part B? Partay!

Embassy Hotel - 10 August 2010. Thanks so much to everyone who came down. Nick and I really appreciate it. Sorry to anyone I didn't get to chat with or get a piccie of - we're going to miss everyone so much, and it was just awesome that people made the effort to come down.

I had a great time, even if it ended a little messily for me (aaargh) but thanks for seeing us off!
The wonderful Claire Clegg (Cleggy, Claire bear etc). And me (der).

Mieken, the fiery-haired singing beauty...

Phil - buddies for 8 or so years now. No longer will we live across the river from each other! No more wandering stories about friendly neighbourhood goats or metal bands I've never heard of.

Bro and I... You better come over and visit, damn it!

4 of the lovely ladies from the best team in the world. Seriously! (Cleggy, Donna-sky, J and moi).

Nicko and Jacqui - to those who were asking about Nick - this is him! He's real!

Claire, Donna, Nick and the corner of Adam's face.

Thanya, Steve, Mieken, Phil, Little bro and Adam...

Thanya, Steve, Phil, Riles, bro and Adam...

Riles and myself - the man who is soon to follow across the pond and take up residence in bonny Scotland. Awesome!

Gubbo! :) Thanks for the help and friendship mate!

Anne, Steve, Ray, Paul (best boss ever of most awesome team ever) and Philby!

Jimmy-James the stealth baby man, J, Hughbie, Irma and Steve. Clearly the flash wasn't working, but yeah.

Matty G, Crys - and Crys' two Minnesotan mates - I did get told their names about 3 times, but I was too excited about our friends coming for drinkies to process and actively remember!

Claire, Jacqui, Phil, Riles, Sal-pal and Paul.

First pic of the night. A touch blurs-ville, but does Phil look like a cheeky little kid, or what? Thanks for everything Phil - we' ve had some epic times and laughs - often inappropriate laughs. Well, could there have been anymore funny names in that investigation? :) Smirked in s19... no laughs on the record though (phew!)

Claire made me an awesome cake! What a sweetie :). Dead ringer for me, obviously, and delicious, to boot! (Ha ha, get it? to "boot"). The next novelty cake will have big boots (ha ha) to fill, for sure.

I CAN promise more puns, in posts to come, as well as piccies and hopefully-interesting blah blah.

Hugs a million - and thanks Brisbane, we'll miss ya!

Brisbane...

Last week in Bris. Cleaning, working, moving house and ultimately partying!