Jump to page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 >>

Friday, 14 December 2012 - Three weeks off, and three major shootings

 
 
Today was my last day of work for the year, and since first arriving here in late June my odometer clicked over 2,000kms during the week. Good times in Manhattan traffic!
 
And it's making international headlines, but if you live under a rock, the third (yes third) major US shooting of 2012 happened today not far north of New York in the state of Connecticut. The little rural town of Newtown sounded like one of the most insulated and safest corners of the country, and no one ever dreamed something like this could happen in the place like this, especially my workmate who lives here. Her teenage son was locked down in a high school just up the street. The shooter was a 20-year-old kid, apparently autistic, and whose mother was later found shot dead in the house they shared. He is among the 28 dead, which includes 20 children between the ages of just 5 and 10. What could possibly motivate anybody to do this?! The mind boggles. Full story here. Gun control is something this country needs to seriously address. Three major shootings this year along, I saw the aftermath of a shooting just last week, and today's attack was courtesy of a Glock, a SIG Sauer, and a semi-automatic rifle, all of which actually belonged to the slain mother - legally purchased and registered. Why the fuck does anyone, let alone a kindergarten teacher, need a semi-automatic rifle, or any guns?! The mind boggles.

Saturday, 15 December 2012 - SantaCon

 
 
My roommate Jeff and his fiancé Sarah who are due to wed next summer. They asked me to get a few snappy-snaps of them in Grand Central Station for their Save the Date cards / magnets.
 
Also in Grand Central, and pretty much everywhere else in the city, were thousands of folks dressed up as Santa (or other Christmas-themed things) for New York's annual SantaCon hahaha! I found out about too late to sort myself out with a Santa suit, but maybe next year :)

Monday, 17 December 2012 - A Wedding in Time Lapse
Exactly a month ago I was at a wedding in Alabama, and spent the bulk of that day capturing footage to compile into a time lapse video similar to the New York time lapse I did when I first got here. And this is the finished result if anybody is interested :)

Thursday, 20 December 2012 - The end is nigh?

I think I was a only a kid when I first heard the world was going to end on December 21, 2012 due to the Mayan calendar coming to an end. Whenever it was, I have always looked forward to this day hehe. Not in the hope that it would, but due to the hype it would create and to see whether anything interesting would actually occur besides end-of-the-world parties. I, like many others I guess, have since learned the Mayan calendar does not in fact end tomorrow, but instead finishes one of its great cycles and starts another, similar to the concept of a year in our own modern calendar (the Gregorian calendar). Using the most common conversion to our calendar, the end of this cycle corresponds to 11:11am UTC tomorrow (12:11am the next day in New Zealand, 10:11pm in Sydney, 11:11am in Britain, and 6:11am in New York meaning I'll be asleep - might set my alarm :) According to NASA scientists, who have thoroughly studied and analysed the possibility of the Earth ending in 2012, about the most interesting thing that is forecast to happen is the usual December solstice (shortest day of the year in terms of daylight hours in the northern hemisphere, longest day in the south). I guess we'll all know soon enough!
 

Friday, 21 December 2012 - No surprises there

So yet another apocalypse prediction has come and gone. History is littered with such predictions, such as these examples. Virtually all of them are based on the bible and/or some laughable religion. It's incredible to me, mind-boggling in fact, the utter ludicrous nonsense that some people blindly and whole-heartedly believe in. Add to that how contradictory religion is - I mean, they can't all be right, though if you ask me none them are right to begin with. I guess that's why they call it (blind) faith. For every apocalypse prediction, there is a group of people who give up their worldly possessions only to be completely gobsmacked that the sun still rose on mankind the following day, and that their 'lord and saviour' never showed hahaha! If you do good things, then I like to think good things will happen to you. It doesn't always work out that way but it's a nice thought. On the other hand, if you're a dumbass who doesn't think for yourself and blindly follows something just because it's written in some book or because some dork holding a book claims it to be so, then this is what you get. If you get a random email from a random address claiming you've won a million dollars and you blindly proceed with whatever it says you need to do, then you deserve what you get (scammed). Same concept.

This prediction was a little different. Rather than being based on religion, it was based on the misinterpretation of an ancient calendar. However, as before, a group of people are still utterly gobsmacked today. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Smarten up! The end of the world will come, as it does for every object in the universe as is scientifically understood, but not because something ordained it to be so.

 
 
Jesus facepalm.

Sunday, 23 December 2012 - Vot, no Germans?!

 
After two weeks of training over in New Jersey, Kristina started back at her new job today as a fully-trained 'travel expert' hehe. Very appropriate if you ask me.
 
After meeting her for lunch I hung out at the New York Public Library for the (bloody freezing) afternoon. With nearly 53 million items, this is the second largest public library in the United States. This here is Rose Main Reading Room which is probably the most recognisable image of the inside of the library (the rest of it is a bit of a maze).
 
 
When Kristina got off work we went down to Union Square to check out one of the many Christmas markets around the city, and it was nothing short of chaos! We were really after some German sausage and mulled wine, but were disappointed to find this market had no sausage, and had run out of mulled wine - bugger!
 
Not to worry, we went home and made our own hehe, and it was goooood! Recipe here :)

Monday, 24 December 2012 - 'Twas the night before

 
Huge-ass thing of ham, capsicum (or bell peppers as they're called here), red onions, broccoli, garlic, spuds, and a couple hours later...
 
Voila! This should see us through, and notice the big container of mulled wine in the backround :)

Tuesday, 25 December 2012 - Christmas workout

 
Merry Christmas to you and yours :)
 

Wednesday, 26 December 2012 - Radio City Christmas Spectacular

 
This here is Radio City Music Hall, literally right across the road from my office. Radio City is an entertainment complex opened in 1932, and it's pretty bloody impressive inside!
 
 
With a seating capacity of over 6,000, Radio City was the largest movie theatre in the world at the time of its opening. These days it hosts various shows and concerts.
 
 
Radio City is home to The Rockettes, a "precision" dance company famous for their shows during the Christmas season which they've been putting on every year for 80 years now. That show is known as the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and this is what we were here to see! The show features over 140 performers, lavish sets and costumes and an original musical score. The 90 minute revue combines singing, dancing and humour with traditional scenes in spectacular stage settings. Since the first version was presented in 1933, the show has become a New York Christmas tradition seen by more than a million visitors a year.

Friday, 28 December 2012 - Colder than a witch's tit

 
Looking at this you'd almost think it had been a nice day in New York today. The sort of day that Aaron, given he's on holiday, would have got on his bike, harassed people with his air horn, and gone exploring.
 
But, you'd be wrong. This is my bedroom deck, covered by a layer of ice hehe. It's going to be a long couple of months.

Sunday, 30 December 2012 - Flatmates / Roommates

When I lived in Brisbane I shared a four-bedroom house with three other people (two guys and a girl), and they were pretty terrible at cleaning up the kitchen after cooking a feed. When I lived in Edinburgh I shared a three-bedroom flat with two other people (a guy and a girl), and they were somewhat better. When I lived in London I shared a two-bedroom flat with various others couples over the three years I was there, and all of them were bloody terrible and cleaning anything part of the flat up let alone the kitchen. I now live in New York in a three-bedroom apartment with two other 30-year-old guys (and Kristina), and this is the current state of our kitchen hehe! I went down there just now wanting to cook up some lunch, only to find all of our pans in a big greasy heap in the kitchen sink along with much of our crockery, and to find the dishwasher virtually empty. Now this really is a pet-peeve of mine. When you're done cooking, clean up after yourself! Either wash your dishes and stack them to dry, or put them in the dishwasher, or just do something other than leaving your crap resembling an Egyptian pyramid so your roommates have to dig through it if they need something to cook with. Add to that our washing machine is sitting there with someone else's crap in it, our dryer is sitting there with someone else's crap in it, and they'll stay that way until either I throw it on the floor or in a few days someone vaguely remembers doing some laundry. I've already said our (Kristina and I) next move will be south to warmer weather. It'll also be on our own!
 

Tuesday, 1 January 2013 - Another year, another location

 
Last year it was New Zealand, the year before it was London, the year before that it was Romania of all places, and this year it's the Big Apple - four different cities in four different countries for four New Year's in a row :)
 
Originally we were considering packing into Times Square with about a million other idiots to watch the ball drop, but with sub-zero temperatures and a better (warmer) game plan for next year with the same thing in mind, we thought better of it and stayed indoors.
 
 
We started out at a mate's apartment in upper Manhattan to get the ball rolling and the booze flowing, before moving on to a bar somewhere nearby (I say somewhere because I barely remember).
 

 
 
10, 9, 8, 7, lose count for a bit, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR - woop woop!

 
 
And what better way to start a new year than with a little inappropriate touching between your roommates, and by emptying your stomach of last year's contents hehe. Good stuff.
 
Sometime between our coming home and my roommates coming home, the lock on our apartment building's door had jammed. In a fit of drunken rage, my roommate tore the two door handles clean off, Incredible Hulk style hahaha! Our building superintendent was not impressed.

Saturday, 5 January 2013 - Aaron around Hawaii, soon

 
I've always wanted to go to Hawaii - who hasn't?! Growing up it was the cliché idea of paradise, and it just so happens to be about half way between New York and New Zealand (while still being part of the United States - trippy). While Kristina and I have been planning out our travels for the year, my Mum put out the idea of us all meeting up in Hawaii at some point. Well alrighty then! The plan at this stage is late August / early September for two full weeks, taking in Oahu, Maui, Big Island, and also Kauai if at all feasible (i.e. the four main islands). Booooom!

Sunday, 6 January 2013 - Ice / snow skating

 
 
This is the Citi Pond ice rink in Bryant Park, Midtown Manhattan where Kristina and I tried to come skating on Christmas Day. That plan changed when we saw the two-hour lines but today we were back!
 
Only a 20-minute wait this time but shit it felt like half the city was on the ice! The amount of ice getting gouged up made it feel as though we were skating on snow. Anyway, there's me leading the pack - still got it ;)

Wednesday, 9 January 2013 - New York, always in the news for something or other

 
Pretty much every day I have a quick squiz through BBC News. Although it's obviously a British-based news organisation, their international coverage is better than any American news site I know of (no surprises there). What's more, New York never ceases to be in there somewhere. Almost every other day, something has happened in or around New York that is considered newsworthy for the British hehe. And today it was this - a commuter ferry slammed hard and fast into the dock at Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan this morning during rush hour. Good excuse for a ride, I cruised on down there after to work to have a look. Unless you knew otherwise, you wouldn't think anything had happened, but earlier it was carnage! No one was killed but no less than about 70 people on board were injured, one seriously after being thrown down stairs. More info here. Considering the number of ferries that service the island of Manhattan, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Check this one out from 2003 - damn!

Thursday, 10 January 2013 - Ain't nobody got time for that!

 
This lovely lassie from Oklahoma City who goes by the name "Sweet Brown" has been doing the rounds on the interwebs. Last April her apartment building caught fire and she was interviewed by the local news channel. That alone was hilarious, but then someone made it even better. Original news clip here, and the remix here :)
 

Friday, 11 January 2013 - The flu - ain't nobody got time for that!
Apparently much of the US is in the midst of a major flu outbreak, with the mayor of Boston (a short ways north of New York) even going so far as to declare a public health emergency in response to four flu-related deaths. In New York City the outbreak has been described as an 'epidemic' with emergency rooms full of sickies. I've got the sniffles myself but nothing close to the flu, and I did have my yearly flu jab a couple months back - phew! More info here.

Saturday, 12 January 2013 - Birthday with the weirdoes

 
 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTINA! These two cool cats are Josh and Kel, Kristina's mates who flew in from Pittsburgh for the weekend. Kel has been to New York several times but for Josh this was his first time, and he was like a kid in a candy store when we checked out Times Square hehe.
 
Despite the ferry crash last week and recently learning of the Staten Island Ferry's two big smashes in the last ten years, we jumped straight on it (with dozens of angry-looking seagulls following us).

 
 
The ferry is free, and offers an awesome view of Lower Manhattan (despite the weather today).
 
It also passes within viewing distance of the Statue of Liberty.
 
As for Staten Island (a borough of New York City), there is absolutely bugger all of interest. So after the 20-minute ferry ride we jumped straight onto another heading back to Manhattan.

 
Back in Manhattan outside of the ferry terminal was a random street show by these three black guys, who really played on the whole black thing. Funny stuff.
 
 
I attracted their attention by taking photos and was pulled into the action. In a nutshell, we were all told to bend over while one of them did a huge somersault over top of us. I'm sure it looked impressive, though I didn't get to see it. Instead I was just waiting for a black dude to come crashing down on me.
 
 
This is the dude who flipped over us - posing for Kristina. Every time we tour somebody around New York, we never fail to encounter some of the classic oddities of the city - its inhabitants. We usually encounter them on the Subway, but not always. There was some guy standing outside of the ferry terminal yelling and screaming at the ground for example hahaha (maybe at a cockroach). During one of our many subway trips we met this dude, seemingly stuck in the 80s. He was listening to a cassette tape Walkman and started telling us about how great things were back in the day. He then went on to tell us he lives in a 1993 school bus up in Connecticut somewhere, and smokes a lot of weed. Good times!

Monday, 14 January 2013 - 'No pants' day on the Subway
Gutted I didn't know about this! I'll mark it on my calendar for next year ;)

Tuesday, 15 January 2013 - "Man Hit by Subway After Defecating Between Cars"
I shouldn't laugh, but sometimes you just can't help it you know. I don't know what it is about the New York Subway, but it just seems to attract weirdoes! I got the following alert on my phone today from a local new station: "BREAKING: 1 Dead, 1 Injured at 125th Street Station." As per this news article, the dead man was taking a dump between subway cars, lost his balance, and fell overboard as the train was leaving the station. In an entirely separate incident but at the same station, a homeless man was seen wandering out of a train tunnel with a broken pelvis and bleeding. He told police he's not sure what happened hahaha! You couldn't make this stuff up!

Thursday, 17 January 2013 - Eight years!
Eight years ago today I started on this incredible adventure that continues to get more incredible each and every year. January 17, 2005, I left the comforts of home in little Christchurch, New Zealand and embarked on an overseas experience of unknown length, journey or final destination. As at this point last year, I had lived in Brisbane, Edinburgh, London, and Paris, travelled to more places than I can probably recall off-hand, and was in the midst of a ten-month leave of absence from the world with my beautiful girlfriend Kristina as we travelled the globe.

Up until last year, I always had a plan for at least the following 12 to 24 months as my travels continued, but for the first time I was almost clutching at straws. The possibility of a job in New York with my London-based employer was my plan A, but far from a certainty given how many things had to fall neatly into place to make that a reality. Canada was my Plan B but that option was rife with obstacles, and as for a plan C, I didn't really have one. Be that as it may, I'm now sitting here in my apartment a stone's throw from Manhattan, with Kristina snoring like a wild boar in bed over there. Needless to say, I never imagined this eight years ago. Hell, when I started this website later that year, I never imagined I'd still be filling it with crap this far on either!

Assuming my bid for a more indefinite US work visa is successful later this year, New York is my plan for the 12 to 24 months ahead. What happens thereafter is, as it has been for the last eight years, a question mark. The journey continues and my final destination is still far from obvious. And that's the way I like it, at least for now :) Keep watching this space...

Jump to page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 >>


Page Comments


I'm glad I got to see a teeny bit of the world with you, my awesome travel buddy, before having Ella lol :P
- Jen

Time flies when you're having fun (or having kids in your case).
- Aaron

correction, 6.5 years, still scary :P
- Jen

woah 8 years, scary man, that means I've known you for 7.5 years! where the hell has the time gone....
- Jen