All posts by bpheasant

city, travel, USA

Sea World

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Mostly pictures today – Sea World was great; lots of cool mammals & fishes (it turns out that ‘fishes’ is a word in the States) & some great cheesy shows. A particular favourite seemed to be getting the killer whale/pilot whale/dolphin/sea lion/whatever to completely soak those brave/silly enough to sit in the first few rows. Photos (from my little camera that was bought to fulfil the desire to easily take photos while riding – hence, they are average) will tell most of the story. While locking my bike (still making my way around streets on the bike – get a car on Monday; 15 odd miles today) up at the gates at opening time, over the PA came “Good morning & welcome to Sea World; please stand for our national anthem”. At which point everyone stopped what they were doing, stood still, hands on heart & listened/sung along – it was weird, it was only the opening of another theme park for the day. Also at the Shamu (killer whale) show all the veterans & those currently serving & their families had to stand up & be applauded. Something else to get used to I suppose.

One Foot in the Grave

Moray eels – these were particularly ugly & this picture could well be a video – they didn’t move; did have a certain charm about them though

Beluga whale – they were cool

Fat walrus – they didn’t do much, but I do remember that they looked a whole lot cooler on a Weet-Bix card I had when I was about six or seven

We are off camping & boating (I can finally have a decent waterski – it’s been a few years) shortly – off to the Colorado River near the California-Arizona border – almost two hundred miles. Update on the mugging – spoke to the detective this morning & they recovered most of the cash I gave up; that’s a pleasant surprise & will save hassle making travel insurance claims. They must have found it on the freeway, which is quite impressive. I think all five are being charged with four counts of robbery & I would hope one of assault. I hope I don’t have to come back from Philly to appear in court.

bikes, city, friends, travel, USA

Already made the news

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Two very different parts to this blog: one, a nice tourist on a bike one – but a little boring; two, a much more exciting one – but pretty stink altogether.

With the bike together & hopefully enough sunscreen on, it was off to explore a small part of San Diego. Cruised down the hill to Pacific Beach & encountered my first four-way Stop. Not really having a clue, I soon worked out that whoever gets there first has right of way. Riding a bike around the suburban streets was pretty easy & unlike Switzerland last year, I had no problem staying on the right hand side of the road & was easily looking left first. Great walk/cycle/roller-blade way along the coast & it was getting plenty of use.

A nice sea breeze to cool the warm sun & there were plenty of people out enjoying it.

Great to see heaps of bikes out & about – cruisers now make so much more sense than they do in NZ; saw a few choppers, loaded up cycle tourists, pink titanium rims on a pink road bike, & only a few mountain bikes. Went over a couple of bridges & ended up riding around the coast a bit further to Sunshine Cliffs Natural Park, turned around & found my back home – having fun in more congested traffic. Nice to stretch the legs over twenty-four miles.

Looking where I got to on the map after my return made me realise it’s pretty easy to get a few places on bike – even if it is running knobblies. Maybe I’ll cruise down & spend the day at Sea World tomorrow.

So I wrote the first part of that yesterday afternoon – Sea World will have wait until Wednesday after last night’s events. Sometime after dinner & fruitless attempts to get a wireless router to go with Vonage (some phone system – I haven’t quite worked out what it does yet), Anna-Marie, Andrea & I headed out for a couple of beers at Andrea’s favourite bar down PB (Pacific Beach). I was pleasantly surprised by whatever beer I had – can’t remember what, but definitely not Bud – it wasn’t all bad. We strolled from the bar down to get tacos – I was thoroughly confused by Spanish menu, but whatever it was that the girls ordered turned out just fine. The complete opposite to the walk back to Andrea’s house.

After walking through an empty parking lot, some guy started walking towards us from the other side of the street – I didn’t pay much notice, as I just thought he was drunk. What transpired took a good few seconds for me to comprehend – Andrea (who was closest to Hoodlum #1) struggled with him as he tried to snatch her handbag. He wasn’t haven’t too much luck as Andrea had a fair hold of the bag, he only really had the handles. Once I had some measure of comprehension, wafer-thin (“just one more mint, Sir”) me rather ineffectually tried to break it up. Details are a bit vague at this time, but from somewhere another guy came at me with a small baton & chased me around the corner. I wasn’t too keen on this baton & crazy Hoodlum #2 breaking me in half, but thankfully disappeared in to thin air (I was to prove a pretty poor witness!) when a few green notes changed hands. By now the girls were on the other side of the intersection & Hoodlums took off in a black two-door coupe.

By now Anna-Marie was talking to 911 & Andrea had a fair amount of blood from two teeth that had moved south a couple of millimetres after a punch to the face & a nasty looking cut on one finger. Still somewhat staggered we milled around on the main road waiting for the cops to turn up – some half an hour later an ambulance turned up (the paramedic must have been to the Bernard Black School of Public Relations – she was a piece of work), Andrea pretty much had to clean herself up in the back of the ambulance & a fire-engine turned up as well (I love American fire engines – they have so much more presence than NZ ones & are a lot shinier). Eventually the cops turned up.

The two that turned up must have forgotten that good cop-bad cop is for suspects, not witnesses. The one that interviewed Andrea was quite pleasant – the tall one that interviewed Anna-Marie & I was a dickhead. It was about this time I realised how dark it had been & I was such a useless witness. Tall nasty cop pointed out that the guy with the baton never really asked me for money – but I didn’t care, that baton spoke loud enough & I am more than happy to be unharmed & slightly poorer. Sometime around this time (now probably 12.30 – 1.00 am) another unit pulled over a car fitting the rough description of ours some miles away on the freeway (we found out later that a tow-truck driver had seen these guys steal a GPS from his truck & followed them).

When more cops arrived, we each got driven some miles away to where the car & suspects were found for a curbside identity parade. I got my first ride in a police car, & it’s not so bad up front. Unfortunately Officer Sean wasn’t willing to put the flashing lights on for me. When we got there Officer Sean went to sort out the identity parade, I got left in the front of the car & it was all I could do not to turn the flashing lights, the sirens, the PA or the fog horn – not to mention pull the shotgun off the rack – but I could listen to the radio as they called in the helicopter to search for more of our friends. For the next couple of hours we pretty much stood & sat around & Andrea identified a few of her belongings in the car, each of us went through looking at five hoodlums (basically they were each in a car up front of another squad car that had its spotlight on & they would bring each one out to face the light while we wandered up in turn & look at them as they did a nice little spin). Once again, I was next to useless here – one of the five looked like he was one of them, but it was dark previously so I don’t think I was much help. After all that happened we had stick around until a detective turned up to catalogue, photograph & print the items in the car & give back what belonged to Andrea.

All that remained after the Mustang was towed was for the last remaining cop – we were down to one after previously occupying nine cars, a helicopter, a fire engine & a bitchy ambulance – to take us back to Andrea’s house. Cruising down the length of the street it all happened on I got to use the squad car’s spotlight (rather poorly) as we searched for the handbag that may have been thrown out the car. Finally home & in to bed at 4am – what a night!

Today has been comparatively quiet – sleep/lie in until 11am. Andrea has of course been to the doctor & dentist – two teeth that will die with in the week & need to be replaced with titanium, a fractured jaw & no broken fingers. Six thousand bucks apparently – I got off lightly. It’s all still a bit bewildering – did that really happen to us? Normally I have no problem being the skinny little weed that I am – but for once it would have been nice to be Jack Reacher & kick some butt.

I think tomorrow should be Sea World & I probably won’t go out tonight! We even managed to make the news. This one is a bit more accurate.

around home, family, friends, travel, USA

This was supposed to go up two days ago…

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Sunday 7 June 2009

So apparently it’s 1.20 pm in LA, but after crossing the Date Line for the first time & flying through the night I feel like I usually did after a 12 hour night shift (which this flight is in some ways – admittedly there is no molten iron, dust or things to organise & the food is much better) – mostly awake, but slightly seedy. The little monitor in the back of the seat says “Time to Destination – 1:04” – the States are getting closer!

The last two weeks have been nice & relaxing staying at home in Oamaru sorting out last minute details. Apart from being chilly, the weather was generally great (although the little bit of snow down to sea level was quite exciting – & a bit early in May). Twas great to spend time with Mum, Dad & Adele before running away to the other side of the world. Saturday was another pack up before we drove up to Christchurch & the last dinner (& bottle of wine) together, before flying up to Auckland on Sunday morning. In trying to use my new cash card I managed to get it swallowed & destroyed by the ATM – which very much limited my ability to get cash around the world. Nevermind, thankfully National Bank has a few branches open on Sundays & I was able to make a withdrawl by filling in a piece of paper – how quaint – & a new card is on the way to meet me. Big thanks for Andrew & Kate for ferrying me to & from the airport, storing my stuff for a couple of weeks, feeding me & seeing me off.

0:51 – closer still.

Why have I not discovered upgrades & the Koru lounge before? I should travel more. From the huge baggage allowance (with a bike & a full pack it turns out I need it), no queues for customs, sitting in a lounge for two hours & not having to eat fast food, to great food & service, & the chance to get something resembling a sleep (I think I may have managed five or six hours – usually it’s close to nothing) it’s been great. Most importantly, however, were the couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory – Season 2 of course hasn’t screened in NZ yet (of course according to Brian, the Prime Minister of NZ, The Matrix has just come out on video). Also got a bit of a refresher of Season 2 of Conchords – may have been funnier than the first time.

Five minutes until descent…

Not long until I can put my bike together, start riding some American trails & hopefully lose a bit of weight that I’ve put from not riding & eating too much in the last few weeks. But large American portions might do me in. Blinds up – funny, this side of the Pacific looks much the same.

9.20pm

Not super tired, so trying to do the “go to bed at the normal time” to get in to a routine. First sight of US land reminded me of General Melchett looking at the wrong side of a map of the frontline – a barren featureless expanse. Then LA started – & just kept on coming. Quite the opposite of flying in to Heathrow last year – grid patterened streets, flat ground & no greenery. Despite leaving an hour late, the flight landed on time, but we did have to wait on the taxiway for a little while. Got out of LAX easily & quite glad to recognise Bev & Chris (family friends that moved to San Diego eighteen years ago) as soon as I pushed the trolley around the corner.

I never get used to looking left to cross the road quickly & this time proved no different. I enjoyed the two hour drive south to SD & the chance to have people to chat to & catch up with & discuss differences between little NZ & life in California. As expected, everything is just much bigger (fourteen lanes of freeway, SUVs, suburban sprawl, a huge Marine base & so forth). Nice to get to the Turners’ home & look out over SD, have dinner & play Boggle that was mercifully in some form of English – not Klingon. Time for a bed – must be fresh to put the bike together and start exploring (not necessarily related events) tomorrow. And try & get the wireless working.

around home, family, NZ

Oh – the pressure

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All this time I thought it was just Mum that read my ramblings here & they served no other purpose than recording for posterity how I pass some of my time. After being told more often than usual over the last fortnight that my blog would be read, there is a little pressure to come up with some interesting tales. Alas, you will be disappointed – I’ve just checked iPhoto & I haven’t taken any photos since the Queen Charlotte; therefore I can’t have done too much in the last seven weeks! Since that wonderful Easter weekend I also haven’t done a single twelve-hour shift, which has greatly improved my sleeping habits (& if I’m lucky, stopped my forehead growing up).

Of note, was Luke & Naomi’s wedding in Rotorua on a very gloomy ANZAC day. Also, ventured out in the afternoon with Roger & Andrew to watch the singlespeed nationals. It hardly rained at all & had Roger & I wishing that we were more organised & had actually entered. Near the end of the race, we ventured out to check out the course – Yellow Brick Road, gravel road, Pondy New, Rollercoaster tail & most of Old Chevy was a very nice ride. Of course it would have been hard work for me after three laps on a singlespeed, but the trails were in very nice condition. As was to be expected there were some great costumes – my favourite was a guy riding with an ODT satchel on his handlebars, a supersoaker, blood stained trousers, a colourful knitted jersey who protested his innocence when you called out to him. Possibly very bad taste, but I thought it was pretty funny. The shortcut was also amusing as to be allowed through it, the competitors had to skull a can of the sponsor’s product (The Pride of the South) or eat a dry Weet-Bix. One wasn’t allowed to opt for four cans of beer, as that would make it rather hazardous riding (don’t drink & ride). Coincidentally, met up with a couple of QC riders from two weeks before.

Strangely for me, I managed a couple of great rides at Woodhill (strange for the number, not the quality & enjoyment of the rides) – one was in the dry when the sand was slow, but fun for the unpredictability; the other the day after heavy rain – always good to have the sand stuck together. The other notable ride was the 24 hour Moonride again in the Redwoods. This was the third in year in a row I had done the 24 (nothing compared to most of my team mates) – & the second year in a row that it rained heavily for fair chunks of the Friday. Thankfully, it stopped raining by the time we put the tent & set up camp. For the first time in three years, I didn’t ride first & missed the extra kilometre or two of tarseal. Unfortunately, the track was the same as last year, but with a lot less water & mud. I found the track pretty boring and it didn’t have any decent hills (up or down). After running out of fuel on the second lap of my first double (we did doubles for about the first twelve hours), I made sure I ate heaps – we were well catered for, thanks Libby. To break the boredom up, I did a double on the Peace – it was pretty cruisy, unfortunately it was geared too high, so I was spinning on the gravel roads. Caught up with plenty more Hawkes Bay mates from the QC, did another lap on my singlespeed & then managed to break a small, simple, but important suspension linkage (the dogbone) on the i-Drive. Annoyingly, it happened right at the start of my lap – but pleasingly, I could still ride my bike – albeit with the bottom bracket now free to float around & crash in to the swingarm when I went over a bump. I had the pleasure & pressure of riding the last lap for our team. I rode on Michael’s Santa Cruz – much more XC oriented than my bike. I took it pretty easy & managed not to become closely acquainted with the Rotorua dirt (c.f. last year where I lost count of how many times I fell in to the mud) & crossed the timing mat for the last time with ten or so minutes to spare.

The reason I haven’t been doing too much riding or travelling around is that I’ve spent the last few weeks packing up my NZ life & saying goodbye to many & trying to organise bits of a holiday in the States & then living in Britain. Last week I resigned from NZ Steel & next week I leave these fair shores. The basic plan is two months in the States staying with friends (one month in San Diego & one month in Philadelphia) & taking small trips around bits of what is a rather large country. I plan a road trip up to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas & maybe riding in Moab and also five to seven days in each of New York City & Washington DC. I arrive in London at the start of August & hope to get up to Edinburgh for the festival during the latter half of August. After that, I will probably be almost broke & will start the (likely to be difficult) job of finding gainful employment. Needless to say I’m getting pretty excited.

So the last few weeks have been full of packing, giving things away, persuading people to store things, changing addresses, cancelling accounts & other necessary but tedious tasks. On the bright side, it has been a wonderful excuse to catch up with a lot of people & share some fantastic meals. However, I realised today that it was almost three weeks since I’d done any riding & all that food intake was catching up with me (the days of dreaming of reaching 50 kg are well over) – I dragged my first mountain bike of my parents’ garage (I am now down in Oamaru & Timaru spending my last days in NZ with Mum, Dad & Adele) & went for a short ride in the bitter cold. How I ever managed with a rigid frame that was too big for me is a mystery – also the skinny knobblies, cantilever brakes & cheap grip-shift were a reminder of how much I enjoy my softtail (even the singlespeed is nicer to ride!).

Wednesday night was the first night that I spent in the house that Adele & I bought together at the end of February. Although the bed wasn’t conducive to the best night’s sleep, it was good to finally stay there – even if I did get all sorts of landlord-esque jobs. Below are a few photos (thanks Adele) as I’m sure all this text is getting rather tedious. Wonderfully, as I found out in the foggy winter, the house has new carpet in the living areas, new double glazing, a heat pump & underfloor heating in the bathroom (that is now turned on). Adele loves it & I won’t spend all my savings overseas.

One can almost see the sea-view in this view from the living area