casbot.com.au » Travel

Cross when the drawbridge light is green

casbot — Sat, 07 May 2011 12:52:01 +0000

Tim and I went to Wellington for the Easter long weekend (also my birthday). I’d never been to Wellington before, but being that it is in NZ, odds were good it was going to be beautiful.

Wellington is green, windy, hilly and lovely. We stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel, which advertises itself as ‘the only internationally 5-star rated hotel in Wellington’, which I found sort of amusing, but I’m not even sure why.

We were pretty close to a lot of things. The harbour was only a couple of streets away, as was the Cable Car, and Te Papa was just down the road as well.

The construction of Wellington is something I can’t even fathom. Houses cling to the sides of the incredibly steep hills that surround the harbour; in the city centre, buildings tower over others simply because of the dramatic incline the further you get from the water.

Also, I got to try feijoa for the first time in my life. Like chinchillas, I was not even aware this thing existed. They’ve got a strange, medicine-y flavour that’s not at all unpleasant. And the other day, I found that Delicurious has feijoa lemonade, and it was good. I tried to find a reasonable-sized picture of the lemonade, but apparently, Charlie and his Honest Thirst Quenchers don’t like cooperating with me or my blog.

And so we’re now at the point where I humour those who are inclined to say, “Pics or it didn’t happen!” Though why they’d say that to me is anyone’s guess. It’s not like I’ve made outlandish claims of my crazy adventures.

Here’s my own picture of the cable car (this is a stock standard tourist photo, apparently)

Aaaand here it what you’d be seeing if you were in that cable car

Here’s a zoomy looky device with a face

And here’s a more disturbing face, in a playground.

The puppets in NZ have attitude (from the ‘kid’s store’ in the Te Papa Museum)

I think this lion statue looks really awkward and uncomfortable

Well, I’m sold!

Get a new name and cut your hair

casbot — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:59:46 +0000

I’m enjoying the ‘who’s online?’ plugin for WordPress. It’s a lot of fun. I don’t know how people find my blog, because the only people I promote it to are those I know personally, but for some reason there are people from all sorts of places visiting. Hi! Ni hao! Dobry den! Hej!

Chris and I went to Chinatown today and had yum cha at our favourite, Hingara. Then we went to one of my favourite shops, and I don’t even know the name of it. It’s near the Momo shop in one of those arcades that come off Dixon Street. I bought a thing that is sort of like a mask, but also not really. I’m not entirely sure what it’s meant to be, but I think it might be a fan.

I’m tired, so I’m not able to be all that successful in conveying my thoughts into words that are interesting and readable.

It’s Mary’s last week next week, which I’m quite sad about. Also next week is my bday, and we will be in Wellington. I’m looking forward to the cabley car.

I’m surprised that Tim could go up this cabley car at all, considering his debilitating fear of heights. Here is a bridge that made his face completely white:

This bridge is in Canada, close to Vancouver. Tim and I started walking across, and he started getting scared a few steps out, and so he turned and went back to solid land. I continued on, and got to play in the treetops over the other side (they had lots of platforms and ladders and rope bridges and everything a person could want to play on). Whenever we talk about it, Tim increases the distance he says he got out to on the bridge, until it’s almost to the point where he crossed the bridge, and walked through the woods on the other side.

Just now I showed him the picture, and he said, ‘oh yeah, that’s the bridge I went 15 metres out on!’. And then, ‘What are you writing about? How I walked out 25 metres?’

The bridge is called the Capilano Suspension Bridge, and it’s pretty fun. When we were walking across it, there were some dumb kids jumping up and down and running back & forth, and making the bridge sway, which might have contributed to Tim’s reluctance to continue on it. It was still good.

Hello from Gatwick Airport

casbot — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:43:06 +0000

(copied from an email)

I haven’t sent a proper email before now because it’s just not *fun* typing on the iPad, and I know none of you would want me to feel like writing to you was a chore. So, of course I will try to make up for my lack of contact now by writing an email that is neither too short or too long, and is filled to the brim with exciting tales of adventures through the rugged Scottish highlands…

However, I only have 43 minutes of internet time remaining, so I’ll just do what I can. Internet here at Gatwick is a bit ridiculous, because, despite the fact that you have to pay £5 for an hour of internet time, you still get a proliferance of advertisements adorning your screen. Greedy much, Gatwick? It’s just like when you go to the movies and they show ads, even though you’ve paid close to $20 for the ticket! It’s enough to make a person waste their first email home on righteous indignation.

As I said above, I’m now at Gatwick airport. That means that the first part of my trip is over and done with (Scotland and England), and the next part is about to begin (Europe). First stop in Europe – Vienna. I’m looking forward to seeing Max and Theresa, who I’ll be staying with. Some of you may know them as the Germans who were staying with Tim and I in Brisbane; couchsurfers who turned into dear friends. After that, a train trip to Prague to meet up with my wonderful pal Ben, and then back to his current home in Rome. I fly home to Sydney from Rome on 18 January.

Mum left Anna’s place (where we’ve been staying) in Brighton yesterday at lunchtime to stay at Heathrow, or near Heathrow, as her flight left early this morning. She’ll be landing in Sydney and staying with Tim for a night before heading back to Brisbane.

Scotland:
Mum met me at Heathrow on 29 December London time, late in the afternoon. My flight had been uneventful, fortunately, and the seven-hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur wasn’t too taxing. The immigration line at Heathrow was much more frustrating than the stopover, in fact, and I’m glad I won’t be flying out of there again. Gatwick is a much nicer airport – employing more staff and with lots of helpers around the place. People are quite surly at Heathrow (mind you, I would be, too, if I had to work there).

Mum and I picked up the car from Budget, and commenced our journey to the North. We stopped at Leicester for the night, and continued on the next morning to Inverness. The scenery along the drive was amazing, and as we drove past Perth, the sun appeared and lit up trees and fields covered with pristine snow. The roads were clear, and apart from some fog, everything was fine apart from a stressful spot just outside Inverness, where it got very cold and our windscreen wipers ran out of water. We managed to get going again though.

When we finally arrived at Inverness, we were greeted by Karena and Neil and their babies, Katie and Kieran. They are amazing hosts, so friendly, helpful and generous. It was like having a home away from home, and very comforting after the last part of the drive being so stressful. While in Inverness we visited Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle (pronounced Ack-hurt). I slipped and fell on the castle, and hurt my knee, but I figured I`d gotten the bad fall out of the way early in the holiday. We also went for a walk into the city centre with Karena, Neil, Katie & Kieran, on New Year’s Day, when the streets were quiet. Inverness is beautiful, and looks very old. You can almost imagine people in the middle ages going about their business on the paved streets and alleys. The view from the Castle down the river, both directions, is amazing. I uploaded some photos to facebook of the trip, and might put more up later.

After Inverness, we went on to Edinburgh, with a stop in Stirling along the way to visit the castle there. It was incredibly cold up on the battlements, and I almost wanted to go back to the car and huddle inside! I think that’s probably the only time you’ll read those words from me, as every other time has been fine. I love the cold It was quite interesting to hear the stories of the castle, and then we also went to hear a talk about people who are making replicas of the Unicorn Tapestries. I’m still not sure of the significance of the unicorn, but it seems to be everywhere in Scotland.

We stayed in an amazing little apartment in Edinburgh, where we had our own little kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom, and even a washing machine, which we made use of. Mum had bought a DVD set of ‘Getting on’, a series about a British hospital, that we watched each evening and finished the entire series. We went walking through Edinburgh in the daytime, and would then go home and rest, having dinner in the apartment. We also got to meet up with Andy, who hosted Noelle and I on our first visit to Edinburgh in 2008, and his fiancee, Gayle. They took us on an outing to Cramond, which is by the sea, and where the footpaths were slippery with half-melted snow and ice. THere is also a path that you can walk on there when the tide is low that takes you out to a little island, but it was high tide when we were there. We went for a walk down a little pathway to a cafe in a lady’s house, where you walk through her house to get to the tables and chairs. It was lovely sitting inside, eating homemade soup and watching people slip and slide across the snow outside.

We also visited Edinburgh Castle, and Mary King’s Close, which is one of the streets that the current city is built on top of. The history of Edinburgh is fascinating.

As I’ve only got 9 minutes left here, I will finish this chapter. I hope you are all well, that it’s not too hot (for those in Australia), not too cold (for those in the northern hemisphere) and that 2011 has started out positively for everyone.

Leaving for New York

casbot — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:58:08 +0000

I am at the Sydney international airport, waiting to be let through to the gate so I can sit and wait another 2 hours before our flight starts boarding.

I’m psyched because I get to fly on the A380 airbus, and I’m hoping it will be a little better than the usual economy conditions on other types of planes.

Anyway, I guess I will talk to you all later! This is an adventure, because I have never flown internationally by myself, and I’ve also never taken a trip to the airport by myself, and not had anyone to see me off.

I will be bored because I was looking for a newsagency, you know the ones they have at airports, that sell books as well, but I didnt’ find one. So I don’t have anything to read.

I’ll let you know when I get to NYC! I’ve got to transfer to a Virgin AMerica flight when I get to LA, which will also be an adventure.

No scribbles!

casbot — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:04:00 +0000

This is just a quick note to say hi, and let you know that I’m still alive and well, exploring Japan and making friends with random animals here

As those of you who I’m connected with on facebook will know, I have uploaded some photos to facebook. My internet connection here is patchy at best, so once I upload the photos, I don’t email them or anything because it could take an entire day for the thing to send. I might send some pics to Picasa once I get back to Tokyo, but for now, add me on facebook (if you haven’t already) if you feel like looking at some pics of Japan. I think it won’t come up with a photo at first, but it will be me if it’s Cass Brisbane.

Anyways, right now Tim and I are in Himeji. It’s almost four hours by train from Tokyo, and about an hour from Kyoto. Yesterday we visited Himeji Castle, and it was amazing. Today we had a tour of Kyoto Imperial Palace and Nijo Castle, and that was really cool also. Tomorrow we’re going to Hiroshima to visit the peace museum, the A-bomb Dome, and Hiroshima Castle. We’re also going to visit Miyajima, which is an island with floating torii (those red shrine gates – wiki it if you’re interested and we’re also going to visit Kyoto again, and Nara, which is where some deer live, plus a giant buddha.

On 1 December we head back up to Tokyo, back into the bright lights and crowds of the big city. We’ve got a few more things to explore in Tokyo yet (we haven’t even been to Shibuya Scramble!) and we also want to visit Tokyo Disney Sea.

I’m doing well in choosing the destinations and sights to visit, and Tim is doing an excellent job of sorting out the logistics of that, such as which train line we should catch, which side of the platform we should be standing on, which station we should get off at and which direction we should be walking when we exit the station. He’s a natural at all that kind of stuff, whereas I’m mostly distracted by all the shiny, pretty things (of which there are many here in Japan). All in all, I think we make a good team. I take all the photos, and Tim sometimes cooperates by posing (even when I don’t ask him to).

So far I have found Japan to be convenient, innovative, friendly, polite, navigable (if you have a Tim), beautiful, ancient and modern, and not really that expensive at all. I don’t know what everyone goes on about, I’ve found Japan to be less expensive than any other overseas country I’ve visited. Everything seems to be very reasonably priced, some things are downright cheap, and the 100 yen shop is the cherry on top of an already deliciously affordable cake.

Japan is awesome. I thoroughly recommend it.

I hope you’re all well and happy, and coping with the heat (for those of you in Aus, that is )!

In Japan!!!1

casbot — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:08:03 +0000

Tim and I are in Japan, safe and sound. I’m writing this from the little desk in our hotel room, with the free cable internet. We almost had to call off the trip when we got to Coolangatta airport, as my passport wouldn’t scan. They eventually discovered there was an ‘m’ missing from the corner of the photo page (Tim created a conspiracy theory involving Po snacking on my passport, but that would never hold up in any kind of court). In the end, the customs guy said that it was fine from their end, my passport is still valid despite the small damage on the corner of the page, and that the thing I would need to worry about now was getting into Japan.

I stressed a little bit on the plane, then when we got to Japan, the guy who scanned my passport ended up just using the chip reader and it was all fine. Japan’s customs and immigration thingy is so much less hassle than Australia’s.

Anyway, after some standing around looking at signs, we eventually made our way to Ikebukuro (where our hotel is). We caught the train from the airport, and it was nice and comfy. A girl with a trolley of exciting foods came around, and Tim got yellow pringles (they were salt flavour). I got an orange juice, being that they stuffed us on the plane. The food was quite good.

On the plane, we had the very first seats in starclass. The seats were roomy, they reclined and had foot rests. They kept feeding us, and it was yum.

So far everything has been fairly straightforward. Signs are in English and Japanese, and we had no trouble following the map to get to our hotel (a 5 minute walk straight up the road from the station). We’re pretty much set here, with a decent room close to the station, easy to get to, with lots of little food places and alleys full of things to explore. Everything is still bustling at 10:00pm on a Sunday night, and I’m not just talking about clubs. There are electronics shops with guys standing out the front with megaphones, thrusting flyers at you as you walk past.

Also, it’s freezing. But not inside. Inside is stuffy.

Tomorrow we are going to the Ghibli Museum. I’m psyched.

Btw, I found out that my phone does work here on roaming, so if you send me a text or something chances are that I’ll get it. I’ll send updates through when I can.

i’m going to head off to bed now. Our hotel gave us pyjamas and slippers. We get to keep the slippers. Plus, our bathroom has a toilet with buttons on the wall. I’m going to have to figure that one out.

That’s what you get…

casbot — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:21:38 +0000

The planning for Japan is coming along nicely. Today I received confirmation that we were able to book in on our preferred date for the Ghibli museum. I’m so psyched – lifesize catbus!!!! Also, I saw a picture on the Ghibli museum website of Hayao Miyazaki sitting in front of one of the robots from ‘Laputa Castle in the Sky’. Here he is:

The resolution isn’t high enough for me to tell what his expression actually is, but I’d like to think he’s delighted.

And why wouldn’t he be? Living in a country where things like what’s pictured below are just an everyday occurrence…

Some friends of mine

We do what we must

casbot — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:04:21 +0000

I just finished watching Sakuran. It was visually sumptuous – the colours, the designs, the clothes… And tomorrow, Tim and I are going to see Trina to sort the details of our Japan trip. I am so excited. It might be because this has been something I’ve dreamed of for around 15 years now.

Watching the Amazing Race the other night, and seeing the teams in Japan, in Tokyo, rushing through Shibuya… all these things that Tim and I will be doing in just over a month’s time…

Well. I can’t get ahead of myself. There’s still a few weeks to go yet, and Tim and I also have to concentrate on selling the house.

Still, it’s exciting!!!!

Say what you feel, I’m listening

casbot — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:42:11 +0000

Before I go any further, let me just offer this:

Don’t get me wrong. I, personally, do not hate sandcastles. I quite like them. I also like this kid. The thing I find funny about it is that, after I laughed at his expression, I then noticed that it looks like he’s been eating sand. I don’t think he really hates sandcastles, I think he loves them, but in a culinary sense. Perhaps his hatred is a front, an excuse for the destruction, then afterwards he’s like, “well, it’s ruined, you won’t mind if I take a piece. Nomnomnom.”

So anyway, on with what I actually meant to say… Tim is on his way home as I type this! YAY! I think he won’t be in the best of moods when he gets in, because his plane from LA to Sydney was delayed by about two hours, so he’s going to miss his connecting flight from Sydney to Brisbane. He had caught an earlier flight from New York to LA, because he was worried about making his LA to Sydney flight. LAX can be a real bitch for connections, because they’re so pedantic and annoying. Plus it’s just a stupid airport (so I’ve heard, from several different people). So I know he’ll be tired and fed up, but I’m just going to be so happy to have him home.

A slight deviation – If you are doing an image search, check out this site: Flickr Related Tag Browser

So, this has been Tim’s journey:

Brisbane -> Tokyo -> Singapore ->London -> Frankfurt -> Paris -> London -> Boston -> New Hampshire -> Boston -> New York -> Philadelphia -> New York -> LA -> Sydney -> Brisbane

All that in three weeks. I think that list is right… It’s just the side trips I’m not 100% sure of.

Chris came over this afternoon and hung out for a while. We watched Little People, Big World (there was a weekend marathon of LPBW on) and talked about things. Then, Noelle arrived and we had to stop talking about her and talk about something else. Just kidding. We still talked about her. Not. Ok. I’m going to stop that doubletalk now. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Chris and Noelle, and Po. We watched the Pilot episode of “Dead Like Me”, and then Chris went home to his Doon but Noelle and I kept watching episode after episode of Dead Like Me. I really like it. The girl looks like she’s about 15, but she has weird, grown-up hands. They’re creepy, but it really fits in with the whole grim reaper theme. It reminds me of one of the radio shows of Ricky, Karl and Steve when they were talking about how they had watched that interview with Michael Jackson, where that guy followed him around and you got to see what his life consisted of. When they asked Karl’s opinion on Michael Jackson, he said, “‘e’s got big ‘ands, ain’t ‘e?” (substitute the extra apostrophes for ‘h’ in case you’re not familiar with his accent). Ricky and Steve laughed at Karl, just one more in a long line of extreme non-sequiturs. I can’t listen to the podcasts without laughing out loud. Sometimes I have to stop what I’m doing so that I can concentrate on not laughing too loud, because when I’m listening to the shows I am at work. It’s my escape from the daily grind (like Gloria Jeans wants to be, but we have a coffee machine in the lunch room at work so why would I go all the way to Gloria Jeans to escape the daily grind, there’s not even one near my work.)

I’m really tired. Here is another funny picture (I find it funny. Actually, I find it hilarious. I’m not sure why. Don’t get mad at me if you don’t find it as amusing as I did):

I think I really like that the thing behind it is so ugly, and the text is small and plain, and you could sort of imagine that kitten saying that. If you’re great at anthropomorphising like I am. Not as great as Karl Pilkington, who apparently saw a bee have a heart attack (because London is so stressful and all). Karl also said that ginger cats are always fat (you never see a skinny ginger cat, according to Karl) because life’s more stressful for them than other cats, because they would get picked on for being ginger. He also said they always look ‘fed up’.

Lauren and Nathan are coming over tomorrow morning to hang out before we go get Tim from the airport. Yay!

You’ve gotta be made of Milo

casbot — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:49:24 +0000

When you think about it, that catchphrase is pretty disturbing. You’ve got to be made of Milo, and then they would like you to buy Milo, so if you are made of Milo and then consume Milo, doesn’t that make you a cannibal?

Milo advocates cannibalism!

I am having trouble concentrating on this, since I’m sitting in the living room and Tim is sitting next to me on the couch playing GTA4, my train of thought is constantly interrupted by police sirens and random soundbites of NPCs.

I’m going to interview Tim about various aspects of our holiday, just for a different point of view. He has trouble doing two things at once. I wonder how irritated he gets by my questions.

What is your favourite purchase from the US?
Tim: GTA4
Originally, Tim’s answer was “Lucky Brand Jeans”, but I reminded him that he bought those in Canada, not the US.

What’s your favourite souvenir from the holiday?
Tim: I think maybe that skull thing mask that I got for Dad.
This is a small, dark brown tribal mask he got in Canada.

What’s the thing you missed most while you were away?
Tim: Po
Po is our cat. He stayed with Lauren and Nathan (sister & brother-in-law) while we were away.

What’s the thing that you missed the most about Australia?
Tim: Driving on the left-hand side of the road.
Me: Really?
Time: No… I don’t know how to explain it. Just the way it feels like home here, the atmosphere. I don’t know if that’s a good explanation or not.

What did you like most about the US?
Tim: The Oregon Coast

What did you like least about the US?
Tim: Um.. Some of the people. Like, some of the sales staff and that were a bit brusque.

What was the best food you tasted in America?
Tim: Probably that steak at the San Francisco mall.
To explain – that steak was “Char-roasted Sirloin Tri-tip” from “Buckhorn Grill” in the Westfield mall on Market Street in San Francisco.

What was the worst food you tasted in America?
Tim: Probably those french fries we got that night that were cold and… you remember? They had the skin on them and all that.
These were fries we got through a room service thing from a local restaurant. They were cold by the time we got them, and undercooked, and they had potato skin on them, and some sort of seasoning.

What are you going to miss about the US?
Tim: Being on holiday.
Me: I knew you were going to say that. It’s not really specific to the US.
Tim: I know. Um… Probably the views of driving up the coast.

What was the funniest thing that happened on the holiday?
Tim: When I gave the quarter to the homeless man, and he paid me out. No, I gave him the change I had, and he paid me out.
There were these homeless guys standing outside Subway, where we bought dinner. As we walked out, they asked us for money. I didn’t have any cash (I relied on Tim for cash, since my cashcard didn’t work in the US) but Tim dropped what change he had from Subway into their cup. The guy he gave it to then proceeded to complain about how little Tim had given him, and “you coulda at least given me a dollar”. Isn’t there a saying that beggars can’t be choosy, or choosers? Gosh!