Personal

I’m going to take Annie Mac’s “can’t stopper” tag and run with it here for a bit. I’ve been going freaking crazy lately. After the whole hurricane business and getting cabin fever and so forth I’ve decided to make up for that. Wednesday night I went to see Youssou N’Dour with an Egyptian orchestra backing him. That was just simply amazing. Thursday night I went to see Depeche Mode. Might I add that they weren’t playing in Fort Lauderdale - that concert got cancelled - but they were playing in Tampa which is over a 3 hour drive away. Not bad for a Thursday night. Big props to the driver for keeping us all awake with the cool music. Tonight is Ozomatli in South Beach. Tomorrow night I’ve been given a tip that “La Covacha” would be a good place to check out. It’s a full-on Latin club and I’m wondering if they understand Australian there. ...

Most of them are online here.

Most of this morning has been spent catching up with workmates and what their experience with the hurricane was. Although many have had their power restored, some haven’t (including myself) and it actually shows. I made a fairly good effort to make it look like stuff was normal by shaving this morning and this has fooled people into thinking that I have power back. It is taking me a while to get any sort of intelligent thought back into my head though. ...

Hopefully I’m able to hit “publish post” before the power goes out this time… Wilma is nearly upon us (as in, the worst is yet to come) and not long ago I was woken by the howling winds outside my bedroom window. It’s still pretty dark outside. I added another notch to my belt of experiences in the US, that of putting up hurricane shutters. I was able to convince my flatmate yesterday that this would be a good idea so we spent a few hours figuring out how the shutters got put up. That was a downright pain in the arse but we got the big windows on the bottom floor shuttered up as well as a top floor window that was pretty large. ...

I’ve just gotten back from another Panthers game, and this time they won! This doesn’t happen that often when I go to watch a game. It seemed for a while there that I was not going to see a Florida team win in any of the baseball, basketball, college football or ice hockey games that I went to watch. One thing I was hoping to see was a bit of fighting action. Call it the neanderthal in me but there is a saying that goes: “I went to watch a fight and a hockey game broke out” - and a bit of a fist fight always adds a bit more to the game. Yes, how primitive of me. However I must let it be known that I do not enjoy watching boxing. Not in the slightest. ...

Ok, so I’ve just arrived at work and I’m feeling a little better this morning, but I think I need some music medicine to get the rest of the bad demons away. I’m going to see if this little concoction will work: Writing to reach you - Travis (to match my mood) Easy - Faith no more I feel loved - Depeche Mode Sweetness and light - Itchy and scratchy (classic track that one) I still haven’t found what I’m looking for - U2 (awesome, awesome song) Last train to trancentral - KLF Anything but you - Way out west (awesome dance track) No leaf clover - Metallica Hold your colour - Pendulum (wickedly awesome DnB from some Oz guys) Feelings - Shy FX and T Power (nice DnB track) ...

It’s 12:20am, I’m in a writing mood. I actually went to see Santos Renuentes play at a place called Hoy Como Ayer in Miami. The section of Miami this place was located in is known as “Little Havana” and it lived up to its name as I was surrounded by Cubans and the place had a very Cuban-like atmosphere (well, that I could imagine anyway. I haven’t actually been to Cuba yet). But hey, the DVDs they were playing before Santos Renuentes began sounded a lot like Buena Vista Social Club. Santos Renuentes were good again of course. So I won’t elaborate any more on that. ...

My long, long, long time friend Steve W called me from Australia just before I was due to leave for New York to inform me that he was now engaged to Carrie. This didn’t come as a shock to me at all of course. But heck, it does make me smile a bit when I think back a few years to a particular pub crawl… Steve did you really know what you were getting yourself into? Haha! I kid, I kid :-) ...

The NHL ice hockey season is back and so I went to go watch the Florida Panthers play the Carolina Hurricanes. Unfortunately the Panthers lost in penalty shoot outs 1-2 but it was still a pretty good game. There was even a fight where gloves came off, as did helmets, and some fists got thrown about. All in all, just what I expected :-)

Well, I actually leaving tomorrow, but *finally* I am heading off to New York. This ain’t a real short trip either as a friend and I are going to be there for 6 straight days. This is also the most unprepared I’ve ever been for a trip as well, in terms of planning what things to see and do. But I really don’t think too much preparation is needed, right? Apart from the obvious places to visit (statue of liberty, times square, empire state building, yadda yadda yadda) these are some of the other things I want to do: ...