2006: A World Odyssey

Hello once again, another year has nearly finished, time to remember what the hell happened the past 12 months...

Some of the stuff I did this year:
Visited the motherland Vietnam for the first time
Went to a couple games in the World Cup in Germany
Lived and worked in London and New York in 6 months
Was a couch surfing member of the Valetta Road crew
Had a kebab in 10 countries - and didn't get sick once
Heard endless debate whether I have an Australian or American accent
Said "G'day" to Hugh Jackman in Central Park (well my friend Daniel did, but I'll take the credit)
Returned to my employment roots - flipping burgers! (many thanks Quinn)
Drove on the right side of the road once again (only twice was on the wrong side of the road in Phoenix - don't tell Jason)
Bid a fond farewell to Western Health
Reunited with Ruth after a long few months
Blocking Kara on the last shot of the game - just like old times

By the numbers:
0 - the amount of hours of complete darkness in a summer night in Gothenburg, Sweden (thank you Jenny and Richie)
1 - number of times I saw the Socceroos live (in London, not at World Cup)
3 - airports I have spent the night in
12 - countries where I had a kebab
32 - cities and towns I have either spent the entire day or overnight at

Stuff I'm looking forward to next year:
Starting my job proper in New York (assuming I passed the license exam)
Returning to Melbourne
Exploring more of the US and Canada
Supporting Aussie bands in NYC playing in dive bars
Enjoying living in a Manhattan apartment, and not living out of a suitcase for a while
Watching the Suns win an NBA championship
Watching a Super Bowl on SUNDAY night, not Monday morning!

Favorites
Music
Albums
John Mayer - Continuum
Jurassic 5 - Feedback
James Morrison - Undiscovered
The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road
Razorlight - Razorlight
The Roots - Game Theory
The Black Keys - Magic Potion
Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way

Honorable Mention - John Legend, The Zutons, Arctic Monkeys, Muse

Singles
Orson - No Tomorrow
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Muse - Starlight
Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous (ft. Timbaland)
The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Dialated Peoples - Kindness For Weakness (ft. Talib Kweli)
Justin Timberlake - My Love (ft. T.I.)
Bliss N Eso - Then Til Now
The Automatic - Monster

Movies (the only movies I've seen)
Casino Royale
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
American Gun
Little Miss Sunshine
The Inside Man
United 93

Honorable Mention: Date Movie, The Da Vinci Code

Books (only book I read)
Freakonomics

TV
Scrubs
JTV
The Daily Show
The Amazing Race Season 10 (I was nearly in it!)

Events/Other Stuff
World Cup Matches: Brazil v Croatia, Holland v Ivory Coast
Socceroos v Ghana in London [with Sharna and Terry]
Roller Disco in London [with Sharni]
V Festival, Lovebox Weekender, Jurassic 5, Shihad, Take That (purely for work!) in London
Phoenix Coyotes v Columbus Blue Jackets @ Glendale Arena (my hometown!)
Avenue Q in West End, London [with Garnet]
Avenue Q, The Drowsy Chaperone on Broadway, NYC [with Ruth & Lisa]
Wimbledon in Wimbledon
Stones In His Pockets (play) in Dublin [with Lisa]

So that's my year in a nutshell. Hope you are having a great time wherever you are. Feel free to send your own year in review!

DN

By the time I get back to Phoenix./Where's my chalupa?

So Jason, Ruth, and I got back to Phoenix, and spend the rest of the week hanging out:

• Went to Phoenix Coyotes - Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game with Kara, Dan B, J, and Ruth. Taco Bell had a promotion where if the Coyotes score 4 goals or more, everyone at the game can pick up a free chalupa with their game ticket. The Coyotes ended up winning 5-4 in a shootout, it was game on for the chalupa! After the game we went to Yard House, a restaurant/bar that has something like 200 different beers - ON TAP! Pretty cool place.
  

• A gathering at Jason's house of old friends, complete with beer pong on a ping-pong table. I don't think I won any games, but I was up again stiff competition...
  

• Eating enough Mexican food to feed a small town. Fact.
  

• Checking out the Christmas lights around Glendale - including a huge Santa Claus the size of a small house.
  

And after the glorious weather of Phoenix, where I walked around in T-shirts and shorts, it was back to the frozen streets of New York Cit-ay. And I never did go to Taco Bell to pick up my free chalupa...

DN

When Danny remet Ruth / Las Vegas

So after 6 months, I picked up Ruth from the airport in New York. The next day we hopped on a flight to Phoenix, my hometown, and stayed with my friend Jason. And the next day, we piled into Jason's truck to for an overnight road trip to Vegas, my first time back since I was 13 - my how things have changed.

On the way we stopped at Sedona, known for its red rocks. After passing through the rocks we went to the only McDonald's in the world with turquoise arches. Then we went hiking around Oak Creek Canyon, which had frozen over the winter. After testing out the strength of the ice by walking and jumping on it (we're so smart), it was back on the truck to San Diego.

We got onto the strip in the late afternoon, and saw all the casinos I couldn't get into the last time I was there. The entire strip is a few miles long, along the sidewalk you have to dodge tourists and the guys handing out cards promoting strip clubs. The Bellagio casino has to be one of my favorites, with its huge water fountain shows (think the end of "Ocean's Eleven"). The Luxor, the pyramid-shaped hotel was pretty cool too, the elevators run diagonally. Caught up with Eric and her wife Angela at New York, New York, complete with dueling piano bar. Jason taught Ruth and I how to get cheap drinks in casinos, and I lost a grand total of $2 at the slot machines. Yes, I am a high roller.

It was back to Phoenix the next day after our quick visit. Hopefully the next time I go, I'll move up from the 1 cent slots to the 5 cent ones...

Coming (back) To America - Part 1

I stepped off the plane at JFK Airport in New York at about midnight. Fortunately the subway runs all night (but about once every half-hour), and after travelling on the train for an hour and a half, got to my hostel real sleepy.

The next morning I went with above bed bunkmate from Sydney and went to see Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, the Staten Island Ferry and Wall St. Although it was nice to those landmarks with someone, I could have preferred better company.

Me and my not-too-social travel companion on the Staten Island Ferry

But the rest of my time in the first week in New York was spent in the following ways:

• Looking for an apartment to move into. Searching through Craigslist to find decent, affordable housing is a needle in a haystack. First day of searching turned up a hole of an apartment in the middle of a rough part of Brooklyn and a cramped apartment (example: the kitchen, dining room, and living room are the same room) in the middle of the gayest street in the gayest neighborhood, Greenwich Village. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I don't think I could get used to the 2 xxx shops on either side of the door into the building. Luckily the next apartment fit the bill perfectly, and I had to take it.
• Studying for my physical therapy license exam. It was the strangest exam I have ever taken: 250 questions in 5 hours done on computer covering my entire uni course along with extra stuff they supposedly do in the US (but actually totally irrelevant). The results were supposed to take 2 wks but because of Christmas holidays would eventually take one nerve wracking month.
  
• Hanging out with Dan and his friend Andrew from Melbourne. We ended up getting hostels within 5 min walk from each other. That meant revisiting those landmarks I saw before along with others. It was an great time trying to keep with these travel freaks. They made friends wherever they went, many of whom came approached them because of their accent! Amongst the madness of hanging out with these bloody rock starts included these highlights: ice skating in Bryant Park, going on a our own self-walking tour of Seinfeld-related sites, dancing on the huge floor piano from the movie "Big" at toy store FAO Schwartz (by the way, you can pick one up for $250,000 - you can by a soft smaller version for cheaper), and the Christmas tree (f-ing huge) lighting ceremony at the Rockefeller. And to top it off, Dan and I ran into Hugh Jackman and his kids in Central Park! Dan said G'day (I was chicken).

Dan trying to mug someone on the ice - look for the flailing arms

At the Rockefeller Centre

So I moved into my apartment, said goodbye to my travel buddies, and the day after I took the PT license exam, came the arrival of Ruth...

DN