Stopover in LA

I want to make this a quick post today. I don’t feel like sitting around on the computer all day: I was staring at nothing but screens of some kind for five hours yesterday on our flight from Boston to LAX. When we arrived at our hotel – L.A. Adventurer Hotel – I was exhausted, but a trip to the bar fixed that. And let me just say, for the record, while it’s a bit cheesy, this hotel is extremely charming and clean. Trip Advisor was wrong, for once. I think it’s just a bit more relaxed for some people’s tastes.

We’re just trying to find something to do before we go to Project Blowed tonight, which doesn’t start until 10:00 this evening. Having not paid attention to our calendar, we forgot that today is Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the U.S.), so there are very few places open, anyway. Oh well. A time to rest up and remember our vets.

image from carynmirriamgoldberg.wordpress.com

 

In the meantime, here is a hilarious, witty story that I found today. Hope you’ll enjoy:

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Cookies by Douglas Adams (author: “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”)

This actually did happen to a real person, and the real person was me. I had gone to catch a train. This was April 1976, in Cambridge, U.K. I was a bit early for the train. I’d gotten the time of the train wrong.

I went to get myself a newspaper to do the crossword, and a cup of coffee and a packet of cookies. I went and sat at a table.

I want you to picture the scene. It’s very important that you get this very clear in your mind.

Here’s the table, newspaper, cup of coffee, packet of cookies. There’s a guy sitting opposite me, perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit, carrying a briefcase.

It didn’t look like he was going to do anything weird. What he did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took one out, and ate it.

Now this, I have to say, is the sort of thing the British are very bad at dealing with. There’s nothing in our background, upbringing, or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad daylight has just stolen your cookies.

You know what would happen if this had been South Central Los Angeles. There would have very quickly been gunfire, helicopters coming in, CNN, you know. . . But in the end, I did what any red-blooded Englishman would do: I ignored it. And I stared at the newspaper, took a sip of coffee, tried to do a clue in the newspaper, couldn’t do anything, and thought, what am I going to do?

In the end I thought, nothing for it, I’ll just have to go for it, and I tried very hard not to notice the fact that the packet was already mysteriously opened. I took out a cookie for myself. I thought, that settled him. But it hadn’t because a moment or two later he did it again. He took another cookie.

Having not mentioned it the first time, it was somehow even harder to raise the subject the second time around. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice . . .” I mean, it doesn’t really work.

We went through the whole packet like this. When I say the whole packet, I mean there were only about eight cookies, but it felt like a lifetime. He took one, I took one, he took one, I took one. Finally, when we got to the end, he stood up and walked away.

Well, we exchanged meaningful looks, then he walked away, and I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back. A moment or two later the train was coming in, so I tossed back the rest of my coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and underneath the newspaper were my cookies.

The thing I like particularly about this story is the sensation that somewhere in England there has been wandering around for the last quarter-century a perfectly ordinary guy who’s had the same exact story, only he doesn’t have the punch line.

(Excerpted from “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time” by Douglas Adams)

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First Detour: The Maine Event

Well, as per usual, it’s been a few days! Our journey has officially begun. We started it off well: when the cab came to pick us up Friday morning at 5:30am, we got halfway down the street when Dave realized he forgot his BA certificate (most job postings require the original, no copies allowed). The cab driver obliged when we asked him to turn around, so crisis averted. Since then, the list of forgotten things (that we’ve noticed) is as follows:

1) Both toothbrushes

2) All my jewelry, which I neatly packed in a box and just simply forgot to put the box in my suitcase

3) Dave’s shave brush and cake (though I remembered the actual razor and refills)

And I’m sure there’s more to discover along the way. But the Maine (pun intended) thing is that we remembered all our paperwork.

And now, we’re in Maine! While I am Canadian by blood, I partially grew up here, and it’s very familiar to me. But for Dave, this is his first time in New England. The reaction seems to be that it’s a lot like Nova Scotia, but more touristy – without the tourists. No one’s here for the Prelude activities just yet, the Christmastime weekend that Kennebunkport is so known for, and it’s far past the summer season. And better for it: it would be awful for him to visit when it’s so insanely busy in the summer:

image from laughmaine.com

The only downside is that Maine isn’t exactly brimming with things to do, besides shopping and seeing sightseeing. The latter is only exciting when you’re not used to Maritime scenery, and Dave is of course very familiar with that.

So generally we’ve just been relaxing and spending some time with my family. Dave is doing very well at impressing everyone from conservative Marines to art teacher hippies. We took a few photos on our trip downtown. One of the funnier finds was a boat in the harbour bearing the same name as my sister:

Maybe she has a secret admirer?

We also had a lovely night with my friends from my old workplace, Abacus. Sarah, Mary, and Paula treated us to Thai food at Mekhong Thai (best Thai food in Southern Maine) and then we had drinks at Bandaloop (a funky bar with excellent everything and music). Sarah’s friend James came along as well. As quiet as he was, he seemed like a pretty cool guy, and I hope we didn’t freak him out with our gregarious nature. I would show a photo of us hanging out, and we took plenty. You’d think we’d have one good photo of us together, but trust me – we don’t. So sad.

Anne Marie, my sister has been highly entertaining as usual and then my mother also played stylist for us. She dyed my hair back to its original colour (extremely dark brown; almost black), and then she cut Dave’s hair. As he says, it’s much more “grown-up.”

Just because his hair has grown up doesn't mean he has to

And that pretty much brings us to today: we are leaving tomorrow from Boston and landing in LA. My dad is bringing us to All Day Breakfast, his favourite place around here and I have to say, I love it as well. My mother has played 40 questions with us, making sure that we’ve covered all our bases, buying us extra socks and underwear, just in case they don’t have those things in Taiwan. Ah, Mom. She’s being an excellent sport about all this.

And as for me, I’ve finally calmed down. I was extremely anxious about this whole trip. Certainly I was excited as well, but I was split right down the middle with the two. But now we’re on our way and there is quite literally no turning back, so I have no choice but to press forward. And that has forced me to think positively – and I like that.

In LA, we will be checking out Project Blowed, a hip-hop open mic, and then spending the rest of the time with my grandparents who are graciously keeping us for the next few days after that. This will be our last leg before heading out to Taiwan (!!). More updates soon.

Three Days Until Takeoff

Well, it’s been quite the last few days! Dave and I have been doing a lot of packing procrastinating, but pretty much everything is in order. I had my last day of work yesterday. As is appropriate for a coffee house, they sent me off with a lovely ceramic mug and a card signed by everyone wishing me well. My favourite goodbye was from a coworker in the cafe, “Don’t leave me!!” Another told me my “tuna melts rocked,” and another asked me to “send food xo.” I’ll do my best. Dave also finished off his last day, and both of us celebrated by doing absolutely nothing.

In any case, there is little news to report. This is more like a “checking in” entry. What little news there is:

1) There will soon be official itinerary changes to mark this, but it seems we will be taking a stop in Borneo to break up our first month in Taiwan. Not a bad break, eh?

image from destination360.com

2) We’re taking any and all mailing addresses and we absolutely promise a postcard to anyone who gives us an address. You can send me a private message on facebook with your address or email it to me. I would assume if you are reading this blog, you have one of the two. But if not, comment on here and we’ll do something about that.

We’ve been starting the long line of visiting and people calling to send us off (which is very nice of everyone, and I am genuinely more than happy to see everyone). All balanced between getting a few more last minute shots and then going to the police to get our background checks started. Oi vey. But I’d rather try and get all my ducks in line before we get to Taiwan rather than after.

This is my first trip ever to anywhere outside North America besides Ireland, might I add. The nerves are piling up like firecrackers, and I feel like I’m going to explode. But that’s normal. Right?

Our Itinerary

Wow, it has been a long time! To be fair, I’ve been working for the past few months on a show called Uncertain for which I had another blog to be managing. But now that show has had both its debut and its remount, so now it’s time to focus on other things – mainly planning this trip of mine.

The other night I was looking up the ticket prices to fly to Taiwan and I was floored at how cheap they were. I think it’s a combination of two things: the time of year Dave and I are travelling and also, the website we are using. I will take this moment now to promote said website: www.cheapoair.com. Honestly, my family and I have used this site just about every time we’ve had to travel by air and I haven’t found anything cheaper. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that they don’t spend nearly as much on advertising as bigger online booking companies like Priceline and Expedia. But that’s just a personal theory. I promise they aren’t paying me to say this. That would be VERY cheap and probably useless advertising.

In any case, here is our itinerary:

November 5: Leave to go to Maine via bus

Here, we are staying with my family. Won’t be seeing them for a long time and they are helping out with my ticket. It will be fun, and it’s Dave’s first time in Maine.

November 10: Leave Maine to go to Boston in order to fly to LAX

Another first for Dave, we’ll be staying with my grandparents in Costa Mesa for a week. I haven’t been to California since I was 16. I’m hoping for a trip to either Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm. Just because. And I linked the Knott’s site because it’s one of the lesser known theme parks, but one of the best. If you are ever in Southern California and think you might be too jaded for the likes of Disney, I’d give this one a try.

November 17: Leave LAX for Taipei!

This is when things really get underway. We’ll play tourist for a few weeks before finding jobs, I imagine, which is why we’re saving money like mad before we go.

But, when I happened to look up the ticket prices the other night, we accidentally saved money. We figured we would both be going on this trip for around $1200 each. Instead, we managed to get two tickets, taxes and fees included, to the tune of $1537. Altogether, my friends. My jaw was permanently dropped all night. This means we each saved around $430 from our previous estimates. Seriously people. I win.

Doesn’t mean I’m not a little nervous about Taiwan. But I’m now more excited than nervous. And that is definitely worth the price.

Until next time!