100goals100weeks.com - Ian Usher

Forbidden City

2009-11-11T19:31:00.000+08:00

I had another touristy day today, first catching the bus to visit The Temple of Heaven. It was pretty nice, although perhaps not as spectacular as The Summer Palace was yesterday. Just as interesting, and much more amusing, was the wide variety of karaoke singing, and impromptu dancing that was going on in the park, all to the sound of Chinese music distorted at maximum volume through tiny portable speakers!

My next stop was the final place on my tourist list of Beijing, and I think I had saved the best 'til last. I caught the subway from The Temple of Heaven, and wandered through Tian'anmen Square again to the south entrance of the Forbidden City. Once I negotiated my way through the minefield of sales people and potential guides, I entered what was once the palatial home of many Chinese Emperors.

The place is absolutely huge. I wandered through the centre of the open palace, and through some of the main temples, until I finally reached the north gate.

I then headed back south through the western section, and finally north again via the eastern side. This took several hours.

Apparently there are 999 rooms, one short of the perfect number that is believed to be heavenly. From a look at the map, it looks like only about half of the place is open to wander through, huge areas closed off, or undergoing restoration.

The huge open centre section is impressive, but interesting too is the labyrinth of rooms and passageways to either side. An emperor could easily get lost in there! You would have to live there for months to really know your way around.

All of the rooms have wonderful names. For example, I passed through the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Palace of Earthly Tranquility and the Hall of Mental Cultivation, among many other equally grandly named spaces. It's all very impressive.

I finished the day off by borrowing a bicycle from the hostel and heading for the bank, making the possible mistake of throwing myself headlong into rush hour traffic on the rattliest, wobbliest bike I have ever ridden! The cycling and traffic is chaotic, and the trip was hilarious and terrifying in approximately equal measure. I'm pretty sure my travel insurance doesn't cover this kind of extreme activity!

Finally, a couple of random things I have learned about China:-

Spitting is a national passtime. Male or female, it doesn't matter. And the more hawking and gutteral noise you make before the big spit, the better! And you can spit anywhere, footpath, road, temple, it doesn't seem to matter!

Foreigners pay a different price for many things. I bought some fantastic bread this morning at a tiny little window outlet. The woman in front of me got three spicy hot bread rolls, gave 2 yuen, and got some change. I bought two rolls, gave 2 yuen, and got nothing back but a confused look. Upon my return later in the afternoon, I bought three rolls, and the asking price was 6 yuen. This is th point where I made a stand, and simply paid 3 yuen, which was accepted without question. I am pretty sure I still overpaid. It is one of the tastiest breads ever, and 3 yuan is 45 cents, so I'm not complaining!

Public toilets can be pretty hit and miss, literally! Many are squat hole-in-the-ground type, and accuracy seems to be a bit of an issue with some of the locals! Another very important lesson to learn is that each cubicle (that is if you actually in a toilet block with the luxury of a cubicle at all) does not have it's own supply of paper! Don't discover this by trial and error! Collect your paper from the communal paper dispenser before heading for your cubicle.

I visited one toilet today, optimistically labelled as 4 Star by the Beijing Tourism Administration. (It's somebody's job to go around giving out star ratings for toilets!!) I couldn't help but notice this, as the sign was proudly displayed above the paper dispenser that served both ladies and gents toilets!!

Summer Palace on a winter's day

2009-11-10T21:17:00.000+08:00

When I got up this morning I discovered that there had been at least 6 inches of snow overnight. I wrapped up warm and headed out to find some breakfast, settling for fruit as an easy option, and then made my way to the subway, heading for the Summer Palace, on the outskirts of the city.

The huge park and spectacular temple on top of the hill overlooking the lake all looked very picturesque with a blanketing of snow, and at times the sun made a brief appearance too, to complete the scene. I wandered for a couple of hours among hoards of tour groups, all usually wearing identical caps to distinguish them from other, almost identical groups.

My next stop, after a fantastic mystery omlette-sort-of-thing from a street cart, was Olympic Park, site of the 2008 Olympics. The "Bird's Nest" Stadium is eyecatching, and the wide boulevard nice to stroll along, albeit it with thousands of other visitors too, and once again plagued by the touts selling all sorts of rubbish.

As it started to get dark my final stop for the day was the wonderful night market, filled with a mind-boggling array of wierd and wonderful foods, most grilled on sticks over a barbeque, and simply eaten as you wander along. I saw, grilled on sticks, among other things, scorpions, seahorses and starfish. And that was just the stuff I recognised! I stuck with slightly more familiar choices for dinner!

This really is an unusual place! Once again I am interested in how the travelling attitude to prices can shift very quickly. Here you get about 6.6 yuen to a US dollar. A night at the hostel costs around 70 yuen, pretty good value. I could hire a bicycle from a street vendor for 24 hours for the princely sum of 20 yuen (that's around $3, for a day!). But I was appalled when I found a Starbucks, and a small cup of coffee was going to cost me 26 yuan. That's 4 bucks for a coffee - outrageous! The best vale I have seen is petrol, at 1 yuen per litre, which is about 15 cents, or around 60 cents per gallon. No wonder the taxis here are so cheap!

It's all just so different and so interesting.

Tian'anmen Square

2009-11-10T09:15:00.001+08:00

My first port of call yesterday was Jingshan Park, which is only a short walk from my hostel. There is a large hill with several temple buildings on top, which overlook the North Gate of the huge Forbidden City below, was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. The hill was actually made from the earth removed to make the enormous moat around the Forbidden City.

Unfortunately the weather was cold and overcast, so the view was not as spectacular as I imagine it could be. I walked down to the gate of the Forbidden City, having to run the gauntlet of over-enthusiastic postcard sales people and potential guides, presumably unofficial.

Some of the signs here are very entertaining, the "Engrish" being a bit tricky to understand sometimes. At the entrance to the Forbidden City I was reminded: "Please be self-restraint and be a good tourist to mold a well-mannered imagination." Huh???

I decided to miss out on the Forbidden City, as time was already getting on, and instead decided to mold my well-mannered imagination by walking around the outside, eventually arriving at the very impressive Tian'anmen Square, apparently the world's largest city-centre public space.

There were a couple of the biggest TV displays I have ever seen celebrating 60 years of the People's Republic of China, and people wandered the wind-blown area admiring the statues of the heroes of the revolution.

I was amazed to realise that it is now 20 years since the Tian'anmen Square massacre, when an estimated 400 to 800 protesters were killed, in what would seem to be a somewhat heavy-handed government response when the tanks rolled into the square on the 4th June 1989. More information here:
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

Somewhat co-incidentally, China banned any internet access in May this year to sites such as Blogger, Facebook and YouTube, some suggest to prevent too much discussion of what happened 20 years ago.

This has made things very tricky for me, as I use Blogger for my blog, of course. I was mystified initially when I kept getting a blank page, but a quick Google search for "Blogger China" soon provided some answers. I tried a couple of the suggestions for how to work around the issue, but to no avail. Eventually I had to resort to plan B, sending my blog text to a friend in Australia who can post it for me. Ha, even the Chinese government can't silence the 100 goals blog!

I now wonder if maybe that's why I got so many questions when trying to get a visa for China, when I put "Travel Writer" in the occupation box. (Well, what else could I say my job is - I don't really have one, do I?) They wanted to know alot about what I was writing. The guy at the next window, a writer of financial reports was also having similar issues!

By late afternoon it was getting really cold, and I decided that I had done more than enough sight-seeing in grim conditions, and caught the subway home, buying a dinner of some very strange-looking sandwiches from the local bakery, and enjoyed a quiet evening back at the hostel.

Day One in Beijing.

2009-11-09T10:37:00.000+08:00

I have just woken up from one of the longest sleeps I think I have ever had. I slept a wonderfully rejuvinating 14 hours last night!!

My last day in Kuala Lumpur was pretty long. After going to see the KL Tower in the morning I had to check out of my room at midday. However, I managed to store my bags at the hostel for the rest of the day, and was able to sit around in the lounge there too. I spent some more time wandering the city, and at around 8pm collected my bags and caught the bus to the airport.

I had booked my cheap return to Beijing with budget airline AirAsia, who fly out of a different terminal, and arrived in plenty of time to check in for my 1am departure. However, foggy conditions in Tianjin, the destination airport near Beijing meant our flight was delayed until 3am. The seats in the waiting area were not at all comfortable - not much sleep to be had there.

Eventually we arrived at Tianjin at 9am, and I caught the shuttle to the main railway station, and at a small cafe nearby tried to figure out what I could have for breakfast. I am finding it similar to my visit to Japan here, as the Chinese writing is a complete mystery, and very few places have English translations. In the end, I opted for pointing at a picture of a tasty looking dish above the counter, and received a bowl of watery noodles with two fried eggs on top!

The train to Beijing is a marvel of modern technology, a non-stop luxury journey of half an hour at speeds up to 350 kph. At Beijing South Railway Station I found the subway easily, as signs are in English here too, and got on the correct train. However, I got off at the wrong stop, and my walk to the hostel I had booked bore no relevance to the map I had copied from the internet. In the end I gave up and caught a taxi, which cost me 13 yuan, or around $2.

Lancy lives in Beijing, and a while ago had been given an assignment by her English teacher to summarise an article about some crazy guy in Australia who had put his whole life up for sale on eBay! (Her words, not mine!) She had followed my adventures from there onto my 100 goals adventure, and had emailed me to offer to help me out in Beijing.

She and her friend Jenny were waiting for me at the hostel, and after dumping my bags we headed out for a wander around the local area. They took me around an area called Nan Luo Gu Xiang, where the narrow streets, or hutongs, were filled with locals, and quite a few tourists too. We ate all sorts of interesting foods from shop windows and street carts - spicy tofu pieces, sweet cakes, pork-filled dumplings, strange soups and hot sweet potatoes.

My first impressions of Beijing? It's cold here after coming from Malaysia. Temperature in the afternoon was around 12 deg C, but it drops to near freezing in the evening. It is a busy place, and apparently it gets busier, as Sunday afternoon is relatively quiet. It is, like Kuala Lumpur, a fascinating mixture of sleek modern and old traditional. Interesting sights, such as people playing chess or mah jong at street cafes. Strange and unusual foods.

I wandered happily soaking it all up and chatting with Lancy and Jenny, who were wonderful hosts. At times I would feel my head swim a little with tiredness, but it was all too new and exciting to miss out on. At one point I was suddenly hit by the realisation that I was in Beijing in China!! That happens to me every now and then as I travel, and sometimes am struck by exactly where I am or what I am doing.

Later in the evening the girls dropped me off at home again. It still amazes me how quickly I now start to refer to a new place as home, even though I had spent only a few minutes there. Wherever I lay my hat... The girls went to catch their bus, and after quickly checking my email, ten minutes later I was fast asleep on my bed!

Thanks to my wonderful guides, what a great introduction to this fascinating city.

Kuala Lumpur stopover.

2009-11-07T13:05:00.001+08:00

I love Kuala Lumpur. It is a wonderful mixture of spectacular modern splendour and manic Asian chaos. I haven't been here since I first started travelling between England and Australia fairly regularly towards the end of the nineties. I think the last time I spent some time here would be heading back home to England in 2000 after seeing in the new millenium in Sydney (and being slightly disappointed that the Millenium Bug was such a let-down!)

It feels quite familiar to be wandering around here again, and I recognise quite alot of the places from my previous visits.

I flew in from Taipei, arriving early yesterday afternoon, and caught the bus from the airport, and walked to the hostel I had booked for the night, and dropped my bags off there. I thought the best plan would be to go out, keep moving, and get a reasonably early night, in the hopes of minimising the jetlag issues.

Just around the corner from the hostel I found exactly the type of place I was looking for, and ordered lunch consisting of roti and tea. Roti has to be one of my favourite foods. It is a sort of bread, the dough being rolled out really flat, then folded so air is trapped, then cooked on a hot plate. Served with a curry sauce and a cup of sweet tea, it is lovely. The cost for two of these and the tea, 3.20 Ringgit, or just less than $1.

I wandered the busy, chaotic streets and markets. As in many Asian places, the pester factor is fairly high, but good-humoured and reasonably easy to fend off. Eventually I found myself drawn to the skyline-dominating twin spires of the Petronas Towers, and was amazed to find that you can now take a tour over the bridge that connects the two towers. The price? Free!

Apparently people get up early and line up for tickets, which all go pretty quicky in the morning. However, I just wandered up to the counter at around 6pm for further info, and was happily waved in along with some other lucky latecomers. The view of the city is pretty spectacular, even if from less than halfway up the 452 metre high building.

I had dinner in another little restaurant filled with locals, and was surprised at the expensive-sounding bill. 7.20 Ringgit. Then I realised that my huge buffet plate of various curries, along with the obligatory sweet tea, had cost me just over $2. It's funny how quickly your perception of price and value gets skewed when you travel in cheaper parts of the world. Changing $40 into local currency makes you feel like a rich man here!

This morning I was avake at 5am, having managed a decent 7 hours of sleep. I did a bit of internet research, as I am considering a possible change of plan for December and January. At a more reasonable hour I got up and went for breakfast (roti and tea, of course) and then made my way to the spectacular KL Tower.

When I last visited here the view was pretty cloudy, and the top of the Petronas Tower was hidden in the mists, so I wanted to go fairly early before the day clouded over in the afternoon.

What a view! I've seen quite a few BASE jump videos filmed here. Check out the video here for an example of this sort of craziness:-
BaseDreams.com
It makes your stomach a bit queasy to look down and think how it would be to jump from that sort of height!

Kuala Lumpur - what an interesting city! I'm glad I got the chance to stop over here and experience this place again. Onward to Beijing in China this evening! It's non-stop travel at the moment.

Long days of travelling.

2009-11-06T07:25:00.002+08:00

I think perhaps I could have organised all of these flights a little more efficiently, but because of those inconsiderate Christmas Island crabs, which can't decide quite when they are going to migrate, I have had to maintain some flexibility in my schedule.

A month or so ago, when I booked my flight out of the States, I made sure that I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in time to fly from there to Christmas Island on the 7th November, if the crabs were on the move.

However, as the crabs started moving too late, and won't be in time to spawn this month, I now fly back out of KL to Beijing. The irony is that as I write this blog, I have just spent 14 hours flying from LA to Taipei in Taiwan, on China Airlines, and from here it is a relatively short hop to Beijing. But I now fly down to KL, on China Airlines, then a day and a half later, back up to Beijing, but with AirAsia.

Never mind, the flights are all relatively cheap, and I get to spend a day or so in KL, which is a great place. I am very much looking forward to roti bread and sweet milky tea!

For the second time in my 100 weeks I lost a day by crossing the International Date Line heading west. I flew out of LAX late evening on the 4th, and 14 hours later arrived in Taipei on the morning of the 6th. Missed the 5th of November completely!

And I'm now back in the same timezone as when I started this second trip back in May, which now seems so long ago. In Perth in Western Australia it is the same time as here, and I feel like I am rapidly approaching the end of this part of the journey.

I just hope the jetlag isn't too bad. It's only 7.00 am here, but it's now 3 o'clock in the afternoon yesterday where I left from! All very confusing!

Thought-provoking last day in Mexico.

2009-11-03T09:28:00.001+08:00

After the previous night out in Xoxocotlan cemetery I had another relaxing start to the day, sitting in the sunny courtyard of the hostel writing my blog, and trying to figure out some transport options for my forthcoming trip to China. It was pretty quiet at the hostel, and I shared cookong duties with one of my room-mates, and we shared a "make-it-up-as-we-go-along" lunch.

In the afternoon I made a quick visit to one of the many museums in town before meeting again with Essi to go and take some daylight photos in the main cemetery. It was fairly quiet there, but quite a few people were washing and decorating graves and tombs for the evening. We wandered around quietly enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

On the way back into the city Essi suggested we could get some materials to make our own Dia de Muertos offering, as we were invited to another hostel to join in making a group dispaly. We bought flowers and candy skulls, but unfortunately palns had changed a bit at the hostel we went to, the owner not allowing many people in after we managed to slip past her guard.

We made a small display on a table, which was fun, but not quite as personal as I had expected.

Later, when Essi and many of the others decided to take a taxi out of town again to another small town I opted to stay in the city, and returned to the main cemetery alone. There, out in the quieter outer parts of the cemetery, I sat alone by an undecorated grave, and thought of some of the people who are now gone from my life. I tried to embrace the Mexican idea of focussing on happiness for the time I had with them, not sadness due them no longer being here.

What a thought-provoking time my days here have been. I have enjoyed the somewhat introspective nature of this trip south of the border. Thanks to all I met and shared time with in Oaxaca.

Goal 63 - Dia de Muertos.

2009-11-01T09:14:00.003+08:00

After my trip to Monte Alban on Friday I took a wander around the city and enjoyed the festive atmosphere. The sand paintings and decorations are very eye-catching.

Later in the evening I had a couple of beers and quite a few shots of mezcal, the local drink somewhat similar to tequila, with a group of other travellers in the courtyard of the hostel, and so had a slow and easy start yesterday.

I set off late morning to try to find my way to a nearby town called Tule, again on the advice of fellow traveller Rebecca. I tried for some time at the crazy, run-down bus station to find the right bus, but my poor Spanish provided confusing results at best. Eventually I gave up and jumped in one of the shared taxis with a group of locals, and was pleasantly surprised that the 13km journey only cost me 8 pesos (about 70 cents).

There isn't much to see at Tule, other than the spectacularly huge Arbol de Tule, a tree estimated to be well over 2,000 years old, and still doing well. It absolutely dwarfs the church whose grounds it stands in. It was nice to sit in it's shade, and contemplate the history that has happened during it's lifetime.

Back in Oaxaca I took some photos of the large sand paintings/sculptures in the Zocalo, the main centre square of the city, while it was still light, then later met with Rebecca, Mark and Karen, and another five travellers, and we set off for Panteon General, the main city cemetery. On the way we came across a comparaza, a big parade of people in Halloween costume, accompanied by an exhuberant marching band, and joined them.

The cemetery itself was lit by candle light, and was very atmospheric, and preparations were being made for a concert later that evening, as an ochestra and choir made their preparations.

But I had read alot about a cemetery further out of town in a place called Xoxocotlan, (pronounced Hoho-cotlan, or simply Hoho, with a throaty Spanish accent on the h's!) and was very keen to go there. Most of the rest of the group were happy to stay in town, and in the end only myself and Finnish traveller Essi went to find a taxi, which was much easier than we had expected.

We entered through the gate of the cemetery, and were quite awe-struck. The scene was quite beautiful, very much as I had imagined it might be. As far as you could see there were graves covered in intricate flower decorations, and lit with candles. Family groups sat around many of the graves or tombs, all ages represented from oldest grandparents to sleeping toddlers.

At many graves the mood seemed to be quiet and reflective, but elsewhere celebrations were in full swing. Fireworks would shoot into the air, bands played, and there was much laughter and cheering too.

I talked for a while to one guy sat with his family at his father's grave, and he explained that they came to be with their relatives, and let them know that they were still cared for, and on this one occasion each year were welcomed as they came back to join their family once again. Many people bring the deceaced relatives favourite food or drink for them to enjoy, and there was plenty of mezcal being drunk.

I found it all quite emotional, at times saddened and reflective, but at times laughing and clapping along with others as one of the bands played favourite tunes around a grave.

We wandered until around midnight, and then went into the thronging little market area for a bite to eat, heading back afterwards to wander some more.

The whole experience was fascinating and thought-provoking, the different attitude to death, and celebration of the lives of people who have passed on being very interesting to consider.

My thanks to Essi, who was a perfect companion for the evening, sharing my thoughtful and reflective mood, and I was very pleased that she had also wanted to make the extra effort to visit this touching event. I think it would have been a bit more challenging and confronting to be there alone.

Magnificent Mexico!

2009-10-30T20:52:00.004+08:00

For the past month or so I have been staying on the west coast of California, mainly living by the beach at my friend Evan's place. It has been pretty easy, as I rented a car for a couple of weeks, had my GPS, and could happily get around to wherever I wanted, the only real limitations being LA's ludicrous traffic!

However, my US time is just about over, and I feel that I am really travelling again, and today have really enjoyed that feeling of being somewhere completely unfamiliar.

The city of Oaxaca is a fascinating place, and it has been a real sensory treat to be in such a vibrant and unusual place. You can feel the excitement in the air as the two big days of the Dia de Muertos approach, and people are making preparations everywhere you look. Flowers are being sold on many street corners, as well as all sorts of candy skulls and skeletons as offerings for relatives who have passed on.

But it is the other differences that have stood out for me today, the sights that just make you stop and smile, or at times make you stop and look mystified. A shop selling a wide array of coffins, policemen with machine guns, colorful houses and murals, a dog asleep in the dust beside the road, oblivious to the noise and chaos around, traffic lights at junctions that merely seem to be a suggestion as to what might be appropriate, the vibrant market where about 90% of the food on offer is a mystery. It's such fun to be travelling again.

Today, following Rebecca's suggestion I took a bus out of town to see Monte Alban, a World Heritage listed pre-Hispanic city that was occupied for 13 centuries, from around 500 BC to 800 AD. What a fantastic place, quite similar, I thought, to Chichen Itza, which I visited back in July, but without the huge central pyramid.

It was also very interesting, because you could climb up to the top of some of the temples, which gave a magnificent view over the whole site.

On my return to the city I wandered again through the market, and was offered fried (or roasted, I'm not sure) grasshopper, which was surprisingly tasty, so I bought a bag of them, and have been handing them around at the hostel.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow now, and my first visit to one of the cemeteries.

Heading down to Mexico.

2009-10-30T11:42:00.002+08:00

I had an early start yesterday, and two flights later, after a short delay in Mexico City, I arrived late afternoon in Oaxaca (pronounced "Wa-haka"). A shared taxi minibus, at a bargain price of 44 pesos (less than $4) dropped me off right at the front door of the hostel I had booked.

I left my bag, and had to go out to find a bank for enough Mexican cash to pay for the hostel. Two blocks away I came across my first taste of the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, as a huge parade with a couple of marching bands blocked the streets. Everybody was in costume, and the air was very festive and fun.

In the hostel I met Rebecca from England, who was sharing the dorm room I was in, and we arranged to meet a couple of her friends that evening, Mark and Karen.

We met at 8pm in the main city centre square, the Zocalo, which is just around the corner from the hostel. The square is wonderfully festive, filled with brilliantly coloured and shadowed sand paintings or sculptures. Everywhere people are selling candy skulls and skeletons, and a Mexican band was playing.

We had dinner at a local restaurant, where I was introduced to the local dish, or sauce, mole, with chicken enchiladas. Afterwards we ended up in a local bar, where beer was on happy hour - "two-for-price-of-one" - and Mark insisted on shots of Mezcal, his including the worm from the bottle. What a great first evening in Oaxaca.

For a great overview of the Mexican Dia de Muertos beliefs and customs, take a look at this informative British Airways advert:-

Christmas crabs causing confusion!!

2009-10-27T20:13:00.001+08:00

My plans for the next month or so of this trip have always been a little vague, as they depend largely on the weather.

I fly down to Mexico on Thursday morning for a few days to see the Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead festivities, and then in November my travels take me to Southeast Asia, where I hope to see the Elephant Round Up, and hopefully actually ride an elephant too.

One of my other goals in that area is to see the migration of the red crabs on Christmas Island, which happens each year around November, but could occur at any time over a period of four months. The migration is dependent on two things. Firstly the beginning of the rainy season is what starts the crabs moving from the inland areas towards the coast. But mating and spawning are dictated by the phase of the moon, and are timed so that the females can spawn (drop their eggs into the water) at high tide on the new moon.

This year the two most likely dates for spawning are around 12th November, or 11th December. And my plans have had to remain flexible enough to be able to get to Christmas Island for either of these periods.

My rough plan has either been to go to Christmas Island first, then Thailand to see the elephants, then on to Australia, or if the crabs migrate later, see the elephants first, which is around the 20th November, then go to Christmas Island, and then from there direct to Perth.

I have been keeping in contact with Katrina at the Christmas Island Tourism Association, and just yesterday received from her an email update from the Christmas Island National Park.

Apparently there has been some rain in the last day or two, and crabs have started moving in large numbers, but there is now not enough time for them to spawn on the 12th November, and December is looking much more likely now.

So I think I can now start putting some plans into place. I have already booked my flight from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and arrive there on Friday 6th November. This was booked so that if necessary, I could have caught the flight from KL to Christmas Island on Saturday 7th, as there is only one flight per week to the island.

But now I have a fairly large hole on the calendar, from 6th November to around the 15th, when I have to be in Bangkok, in time to get to Surin for the Elaphant Round Up. What to do, I have been wondering?

And then, idly looking on the AirAsia website, I found that they do pretty cheap flights from KL to Beijing in China. A quick check of November temperature in Beijing revealed that it will be cold, as low as freezing overnight, but not too bad during the days.

And so I made a decision, flexible as always, to go and spend a week or so up in China, and visit the Great Wall. It's currently less than US$300 to get to Beijing and then back to KL, and I get to achieve a goal that I suspected might be alot more expensive to achieve.

Will I need a visa, I wonder? Better get on to that right away!! Down to the Chinese Embassy tomorrow!

Goal 62 - "If you can keep your head..."

2009-10-24T20:55:00.000+08:00

My dad has been a huge influence on much of my attitude to life, and his death at an age that was long before he should have left us certainly influenced my belief that life is short, and if there are things that you want to achieve, you really just need to get on and do them.

His favourite poem was "If..." by Rudyard Kipling, and it has since become one of my favourites too, and offers some excellent fatherly advice. And so it became one of my goals to learn this wonderful piece, and to be able to recite it from memory.

To achieve this goal I really felt that I needed to recite the piece in front of an audience of strangers, and the opportunity to do so presented itself, when I was asked if I would like to speak at an outdoor sports equipment store about my adventures.

Last year I met John Robertson while in LA, and he told me about his daughter Ashley, and the store she and her husband run, and suggested that I might like to speak there. So back in LA again, I contacted John and he put me in touch with Ashley, and a date was arranged. I have been doing some hasty poem revision in preparation, as well as wondering what on earth I am going to say on my first public speaking engagement.

So somewhat nervously I headed to Real Cheap Sports in Ventura this morning, and got set up with a computer and projector, and a few selected photos from my travels.

By 11am here were ten people in the audience, so I was pleased to just creep into double figures, and I made a start. By the end there were a few more later arrivals stood at the back of the group. It was a good sized group for my first try at telling my story, as it was pretty casual and relaxed, and I already knew a couple of the people there, so didn't feel too pressured or nervous.

By the time I got into it, I really enjoyed doing the talk, and could quite fancy doing a bit more of this sort of thing. I felt it went pretty well myself, and all the feedback I got seemed positive too, but I don't know if people were just being polite! I don't think so.

I kept it short, with an intro about myself, a bit of background on the ALife4Sale beginnings of my journey, and then I talked about four of my big highlight goals:-
Swimming with whales
Riding the Wall Of Death
Running with the bulls in Pamplona
Climbing 7 peaks in Colorado
I also talked briefly about my last goal, acting in a movie here in LA, and then suggested that I was hopefully ready to achieve goal # 62.

I got Carina, who had emailed me during the week, having heard about me via Real Cheap Sports email list, to act as video camera person, and launched into my recitation. I had one brief moment of hesitation, which gave me concern for a second or so, but quickly got back on track! Phew! I think it went okay, but you can judge for yourself if you like, by pressing "Play" below:-

I am pretty sure that the poem is now fairly well embedded in my memory, and intend to keep it there by occasional practice. It is a great thing to have as a party-piece if I ever need it again.

My thanks to John for suggesting the talk, and Ashley for offering me my first speaking opportunity, and pushing me once more out of my comfort zone. Also to Evan once again for providing accomodation and transport, to Carina, for video camera work, and to the others there who made the effort to come and listen to me. Thank you all.

Thanks particularly to Doug, for making the effort to come along. I was very surprised and flattered to meet Doug, as we have talked a bit on Facebook, and he has been following my adventures since the ALife4Sale days. He had driven from Bakersfield to come to the talk, about a two hour drive. Wow.

After the talk I chatted for a while with some of the people who had come, and then Doug offered to take Evan and I out for lunch, and we asked Ashley for a recommendation. When we picked Mexican, she and her husband and John also decided to join us to. What a great way to celebrate goal #62. Thank you all for a great morning.

Thanks are also due to a couple of other people too. Firstly, to Kelli, who gave me a beautiful calligraphy copy of the poem last year when I was at her ghostly cottage in Oregon. And thanks also to Cari in Florida, who gave me a beautifully printed and presented version of the poem when I was there to visit the underwater hotel. This has been either on the dashboard of the RV, or in the top of my small back pack for the past three months now, and is looking a little worn, but has been the best help ever in learning this poem.

Thanks also to my dad for first introducing me to this timeless advice.

If... by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Next goal invite.

2009-10-22T23:37:00.002+08:00

One of the longer term goals that I have been working on steadily is to learn to recite the poem "If..." by Rudyard Kipling, and I feel that I have now got it! However, I also feel that to be able to class the goal as achieved, I need to recite the poem in front of an audience of strangers, and I get the chance to try this on Saturday!

Please feel free to come along to join in and help me achieve goal 62, as I do my first-ever public talk about my adventures in an outdoor sporting goods store in Ventura.
See you there!

Details on the poster below, click for a larger version:-

Goal 61 - "and......Action!"

2009-10-21T20:48:00.000+08:00

It has taken quite a while to achieve this goal, but perseverence has finally paid off, and I'm glad that I scheduled enough time in and around LA to be able to do this.

As I drove back from San Diego yesterday my phone rang, and Angie from One Source Talent asked me if I was still in town, and if I was still trying to achieve my goal to appear as an extra in a Hollywood movie. I had not heard anything from them since I registered a couple of weeks ago, and thought I might not hear from them before I head off for Mexico. I am registered with another agency too, and am promised a role with them, but the scene they are shooting, in a nightclub, keeps getting pushed back, and I was starting to get worried that time might run out there too.

So it was with great relief that I accepted a background role as a guest at a bed and breakfast establishment, to be filmed on location in Malibu, for a movie called "Storage".

I received details and directions by email from Alesia, and was told to bring three wardrobe choices of casual clothes. That's fortunate! The only clothes I have are all pretty casual!

But on second thoughts this morning, I decided that most of the stuff I have is far too casual (meaning almost worn out) and the two smarter shirts I have managed to borrow are probably too dark (a light shirt was specified). So I made a quick stop at a thrift shop in Oxnard before heading down the coast.

I found the location, a lovely house in the Malibu hills with a beautiful outlook, overlooking the hills to the ocean, and found Alesia and a few other extras, and introduced myself. We were shown where to change, and from our clothes we had brought, our outfits were chosen. One of my new thrift shop shirts fit the bill perfectly! $2.50 well spent.

There was all sorts of activity going on, and calls for silence every now and then as a scene was filmed. I got to meet the lead actress, Sarah Jones, and took advantage of the photo opportunity.

Eventually it was time to film our scene, and we were sat on the balcony at tables, set up as a restaurant at a bed and breakfast place. My table consisted of three of us, and we were given a bit of background as to who perhaps we were, a couple meeting our nephew in LA.

For the scenes we had to mime conversation, but keep silent as the sound from the lead actors was being recorded. We shot the scene three or four times, and then took a break as something else was filmed. It was fun sitting around chatting with the other extras, and I got a photo taken with the rest of my co-stars - well, co-extras, really - and with my "wife"!!

Later we shot the scene again from the reverse angle, pretending again to chat, eat, and sip wine.

It was all great fun, and I loved every minute of it. I chatted with a few of my co-extras about my goals, and why I was there today, and marvelled once again at the journey that all of this is taking me on. Here I was, in the hills of Los Angeles, filming a scene for a Hollywood movie! Awesome!

Thanks to all my co-extras for making it such a fun day, my "wife" Deebye, "nephew" Nathan, "couple" Tarvon and Viet, "brandy drinking magazine reader" Tom, and "waiter" Ian. Thanks too to all on set who were extremely friendly, encouraging and helpful.

Also huge thanks to One Source Talent, particularly Ema at the Beverly Hills office, who promised to help me initially, and Angie, who organised this for me.

Also thanks again to my buddy Evan, whose endless patience for me living on his sofa has made this time in LA so much easier.

Deadliest catch!!

2009-10-20T09:33:00.004+08:00

I have had a couple of relaxing days around San Diego, and enjoyed catching up again with John and Ivy on Saturday, including a look around the historic US Grant Hotel where John works. On Sunday I met again with Kurtiss for breakfast at Hash-House-a-Go-Go, which was obviously a very popular place judging by the huge line of customers waiting for a seat. It was well worth the wait, and the scrambled egg breakfast I had with bacon and avocado was delicious.

Then yesterday Dennis and I went to the world-renowned San Diego Zoo, and spent a few hours wandering the impressive displays. My favourite was the Elephant Oddysey, where the spectacular creatures had a huge area to roam in, and were encouraged to forage for their food, having to roam around the unusual artificial trees to find their next meal, much as they would have to do in the wild.

Late yesterday afternoon I went to Willy's house, where we geared up his boat and headed for the boat launch ramp, planning to spend the evening catching lobsters offshore.

After we made our way out of the bay around Loma Point, Willy set the nets, and we waited for the sun to set. When it was dark we pulled the nets in, and things looked good, a couple of the nets having six or seven of the California Spiny Lobsters in them.

Unfortunately they were all undersize, and all had to go back. For the rest of the night we reset the nets again, and then went round and pulled them back in again. Well, to be more accurate, Willy did most of this, as I sat holding a flashlight for him, and feeling slightly seasick.

During the course of the evening, as well as a couple of crabs and one ugly looking fish (poisonous apparently!), we must have caught at least 40 lobsters, but not one was big enough to keep, and eventually at around 11pm we gave up and headed for home. The lobsters I promised to bring home for Dennis and Mary had to be kindly provided by Willy from the freezer from a previous evening's haul.

Today it is time to head back up to LA, and hopefully finally achieve my "movie extra" goal, and get some practice in for the next goal on the list - more info to follow soon.

Many thanks to all in San Diego who have made my time here hugely enjoyable. It was great to catch up again with friends that I first met in Pamplona. Thanks to John, Ivy and Kurtiss for their local restaurant-guiding services, and to Willy for a great fishing adventure. And huge thanks too to Dennis and Mary for their wonderful warm hospitality kindly offered to a random internet stranger friend of their son! Very much appreciated.

Making pens in San Diego.

2009-10-17T12:29:00.001+08:00

When I was at Pamplona in Spain back in July, I met up with, and eventually stayed for the week with a great group of people from San Diego. One of the group, Fipps, who's first name is actually John, told his folks back home about me and my journey. John's dad Dennis contacted me via the website, and let me know that many of the family were now following John's adventures in Pamplona via the fairly regular updates on my blog.

When I started to plan my trip down to San Diego I included Dennis in my emails, and was surprised, flattered and grateful to get an invitation to stay with Dennis and Mary while in town, and enjoy the comforts of their spare room and good home cooking.

While chatting with Dennis on Thursday evening we got onto the topic of his hobby of turning wood on his lathe to make beautiful hand-crafted pens, and I was fascinated with the process. I only did a little woodwork at a young age at school, and have never used a lathe, so Dennis said I could have a go at making a unique, personalised pen in the morning.

From a wide choice of woods, I chose an unknown spalted hardwood, which is a wood where the decay process has begun, and has some wonderful dark grain in it. Dennis guided me throught the process of cutting, drilling, glueing and then setting up the wood on the lathe, and I set to on my creation.

With some patient and expert guidance, I think I produced a very satisfying final result. My pen has a wonderful light and dark pattern, with small holes where mites have bored through the wood.

I really enjoyed the process, and after lunch asked Dennis if I could do a little more on the lathe, and once set up, he left me pretty-much to my own devices, and from a couple of bits of really nice walnut I made a pen and pencil set that I am very proud off. It took quite a while and alot of concentration on the lathe to produce the shape I wanted, and as a pair they aren't exactly the same, but look great in the case Dennis gave me to store them in.

In the evening John and Ivy picked me up from the house, and we went to the local pub, were we met up with Kurtiss and Willy, who were both out in Pamplona too, along with Willy's girlfriend Ashley. Nick and Mikey couldn't make it, as they are both in Iraq at the moment, which is a pretty good excuse!

It was great to catch up again, and laugh over some of the Pamplona adventures we had shared. We all agreed that it was often hard to explain to other friends what Pamplona is really like, and how crazy it all is, and it was good to laugh again with friends who had been there and shared the excitement and craziness of the amazing event.

Downtown Hollywood!!

2009-10-14T21:25:00.001+08:00

On Sunday afternoon I met again with my Segway-riding voice-over pal Ari Ross, who had kindly offered to give me a try at doing a voice-over in his sound booth. After some debate over the type of thing I should try, we settled on a movie trailer that Ari had done for New Films International, for a film called "Multiple Sarcasms"

It seemed an appropriate movie to pick, as it is about a man in his late 40's, who begins to question his life choices. He quits his job, gets a pushy literary agent friend to represent him and starts writing. Although his marriage ends in divorce, the play he writes is a success and although his life is now different from before, he is happier.

The original trailer, from New Film International, voice-overed (or should that be voiced-over?) by Ari, can be seen here:-
Multiple Sarcasms - original trailer

This is me in the booth, being guided by Ari:-

And here is the edited end result, with me doing the voice-over:-

Since the weekend things have been pretty slow, and I arrived back at Evan's beach pad on Monday and re-installed myself on his sofa. Evan has been amazingly tolerant of me drifting in and out of his place, and my time here in southern California has been so much easier (and cheaper!) thanks to his kindness.

We went out for dinner last night, and were laughing about the fact that he is largely responsible for me being on this whole journey. The start of this whole 100goals thing can be attributed to a great degree to one conversation we had back before the ALife4Sale eBay auction. More details about that conversation here:
Goal # 100 - book deal!
At the time of the conversation we hadn't even met, and I thought it was funny that he was probably now thinking that he hadn't quite expected his suggestion to result in me living in his front room for several weeks!

It's all very much appreciated though, and I hope I get to repay the favour one day!

Today I have headed back into downtown Hollywood, and am staying for a couple of days at one of the backpacker places in town. Through AB Casting, who I am now registered with for an extra role, I received an invite to a red carpet screening of one of the movies they have been involved in. I thought it was this evening, but I got it wrong! Oh well!

I was also hoping that the goal of appearing as an extra in a movie was going to be achieved tomorrow, but it has been raining for a couple of days here, and the shoot has been rained off, and will have to be re-scheduled for next week. So I now appear to have a few days on my hands.

Ahh, what to do now then? Maybe I'll head down to San Diego tomorrow for the weekend.

Progressing slowly.

2009-10-11T23:33:00.000+08:00

The last few days have been pretty hectic, and although it only seems to be slow, I think I am making progress towards goal #61. I got a tip from one of Evan's friends, and took a look at craigslist for opportunities as a movie extra. From adverts I found there, I have been to a couple of casting calls, and hopefully have secured a role in a scene in a movie which is due to be shot in the next few days. There are a couple of other possibilities too, so I am pretty positive about getting the goal achieved now.

I had a long day yesterday, as I decided I needed to rent a car for a while, as driving and parking the RV in downtown Los Angeles is a bit of an issue, as it won't fit in any covered parking lots, and won't fit in a single parking meter space. It is also pretty expensive to drive, as it does about 9 miles per gallon, and Evan's place is 60 miles from downtown!!

So at the airport where I had booked an economy rental for a week, they only had a cargo van available, and Evan had dropped me off and left me there! I had no choice but to take the cargo van into the city, as I had to be there in time for a scheduled meeting. Then after a quick conducted tour with Eric around the huge mansions of Bel-Air, I drove through Friday afternoon LA rush hour traffic to another car rental depot to swap the van for a small car and just made it in time before they closed. At the same time I was trying to field a couple of phone calls about the RV being advertised for sale, and immediately had to rush back to Evan's (more LA freeway rush hour traffic!) to show a prospective purchaser the RV.

All ended well though, as Adam bought my travelling home, and wanted to take it there and then. I hurriedly cleared my stuff out, throwing it into the boot (or trunk) of the rental car. I was sorry to see the place that has been my longest term home during the last year disappear down the road, but relieved that my finances are looking a little healthier now for the next part of my journey.

And so now with an economical and relatively easy-to-park vehicle at my disposal I decided to get out and about today. Clay Egan, who I met while in Salt Lake City in August, had emailed to tell me he was going to be at a four wheel drive expo in Pomona this weekend. I drove out there and we hung out for the afternoon, and I wandered around admiring the amazing vehicles.

The highlight of the afternoon for me was watching the daredevil BMX and freestyle motorcross displays. Those guys are so skillful.

Later we grabbed some dinner, and I crashed for the night at his luxurious suite in the nearby Sheraton. It was great to catch up, and once again, it was very inspiring to be around someone so positive and motivated.

RV for sale!

2009-10-07T11:00:00.003+08:00

Well, it's time for me to part with my current home, as my USA journey is just about complete. I fly down to Mexico at the end of the month, and ideally need to sell the RV before then.

I will be sad to see it go, but my US funds are running very low, and if I don't sell it, I don't actually think I have enough cash left to get to the end of the month! It really has been a home from home, and is very comfortable.

For anyone interested, or if you know someone who might be, it is currently parked in Oxnard, about 50 miles north of Los Angeles. The bargain price is $3,000, or make an offer.

Full details here:-
http://www.100goals100weeks.com/RVforSale.php

“I’m Ready For My Close Up Now, Mr. DeMille!”

2009-10-06T11:10:00.003+08:00

The drive back from Lake Elsinore to downtown Beverly Hills early on a Monday morning is certainly a challenge in the RV, and took quite some time! The traffic is incredible! I have no idea how people can do this on a daily basis.

Finding a parking spot where i wouldn't get a ticket was the next challenge, but aided by Eric, who I have now met a couple of times here in LA, and who was meeting me for a coffee, I found a suitable spot.

At the One Source Talent office I met again with office manager Ema, and had some photos taken by Anji, and filled out some details for my "Talent Comp Card". I don't know if I can really be referred to as "talent"!

Check out my online profile at One Source Talent here:-
Ian Usher - Talent: 39756

I can also print out or email my comp card, and pick different photos, depending on the role I am applying for:-

So I'm ready for my big scene now! Over to Ema and the team at One Source Talent. Ema has promised to try her best to help achieve the goal, and hopefully her team can come up with something. Thanks for all the help so far. How exciting!

Note: The blog title is the often mis-quoted line from the 1950 movie "Sunset Boulevard" The actual quote, from actress Gloria Swanson at the end of the movie is:
"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Goal 60 - helicopter skydive.

2009-10-04T21:49:00.004+08:00

I had to be in Beverley Hills yesterday morning at 11am for another casting agency interview. When I saw a similarly full room to the previous morning my hopes faded, but when I had a brief one-on-one interview, things looked much more positive. I now have to go back in on Monday morning for a follow-up, and to have some photos taken - I will update you as things progress.

However, my plans have now had to change a little. I took the RV into Beverley Hills yesterday, and parking it proved to be a bit of a challenge! After that, I drove out to Lake Elsinore, where Skydive Elsinore is located, and am staying here for a couple of nights, but plans to head onwards down to San Diego have been cancelled, or at least postponed for now.

I got to the dropzone yesterday afternoon, and by the time I got paperwork sorted out it really wasn't worth hiring a rig for the rest of the afternoon, so happily watched the action.

It is the biggest and busiest skydive meet I have ever been to, and is largely aimed at female skydivers, as the event is called "Chicks Rock!", although there are also plenty of guys here to jump. They were running three large planes yesterday, and had a big meal and 70s theme party in the evening. Today they ran two planes and a helicopter too.

So this morning I had to get up early and join the queue to hire a parachute for the day, and then wait for the helicopter jumps to start. There was a bit of a mix up initially, as we were booked on in groups of four, and the helicopter could only take three people at a time. However, in the re-shuffle I was bumped up from load 9 to load 5, and geared up when the time came.

The helicopter was pretty small, with open sides, and I squeezed in behind the pilot, the other couple taking the two left seats. We took off, and the small machine climbed pretty quickly, and it didn't seem very long before we were above 4,000 feet and the pilot gave us a two minute warning.

I was first to exit, and when given the go-ahead, climbed out of the door and stood on the skid. I gave the others a quick nod and tried to take in the experience, but couldn't hesitate too long. I jumped backwards, and watched the helicopter appear to accelerate upwards as I fell away from it.

It is quite a different experience to jumping from a plane, as at first there is no wind, and before you pick up speed you really have very little control over how you fall. And the feeling of falling from a stand-still is quite intense. As I gathered speed though the familiar feel came back, and after a very short freefall I threw the pilot chute and once the parachute was open, got my bearings and made a pretty good landing on the narrow landing area.

My little digital stills camera is not an ideal skydive video camera, but as a home-made glove-cam fastened into a modified glove on my left hand, does manage to capture some pretty good video. Take a look at Goal # 60 being achieved:-

Later in the day I did a couple of jumps from the plane at 12,500 feet, which was fun. Chatting with a few of the other helicopter jumpers later, I discovered, somewhat ironically, that Perris Skydiving, just down the road, where I tried out their wind-tunnel last year, has someone who organises skydives from a hot air balloon. Well, my US funds are a bit tight now, but if I manage to sell the RV in time, I might just see if I can fit a balloon jump in too before I leave the States at the end of the month! We'll see. But I am elated to have achieved this goal in such a great place.

Many thanks to all at Elsinore for making me so welcome.

Rejection!!

2009-10-02T15:57:00.001+08:00

Last night I stayed in downtown Hollywood!! There are quite a few hostels on or near Hollywood Boulevard, and as I had to be in Burbank early this morning I decided to stay overnight in the city. I found a quiet little hostel just up a side street, almost right behind the famous Chinese Theatre, where actor's hand and footprints are set in concrete.

I was planning to catch up again with my friend Ari, the voice-over artist who I met last year when I first visited LA. So I settled into the hostel and made my bed, and then headed out to Sunset Boulevard, where I met Ari in a lovely little Indian restaurant.

It was good to catch up again, and compare notes on what we had both achieved over the past ten months or so, but I was more excited to find out that Ari had come out on his Segway, and after dinner I could have a try on it if I wanted. Ari was very pleased that I had never been on one, and that he could introduce me to a new activity.

I started slowly, and soon got the hang of the unusual machine, and Ari turned it up to full speed. Simply leaning forward or backwards makes the thing speed up or slow down, and a twist of the left grip turns the machine left or right. It was surprisingly quick, and great fun!

Afterwards, I drove the Segway back to Ari's apartment, where he showed me his home voice-over recording studio, and then gave me a lift back to my hostel in his Merc convertible. A great evening all round.

This morning I was up early, and took the metro then a bus, ending up in Burbank to go to Central casting, hoping to get listed as a movie extra. The place was packed, and after the initial introduction the queues of prospective fellow actors began to form.

I had a chat with a couple of the staff members, but it was very quickly made clear that I would not be able to be registered without a US work visa. Even if I wanted to appear on a voluntary, unpaid basis, it would not be possible, apparently.

This acting business is tough! I have faced my first rejection, and suspect there are more to come! I have another interview at a different agency tomorrow morning, but imagine it may well have the same outcome.

Red Bull Soapbox Races in LA.

2009-09-26T19:30:00.005+08:00

The last few days have been pretty easy-going. I have been hanging out with Evan and Andrew at Evan's beach pad at Hollywood Beach in Oxnard. Evan has had alot of work to do, and can be seen suffering through a tough day at the office below. He still manages to find time to enjoy a beer on the beach at sunset most evenings though.

We managed to fit a couple of games of ten pin bowling the other night, and met up with Wade and his girlfriend Michelle. I had played against Wade when I was here last year, and scored my best game ever. Wade was looking forward to our return match, and sure enough, this time around he beat me, but it was a very close and exciting match.

The next day I dropped Andrew off at the railway station, as he headed for Burbank airport, and then on to Las Vegas on his journey eastwards. That evening Evan and I wandered along to the local bar, a wonderful little place right on the sand at the end of the peninsula, where we played pool and darts.

I have been wandering the beach most mornings trying to maintain a bit of my new-found fitness from my Colorado climbing adventure, and have been swimming a couple of times in the surf. The weather is really nice here at the moment.

I have also been trying to secure a position as an extra in a Hollywood movie, but this is proving to be a little trickier than I imagined, as I do not have any sort of work visa for the USA. I see that as a minor technicality, and am hoping that I will be able to work on a voluntary, unpaid basis. Unfortunately, the extras casting agencies seem to see this as a bit more of a hurdle than I do!!

Today's entertainment was awesome! Earlier in the week I found out that the Red Bull Soapbox Race was due to be held in LA city centre, and after seeing some of the photos, decided that this was a must-see event.

Evan and I headed into the city in the morning. The traffic was a bit slow on the way in, and it became obvious that we wouldn't quite make it in time to have a look around the pits before racing began at 1pm. We found a parking garage close by and got to the main corner of the course just as the first soapbox headed down the track.

The street was packed, and we tried to find a good vantage point, but all seemed to be taken already. We watched from a tall cafe garden for a while, and then made our way up to the start of the course, where we found a pretty good view of the start line, just below a huge monitor where we could watch the whole run on the screen.

The course, marked out by hay bales down a pretty steep hill twisted and turned a bit, taking the crazy vehicles over a small jump before reaching the sharp left turn, where a huge berm was set up, and the carts could angle up the steep bank to take the corner. From there another couple of turns and jumps took them to the finish line.

There were some spectacular crashes as competitors didn't manage to negotiate the corner, or when a wheel fell off after a jump. Some of the elaborate constructions did not seem to have the required robustness to finish the course.

The event was very well organised, the atmosphere was fantastic, and the racing spectacular. It reminded me quite a bit of the fun atmosphere at the jump off the pier at the Worthing Birdman Competition last month.

Evan's favourite soapbox was "Pole Position", a mobile pole dancing table!!

Goal 59 - ten out of ten!

2009-09-21T22:43:00.003+08:00

From Las Vegas I spent a long hot day on Saturday driving down to Los Angeles, where I turned up at my friend Evan's house, in a lovely location right by the beach, about 50 miles north of the city.

I first "met" Evan when he helped out with some of the online publicity for ALife4Sale, and then met him in person last year when I came to LA in November, when I achieved Goal #17 - skydiving in a wind tunnel.

Evan was away for the weekend, but had left me the keys for his apartment and car, and a note asking if I could pick him up at LAX airport at 10pm the next evening. So on Sunday afternoon I went to meet another internet contact, Chris, and his mate Nick, in The Corner Office sports bar in Costa Mesa. I managed to gain a slightly better understanding of American football, but am still somewhat confused by all the plays.

After the game, we arranged to meet the following weekend again if we didn't manage to catch up during the week, and I made my way to the airport, where I was pleased to see Evan again.

On Monday I borrowed Evan's car once more, and went to meet Andrew, who had just flown in from Australia. Andrew had joined me on my trip to Israelite Bay earlier in the year, and had planned to join me in Las Vegas, but unfortunately had not been able to make it.

We wandered around Hollywood Boulevard, and took a drive out to the coast at Santa Monica, and up Highway 1 to Malibu, where we watched the sunset over a huge field of commemorative flags at Pepperdine University.

That evening we met up with Eric, who I have spoken to several times on the telephone, and was looking forward to meet. Eric chose Dukes Restaurant right on the water's edge at Malibu as our rendezvous, where we had a great Hawaiian chicken meal.

Eric is a TV producer, and I had had an amusing conversation when I spoke to him the first time, right at the very end of the ALife4Sale auction, about three or four minutes before the auction closed. At the time of the conversation there were three different TV crews in my living room, a news helicopter flying overhead looking for a place to land, and a live uStream internet video feed from my house. When I think back about that time it all seems so long ago now.

Eric is actually the tenth person on the the list of people that I wanted to meet in person, who I had come across during the course of selling my life. After I finished ALife4Sale, and wrote out my list of 100 goals, I decided that I would like to meet some of these people who had contacted me to offer support, or ideas, or encouragement during that process. There were about twenty people on that list, and I have now met ten of them. In actual fact, I must have met at least fifty people, maybe more, who knew of me and contacted me because of ALife4Sale, or 100goals, so the goal has been well-and-truly achieved!

The ten people that I have met that were on my original to-meet list are as follows:-

Misty
Misty wrote to me to tell me she was doing a painting inspired my my life for sale idea, and I got to meet her, and see the picture, in Las Vegas in November 2008

Evan
Evan White helped me alot with PR for ALife4Sale, and we became good friends. We met and went to Perris Skydiving in California, where Evan did a tandem jump, and I tried out the wind tunnel. EvanWhitePR

Yvette
Yvette writes a couple of blogs herself, and made a few comments on my ALife4Sale blogs. She also was trying to achieve a new adventure each month in 2008. Her idea was that one of her adventures might be to try to meet me, and we went for an evening out in Los Angeles when we discovered we were both there in November 2008.

Brandon
Evan introduced me to Brandon when several people were asking about movie rights early on during the development of media interest in the ALife4Sale story. I finally met Brandon in person when we went for lunch in Beverley Hills.

John
John email me to tell me that he was using my idea as inspiration for his own life-sale, and offered his home and lifestyle living and working as an artist by the beach on hus website artistlifeforsale.com. I experienced the life that was in offer when I visited him in Santa Monica.

David
David was the winner of my video clips competition that I ran in the final days running up to the auction, and chose the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" as his prize. We jept in touch, and I mrt him and his family in Portland, Oregon as I passed through.

Moe
Moe had offered to take me dogsledding in the wilderness if i fancied a change of pace after selling my life, and that idea subsequently went onto the 100 Goals list, and became a wonderful reality when i flew up to Whithorse in Canada for an amazing week.

Matthew
Matthew was my dedicated eBay help representative for the whole of ALife4Sale, and we talked alot during that time. We finally got to meet when I was in his hometown of vancouver.

Richard
Richard branson was quite an inspiration for my final decision to go ahead with ALife4Sale, and although I did not speak to him during those months, I did blog about him here, and finally got to meet him in London.

Eric
Eric seems to have a remarkable ability to call me just as somethng big is happening. He called duting the final minutes of the auction, and then completely at random he called when I was in Australia, the evening before I was due to set off on the second part of my 100goals journey - great timing!

There are so many others that could have been on this list that I have met over the last 14 months, and I imagine many more wonderful people yet to meet before this adventure is all over. Thanks again to everyone who has offered help, support and encouragement on this amazing journey. It would never have been possible to have achieved so much without your kindness and generosity.

Top marks - ten out of ten to you all!

Poker in Las Vegas - Day 3 - Goal 58 achieved!

2009-09-18T23:49:00.001+08:00

What an evening! I am quite drained by my time at the poker table tonight. This evening's game certainly took me well outside of my comfort zone. After a lazy afternoon by the pool I took the 4.30pm shuttle into town, and made my way to my chosen game at The Wynn.

The walk from the shuttle stop was a nervous one, as the money I had chosen to play with, although not absolutely devastating if it did all go, was certainly a sum that would be uncomfortable to lose. But most of my poker experience is in very cheap tournaments, and I didn't really know what to expect of a bigger cash game. So with some trepidation, I put my name on the list for a seat at a table. My choice was a Texas No Limit Hold 'Em $2/$5 cash table, without an upper limit, so I could "invest" a sum of $1,000. I had to wait nervously for a while for a seat, and eventually sat down to play just before 6pm.

I surprised myself a little by playing fairly aggressively with the first couple of hands, when I received some decent cards, but lost both of the hands I got involved in pretty quickly, and was down by about $300 within the first ten minutes. I settled down though, and decided not to let the early setback get to me, and half an hour later won a pretty good hand, bringing me almost back to my starting point.

From then on I played fairly steady, winning a few, and losing a few, but my chips slowly dwindled. At one point the crunch came, and a young Australian guy across the table from me with a huge stack of chips went "All In", and after a brief hesitation I called him, reasonably confident with a ten in my hand to go with the two other tens on the board. The other guy had the fourth ten, and we split the pot, both profiting fairly well from other players bets.

I felt that was the moment when my goal was achieved, as the last of my money had been at risk, and felt pretty proud to be still in the game.

I ended up down by the time I had to leave, having lost over half of my stack, and when I cashed in, I collected over $400, just less than half of what I started with. However, I am generally a "glass-half-full" type of guy, and in this case, I reckoned anything that I came away with was a bonus.

It is pretty clear to me now that I am no poker genius, and at tonight's table there were guys that had a much better idea of what they were doing than I did. Others can see things that I simply miss, or discuss finer points of betting strategies that I only half understand. I certainly have no mis-conceptions about winning the World Series any time soon. However, I did have a fantastic time, and I know I will be taking part in many more, but less costly, games. I am glad to have experienced the excitement of a game at this level though, and do think that I got great value for money in terms of thrill and experience.

After I cashed my remaining chips in, I tried to find my way out to the street, but got completely lost in the huge place. These casinos are deliberately designed to let you find your way in, but make it very difficult to ever find an exit, I am sure! Eventually, with a little help I found my way out, and just made it to the Riviera in time for the last shuttle back to Sam's Town. If I had missed it, the taxi fare would have made serious inroads into the remnants of my capital!

I arrived back at Sam's town, and went into the casino there to grab a beer, but somehow found myself at the poker room, wondering how much the 11pm poker tournament might cost me! "What are you thinking?" I asked myself. "Quit while you're ahead - well, not ahead - but at least while you are no further behind than you need to be!" I really didn't think the $50 entry fee would be a good investment, and in the end I think I made a great value-call by investing a further $3 in three more beers and heading back to my RV to watch a movie.