Dari Dawg in the USA

Signing off, Dari Dawg

2006-01-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

On this lowly Tuesday night here in chilly Denver, Colorado... this will be my last post from these shores ever. EVER! And so I begin typing...

I was planning a huge summary of my life over the past five months, but there's just way too much to write about. Maybe when I get back home, I'll try do something...

Apart from working (and shopping) this weekend, I've just been trynna cram 6 months of crap into my luggage. I'm allowed two bags in the hull weighing a max of 60 kgs or something, but I'm pretty sure I'll be over weight though! And I have my golf bag as an extra piece of luggage. I'll probably end up paying $100 in penalties... the hidden cost of big shopping!

So I've been feeling quite anxious the past two days - I don't know if I'm happy or sad to be leaving. Workwise, I'm FUCKING over the moon that I'm bouncing, but a part of me doesn't want to leave. But I'm really excited about getting back to the land of the living, chilling with The Boyz... or maybe trynna find some new friends since I've heard some people have seriously CHANGED!

Being cut short by a month, there's a lot of shit I didn't get to do which makes me quite grumpy. NYC and Frisco will have to wait, I didn't get to do as much boarding as I wanted to, I haven't been to a monster truck rally and I didn't see Carmello and the Nuggets play... maybe next time!

Anyways, here's a summary of my travels:

August 2005, arrive in Denver, Colorado:

Off immediately to Chicago, Illinois, the second biggest city after NYC.

Then it was off for four weeks of hard grind in Omaha, Nebraska in November and December:

I flew off for a weekend to Hotlanta, to get gangsta'd up:

Over Thanksgiving, I hit the big time in Las Vegas, Nevada:

And finally, Toronto, Ontario (Canada) for the best Christmas and New Years holiday with my brother and cousins:

But it's been a frikken amazing. This time has flown by so quickly, yet it feels like forever since I left (if that makes sense?). I am grateful that I was given this chance to come here. It's taught me a lot and given me the chance to do shit I never would've been able to do back home. And not to mention, the majority of my galavanting has been on the work's account (AWESOME - my December credit card payment was $7500!!!!).

Even after all the crap we had, like getting robbed, having unexpected medical bills to pay, working up to 14 hours a day six days a week, sleeping 4 hours a night... Overall, I'm happy I did this. And I might even do this again if I get the chance later later this year. But probably not to Denver, somewhere with less client work, warmer weather and less issues.

Anyways - guys, it's been fun relaying my randomness for ya'll to read. Who knew I'd crack over 5000 hits on a random blog like this? Where the hell those readers came from, who knows?

This is a great country, no doubt. Life here is good, but it's no South Africa. And because of that, I know I'm gonna be much happier back home.

With that, signing off for the last time in this country, til we meet again,
Dari Dawg in the USA.

Last two days in the US of A

2006-01-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

I had two days to mess about and spend the last of my hard earned dollarz.

Monday, January 16, actually make that 16 January 2006, saw me head back to Loveland for my final session of carving. Yet again, I picked a day when a snowstorm arrived. Downtown Denver was about 5 Celsius, but Loveland was close on -10C. And that meant my camera didn't work that well again, so not too many pics... Unfortunately, the storm got so bad I had to leave at 3pm!

Before and after (breaking my falls with my face)... got a helmet this time too!

My last Tuesday (17 Jan '06) saw me head to Red Rocks Ampitheatre - a concert venue carved out of the some cool rock formations. This place was awesome, and I'm quite disappointed I didn't watch a concert here. It has a capacity of just under 10,000 - Dave Matthews sold out four concerts in minutes, and so did Santana (he's been performing here since the 60s!

I chilled on the stands for an hour watching this hippie play with his congas, his drums I mean. The acoustics is amazing, considering that this place was built some time in the 20s, I think?! With nothing but good explding of the natural rock.

And so ended my last full day in Denver, Colorado. I went home at about 3pm, a little depressed, to finish my packing. And with that, ended my last experiences of the United States...

Three more shopping days before I leave

2006-01-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

The stock show is in town, but I passed up the opportunity to check out some cowboys and rodeo'ing to go shopping way south. And as always, everything is on SALE. Fuck, I love shit with that lil red sticker that saves you up to 70% of normal retail.

Saw the Nike sale. F'cken tickets... max'd the plastic.

It's gonna be a long three days of shopping...

Judge is a POES!

2006-01-14T00:36:00.000-07:00

But you knew that. And so is Don.

Honourable dismissal

2006-01-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

Today is my absolute last official working day here in the US. As of tomorrow, my work permit will be cancelled, and I will have about a week to chaila before they evict me from this crazy country.

Jeez has time flown by.

July 2005, Mafikeng, North West Province
There I was sitting in my hotel room at 10.30pm watching crappy SABC telly in crappy Mafikeng when I got an SMS from The Boss. Naturally, I kakked myself. And so reads the SMS:
There is an opportunity for you to be seconded to the US for 6 months. Let me know immediately if you’re interested.

I accepted immediately, ignoring the fact that I had my flights to London booked and paid for to visit my big bro.

And so began this mad rush to get visas, get cash, get sorted and get going.

And then five months later...
From: Jamie C
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 12:45 PM
To: Dari Dawg
Cc: The Boss (in SA); The Boss (in Denver)
Subject: Early Release from Denver
Importance: High

We have reviewed our Denver engagement needs and have determined we need to release you from your rotation early. The effective date of your release will be 1/13/06. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Regards,
Jamie C.

That was seriously the best news I ever heard.

So, come Wednesday, fucking lock your expensive shit up, put your money away, tell the girls to lock away their undies and put a lock on the fridge, cos this Dawg is gonna be back in the hizzy... pencil in Thursday for a cracka-lacking big one at Toiger. F'sho!

News from one fucked up weekend

2006-01-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

So this is my boet's last night in Denver, and so we had to tick off the absolute last thing on the list of shit to do - the girlie bar - and in Denver, all roads lead to Shotguns! So we hooked up a stack of singles, sat our dirty assess around the various stages and got tits rubbed in our faces until our faces were blue. Sweet!

But you know the rules - no pics inside the tittie bars, so nothing to show but a bright wide smile.

And now for the most fucked up-ness ever. EVER! Don's got a couple, Rox has two. Now, so do I. Presenting Dari Dawg Ink-orporated. Arrrwhooooo! Now this shit's HOT!

So I headed over to Paintura which is just two blocks from my apartment to get my boy Tassili to hook me up with some more ink.

Four Chinese characters - Jing Zhong Bao Guo - with a whole lot of meaning. But I'm not gonna bother to explain. For now just admire the awesome artwork. If you're lucky enough to be one of my half acquaintences, maybe I'll enlighten you. And for those of you who have never had the privelage of seeing me with my shirt off, here's my first tat which I got as when I joined my first gang at the age of 13. Kidding, I was twelve.

The last meal

2006-01-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

Big bruvva Dawg leaves tomorrow morn, and so tonight is his last meal. He wanted steak, so I got Omaha Steak - the best beef ever. EVER! So I got these mail order - how crazy is it to order a full dinner through the mail - 4 fillets, 4 stuffed potatoes, veggies and cheesecake! Through the mail. Just had to emphasize that!

Cast you minds back to when I was in Omaha, and had an Omaha Steak for the first time, a $32 piece of prime meat! Hmmmmmm....

Hooters, Walmart and Sidewok Cafe - Check

2006-01-06T19:21:00.001-07:00

So I'm back in the land of the free, back to all the crap that is my work life. But my days are numbered... details to come so watch this space.

Anyways, my boet leaves on Saturday, so we had to tick off a couple of the items on his "To do" list. So Hooters for chicken wings it was. Unfortunately, we didn't have the hottest of chickies but she was aaaight!

We then needed to pick up some random shit and so we hit the good ol' dodgy Walmart. I loves this place - full of hill-billies looking for Nascar shirts, Hispanics looking for cheap shit and us dodgy Asians buying tons of sweets. Don't you wish you were one of the kiddies back home that we're gonna hook up with some SERIOUS sugar highs? Willy Wonka's Gobstoppers, Lindt and Lindor, Hersheys, Toblerones, Runts, Nerds, you want 'em, we got 'em!

I've been meaning to take a pic of this sign since I got here, some dodgy Chinese restaurant on West Colfax - SIDEWOK CAFE. Hah - where you come to WOK your dog! I crack me up!

New Years Day

2006-01-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Jan 1 was our last full day to mess around in Toronto.

We kicked off 2006 with a traditional Chinese Yum Cha breakfast where we feasted yet again. So great, good food, good times!

Then we went to check out the Body Worlds exhibition - the one where that mad scientist dude plasticizes human bodies and displays them artistically (if that's possible?). And then we went to play at the rest of the Science Centre. Sound geeky - shit that place is so fun for big kids like us. Ball throwing, driving games, smacking shit up, anything to keep us entertained for two seconds...

And then for the final tick off our food tour, we went for yet another feast downtown - our final goodbye to Gutch and Glenn before we flew back to Denver. It's frikken hard to believe that 12 days went by so quickly! On the menu for the night? Lobster. Niiice. And snails. Still in the shell. Jeez did that freak me out cos you have to pick them out with a skewer. And when they come out they are still all spiralled and shit.

PS
We stopped by Glenn's brother Q's for a quick visit. Imagine our surprise when this Canadian born 'n bred had a Saffer flag hanging up. And not only that, a Redneck Volkstaat old South African flag too.

Old Year's Day

2006-01-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

So we spent Old Year's Day carvin' it up at Blue Mountain, a two hour drive out of Toronto.

Obviously we kept to the green runs being the rookies that we are, but shit did we fly down some of the slopes. Courage and just plain stupidity got us carving some serious curves, while my boet got knocked the fugout after falling backwards down the slopes and cracking his head on the ice. My God was I sore. My coccyx was so frikken bruised, arms and chest stiff from having to pick myself up off the ground, not to mention my face which seemed to be the only way I could slow myself down when falling!

Anyways, it was a frikken awesome day out!

I got to make my first snow angel finally - hardly as much excitement as I thought it would be...

And they have night skiing under lights!

Anyways, we got home after 10pm after stopping for din din and visiting some of the in-laws. And that was the end of the night, no real plans for a big New Year's Party, Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square being our only hope of a party. 35,000 people packed the place in the freezing cold to watch Canada's half celebs perform and entertain, hardly worth the effort! Instead we watched Dick Clark ring in the New Year by watching his balls drop at the stroke of midnight. We hugged and kissed! And then went to bed. I must say, it was a nice change to have a quiet New Years' with some fam, none of the hecticness and logistical nightmares of years past!

Anyways, hope ya'll have a safe New Year wherever you may have been. Hope you DESHTROYED the place, hooked up with some random hotties and didn't get robbed in your drunken states or carted off by the metro pigs!

Happy New Year!

CN Tower - Take 2

2006-01-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

We finally had a sunny and clear day to check out the CN Tower, our second attempt after the fogginess we had the first time. Apparently it's the tallest free standing tower in the world, which meant it was a must-see! Being a clear day, it meant that it was poes cold in Toronto, well below freezing. Being 350 metres above the ground meant that it was fokken poes cold!

So there's this glass floor that allows you to see the ground below which is quite freaky... and if you look closely there are these crosses on the ground to show the exact spot you would hit if if had to fall...

Ballin', shot callin'

2005-12-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

We checked out a Raptors game last night - The Atlanta Hawks were in town. They are like two of the worst teams in the league, the Raptors record is something like 7 and 21 I think, and the Hawks aren't far off.

And yet 18000+ fans still packed the stadium - we got half cheap seats (C$52) and so sat far up, but still had a good view of the court.

We were told to not expect any fireworks from the team cos they're REALLY kak, but they had a half decent game, and actually beat the Hawks. It was only their second win at home this season. And they broke 100 points which meant free chow from Pizza Pizza, one of Toronto's local take-out joints.

CN Tower?

2005-12-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

We planned to check out the CN Tower, the tallest free-standing tower in the world.

But as you can see, the viz was at zero metres, hardly worth the C$30 entrance...

Niagara Falls

2005-12-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

We drove off to the Niagara falls yesterday, which is an hour's drive from Toronto. So I pictured the Falls to be within some sort of a national park, with tons of pine trees and deer and shit. What a surprise. The falls are smack bang in the city centre of the town of Niagara Falls, Ontario - the cheesiest city after Vegas. Tons of cheap casinos and flashy lights, themed restaurants and crap... but a nice experience after all.

And then we went to the banquet of all banquets back in Toronto's Chinatown - prawns, crab, all kinds of meats and fancy delicacies.

Two shopping days since Christmas

2005-12-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

Boxing day must be one of the biggest shopping days ever, where everything is up to 70% off! Holy crap - I reckon I spent more in the two days after Christmas than I spent while in Denver.

The cool thing about not seeing everyone til Jan is that I can buy all my Christmas presents on discount. Two pairs of sneakers, lots of clothes. Thank God no more fragrances... oh, and ANOTHER frikken golf bag! But a real pimp one!

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

So to the in-laws we went for Christmas day. If I thought we had a banquet back home, holy crap was I in for a surprise. First it was Christmas lunch, about six or seven courses. And don't forget about desert and tea. Then it was time for presents. And then off to another auntie for dinner. About a dozen different dishes, chicken, duck, turkey, sushi and lots more. And more desert. I was suffering from some hectic eat exhaustion last night...

And we finally had a white Christmas - huge slushy snowflakes began falling at night. So we had our first real snowball fight with decently packed snowballs that you could throw with decent speed and do some SERIOUS damage with - nothing like the crappy fluffy shit that falls in Denver!

Anyways, hope you guys had a good and safe Christmas and ate yourselves broken, and got lots of prezzies. Wherever you are for New Years, keep it safe, keep it real and keep it in your pants. And if you don't, keep it wrapped up! Over and out!

At home in Toronto

2005-12-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Who knew that I'd feel so "at home" in Toronto?

Been chilling with the fam, eating food that reminds me of home, and groceries all the way from SA.

There's this shop that sells Safrican stuff, check it - biltong and boerie rolls (called Farmer's Sausage), Appletiser (now that's what I'm tokkin about), pilchards (???), Ouma rusks and Chappies and Wicks bubblegum. Oh, and Mrs Balls chutney (hmmm).

And I've never seen so many Chinese people, outside of China itself, even more than Vegas. This is probably the first time I've sworn at someone in Cantonese and they frikken understood, and then swore back doubly harsh and doubly quick! Funny...!

Welcome to Canada, eh?

2005-12-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

When I got here in August, my first priority was to take advantage of the chance to see some fam and friends that are living here. I cracked the nod to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Thanksgiving at my cuz, but expensive flights, Hurricane Katrina and the call of Vegas put an end to that. Second invite was to go north of the border to visit my cousin Desiree (Gutch) and her hubby, Glenn, in Canad-I-A - Toronto, Ontario.

So after weeks of planning and issues with getting my passport and visa back from the fucking Canadian consulate, I was good to go. My boet in London had similar issues, only double as he had to get both American and Canadian visas.

So we fly tomorrow morn at 11.30 on Air Canada, arrive in freezing Toronto at 4.30pm. I've been monitoring the temps, they're averaging a wild 1 Celsius max! But that guarantees a White Christmas. If I thought Denver was cold...

We've got tons on the itinerary - shopping on Boxing Day (priority one), a Raptors game, visits to Toronto's sights and sounds, dining out and hopefully a club or two. And the local strip club, bookings have been made already!

Should be a cool 10 days of destroying someone else's country, and a nice break from my slit-your-wrist-again work...

Two more shopping days before Christmas

2005-12-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Me, my boet and I are off to Canandia for the holidays tomorrow - Toronto, Ontario to be exact. I was planning to do all my Christmas shopping after Christmas when there are all the crazy-mad sales giving everything away for free, but we had to get some prezzies.

The goods, courtesy Foley's - the best department store ever. EVER!
1 x Hugo Boss Deep Red perfume gift pack
1 x Phillips electric razor
1 x Fuji Finepix Z1 digital camera 5.1MP
1 x Fossil watch for ladies
1 x Calvin Klein 5-piece perfume set for ladies
1 x Calvin Klein 5-piece cologne set for gents
1 x Aqua di Gio cologne gift pack

Don't you wish you invited us for Christmas? Rox, Judgey-Poo, jealous?

Self service toll booth

2005-12-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

So I drove all the way south down the I-25 to get to a client, so far south that I had to go through a toll gate. So I see the signs are like 50c per car. Cool, nothing hectic. Then I see exact change only. Crap. And then when I got there, it's a self service booth where you gotta throw your quarters into the bucket. I bet a lotta chicks miss - you could probably make a good living off picking quaters up from the road!

Anyway, so I didn't have the exact change - the sign says: Failure to pay may result in a fine of $250.

What to do?

Christmas wishes from SA

2005-12-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

So my (our) mommy sent us a Christmas card, all the way from sunny Safrica! How sweet. Not one for many words though...

Scrapin' in Loveland

2005-12-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

We went skiing today out in the high country at Loveland ski resort, about 90 minutes west of Denver. We actually didn't have much intention to ski since last night was quite a biggie, but we thought we may as well if we went all that way.

We stopped off at this dodgy small town called Georgetown, where we fucked around on this huge frozen lake - about a foot of ice on the top. We chilled with the local ice fisherman, and watched as they pulled out small trout that almost freeze when they get pulled out the water. It was a mild -10 Celsius!

Then off to Loveland, where we rented boards and boots and hit the kiddies slopes for two hours. Hell that's fun! Daz and I both got the hang of it quite quickly, so come Toronto, we're gonna fuck that place up SSX Tricky-style!

But it was so insanely cold that our cameras stopped working, can you believe it. Oh, and I tried beef jerky for the first time. It's not as bad as people make it out to be, it's just not as good as biltong!

Let me entertain you

2005-12-18T01:44:00.000-07:00

Can't wait til we see Robbie Williams in April.

All about the Benjamins

2005-12-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

So Daz has been earning some serious pounds in London town. Who knew working at Starbucks could be that lucrative? Seriously, he works at Starbucks. Okay so that's not the whole story, he's the trade analyst for the entire British region. So he knows his coffee... holy crap, did he arrive with some bling...

News from one fucked up weekend

2005-12-18T01:17:00.000-07:00

So who knew that an analized corporate could throw such a half-DESHTROYER Christmas party... 'scuse me, holiday party. It's un-PC to say Christmas party, or merry Christmas. You gotta wish people "Happy Holidays".

Daz joined me as my "life partner" as me pimped our way through to the Blue Crane Grill (something like that?). Even more awesome was we met a latest Safrican to be sent to the living hell that is the Denver office. Lubz, if only you knew... Wonder if he knew he'd be the only Black dude in whiter-than-Switzerland Denver?

The P.I.M.Ps - Lubz, Dawg and Daz. And all the Safricans - we were like a display for everyone to see, and naturally, the life of the partizay!

And as you know, when I'm with my work friends the REAL Dari Dawg comes out - shot the Jaggie with my manager.

Nina grindin' on the dancefloor. She's from Tennesseeeeee. And she fine! Then Sean and one of the other managers, reminds me of a certain Miss J-Poo for some reason!

Daz and Lubz shootin' shit! So this restaurant was filled with dead shit. Check the grizzly.

I was really reluctant to go tonight, but certainly glad I did. It was a little reserved, nothing compared to our office parties back home, that's for sure. At midnight, the lights came on, the place closed and we were kicked the fuck out onto the cold-asses pavement.

It snowed for most of the night so I decided to kap a couple 360s in the parking lock... Listen to the ding ding dinging - that's the warning that the handbrake is up. No shit, how else you gonna kap a handbrake turn?!