Our trip from Vegas to LA was pretty uneventful, the bus was slow and took about 6 hours, mostly due to being held up in Vegas because the indicator on the bus was not working. It was very cheap though at $25 each, so we were not complaining.

We arrived in LA around 10pm on Saturday night and were dropped of somewhere “downtown”. I put downtown in quotes because it did not feel like downtown at all. The place we were dropped felt very sketchy and unsafe, although looking at it later it was actually downtown, possibly just a bad part of downtown. From the drop off we caught a cab to The Dixie Hollywood, this was the worst hotel we stayed in for our entire trip. The bed had stains, the bathroom samples were open and used and they did not even have a key for us for our room. We only stayed the one night there before getting a refund for the rest of the days booked. We did try and make the most of the night and went out for some delicious Thai nearby.

Our Sunday was spent talking to Hotwire getting a refund and re-booking a hotel. By the time all this was done it was 3pm and we checked in to the Hollywood Heights in Hollywood. This was right in the center of Hollywood and very close to Hollywood Blvd. Unfortunately the hotel was under complete renovation, so there was dust everywhere, but at least the rooms were nice. That night we ventured out along Hollywood Blvd which to be honest didn’t really seem all that interesting to us. We saw all the Stars in the pavement and that’s about all that’s there.

To be honest the next few days were very boring as we had to get passport photos and visit our embassies to get new passports. I’m not going to explain the boring details.

In between submitting applications and actually receiving our passports we did get to see Venice Beach, walk up to the Hollywood Sign, visit the Griffith Observatory and catch up with a friend of mine, Genaro, who drove us around for a day, thanks so much Genaro, we really did appreciate it. I would recommend everyone to see the Griffith Observatory at dusk, it is an amazing sight. You can see over most of LA.

We got our passports all sorted on the final day in LA and left later that night. The flight back was  long, but getting home felt amazing after everything.

The one thing I can take from this is. Never lose your passport. Ever. Its a royal pain.

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Having never been to Vegas before after all my travels through the States I thought it was time to give it a go. I left for Vegas with Vanessa in the we hours of the morning after a heavy night of drinking and celebrating her last day of work. We did not get any sleep that night since we went straight from partying to packing and straight into a cab to the airport for our flight leaving at 6am. Toronto Pearson Airport was the slowest I have seen it, with lines to clear security taking us over an hour. Once we were through security we were the “idiots” the plane was waiting for.

Our flight stopped in Detroit so we didn’t manage any sleep on the first leg, but did manage to sober up just enough to get on the next flight after some photos in the very psychedelic tunnel. Our next leg was to LA, where we had to wait around for an hour before we could catch the final leg to Vegas. Unfortunately our flight was delayed and we were stuck on the plane for an extra hour with no explanation what so ever. Thanks Delta.

Once we finally made it to Vegas around lunchtime we were all set to go, well almost. We checked into the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel (a little off the strip and noisy) and proceed to walk over to “The Strip”. Being the middle of winter I guess Vegas was pretty quiet, there was not a whole lot going on, but I think this suited us for the first day as we were both very tired. We had a walk around some of the casinos and went to get some food in the mall only to find out that my credit card had been halted. Vanessa had forgotten her cards in the packing haste from earlier that day, luckily I had some cash on me. From there is was back to the Hotel to call my bank to figure out the problem.

Once this was all resolved, an hour or two later, we decided to grab some dinner locally in the Hotel. We ended up at a little Tequila/Mexican restaurant and knocked back a few margaritas before heading back up for a quick nap before we headed out. Well that was the plan anyway. Our “small” nap ended up taking up most of the night and we slept all the way through until 10am the next day.

Our second day in Vegas was nice and relaxing. We spent the day checking out more casinos and booked tickets to see Pen and Teller at the Rio that night. We had dinner at some crazy ocean themed restaurant with people walking around on stilts and making balloon creatures for us. From there we headed over to the Rio to see Pen and Teller. Pen and Teller have been at the Rio for a while now, I have no idea if they do the same thing year after year or not, but either way it was a really good show. There was not many people in the crowd due to it being low season, but none the less the show was great and I would recommend it to anyone who is visiting Vegas. We got our pictures with Pen & Teller and an autographed book as well. From there we headed out for some massive Ice-cream Sundays. Yum yum.

The following day we checked out of the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and hired a car to head over to The Grand Canyon.

Pictures for Vegas are at the bottom of the page

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is certainly called Grand for a reason. This is one of the most awe inspiring sights I have ever seen in my entire life and I will certainly be back.

The trip from Vegas to The Grand Canyon was pretty straight forward in the rental car. We stopped at the Hover Dam, which you should really do if you are going over it anyway, and continued on to Flagstaff where we spent the night. Flagstaff is a tiny little town but perfect to stay in to see the Canyon.

We were up earlyish the next day (12pm) and headed over to the canyon. There is a fee to enter the national park to see the canyon and the drive took us about an hour and a half. Once we were there I could not believe my eyes, the canyon is amazing, and like most of these kind of sites a picture will never do it justice. We parked the car and began our hike down the Angel Trail. The trails were covered in snow, which I think was pretty cool, so the decent was fairly slow. We managed to walk for about an hour or so before we decided to head back so we could catch the sunrise over the canyon. We made our way over to Pima Point to watch the sunset which was absolutely magnificent. I’m sure it doesn’t matter where you are on the canyon for the sunset, but I think we chose a great spot.

That was our one day at The Grand Canyon, we did not get a whole lot done, and I would recommend if you are going to see the canyon that you get up early and make the most of the entire day. There is lots to explore once you are there.

From the canyon we made our way back to Vegas and were back around 11pm.

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Vegas Part 2

We decided early on that we were going to try a few different hotels while we were there. So we checked into Treasure Island (nothing special) for the night. Once we got settled in and showered for our night out we had a few drinks and were all set to go when Vanessa noticed a rash on her arm. This was a little worrying, so we did some tests and found out she had an allergic reaction to the soap in the hotel. We notified the staff and then had to sit downstairs and fill out forms for security and legality reasons. After all this its was well after 1am and we still didn’t find out the ingredient that was in the soap which caused it all. Given the low season, Vegas closes down around 1am so we had to call it a night.

Our last full day in Vegas, or so we thought. We had planned to get as much done as possible this day. We checked out of Treasure Island and drove the car down to the Las Vegas sign at the south of the strip and got some very nice Jumping Photos. We dropped our bags off at our new hotel, New York New York and proceeded to drop the car off at the rental place.

We arrived back on the strip and set of to the Venetian Casio to have a look at “Little Italy”. While we were there we went to play the Ghost Buster slot machine and put both my bag and Vanessa’s handbag on the ground while she took a photo of me. When we went to leave the slot machine only 2 minutes later we noticed one of the bags was gone! We combed the area and its’ surrounds to no avail. Needless to say this caused some distress. We reported it stolen to the security and filed a report. Our passports, cash and most importantly Vanessa’s diabetic medication were all in the bag.

We were told by security to visit the police station and file a report, so we quickly got a cab down to the police station. When we got there we were told to fill in some paper work, but given it was 4.40pm they would not file the report until tomorrow when we would have to return. This just made things worse. We asked where the hospital was so Vanessa could get some medication in the meantime.

We spent 4+ hours in the hospital only to come out of there with a prescription on paper. So it was back to the strip to try to collect the prescription. Well, when we got to the pharmacy at 9pm poor Vanessa had been without insulin for over 6 hours and was suffering. But this wasn’t the worst part. The pharmacist told us it was going to cost $450 to fill the prescription. We did not have a problem with that due to the severity of the circumstances, but we did not have access to $450 at the time. We eventually got some good news though and were told that we could visit another pharmacy and get a smaller dosage for a cheaper price. We caught a cab  to the other pharmacy and managed to finally get Vanessa’s insulin. It was now after 10pm. Along with the insulin we also thought it would be a great idea to get a well deserved bottle of Rum.

Once we finally got to check into New York New York (New York New York is a horrible hotel), it was straight to the phone to try and sort out passports to get back into Canada. When we called both of our embassies were not open, so we called Detla and also the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), who told us that Vanessa would not actually need a replacement passport to enter into Canada, a copy of her birth certificate would do. After hearing this good news went out to celebrate what we could!

We did try to make a night out of it and ventured downstairs to play on some of the machines. After drinking a whole bottle or Rum and then some shots with dinner and after a few more beers, we came to the conclusion that it would be easier for me to get back into Canada if I was Canadian as Vanessa was told she would not actually need a replacement passport for her return into Canada. We found a little church somewhere down the south end of the strip and got married for $50.

We had to be up the next day at 4.30am to call the Canadian embassy to clarify what we had been told. So with less than 3 hours sleep we were feeling a little worse for wear. As it turns out we actually had to go to Los Angeles and visit our consulates respectively. This made our marriage completely useless so I phoned delta and re-booked our flights for 6 days later at a very expensive price of $200 each after calling my bank to set up an overdraft for emergency funds.

By the time we had figured everything out it was to late to head to LA and begin the passport process as it was Friday. So we stayed in Vegas for another night and booked ourselves into the Westin, after a small nap. The Westin was probably the nicest place we stayed in during our stay.

We had a small night out and made sure we went out to finally see some of the things Vegas has to offer. We went and saw the MGM lions, visited Caeser’s Palace and watched the “moving statues”, as well as finally watching the famous Bellagio water feature. Without Vanessa’s ID, which was taken as well, we were very limited in what we could do.

Our Vegas leg finally came to an end and we boarded a cheap bus to head to LA to sort out all our passport details. On a side note, we will be getting the marriage annulled very soon.

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Stu Sitting

Stu Excited

Stu Devastated

This trip began with a massive 12 hour bus trip from Toronto and over the border to New York. The customs official was not very nice and made it insanely difficult to get into the US even though I had a working VISA to get back into Canada. I’m not really sure what it is they think I am going to do in their country, I ended up holding up the entire but for 30 minutes while they questioned me.

Once in New York at 6.30am I did not have a lot to do. I was to stay with a friend of mine, Alex, unfortunately I did not have his phone number or address, as it was all kind of last minute. I knew he was up in Harlem, so I headed up that was and had a nice refreshing walk through Central Park. Every time I walk though the park I am always amazed that it exists in the busy metropolis. I did finally get hold of Alex around 11am and was actually very close to his house. I dropped my stuff off and we headed out to check out the Christmas Market and pick up some random bits and pieces.

Later that day we headed back to Alex’s place and I met up with Tristen and Josh, more friends, and their respective girlfriends, who were also crashing in Alex’s apartment. So in total there was 6 of us in single bedroom apartment. It was a tight squeeze but we somehow made it work. For the most part we chilled out during the day and just caught up. I hadn’t seen any of these people for the last 21 months. We all managed to grab Chris Kringle gifts for the Christmas lunch we had been invited to the following day as well.

We spent Christmas at a Yushing’s house, a friend of Alex’s, in the East Village with some of her friends. She had prepared some awesome food and there was loads of drinks for all. I can’t thank her enough for the hospitality. We handed out the Chris Kringle gifts (see photos) and generally lounged about eating awesome food and drinking just a little to much. We ended back at Alex’s pretty late and all feeling a little worse for wear.

Boxing day was spent recovering from Christmas. We all had very lazy days, 4 of us managed to head into Little Italy and get some pasta and generally have a look around. That night we headed out to “Tranny Bingo”, no that’s not a typo. Tranny Bingo is basically just bingo run by tranny’s. It was a whole heap of fun. At the end of the night I was “volunteered” by my friends, after the original winner pulled out, to do a cat-walk in front of the whole crowd at the pub wearing nothing but a paper plate to cover myself. This was probably the highlight of my time in New York, I would never have imagined it in a million years. Again, it was all in good fun, and I had a blast.

Over the following days we managed to visit the MET, have dinner under the Brooklyn Bridge, eat breakfast at the oldest serving restaurant in Manhattan, tour the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier and submarine, watch “The Warriors” (very old NY based film), eat at Silvias, visit the American Museum of Natural History and watch Chicago.

Out of the above I would recommend eating at Silvias on Malcolm X Blvd. It is essentially deep fried food, and I mean everything is deep fried. I had pancakes with maple syrup with half a deep fried chicken. It tasted very nice, but im sure my body hates me for it.

Chicago was extremely disappointing, it felt very lacklustre and I was not the only one who thought so. I could not recommend it to anyone. There are much better shows out there, and most of them are a lot cheaper. This was the worst show I have seen in New York so far.

This takes us to New Years Eve, where we went to Brooklyn instead of braving the crowds to visit Times Square. We only heard bad things about Times Square from everyone we met. So we ventured out to a burlesque show in Brooklyn instead. The night was pretty good, although not as amazing as I would have liked. But fun none the less. I didn’t end up back at Alex’s house until 6am.

With very little money left I woke up at noon and made my way to the airport for my return back to Toronto. New York this time was completely different to the previous times I have visited, and I’m extremely happy I got to do it in such a different fashion this time. Many thanks to Alex for putting me up for the 10 days, I cant thank you enough. And thanks to Yushing for an amazing Christmas dinner.

Now its back to the normal life in Toronto.

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Hugo stars Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz. Hugo is set in the 1930′s in Paris and is based on Brian Selznick’s book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”. Hugo starts off fairly slow as we are introduced to the characters. Hugo (Asa Butterfield) has become a street kid after loosing his father in a fire at the museum where he worked and is forced to work the clocks at the train station for some shelter. He is basically a child thief stealing what he can to get by including parts to fix an automaton which he and his father had been working on before the fire.

The parts Hugo steals are from an elderly toy maker who works in the station, Georges (Ben Kingsley), who catches Hugo in the act. When confronted Hugo is made to give up a small sketch book containing instructions on how to finish off the automaton. When Georges reads the contents of this book he extremely is taken aback, creating the mystery which is Hugo.

Hugo continues to build the automaton with the help of Isabelle (Chloe Moretz), Georges god daughter, who steals the book from him. Together Hugo and Isabelle finish the automaton while avoiding capture by the station guard (Sacha Baron Cohen).

Upon completion of the automaton the magic of this film really comes into play. The story opens up and it is very easy to get immersed in the film. The characters really come alive from this point in the film and the audience is allowed to sit back and enjoy it.

Throughout the film there are some amazing scenes and camera shots. The matte paintings are stunning for the backdrops of Paris in the 30′s. The style of the film is just amazing.

I would recommend this film to anyone, it is great for young and old.

4/5

We also managed to catch a dance show, which I have never experienced before. I was suprised with the fact that I actually enjoyed it. We saw a show titled Jacob & Nova, which is showing in the Distillery District at the Dancemakers Centre. The start was a little slow in my opinion but overall the entire performance was really good.

A great night was had.

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My problem was not being able to receive MMS on my HTC Wildfire. My internet was working just not the MMS. Not sure if it will differ from phone to phone, but here is my solution none the less.

• Download a program from the marketplace called MyBackup. This program is free for 30 days.
• Backup whatever you think you will need for later on.
• Do a Factory Reset on your phone. (Settings > SD & phone storage > Factory data Reset).
• Once reset use the following APN. (Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks > Access Point Names > press menu > Add).

Name: Rogers
APN: rogers-core-appl1.apn
MMSC: http://mms.gprs.rogers.com
MMS Proxy: 10.128.1.69
MMS Port: 80
MCC: 302
MNC: 720

• You should be up and running with your MMS and internet.
• Download MyBackup again and restore your apps, contacts etc.

Hope this helps. It took me 3 weeks to find a solution.

I did manage to get out for half a day and see what I could of Boston. From what I could tell Boston seems like a very clean city. I managed to walk around a lot of the CBD and its surrounds in half a day. From Fenway Park, through MIT as well as the docks/harbor. The city centre of Boston is quite small and is easily walkable, even to and from the airport is only  a 20 minute bus ride to the centre.

Unfortunately I did not manage to get to a Cheers Bar, as I was not feeling very well on my night off. Anyway, Boston was generally fun and cheerful, and they have cool accents. So check out the pictures if you like.

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I have currently got some work going for my old employee in the UK so I have some money coming in. The next thing is to find a house to live in. Seems to be proving a little bit of a challenge, but I am sure I will prevail.

Lets see what Canada can bring… Watch this space.

Better late than never but I wanted to put up some photos and a video (x12 speed) of my very first Bonfire Night in the UK. This was my first Bonfire Night as mentioned and was a great way to spend my last weekend in the UK with family before I ventured off to Canada. It was a bit of a slow burning effigy, but fun to watch none the less.

I’m still not sure how suitable it is for kids though, burning an effigy.

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Playing around in Photoshop and stock photos, I somehow came up with this. Nothing too interesting, but good to be back in Photoshop and playing around.

The other nice trick here was the fractal type texture. Worth checking it out if your not familar with any of it.

I do have an idea to use the bouncing cubes in another project so stay tunned.

Bouncing Cubes from Gerard Smith on Vimeo.