Liberty.... Freedom.... And Curry
Topic: Travel
Finally I feel I may be getting somewhere in this Galactus they call NY, as yesterday I succeeded in taking in both the Liberty Island and Ellis Island Tour, and also the Enpire State Building.

Unlike Monday, the queue for the Liberty Island was non-existant, so it kinda felt like cheating to find I could just stroll straight onto the ferry. The ferry ride took around 10 minutes, and once at port I was free to stroll round the grounds of the Island. But, unfortunately unable to actually go round the statue itself. In the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Island itself had been completely shut off from the public until December that year, and the Statue itself didn't reopen until 2004, where only a select few are allowed to roam around it per day.

And so it came as no surprise security was enroute to the ferry. And so, watch, walet, belt, change, boots, and polos all had to be placed through the x-ray machine. And Regardless of how many layers of clothing I took off, the metal detector still produced its persistant electronic whine as I stepped through. At one point it got to the stage where I thought I was going to end up in little more than my underwear (and long term readers may well remember the problems I'd had with my underwear earlier on in the trip).

The Statue of Liberty was produced by the French as a gift to the American people, to symbolise the freedom and liberty the USA had gained after the victories from the War of 1812, and to also emphasis the Independence the French people themselves sought from their ruler Napoleon. The interiors designed by Gustave Eiffel, was based on a bridge structure rising horizontally as opposed to vertically.

The only end of the bargain the American people had to keep was to find somewhere to place it and to build a supporting structure for it to stand on top of. With no Government support, a charity had to be set up, and it was newspaper owner Joseph Pulitzer who had the brain wave of printing the names of each donor within the pages of his newspaper. From this point on donations flooded in, and the canny old Pulitzer saw his paper sales increase rapidly as the donors bought copies of his paper to see their names printed within. Only, he didn't tell them which issue their names would actually appear, and so they were forced to keep buying it, or risk missing that their name might actually appear in.

And so the Statue was placed on Liberty Island which was at the time a military base guarding against oncoming invadors (i.e. British fleets), and was known as Bedloe's Island. The very base of the statue originally being a military fortress itself.

Another interesting fact was that the reason the statue was fashioned in the image of a woman, was because it was based on the French Godess of Liberty, 'Libertos', and not because the French people were right-on, forward-thinking, equal opportunities kinda guys. You Go Girl!

Next, on to Ellis Island which was just a further ten minutes ferry ride from Liberty Island. Ellis Island was once the immigration centre for all people coming into American by boat, and so the first thing they would see on entering America would be the Statue of Liberty. Many of the buildings on the Island have fallen into disrepair and so a concerted effort has been made to restore them to former glory. As a result, much of the Island was closed off to public view.

There was however an immigration museum where you could look up the names of people who immigrated to the States in the early 20th Century. And so it was interesting to see that there were at least two people from Britian travelling under the name of Mark Levy who entered the country in the early 1900s.
Good to see that I'm keeping up the tradition then.

In the late afternoon I made my second attempt of going up the Empire State Building, the first having been in the morning of that day with a queue stretching for over two hours long, and that was before you got to the ticket desk in the main lobby.
And so on my return, I again felt like a cheat and a fraud as I walked straight up to the main lobby, and then up the escalator, and through the miles upon miles of ropped walkways, up to the lift, through the 80th floor, round to another lift, up to the 86th floor, and then out to the viewing area, with barely another person in sight. The one downside of going at this time, was that a thick sheet of smog had started to form around Manhatten, and so the view probably wasn't as good as it would have been had I gone at midday. But hey, it sure beat queueing.

The main highlight of Tuesday was Grand Central Station, which was incredibly grandiose in its stature, and had a massive food court housed in its basement. So of course, this being the hottest day of the year, with temperatures reaching the early 90s, I naturally opted for a curry.

Whatever happened to............. The Great Ocean Road?
Topic: Travel
The trip along the Great Ocean Road. Well call me a total and utter ejit, but how on earth did I forget to write about this?

The three of us - that's Stig, Eve and Myself - set off at around 11am, underestimating that the goal of our trip - to see the 12 Apostles (of which only about eight remain, although at time of writing their numbers may well have decreased yet again) - was in fact at least a four and a half hours drive away. And so we drove - well Eve drove, with some input from Stig later on, what with my tendency to fail driving tests becoming a rather large noose around all our necks (funny, Greg was most reticent to allow me to drive in the South Islands as well) - and the sun was shining, and the weather was fine. And we stopped to take pictures, and I lost my jacket (my brown military-esque one - been like a brother to me), by rather foolishly placing it on the roof of the car so Eve could take an action shot (this is evident in one of the pics on the Melbourne Photos page, if you look closely), and then forgetting to retrieve it again. A good fifteen minutes down the road later, I clocked that something may have been amiss, and so asked Stig who was sitting in the back "Have you seen my jacket"

Unsurprisingly, the answer was to the negative. And so a desperate search began in which we retraced our steps, desperately checking every look-out point or lay-by for signs of the AWOL garment, as quite frankly every look-out point lacked a uniqueness of its own, in that they all some how looked exactly the same.

And then a feral cat ran out into the road. And Stig wanted to adopt it, so Oscar would have a playmate, and so yet another desperate search began in trying to locate this cat.

Both searches were unfortunately futile, and so we hit the road again, ever onwards to see the crumbling relics known as the 12 Apostles (or in lavatory speak this would of course have been referred to as the 12 Apisstles countless times on journey, but of course I was above such purile humour).

With the 12 Apostles almost in sight, we pulled up for some food at a cafe, which also doubled as a gas station, and was quite likely a well known haunt for certain members of the cast from Wolf Creek (a rather gristly horror film set in the Australian outback in which three backpackers are abducted by the Aussie equivalent of a Red Neck, and have rather unpleasant things done to them). So, unsurprisingly we quickly vacated the premises in an orderly fashion, and once again hit the road.

And there they were. The 12 (count 6 and a third) Apostles, in all their photogenic splendour. And then the sun went down, and we realised that we had to drive back, because both Stig and Eve had work in the morning.

Jetlagged in NY ain't no good
Topic: Travel
Yes dear readers, I am indeed jetlagged to the max, which means that for the past two evenings I have gone to bed at 5.30pm and 6.30 respectively, or rather my whole body has decided to "f*** this" and rapidly shut down at 5pm each day, regardless of where I've been or what I've been doing. It's like it's said "Ok fella. We can either do this here, or do it back at the hostel, but I am crashing out in 30 minutes, mate. So, it's up to you!" So, rather than risk collapsing on the sidewalk, I've taken the wise decison to return to the hostel, where I have slept in fits and starts until dawn. My sleep punctuated by my 11 other room-mates (that's 11, I kid you not), coming in at all hours, crashing about putting irritating lights on, and generally snoring like oafs. Depsite have booked months in advance on hostelworld.com, a 6 bed share (the minimum), I still found myself stuck in a dorm room for 12 others, but with a size more suited to about 4. And they can't put me in a smaller dorm, as they're booked out. Oh and the sinks in the communal bathrooms are cracked, several of the showers are blocked, and someone kindly left a rather large and festering s*** in one of the toilets this morning. And the Internet room swallows your money ($6 an hour). But apart from that, it's fantastic (in the words of Mr Hill, "I feel a strongly worded letter to Trip Adivsor is in the offing").

So go figure, I'm seriously thinking of finding myself somewhere else to stay the next three nights. Think The Hilton's got any vacancies? Failing that, maybe I can just bunk-in with Paris?

Despite this I have so far ventured to Times Square, where within 10 minutes I found the local Virgin Megastore, thus adding to my collection of Virgin Megastores of the world (count LA, Sydney x2, Melbourne, and now NY on this trip alone). And then took myself round the NBC Studio Tours, and got to peer round all the sets of such shows rarely seen in the UK such as Saturday Night Live, Jay Leno, and Conan O'Brian.

Yesterday I attempted to take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, but with the queue stretching over an hour long, I opted instead to find shelter from the hot hot sun while in Battery Park (we're talking 84 degrees in US Fahrenheit speak). And where do I find shelter, but the Jewish Museum itself(I dunno, perhaps it was God talking, or something?).

Time Travel
Topic: Travel
So get this. I board the plane in Melbourne at 10.30 Saturday morning, arrive in LA 14 hours later at 7.30 Saturday morning, and then fly out from LA at 9am Saturday morning, arriving in New York 5 hours later at 5.30 Saturday night, thus gaining 14 hours in total. So no wonder I'm flippin' confused.

They never had Jetlag like this in Dr Who!

"No, I'm not going to save your planet from alien invasion, cos I've been travelling through the space time vortex for the past 17 years, and now I've found I've landed a hundred years earlier than when I set off. So, if you don't mind I'm going to have a lie down for the next five weeks. And what d'ya mean, you've booked me into a dorm room with 12 other people?"

Things that were great (though maybe neglected to mention) about Aussie
Oh yes, Australia. Happy days were had indeed (is this too early for doing the nostalgia trip???)

*No 1 or 2c peices. In other words, less crappy change in your pocket. Also done in NZ. For stuff like fruit or veg which is measured by weight, they round the prices up and down to the nearest 5c. A pieice of genuis if you ask me, which surely the US should be crying out for, and something you could see happening in the UK in the future whether it be via sterling on the eventual onset of the Euro

*Chicken Parmisan. It's like a chicken schnitzel but also like a pizza, coated as it is in cheese and tomato, and is probably the best thing since sliced bread. Not exactly Kosker, but hey....

*Nurses from Sheffield. Granted I could probably find this in Sheffield itself, but if this were to be the sole reason for visiting Sheffield, it might appear as being slightly weird. Alas, I did attempt to contact Rachel et al for a final meet up last Friday, but at the time they were busy traversing the Great Ocean Road. So, I wished her well, and told her that if they happened to come across my jacket, to make sure it went to a good home.

*Aussie's in LA. During transfer to my plane for NY, the airport was awash with Aussie's doing the same, proving that they were some of the friendliest bunch of people I've ever come across, it being so easy to strike up a conversation with them. And so it was this early that the nostalgia trip began.

*Dr Who Pinball in Sydney Central YHA. Yes, despite missing a good half of the second season of The All New Dr Who Show, it seems that there were still no way of getting away from it. Take the Dr Who Pinball Machine for example. First envisioned in the early ninties, it has the 7 Drs battling the evil Daleks and the Master, with nothing more than a large ballbearing (seemingly they had the same budgetry restraints as the original series). They even roped in Sylvester McCoy to do the voices. In reality it was pretty run of the mill stuff, but yet I still found myself strangely drawn to it. Additionally in Auckland, while browsing the shelves of a local newspaper shop, they had Radio 1 playing in the background, and they just so happened to feature a trailer for the forthcoming episode being screened in the UK. And it had K-9 in it!

*Congrats to Eve on getting a new job! Yes, I dunno what it is, but this the second this has happened, as Caitlan similarly landed herself a new job during my stay in Wellington. Coninicidence?!?!? Or conspiracy!!!!

Jet Lag
Topic: Travel
Owing to extreme jet lag, and the feeling that I am about to passout at any minute, updates have been temporarily suspended.

P.S. I am currently in New York, and it's too flippin' hot!

Melbourne Photos now online!
Topic: Travel
Melbourne Photos can now be viewed here.

In other news, I lost my jacket while on the Great Ocean Road, and therefore felt compelled to buy another one today.

Paul, Toadie, Steph, Stig, Eve, Oscar the Cat, The Socceroos, and Four Nurses from Sheffield
Topic: Travel
Right. This is very annoying. Already lost this entry twice, and it had taken me flippin' ages to type.

So basically, moved my stuff over to Stig and Eve's pad in St Kilda. Eve being Stig'd girlfriend. And they live in what would have been the servants quarters of an old converted mansion, with Oscar the Cat. Stig the Ol' Boy's done well for himself working as an IT Sales Executive, while one-time beautician Eve - she used to do the eyebrows for Izzy off Neighbours (and very good they looked too, I always thought) - is trying to further her career in make-up.

Monday lunchtime I spent in the company of the Australian Football Team the Socceroos, just about to head off to Germany for the World Cup. That was me and a couple of other hundred spectators I might add. Introducing the squad was the Premier of the State of Victoria, Steve Bracks. Not a seemingly popular guy by all accounts, as he was roundly booed throughout his speech, and I believe there may even have been one or two utterances involving the words "f***" and "off" aimed in his general direction. So I did my best in appluading the likes of Mark Schwarer, Mark Viduka, and Stan Lazeridus (and I believe one or two players who don't play in the Premiership), or risk revealing myself to be nothing more than a "Pommy Bastard".

After checking out of the hostel (only then discovering that they do in fact serve breakfast every morning - and there was me eating flippin' HotCakes in McDonalds every day, and one occasion an English Muffin with Vegimite, an experience I never wish to repeat), I dropped my stuff round to Stig and Eve's and then headed off to the Neighbours in the Elephant and Castle pub.

The Elephant and Castle can be described as being a cross between a students union and an 18-30 Holiday, aswash as it was by a couple of hundred Brits, and a token Auusie.

I did however meet four nurses from Sheffield, who were over working in Sydney for a year. And what very fine and upstanding ladies they were.

In attendence for the show were Paul Robinson (was tempted to kick him the leg, just to check if it was in fact made of wood), Toadie (who, rumour has it, was in fact banned for a year after amusing himself with a lady in the toilets), and Steph Scully.

Before the stars came out, we were entertained on the big screen by all the episodes of Neighbours where someone dies tragically (Helen Daniels, Madge Bishop), and in every one there was Karl 'Bringer of Doom' Kennedy to break the tragic news.

When we finally got on to the main part of the evening (and there was around three hours worth of these videos), the actors took part in a Q and A session, where amongst other things, Paul Robinson revealed he had in fact been sleeping with both the Alessi twins (that's Caroline and Christina) without actually realising it. Of course, he should be so lucky.

And then we were given the opportunity to get our photos taken with each of the actors. Unfortunately the only photos I got consisted of me with Paul Robinson and Toadie, as right one cue the batteries in my camera decided to do a dying act, when I was supposed to be getting my photos taken with me and Steph.

So, I'll be somewhat pleading that of the Sheffield girls, can send me copies of the photos they got on their cameras.

Since then I've been taking it easy, and been doing whats known as "pottering' in St Kilda and round Stig and Eve's.

Think I'm supposed to be cooking tonight. So, that'll be interesting.....

P.S. For those of you who've been wondering, Stig in actual fact does look exactly the same, so much so that I thought it actually was his lookalike from the Lion!

P P P Pick Up A Penguin
Topic: Travel
Saturday, I headed to Phillip Island to witness the March of the Penguins. Unlike the film of the same name, these are not The Giant Penguins, but in fact the Little Penguin or Fairy Penguin, we also do not follow their march from the Antatartic, and there was certainly no voice over provided by the actor Morgan Freedman.

Enroute, our party stopped off at a Vinyard, where it would have been rude not to sample the delights of eight different wines, and ruder still to use the spit buckets provided. We then made a visit to the Maru Centre, which is a refuge for orphaned Australian wildlife, such as Molly the Wombat who enjoyed having her tummy and feet tickled, but as we were informed by our guide, once she reaches full maturity she's more likely to want to chew your face off, which kinda signals that she's ready to return to the wild. One interesting aspect about the Wombat, is that their teeth keep on growing, which means they have to chew on things such as bark to keep wearing them down, or if given half a chance, a persons fingers. We also encountered a Tasmanian Devil, who wouldn't stop running round his pen, and so made it very tricky to photograph. The centre also has a couple of dozen Kangaroos, who we were allowed to feed, but its quite alarming when the bigger ones start leaping towards you wanting more food, at the same time as you're trying to back away. There were also a few Koalas, who may look cute and cuddily, but if you get too close they're likely to take a flying leap at you and not want to let go.

Finally, as dusk began to fall, we pulled up on Phillip Island to watch the Penguins, as they come in from a days a feeding. This is where they really make their money, as the main stand has a capacity to hold a few thousand onlookers, and regularly fills it.

From our vantafe point we were able to see in the distance, groups of penguins coming in from the sea, trying to beat the waves, but regularly getting knocked over like skittles and thrown back into the ocean, especially if they got startled by a seagul swooping in too close. Once ashore, they run up the beach and then threw the sand dunes to their burrows. We were sat on the side of the right hand stand, so could see them parade past, and they would often stop at various intervals waiting for other members of their group to join them. Unfortunately all photography was banned, as the flashes from the cameras would act to disorientate them.

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Did the Neighbours Tour yesterday, and got my photograph taken from various vantage points on
Ramsey St, which is actually called Pin Oak Court, and is only a cul-de-sac consisting of about 8 houses, not all of which appear in the show.

Apparently one of the home owners got so incensed by the film crew that he decided to repaint his guttering from brown to blue, thus causing a major problem with continuity in the show, and so to get round it they had Toadie up a ladder for an entire episode, pretending to repaint the guttering himself.

We also stopped off at Erinsborough High, bur we were unable to venture over to Lassiters, the Coffee Shop, or the Pub as it's actually a purpose built set, closed off to the public. The closest we could get was via a drive-by the studios, where the set was hidden by a large amount of foliage.

On a previous occassion, Toadie and Dee had been having a passionate moment in a nearby park, only for the Neighbours Tour Bus to drive by, thus appearing in shot. Toadie on the other hand was more than happy to go for a second take.
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Met up with Stig in the evening, in St Kilda. Y'see he does still exist!

More later...........

P.S. Big Congrats to Pully & Gail. They are expecting! (Well, Gail is at any rate!)

Obscure Neighbours characters playing in a band
Topic: Travel
A look of shock fell across my face, as I opened the door to my new dorm room. Pizza boxes, filthy clothing, and empty cans littered the floor, while four prone bodies occupied each of the four dorm beds.

Fortunately, the staff in the hostel had made a monumental cock-up in checking me into a dorm room already fully booked. Suffice to say, the room I eventually did get was immaculate in its tidiness, and it even had an ensuite bathroom, with a wet-room shower, clean towels, and soap provided.

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And so I ventured onwards into the Melbourne Central Business District, and within 19 minutes I had successfully located the Virgin Megastore, where I was able to sample first hand the pop delights of Aussie sensation Rogue Traders featuring Izzy from Neighbours on lead vocals (still yet be heard in the UK, but give it time, as a record deal has been signed). Verdict? They've actually gone in an electro/bubble-gum pop direction, although the track I did hear does sample heavily from The Knacks 'My Sharona'. On the evidence of one track, it ain't half bad.

The path from Virgin led to a network of underground department stores cunningly titled 'The Basement' (very Total Recall in its design), running under several different streets. Above the basement, housed more of a Debenhams style department store, linking into another shopping mall, Melboure Central. Could I escape from this claustriphobia? The more I walked, the deeper into the labyrinth I came, my addled over tired brain unable to cope with the size and complexity of the maze (I had got up at 4.30 that morning, and only recently stepped off a plane).

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The evening was spent being entertained by cover band Johnny Thunderpants, carrying the tagline 'Ex-Neighbours stars unite.

And so much of the set - which was surprisingly not dire dross - was spent trying to decipher when these people were in Neighbours, and which characters they actually played?

Was the lead singer Lance? No. Brett? No.

Was guitarist Darren Stark? No.

More by luck than judgement, it took a couple of girls from Norwich (Aha! No, they had never watched an edition of Alan Partridge, and didn't appreciate my comment about oversized plates, and Alan Partridge being their Dad), to realise that the lead singer was none other than everyones favourite Neighbours character, Woody!

You remember Woody? Don't You? Went out with Steph? Hmm? Faked his own death? Woody?

Oh well.

Oh, and it turned out that the other two hadn't been in Neighbours after all. Though I have a sneaking suspicion that the guitarist might have been Evan from The Secret Life of Us (the Aussie This Life).

But what's this? A quick Google search has revealed that their fourth member and guest guitarist (Woody's brother), also appeared in Neighbours, playing the character of Luke!

Luke! You remember Luke? Don't You? Hmmmmmm.

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Today was spent walking round the botanical gardens, which were very, er, botanical. And then visting Melbourne's Moving Image exhibition, which rather cunningly celebrated all images that moved, from film, to television, to computer games. You could even spend time walking round a virtual version of the museum on computer, and interact with virtual versions of other attendees. Or you could just get off your arse and physically walk round the museum yourself.

The exhibition is housed on Federation Square, which is very modern, and quite unlike anything I've seen before with its angled walkways and buildings.