Some times you win, sometimes you loose.
Ironiclly I lost when playing stand-by roulette in Las Vegas.
I am able to do this trip so cheaply because I am a Qantas brat, and I am flying on Z tickets, which are airline industry stand by specials. Sure it only costs you like $50 to fly Las Vegas to San Fran, or $90 to fly from Vancouver to Toronto but you are not guranteed a seat on a flight, particulary when using "open" tickets like I am, which can be used any time until they expire (usually three or four months).
I guess I was up against pretty long odds, I wanted to fly out of Las Vegas on a Sunday, and sundays are generally one of the busiest times to fly, particualry the afternoons, but I just wanted out of vegas.
I was ticked on United.
The day before I checked the seats on the aircraft (a bloody scarebus A320, I blame them), and there was seven seats on the 0945 flight, and a few more on the 0615 and 0700 flights but I took my chances with the 0945. I was in the airport and checked in at 0830. I failed to get on the 0945, the 1630, the 1800 and the 2015 flights.
The flights were running about 45 mins to an hour late as well, due to weather at SFO which had created a back log of air traffic.
Actually I almost made it on the 2015 flight, which was delayed till about 2030. The flight had checked in almost full, and a few other standby peeps got on. I was pretty much bottom of the list as I was on a Qantas issued stand-by ticket.
As the flight was pretty much boarded there were three people who had checked in but not gone through the boarding gate. There was about five minutes before the doors were to close and one turned up. I got called over to the ticking counter and they told me to walk on with the ticket agent.
I was in the line the the dodgy bridge thingo when I heard a few words I had been dreading. "Mr Mevius, come back up please" and I saw two women running/waddling fast as they could down the air bridge.
Old mate at united was pretty good and told that me that my bags were on the way to SFO and I might be able to get on a US Airlines flight under a code share. It was departing at 2144 and they had some seats left.
I raced back over to ticketing and got my US Airways standby pass and then I eventually got through security and over to the gate. I was given a boarding pass at about 2115 and easily made it on.
Although due to air traffic it was delayed to 2255, i still got to san fran about midnight.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sin City
I am in Las Vegas at the moment.
I have been trying to figure out what's so great about the place to tell you the truth.
The whole town is like Penrith Panthers club that stretches for five kilomteres and the bogans here have seppo accents instead of westie accents.
I went out and for some reason walked the entire length of the strip, something like four miles and back the first night I was in, it took me like four hours.
The clubs are over priced and only play generic top 40 shit as well.
I guess I would be having more fun if I was with a big trashbag crew, as I have been having trouble getting a crew together at this hostel I am staying at, in a wonderfully dodgy old motel in north Vegas, up past the stratosphere.
I did how ever see Melbourne indy-electro band Cut Copy last night which was rad, and today I went out and shot a german sub-machine gun, the 9mm Mp-5 which was bloody awesome.
The MP-5's stock fitted me like a glove and it was so easy to control in fully-auomatic fire. The range was only 25M long, and I put every round into the middle of the silhouette target, so old mate would have had a bad day.
Pics to come.
I am wanting to get out of here tomorow or on monday but the flights look full, so I might have to wait until tuesday where the flights are almost empty. I am off to san fran next, then home on friday.
I have been trying to figure out what's so great about the place to tell you the truth.
The whole town is like Penrith Panthers club that stretches for five kilomteres and the bogans here have seppo accents instead of westie accents.
I went out and for some reason walked the entire length of the strip, something like four miles and back the first night I was in, it took me like four hours.
The clubs are over priced and only play generic top 40 shit as well.
I guess I would be having more fun if I was with a big trashbag crew, as I have been having trouble getting a crew together at this hostel I am staying at, in a wonderfully dodgy old motel in north Vegas, up past the stratosphere.
I did how ever see Melbourne indy-electro band Cut Copy last night which was rad, and today I went out and shot a german sub-machine gun, the 9mm Mp-5 which was bloody awesome.
The MP-5's stock fitted me like a glove and it was so easy to control in fully-auomatic fire. The range was only 25M long, and I put every round into the middle of the silhouette target, so old mate would have had a bad day.
Pics to come.
I am wanting to get out of here tomorow or on monday but the flights look full, so I might have to wait until tuesday where the flights are almost empty. I am off to san fran next, then home on friday.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Fun and games
I am over in Rochester, Upstate New York as I am writing this.
I have been to Toronto and Hamilton in ontario, where I caught up with my old mate Benny Baker and hung round on the campus of Mc Master uni where he is studying/living in the dorms there.
Benny went of skiing the night I turned up, so we played some left handed table tennis for a while before he went off to ski on some slush, as the weather was warm (got above freezing) and the snow had melted.
In the time he was out I was just chilling in the dorms and I went to put a pot of water on the boil, and the bottom was a little scummy and it had a bit of a burning smell to it.
Right then the fire alarm started screaming it's tits off. I was only wearing my uggies, trackie daks and a hoodie, and it was freezing out. I took my pot of water off and evacuated with the rest of the people in the building. I had a look at the fire indicator panel on the way out though and thankfully the alarm had come up on the third floor, and I was on the fifth.
When he got back we went down the uni bar for beers and shuffle board with some poms, where we ended up loosing as all the aussie sports teams suck at the moment, it is looking like it was going to be the turning point for aussie sports teams but it was not to be.
Here is a pic of me and benny taken out the front of his dorms, note the Roots t-shirt
The next day we we hung round the campus for a while and went for a bushwalk out the back of his uni campus, which was tops but I am sure it would be much nicer in the summer.
I later got picked up by a random interwebs mate, Hoadie from the lee-enfield forum. It was an hour drive to his place over in St Catherines, closer to the US border.
It was there we were to meet with Sean and his wife Christie who I was going to stay with for a few days. I had also come into contact with sean on the lee-enfield forum, and the funny this in the bloke used to live just around the corner from me in Cronulla.
We stopped at Niagra Falls on our way through because it is something you have to do on the tourist trail, particulary when it was on the way to Rochester. I got some semi-decent pictures at night.
It was so bloody cold part of the falls was frozen. There was also freezing spray coming off the falls and onto the windshield of the car.
We also had a suprisingly easy time crossing the boarder over into the US as well. I have been told that land crossings into the US from Canada can be a little difficult if you are not citizens of those nations. Sean's wife Christy is a US citizen, Sean has a green card and I still had my tourist visa in my passport from when I transfered through San Fran so we got pretty much waved straight through.
I was staying with Sean and his young family, where I have been crashing on the lounge. It is a nice change from staying in backpackers everywhere. The next day we went for a little drive to check out a bit of Lake Ontario. Here is a picture of the local marina.
Yes it was bloody cold, probaly about minus 10 or 15 before windchill.
And I have also been going out shooting. We had good fun with Lee-Enfield 303's, a Klashnikov, some Mosin-Nagants, a Mauser and a few other interesting pieces, incuding a 1911 .45 pistol.
I wanted to take some pictures out at the range, but because it was so cold my camera wasn't working properly, and even one of the shotguns was not working properly.
Here is a picture of some of the shootin' irons I was playing with.
Top to bottom, a semi automatio Klashnikov clone, two Mosin-nagant 91/30's, a No4mk1 Lee-Enfield (Savage made), and two No1mk3* Lee-Enfields, one Lithgow (Australia) and one Enfield (England).
And one of me shooting a Kalashnikov
And an old Nazi marked german K98 mauser. For an old battle rifle the thing was smooth! I now know why so many were hacked up to make hunting rifles after the war.
I am also off to New York/New Jersey tomorrow morning on the train. It will take seven hours. There I will catching up with my mate Joey from Jersey. I met joey a few weeks back in Vancouver and he has very kindly offered to put me up for a few days.
I have been to Toronto and Hamilton in ontario, where I caught up with my old mate Benny Baker and hung round on the campus of Mc Master uni where he is studying/living in the dorms there.
Benny went of skiing the night I turned up, so we played some left handed table tennis for a while before he went off to ski on some slush, as the weather was warm (got above freezing) and the snow had melted.
In the time he was out I was just chilling in the dorms and I went to put a pot of water on the boil, and the bottom was a little scummy and it had a bit of a burning smell to it.
Right then the fire alarm started screaming it's tits off. I was only wearing my uggies, trackie daks and a hoodie, and it was freezing out. I took my pot of water off and evacuated with the rest of the people in the building. I had a look at the fire indicator panel on the way out though and thankfully the alarm had come up on the third floor, and I was on the fifth.
When he got back we went down the uni bar for beers and shuffle board with some poms, where we ended up loosing as all the aussie sports teams suck at the moment, it is looking like it was going to be the turning point for aussie sports teams but it was not to be.
Here is a pic of me and benny taken out the front of his dorms, note the Roots t-shirt
The next day we we hung round the campus for a while and went for a bushwalk out the back of his uni campus, which was tops but I am sure it would be much nicer in the summer.
I later got picked up by a random interwebs mate, Hoadie from the lee-enfield forum. It was an hour drive to his place over in St Catherines, closer to the US border.
It was there we were to meet with Sean and his wife Christie who I was going to stay with for a few days. I had also come into contact with sean on the lee-enfield forum, and the funny this in the bloke used to live just around the corner from me in Cronulla.
We stopped at Niagra Falls on our way through because it is something you have to do on the tourist trail, particulary when it was on the way to Rochester. I got some semi-decent pictures at night.
It was so bloody cold part of the falls was frozen. There was also freezing spray coming off the falls and onto the windshield of the car.
We also had a suprisingly easy time crossing the boarder over into the US as well. I have been told that land crossings into the US from Canada can be a little difficult if you are not citizens of those nations. Sean's wife Christy is a US citizen, Sean has a green card and I still had my tourist visa in my passport from when I transfered through San Fran so we got pretty much waved straight through.
I was staying with Sean and his young family, where I have been crashing on the lounge. It is a nice change from staying in backpackers everywhere. The next day we went for a little drive to check out a bit of Lake Ontario. Here is a picture of the local marina.
Yes it was bloody cold, probaly about minus 10 or 15 before windchill.
And I have also been going out shooting. We had good fun with Lee-Enfield 303's, a Klashnikov, some Mosin-Nagants, a Mauser and a few other interesting pieces, incuding a 1911 .45 pistol.
I wanted to take some pictures out at the range, but because it was so cold my camera wasn't working properly, and even one of the shotguns was not working properly.
Here is a picture of some of the shootin' irons I was playing with.
Top to bottom, a semi automatio Klashnikov clone, two Mosin-nagant 91/30's, a No4mk1 Lee-Enfield (Savage made), and two No1mk3* Lee-Enfields, one Lithgow (Australia) and one Enfield (England).
And one of me shooting a Kalashnikov
And an old Nazi marked german K98 mauser. For an old battle rifle the thing was smooth! I now know why so many were hacked up to make hunting rifles after the war.
I am also off to New York/New Jersey tomorrow morning on the train. It will take seven hours. There I will catching up with my mate Joey from Jersey. I met joey a few weeks back in Vancouver and he has very kindly offered to put me up for a few days.
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