JT and a New York Moment

5 more hours to go...

2006-06-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well...this journey is almost over.

I will have a more details of what has happened since my last post once I get home. So there will be a few more posts on this blog, which will then bring to an end the last 125 days.

Heading to SFO international airport in a matter of hours and I will be back in Sydney on 1st July 2006.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone and get straight to putting together a slideshow of the 6Gb of pics and videos I have amassed (a selection will be made of course) !!!

2 weeks in Vegas and San Francisco

2006-06-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

I am heading home soon and planning to spend about 2 weeks in San Francisco and Las Vegas between the 17th June and 29th June.

Anyone keen on taking a break and would like to join me let me know soon :)

Check it out

2006-05-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

Apparently my online photo page only allows the 200 most recent photos...so the old ones have been deleted.

Make sure you catch these new ones before I upload more, otherwise you will miss them.

The link to the photos website is on the handy links on the right of the page.

JT

Candid Shots No.1

2006-05-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

Just trying it out...

The local that I met before getting really drunk and throwing up in the toilet at the Bar...I dont remember much of the night.

Woah...Mark is looking a little drunk.

Mark and Riss arrived here about 4 weeks ago now and left about a week ago. Had the most awesome time travelling with the both of you !!

Huge update entry...coming soon...

2006-05-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

I will be making a big post with a lot of photos soon. Planning on getting in real early to work to do that. Stay tuned.

Also...I am disappointed to add that my time here is approaching the end. Feeling a little sad that it is coming to an end...but I cant be too bummed about it as I have a 2 week holiday travelling home to Sydney to look forward to.

I will be making a stop to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Yosimite National Park and most likely a stop in Miami too.

And before I finish up here, I also have a weekend trip to Chicago during the Blues festival to look forward to.

So there is still plenty more of this adventure to come.

And yes, I know I am about 5 weeks behind in my blogging...haha.

BE PATIENT ! :)

Chapter 1

2006-05-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

The last month has been an absolute BLAST! I have had the most amazing experiences. Amidst all the excitement, was a mix of long working hours and a distinct lack of sleep but the weekends were the highlights. Apart from my DC trip some six to seven weeks ago, I have been to Montreal, Boston, revisited DC with recent arrivals, great friends from Sydney (none other than MC and gf).

Montreal is a very beautiful city, small in comparison with New York but then again, I don’t know any other city that quite compares to New York. It’s a mix of “Old Montreal”, with some very old 18th/19th century buildings and cobblestone streets; and Modern Montreal, a modern city with a very developed interconnected underground network of shops and subway stations, linking office buildings and residential apartments, stretching some 32 square kms (rough figure, I cant remember exactly but it was HUGE) as well as smallish Chinatown and rundown sections of town, where tourists should definitely avoid.

I stayed at a hostel for the first time ever and it was quite an experience. The hostel itself was nice enough and the facilities are pretty good. Ahem…except for the bathroom facilities which I have to say was below par. However, without another hostel experience to compare it with, I cant say whether it was actually good. I guess it was clean enough and it was an ensuite within a 6 bed dorm. Met some good sorts, not surprisingly from Australia, New Zealand and England. The French Canadians were not particularly friendly. Maybe it was the language barrier.

The other downside to hostelling was that you could get some downright weirdos. My dorm in particular, there was an overweight American man in his late 40s (I suspect), sleeping on the bunk on top of mine. And not surprisingly…he SNNOOORRREEESSS unbelievably LOUDLY !!!!! I think the whole room was shaking. Luckily for me, I carry around in my bag a set of ear plugs, which blocked out 80 percent of the noise. It helped but it still made the nights very unpleasant.

Next stop…Bostonia. Location for the infamous Boston Tea Party, and aka College Town. There are (I believe) approx 50,000 students who live and study in Boston. Again, that number is my estimate from books I have read, not sure how accurate. It could be more actually. Boston is the home of prestigious Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston College, University of Boston and a few more I don’t know about.

I travelled to Boston with some mates of Gizmo, who were also employees of Macq NY. We hired a car and drove up on a Saturday morning. W had a PDA GPS unit installed with maps of the US, which made the trip up extremely easy. It took approximately 4 hours to reach Boston.

Our first stop was Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, who until 2004 was suffering from almost 75 years (I think) out in the wilderness with the “Curse of the Bambino”. For those of you not clued in on baseball folklore, The Red Sox did not win the World Series for almost 75 years until 2004. The supposed curse began then the then owner decided to sell the then (pretty much still a rookie) Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Babe as you know then brought home many World Series crowns for the Yankees.

We popped in for a visit to Harvard and realised that it was admissions week for students. So we decided to join a student campus tour. The tour leader was a junior studying performing arts and she was explaining to us the virtues of selecting a wide range of electives in order for us to have a well rounded undergraduate degree. The four of us just nodded in agreement. Hahaha. After that we decided to spend 15 min at the Harvard (the “Crimson”) vs Boston College (“BC”) baseball game. The crowd was small as the temperature was almost zero!!

That night we visited Boston town and had dinner at the Original Cheers bar. No its not cheesy. The next day we had yum cha in Chinatown and drove around the city. We also took a ride on the Boston Duck Tour, an amphibious vehicle that can travel on land and in the sea, for a view of the city from Boston harbour.
More to come…stay tuned.

AWOL?

2006-05-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Work has currently been quite busy and not having a laptop at home means i rarely get a chance to update my blog.

But as a teaser to keep you coming back for more, I have uploaded my Washington DC photos (finally!!!).

In addition, a couple of friends touched down in NYC on Friday and will be staying with me for 3 weeks. We are going down to DC again and then off to Toronto/Niagara Falls.

I hope to load my Montreal and Boston photos before I signoff for the weekend.

Cheerios.

p.s. check the links on the side for the photos database.

A ___ Tea Party...Anyone?

2006-04-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

I am off to Boston for the weekend on a roadtrip with some mates at work. A car, the road, 4 hours drive...sweet!

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Bonjour Montreal...

2006-04-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

I am off to Montreal for the long weekend...well...not the whole long weekend. Flying up there on a Saturday and flying back on a Monday morning. They dont get a 4 day long weekend in NY like they do in Oz :(

At one stage I wasnt even going up there cos the flights were going to cost me about $600 USD. thankfully, a friend found some dirt cheap flights for me $140 USD...yeah! Ok...I am flying in some tiny plane that sits only like 40 people...hmm...I hope the engines have enough power for a take off...haha. I am sure it will be ok.

Still need to update you on my trip to DC like two weeks ago...haha...there is some delay in getting the post up. Simply because I dont have a computer in my apartment and sometimes I just dont want to stay at work to update the blog!!

New York Moment No.3

2006-04-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

The United Nations

The name United Nations, says it all.

My visit to the UN was an eye opener. To some it may not be a big deal but to many the UN represents the embodiment of simple and yet powerful ideals, which I hope to see accomplished in my lifetime. The UN tour takes about 30-60 min, depending on the tour guide, some provide more colourful anecdotes than others. Mine was an above average tour guide, an American Japanese man, whom I guess to be slightly younger than myself.

We strolled through the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, and viewed exhibits on the elimination of Nuclear Weapons (which included some artefacts from the Hiroshima bombings in 1945). All in all, the UN is well worth the trip.

Trivial facts: The United Nations compound is International Soverignty, though we need not flash our passports to enter. It belongs to each and every Member Nation. I managed to send off a few postcards at the UN post office. However, I did not bring my address book with me, so I did my best to fire off some postcards to different people. But in hindsight, it was a wasted exercise, after checking the address book, I realised that several homes in Sydney will be receiving a postcard from some dude from the UN whom they have never met! Haha.

On may way back to Time Square, I ran into a roadblock. There was a rally at Times Square against the war in Iraq among a whole host off other issues. The rally was heading for the UN. So I thought I would join them for a block or two…haha. And no, not because I necessarily agree with their stance, but that is not the point of that. I merely joined them for a stroll…haha.

So after that I headed to my next destination…

The Empire State Building

It was a beautiful day but extremely windy.

I enjoyed the views from the top, it was simply amazing and breathtaking. For as far as I can see, New York and its outer boroughs brings new meaning to the word Metropolis. New York City is an experience. And it occurred to me at this point…”I am in New York City! Its bloody AMAZING!” This is makes it into the books as my 3rd NY Moment. I don’t have the gift that many do to articulate what they see and feel so I will just let the photos speak for themselves.

JT NEW YORK MOMENTS

There are several candid shots of me on top of the Empire, well rugged up. It was very cold up there. At one stage they had to close one side of the observatory as the wind was getting way too strong and I literally had to walk into a 30mph wind gust.

What I didn’t like about the Empire State was the commercial side of it. The whole trip up to the top, you were taken through a pre-defined path filled with souvenir stops, and when you get to the top, it is way packed with a throng of people. In no way did it look like the scene from “Sleepless in Seattle”, quiet, peaceful and romantic. Haha, ok…ok, granted that the scene from Sleepless was meant to be midnight. But it still loses a lot of its charm to have to fight through the throng in order to get a good view. Guess you just have to try and turn up the anti-annoyance shield and block it all out.

The next day I took a stroll to…

Central Park

Central Park looked very barren, it makes perfect sense as we are still in transition from winter to spring. As with everything in the US and New York. It is BIG! In the middle of the Manhattan concrete jungle, Central Park is very much an oasis to the residents. Everywhere I walk, there are people jogging, cycling, walking their dogs, wedding parties taking photos (although, why you would get married at this time of the year?) or just simply taking a stroll.

On the way there I visited the mosaic memorial to John Lennon. It simply says…“Imagine”. It is the most visited site in Central Park, and you will find on a daily basis, the mosaic strewn with flowers and balloons.

I ended my visit to Central Park with a visit to Wollman Rink. There were hundreds enjoying themselves. I did say to myself that I wanted to give it a go, but given that I have absolutely no ice skating experience (AND I MEAN NONE!), I decided to chicken out…haha.
I ended my day with a stoll down Fifth Avenue for some window shopping. Shopping is not a big thing for me, but I can see some of you that I know, go absolutely NUTS! One word of advice, bring plastic, unless you plan on wheelbarrowing your entire life savings from the local bank.

Snow...again?

2006-04-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

Amidst the crazy hours (12-15 hour days) that I have been working in the last week, including the weekend, the weather has suddenly gone crazy today. It has in fact started snowing right now.

I promise that I will put up some photos soon, when I get a chance!!!

Busy...busy...busy...

2006-03-27T18:29:00.000-08:00

I will try and update the blog soon but things have been pretty hectic with work and I just spent the weekend down in Washington DC.

But here is a little tidbit from my weekend in DC.

I witnessed George Dubya returning to the White House on a helicopter (from afar of course). Actually, I am not 100% that it is him.

The two modified SH-3 Sea Kings choppers were flying in close formation over the Jefferson Memorial on its way to the White House. I once read somewhere that the two choppers would fly together and that Dubya would be switch between to two every so often so that anyone with a SAM (surface to air missile) wouldn't know which target to hit. Just before the choppers land, one of them would peel off (the one without Dubya of course) and make its way back to Andrews Air Force Base, located not far from the White House.

As you all well know, from the aptly named movie, the President's specially modified Boeing 747 is called "Air Force One". These two choppers are named "Marine One" and "Marine Two". And Dubya doesnt travel by sea, so there is no "Navy One". Hmm...ok...in the future, I will refrain from displaying my lack of comedic talents so openly.

If there is anyone coming over to NYC soon, would you be kind enough to bring a laptop over for me. I can arrange for a friend to pass it to you :)

Lady Liberty

2006-03-19T16:40:00.000-08:00

Hi Y’all. Have been a bit hectic with work and not having a computer in my apartment means it can be difficult to update my blog so this is going to be a big post.

JT NEW YORK PHOTOS

USS Intrepid

The USS Intrepid is a World War Two aircraft carrier that is now a converted museum. It serve the US Navy for many years, including service in Vietnam. It has undergone several upgrades over the years to keep it current in the face of constant technological advancement. In case you didn’t already know, I am a bit of a military buff and I wont bore you with the history.

www.intrepidmuseum.org

The carrier was moored permanently on the Hudson River (that is on the west side of Manhattan Island). WW2 was perhaps the most trauma that our planet has experienced for the last 2000 years, and the Intrepid serves as a reminder of the destruction that we humans are capable of. But it also highlights the sacrifice that good men and women and willing to give to defeat evil. This reminds me of a quote that I have read or heard somewhere…"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing”.

What you will see on the Intrepid museum is a variety of aircraft and helicopters spanning the years from WW2 to the present day. The list of aircraft includes (among others) the magnificent SR-71 Blackbird (a black and imposing spyplane), a F-14D Tomcat (a dual-seat multirole air superiority fighter), and a British Airways Concorde (retired from service…cant remember when). If you ask me, the seating in the Concorde is cramped and probably not worth the $$$ you paid for except if you were really desparate to get across the Atlantic in less than 4 hours.

Lady Liberty and Ellis Island Immigration Centre Museum

On my second full weekend in NY, I made the trip to visit Lady Liberty and Ellis Island.

Fact: the Statue of Liberty was a gift by the French to congratulate the Americans on the victory in the War for Independence. The declaration of independence was made on the 4th of July 1776 and the ensuing war ended on the 3rd September 1783. The statue was designed by Frederic Bartholdi almost 100 years after the end of the war.

The sight of Lady Liberty was awe inspiring. The words of the following men says it all:

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” … Martin Luther King

“I am a lover of my own liberty and so I would do nothing to restrict yours” … Mohandas K. Ghandi

“I am content! America is assured of her independence. Mankind has won its cause; liberty is no longer homeless on the earth” … Marquis de Lafayette

“Liberty costs a great price, and one must either resign himself to live without it or pay its price” … Jose Marti

To reach Lady Liberty, I had to take the Ellis Island ferry. This is by far one of the more amazing ferry rides I have been on. Sydney harbour has its own magical views but the view of Lower Manhattan from the ferry was simply amazing. And to think the skyline is missing the two tall spires of the World Trade Centre. Among the new photos I have attached includes one which clearly shows the hole in the Lower Manhattan skyline vacated by the WTC.

The next stop was the Ellis Island Immigration Centre Museum. This is one museum that you must visit. It outlines the growth in population through immigration in the early 1900s for America. I used to think about Australia as a very multi-cultural society, but it does not compare to the diversity that is America.

I do not by any means agree with and support America’s policies towards many things but the ideals upon which America was built on, is what everyone in the world lives for.

NBA, Vinsanity and Gizmo’s visit

During the week, a mate of mine from Sydney was in town and we went to catch a NBA game. The New Jersey Nets were hosting the visiting Portland Trailblazers. This was my first time venturing outside of Manhattan.

The game was not great as both teams played well below par. Jason Kidd went through the night without scoring but Vince “Vinsanity” Carter was the top scorer on the night, which included a 360 dunk seconds from the end of the game.

This week, I spent sometime catching up/hanging out with a mate of mine who is on his way to London for a 3-5 year working stint. I wish you the best of luck on your search for a well paid job in old London Town. If scheduling permits, I will see you in Germany for the WORLD CUP 2006 !!!!!

We visited a chain restaurant for dinner one night – Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. yep, you guessed it, based on one of the best all time movies “Forrest Gump”. The food was average but it served its purpose :)

Anyway, signing off now. The next instalment will include coverage of my visits to the Empire State Building, The United Nations, Central Park and Strawberry Field.

New York Moment No.2

2006-03-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

My first real weekend in New York...

The first place I visited is a place that everyone I know remembers exactly what they were doing on September 11th 2001. I remember it exactly. I was up in my room, it was about 12am. I was studying (my last semester at Uni). It was the fateful day where the world was shocked to its core. I know on the scale of things, 3,000 deaths do not compare to World War 2, when approx 50 million people lost their lives, but it was the way in which the 3,000 died. There is no need to jump into a debate about what happened and I dont intend to except to say, those people need didnt deserve to die that way.

The whole area of the WTC was still undergoing a lot of construction. There were a lot of tourist around and the size of the hole in the ground was amazing. To think that two monster towers stood on that hole a little while ago. I say a little while ago because it seemed like yesterday that it happened and yet, it is over fours years now.

Let us all remember the heroes of the emergency service folk who did their duties and paid with their lives. Those are truly HEROES, in every sense of that word. People often use that term loosely, this is one time that even the word does not truly reflect the sacrifice made by those brave men and women.

Please see the following link for photos.

JT NEW YORK PHOTOS

I spend the rest of the day walking around the financial district, visiting Wall Street and Times Square at dusk. Security was tight around Wall Street, no traffic permitted and there were NYPD officers posted all around the area.

On my way home, I popped into the supermarket and did some shopping for the rest of the week. Visit The Supermarket.

That night I went out with a friend of a friend whom I met in Sydney the night before I flew out to NYC. She was a New Yorker and was on secondment in Sydney. What are the odds of the happening. She introduced me to her friend in NYC and we went out for drinks with some of her friends. They were a good bunch of people. Had a good time and dragged myself home in the wee hours.

The photo site above includes some photos of my Sunday trip to the USS Intrepid Museum. I will write more about that later. Going to head off to drinks now. This weekend heading to the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Bulding and hopefully also catch a Broadway Show. Going to try and catch the Beauty and the Beast.

Signing off.

Wind Chill Factor

2006-03-02T18:34:00.000-08:00

Aided by an Arctic wind blast, the weather over the last few days have been very cold indeed. The average temp has been ZERO or below. Luckily for me, I only live 5 min from work so my exposure has been somewhat limited, thankfully. J

1st March 2006 was apparently the coldest day of the year so far. It was pretty cold, approx between –5 and –10 degrees celsius. Wind chill factor taken into account. It was really cold !! So I mainly stayed indoors…well what else could I have done being a work day…hehe.

Work for the first two days were a little tough, mainly cos I haven’t been sleeping well, probably due to jetlag. Monday night, I woke up at 2 am and couldn’t go back to sleep until about 3.30 am.

Otherwise, it has been pretty uneventful. Currently doing 12 hour days at work. I pretty much come home and crash into bed. There seems to be a trend – NY shift starts from 9am to about 5pm. And at 5pm US time, Sydney comes online, being 9am in Sydney. This is the second shift (the Sydney shift). I normally finish the second shift at around 9 – 10pm.

I have had the opportunity to try some of the different restaurants around work over the last few nights (I really gotta stop eating out…it cant be healthy). It is true about the serving sizes at American restaurants…Appetizers = Entrees and Entrees = Mains. And every meal that you order for takeaway (or take out as they call it here) is accompanied by a wide variety of condiments, salt, pepper, tomato sauce (or ketchup), mustard, etc. And there is almost always too much. I have a huge collection of such condiments building up in my apartment, throwing them away seem such a waste.

Another strange thing that I noticed about the paranoia here over silly things, is the security that is placed on selling knives. I was at the supermarket the other day and all cooking knives are kept in a locked cabinet, strange…no? compared with the ease of obtaining a firearm here. Although I must admit I don’t know if the security on firearms have been increased also. The knives on the flight over are your plastic variety and even in my furnished apartment, I have no cooking knife. I only realised that I didn’t have a knife last night as I was deciding on what I need for a meal this weekend.

Today, 2nd March Thursday, it snowed. I have only witnessed snow several times in my life, discounting my only ski trip to Perisher. The first such occasion in the state of Utah, several hours drive from Las Vegas (it was only a few blobs on the ground…so I would not consider that my first time). The second such occasion was in Italy on a highway leaving Rome and travelling to Venice in the middle of Winter. Where the snow caused major delays on the highways. I was on my Contiki tour bus at the time. And my third time, soon after Italy, in Switzerland, when on the same tour we stayed up in the mountains for a night.

It snowed for most of the day, and being up on the top floor (23rd) of the building, it was simply magical. With the wind, snowflakes were floating across the sky. The downside of snow is when it turns to slush on the ground, also known as sleet. It makes it very difficult to walk around. I almost slipped over heading out for lunch.

Anyway…here are a few pics of my workspace and my floor, followed by a picture of my building in the morning, with light snow falling (hope you can see the snowflakes).

The first few days

2006-02-28T17:33:00.000-08:00

I woke up from my first night sleep in NYC...a little groggy...from the jet lag. Didnt sleep too well but things could be worse :)

I had a mission to accomplish today, and that involved:

1 - Buying a camera
2 - Getting a pre-paid sim card
3 - Visit the supermarket to setup for some basics and essentials at the apartment

While I was doing that, hopefully have a good stroll around the city. I left the apartment at 1pm (remember I woke up fairly late from jet lag), strolled down 7th Avenue and saw Times Square. The billboards on the sides of buildings are simply amazing. It felt like you are living in a commercial.

The camera was cheaper but not by much and the groceries was a tad expensive...$3 US per pound for tomatoes!

Anyway...getting tired and I want to go home...so here are some pics of the apartment.

New York Moment No.1

2006-02-27T16:46:00.000-08:00

Taking off from Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport, I was feeling a little nervous, not knowing what to expect about everything. I was nervous about work, the pressure of it all, as well as being able to make the most of my time there with so much work to do.

Having moved out back in September and taking a 1 month holiday in Dec/Jan, I had only really lived in my place for approximately 4 months, about the amount of time I will be spending in New York. What is a bit of a pain is, setting up again...well not as bad as the first time but that is life. But HEY, who am I to complain, I am in New York for crying out loud. Half my friends wish they had the same opportunity as I, so I should not be complaining at all. So from here on out, I will try to be as positive as possible.

Flying out of Sydney in United Airlines, business class (2 pm Sat 25th Feb) on a 747-400, I found myself unaccustomed to the huge leg room available and eating from real plates and as much alcohol as I desired. Although, as you know alcohol dehydrates your body, so I had a mild Gin & Tonic. Still turned red !! so the stewardess probably would not have given me another alcoholic drink for fear of sending me over the limit !! One downside of flying United is that they do not have VOD (Video on Demand) on their planes (EVEN IN BUSINESS!), but hey I didnt pay for the flight so blah blah blah :)

Landing in LAX (Los Angeles Airport) in the morning approx (9am Sat 25th Feb), having been told not to lock my bags (fearing a Schapelle moment), I checked that my bag had indeed been searched. They apparently break your locks if you had it locked. What is up with that? Anyone could have placed contraband in by bag. But I survived, oh well. I had a layover in LAX for approx 4 hours, which I spent walking around and chilling out in the United Red Carpet Lounge. One thing about United is that all their air stewards and stewardesses are on average 50 years old. This is not by any means, a politically incorrect comment, just merely observing the difference with all other airlines I have flown so far which on average is about 30 years old. But they were extremely professional and friendly, quite different from my first experience on another American Airline, "Continental Airlines".

I then jumped on to a United Premium Service jet, a Boeing 757, form my flight to New York JFK International. This is where I encountered my first "NY Moment". Flying into JFK at night is an amazing sight. It was breathtaking, the lights stretch for miles and miles, it was beautiful. It really gives you an idea of the size of the area. I saw the unmistakable shape of Manhattan Island. I had no camera (I was going to buy one here) so I dont have any photos, but I doubt they would have come out that nicely.

For those who dont know, JFK is of course the acronym for John F. Kennedy. the flight was extremely fast due to a quick tailwind. I landed in JFK at approx 9pm, my bags the first two out, good signs. That is until I decided to take a cab into the city. Costed an arm and a leg. With more research, I could have paid about 2/3rds less. Lesson number 1, make sure you go to the shared shuttle service counter at JFK...much, much cheaper. Oh well...those are them breaks.

Got to my apartment and pretty much at around 10pm or so. My apartment was located in Midtown Manhattan, very convenient, approximately several blocks from Times Square and Rockerfeller Centre. Unfortunately my body clock was still screwed up and I could sleep til about 2am. I have some pictures of the apartment but I am having trouble transferring the images on to my work computer. Will post it tomorrow. The apartment was quite nice. One bedroom with a lounge the same size, a reasonably size kitchen and a very nice bathroom. Overall, very impressed. I did a little unpacking and then I crashed.

Will write about my first day tomorrow :)

Good afternoon Australia!

Approximately 36 Hours to Takeoff

2006-02-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

Not long now...

a feeling of excitement builds slowly.

I will miss everyone in Sydney...

Take care everyone.

And to one of my best friends in the world...I am so sorry I am going to miss your wedding.