Thank You. Come Again.

You know those crazy and cool things that exist only in far off magical lands. Things you can dream about, read about, but never experience. Björk concerts. Exotic Coca-Cola flavours. Terrorist Attacks. Well this is one of them.

7-11 are in the process of negotiating a deal with the promoters of The Simpsons Movie to convert eleven 7-11 convenience stores into Kwik-E-Marts in the lead up to the release. The conversion will include for-sale stocks of KrustyO's Cereal, Buzz Cola and Iced Squishees.

The reason this excites me is that I'll be in the nation capital a week before the release date and maybe I will be able to indulge in a little bit of that magic.

Planning Report

I've always thought planning a holiday would be ridiculously complicated and a lot of hard work. I'm not sure why, probably because old people always make it seem so. Having tried to do it myself, I've found it can be done in 3 simple, easy-to-follow steps:

1. Flights
2. Accommodation
3. Travel Insurance
Disclaimer: You'll have to add in '4. Passport' if you haven't one already. I do.

I'm at step 2. Suze and I went to a few travel agents in the CBD, skipped the ones with long line-ups, the ones with travel agents we didn't like ( i.e. faux-blondes with fake nails), and out of the remaining two, chose the one that was $400 cheaper, coz we're totz thrifty like that. One hefty bpay transfer later and we have a pretty little schedule:

15/06/07
06:30 : Depart Brisbane
08:00 : Arrive Sydney

09:45 : Depart Sydney
06:05 : Arrive Los Angeles*

09:05 : Depart Los Angeles
17:20 : Arrive New York

*check the shit out, arrive before we leave!
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18/07/07
19:10 : Depart New York
22:10 : Arrive Los Angeles

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21/07/07
23:20 : Depart Los Angeles

23/07/07
06:05 : Arrive Brisbane

So now that's done, we're working on accommodation. Originally we were hoping to get a dodgy two-bed hostel room for about US$100/night. Turns out apartments are five times as good and half the price. We had our eye on a one bedroom apartment (a whole apartment!) in East Village (see map) for US$50/night, but that didn't eventuate. Currently waiting to hear back about some rooms (share apartments) in the same suburb. I kinda like the idea of staying with someone else, a local. I'm a fan of locals.

This Is My First

k. so i just set up a blog. kinda been meaning to for a while but was all too aware of my adversity to regular recording of my activities (i don't do diaries). but this time i have a better motivation, albeit a stolen one (thx, suze). i want to document my trip to nyc and what'll hopefully be the best successive 37 days (34 without flight time) of my first 22 years. ya know, for grandkids to read - not rly. just because one of my biggest fears is forgetting things (esp. expensive things, like os holidays); the internet doesn't forget things. and on the off chance someone might want to read it while we're over there.