A new road just around the corner...

Time really does fly. It's hard to believe that it's already mid July. The last few months have been a hectic blur of ups and downs. Frantic preparation balanced with the over ridding call to just sit back and relax. But now I am two days out from taking my trip to China, I feel... I am not sure what I feel. Anticipation yes, trepidation yes, but also a sense of lethargic laziness... It's almost like I've run out of steam just short of the goal... which is terrible. Especially considering that in about a weeks time i will be going up before some top class judges to get my grading.

In a way its almost anti climatic... I've not had as much time to train as i would like, or have had enough people to help me train or knowing 100% on what to train either. I guess none of these things really help. But you know what... I will do what i do best... winging it... which is what makes me feel so... calm in a sense. Maybe it all just hasn't hit yet though. no doubt the nerves will be there on the day. it is inevitable. But I guess I shall see.

Any who... its a wonder how things have come to this late a stage. There's no regret now. just got to keep going forward with what i have now. cant do much about anything with only a week or so to go. If this all turns out well... then a new path is opening up before me. An exciting path, a hard path... but one that could be really rewarding. I'm looking forward to the day where i have a huge class before me and i can teach them what i know about kung fu... now that would be awesome...

Journey to be a Master...

So I know I haven't written anything here in yonks. Life just kind of overtook me. Some sad things, some happy things but mostly interesting things. Looking back at what I have posted just makes me remember the happy times I had on my last vacation. I wish I was on holidays back there again... One day i will go back, and one day I will finish writing about my adventure to the USA... hahaha

But today is a new day... and today I'd like to write about something that is close and dear to my heart.
Kung Fu. It's something that I have been doing for over 10 years now. It's hard to believe sometimes that it's something that has spanned over a third of my life. It really is something that has shaped me. It's not always fun and games. There have been heaps of injuries, things that I still suffer from today and will probably suffer from in years to come. But I feel that it is something that builds my character. No matter what the negatives have been, i sincerely believe it has contributed positively to my life.

Perhaps its the way it has shaped my mentality, the discipline, the philosophy. It really could be anything I guess. Well, to get to the point I have come to a stage where I think I want to take this further. Yes it's a hobby and yes its something I find a lot of enjoyment out of. But I am also seeing it - maybe only as a glimmer so far - as something that I want to do more with. It's something I want to be able to give others I guess. Which was why I have recently been talking to my Master about getting a qualification so that I could perhaps teach in the future.

I am really grateful for my Master. Not only is he encouraging me to take this path, but also introducing me to other Masters out there that could help me on my journey to the next phase. It is actually quite daunting when I'm mixing around with the worlds best. But it is an immense learning opportunity. One to explore new things, but also to refine my own techniques and learn more about what can be done. It's not going to be easy, but then most worthwhile things are hard to achieve... and when you do achieve it the sense of success is overwhelming. So whats my first step? Well, it's to train ridiculously hard so I can go to China with Master Tang in a few months time. There I will be graded and get my first qualification... from there we shall see...

This is my path to become a Master... It's all a bit crazy really!

Day 9 – It is your destiny!

So I've been a bit slack lately in writing in this blog. So going to try catch up soon. Anyway here's the next arc of our adventures.

One would think that leaving the hotel, checking out and going to the airport is relatively simple. Especially when you have the number of a taxi company and a great plan to get there. WRONG! Soooo wrong. Life likes to throw curveballs at you and this was one hell of a curve ball. We checked out alright and even booked a taxi alright. The problem came when the taxi did not come in the few minutes that were promised us. Nor did ringing again help, as the operator was one grumpy soul and shut me off as I was asking a question. After about 30 minutes we had booked a taxi with another company I get an automated call saying that the original company had no taxis available. Yeah thanks for letting me know!

So getting to the airport now about 45minutes late, the taxi driver drops us off. Little did we know the plane we were catching was code sharing with another company and we had to walk ALLLLLLL the way around to the otherside of the terminal. Time of walking – 10 minutes. But hurray though! We finally made it! Just in time to get our boarding pass and be told we missed baggage check in. oh yay so much fun. But but there is still hope, as the lady there says to go to additional information line and see if they can help us. Another hour of waiting and finally we make it to the head of the line. Where one person has been there with a line of about 30 people. We head to the counter and we go to her... I think we've missed our flight. As the plane was boarding and we still havent cleared customs. Apparently it's all our fault so we cant get refund we cant even go on the next flight as theyre all booked out. Hurray! With this in mind after some debating we decided to cancel our flights and see if we could go to some of the other companies. Walking around we found that they had hiked up the prices by a 100%. Everything was now at least doubled. The only good offer we had was from Virgin America – same price but it was first class, unlike all the other ones which were economy.

I think we sort of gave up after a while and decided to just stuff it and go road tripping. It's all fate I guess. We ended up booking on the go, booked hotels while we went from the airport to the car rental to stop at some midway town. Bakersfield in California and off we went to Hertz again to find a car. I think it was for the best in hind sight. We definitely got to see more of America this way, and not from just the sky but down there seeing how life actually was. Hertz originally wanted to charge us $700 for a Dodge challenger but thats a bit expensive so we ended up with a camry. Bigger then the Cruze, a lot more power but it was heavy and not as nimble or fun to drive.

I guess as I said, it's all destiny... this whole road trip thing. Driving along though you realise how beautiful the land actually is. Nice rolling hills and plains to all side. Punctuated by farms and other signs of humanity. One straight road that cut through the scene... It was strangely beautiful. One thing that really confused me though was the lack of speed limit that was adhered by the people on anyone. At first we stuck to it – travelling at around 100km... but soon enough we were following others to travel in excess of 140km... and people were still passing us! So ridiculous.

So reaching Bakersfield we found that we were in the middle of nowhere. A town that seemed to have been plopped in the middle of the state for no reason at all. I mean ok there probably was a big agricultural industry or something but all the places we passed seemed like hick towns full of red necks. But as funny as it sounds, we found a great resort hotel in Bakersfield, and there were also a few others around that were just as spectacular. The main road was lined with a giant shopping strip full of restaurants and shops. In fact it was more a shopping town I guess. We didnt find an In and it is a family restaurant which has a waiting staff of all young pretty girls in tight tshirts and short shorts. It seems very odd to I guess objectify the girls and bring kids to a place like this... but hey this is America, and if it works for them who am I to complain. One thing though, the girls were really really nice. They gave us a lot of tips for Vegas and even came and took pictures with us to remember Bakersfield. I really liked it here. Maybe it's the fabled Australian accent working wonders hey...

Day 8 – One week in USA

So today is day 8 of being in the USA. It's now been over a week that we have arrived. But if the truth be known, it feels like I've been here months. It fels so much longer then the one week we have been here. The whole LA and San Fran adventure seems like we have been on the go for so long. Ever since we first stepped down off the plane everything has been go go go. But I guess this is a good thing, I don't want it to slow down. If it slows too much then it'd just get boring, and we do not want that. Definitely want to keep this trip as much fun as possible. I think I'm falling into the pace of things... definitely enjoying this more then working :P

Alright so, todays lunch was In And Out again. The first time we went we didn't do enough research. I knew that you could customise your orders to all these special ways of the burgers being prepared and such. But I had forgotten what it all was since I read the article about four months ago. Since then though we've had a look on the internet and researched into the secret menu. With that in mind we proceeded to get both the burger and the chips cooked Animal style. Let's just say that this was good, but oh so baaaaaad. It tasked great but the chips was drowning in melted cheese and cream sauce. Finishing it all was a struggle. Finishing it and just walking around afterwards was a struggle. It sat there in my stomach like a bar of lead.

We went to get our dose of culture today. San Fran is know for its art and stuff I think. It's supposed to have a lot of stuff on the art scene. So in focusing on that, today we dedicated to getting our dose of culture. We headed into the civic centre as we thought that that would be the area where the most museums and such would be. Unfortunately for us we forgot about all the bums and weirdos that actually hang out there. The park in front of the city hall is filled with homeless people and people with nothing to do. For example while we were walking past on the outside of the park some weird woman inside decides to take off her top baring her... chest and starts singing at the top of her lungs. The people around her yells either encouragement or to tell her to shut up.. I'm not too sure... it was just too strange for us. By that time we were high tailing out of there to the closest museum. Which was the Asian culture Museum. The main display was about the maharajahs of India... unfortunately for us I think these weren't as good a display as we hoped.. our dose of culture took us over 2 hours but left us yawning...

Getting out of there we wanted to get some snacks. Heading back to faux Hong Kong (Chinatown) we aimed for the bakery we first went to when we got to San Francisco. They still serve the best pineapple buns... definitely a lot better then the ones in Australia, and on par with that in Hong Kong. Luckily for us though, getting to the bakery the people there remembered us as we told them how great the buns were last time. They treated us really well, we got freshly baked buns PLUS a discount. 90Cents for two... how brilliant is that?! I mean fresh pineapple buns!!!

We've walked a lot of places this day, mainly because we've been eating a lot of crap and to help try stave off all the badness we've been trying to exert more. Not that it seems to be helping since meals seem to come after a lot of walking. Which means that after the snack, we walked to Fisherman's wharf to get food... oh and walk around a bit more :P We had dinner at a restaurant called Neptune's or something. Fancy, it had a waterfront view and a high class décor. Specialising in seafood, I ended up getting the days special and some seafood bisque. That bisque was great! So tasty.. if I have to say anything bad about it, i'll just have to say that it was probably a bit too strong. The rest of dinner was pretty nice too.. but nothing really that outstanding. Was tasty but yeah.. :P

As I was saying before, we were doing a walk around day today. This meant that we went to walk from the fishermans wharf to the Marina area where we were staying. I don't know how long that took but on the way there we found this amazing thing. Spray paint artists. This was the first time I've actually ever seen it. It is most definitely something to see these people working on their art. I loved the show they put up and how amazing it looks. I ended up buying two of the paintings... so amazing we finished our walk home by stopping at the safeway near the hotel. We found out that there is a local pre-packaged dessert called Its-it. Its an ice cream sandwich that we've been looking for the last few days. Luckily for us we found out where it was sold. Cappuccino flavour is the original flavour and I must say its actually pretty good. Definitely worth a try.

Day 7 - San Francisco

Schools in America... I do not get them. From the time we saw the first one in LA to the many more we have seen since, the schools look more like jails then anything. They're usually surrounded by a 3 metre high metal fence. The few I've seen have been metal bars or grated metal. To think that a school needs this tupe of security to either keep the kids inn or people out is just... scary. In the end I guess I just don't get it...

Our challenge today was to find the Mexican joint in Man vs Food, and do the burritto challenge. Situated in the Mexican district of Mission, you will notice that the area is a lot more.. grungier, more ghetto like then the rest of San Francisco. There are more people hanging out aroundon the streets, food carts selling snacks and ice cream, and a host of cafes and burrito stores. The one we were looking for serves a super burrito. Unfortunately for us we seemed to have arrived in the area about an hour or so early. So walking along the character filled streets we found a small hip cafe to hang out till our brunch time. Nice place, full of young people enjoying their coffee. Wasnt bad I guess... problem though for me was I had an iced coffee... with no sugar in it. The only sweetener is well sugar.. and tha stuff as we all know does not dissolve in cold liquid easy... ah well bitter coffee for me. Anyway back to the mexican place (La Cumbria?) I ended up skipping the challenge of the Burrito and left it to my cousin. I opted for a Quaesadilla and oh man it was delicious! Cheesy but gooooood. The guacamole was so spicy and I couldn’t taste anything else... hmmm... maybe its just that batch they made. As for the challenge... well I left that to my cousin. I swear that thing weighed at least a kilo, and this was just the normal burrito and not the super giant one. It was still huge. I am so glad I did not get that. I think I would have died...

Shopping time today, I've kinda realised that it's a bit sad and lonely to walk around a bustling shopping district by yourself. Maybe it's just me but I find that its really hard to decide what to get, what looks nice and even if the styles work or if it fits. Ah well, I perservered though. I ended up buying a giant thick coat for the colder regions of the US we will be travelling to. But oh man... that coat is so big!!! it's taking up way too much space. Also to round out my suit I got in LA, I bought a nice pair of Forsheim leather shoes. I guess I am now all set for suiting up in Vegas... One thing I noticed although while shopping for a coat, they take security really seriously here. Trying out the coat was... dangerous. There was the usual security clips with the ink – three of them, then there was an alarm system attached to the coat which clips to the coat and also runs through the sleeves and through to the other side. This coat you definitely do not want to mess with. It's all hooked up!!!

Dinner tonight we followed the LP guide once again. Heading onto Columbia Ave into the Italian districts of town (also where the strip clubs all seem to be... hmm a combination of Lygon and King st.) We went to this nice little italian restaurant called Cinneta. They served Roman style pizza with different styles of toppings. Thin crust, but oh boy this is great food they have here. Definitely recommend the pizzas here. The guy working this night was really friendly too. I can see why we (LP) would be recommending them.

Day 6 – One lucky day?

So today marks the last full day we have our car which means we need to make the best use of it that we can. To this end we planned to drive as far as we can to as many places we can. Getting in the car though we ended up driving just down the street as we had recently realised that the Crookedest street is just down there. It's ben one of the things ive always wanted to dodriving down it after I first heard of it. So thats tick off my checklist. Definitely was interesting. Helps that it has a really great view of the bay as well. Adding the day light pictures to the night one's I had took the night before has added a nice picture to my collection

So we got lucky today too. After rushing around near Fisherman's Wharf trying to find parking, we stumbled on this cheap parking lot. It's one of those places where they park your car for you.ques Considering it was only $10 compared to the $39 we were looking at, I think it was a great deal. Lucky for us as well, when we got to the ferry to Alcatraz, we just made it to the next one so we practically walked onto the ferry after grabbing some snacks and stuff.

Let's talk about Alcatraz now. Alcatraz started out as a Fort apparently. Used to protect the bay it started turning into a prison in early 1900's. Walking on it's grounds it compares in age with that of Port Arthur in Tasmania which we recently visited before coming to the USA. One thing that sstands out as a major difference is the well... call it I guess more interesting history that Alcatraz has. Maybe it's the way that it has more and better organised tours and such. Perhaps its also the types of inmates that the prison held that gave it the difference. I think the fact that it has an audio tour for the prison proper with stories and facts and everything gives it more of a hear and now feel that Port Arthur lacked with its self tours and reading of plaques and such. It's a lot more interactive...

Coming back from Alcatraz, we sought lunch in the piers. Walking around in the cold we found this take away section of a shop selling - clam chowder!!!! That being an american speciality we had to get it. So lunch for me consisted of Clam Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, crab bannock and a small drink which is about 10% bigger then the large drinks back home. Definitely misjudging the size of servings here. I am definitely eating way too much thats for sure.

In the end though we went over to Oakland. The LP office there was one of my must see places. I found it funny though as we drove around that part of town and seeing how similaar it was to Footscray. There were the regulatory semi's, the warehousing areas and what seems like bums and dregs of society hanging around. The place looks like it's also a relatively unsafe area AND the office is situated in a converted warehouse. Makes me wonder if this site was picked out for this reason. Whatever the case though, I managed to find my way in (through the locked doors of the office) and stumbled into the reception and there greeted by really friendly people! To be honest I felt like a lost kid going up to the information counter at a shopping centre. I mean I basically went in said hi, im from the melbourne office, I'm lost please help me! Whats there to see and do?! And the receptionist Britney took it all in with enthusiasm and began listing everything! They even took us over to their warehouse and gave me free books to help me. Met the Warehouse manager whos been with LP for 22years! Great people here, i'm glad I came and met them. It's very rare to meet anyone from out of your own office. I enjoyed this chance meeting.

So armed with all these suggestions and a brand new San Francisco guide they were able to give me... we ended up just driving around downtown oakland. It was... interesting. We could definitely see the difference between it and San Francisco, especially in its outlook and its residents. Its a rather interesting place though. With more time we defintiely would have had more of a chance to see the city. I think we would have enjoyed the museums and such. Whatever the case we ended up driving away from Oakland and back to San Francisco. Not for anything in particular, just to drive around too. Really we were just randomly driving around and for some strange reason we ended up driving around the beach areas in the west, along the coast, through the scenic drive of the Goldengate Park and our ultimate highlight, up to the Twin Peaks when the sun was setting.

random driving along oakland then back to san fran. Ending up at twin peaks just as the sun sets. Brilliant view, but man it was so cold!!! I swear its cold at night normally (about 8 degrees Celsius) but it was worse up there!

Coming back down from the mountains, we ended up following the newly acquired San Francisco city guide for dinner. Heading over to Japantown we went to a restaurant that was recommended by the book called Tataki. It's like a new age japanese restaurant, with the chefs combining traditional styles of sushi etc into a new style and modern flair. If anyone ever goes to San Francisco then this is a MUST visit. It is THE best japanese food I've ever had, hands down. Ok sure the food in japan is great but this one has a flair that they don't have. The pieces of fish was so good it felt like it was melting in my mouth. The proportions of the fish on the sushi was rather generous too. All in all I rate this place a 10. You cant get better then this!

So following the book we went to get some dessert on the other side of Japantown. Silly us we opted to walk, taking us about 15 minutes walking in the freezing cold. Was a nice enough walk I guess, but unfortunately for us we opted to go bathroom to wash hands before going to the crepe shop, which ended up with us missing it by 5 seconds. The …. people.... in the shop wouldnt make one for us even knowing we were from overseas. Bah. Not happy with them.

Anyway we ended the night going to try find some bars and nightlife. I cant really remember where we ended up but we didn’t find many bars in that area. Just the one really... Ordered one of the local beers – IPA or something – Don’t ever get it as it is disgusting. Tastes like bitter melon. Thats really about it for this day...

Day 5 – Oh look it's the bridge!

Alright so we started out the day all keen with the thoguhts of riding across the Goldengate Bridge. It's one of those must do things you see while researching for a holiday. After much walking down to the Fishermens wharf (one section of it) we managed to track down this bike hire place we had a pamphlet for. It was slightly more costly then all the other places but fortunately for us we struck really lucky! The guy that was manning the store was a phd research student that stayed in Darwin for a bit and was really hoping for some aussies to stop by because he was tired of the standard americans who had no humour. For stopping by we had a major discount haha. ThouHght that was a great thing! :P However the problem though now was when we started riding, I realised that I havent been on a bike in well... years!!! They do say that you never forget how to ride a bike... which is true.. but I dont think riding 30km's after so long was a good idea. Especially up and down those crazy hills. My legs are STILL hurting... I think they will still hurt for the next few days. Great views though of the city. Really worth seeing the bridge up close.

So at the Fisherman's wharf, I found my favourtest store. It's called ISS or spelt out International Spy Store. It has an amazing range of security devices, tools and other items that could help you with spying activities. We came in early before the bike ride but we didnt have enough time to stay and do much. However one thing did catch my eye - lock picking class! So after talking to the people in the store I really wanted to learn – which is just what I did. I came back at 5pm and stayed till closing time at 7pm learning and well picking all the locks they had. 5 door locks and 3 pad locks... also something I will deny ever having been taught... if you want to know what then ask me privately elsewhere. But it was great fun... I never realised how locks worked and its really all quite complex – logical but complex. I ended up picking their number 4 door lock with 4 tumblers and a pattern to them in a rather quick time. Spent the most time figuring out lock number 5 which had 5 tumblers and some really tough and complex pattern to which one to get first. Most people give up after the third lock apparently. Lock number 4 and 5 are just too complex for people with their tumbler patterns. Apparently though after much fiddling and getting all 5 tumblers up we found that it was broken and would not turn which was a shame since im one of only a few who's managed to pick it. It's rather surprisingly fun. Going to try practice this more I think.

So finishing up at 7pm had some side effects – it was freezing outside (like 9 degrees Celcius) and not to mention that it was all dark outside. So getting home involved... well walking – which was not something I was looking forward to after that long bike ride. But there was no way to avoid it. Out with the map and checking locations then off I went freezing myself to death. By chance I found myself walking up Hyde st, where the cable cars go. Good that it had an excellent view, not so good that it's probably one of the steepest streets in San Francisco. And it was telling. My legs ached so bad, was NOT a smart idea at all. I persevered though, and as I reached the top I was rewarded with a brilliant night view as well as finding the crookedest street. Took some nice photos there.

Tonight we kept it easy to recover from our escapades. Had cheese steaks for dinner – which we thought was actual steaks with cheese sauce. In actual fact it's more like ground meat in cheese sauce all in a bun. Great food but damn its cheesy. Night activity involved going home to watch tv. And well if you have never watched WWF and wrestlemania and all that stuff... please do... it is the most hilarious thing ever!