The Flying Badger

Back...

2008-10-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

in the UK. Thought I should point that out in case anyone thinks I'm still in San Diego. *cough* Cutter *cough* ;)

Still in San Diego

2008-07-12T15:35:00.001-07:00

Some two weeks later, I'm still here - I've ended up couchsurfing at the apartment of a lovely young lady named Cage (don't ask :p). However, all good things must come to an end - I have now booked my ticket to Peru and I fly out on Tuesday.

My plans have changed somewhat, but then, it was always pretty fluid. The original idea was to buy a car here or in LA and then drive through Central America, sell the car in Panama, then fly to Quito in Ecuador. However, I ended up buying the car in Seattle and used it to get down the west coast (via Vegas and Phoenix). I then decided that I'd massively underestimated the distances involved in Central America, particularly Mexico, so I ditched that part and sold the car here in San Diego.

Then I realised that I'd stuffed up my innoculations - ie, I haven't had the Yellow Fever one - and Ecuador now requires ALL people entering to have the certificate, rather than just those coming from an endemic area.

So now it's straight to Lima in Peru before making my way down to Santiago in Chile for the next RTW flight to Kiwi-land.

My UK phone account is about to expire by the way, so I'll be picking up PAYG sims for the rest of the trip. I can, of course, still be reached by email, although checking it will be sporadic. Much like this blog :s

Hmm...

2008-06-26T19:07:00.003-07:00

That orientation of photo doesn't work too well with this blog theme. Arse.

Ballgame 2

2008-06-26T19:07:00.001-07:00

Took the camera this time ;) Rest are in the usual place on Flickr. Link is over there on the right --->

Serendipity (or "Scoring a ballgame ticket")

2008-06-25T22:57:00.001-07:00

Totally by chance, I stopped into The Tilted Kilt on 10th & K after buying a ticket for tomorrow's ballgame ($7 for a seat and ambling access all around the park - UK sports promoters take note) for a swift beer and ended up talking to a couple of local guys. Well, now local anyway, one of them turned out to be an ex pro ball player for the Seattle Mariners.

And he had a few spare corporate tickets for tonight's game against Minnesota.

Well, it would have been rude to refuse, right? :D

So, although they'll probably never read this - cheers Joe & Randy for the ticket, beer and pizza. I enjoyed my first ballgame, despite the home team (San Diego Padres) getting a bit of a hammering.

(Tomorrow I'll be taking the camera, so stay tuned for some baseball shots)

Memories Pt 2

2008-06-25T04:20:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, when you're far from home and feeling just a bit on your own (not necessarily "alone" but still...) you have a little contact with someone from that home.

And it does wonders for your soul.

Thankyou C.

Frightened Rabbit

2008-06-24T20:14:00.001-07:00

I met a Glaswegian guy here in San Diego who told me of a gig at the Casbah last night by a band from Selkirk named 'Frightened Rabbit'. Given my financial situation, I did umm and aah for a bit, but went for it in the end.

And I'm so glad I did - they were fantastic :D Check 'em out :
http://www.frightenedrabbit.com/

Memories

2008-06-24T20:06:00.001-07:00

Whilst refreshing my Photobox galleries with travel pics, I found an old pic of home lurking on a CF card :

Turns out Trainspotting's opening sequence was shot here with Renton and Co legging it towards where I shot from. The black Sierra that nearly hit him comes out of the side road just behind the white van you can see.

It lives!

2008-06-20T20:39:00.001-07:00

A swift trip to Fry's Electronics and, 200 dollars later, the laptop has a new lease of life thanks to replacing the memory and hard drive. Might be throwing good money after bad, but we shall see. At least I can clear some of my backlog of photos, though.

I've had a positive response from one of my applications for photo work, which is cool. Downside is, it's not until July 12. I'll factor in accomodation and send them a quote, see what happens. Sounds like an interesting event though.

I'm now back downtown in San Diego (home of the inimitable Ron Burgundy) for a couple of nights while the Point Loma hostel has a block booking over the weekend. So I think a revisit to The Field is in order tonight. Bloody hot in this hostel though (Hostel Cat on E St).

Mixed emotion day today actually, now that I think about it. Great about the photo job possibility, someone's interested in the car, and a friend here has had great job news. But I'm saying goodbye to the same friend and I've had a nice chat with someone back home that's made me miss them (and the place) a little too.

Nothing a beer can't fix, I'm sure. Grrr.

/dons kilt and steps out into the Californian evening

Cursed, I tell ye,cursed!

2008-06-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

The laptop I bought in Phoenix ($200 for a Dell Inspiron wasn't too bad) is starting to play up now.

So that's one stolen laptop in LA, one knackered external hard drive containing the originals of the last 3 months photos, 3 websites and associated content lost and now this thing slowly conking out on me.

I don't really mind having to use netcafes, Apple Stores etc for web stuff, but the inability to process photos on the run (and have a reliable storage medium) is a REAL issue. Can't really afford to buy another laptop though. Not without knocking off a bank, anyway.

Ho hum.

Quick test of Windows Live Writer

2008-06-17T23:46:00.001-07:00

Test, test, testament...

Setting up the site again...

2008-06-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some rather misguided and impatient housekeeping by someone back home, combined with some stunningly inept hosting practices (UK technophiles might be aware of Fasthosts and their wonderfully woeful "security" actions a few months ago that lead to them sending out new passwords by surface mail), I lost all my websites, photographs, files and anything else I was keeping online about 2 months ago. 12 years of content up in virtual smoke. Marvellous.

Good job I'm a believer in karma (mind you, I'm not above giving it a helping hand...).

Any road, I'm now finally getting around to setting something up again. I can't really be doing with setting up a full site again, particularly since I'm travelling the world at present, so it's easier to turn to an existing service - in this case, Blogger. I'll frame it back at Flyingbadger.net at some point I think (in fact, if you're reading this, chances are I have already done exactly that).

The priority was my photo portfolio site so that I have something I can refer prospective clients to whilst on my travels. Now that is done (albeit a bit rough around the edges, but at least it shows the photos in a decent enough fashion), I can get this one sorted too. Aren't you lucky people.

Current travel situation - covered Canada, been down the west coast of the US (and across to Vegas, Grand Canyon and Phoenix) and I'm now languishing (rather comfortably, mind) in San Diego while I try to sell my car, get innoculated against Yellow Fever and get a flight to Quito, Ecuador. Oh and I've spent about 85% of my money. Whoops. Ah well, I'll figure something out...I usually do :D