Mississipi

Well its been a long time since I updated this blog. And I do apologise, I wanted to update it reguarly but i guess sometimes it is rather impossible!

A few days after we went to the french market Hannah and I were sitting in bed watching an episode of Roswell when her Mum came in and told us that there grandma (Maw Maw) was going into hotpital. So we all rushed to Mississipi again to see her.

We stayed in mississipi for about 3 or 4 days, hence no blog updates and her maw maw was getting worse and worse. It was pretty awful. On a pluss side I did get to see the whole family again, just under bad circumstances.

Maw Maw is doing a little better now I think, although she is still in the hospital.
After we got back we had about 4 days to prepare for our big adventure to San Diego so it was all a bit rushed. On top of that I had two jobs to finish.

One was an original drawing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the other was a digital piece of Grace from Soulfire.

So i was majorly stressed out, but somehow I managed to get them done!

The next blog entry will detail our trip to San Diego which was from the 23rd to 28th of July!

It will be a big one!

Stay tuned :)

French Market

Hello again blog. Today we all took a trip into the city of New Orleans (which was just across the bridge) to go and visit the French Market. Its Americas oldest city market, and very unique.
It was SO hot today I was sweating like a pig all day! Our first stop was Cafe Du Monde to try some Beignets! Theyre like pastry things with powder sugar! Very messy but very yummy!


I bought a few things from the market, a really awesome handmade notebook/sketchbook. Which I will have to take a photo of sometime, and a little voodoo doll haha.
We got there late so by the time we looked around and such it was closing but I will go again and get some more souvenirs.
This photo is just amusing.

I'm just going to paste a few photos here...


This photo below was from yesterday at Lake Ponchartrain!


This is us in front of Jackson Square and St Louis Cathedral.

I'm such a tourist.


Thats it for today folks, just a quick update mainly to share some good photos of me and my love.
Having a great time and will update soon!

PS. I need to draw more!

Day 10?

Its me again!

I have decided that its too hard to update everyday.. or recap everyday because I have a terrible memory!

Yesterday we decided to head out to the mall for a few hours as I wanted to buy some new shoes. We're going to be doing a lot of walking in the coming months and I know the shoes I had would just fall apart.

The mall we went to was called Oakwood, and it had 11 shoe stores! It wasn't even a very big place so 11 shoe stores was just crazy to me. Thankfully I was shoe shopping anyway so it worked in my favor. I found some nice chucks. :)

Then we went clothes shopping for Hannah because she has like 2 pairs of jeans and one pair I really done like hahaha.. *hides*

Anyway we found her some grey skinny jeans that look SOOO hot on her.. perfect fit.

Oh, I forgot to mention I was finally able to get money out of my account at an ATM.. it took me a few tries and a few phone calls to get the damn thing working. But I got it.
Only thing now is I need to take more out because I spent it all!
To the right is a random photo of Hannah putting on her face.

Last night I started putting in Hannah's hair extensions that I bought for her birthday, which was really hard at first but I am getting the hang of it now. Right now she is making some Mac 'n Cheese, because we are both veryyy hungry and then after we eat that I will attempt to finish her hair which will take a good couple of hours at least.

To the right is where I am staying, at Hannah's house! Its cute!
I know I have missed quite a few days since my last update but to be honest we haven't really done that much yet, we have been out and about to stores and thrift shops looking for clothes and such but nothing major to update on with photos. So I may miss a few days here and there but the big days will definitely get a write up. Hopefully we will go into the French Quarter soon.
I am really looking forward to that!

Below are some drawings I have done in my Moleskine sketchbook, I look forward to filling it up with sketches through out my journey! :D

I am getting pretty excited we are going to be doing a lot of really fun stuff! In about 2 weeks we head of to San Diego, California for Comic Con, and hopefully Disneyland!

Ive been wanting to go to Comic Con for years! :D
And who better to go with than Hannah !

Anyhow better get started with her hair, I'll be in touch.

Cya!

Updating this blog is harder than I thought, so I will race through a few days..

[Day 2 - July 2nd] New Orleans

After having a long sleep we woke up at about 3pm and I got to have my long awaited shower :D
We didn't do much today as I was still quite jet lagged but we did take a trip to Walmart with Hannah's Mum so I could get some hair gel.

The store was much bigger than anything in Australia, and the cashier wanted to see some Australian money. I showed her a $5 dollar note and told them how it was plastic, she went crazy over it and called all her other co-workers to come have a look.

After that we came home and Hannah made dinner; Pasta with shrimp.. or Prawns.. I ate prawns. Which is amazing because i NEVER eat seafood apart from fish.
That was about it today we just lazed around! :)

[Day 3 - July 3rd] New Orleans

Today was Hannah's 25th birthday!
We gave her presents the night before because we were up late eating dinner and it was past midnight! We also drank wine so we were up till like 5 am, which of course made us wake up at about 3pm again. ha ha

To left is Hannah's cat Link, in his favorite new box!

We didn't do much today either. Hannah didn't feel like going out so we just ordered Chinese food and stayed in and cuddled!





[Day 4 - July 4th] Independence Day - New Orleans


Today we got an early start for our first real venture outside the house.
We were heading to Hannah's Grandparents ( Maw Maw and Paw Paw's) house in Mississippi, but we stopped for a breather about halfway at a Rest stop, which had a replica Lunar Lander.

A short distance from the rest center there is the NASA Stennis Space Center which test the rocket engines and build some of the parts for spaceships.
You could get a tour bus from the rest stop but they were closed and we were heading elsewhere anyway!

I got to see a lot of the aftermath from Hurricane Katrina today, nearly 3 years later there are still houses and apartment complexes abandoned and in ruins. There was also a lot of empty lots where houses used to be, some of them still had intact swimming pools.

After a bit of a travel we eventually arrived at Hannah's Grandparents house in Bay St. Louis where I met her Grandparents, Uncle, Family friend and 2 funny little doggies! :D

There was also a very old kitty, but I only saw her briefly. For lunch we had hot dogs, they were yum! We stayed for a little while chatted and took some photos (which weren't on my camera) then we made our way to have a look at the coast as they lived about a 5 minute drive away from the beach.

This is the area where I have seen the most destruction so far, lots of really beautiful homes were damaged or completely ruined from the storm. Looking out the other window of the truck however I could see lots of people on the beach setting up bon fires preparing for a july 4th Beach party! Looked like a lot of fun, oh I also saw a few kites as well; including this bizarre one to the left!

After a long drive down the coast and a very sore ass (lol.. Ok it was sore because I was half sitting on the seat, we had to squish 4 people on a 3 seater, but it wasn't too bad.) We arrived at our first stop the Beau Rivage Casino which had a beautiful interior. We stayed there for a while and tried some slot machines and then headed next door to the Biloxi Hard Rock Casino! Which was really awesome, they had a lot of cool stuff there.

After having a few drinks and getting my players card we headed outside to watch the July 4th fire works which were really awesome.



We were standing on the top of the casino carport so we had a really great view!

After the fireworks we headed back inside and Hannahs parents played some more machines. Then we headed back home at about 2 am I think.


As we were leaving I saw this huge truck out the front of the casino and just had to snap it because I have never seen anything like it in Australia!

We got home at about 3, and then her dad showed me all his collectible antiques which was really interesting they have a lot of neat things. :)

And after a long day, we went to bed! :D

More updates coming soon!

Day 1 - The long journey

I made it!!!!

I am now in New Orleans, LA.

I didn't get a chance to update this blog before I left, it was all sorts of crazy times. I was so stressed and nervous! But I will now fill you in on the days you have missed.

[Day 1 - July 1st] Melbourne - Australia

After going to bed the night before at about 10.30 pm. I just could not sleep very well, knowing that I had to be up at 4am to get to the airport was just extremely exciting and scary!
I eventually fell sleep at about 12 pm or so, and woke up to 3 alarms at 4am. >.<




My parents drove me to the airport, I checked in, had some breakfast with them and said goodbye at about 9 something? I have forgotten what time.








I went through customs in Melbourne fine and we eventually boarded the 747 plane operated my Qantas, this is where it started to suck..

After finding my seat ( of which i was in between 2 people) we waited about 3 or 4 hours before the plane took off. Due to some plane maintenance apparently, but this stuff up everyones connecting flights within the states.




The plane ride of Melbourne to LA wasn't too bad, it was 14 hours very uncomfortable and impossible to sleep. I tried many times, forced myself to sleep even tho I was pretty much in pain the entire way. I guess I am not used to sitting up properly.. Even when I work on the PC for hours I'm in a very weird position.




Finally after an eternity traveling across the ocean, a few attempts at watching movies, playing PSP games and wishing I could fall asleep; we landed in LA!

I was a warm sunny day in LA, but I didn't see it for very long... Customs in LAX, is scary.



After finding my luggage, I lined up to se a Qantas lady about getting new flights since the delay made me miss my flight to San Diego. They arranged for a flight from LA straight to Forth Worth, Dallas. I got a receipt thingy and had to cue up for quite a while to get my boarding passes..


Once I was being served the lady told me to stand 'over there' next to a conveyor belt that had a very short old man filling it up with suitcases. She said a few other things but the whole place was crazy, probably about half the people on the 747 had to get new connecting flights so everything was rushed and stressful. I stood where she told me too, and the little old guy came up to me inviting me to take my luggage and put it on the conveyor.. I'm like.. Oh ok right.
I handed it to him and waited for the lady to return and when she did she asked me where my bag was. :O I wasn't supposed to give my bag to him, I have NO IDEA where it went!
I was freaking out.. The little guy had to get my luggage number and go look for it. I couldn't wait though I had to go board my plan to Dallas, HOPING they would find my luggage as well.

The flight to Dallas was A LOT more comfy. Why I have no idea you think the international flights would be better.. but it was terribly cramped.


Technically I had an aisle seat, but when I arrived at it, there was a girl who insisted she liked the aisle.. I wasn't going to argue, at this stage i had been through hell so I just wanted to get to Dallas and possibly have a cigarette since I didn't in LA.
SO again, I had a middle seat, and couldn't sleep much at all plus it was daytime as well. The flight wasn't to bad and basically took 2 1/2 hours to fly to Dallas which was so quick!! I was totally amazed.

Dallas airport is really awesome, and i finally had about an hour and a half to breath and relax (a bit). By this stage i was overtired, and whats worse is the bag I took on the plane with me broke. The zippers stopped working so it was entirely open and I had to carry it around hoping stuff wouldn't fall out. First thing I did was go to the toilets and freshen up and change my shirt.
Then, I was determined to have a cigarette. Thats when it hit me that I was in the USA, sitting outside the airport having a smoke in Texas which was really hot.

After that was done to get back in the airport I had to go through customs again, which was nothing like LA thank god, I asked one of the customs guys where a bag store was so I could get a new one. He said take the skyline down to A15.
Dallas airport has a train, or maybe more like a monorail that goes right around the whole airport so you can get to your gates very quickly, it was really impressive.
I got to the small 'computer store' and they had one backpack for $92... I managed to get it for $82. Still alot of money.. but I was so tired I just wanted a new bag so I purchased it and placed my old shitty one inside.

Then it was time to wait for my plane to New Orleans!
I didn't have to wait long until I boarded and this was by far the best flight! I had a window seat right at the back so I felt very comfy, it was also great because I knew I was only an hour and a half away from seeing my beautiful girlfriend; Hannah. :D

Plane landed. I got off, walked a fair while before coming to the exit to baggage claim, I saw Hannah from quite a while away in a beautiful blue dress she made herself, just to wear when she saw me. Seeing her again, is just truly amazing. I almost forgot how tiny she really is!

We kissed and hugged, and I didn't cry! I said I was probably going to cry haha, like a total sook but I was so tired and Hannah's parents were right behind us so I didn't want to cause a scene!

I met her parents who are both really great people, and we headed off to get my luggage.
Long story short my suitcase did not arrive. I was freaking out a bit. We were told it might be on the next flight from Dallas, so we drove to IHOP for a meal which was good.

Wow this blog entry is getting huge.
To wrap it up; my luggage came on the next flight thank god! And w then drove through New Orleans to Hannah's house, I got a quick tour and then we headed to bed. :)

This whole experience so far has been something I will never forget, and I cant express how good it is to be with my love again after 8 months of being across the world from her.
I am so happy right now :)

Day 2, coming soon!

All the things a bag should do.

[6 Days until Departure]


Hello again, time for another update!
Today I finally ventured out and purchased a few things I needed for my trip:

Travel bag!
I needed a carry on bag for the plane and also a bag that would be handy to take when Hannah and I go out into town. Its quite small but has plenty of little pockets so I can carry around my camera, sketchbook and stationary quite easily.

I really hate carrying bags around when I am out, so I am glad I found a relatively small one which should do all the things a bag should do.

In other news I bought new undies and socks and a belt.

I promise these blogs will get more interesting. Really.

OH, I forgot to mention I bought myself a new camera a few days ago.
God I hate spending money.. But I needed too.

I already had a fairly decent camera but the battery charger got fried.
See I was painting on canvas one day, and I get so frustrated with painting sometimes I lash out.
I threw the canvas across the room, not with a great amount of force, but it happened to smash the window. Anyway I never got it fixed as it wasn't such a big deal at the time.

I eventually moved my PC and desk against the big sliding door window and had my charger plugged in under the desk. Winter came along and it started to rain.

I went to charge my camera battery and got slightly electrocuted. I'm tough so it didn't phase me, but upon closer inspection I poured about half a glass of rain water out of the charger.

So anyway, a new charger (generic brand mind you) would cost $50 and to order one in from Sony would cost over $100.

With newer better cameras available for 200 - 300 dollars I just bit the bullet and got a much nicer camera.

Its a Nikon Coolpix 8.1 Mega Pixel with a 3.0" LCD display. I also got a couple of 2 Gig SD cards.

I'm pretty happy I have a good camera to take lots and lots of photos of my journey. :)

Only 6 days left to get everything organized, Its getting a bit scary.
Thankfully I managed to get 3 of 7 jobs finished over the past few days, but this means I WILL have to work during my travels. It should be ok as Hannah has a Wacom tablet and a good PC, I just wish I didn't have to worry about work. But I will need the money so, gotta do what ya gotta do.

The jobs specifically were a personal commission of Aayla Secura from Star Wars and was really fun to draw. The second and third job was some illustrations for Coffin Case. I cant say too much about them but they're pretty hot.

So not only do I have to get as much work done as I can before I leave, I also have to pick up my parents form the airport at 4am Friday morning.
They have been in the UK for a month visiting family (I am jealous) so I will get to catch up with them for 3 days before I shoot off myself.

I also have to organize my travel card this weekend too. Which is basically like a credit card that is guaranteed to work in specified countries. Its not connected to your main bank account so if it is stolen they cannot get into your usual funds.

So yeah there is that to do.. I also need to get a new sim card for my phone, but I think I will sort that out after I arrive.

Hmm well I think that about wraps me up today its 5.22 PM and I haven't done any work yet. GAH.

I better get too it!

Impending

[16 Days until departure]


Welcome to my new blog '63 Days'.
So what is this place? Well, in 16 days I travel across to the other side of the planet, to stay with my girlfriend Hannah in New Orleans.

I decided to create a blog specifically for this trip, because.. Well I have a terrible memory and I want something I can read back on when get home and continue the challenges of everyday life.

I have a Moleskine Sketchbook ready for this 63 day adventure and I am hoping to fill every page with drawings of people, places and buildings I see. Well, who knows what will end up in there but I wanted to have some fun with it.
So each post will have photos and scans of the sketchbook pages to better show my adventures.

This isn't just any average holiday for me, its epic.

I haven't seen my girlfriend for 7 months so spending 63 days with her is a blessing in itself.
Not only that, but we are both going to head to San Diego for Comicon, which is something I have dreamed of going to since I was 13 years old.

Will I get to meet my artistic Idols? J Scott Campbell is already confirmed as appearing, and if I could meet him I will probably faint. Alright I wont faint, actually I have no idea what I would say. Will I get to stand next to Seth Green and see how much taller than me he is?

Will we end up going to Disneyland and flirting with Snow White?

Only time will tell, and there really isn't much of that left.
As it stands right now I have 7 jobs to finish, and only about 2 weeks before I leave.

Stress is impending its doom.
Stay tuned. ;)