Reality Bites/ Post-Holiday Blues

Post-Holiday Blues is a real condition. I swear.

As this article reports “The post-holiday blues might not (yet) be a recognised syndrome but it is something that darkens the first few days after a break for many of us.” The article also provides tips for getting through this difficult time. You can read them HERE. I have been reading them over and over and over…haha

But in all seriousness, it’s not that bad. There are some things I am thankful to be home for. My own bed is one, followed closely by normal food with normal portion sizes and no ‘bags to coach at 7.45am’.

The things I miss from my holiday far outweigh the niceties of being home in Brisvegas though. I miss my new friends the most. And Gemma of course, who is back in Perth slaving away at the mines. We met some awesome people on our trip and after spending all day with them on Contiki for 8-11 days it is sad not to be able to pop down the hall to their hotel room for a chat.. or a beverage… or ten beverages. Thank-god for Facey!! Yewww!

After my new friends, I miss not having my bed made daily, all my food prepared for me, having to organise my own transportation… I'm making myself sound rather lazy here, I better stop there.

Luckily I didn't have to go back to work the day after I returned from the USA as originally planned. Since I resigned while I was away it was decided it would be best that I didn’t return to my old position at the Brisbane Lions and made a clean break. It’s been lovely being a ‘lady of leisure’ this week! I have pretty much done nothing, but still managed to hardly be at home? Not sure how that works…

To recover from my post-holiday blues it is advised to think of things you have to look forward to… ironically all I can think of are my next holidays…

• NZ for a week in exactly one month for a wedding when I am bridesmaid and will see my family
• NZ for a week at Christmas a month after that
• Thailand for New Years 2013
• Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays for the weekend of 18 January.
• My next trip to America… hopefully soon! Anyone wanna come?

Anyway starting my new job tomorrow, must go organise an outfit!

San Francisco.. The welcome city

The welcome city in that everyone is welcome. Hence the huge population of homeless that reside on the streets. I swear you get high just walking down the street from passive weed smoking. Snoop Dogg would love it. I was pretty much floating around the whole time I was there.
Story goes that in the 60's some guy turned up to a street party with a whole heap of weed and LSD which he gave out to everyone for free. They had a great time party time and consequently didn't want to go back to work and became addicted to the drugs. Not sure how true that is but that's what our tour guide told us.
I have never seen so many homeless people. I'm not sure if we were just staying in a dodgy area or what but they were everywhere. They don't really attempt to make any communication with you. They just smoke and lie on the side of the street with their trolley full of their only possessions. Ironically, this is right by downtown which is where the most upmarket stores are - Gucci, Prada, Chanel etc.
San Francisco is also home to the most billionaires after only three other cities in the world.

Unfortunately for us it was Fleet week and the city was swamped with the Navy, Army and other military organizations. This meant that the street cars, buses and cable cars were all full, with huge waits. It was difficult to get around the city and piers as it was so crowded.
We ended up only doing the organized tours with our crew as we were now exhausted and still drinking every night.
When we arrived we did a city tour on the bus, stopping at famous sites such as Pier 39, the houses where Full House was filmed and museums etc.

Our hotel itself was lovely, if not in the best area.
I could have spent the two days just in that bed! It was huge with the softest egyptian cotton sheets and about 6 pillows of various shapes and sizes. Ahhhhh **sighs**

We headed to Bubba Gumps (of the movie, it's a restaurant chain here) for dinner. Gemma and I sat with a Korean girl from our tour and the tour manager. It made for a hilarious evening. My meal was delicious, Cajun shrimps for starters and Scampi for my appetizer - yes they call mains appetizers, talk about confusing, no wonder I ate so much really!
If you ever visit Bubba Gumps try a pomegranate punch cocktail, sooo yummy and full enough of alcohol to get you going for the night!

We then headed to an irish pub to continue the drinking, which of course with Fleet week, was full of boys in uniform- much to the delight of the girls on our tour!
I may have danced the night away with a Navy hat on. So trusting of them to let me have their hat for the night!

More shopping in downtown on Sunday as again the lines for transport were huge. I was spending all the rest of my USD so had quite the merry time!

That night we had purchased tickets to watch a Kiwi band, six60, with some of the other crew from the tour. When we asked the hotel how to get there, their response was 'why would you go there?' So we already knew it wasn't going to be the best venue.
There was only one toilet, which, had the choice, I wouldn't have used! The place was so packed you could barely move, let alone get a drink.
Speaking of which, free pour is a killer. Two of my drinks I couldn't even drink due to the amount of vodka in them. They were all but straight. Makes for a cheap night out though!
Anyway it was all worth it to see six60 perform their little hearts out at such an intimate venue.
For a tiny, dingy venue in the middle of nowhere in San Francisco, it was full of Kiwis. The atmosphere was awesome and the band really interacted with the crowd.
After the gig the boys all stuck around an we had a whole heap of photos with the band. I felt like a bit of a groupie so hung back a bit but some of the others had no problem playing the role of a groupie!
Hilariously, the biggest groupie of them all wasn't one of us girls but one of the boys from our tour. He followed them round like a star struck puppy. He even hung out with them while they packed their vans an tried to go back to their hotel haha.
We finally got a 'taxi' which was actually a town car back to the hotel, and on the ride, Raul, the groupie, thought it would be appropriate to question our driver about the size of his 'dong' as he was a black man. The driver couldn't stop laughing, especially when Raul farted and tried to keep all the windows up!
At subway I managed to drop my MAC lipstick under the soft drink dispenser and in my drunken state thought it would be a fantastic idea to lie on the floor for a bit with a straw to try get it out. I succeeded but damn was I filthy!

Yesterday was our last day in the USA after 37 incredible, crazy days.
I am left fat, exhausted and broke but happy!

Grand Canyon - alcohol at altitude.

Did you know that drinking at altitude affects the way you respond to alcohol? I know now.

Grand Canyon is an amazing place. We started our trip in Sedona, a gorgeous town which is in completely muted and natural tones so that the beauty of the land is showcased.

We ate some cactus chips, yup made of real cactus! They spine and remove the prickles then soak the flesh overnight in buttermilk then coat in a spiced batter, fried and served with a prickly pear sauce. I wouldn't say they were yum.. They were interesting...

Next up on the agenda was a 4x wheel open jeep ride through the outback. I have never had so much red dust up my nose. Actually, I've never had red dust up my nose.
The driver was hilarious, taking the piss out of everyone and telling little jokes and stories.

The terrain is rough, red dust & stones on the path with cactus and shrubbery taking over the ground. The guy was a speed freak, driving like a maniac to our delighted squeals. He said he wanted to make us scream. I told him he would have to do a lot more than that to make me scream haha I think everyone on the jeep blushed. The conversation went downhill from there and I was in tears with laughter about ten times.

After the group photo all the guides were mucking around talking about rattle snakes, next minute one of them threw a fake rubber snake in the middle of us. Gemma, only looking after herself, literally jumped on top of me screaming. I have bruises on my shoulders!

I had been feeling particularly average all day, probably due to drinking for 3days and having about 3hours sleep a night, so decided to have a quiet night. Good choice on my behalf considering we were up at 6.15am ready for our helicopter ride the next morning!

We chose groups to go on the helicopters with and arrived at the airport. When they weighed me I told them not to let me know how much I weighed, I didn't want to know as I'm sure I've put on about 10kg from this holiday!
I ended up being called into a different group to what we had chosen and we were taken away to their sister airport. Turned out we had been upgraded, yay. However when we arrived at the airport I was handed a sheet of paper with our names and details on it.. Including out weights. As bad as I had expected. Yay for unlimited hot yoga and no alcohol when I get home!

The helicopter ride was incredible and the pictures just don't do justice whatsoever to how huge and amazing it is. It constantly changes colour in the light and we were lucky enough to get a perfectly clear morning.
I was seated at the front of the helicopter, by the pilot, with floor to ceiling windows. Perfect.
Our flight was 45minutes, sweeping over the national forest then descending into the canyon itself. An awesome experience and though expensive, definitely worth the money.

Back at the cabins, yes we were staying in full on log cabins, very cute, we decided to go for a hike along the rim, going down into the canyon. We had been warned that it would be very easy going down and really hard hiking back up. They were right. Thankfully we listened and only went down for half an hour as it was an hour walking back up. Worth it though for the incredible views.

Did I mention it's tarantula mating season? Evidently they come out to the road to sunbathe during the day. My dreams were haunted by spiders and I kept waking up freezing, it's 2degrees at night and 26 during the day.

Fast forward to the evening and we headed as a group to Hopi Point, a lookout where we had a picnic and watched the sunset. As you can imagine it was gorgeous. We proceeded to have a couple of drinks before heading to the pub. As I mentioned earlier, drinking at altitude certainly enhances the effects. My legs felt so very heavy and I hadn't realized how fast the alcohol had kicked in. Drinking in America is so cheap, my bloody mary's were only $5.50 each. So I drank a few. And a few more.
The army boys thought it would be a good idea to lead us through the forest home, prob not the best idea but we made it. We actually made it to a cabin party... There were people everywhere, chairs being thrown, boys wrestling, wedgies so bad they ripped undies off, bottles of water thrown around. Great night! Until the security came and at which point all 15 or so of us tried to hide under the bed... Then ran and hid in some random bushes for a bit haha awesome.

LaLa Land

We arrived in LA after 7hours of flights and thankfully our bags were there to meet us this time, after they were lost there when we originally arrived we were a little worried they may not turn up!

You could say that our flight there wasn't the best one I have been on. You could probably accurately say that it was one of the worst flights I have had.
The poor child in the seat in front of me vomited the entire flight. He was maybe five years old and sick before he even hoped on the plane. I have a weak stomach when it comes to things like this and I was very close to a sympathy spew. The smell. The noise. Yuck I feel sick just writing this.
I was torn between sympathy for the poor thing and resentment. Resentment was coming in first place.
Between the turbulence, vomiting kid, lack of food, crying child and repetitive Mother ('relax, just relax your ears will pop. Relax your ears will pop. Are you listening to me? Relax, are you listening to me?' you get the point.) I was rather pleased when it was all over!

Our hotel was in Little Tokyo, super cute and very Japanese. I really wish we had more time in LA. The food in Little Tokyo - yum. Arigato!

When we arrived at the hotel late at night there was a crowd outside the restaurant across the road. A dowdy, run down, typically Japanese themed noodle bar, I presumed they were smokers. Fast forward check in etc and we were in search of something to fill our stomachs. Did I mention that there was no food served on our flight due to turbulence? We wandered across the road only to find that the crowd was actually a line waiting to get in!
Starving, we just went to the place next door. The tiny, ancient Japanese lady was hilarious and the food delicious.

We jumped on a hop on hop off bus.. Which I have bad memories of from the UK when I fell down the stairs in a retarded moment and bruised the crap out of my shins.. But it was awesome.

We checked out all the famous sights, the Hollywood sign, walk of fame, Viper Room, Santa Monica Pier etc etc. Everywhere has such a good vibe, really wish we had more time to explore the areas more and get to Venice Beach but there's always next time. And I intend on that being quite soon!

We spent ages in the Napoleon Perdis flagship Hollywood store, I wanted to just check the prices of everything, see if it was cheaper than Australia but we ended up with makeovers and mini makeup lessons and a crapload of makeup!
Desmina, the assistant was fantastic. Her sales must be through the roof she is so good at her job and her passion and enthusiasm for the products and brand is obvious. With Napoleon himself popping in and out of the store constantly I suppose it would be easy to be inspired. Anyway I ended up walking out of there with heaps of products and even Gemma's Christmas gift!

We found tickets to Cirque Du Soleil Iris online for cheap and it was sensational. Being the fifth show I have seen I always wonder if I won't be as amazed and awed. They did not disappoint.
Especially the twin boys from the UK doing the aerobatics.. Hello!!
Iris is a journey of film through time, following an actress around who is picked to become the new best thing.
At one stage one of the little Asian contortionist girls was doing the splits and literally just popped upright using just her thigh muscles.. I can't describe it but the entire crowd dropped their jaws.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned, we were time poor and headed home after Cirque Du Soleil as Contiki started at 7am the next morning and we thought it would be appropriate to rest up before the tour started. Thank goodness we did....