Chocks Away!
I WENT FLYING!!!!!
Yes - thats right - I went flying for 2 hours this week, in a very small plane (pictured) from a private airfield north of Boston.
Anyone who knows me very well (probably only my family!) knows that when I was a kid I always wanted to be a pilot. However computers got in the way somewhat. From time to time I thought it would be cool to learn but in the UK its damned expensive (way cheaper here in the US). Anyway - my friend here in Boston used to be a commercial pilot (pilot turned artist - don't ask!) and now flies for fun. So we went to a small airfield, rented a plane (yes, its like renting a car and actually pretty much the same price!) and flew north over the area then over to the coast. Thats my friend, Hoagy, in the shot... and yes, its a VERY small plane, 2 seater.
He showed me some positive and zero G moves (positive G - a steep climbs - makes you feel insane pressure on your body and zero G is basically a concentrated "drop ride" experience - like a rollercoaster dip but way worse and involving pointing ground-wards!). After this he let me fly around, take some turns, and navigate back to the airport.
What a blast!!! I'm sold - where do I sign up?
Next flying installment soon - I'm promised I can do a take off so perhaps this will be my last blog entry for a while! LOL!
North End Expedition
So after the museum we went for a beer in one of my favourite Irish bars in downtown (Karina got her Pepsi!), near Quincy Market which is very touristy but has some great drinking establishments, and then walked to North End which is basically the Italian District of the city. For those of you from Montreal who are used to "Little Italy" let me tell you that North End makes Little Italy seem like a single street of Italians! Its absolutely packed of everything Italian - restaurants, bakeries, stores, bars, you name it. And theres a bewildering array of great Italian eateries all at pretty good prices - perhaps a tad above "average" but well worth it for the pasta alone. Natalie and Karina polished off a big steak and I took full advantage of the wine list. Yummy!
Happy Birthday Me
So last weekend was my birthday - 21 again :) We decided to take a day in the city and have a meal.
It was such a gorgeous day, as you can see from the first image - this is downtown near the river and harbour so theres a lot of seafood stores and restaurants. Right near here is the Boston Childrens Museum (which proved incredibly elusive to locate, surprisingly!) built in an
old converted warehouse space. Theres 4 floors of toys, games, educational and very hands-on exhibits with everything from a construction site through magnets, springs and bubbles to simulated Latino supermarkets and puppet theatres.
Very nice, but a little... errmmm... 'hectic', for parents at least!
Of course, Karina had a fantastic time, as always (look at that happy face!), and proved pretty difficult to remove from said establishment, until the promise of pepsi and food spurred her on a little...
Stormy New England
I've been a little slack on adding to the blog lately so after dumping a bunch of pics from the camera - time for an update!
So - we've had some horrible humid 100 degree plus weather the last month or 2, and a few weeks ago this came to a climax with a nasty storm in the area. We'd been out for a nice meal, bus-then-walked home in the torrential rain, only to find most roads blocked with fallen trees from a storm that lasted about 15 minutes!
This picture was the end of our street - not a great image but you can see a large oak fallen in the road - it took out the roof of the house opposite on its way down. When we got back - everything was in darkness - the storm hit the sub station and removed all electricity as well as killing Comcast - our TV and broadband provider! The horror of it!!!!! Fortunately we were back up and running in a few hours but its the first time I've needed candlelight and a book since 70s England!
Home at last?
Fortunately we manage to get in touch with another landlord who had a house we liked which is further from work but closer to the "happening" party of Boston. Its still available so we sign up and move in 2 weeks later (as we'd paid a months rent already). 2 more weeks with no bed and no "stuff"... trust us, it was hell. We picked up some crockery to make life a little easier but it really was a bad month for us all round. Anyway finally we get into the new place and the stuff is brought from storage the same day. The house was a mess, very dirty, but at least its quieter with a private garden and finally we have a sofa and a bed! Unfortunately as you will have read further down the page - the landlord decided to sell up after a lot of "problems" so at the moment we're back in the housing market. Gotta love renting!
Thanks God for WalMart!
So the first day in sunny Boston! Thankfully the calls I made (and the faxes my new employer sent for me) to the electricity people worked and they came to the house bright and early to give us electricity. As it turned out we already had gas so we're all set with utilities (well, aside from TV and internet but thats gonna take a long time to remedy!)
We find a Walmart close by and pick up the essentials - a TV, DVD player, couple DVDs, TV aerial! Food and plastic cutlery from the supermarket - its just like camping but without the comfort of a grass floor :) Next we popped in to the office and used the internet - and made more calls to those "people" at AMJ. Now its looking like (although its hard to say as they won't take my calls) its gonna be another week for our stuff. Oh joy - promised 5 days, delivered in 3 weeks. Nice service and all for the bargain price of $4500. Didi I ever mention that you should steer clear of this company?
Fast forward another week....
The stuff arrives!!!!! The bad news? The last week has been hell in the house - we have an insane asshole living next door who fights with his family, throws stuff, comes home drunk and violent, screams and kicks the doors in at 2AM, etc etc. The little girl who is probably 5 years old often runs away from home sometimes not even dressed. Nice people, true red-necks. The girls on the other side are great, but are moving out due to this, and the landlord being an equal dick. And we are moving too! So - as the stuff comes into the house I decide - "take it back guys, put it in storage - we're not staying". OMG - here we go again.
Back to the trip again!
Not a lot happening here aside from work and being sick with a summer flu, so I guess I'll try to finish the re-cap of our relocation.
So after leaving Weirs beach and spending many more phone cards calling those b******s at AMJ Campbell (the movers) and failing to get any help oither than "it'll be there when its there - we have no control over it" we're facing the prospect of either trudging around hotels for the next week until we have some info on our stuff, or going straight there and actually having a house and no room bills, but only a floor to lie on and no electricity. We opt for the later, and start to drive southwards again.
We head away from New Hampshire (boohoo - no more arcades!) and head down and a little east to the coast again and end up in Portsmouth near the NH/Mass border where we decide to stay one more night. Its a small, English-esque (as you'd expect with a name like Portsmouth!) B&B style touristy town. But its expensive to stay there! So we end up in a regular chain hotel for the night, grab some food and wine, and have a quiet night.
Next day is the trip to Boston. More calls to AMJ (its actually starting to get nasty and I'm not keeping a reign on my "angry Shaun" any longer - after all, my pregnant wife will be sleeping on the floor for the coming days). The drive is quiet short and we make it in around an hour and a half. We pick up the keys and head off to the new house. No electricity or gas, no heat and light, no furniture. Hmm. Fortunately we packed a bunch of bedding and Karinas travel cot but otherwise its an early (and uncomfortable) first night.
The car is legal
Well I got rid of those Quebec plates at last - after 2 months of red tape my car is finally a Mass resident! (Trust me, its a big deal!)
Moving again?
Yeah, in typical Stephenson tradition, it looks like we are on the house hunt again. Long story - landlord is going to sell the place but at least we renegotiated and have until the end of January. Still - the sooner the better.
What a week
What a week! (Just to re-itterate). It was maddeningly (is that a word?) hot here - over 100 degrees, rumoured to be 104 but it felt like 110-120. Even the breeze was hot, very reminiscent of sitting in front of an open fan assisted oven. Not good. But the flip side was that it was Siggraph - the annual worldwide computer graphics festival - and it was here in Boston this year. I managed to go along for 3 days only due to our closeness to submitting our first major milestone of this project, but it was a great week of technical research papers, networking, and parties!!! Very cool to see the technical, as well as artistic, side of development for Chronicles of Narnia (the movie that is) and of course the CG movie Open Season, which was the last game I developed.
Anyone who knows me very well (probably only my family!) knows that when I was a kid I always wanted to be a pilot. However computers got in the way somewhat. From time to time I thought it would be cool to learn but in the UK its damned expensive (way cheaper here in the US). Anyway - my friend here in Boston used to be a commercial pilot (pilot turned artist - don't ask!) and now flies for fun. So we went to a small airfield, rented a plane (yes, its like renting a car and actually pretty much the same price!) and flew north over the area then over to the coast. Thats my friend, Hoagy, in the shot... and yes, its a VERY small plane, 2 seater.
He showed me some positive and zero G moves (positive G - a steep climbs - makes you feel insane pressure on your body and zero G is basically a concentrated "drop ride" experience - like a rollercoaster dip but way worse and involving pointing ground-wards!). After this he let me fly around, take some turns, and navigate back to the airport.
