Sparky's 1st Blog, whatever that is.. / Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Hello!
It's hot, hot, hot here in Louisiana, and the only respite is in the air-conditioned shopping malls! I have a suitcase full of cold weather gear that remains clean and neatly folded, well we were going to the mountains after all! Only problem is even in the mountains it was scorchio. The day we went up into the mountains, up to Newfound Gap- look it up on a map of Tennessee, we were actually told by the tourist office that it was cold up there, but as with everything in the US they use relative terms, to them cold is about 75 degrees, for us that's a good summer!
Anyway we are back in Geismar LA now, at Ash and Pete's place (well Ash's folks place-Joe and Diane, they've been very welcoming, great people) and we've been up to all sorts of stuff, been to the outlet malls for cheap clothes and bits, got myself some all-American Converse Hi-tops (re-living my youth somewhat!) and 501's as well as getting my Sister's B'day present for Monday-Reebok trainers. We also went to Avery Island on Monday, home of the Tabasco Factory, yes THE tabasco factory, the only one there is for those of you who love it spicy, James I'm thinking of you here, I now have a set of FIVE different Tabascos, burning bums all round I feel!
Avery is a mad place, the McIllhenny Family set up the factory as well as a bird sanctuary and swampy bits with alligators and turtles and about a million dragonflies and mosquitos-ouch, many ouches, I hope I haven't caught some horrific disease! We actually stood on the bank of one of the lakes with a couple of mean, hungry looking gators 3 feet away in the water, nothing to stop them taking a chunk out of us but our own sense of self-importance! Aren't we daring...or should that be stupid?!
Last night was our New Orleans trip before dumping Cheryl at the airport,what a place! Every few steps you get another live band playing blues, jazz whatever, the architecture is just breathtaking and the atmosphere is to die for! We went to many bars, starting of at PatO'Briens for Hurricanes (Rum punch) though I had a Tom Collins instead (gin, sugar and lemon juice if I remember right), yes that's right I drank alcohol, quite a bit in the end, for me anyway!The group gradually dwindled until it was just Ian and me, so we headed for the casino, I won $50 on poker slots then blew most of it on more poker slots! Then we headed for the Hustler bar! Had to be done, I'll leave it to your imagination, but let's just say I'm glad my loan came through! Finally crawled back to the hotel in the wee hours, over-refreshed and giggling like schoolgirls!
I hope you all are having fun in Blighty because we're having a blast!! See you all in a few days, presents for some, stories for you all, missing you not, but thinking of you anyway, take care and be good, 'cos we're not...
Sparky
/Hopped!
6:12 PM
>>>
message after a long time from baton rouge / Monday, September 27, 2004
hi y'all this is mama sue being allowed to put an entry on by peter rabbit, in our holiday party there is also crazy dave, smiley, big man, sparky and cher bear. we went on a long drive up north through several statesand arrived in tennessee (near gatlingburg - where dollywood is) as it got dark. we had to call at an office with a 3 year ol bear outside and get the key and directionds to our cabin. the cabin used to be called the lazy bear but now goes under the name of the blessing. we had to go up and around and up and around, it was now dark!!! it was an interesting journey. when we arrived we realised we didn't have much to eat but no-one was going back down in the dark!!. the cabin had 2 floors with porches on both and a wonderful view over the valley. much to sparky and crazy daves delight there was a pool table that didn't require money and was available 24 hours if need be, and on the top porch there was a hot tub, so what else did we need?
after having a three course meal of crisps (starter) maccoroni cheese (entree) and fruit (desert) with a nice beer or french wine we adjourned to listen to the night life in the smoky mountains - very very noisy.
we had a trip into gatlingburg and played hill billy crazy golf ( mama sue won - a sign of a mis-spent youth) shopped for the provisions and then returning up the hill (not so scary in day light), it was a good day.
the next day we stayed at base and just hot tubbed, played pool and in the evening had a bonfire in the fire pit. this was apart from the house which is just as well given mama sue's past visits to this country.
we then had a drive round the smoky mountain national park, well peter rabbit did the driving as they don't have many bends in the roads down south so any experience at turning the wheel is good for him!! this is cherokee country and you could imagine them stalking you through their woods making sure you did no harm.
when we got back south peter rabbit and sparky collected big man from the airport and a longed for game of footie took place in baton rouge in a temperature of 88 degrees (mad dogs and englishmen).
oh i forgot we went to the shrine of bourbon manufacture on the way back and there will be a photo of peter rabbit with his hero available soon. they make all the jack daniels in lynchburg and it is a dry town so you can't buy it there. i am sure you will get all the info about this visit when people return to old blighty.
today we went off looking foe alligators and turtles and were successful............ i don't know what tomorrow will bring, but it sure is hot over here and i think we are all happy to be enjoying pete and ashley's company again. we might have an ocean between us most of the time but it just like we met yesterday.
i think thats all i have to put i now have to stand up and walk all the way outside (no raccons seen yet but plenty of humming birds) and get the blog master to do something to this to make it work so bye y'all
love mama suexx
/Hopped!
9:07 PM
>>>
In Which I Tell Everyone To Stop Worrying / Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Alright, I'm still a busy chap so this has to be brief. Don't worry! i'ts only a hurricane. We're far enough away from the coast to get away without much damage/loss of life. The only bad thing is the traffic and the fact we might loose power for acouple of days. Hopefully (looking at it right now) it won't come close enough to do too much damage to the house we're going t0o stay in (Destin) It's going to get some surf though, so folks, pack those surfboards! I had a bad week last week. I only sold one small policy. Anyhow, gotta rush, Ash is being let out early. I'll keep you updated as long as we have power.
/Hopped!
1:43 PM
>>>
In Which I hope on Third Time Lucky.... Fourth Time Luckier / Monday, September 06, 2004
I wrote a post a few days ago, but it didn't work (gosh darn it!) so I'm trying again. Fingers crossed it'll work alright this time!
I went out on the feild all by myself for the first time on Wednesday, and I sold a policy. All by myself! I went out on Thursday as well, I just need to go back and get a couple of signatures and I'll have another one sold. So in the last two days I've made about $600ish. Probably a bit more than that really. Who says working for a living doesn't pay?!
Ash lent me some money out of her pay this week and I bought myself a little reward (it's alright, it was only $60). I got a mp3 cd player and a little funky gadget that allows you to play it through the radio. All I have to do now is transfer all my music onto mp3 cd's. That should only take a couple of years!
Ash and I watched The Last Samurai and Something's Gotta Give. They were both actually pretty good you know. At least Ash and I enjoyed them. So out of all the people that I know that have seen the movie 100% of them thought they were pretty good. The Last Samurai irritated me a little at the end, but I can't tell you why without spoiling the movie, so I won't.
Is anyone listening to Modest Mouse? They're pretty good too. I've heard people compare them to U2, but I don't know where that comes from. Probably stupid people. Are they from Ireland? I don't think so, I suppose Float On could sound a bit U2ish if you thought most pop bands with a guitar and singer sound like U2... The rest of the album ("Good News For People Who Like Bad News" incase you were wondering what album Iwas talking about) sounds more like... Umm.... Good music. You probably all know about them anyhow, I think I'm a bit behind the times (I must be getting old. In just a few days time Ash will be a WHOLE YEAR older than me though. Poor old dear!) I could tell you about plenty of bands/musicians that you've probably never heard of though (at least the UK lot haven't heard of) so there! Oh you want to know some of them do you? Jack Johnson, Mofro, G Love and The Special Sauce (I know USies they've been around for ages, but they've never made it in Blighty), Hamell On Trial (I already told y'all about him. This is a reminder though..), Micheal Franti and Spearhead you can down load shows by most of those bands (the exception being Hamell On Trial) and billions of Grateful Dead and Phish concerts completely legally right here or here (you'll need to download a programme for downloading to use this site, just follow the links on the page saying TheSHADOW oh alright, you can just click on it right here, let me just sort that out...) Just don't sell them after you've copied them, that is illeagal. Anyhoo, it's getting late, and I have to work tomorrow. Goodnight!
I'm sorry, this is now my FOURTH TIME trying to get this blooming thing to post. What gives here? So I really wrote this the day before yesterday, or three days ago for you because you'll be reading this tomorrow, which is today. So this is me writing from yesterday, or today, to you tomorrow. Or today for you. So anyhow this was written two day ago right now, or three days days ago right now, depending on whether you read this today (yesterday), or tomorrow (today). Now I've cleared all that up I would tell you about what I did this weekend, but I've already written that once today (I mean yesterday to you when you;re reading this tomorrow which is today to me talking from yesterday) so I'm not writing it all again. If I did it would sound very angry. Oh, and I'm sorry about the lack of the links about where it says they're says be some but It's late, and it doesn't copy the links when I copy and paste stuff.
/Hopped!
11:31 PM
>>>