Uncle Travelling Matt .com — the personal site of Matt Gifford

As promised earlier in the week, here is my short skate film of the trip from where I’m staying to the local Starbucks. The trip is 2km each way, however since I was recording with a still camera with a Memory Stick that could only hold 2 minutes of video before having to download to the computer (and there was 17 minutes of raw footage) I think I skated a lot more than 4km today!

The movie is in Windows Media Format, so you’ll need a recent version of Windows Media Player to view it. I’m pretty sure the version that comes with Windows XP should be sweet. Right-Click on the link below and click “Save As…”, enjoy!

(download no longer available, due to bandwidth overages)

Damn, am I feeling good today or what!! I seem to have the perfect mix of Endorphins and Caffeine in my bloodstream right at this very moment!

The weather’s good, work’s going good, I’m rocking-out to Def Leppard on my iPod, hehe, and dancing around in Mike’s home-office, LOL, good god I’m such a freak, ehehehe…

For the last two days I’ve been skating the 2km to the local Starbucks for my daily Grande Caffè Latte, otherwise known as an oversized flat white. Surprising what a difference good coffee makes… I’m typing like a mad man at the moment And managed to spell “endorphins” right first time, lol, dyslexic, I think not! a-ha!

What do you get when two Corona’s get together? Little baby girl Corona’s, or “Coronita’s” to be exact, cute huh! lol I’ve photographed them here beside a standard Red Bull can so you can see how small they are.
— US 7fl oz. is 207ml in metric.

The literal translation of “Coronita” from the Español is “Little Corona”. The suffix “-ita” is the feminine diminutive (the masculine is “-ito”) and is used to express smallness or affection/endearment. They also have big (945ml / Swappa Crate size) Corona’s over here, but there doesn’t appear to be an opposite to “ita/ito” so they are just called “Corona” like standard 330ml bottles.

Saw this in the entrance to the apartment complex while heading out to the supermarket today. I was like, “oh crap they’ve got Asbestos in here or something?!” That in addition to the front door access balconies (we’re on the 3rd floor) that look like they’d fall off in a strong wind—there’s a hole in ours that I always step over, scary shit I tell ya!

Nope, it appears in California smoking is classed in the same category as Asbestos, and they put warning signs where ever people might be smoking to warn you of the health risk (and probably cover their asses from being sued)! Puu, stinky smokers! lol

In other news I’ve perfected the art of skateboarding while carrying grocery bags over the slalom course, otherwise known as the pavement around here! There’s quite a few trees on the street (if you can call three lanes each way a street?!) we’re on, and the concrete slabs that make up the pavement are tilted on all kinds of funny angles and some have been pushed up to a foot in the air! Makes going shopping an interesting experience, I can tell you! lol

My iPod is a dog that drools all over the carpet…

The kind of dog that afterwards gives you this sheepish sorry adorable look that you can’t help but forgive it, even though you know you’ll be on your hands and knees scrubbing the floor again the very next day.

I’ve been feeling’ pretty run down recently, that tried hazy worn-out feeling. I don’t know if it’s the heat, the smog, or a combination of both. My friend I’m staying with is out a lot, and his ex-girlfriend took the cable-decoder, so it’s been pretty quiet around the apartment. It’s surprising when you’re in a city surrounded by 10 million other people just how easy it is to feel alone.

So I thought listening to a couple of my favourite tracks on my iPod would cheer me up. However my iPod (in it’s infinite wisdom) delivered an entirely different song to the one I requested with a sheepish “I know this isn’t what you asked for, but will this do?” look on its face… (If the iPod can’t find song you asked for it will skip to the next track, even though the previous song was the one you actually did want to hear)

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Hollyeee, was that some good wasabi or what?! The kind of the burns all the way from the back of your mouth right through to the tips of your nostrils! As you might of guessed, I had some seriously good sushi for lunch today—Wasabi, Shrimp and Avocado [with extra wasabi] Sushi in fact, good shit!

I decided that I’m just going to be broke forever and went grocery shopping again today. In addition to my fire-breathing Sushi, I got Cantaloupe (which is rock melon’s alter ego , Carrot & Bran Muffins (super yum, I’m seriously working hard to resist the temptation to the devour the whole box in one sitting, i.e. like right now, LOL), Weetabix and Bananas. Bananas are my new favourite food, as they seem to be the only thing that doesn’t cost a fortune around here!

It’s still incredibly hot there… I turned on the cold tap today and the water was warm [and i ran it for a while], the other tap was also warm[er]! Ugg. I think they should dispense with the “H” and “C” designations and go with “W” and “EWTO”, for “Warm” and “Even Warmer Than The One”, lol

Closing Words… crossing the road here scares the be’jesus out of me!!

Well I’m back in Southern Cali again, and hot damn, it’s well… it’s really really hot actually! It seems a lot warmer than last year—and you have to worry when the temperature gauge in your friend’s kitchen says 30°C when it’s only 8:30 in the morning! lol.

The picture to the left is of downtown Los Angeles on approach to LAX, from the window of the Air Tahiti Nui A340. I have however photoshopped out most of the haze/smog to make it look a bit nicer

Still getting over a slight case of jet-lag at the moment, and the cold I seem to have caught en-route thanks most probably to the recycled cabin air. Planes up until the early 70′s actually brought in fresh air from outside the aircraft, which is better for you than mountain air and 100% sterile. However, to cut fuel usage and costs during the 70′s oil crisis aircraft started to be designed that recycled the cabin air. The Boeing 727 incidentally was the last plane made that used 100% fresh outside air.

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