Spiral Out ... Keep Going ..

Yup, we certainly had this one planned, all but at the last minute (last week). The full story goes something like, Mark was given forced leave for a few weeks at his restaurant, and we got together over a coffee to chat about that and i basically said, look, the dice have been rolled, its now time to play your hand. im going to see TOOL and you need to make it there too.

It was also the perfect opportunity for him to catch up with friends here in the states from back home, and generally just relax, before the proverbial might hit the fan in terms of work. So with less than 7 days to plan, we put our heads together in Perth and set about not only securing more TOOL tickets .... for two shows!! but then booking hotels and meeting up at the airport on the same day.

I suggested Mark go see my travel agent and once again she worked her magic. booking flights for mark on the spot and getting him landing into the US a week before me into Las Vegas and Phoenix for a run around and then flying down to SF the day i got in. from there we caught up and are trekking together for these shows. he ducks out next week and im off from there to Comic Con and the rest of the trip. but i gotta say, the last week of scramble to organise tickets was crazy. thank goodness for the internet and StubHub :)

Few things I gotta mention too. Americans are still Americans lol. they find it really difficult to understand any other accents apart from their own. everytime Mark goes to order something as simple as a coffee, they can't understand the pronunciation of "Mark" haha. We've now dubbed him "Bob". you should seriously see some of the blank looks we get when we natter off some aussie slang to ourselves and then realise they have no idea what we're on about. funniest thing ever. Another thing, service is out of control here. retail reception is just manic to the point that when you walk into a store you feel like someones right up your cracker trying to sell you a home loan or something ... its crazy. but you get used to the strange things and it makes you appreciate home a little more. makes you appreciate our real down to earth nature ... i love it, but i couldn't live here. well at least not in this big city hehe.

Ok we're off to the first TOOL show tonight. then packing our bags for Sacremento tomorrow, catching an Amtrak train up the coast for the second of two shows in two nights :)

Ride the Spiral ...