One week in thoughts

Today marks day 7 of this journey and I figured I'd share some of my thoughts on Australia, traveling, and life in general.  I swear next post I will figure out how to post some of the pictures, but if you know me well, you know that they are mostly lame and I am not in many of them (0 actually, so far).  Except this spider I saw, that thing was massive.  I dared not get too close to take the picture and rile it up, bite me, kill me, fly my body back over with the spider in my casket, and boom....Arachnophobia II.

I figure I will just list them out and make some kind of snotty comment after if its called for.

-If you ever want an expensive way to quit drinking soda, head to Australia.  I had a can of Diet Root Beer for $3 on day one.  Last can I have had.  A case of 18 diet Cokes in the store was on sale for $17, and I thought for a second that was a good deal.  Home much does it cost these idiots to import pop, and who is still drinking it?  Well a $1,200 plane ticket and I am cured of my obsession for diet soda.  They don't even have diet Pepsi here, so that was already strike one.

-Beats by Dre, everyone has them.......sweet

-Australia is still trying to be like their homeland (England) and in that everything is opposite.  Walking, driving, pretty much anything you can think of.  Well, 30 years of moving on the right has led to several moments of me bumping into people, or just plain being in the way.  It's crazy how hard this habit is to break.  I was jogging, walking and changing ipod songs, when bam!  Nailed a fellow jogger.  I don't care much for changing the way I do things for others, but this seems to be one social norm that I will be forced to adapt to.  (I have been jogging btw, no other way to workout, same outfit everytime)

-Still have not written that letter to Qantas

-The beaches in Sydney are no better than SoCal, so one of you be proud and the other be embarrassed. I am thinking Sydney should be embarrassed since I traveled 67 freaking hours to get here.  I hear they get a lot better though.

-On the same line as the soda, beer.  How about a six pack of local garbage for $16.  Sounds about fair.  Imagine walking into a Safeway and plopping down $45 for a 24 pack of Milwaukee's Best.  So I have been drinking much less too.

-Pharmacists are called chemists.  That just seemed stupid to me.

-Thanks a lot six through eighth grade for not teaching me the metric system at all.  I dont know how much $24 kilos of meat is costing me when I ask for 75 grams.  I accidentally bought $14 worth of apples at one store.  I need to figure this one out sooner than later.

-Germans everywhere, and if they are not German they are Dutch and speak German.  Went to happy hour with 7 Germans the other day.  Lots of nodding along like I had a clue.  I think I out drank them 2:1 simply from not speaking for 2 hours.

-This one is awesome, they put pictures of what cigarettes do to you on the pack.  They are so nasty, like a color photo of a cancerous lung.  I hope they are working on the youth, bc everyone I have come across still smokes like a chimney.  Going anywhere with these people is like walking into the Rolling Log ( Or any other local bar) circa 1990.  I usually dont make it out past midnight from all the smoke.  Anyway, the pics are great and smoking is bad.

-Aussies are real dicks about their coffee.  I mean anything I am proud of is sh*t to them compared to the Aussie equivalent.  The coffee is the worst of all, they get real high and mighty when it comes to that.  Saying that Starbucks is a plague on their community.  I can agree with that, but come on, your sh*ts not that good.  I'll have to ask a real American coffee drinker when I come finally come across another American, since A) I have only met one American and B) I am not a big fan of coffee.

That is it for now.  I really miss you guys, feel free to drop me a whats happening in America/your lives email.  Scottmorrisonhall@gmail.com  .  Oh and check the Bigger Dance standings, its way to early, but #1.

USA #1

My holy sh*t moment

Strap in because this could be a long one.  First post via Australia and much has gone on from Sea-tac at 4:00pm Saturday until whatever the hell time it is here right now.  I think Tuesday at 3pm (now Wednesday at  10am, this took days to write).  I just got here by the way.

Let's back it up a sec and I will tell you about what it has taken to get me from Seattle to Sydney.  When I booked this adventure I had several discussions with many of you regarding what it was going to be like, and the only thing I could say for certain was that when I got off the plane it Sydney, it would finally be real.  That was the part that I was most nervous for.  Alone in Sydney, fresh off 18 hours of flying, and boom, all of a sudden its real.  Well, that moment never occurred.  Instead what did happen was a 11 hour delay in L.A., and canceled flight in Brisbane, and an arrival in Sydney 25 hrs later than I was supposed to land.

When I arrived in L.A. I was to check in with the Qantas desk and receive my hotel accommodations and food vouchers.  This was done after about another 3 hours of lines and by the time I was all checked in the restaurant was closed and I had to be back at the airport in 5 hours.  I awoke the next morning at 5am, and caught the first shuttle to the airport.  In typical Scott Hall fashion I was the first of my flight to arrive....so to the bar.  6am in the LAX international terminal in not a happy place, and I figured a few drinks would help me fall asleep on the plane.  They didn't.

The flight from LA-Sydney ranges from tolerable, to fairly miserable, and then get me the f*ck out of here.  I thought I was doing great after watching Django, Zero Dark Thirty, 4 episodes of the Big Bang Theory, and listening to about an hour of music.  I checked the in seat navigation and we weren't even to Hawaii yet.  Not even half way.......  After Silver Linings Playbook, the Entire 8th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Skyfall and more Big Bang, we were finally approaching Australia.  Still running off about 4 hours of sleep I was still nervous for that moment when I got off the plane and the adventure would be on.  Again, this did not happen.

What did happen was our captain getting on the pa and letting us know that a storm in Sydney left us with not enough gas to get back to Brisbane in case our plane had to turn around.  Meaning we would be stopping on the ground to get gas and it would only take about a half an hour.  Two hours later, we were refueled and ready to go.  Only problem was the crew had now worked beyond their alloted hours and we would be grounded in Brisbane for the evening.  So, much like the LA stop, we were placed in a three hour line in order to reach the counter and receive our hotel assignments.  They spread us around in 5 different hotels around the city and one 45 minutes away.  Guess which one I was sent to.  The Chino Inn is a glorious hotel, much like the Rolling Log is a great bar.  The only thing either of them have going for them is they are cheap.  Which means jack to me when Qantas is footing the bill.  We all received food vouchers again, and again I was not able to use it as this place didnt even have a working front desk.  Just bars and about 4 inches of bulletproof glass.  Very reassuring for the first stop in Australia. 

After bumbling around that place and just trying ti figure out how to get a room with no one at reception I had the task of helping all the other guests get rooms that arrived after me.  Seeing as my rooms balcony overlooked the spot where we were periodically dropped off, I felt as though I should help them out.  Pretty soon it was 1am and my flight for Sydney was scheduled at 6:30am.  Being paranoid of oversleeping and in addition no way to call a Taxi, I "slept" with the door open and my clothes on so I could hop in the first cab that came.  Around 4:30 I was in a cab with a German couple (two dudes), that had 12 bags between them.  Looked like they were going on an expedition.  To sum up the rest, I got on the plane, flight was delayed, and I got to Sydney aroun 8am.

When I got off the plane this third time to my final destination, I wasn't sure how long I had been traveling, where I had been, and how much sleep I had actually had.  What is the most logical thing to do....go to customer service and demand satisfaction.  Hoping to get at best a free flight and at worst at least one of the meals I had been promised, I walked away with nothing.  After all of this and the bonds that you form with your fellow travelers, I didn't feel alone when I left the airport.  I was indeed in a strange country alone, but I had new phone numbers, emails, heck one guy who worked for Microsoft Au gave me his business card in case I got in any trouble.  Despite the pos that is Qantas air, the Australian people have lived up to form.  Friendly, doesn't even begin to describe how well I have been treated.  Its like their country is their personal home and I am their guest. 

Much has gone on since I have arrived and I will do my best to find a computer where I can load some pictures.  Ill just bullet point it for now, since it has taken a Herculean effort for my to type all this and for you to read it.  (They dont offer chairs to the computers in the hostel, just the back of a couch, to keep people from sitting on the computer all day.  That is why I am typing all this at 6am.

- Australia, where are all the fat people??
- The Opera House is pretty majestic
- Sydney, land of the 6 foot blond aka heaven
- $2 coin, f*ck you.
- Kangaroo tastes exactly like you thought it would
- Being on a major budget sacrifice #1: food
- Mac and I got in a car accident the night before I left; it was a sign of things to come

Ok, more to come later, thanks for sticking it out, and I am not fixing typos today.  Nope, the computer I am typing on was the original IBM prototype and the keyboard is in German, so this has been hard enough.

I now have a strongly worded letter to write to Qantas,

Scott

Last Day of Work....Ever

The day has finally arrived.  I will be putting in for social security, cashing in my 401K, and retiring from work for good.  I feel like I have earned a lifetime of laziness after a steady six and a half years of work.  For those that don't know today is my last day at the glorious warehouse chain that is Costco.  Go in for some tp and come out with two cart loads of stuff you don't need and a $1.50 hot dog.  I was advised to take a minute and share some of my thoughts and stories of working at this global retail giant.

 

You start at either the warehouse pushing carts or in the call center talking to idiots that have nothing better to do but call and complain about the number of tissues in the tissue box was one less than the 60 count it was labeled to have (real call I took).  As I am adverse to pushing things and walking, I choose Call Center. This is a list of the "best" calls that I can remember taking from our members.

- A member called to ask me if I could send someone to her home to assist her in opening her jar of artichoke hearts.

- An elderly woman found some unopened cans to chicken in her pantry, opened them and called to see if they were still good.  The contents of the cans were black and purple and 8 years past the expiration date.  I told her to chow down.  Not really.

- A gentleman named Luke Skywalker called to renew his membership.  He either pulled one over on the staff, or legally changed his name to that.  Either way I don't it was the real Luke.  He has bigger fish to fry.  This call led me to search our database for interesting names.  I found several Star Wars themed names, Darth Vader, Han Solo and such.  There also was a Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.  People are really weird.

- One member called to explain to me that he unrolled a roll of toilet paper, and counted the squares.  He called to tell me that the counts matched up.  Good to know.

- I took a supervisor call from one upset gentleman that wanted to know what kind of bait was used to catch our seafood.  I've found that if you are confident in your made up answers, people usually take them as the truth.

- And the worst call I ever had, and it will counter my previous bullet point, was a member calling to ask questions about some of our products.  Each question was swiftly answered with a reasonable reply.  After a while she was concerned that I was just trying to get her off the phone (I was, I have stats to reach).  So, she called me on it and asked if I was just making up answers.  Once called on your bs, you have two roads to choose from.  The quick and a bit painful admitting of what you did, or you ride that lie into the ground.  In this instance I selected road #2 and I was not convincing enough to explain that everything I was telling her was indeed fact, so she asked for a supervisor.  What did I do?  Got on the phone and changed my voice pretending to be my supervisor.  Somehow a deep voiced supervisor named Mark got me off the hook, but seeing as this was my first month on the job, I was sweating bullets.  From that day on I vowed never to lie again, ever.

Post Call Center and until today, I have been working in the Purchasing department.  Its been a great 4 and a half years at this position and I have had the privilege of working with great people.  Thank you all everyone at Costco that has helped me reach this point and for all the well wishes along the way.  I will miss you all just a sliver less than my steady paycheck, and vacations, and the bonuses, and a cheap lunch.  Top 5 is not bad, right?

Special thanks to Cousin Mykel for getting me the job and Kelly and Julie for putting up with me for the past 4 years.  Let's hope the company doesn't tank in the future without me, I mean who pays to shop??

Happy last Friday of work ever, 

Scott

Scotty Didn't Know

With two weeks to go until wheels up to Australia things are starting to get hectic.  This weekend was my first two of four bartending classes and its freaking exhausting.  8 hours Saturday and Sunday learning acronyms for what goes in a kamikaze, to memorizing the difference between Canadian whisky and the US variety.  In true Scott fashion I ducked out early each day because, c'mon, like I was going to stay the whole time.  Since I am just trying to learn the basics of how to work in a bar I felt that 5-6 hours was enough of my time.  Plus, I am sure I will just be cracking open beers, pouring beers from the tap, and trying not to get glassed (an actual concern) while I am over there.

Glassing is a physical attack using a glass as a weapon. Glassing can occur at bars or pubs where alcohol is served, and a drinking glass or bottle is available as a weapon. The most common method of glassing involves the attacker smashing an intact glass in the face of the victim.

Post class on Saturday I had a 6:30 dinner reservation at casa Mccormack.  I thought I was headed to a nice little family dinner to celebrate the Mccormack family being rid of me for 365 days, but when I turned onto their street, Scotty didn't know.  After seeing about 15 of my closest friends cars, Mike Mac asking me what I was doing there, and Michelle Gervin making her yearly appearance in Issaquah, I figured something was up.  Somehow the group was able to keep it a surprise, and that along with the fact that so many people showed up to wish me well....it was just pretty special.  The group ranged from friends I had since first grade at Clark Elementary to Sr member Fred Reiss.  I just wanted to take the time to say thank you all again, you don't know how much you all mean to me.

April Fools, I hate you all!!!!!!!

13 more days

Scott

Well....looks like I'm blogging

We are T-minus 20 days from takeoff to Sydney.  I never considered myself as a person important enough for their thoughts to be shared with others, but since so many of you seem to be excited for me and this adventure, I will do my best to get it all "down on paper."  I figure if nothing else I can use this blog as a way to remember everything I encounter down under.

With 20 days until departure I have done my best to get all my ducks in a row:
- Selling/throwing away all of my belongings. (thanks Coach Lyle)
- Getting one last Costco paid trip to the dentist and doctor.
- Acquiring a year supply of contact lenses.
- Procuring a place to store the things I can't sell and don't want to toss.
- Health insurance while abroad (Won't need it!!!)
- Get in contact with as many Aussies as possible.
- Update the I-tunes.

- Go to Vegas- CHECK!
- Learn how to bartend.
- Say goodbye to all of you (odds are one of the 5,593 deadly animals down there will get me)

I am about halfway though my to-do checklist, so not too shabby.  I plan on making every attempt to have this be as entertaining as possible, and if my trip to Europe was any example the alcohol induced entries will be something special.  Feel free to share with friends and family or anyone you can think of that would be interested in following along with me for the next year.  I do not have much of a travel plan, but am hoping to hit Sydney and head north along the coast to follow the sun.  Takes a true Seattlite to go from PNW winter straight into Australian winter.  Going to try and make one more post before the trip as I inch closer.  I'll try to focus on how freaked out and excited I am.  Cause both emotions are running in the red right now.

Sorry for all spelling and typing errors, I blame it all on my 10th grade keyboarding teacher and all-around good guy, Randy Wood.

Happy Monday,

Scott