Magnificent Mexico!

For the past month or so I have been staying on the west coast of California, mainly living by the beach at my friend Evan's place. It has been pretty easy, as I rented a car for a couple of weeks, had my GPS, and could happily get around to wherever I wanted, the only real limitations being LA's ludicrous traffic!

However, my US time is just about over, and I feel that I am really travelling again, and today have really enjoyed that feeling of being somewhere completely unfamiliar.

The city of Oaxaca is a fascinating place, and it has been a real sensory treat to be in such a vibrant and unusual place. You can feel the excitement in the air as the two big days of the Dia de Muertos approach, and people are making preparations everywhere you look. Flowers are being sold on many street corners, as well as all sorts of candy skulls and skeletons as offerings for relatives who have passed on.

But it is the other differences that have stood out for me today, the sights that just make you stop and smile, or at times make you stop and look mystified. A shop selling a wide array of coffins, policemen with machine guns, colorful houses and murals, a dog asleep in the dust beside the road, oblivious to the noise and chaos around, traffic lights at junctions that merely seem to be a suggestion as to what might be appropriate, the vibrant market where about 90% of the food on offer is a mystery. It's such fun to be travelling again.

Today, following Rebecca's suggestion I took a bus out of town to see Monte Alban, a World Heritage listed pre-Hispanic city that was occupied for 13 centuries, from around 500 BC to 800 AD. What a fantastic place, quite similar, I thought, to Chichen Itza, which I visited back in July, but without the huge central pyramid.



It was also very interesting, because you could climb up to the top of some of the temples, which gave a magnificent view over the whole site.



On my return to the city I wandered again through the market, and was offered fried (or roasted, I'm not sure) grasshopper, which was surprisingly tasty, so I bought a bag of them, and have been handing them around at the hostel.



I am really looking forward to tomorrow now, and my first visit to one of the cemeteries.

Heading down to Mexico.

I had an early start yesterday, and two flights later, after a short delay in Mexico City, I arrived late afternoon in Oaxaca (pronounced "Wa-haka"). A shared taxi minibus, at a bargain price of 44 pesos (less than $4) dropped me off right at the front door of the hostel I had booked.

I left my bag, and had to go out to find a bank for enough Mexican cash to pay for the hostel. Two blocks away I came across my first taste of the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, as a huge parade with a couple of marching bands blocked the streets. Everybody was in costume, and the air was very festive and fun.

In the hostel I met Rebecca from England, who was sharing the dorm room I was in, and we arranged to meet a couple of her friends that evening, Mark and Karen.

We met at 8pm in the main city centre square, the Zocalo, which is just around the corner from the hostel. The square is wonderfully festive, filled with brilliantly coloured and shadowed sand paintings or sculptures. Everywhere people are selling candy skulls and skeletons, and a Mexican band was playing.



We had dinner at a local restaurant, where I was introduced to the local dish, or sauce, mole, with chicken enchiladas. Afterwards we ended up in a local bar, where beer was on happy hour - "two-for-price-of-one" - and Mark insisted on shots of Mezcal, his including the worm from the bottle. What a great first evening in Oaxaca.



For a great overview of the Mexican Dia de Muertos beliefs and customs, take a look at this informative British Airways advert:-

Christmas crabs causing confusion!!

My plans for the next month or so of this trip have always been a little vague, as they depend largely on the weather.

I fly down to Mexico on Thursday morning for a few days to see the Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead festivities, and then in November my travels take me to Southeast Asia, where I hope to see the Elephant Round Up, and hopefully actually ride an elephant too.

One of my other goals in that area is to see the migration of the red crabs on Christmas Island, which happens each year around November, but could occur at any time over a period of four months. The migration is dependent on two things. Firstly the beginning of the rainy season is what starts the crabs moving from the inland areas towards the coast. But mating and spawning are dictated by the phase of the moon, and are timed so that the females can spawn (drop their eggs into the water) at high tide on the new moon.

This year the two most likely dates for spawning are around 12th November, or 11th December. And my plans have had to remain flexible enough to be able to get to Christmas Island for either of these periods.

My rough plan has either been to go to Christmas Island first, then Thailand to see the elephants, then on to Australia, or if the crabs migrate later, see the elephants first, which is around the 20th November, then go to Christmas Island, and then from there direct to Perth.

I have been keeping in contact with Katrina at the Christmas Island Tourism Association, and just yesterday received from her an email update from the Christmas Island National Park.

Apparently there has been some rain in the last day or two, and crabs have started moving in large numbers, but there is now not enough time for them to spawn on the 12th November, and December is looking much more likely now.

So I think I can now start putting some plans into place. I have already booked my flight from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and arrive there on Friday 6th November. This was booked so that if necessary, I could have caught the flight from KL to Christmas Island on Saturday 7th, as there is only one flight per week to the island.

But now I have a fairly large hole on the calendar, from 6th November to around the 15th, when I have to be in Bangkok, in time to get to Surin for the Elaphant Round Up. What to do, I have been wondering?

And then, idly looking on the AirAsia website, I found that they do pretty cheap flights from KL to Beijing in China. A quick check of November temperature in Beijing revealed that it will be cold, as low as freezing overnight, but not too bad during the days.

And so I made a decision, flexible as always, to go and spend a week or so up in China, and visit the Great Wall. It's currently less than US$300 to get to Beijing and then back to KL, and I get to achieve a goal that I suspected might be alot more expensive to achieve.

Will I need a visa, I wonder? Better get on to that right away!! Down to the Chinese Embassy tomorrow!

Goal 62 - "If you can keep your head..."

My dad has been a huge influence on much of my attitude to life, and his death at an age that was long before he should have left us certainly influenced my belief that life is short, and if there are things that you want to achieve, you really just need to get on and do them.

His favourite poem was "If..." by Rudyard Kipling, and it has since become one of my favourites too, and offers some excellent fatherly advice. And so it became one of my goals to learn this wonderful piece, and to be able to recite it from memory.

To achieve this goal I really felt that I needed to recite the piece in front of an audience of strangers, and the opportunity to do so presented itself, when I was asked if I would like to speak at an outdoor sports equipment store about my adventures.

Last year I met John Robertson while in LA, and he told me about his daughter Ashley, and the store she and her husband run, and suggested that I might like to speak there. So back in LA again, I contacted John and he put me in touch with Ashley, and a date was arranged. I have been doing some hasty poem revision in preparation, as well as wondering what on earth I am going to say on my first public speaking engagement.

So somewhat nervously I headed to Real Cheap Sports in Ventura this morning, and got set up with a computer and projector, and a few selected photos from my travels.

By 11am here were ten people in the audience, so I was pleased to just creep into double figures, and I made a start. By the end there were a few more later arrivals stood at the back of the group. It was a good sized group for my first try at telling my story, as it was pretty casual and relaxed, and I already knew a couple of the people there, so didn't feel too pressured or nervous.

By the time I got into it, I really enjoyed doing the talk, and could quite fancy doing a bit more of this sort of thing. I felt it went pretty well myself, and all the feedback I got seemed positive too, but I don't know if people were just being polite! I don't think so.



I kept it short, with an intro about myself, a bit of background on the ALife4Sale beginnings of my journey, and then I talked about four of my big highlight goals:-
Swimming with whales
Riding the Wall Of Death
Running with the bulls in Pamplona
Climbing 7 peaks in Colorado
I also talked briefly about my last goal, acting in a movie here in LA, and then suggested that I was hopefully ready to achieve goal # 62.

I got Carina, who had emailed me during the week, having heard about me via Real Cheap Sports email list, to act as video camera person, and launched into my recitation. I had one brief moment of hesitation, which gave me concern for a second or so, but quickly got back on track! Phew! I think it went okay, but you can judge for yourself if you like, by pressing "Play" below:-


I am pretty sure that the poem is now fairly well embedded in my memory, and intend to keep it there by occasional practice. It is a great thing to have as a party-piece if I ever need it again.

My thanks to John for suggesting the talk, and Ashley for offering me my first speaking opportunity, and pushing me once more out of my comfort zone. Also to Evan once again for providing accomodation and transport, to Carina, for video camera work, and to the others there who made the effort to come and listen to me. Thank you all.

Thanks particularly to Doug, for making the effort to come along. I was very surprised and flattered to meet Doug, as we have talked a bit on Facebook, and he has been following my adventures since the ALife4Sale days. He had driven from Bakersfield to come to the talk, about a two hour drive. Wow.

After the talk I chatted for a while with some of the people who had come, and then Doug offered to take Evan and I out for lunch, and we asked Ashley for a recommendation. When we picked Mexican, she and her husband and John also decided to join us to. What a great way to celebrate goal #62. Thank you all for a great morning.

Thanks are also due to a couple of other people too. Firstly, to Kelli, who gave me a beautiful calligraphy copy of the poem last year when I was at her ghostly cottage in Oregon. And thanks also to Cari in Florida, who gave me a beautifully printed and presented version of the poem when I was there to visit the underwater hotel. This has been either on the dashboard of the RV, or in the top of my small back pack for the past three months now, and is looking a little worn, but has been the best help ever in learning this poem.



Thanks also to my dad for first introducing me to this timeless advice.

If... by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Next goal invite.

One of the longer term goals that I have been working on steadily is to learn to recite the poem "If..." by Rudyard Kipling, and I feel that I have now got it! However, I also feel that to be able to class the goal as achieved, I need to recite the poem in front of an audience of strangers, and I get the chance to try this on Saturday!

Please feel free to come along to join in and help me achieve goal 62, as I do my first-ever public talk about my adventures in an outdoor sporting goods store in Ventura.
See you there!

Details on the poster below, click for a larger version:-

Goal 61 - "and......Action!"

It has taken quite a while to achieve this goal, but perseverence has finally paid off, and I'm glad that I scheduled enough time in and around LA to be able to do this.

As I drove back from San Diego yesterday my phone rang, and Angie from One Source Talent asked me if I was still in town, and if I was still trying to achieve my goal to appear as an extra in a Hollywood movie. I had not heard anything from them since I registered a couple of weeks ago, and thought I might not hear from them before I head off for Mexico. I am registered with another agency too, and am promised a role with them, but the scene they are shooting, in a nightclub, keeps getting pushed back, and I was starting to get worried that time might run out there too.

So it was with great relief that I accepted a background role as a guest at a bed and breakfast establishment, to be filmed on location in Malibu, for a movie called "Storage".

I received details and directions by email from Alesia, and was told to bring three wardrobe choices of casual clothes. That's fortunate! The only clothes I have are all pretty casual!

But on second thoughts this morning, I decided that most of the stuff I have is far too casual (meaning almost worn out) and the two smarter shirts I have managed to borrow are probably too dark (a light shirt was specified). So I made a quick stop at a thrift shop in Oxnard before heading down the coast.

I found the location, a lovely house in the Malibu hills with a beautiful outlook, overlooking the hills to the ocean, and found Alesia and a few other extras, and introduced myself. We were shown where to change, and from our clothes we had brought, our outfits were chosen. One of my new thrift shop shirts fit the bill perfectly! $2.50 well spent.

There was all sorts of activity going on, and calls for silence every now and then as a scene was filmed. I got to meet the lead actress, Sarah Jones, and took advantage of the photo opportunity.



Eventually it was time to film our scene, and we were sat on the balcony at tables, set up as a restaurant at a bed and breakfast place. My table consisted of three of us, and we were given a bit of background as to who perhaps we were, a couple meeting our nephew in LA.

For the scenes we had to mime conversation, but keep silent as the sound from the lead actors was being recorded. We shot the scene three or four times, and then took a break as something else was filmed. It was fun sitting around chatting with the other extras, and I got a photo taken with the rest of my co-stars - well, co-extras, really - and with my "wife"!!



Later we shot the scene again from the reverse angle, pretending again to chat, eat, and sip wine.



It was all great fun, and I loved every minute of it. I chatted with a few of my co-extras about my goals, and why I was there today, and marvelled once again at the journey that all of this is taking me on. Here I was, in the hills of Los Angeles, filming a scene for a Hollywood movie! Awesome!

Thanks to all my co-extras for making it such a fun day, my "wife" Deebye, "nephew" Nathan, "couple" Tarvon and Viet, "brandy drinking magazine reader" Tom, and "waiter" Ian. Thanks too to all on set who were extremely friendly, encouraging and helpful.

Also huge thanks to One Source Talent, particularly Ema at the Beverly Hills office, who promised to help me initially, and Angie, who organised this for me.

Also thanks again to my buddy Evan, whose endless patience for me living on his sofa has made this time in LA so much easier.

Deadliest catch!!

I have had a couple of relaxing days around San Diego, and enjoyed catching up again with John and Ivy on Saturday, including a look around the historic US Grant Hotel where John works. On Sunday I met again with Kurtiss for breakfast at Hash-House-a-Go-Go, which was obviously a very popular place judging by the huge line of customers waiting for a seat. It was well worth the wait, and the scrambled egg breakfast I had with bacon and avocado was delicious.

Then yesterday Dennis and I went to the world-renowned San Diego Zoo, and spent a few hours wandering the impressive displays. My favourite was the Elephant Oddysey, where the spectacular creatures had a huge area to roam in, and were encouraged to forage for their food, having to roam around the unusual artificial trees to find their next meal, much as they would have to do in the wild.



Late yesterday afternoon I went to Willy's house, where we geared up his boat and headed for the boat launch ramp, planning to spend the evening catching lobsters offshore.

After we made our way out of the bay around Loma Point, Willy set the nets, and we waited for the sun to set. When it was dark we pulled the nets in, and things looked good, a couple of the nets having six or seven of the California Spiny Lobsters in them.



Unfortunately they were all undersize, and all had to go back. For the rest of the night we reset the nets again, and then went round and pulled them back in again. Well, to be more accurate, Willy did most of this, as I sat holding a flashlight for him, and feeling slightly seasick.

During the course of the evening, as well as a couple of crabs and one ugly looking fish (poisonous apparently!), we must have caught at least 40 lobsters, but not one was big enough to keep, and eventually at around 11pm we gave up and headed for home. The lobsters I promised to bring home for Dennis and Mary had to be kindly provided by Willy from the freezer from a previous evening's haul.



Today it is time to head back up to LA, and hopefully finally achieve my "movie extra" goal, and get some practice in for the next goal on the list - more info to follow soon.

Many thanks to all in San Diego who have made my time here hugely enjoyable. It was great to catch up again with friends that I first met in Pamplona. Thanks to John, Ivy and Kurtiss for their local restaurant-guiding services, and to Willy for a great fishing adventure. And huge thanks too to Dennis and Mary for their wonderful warm hospitality kindly offered to a random internet stranger friend of their son! Very much appreciated.

Making pens in San Diego.

When I was at Pamplona in Spain back in July, I met up with, and eventually stayed for the week with a great group of people from San Diego. One of the group, Fipps, who's first name is actually John, told his folks back home about me and my journey. John's dad Dennis contacted me via the website, and let me know that many of the family were now following John's adventures in Pamplona via the fairly regular updates on my blog.

When I started to plan my trip down to San Diego I included Dennis in my emails, and was surprised, flattered and grateful to get an invitation to stay with Dennis and Mary while in town, and enjoy the comforts of their spare room and good home cooking.

While chatting with Dennis on Thursday evening we got onto the topic of his hobby of turning wood on his lathe to make beautiful hand-crafted pens, and I was fascinated with the process. I only did a little woodwork at a young age at school, and have never used a lathe, so Dennis said I could have a go at making a unique, personalised pen in the morning.

From a wide choice of woods, I chose an unknown spalted hardwood, which is a wood where the decay process has begun, and has some wonderful dark grain in it. Dennis guided me throught the process of cutting, drilling, glueing and then setting up the wood on the lathe, and I set to on my creation.



With some patient and expert guidance, I think I produced a very satisfying final result. My pen has a wonderful light and dark pattern, with small holes where mites have bored through the wood.



I really enjoyed the process, and after lunch asked Dennis if I could do a little more on the lathe, and once set up, he left me pretty-much to my own devices, and from a couple of bits of really nice walnut I made a pen and pencil set that I am very proud off. It took quite a while and alot of concentration on the lathe to produce the shape I wanted, and as a pair they aren't exactly the same, but look great in the case Dennis gave me to store them in.

In the evening John and Ivy picked me up from the house, and we went to the local pub, were we met up with Kurtiss and Willy, who were both out in Pamplona too, along with Willy's girlfriend Ashley. Nick and Mikey couldn't make it, as they are both in Iraq at the moment, which is a pretty good excuse!

It was great to catch up again, and laugh over some of the Pamplona adventures we had shared. We all agreed that it was often hard to explain to other friends what Pamplona is really like, and how crazy it all is, and it was good to laugh again with friends who had been there and shared the excitement and craziness of the amazing event.

Downtown Hollywood!!

On Sunday afternoon I met again with my Segway-riding voice-over pal Ari Ross, who had kindly offered to give me a try at doing a voice-over in his sound booth. After some debate over the type of thing I should try, we settled on a movie trailer that Ari had done for New Films International, for a film called "Multiple Sarcasms"

It seemed an appropriate movie to pick, as it is about a man in his late 40's, who begins to question his life choices. He quits his job, gets a pushy literary agent friend to represent him and starts writing. Although his marriage ends in divorce, the play he writes is a success and although his life is now different from before, he is happier.

The original trailer, from New Film International, voice-overed (or should that be voiced-over?) by Ari, can be seen here:-
Multiple Sarcasms - original trailer

This is me in the booth, being guided by Ari:-


And here is the edited end result, with me doing the voice-over:-


Since the weekend things have been pretty slow, and I arrived back at Evan's beach pad on Monday and re-installed myself on his sofa. Evan has been amazingly tolerant of me drifting in and out of his place, and my time here in southern California has been so much easier (and cheaper!) thanks to his kindness.

We went out for dinner last night, and were laughing about the fact that he is largely responsible for me being on this whole journey. The start of this whole 100goals thing can be attributed to a great degree to one conversation we had back before the ALife4Sale eBay auction. More details about that conversation here:
Goal # 100 - book deal!
At the time of the conversation we hadn't even met, and I thought it was funny that he was probably now thinking that he hadn't quite expected his suggestion to result in me living in his front room for several weeks!

It's all very much appreciated though, and I hope I get to repay the favour one day!

Today I have headed back into downtown Hollywood, and am staying for a couple of days at one of the backpacker places in town. Through AB Casting, who I am now registered with for an extra role, I received an invite to a red carpet screening of one of the movies they have been involved in. I thought it was this evening, but I got it wrong! Oh well!

I was also hoping that the goal of appearing as an extra in a movie was going to be achieved tomorrow, but it has been raining for a couple of days here, and the shoot has been rained off, and will have to be re-scheduled for next week. So I now appear to have a few days on my hands.

Ahh, what to do now then? Maybe I'll head down to San Diego tomorrow for the weekend.

Progressing slowly.

The last few days have been pretty hectic, and although it only seems to be slow, I think I am making progress towards goal #61. I got a tip from one of Evan's friends, and took a look at craigslist for opportunities as a movie extra. From adverts I found there, I have been to a couple of casting calls, and hopefully have secured a role in a scene in a movie which is due to be shot in the next few days. There are a couple of other possibilities too, so I am pretty positive about getting the goal achieved now.

I had a long day yesterday, as I decided I needed to rent a car for a while, as driving and parking the RV in downtown Los Angeles is a bit of an issue, as it won't fit in any covered parking lots, and won't fit in a single parking meter space. It is also pretty expensive to drive, as it does about 9 miles per gallon, and Evan's place is 60 miles from downtown!!

So at the airport where I had booked an economy rental for a week, they only had a cargo van available, and Evan had dropped me off and left me there! I had no choice but to take the cargo van into the city, as I had to be there in time for a scheduled meeting. Then after a quick conducted tour with Eric around the huge mansions of Bel-Air, I drove through Friday afternoon LA rush hour traffic to another car rental depot to swap the van for a small car and just made it in time before they closed. At the same time I was trying to field a couple of phone calls about the RV being advertised for sale, and immediately had to rush back to Evan's (more LA freeway rush hour traffic!) to show a prospective purchaser the RV.

All ended well though, as Adam bought my travelling home, and wanted to take it there and then. I hurriedly cleared my stuff out, throwing it into the boot (or trunk) of the rental car. I was sorry to see the place that has been my longest term home during the last year disappear down the road, but relieved that my finances are looking a little healthier now for the next part of my journey.

And so now with an economical and relatively easy-to-park vehicle at my disposal I decided to get out and about today. Clay Egan, who I met while in Salt Lake City in August, had emailed to tell me he was going to be at a four wheel drive expo in Pomona this weekend. I drove out there and we hung out for the afternoon, and I wandered around admiring the amazing vehicles.




The highlight of the afternoon for me was watching the daredevil BMX and freestyle motorcross displays. Those guys are so skillful.


Later we grabbed some dinner, and I crashed for the night at his luxurious suite in the nearby Sheraton. It was great to catch up, and once again, it was very inspiring to be around someone so positive and motivated.