Friends with benefits

Our Indian friend Seresha came over last week and cooked us an Indian feast (after much begging!) - it was delicious! Butter chicken, Aloo matar, lemon rice and yogurt rice. It was just like we took a trip down to Raj's corner in Beaumont. Now all we need is a thai friend and Kimbo is in heaven!

Farewell Party Pics (yes, it's been a while)

Farewell Party Pics (yes, it's been a while)

Sad Farewells....

Farewell to the McCabes, who left on Sunday to travel through the west coast of the USA, Europe and Thailand after a whole year in Erie! We will miss you guys!




Farewell to Chris and Em, who left last Wednesday with 4 suitcases - 2 more than when they arrived! We will miss you guys too - thanks for coming and visiting us!

Halloween and Fall in the 'burbs

These are just some pretty fall pictures and a house that's decorated in Halloween theme - it's so massive over here! Bromley and I are gonna carve some pumpkins this week, so we'll put photos of them up too. We're going to Chilli Peppers concert in Cleveland on Halloween night so won't be getting many trick or treaters - apparently they egg your house if you're not home! Oh ow.

P.S. It's snowing outside as I write this!

Cedar Point - World Class

This place kicks ass!! I lost my voice screaming so much. The bet ride was the Millenium Force. Well worth the 335 dollars entry fee for me and kimbo (includes transportation to event - Bloody Indiana Police Dept.)

Yes, that's right, this is a very very tall roller coaster - those are normal height trees at the bottom of the photo. KIMBO WENT ON IT!
This roller coaster requires you to stand up whilst your riding! KIMBO WENT ON IT!
Kimbo was much braver than Bromley on the rides. KIMBO WENT ON THEM ALL.
This roller coaster had two arms that looked like this and a long bit in the middle, and kind of see sawed between the arms. KIMBO WENT ON IT.

This one was insane. It went straight up 90 degrees whilst twisting then straight down 90 degrees whilst twisting. KIMBO WENT ON IT.

Chicago - The Windy City

After we spent the night in South Bend, IN (2hrs from Chicago) in the snow (see below) we headed for Chicago at about 8am. Although, because of the cold front coming through, we got out of the car in Antartica!! Man, it was so cold - And its only October!! They reckon -5 celsius with the wind chill!! Anyway we put on the warmest stuff we had and then started some touristy things.

We jumped on "The El" (elevated train system seen in all Chicago movies) and went over to Millenium and Grant Park. Both the parks are so beautiful and really brought the romantic out of big Broms!!

Then we walked down to Navy Pier which is like a shopping mall/carnival thing on a wharf. Very nice. Even though it was so cold it made my fella look like a piece of baby corn we had beautiful weather with the sun shining. So we took an architecture cruise through the rivers. The rivers are so nice and make Chicago very relaxing to walk around.

After the cruise we started walking toward the free Lincoln Park Zoo. However, after walking for about an hour and with the sun getting low we walked back into downtown and went up the John Hancock building. Sensational view.

The next day we spent the morning at Lincoln Park Zoo. The zoo was awesome - well worth the $0.00 we paid to enter!! After the zoo we went into downtown and saw a circus perform for free at the mayors building. They were excellent - best bit was watching these dudes skipping using this kid as the skipping rope!! Classic. PHOTO TIME!!!!!!!!


This dude we met had the personality of a brass statue - get it! MUHAHHAHAHA.

Downtown Chicago - Ohhhh. There are sooo many bridges!

The view from the top of the John Hancock Building. Chicago is so pretty, it's right on the shore of Lake Michigan.

And it even has beaches! I read in a tourist book that it advised NEVER to swim in the lake as it's too cold.

The giant jelly bean statue in Millenium Park. Cool reflection!

Night view from John Hancock building.

Daniel and Chris trying to hurt themselves - a frequent occurence!

Our first snow!!

Last weekend North America had a cold front that came down from Canada, and we saw our first snow yay!!!!! These are some of our first snow fast facts:

• We drove through a light snow storm on the way to Chicago (Daniel failed to slow down, but don't worry by the end of the weekend he was driving under the speed limit!).
• Buffalo, a city 2 hours east of Erie got 22 inches of snow (more than they have ever gotten in October), I drove to Niagara yesterday (Tuesday - 3 days after snow) and there was still piles of snow on the side of the interstate.
• Erie got like 3 inches but we missed it we were in Chicago.
• We were in Chicago on the coldest October day since 1971.

By the way, anyone got any 'driving in the snow' tips?

Pop Quiz, Hot Shot

Maths Question:

What is 89mph minus 70mph

Answer: $US125

(Yeah pretty naughty huh? I still couldnt believe the fact that if I was travelling at 75mph, it would have cost me $US110. No wonder everyone over here speeds - its called "VALUE FOR MONEY"!. In Australia, this little stunt (145kph in a 110kph zone) would have cost me something like 700 bucks and 9 pts or something.)

Physics Question:

If Car A is travelling at 89mph and Car B is travelling at 45mph, what is the realtive difference between the two cars?

Answer: $US130

(Apparently they feel it is 'more dangerous' to overtake somebody in a 45mph work zone than it is doing 20mph over the speed limit!! Americans huh!)

English Question:

What would be the most appropriate response to the following: "Here is your license, here is your ticket for doing 89mph in a 70mph zone, here is your ticket for overtaking in a "No Passing" zone, here is you warning for doing 89mph in a 45mph work zone. Are there any questions?"

A) Too scared to give me all three, huh?
B) Why is your head up your ass?
C) Man, you had a good hiding spot. I bet your the big daddy in the cop shop.
D) Thanks!

Answer: D)

(I had to do one thing right)

Erie Welcomes Chris and Emma

Hey everyone, long time no blog action. Hope everyone is well. Since we last spoke, Bromley's brother and his fiance have made their way from sunny, warm Australia. On their way over they stopped in at Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego and saw the sights and sounds of the west coast - then it was off to the main attraction - Erie, Pennsylvania!! OOOOOHHHH YEAH!

On the Thursday night after they got here, we had a bbq dinner on Presque Isle with the McCabes and watched the sunset - very beautiful. After dinner we spotted some Skunks kicking back in the park so we went on safari. Didnt want to get too close though because we have heard stories of peoples cars getting sprayed and the smell not going away for weeks.

New York During Fall

Friday lunchtime we took off for New York, New York. The US is just coming into the middle of "Fall" so alot of the trees are turning orange and red. Its amazing how colourful the bush is over here.

We got to NY at about 8pm and got ourselves a feed at Key West Diner. Key West rules!! Then we jumped the subway downtown and showed Chris and Emma Times Square. Times Square was pumping as usual and we just walked around Bradway, etc. for a couple of hours.

Saturday morning we were up early and up the Empire State Building. If it was 10C at street level, it felt like -100C on the roof of that place. Was an awesome view though and im glad Kimbo and I did that before winter hit.

Afterwards we went to Central Park and basked in its natural beauty. For lunch, some bright spark suggested the brilliant idea of heading to Chinatown where we could knock over some cheap shopping aswell. That same bright spark nominated Bromley to decide where we would eat. After walking past a couple of suspect joints, Bromley stumbled upon a gem - Yummy Noodles - packed full of Chinese people (yeah - had to be good). So we went in - ordered - and what came out was, to say it politely, ...... (cant really say it politely). The spare ribs looked like dog and the beef looked like poo. So we ate as much as we could stomach and got up to pay at the cash register. All of a sudden Bromley had some Chinese guy in his face (a little unhappy) screaming "Tips, tips, tips" so Bromley gave him two bucks and we ran. Maccas was delightful after that.

Next we walked down to the site of the World Trade Centre and then continued down to Battery Park and the Staten Island Ferry (the free ferry which goes out past the statue of Liberty). We got on the ferry just as the sun was setting so the ferry ride was more like a romantic rollercoaster fuelled by passion which started with Bromley embracing Kimbo in his muscular arms and Kimbo running her hands through Bromleys rustic (umm sorry - some material from my romance novel).

We finished the night by going to a comedy club off Broadway and laughing ourselves stupid.

Sunday morning was "Kimbo/Emma Day" - mainly consisting of walking down 5th Ave. looking at stuff they cant afford. Me and Chris got this chick copper to have a photo with us - she was a good sort (i mean sport).

Bob's Gun Shop

-TOP SECRET_

Tuesday, 10th October 2006:

ALPHA TEAM - David McCabe, Daniel Bromley, Chris Bromley

Your mission: Infiltrate the premises, retreive highly sensitive top secret weapons training, destroy enemy target, escape before premises is deactivated. TAKE NO PRISONERS

Translation: Go to Bob's Gun Shop and shoot shit. Place closes at 1700hrs.

Hahahah i crack myself up. No but really. Chris, Dave and Myself went shootin' yesterday. Rednecks!! No Nick - Zero duck fatalities were recorded during the mission. haha. Got to Bob's at about 4pm and the conversation went a bit like:

Bob: Howdy
Alpha Team: G'day
Bob: What can I do for ye'
Alpha Team: Can we shoot stuff?
Bob: What are you usin?
AT: What have you got? We need to rent guns
B: What you used to shootin'?
AT: Nothin'
B: Hahahahahahahahahahhahahaha
AT: What?
B: Hhahah you aint never shot a gun hahaha
AT: No
B: Okay, we are about to shut so we cant give you a training course.
AT: Okay....
B: There is a little thing called liability .......
AT: Yeah .....
B: But you guys sound alright - here is a .22 and here is a 9mm. Have a go of the .22 first till you get used to it.
AT: Thanks
B: When you've finished come up and you can get photos with any gun you want.