Sunday, 25 December 2011
Merry Christmas!!!!
Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope that you have a really wonderful day filled with joy, laughter and food. God bless you and I'm sending virtual hugs and kisses to you all (and not the kind below, that just cracks me up. No pun intended HAHA)
Julian Price Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC
As I mentioned below I'm a bit late with my pics as a couple of days ago I went to the Julian Price Memorial Park which is about 2 hours away from Charlotte. It was a bit cloudy but still pretty lovely. I'm gonna have to go back sometime to take one of the longer trails as I chickened out of that one cuz I was too buggered and cranky. But the sun came out in the end and I got some great photos. Enjoy! (as always you can click to enlarge for better viewing)
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| Amazing looking tree roots |
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| My Christmas tree :) |
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| Very interesting twisted tree, best viewed by clicking the image :) |
Carolina Raptor Centre - Huntersville, NC
I'm a bit behind on posting up my photos so apologies for the lateness. Went to the Carolina Raptor Centre a couple of days ago and it was amazing. They take in lots of injured birds and spend about $4000 a month feeding 100-1000 birds a year. On the way out I managed to catch one of the keepers with a Spectacled Owl who was in training to be an education bird so had a quick chat and got some great photos and videos. And of course some of them are here for you to share:
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| Haha funny! |
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| Loved this guy. I think he's called an Auger Buzzard if I remember correctly. Great face! |
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Project 52 - Annals of Connacht
Well it's late and it's completely not what I wanted it to look like but I don't know enough about GIMP to make it look like I want. I'm without my beloved Photoshop as my trial has expired and for some reason i can't buy it online. I'm gonna keep trying to see how I can bloody well get me a copy but herewith is my feeble GIMP attempt at 2 weeks ago's theme (last weeks is coming shortly I promise!)
Basically what I wanted to do with this was a pop up book of the Annals of Connacht. I'm not really sure why but that was the first image that came to mind when I was reading the wiki theme. I did actually read a bit of the translation of it which was a blow by blow account of who had died and who had been raided and I pictured a lot cooler depiction of a pop up book than what I've cobbled together here.... but again, GIMP is so different to PS. Anyway better late than never right? hmmm Lets just hope the next one goes as well. a) it's an extremely difficult theme and b) GIMP is not Photoshop... *sigh*
Monday, 19 December 2011
Oh and PS
I forgot to mention that my car nightmare has been sorted out!! On the morning after I posted my rant I rang the UK company as usual and this time they said that they needed my contact number as the Charlotte Alamo needed to speak to me. Despite the fact that I had already given them my bloody contact number as they were sposed to call me......*deep breaths*. As I was talking on the phone I was checking my emails and had received a reply back from the Dallas Alamo saying that if I could get into the Charlotte Airport location that night or first thing in the morning that they could sort out my reservation. WTF??????? I dunno who worked what magic but we raced into the airport and it was TRUE!!! I had an active reservation!!!! and a CAR!!!!!!!!!
So I returned the Ford Focus that I'd rented the day before early and went out to the lot to pick out a new car and there, waiting for me all shiny, was another Ford Focus!! A shiny dark blue one and this one I get to keep for the next 2 months! I haven't taken pics of it yet but I'll do it in the morning so you can marvel at it's beauty too :) Its awesome to drive and I think this one is a 2010 model as it doesn't have the same swanky features as the other one but is still pretty cool. And I get North Carolina plates this time too YAY! I still feel like there is a catch.or it's not really real after 7 days of hellish nightmare irritation. But lovin every minute of it and offering up prayers of thanks every time I step in the car and crank it up. I only have one thing to say and that is PHEEEEWWWW!!!!!
So I returned the Ford Focus that I'd rented the day before early and went out to the lot to pick out a new car and there, waiting for me all shiny, was another Ford Focus!! A shiny dark blue one and this one I get to keep for the next 2 months! I haven't taken pics of it yet but I'll do it in the morning so you can marvel at it's beauty too :) Its awesome to drive and I think this one is a 2010 model as it doesn't have the same swanky features as the other one but is still pretty cool. And I get North Carolina plates this time too YAY! I still feel like there is a catch.or it's not really real after 7 days of hellish nightmare irritation. But lovin every minute of it and offering up prayers of thanks every time I step in the car and crank it up. I only have one thing to say and that is PHEEEEWWWW!!!!!
South Mountain and High Shoals Falls, North Carolina
Went to South Mountain State Park today and took a walk in the forest. It was absolutely stunning and so nice and peaceful. It was a lil chilly but once the blood started pumping I was nice and warm (aka sweating like a pig haha). Up the trail was High Shoals Falls which was really pretty. Nothing like standing and listening to a waterfall with the birds chirping nearby. Ahhhh peace :)
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Rental car companies suck hairy sweaty ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! The ongoing saga of my car rental.... Better get comfy as this is gonna be a looong rant post. yep 6 days now and it's still ongoing at the time that I type this. The first couple of days I wasn't getting anything more than an auto response to my email saying "our team is looking into it" By then I'd extended my car (Toyota Carolla) rental day by day for 4 days and on the 5th day was told that instead of the daily rate I'd be charged $200 a day as it was considered weekly. So I asked the guy if I went back to the airport and checked in the car and hired a new one whether I'd get the daily rate again and he said yes. Happy days. Or so I thought.
Arrived at the airport and checked the car in and went into the office to hire a new car only to be told that they were sold out of cars!! WTF? So we strolled off to the next door place which was Hertz only to be told that they too were sold out and that Dollar/Thrifty were the only people that had cars and that we would need to catch the shuttle bus to the airport to head to the Dollar counter. Got to the Dollar counter in the airport and it was unmanned. Checked with Enterprise who were next door and actually had staff but they too were sold out. So we took the courtesy bus to the Dollar/Thrifty car area and got a car but it was double the cost of the previous one but when you're over a barrel.... And it was a zippy Ford Focus so it was a lil bit worth it cuz its a neat car.
Anyway when we got back I decided it was time to call them. Tried to call from my room phone but they don't do international calls. Tried to call from my Aussie mobile but the 0800 number was restricted. Not sure why as I can call 1800 numbers when I'm at home so I check out the Optus website. There's a lil section for International roaming that says "... and International call restrictions removed" so I've got to call them to have that removed. Whats the time, midnight in Aus. Great. Okay can't do that then. I check with my new US mobile as it does doe international calls this time (YAY!). Dial the number and get the "calls to this type of number are restricted". Insert a million expletives here...... and the juicy bad ones not just "gosh darn it".
So on the morning that I'm due to extend the rental... again... my friend gets the idea to find a local direct number for the UK travel company that I made my booking with and hey presto, I can ring that number. So I talk to a lady in customer service and explain the convoluted story to her and she puts me on hold and goes off to talk to the confirmations manager. When she gets back she tells me that he's going to ring the big boss at the Charlotte branch to find out why they couldn't give me a replacement car and will call me back within an hour. YAAAYYY!!! I think, it's almost over..... baboww. Wrong. An hour goes past, no phone call. An hour and a half later I call them back (as I have to extend the rental within 2 hours or go to the airport in time to drop it off and collect MY car if they've sorted it out) and again explain the convoluted story to a new representative and they go and check with the confirmations manager and come back and say that they called Charlotte airport and got no answer (??!) so they have emailed them to find out what is going on and resolve the problem and will ring me when they know. FFS! So I ring Dollar and extend my rental for another day at another exhorbitant rate.
By 8pm I still haven't had a phone call so I'm gonna be a pain in the ass and ring them again. I didn't check the time and got the night shift as it was after midnight there and after explaining the convoluted story the guy said that the people who were handling the problem were on day shift so he couldn't really do anything and could I ring back in 8 hours. No problemo...
So I ring this morning... And get told that they had already downloaded the reservation and that he's just resent it again and that I'll need to contact Charlotte airport to make sure they have all the details they need and it should all be fixed!!! YAAAY RIGHT?? So I ring the Charlotte Alamo only to be told that my original reservation number isn't valid.... So I ring the UK back to confirm what the new reservation number is and he gives me the number. I ring back Charlotte Alamo with the number only to be told that it was made for the 10th of December and that I was listed as a "No Show" so the reservation has been closed. WTF??!! I tried both reservation numbers that I had just in case the original one was still active but no. So I ring the UK back to find out wtf is going on and get directed to someone in sales by the phone system and he was rude and said that I needed to talk to customer service but couldn't transfer me through. Well that's who I thought I'd contacted fuckwit! *deep breaths* So I hangup and ring back again and get put through to customer service. Once again I go through the whole story only to be told that the confirmations manager is talking to Charlotte to resolve the issue and that they'll call me.
Couple hours go by and it's almost time to renew my rental again so I ring them again.... The confirmations manager that was dealing with my problem has now gone off duty and the new guy will be on deck shortly and blah de fuckin blah de blah. So I ask them to call me when they've sorted it and ring Alamo to make a new reservation (as Dollar/Thrify is about 3 times the price as Alamo). *deep breaths again* So we head off to the airport to return the Dollar car in exchange for the Alamo rental... And who do I see at the Alamo counter but the bitch from the initial rental. I'm not sure if I mentioned her but she is the height of anti-customer service and funnily enough she was on the phone while a customer in front of her was rolling his eyes and pacing impatiently. Anyway I got served by someone else and got that shit sorted and actually got a 2011 Ford Focus, very swish. I'm hesitant to ring Jigsaw again tonight because I'm just going to get the same fucking story.
AND THEN I log on to my email tonight and fucking well get an email from Alamo wondering if I could call them at the Dallas office to let them know what is going on with my rental. OOOOOOHHHH blood boiling!!!! I politely emailed back to let her know that I have no idea and that I'm still waiting (after 6 fucking days) to have an answer myself.....*deep breaths*
So that's where we are right now. I have a very cool 2011 Ford Focus.... but I'd really rather to have all of this rubbish sorted out because it's sending me broke.... bring on payday. I'll keep you posted. You'll probably hear me rejoicing from where you are when it does get sorted so you'll know when :)
*deep breaths*
Arrived at the airport and checked the car in and went into the office to hire a new car only to be told that they were sold out of cars!! WTF? So we strolled off to the next door place which was Hertz only to be told that they too were sold out and that Dollar/Thrifty were the only people that had cars and that we would need to catch the shuttle bus to the airport to head to the Dollar counter. Got to the Dollar counter in the airport and it was unmanned. Checked with Enterprise who were next door and actually had staff but they too were sold out. So we took the courtesy bus to the Dollar/Thrifty car area and got a car but it was double the cost of the previous one but when you're over a barrel.... And it was a zippy Ford Focus so it was a lil bit worth it cuz its a neat car.
Anyway when we got back I decided it was time to call them. Tried to call from my room phone but they don't do international calls. Tried to call from my Aussie mobile but the 0800 number was restricted. Not sure why as I can call 1800 numbers when I'm at home so I check out the Optus website. There's a lil section for International roaming that says "... and International call restrictions removed" so I've got to call them to have that removed. Whats the time, midnight in Aus. Great. Okay can't do that then. I check with my new US mobile as it does doe international calls this time (YAY!). Dial the number and get the "calls to this type of number are restricted". Insert a million expletives here...... and the juicy bad ones not just "gosh darn it".
So on the morning that I'm due to extend the rental... again... my friend gets the idea to find a local direct number for the UK travel company that I made my booking with and hey presto, I can ring that number. So I talk to a lady in customer service and explain the convoluted story to her and she puts me on hold and goes off to talk to the confirmations manager. When she gets back she tells me that he's going to ring the big boss at the Charlotte branch to find out why they couldn't give me a replacement car and will call me back within an hour. YAAAYYY!!! I think, it's almost over..... baboww. Wrong. An hour goes past, no phone call. An hour and a half later I call them back (as I have to extend the rental within 2 hours or go to the airport in time to drop it off and collect MY car if they've sorted it out) and again explain the convoluted story to a new representative and they go and check with the confirmations manager and come back and say that they called Charlotte airport and got no answer (??!) so they have emailed them to find out what is going on and resolve the problem and will ring me when they know. FFS! So I ring Dollar and extend my rental for another day at another exhorbitant rate.
By 8pm I still haven't had a phone call so I'm gonna be a pain in the ass and ring them again. I didn't check the time and got the night shift as it was after midnight there and after explaining the convoluted story the guy said that the people who were handling the problem were on day shift so he couldn't really do anything and could I ring back in 8 hours. No problemo...
So I ring this morning... And get told that they had already downloaded the reservation and that he's just resent it again and that I'll need to contact Charlotte airport to make sure they have all the details they need and it should all be fixed!!! YAAAY RIGHT?? So I ring the Charlotte Alamo only to be told that my original reservation number isn't valid.... So I ring the UK back to confirm what the new reservation number is and he gives me the number. I ring back Charlotte Alamo with the number only to be told that it was made for the 10th of December and that I was listed as a "No Show" so the reservation has been closed. WTF??!! I tried both reservation numbers that I had just in case the original one was still active but no. So I ring the UK back to find out wtf is going on and get directed to someone in sales by the phone system and he was rude and said that I needed to talk to customer service but couldn't transfer me through. Well that's who I thought I'd contacted fuckwit! *deep breaths* So I hangup and ring back again and get put through to customer service. Once again I go through the whole story only to be told that the confirmations manager is talking to Charlotte to resolve the issue and that they'll call me.
Couple hours go by and it's almost time to renew my rental again so I ring them again.... The confirmations manager that was dealing with my problem has now gone off duty and the new guy will be on deck shortly and blah de fuckin blah de blah. So I ask them to call me when they've sorted it and ring Alamo to make a new reservation (as Dollar/Thrify is about 3 times the price as Alamo). *deep breaths again* So we head off to the airport to return the Dollar car in exchange for the Alamo rental... And who do I see at the Alamo counter but the bitch from the initial rental. I'm not sure if I mentioned her but she is the height of anti-customer service and funnily enough she was on the phone while a customer in front of her was rolling his eyes and pacing impatiently. Anyway I got served by someone else and got that shit sorted and actually got a 2011 Ford Focus, very swish. I'm hesitant to ring Jigsaw again tonight because I'm just going to get the same fucking story.
AND THEN I log on to my email tonight and fucking well get an email from Alamo wondering if I could call them at the Dallas office to let them know what is going on with my rental. OOOOOOHHHH blood boiling!!!! I politely emailed back to let her know that I have no idea and that I'm still waiting (after 6 fucking days) to have an answer myself.....*deep breaths*
So that's where we are right now. I have a very cool 2011 Ford Focus.... but I'd really rather to have all of this rubbish sorted out because it's sending me broke.... bring on payday. I'll keep you posted. You'll probably hear me rejoicing from where you are when it does get sorted so you'll know when :)
*deep breaths*
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Commercials
Just thought I'd share some weird commercials that are on tv here...
I love this one, cracks me up every time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXYIeHC8D20
Easy Feet foot scrubber so that you don't have to bend down to clean your feet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp2-IpLIrf0
And I think I've ranted before about the drug commercials that are on here and I finally remembered to find some for you to watch so that you can see what I mean. I have no idea how these drugs actually make any money when they advertise those serious side effects. It's the law that they have to disclose the side effects but it's kind of like an anti advertisement to me so I dunno why they bother. Anyway check em out for yourself:
Lunesta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ojjrLARMzA
Humira
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oejFeTv5o
Abilify
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGymr78FtbU
And PS my Project 52 submission is going to be late as I don't have photoshop at the moment as my trial version has expired and I'm just organising a copy. I do actually have an idea for the tricky theme but just need the tool to be able to make it :)
I love this one, cracks me up every time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXYIeHC8D20
Easy Feet foot scrubber so that you don't have to bend down to clean your feet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp2-IpLIrf0
And I think I've ranted before about the drug commercials that are on here and I finally remembered to find some for you to watch so that you can see what I mean. I have no idea how these drugs actually make any money when they advertise those serious side effects. It's the law that they have to disclose the side effects but it's kind of like an anti advertisement to me so I dunno why they bother. Anyway check em out for yourself:
Lunesta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ojjrLARMzA
Humira
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oejFeTv5o
Abilify
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGymr78FtbU
And PS my Project 52 submission is going to be late as I don't have photoshop at the moment as my trial version has expired and I'm just organising a copy. I do actually have an idea for the tricky theme but just need the tool to be able to make it :)
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Full moon strikes again....
So today was my day for re-signing my car rental paperwork and it all went pear shaped and now I am awaiting a response from the UK company that I hired it through to send a "downloaded reservation" to the Charlotte Alamo company so that I can get a new car. In the mean time I've had to hire a car so that I'm not stranded. And on top of that I might be homeless on the 23rd of December and am going to have to wait and see how it all pans out on a day by day basis. I'm staying put for a while here and found the most awesome long stay hotel place that has a kitchen but unless someone else in the building checks out before the 23rd I'm going to have to move. Granted it would only be for a week but it's still a pain in the butt. It's been a strange day today with all of this going on and then I realised that it's full moon tomorrow and it all suddenly made sense :) So just took a coupla deep breaths and dialed down the care factor to a chilly minus 10 and am just going with the flow. I have put my faith in everything going my way and that I won't have to move and that my travel company will quickly resolve my car situation. It is Christmas afterall so perhaps a lil Christmas miracle is in order?? Either way I have a pretty badass car for the next two days, a Toyota Corolla and a fairly new one compared to my lil Texan Chevy Aveo. I'll take some pics tomorrow in the daylight as it's night time right now as I type this to you. Ditto some pics of the hotel art. I've been a bit slack but I'm sure you'll forgive me :) I'm going to be heading up to Boone in the Appalacian mountains in the next couple of days so you'll get your fix of travel photos soon I promise. At the moment I'm just enjoying some chill time, hope you are too!
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Seb's Gordo
Just checking out Seb and Eddie's (non existant!!) submissions for Project 52 and I LOVE Seb's Gordo interpretation so I just had to link it. for your viewing pleasure:
http://sebastianbecher.com.au/2011/12/gordo-space-monkey-photo-3-of-52/comment-page-1/#comment-11615
Please go and check it out, just gorgeous! I'm struggling with this week's theme of the Annals of Connacht..... serious thinking cap material... grrrr. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me, sheesh. Bad enough I'm crap at Photoshop but trying to come up with something for this.... *sigh* .
http://sebastianbecher.com.au/2011/12/gordo-space-monkey-photo-3-of-52/comment-page-1/#comment-11615
Please go and check it out, just gorgeous! I'm struggling with this week's theme of the Annals of Connacht..... serious thinking cap material... grrrr. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me, sheesh. Bad enough I'm crap at Photoshop but trying to come up with something for this.... *sigh* .
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Hotel Art - Charlotte, North Carolina
Tonight's artwork is pretty good, maybe the best I've seen so far but that's not really saying much considering the past crappy art. Judge for yourself :)
And far out, could this week's Project 52 themed BE any harder??? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_Connacht gonna have to put my thinking cap on for this one.
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Project 52 - Gordo the space monkey
So this week's theme was Gordo the Space Monkey ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordo_%28space_monkey%29 ) I'm probably a lil early with my submission but tomorrow is a travel day so I dunno if I'll get it in time if I don't do it now :)
I was playing on the idea that they had never found his body or the vessel and imagined him crashing into a tropical island and living a life of monkey freedom eating bananas and getting up to monkey business. I'm not exactly happy with the shadows on the monkey but didn't have enough time (or skills) to play with it enough and I also think that he's a lil too bright and removed for the scene but its roughly what I'd pictured in my mind so I'm happy enough with it :)
I was playing on the idea that they had never found his body or the vessel and imagined him crashing into a tropical island and living a life of monkey freedom eating bananas and getting up to monkey business. I'm not exactly happy with the shadows on the monkey but didn't have enough time (or skills) to play with it enough and I also think that he's a lil too bright and removed for the scene but its roughly what I'd pictured in my mind so I'm happy enough with it :)
Hotel Art - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Sorry, I keep forgetting to post this up. This is the artwork that is is hung in the cabin that I'm staying and considering that this is my last night before I head to Charlotte I thought it best that I post it up asap :) I've also included some pics taken from the deck at sunset at this little place which I love. I could seriously live here, it's so beautiful.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Myrtle Beac h sunset
I've been hanging out at Myrtle Beach for Thanksgiving staying in the most awesome little camping ground cabin so I don't really have any hotel art for you. I'll take some pics of the paintings that are in here a bit later. Just thought I'd share some beach pics with you cuz this place is beautiful at sunset.
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