Saturday started out oh so well.

Big session down the gym - told a few gym members that they were weak and worthless and then headed out to do a bit of shopping.

Then in the evening a group of us had a bbq.

And that is when the drinking started, and the tale of Saturday night starts to get blurry.

Straight from the bbq we went to glow bowling at Yorba Balinda Bowl. It seemed like a pretty good deal - 17 dollars for 2 hours worth of bowling with loud music and lighting, and it was good, for the part that I can remember.

You see - bowling is an activity best done while drinking - and bearing in mind that I was drunk by the time I started to bowl, can you imagine what it was like at the end?

Neither can I.

For example I have absolutely no idea how I ended up with a pin:

Thankfully I had my camera with me which I`ve been using to piece together the events of the evening. The bad news is that the picture taken straight after the one above is this:

I can only assume that my nemesis - some bast*rd who is presumably responsible - called the filth.

What happened after that is still a mystery, although I seem to remember there being some sort of chase. The only light the camera offers is this:

Which means that me and the guys I was with must have run into a bunch of randoms who were playing some odd game with golf balls and a clothes horse.

Next weekend wont be any better either - I`m off to Vegas

Oh dear - no posts for a week - does this mean the festival grinch is running out of things to do in California.

No

I`ve been busy organising a road trip around the west coast.

I have a friend coming over on Wednesday and we are spending five days going around various places of interest. The route so far is this:

On Friday we head off to Las Vegas and are spending two nights in Circus Circus Saturday we are getting on a plane to go and check out the grand canyon - which should be cool. Although I`ve just realised that the tour I have booked picks you up at the canyon itself not from Vegas - which is about 270 miles away - I best do something about that…….

Then on Sunday morning we leave Vegas and go over to Mammoth and spend the night there before heading off to Yosemite national park
It`ll be amazing

Fact.

Today at the gym I finished doing my weights and told everyone else in the gym that they were all losers compared to me and they are just wasting their time and money

Pretty much a usual day at the gym then

Until that is I started doing my cardio. I jumped onto the cross trainer and started getting ready to do just a quick half an hour at 85 percent resistance and then this Argentine girl called Nadia got on the cross trainer next to me.

She set the cross trainer to 90 percent resistance.

So I increased mine to 90 percent resistance.

Then we started moving. I set the early pace, and she increased hers to go faster than me.

This was war. There was NO WAY I was going to be beaten by an Argentine girl in a fitness battle.

This was the Falklands of the gym.

There was no chance I was going to stop before her. No way. So when we went past the 30 minute mark I thought she would stop soon.

No.

She kept going.

And so did I.

35 minutes
45 minutes.
50 minutes
55 minutes.

Normally I`d go for an hour, but I would be gasping for breath at this point.

Not today. Cant show signs of weakness in front of the enemy.

But thank God she gave up when she got to 58 minutes.

Victory.

Of course I kept on going for the full hour and managed an extra 150 calories than she did.

I won.

Just doing my bit for Anglo Argentine relations

Well it seems I`ve embraced the American culture

kind of

I still go mental when someone I`m talking to asks me if I`m from Australia. In fact last night I just gave up and told the dude I was talking to that I actually come from Narnia.

I`ve even started taking up American ’sports’ - like ten pin bowling, and it seems I`m actually getting better - I can sort of spin the ball and bit and yesterday I got my first ever turkey. Cool!

There are some things though that I just cannot adjust to. Baked beans for example. To other night I was in a bit of rush after ripping it up for a bit too long in the gym and got back home pretty late. So for a quick dinner I decided to make bean son toast with these interesting new American beans. I have to admit the very reason why I bought honey soaked beans in the first place is a bit of a mystery, but regardless these things were awful absolutely terrible in fact. So I`ve spent the last few days sampling different kinds of beans trying to find something — anything that is close to edible:

Nothing doing - all taste like sweets with all the sugar they have poured over them.

Then today at Albertsons - eureka!!!

Heinz baked beans. I`m a happy camper now, but you would not have wanted to be in my flat this week I can tell you

Well its been another top weekend.

We went bowling which was good and I found an amazing bowling ball that I`m gonna buy:

It reminds me of someone I used to work with.

Then it was on to red lobster for some dinner. I had the lobster tails with shrimp and mashed potatoes.

Which was not bad for ten quid thanks to the ever increasing strength of the pound against the dollar - each day is like a new pay rise for me these days

Last night was interesting.

A friend decided to go and buy a tub of liquid nitrogen - as you do.

The plan started out quite well - just doing the usual stuff - dipping in flowers and smashing them up, putting the liquid nitrogen in your mouth

Then they decided to make a couple of bombs.

To do this trick at home kids you need an empty bottle, some weights, liquid nitrogen and a large water source. Luckily we have a swimming pool:

Or at least we used to have a swimming pool

You can see the whole thing here.
BTW - at the point where the bomb landed that swimming pool is about 8 feet deep.

Sadly the camera did not quite pick up the underground noise from the explosion - you`ll just have to listen to the reaction from the viewers to get an idea.

Yep - today is the first anniversary of the greatest blog ever created - 1point21gigawatts.net.

Exactly a year ago I post my very first post which was - let face it - a bit pants.

Of course I could go on like some sites do about how in the past year there have been 112 posts and 77 comments, but I wont do that I `ll just tell you about what I did today….

I bought a bike..

for 75 dollars and went for a ride around Brae park - and of course the bike ride ended up down at the pub:

The ride home was a bit fun - those bike lanes get a lot more narrow when you`ve had a few ales.

It seems I have embraced the American culture. Just this morning I used teh escalators to go up a single flight of stairs.

More worryingly I made my second trip to iHop in a month and ate their famous pancakes.

On the other hand things might not be as bad as I think. On Independence day I refused the American flag that I was offered - and when asked for the 100th time if we celebrated Independence day in the UK I just said “Look, if we in the UK took a day off everytime we won a war we would never go to work".

That stopped the conversation dead.

Today, the 4th July is Independence Day in America which marks the anniversary of independent statehood of the USA. Its a big deal over here in the US and every town is having a big party.

It seems however that most Americans dont realise that this date is not celebrated in the UK - for obvious reasons. Which surprised me the other day when I was chatting to some guy in a bar.

“Hey what do you guys do in the UK for Independence day?”

Was this guy serious? He did look a bit simple.

“eh? …. er ……. no ……. we dont have Independence day in the UK".

Wait a minute - I can have a bit of fun with this guy.

“Oh wait — yeah, we do have a party, but back in the UK we call it Good Riddance day”

I dont think he got it.

As I said - he looked a bit simple.

I need to have a break.

I just got back from Vegas a couple of hours ago.

I`ve not had any sleep since Friday.

And its easy to see why. This is the view from the Moon nightclub in Vegas.

I`ve been to clubs all over the world and this place is easily the coolest I`ve ever been to.

You have two balconies which are nearly 60 floors up looking out over Vegas which just have glass walls to stop you falling. Which is pretty cool after you`ve had a few ales.

The best bit though is the dance floor. It has a sliding roof which opens up so that you are there throwing some shapes underneath the open sky - which is something else.

Sadly though I didn’t get a chance to get to see the grand canyon, which just means I`ll have to go back there again