Back to reality

To anybody still brave enough to read my blog, I apologize for not making any post recently. I have returned to my "day job" of managing casinos on board cruise ships. This will be my last contract as I have taken on another job.......This one is mamoth and I'm hoping I am man enough for it. I will marry early next year as most of you reading this already knows and so I will no longer ply my trade on the open ocean but rather somehwere ese. Where that may be I can't yet say as it is a mystery even for me.
So the posts may be fewer over the next few months and maybe I won't be able to post many pictures just yet but I promise to post at least something even without any nice pictures to illustrate just what it is I see outside my porthole every day!

Keep on reading and why not tell your friends to read my travelling blog...................Some of the places I go is truly spectacular and well worth a read!

Proudly South African

We went walking around New York City this afternoon. We went walking way to far for my liking but it was good getting some very much needed excersize. At some point I have to get back into shape so that I don't make a complete hash of our wedding next year!

So as we walked down at the very most southern point of Manhattan we came across a very small park with a monument in the park. The monument happened to pay homage to the soldiers who went missing and passed away in the Korean War. The monument was pretty moving but what did surprise me was what I found on the southern wall of this monument. As you can see in my picture that I included on the wall of this rememberance was the old South African flag. It was with incredibly mixed feelings with which I explained to Ginger what all the little flags in the middle meant and also when our flag changed from the old flag to the new one. Now let me just begin by saying I'm very proudly South African and I could not be happier with the new flag we have........It is just that for the predominant part of my life I knew only one flag. The old one. I would love for these mixed feelings in me not to exist, but they do. I would love for the fear I have in my heart for my families who live there not to exist, but it does. Life throws many curve balls at us and it is how we deal with them that define us but it still can never prepare you for the duality of loving your heritage and dealing with reality!

Its a party.....a birtday party

I have to apologize as the next few blog posts will distinctly look like a travel blog but if you read my header of my blog you will notice that this would be true for at least half of what I write here......So here we go with me being a travelling boy from Johannesburg.

At the end of last week Ginger and I got to travel to Atlantic City to celebrate my 33rd birthday. We stayed at the Bally's hotel and Casino right on the world famous "Boardwalk". It was not the newest or best hotel but certainly good enough for what we were looking for. You have to forget everything you have ever read about Atlantic City and just go there with an open mind. It is sometimes overwhelming, though not as bad as Las Vegas but it is very overpowering in all senses of the word. If you stay on the boardwalk and you have a stroll on this legendary piece of walkway you notice that there is some absolute abject poverty on and around the strip area. There are more vagrants on the side of the streets than most places. Also inbetween the nice hotels there are some very poor communities living right amonst the casinos. The contrasts are quite vivid and sometimes a little upsetting. With me being in the casino industry I know that this poverty is directly related to the casinos and you don't have to look very much further than the mother and father having their 10 year old daughter sing on the boardwalk for donations to realize that these casinos have forced a family to turn to its youngest member for some form of income!!!!

Ok ok ok so it was rough to see people live the way they do but I'm not here to discuss the fiscal situation of the Atlantic City population but rather my 33rd birthday with Ginger.

We got to gamble a little (which was not successful at all but we had a great amount of fun) and Ginger also took me to a very nice restaurant for dinner. We went to one of the newest hotels in Atlantic City called the Borgata Hotel and we had dinner at a restaurant called the Old Homestead. The restaurant is predominantly a steak house but they have different fares for every pallete. Ginger got to have some Oysters from Toronto as well as the west coast of the US. True to form I got a big, juicy piece of New York Strip steak which was glorious. We got this very cute picture taken in the restaurant. Note the bull in the background which is the signature animal for this restaurant. Funny thing is the bulls name is Anabelle. Go figure!!!

Atlantic City is a great place to relax and enjoy some adult fun. There are shows, casinos, restaurants and clubs. Oh and not to forget the beach is but a few meters away from the boardwalk. Just don't have any pre conceived notions about the place. Just go there and enjoy it for what it is! Come on the hard six!!!!!!

See you when I'm 33

Ginger and I are heading off to Atlantic City for 3 days to see what things are like down in Southern New Jersey and also to celebrate my 33rd birthday!
Plenty of pictures and stories to follow.

Mclaughlin Christening

The thing about any family or church experience is that it makes you miss your family and close relatives so very much. I had the priviledge and honour to be invited to some new friends special day this Sunday. Our friends, Molly and Frank Mclaughlin Christened their beautiful twins, Margaret and Colin in St. Francis Church in Bogota, New Jersey. We were fortunate to be able to be with them for most of the day and everything went off without a hitch. There were some great snacks to be had at the Mclaughlin home before moving on to the church for the ceremony. The two bundles of joy looked fantastic in their Christening Gowns and their behaviour was nothing short of exemplary. Not a squeak to be heard from either before, during or after the big event and if we can all remember back that far it can be a pretty traumatic experience for a youngen to endure!

It was all about God, love and family and the bond these things share when growing up and growing old.................I miss all my family and friends so very much back home in South Africa but please know there is not a day goes by that I don't think about you all.

All I can say is that I'm blessed to have found a partner that I can start my own life and hopefully a family with someday.

FOXwoods

Well we travelled to Upstate Connecticut to go to the two biggest casinos in the world. All I managed to find was this one hot FOX!!!!!!!!! (And Ginger was not too bad either:o)

Golfing in New Jersey

I had the pleasure to play at one of the most beautiful golf courses in New Jersey called Skyview Golf Club. It is a semi private course in Sparta, New Jersey which is about an hours drive out of New York City.

The course is beautiful and it also has some great homes situated on the golf course. Ginger and I have already made some enquiries about home prices there as it is the ideal place to live if we do stay in this area afer being married.

Back to the good stuff.......The course is a little short for my liking and also I did not have a sand wedge in the bag of clubs I hired. This coupled with the fact that I have no idea what a "yard" measures in the metric system so I hit the ball so well that I hit it over every green I approached for the first 9 holes. The course is extremely undulating but very picturesque. (See picture of me on the par 5 fifth hole)

I also had the pleasure of having Ginger with me. She not onl shared the beauty of the course but she also donned her "caddy" hat and helped me select some clubs. Te best quote I can remember her making was on the very first hole....."Honey can I kick the ball in for you?" :o) Now that brought a smile to my face!!!

I finished the round in 84 strokes which was not too bad at all considering I had no sandy and also I had never played golf here. In fact I had never even played golf in the US before :o)

I'll hopefully be plying another round somewhere before I have to go back to work and I will most certainly post some pictures.

Vegas.....What a trip

After some horseracing tips I think I should return to things I do a little better........Traveling and having a blast!!!!

So it came about a while ago that a few of us good friends would be in the US at the same time and also at the same time as a noteable UK alternative rock band called....COLDPLAY! As good old fashioned supporters and die hard fans of all things Vegas we thought this a perfect oppertunity to reunite with old friends and make some new ones too.

We planned, pondered and purchased as time grew near for us to meet up in Las Vegas, Nevada. When the day finally came for us to meet up we were all ready and rearing to go. July 19th was the day of the concert and also the day I arrived to 45 degree celsius temperatures in the city that neve sleeps. I was last in Vegas some 16 years ago and boy has things changed. As my flight landed from Portland, Oregon I looked in awe as I saw row upon row upon row of glamorous new hotels and casinos. If you are in the casino business as I am it is like an Elvis fan coming home to Graceland!

Ok, so off to the hotel we were staying at, the Paris hotel right on the Vegas strip. Booking into our rooms was easy and then it was off to the casino floor to grab a drink and have a look around. The first day was a little rushed as our main aim for this trip was coming up that evening....Coldplay. After one or two cold beverages we got changed and headed over to the MGM Grand Arena where the concert was scheduled to take place. Getting through the maze of slot machines and table games on the huge MGM Grand floor was not an easy task and it almost required a GPS system to get us to the Grand Arena. All is well that end well when we managed to locate the arena and present our tickets to the gorilla at the entrance. He was surprisingly gentle as the pat down only lead to minor screams of delight from our intrepid 4-some.

Inside the arena the place was packed and this was quite a surprise to me as I did not think UK bands could make such a splash in the US. There have been a few entertainers from the motherland who have come here and failed, most notably Robbie Williams but this seemed to be a bird of a different feather. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Coldplay's lead singer, Chris Martin is married to a Yankee....Gwyneth Paltrow.

All things considered the show was really top notch. The set was well thought out and included enough old songs for the connoisseur as well as some new songs from their brand new album Viva La Vida (See picture taken at the concert). I loved the concert and the venue. It was nothing short of spectacular and with some good friends by my side we really started off our Vegas trip in the best way possble.

As the concert let out we strolled back to the hotel. AS we had all had excessively long days arriving in Vegas we decided to not take Vegas by storm on the first evening and retire early....like 2AM in the morning early......

Day two in Vegas and the fun really began. We moved from hotel to hotel, casino to casino. Drinking our way from one end to the other. We completed a tradition that Cranny, (aka. Mark Cranwell), had done late last year in Vegas. We bought "footballs" filled with a frozen drink from the New York, New York hotel. After finishing this drink we proceeded to the Mirage hotel. From there we moved to the front side of the hotel where we went to the front just before the strip. There is a statue of a little elephant in the gardens right next to the sidewalk. At this little elephant we all had to do an impression of an American Football players interpretation of an "Endzone Dance". In this dance you have to celebrate scoring a touchdown by doing a unique dance. (If you want to see mine you are able to view it on my facebook page). It was another huge success and some great fun for all of us.

The rest of the trip went as scheduled. Lots of drinking by some, lots of gambling by others. Cranny and I never slept for the rest of the trip which included some great gambling and a low end establishment further down on the strip. The dealers were old and near death but friendly and curteous that others in "bigger" casinos could easily learn from.

Come Moonday the 21st July, I was ready to head back to the loving arms of my Fiancee up in Portland, Oregon......What a concert, what a town, what a trip!!!!!

Racing results

The weekend saw the running of the Canon Gold Cup and the results were pretty favorable for the big race. The pre race favorite, Desert Links won in good style and has confirmed himself as an excellent stayer in South Africa. (He is pictured here winning)

As for my tips......I did mention the winner in my pre race comments but it was my second choice only. My choice, River Jetez ran in midfield and the weight may just have been too much for her. Watch her in the future though!

Horses for courses

This will be the title of my daily horseracing "tip" I will provide on my blog. I'm not sure how many of the people reading this will be racing fans but I must say that this is my second most favorite and passionate subject (after Ginger obviously) in the world.

Ok so lets get onto business. Tomorrow in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal (which got part of its name from Bartholomeusz Diaz, a Portuguese explorer who discovered the east coast of South Africa. When he saw the land he exclaimed "Bon Natale" which in Portugese means Merry Christmas. The name Natal stuck :o) we will be witnessing the running of one of the most popular racing events on the South African racing calendar. It is the Canon Gold Cup! This is one of the oldest races in South Africa to be run at the local Durban racecourse called Greyville.

Ok so lets get down to business. The favourite for this 3200 meter contest is a horse called Desert Links. This horse ran a very good race in the Vodacom Durban July (which is our biggest annual event) and will have no problems with the longer distance of this race. It is interesting though that he has never won beyond a distance of 2000 meters but still should cope none the less. The horse I'm going to tip to win here though is a filly called River Jetez. (Pictured here winning the Astrapak 1900 on the same Durban racecourse) She is as consistent as they come and she is a full sister to our current horse of the year Pocket Power. Also she has good form over varying distances. She is as versatile and honest as the day is long and if her weight of 56kg's is not too much for her to carry over this marathon distance then she will be a very big runner.

All in all this race always delivers a very exciting result and there are many with chances. If you fancy a little flutter have an each way bet on River Jetez. If you want another bet offering more value perhaps then have a "boxed swinger" on Desert Links, River Jetez and a horse called Magical Ballad. (Those numbes are 4, 7 and 18)

Good punting to you all