Andrew Boon

Spent a couple of days in San Diego… great city for vacation, fun and a little bit of romance. I made a few pictures and now I can”t breathe evenly when I watch’em. Yes, yes, I love her…

We left Miami and arrived to LA, loaded with big deal of impressions and conclusions. Now it’s changing. I mean, really the two states are SO different. In Australia you don’t see such a striking difference between states and cities, even distant ones. Here, in US, they are like totally different countries.

Miami, Orlando (Florida)

“Love & Hate” experience. Florida made our mood bouncing from excitement to sadness and back… all the time. And the mistake was to judge entire country accordingly.

Ok, step by step…

First, we were SHOCKED to see that majority of cars on the reads are huge SUVs! We rented a small Chevrolet Cobalt and felt like we’re in gas-guzzling hell. Oh yeah, those people really need more oil. I mean a LOT more oil. And the sad part is that it’s always 1 (one, uno) person in each car – they buy freaking monsters for everyday commuting! All this carelessness grows, en-masse, along with economic downturn and never-ending oil wars, let alone global warming and pollution. Why bother, when you can comfort your precious patooties in a 4-6lt drive-train and hit local MacDonalds (drive-trough, of course) for your own part of American Dream – Big Mac, chips and coke – all separately packed and complimented with plastic tools. Who the fuck cares about environment here?! I know there’s black and white and grey, but we happened to see a little too much black in FL.

Oh, and here’s our white car:

Chevrolet Cobalt. 2-door. 30MPG.

Then, streets are not as clean and nice as they are in Sydney. They are not too bad, but oh-so-famous “American roads” are nothing to drool for. In fact roads there suck. Big time. Signs, markings and surface dated almost everywhere. You can literally feel that the US budget is limited.

Customer service is mostly poor. Hotels, cafes, tours, etc. – all of them. Sometimes you feel OK, sometimes you’re left neglected, but would still get a handsome “18% gratitude” added to your bill.

Food is another “problem” here, for us vegetarians anyway. It gets worse in Orlando or in between Miami and Orlando.

Driving is a little stressful. It’s not India or Kyrgyzstan, but it’s not Australia either. Americans have to learn how to be nice on the road.

Disney World is huge, but its “popularity” ruins the magic. How about standing in line for 30 minutes for a 1 minute ride? Hoards of people, high prices and junk food built and image of ‘stables’ in our minds.

on the other hand…

Monkey Jungle is a cool place – small, cozy and relaxing. Monkeys are hanging out in the forest while you walk through a “cage”. You can put raising into small plates that hang on little chains and monkeys pull those plates to take raisins. Inverted zoo, if you will, but it feels so much better than the traditional zoo.

Butterfly World is amazing! It’s a magical place… Matthew had butterflies sitting on his finger in no time and was really thrilled. No ride at Disney World could compete with THAT feeling.

The beach

at Miami Beach is pretty nice, clean and well-organized. Water is a little cold, but OK. We managed to squeeze a few hours to “touch the sand”, rented a “gazebo” and some food from Ritz Hotel enjoyed every single moment there.

Children’s Museum is the #1 attraction we’ve seen in US so far. It’s not a playground and not a museum. It’s both, in one. Matt did groceries, visited a dentist, learned about Jazz, deposited money to the bank, loaded a ship and more, and more, and more.

The conference was a success. Great people, new friends, exciting opportunities. It just couldn’t be any better.

Los Angeles (California)

… is different.

Yeah, it really is very different and we like it much, much more than Florida. Still doesn’t beat Sydney though (or maybe it’s our bias).

Toyota Prius is VERY popular and you generally see lots of smaller cars, which is great. We rented a Prius for a few days too and now love the car. Thumbs up to Toyota!

There’s no city. I mean LA is by all means a huge metropolis, but not that much a city. There’s no proper ‘center’, no architectural flow, no special style. It’s just a humongous heap of EVERYTHING. Small building, large building, tiny building, all mixed and spread.

If I were to name the single best reason to live in LA, I name the “Whole-foods Market“, which is a local chain of food-stores selling strictly organic products. Organic dog-food, vegan chicken breasts, organic wine, shampoo and even recyclable shoes. Hip? You’ll like it. We love it.

Hollywood is fake.

We love The Promenade in Santa Monica for the buskers-performers who manage to surprise and impress us every week.

Santa Barbara is a neat little town with a couple of nice streets. Not much more than that. Fells like Windsor to me (part of Sydney).

Beverly Hills is expensive, pretentious and millionaire-y. Nice place to walk though.

The Grove at Farmers Market

could be a little bigger, but is still a very romantic place.

Getty Center is phenomenal! That’s what American Dream should have been – build a beautiful inspiring villa, fill it with artwork and share with people.

OK, ok, ok I’ll slow down for now. It looks like shorter but more frequent posts would work better.

So far, we like America – it has everything – opportunities, beggars, millionaires, crappy roads, good food, junk food, bad suburbs, good suburbs, mustangs, priuses, you name it. We’re not staying, but we’ll be frequent guests for sure.

Miami and LA pics:

Ok, we’re in Miami for 2 weeks already. Our second time here and again.. lots of impressions, lots of photos, lots of work, lots of fun. I’ll be posting more about this trip shortly. One thing for sure – this time it was GRRREAT for business! www sex view

… with very “mixed” feelings. It’s cold, dull, aggressive, expensive, cold, cold, and cold. Bishkek is not for vegetarians and not for little kids.

On the other hand – Matt loves snow; BoonEx team is great and we love being close and personal; meeting with friends is awesome; and our old car is a pleasure to drive.

Get something, lose something.

I miss Sydney.

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(this post is a little… backwards)

Some people just live their lives, some change the world, some create masterpieces, some create wars… and there’s one very special breed – those who connect us with God (or a Supreme Being of your choice). Every once in a while you meet them among strangers, or your friends, or celebrities. At some point you, yourself, can be one of them. It’s that feeling when you suddenly realize that every breath of yours is there for some reason, something very important… and then, your next breath is a breath of a better person.

Sting performed in Syndey Opera House with Edin Karamazov, promoting their album “Songs From the Labyrinth”. The unique chance to hear beautiful music of lute and the oh-so-beloved voice of Sting.

To give you some insight, a couple of quotes from today’s news (Sydney Morning Herald by Harriet Cunningham):

It is hard to believe that Sting has never played at the Sydney Opera House before. Platinum records, Grammys and Oscars, playing to 100,000 people, no sweat, but put him in the (relatively speaking) intimate confines of the Concert Hall and he looks slightly nervous. Loping on with the wonderfully nerdy lutenist Edin Karamazov, he sits down among a small forest of lutes and begins to sing.

John Dowland (1563-1626) was an English composer, singer and lutenist. His songs have a haunting quality that resonates with many musicians, not least Elvis Costello, but in the hands of Sting they have most certainly found a fine 21st-century home. Sting is part-singer, part-storyteller, immersing us in the turbulent 16th century before revisiting some old 20th-century songs.

and this one:

Karamazov, however, is the real inspiration here, an ideal straight man who crafts the intricate accompaniments with exquisite care and style.

Each of the two were the equal part of one – an inspiring spirit of beauty, born right there – on the scene of Sydney Opera House.

Sadly порно видео на cd , the day before the performance Jørn Utzon – the designer of Sydney Opera House passed way, at the age of 90. He’s one of those who blessed us with the chance to sit there, in the Concert Hall of one of the world’s most iconic and most beautiful theaters and listen to the tunes of archlutes. Thank you.

Surprisingly

, before Sting and Edin Karamazov we had an unexpected treat – special guests…

ZBG takes its name from the surnames of its three members: Allan Zavod, David Berlin and Slava Grigoryan. All three musicians are respected in their own right and their highly original music encompasses the diverse backgrounds of these three musicians, resulting in inimitable ‘soundscapes’ of classical/jazz fusion. The music is uplifting and emotive, consisting of dazzling technical feats, moments of pure melodic and harmonic beauty, which result from perfectly coordinated dynamics within the ensemble, underpinned by strict classical discipline contrasting with totally free jazz rhythms and improvisations. (thedwarf.com.au)

These are the moments when I regret my English is not good enough to describe the feelings and emotions. Just… if you care… go back to the beginning of the post and read over.

We had the best seats possible, right in the middle – first row of the “circle” right behind the operators. We could feel like 16th century King and Queen, and we did.

What a day! Relaxing dinner before the performance and romantic walk right after, packed with warm ocean breeze and tender hand of the world’s most beautiful woman.

Thank you Sting. Thank you Edin. Thank you Jørn. Thank you ZBG. Thank you Julia. And thank you the Supreme Being of my choice.

Julia at home

Sneaky little damselfly

This little creature tried to spy out our trade secrets today! Was shot by Julia without mercy.

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My old Powerbook Pro retired a while ago and was sold on Ebay and the desktop mac is not-so-portable (it’s almost not portable at all). So, we decided to go for the just announced MBPs (one for Julia too, since her old one is acting up) and they’ve arrived today! Whoohoo!

MacBook Pro

Inside, the main difference is the Nvidia chipset and GPU. Good stuff for the new Photoshop CS4.

Outside, it’s the new design, OLED-back-lit display, and the new multi-touch trackpad.

For me the biggest hit so far is the trackpad, which really excels compared to the one in my old Powerbook. Tapping, double-tapping for right click and exposE gestures really cut on the value of a notebook mouse.

All-on-all, great update! Very recommended.

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From now on me, Julia and Matthew are Boons.

Andrew Boon, Julia Boon and Matthew Boon. The new surnames shoudl work better in English-speaking enviroment. the old surnames are still effective and can be used, if need be.

With 100% score – both me and Julia passed the Citizenship Test yesterday. Wooohoo! So, now it’s only a matter of time for us to get the new passports and finally become real-deal Ozzies.

The test wasn’t too difficult, but still requires some basic knowledge of Australian history and understanding on political and social structure.

Happy us

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