So Heidi finally got her way and she now has a cat. Yep that is right, she has a cat. We have a nice new cat (well new to us), her name is Darcy and she is a 2 year old Domestic Medium Hair. Heidi seems to love her more every day, but I don’t yet know what is going on with this cat.

Darcy seems to be warm to me, then a few minutes later will be scared of me. So confusing! But she is funny in what she does do. She is not really a jumping cat, but she will climb up to places. She likes to sit in the kitchen either on the seats at the Dining table or sometimes on the placemats on the dining table (not the table itself, just the placemats). She still hides (she didn’t leave from under the bed for almost a day when we got her) but not that much. Her favorite hiding places seem to be behind the couches, or under the buffet in the living room. She did love to hide behind the washing machine/dryer but we have stopped that from happening (i hope).

It is kind of weird to have a little white fluffball around all the time, but it is starting to become more commonplace. She likes to sit and watch tv with us, or just watch us in general. Which is fine because I don’t mind as long as she isn’t in the way, but as soon as I put my boots on, she scampers off (guess she doesn’t like big clunky foot malcolm).

I’ve never had a pet before, so it is interesting to have another mouth to feed (I gained one when I married Heidi… just kidding baby.. love you xx). Darcy really doesn’t cause much hassle as she eats when she wants and doesn’t seem all that picky… yet. She doesn’t make much noise which is good, but that also makes it difficult in knowing where she is, because she is so silent. I like to call her ninja cat because she just disappears at the drop of a hat.

Our little Ninja Cat

Our little Ninja Cat

So tomorrow is my birthday (at least in US time) and as I wind down another trip around the sun I have to think back at how much has changed.  5 years ago on my 30th birthday at this exact moment I was sitting in a theatre in New York at The Colbert Report.  It was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it.  I went on to run around Central Park and also do some other crazy things on my trip.  I spent the evening of my actual birthday flying for the first time to Europe and that was a pretty amazing trip all on its own.

 

Back in Australia I used to look forward to this time of year due to the Ekka, but now over here in the USA it is more about SeaFair.  I can look back over the last few years at my birthdays and see the total variations for each one.  Each year has been different as well.  Last year was a pretty quiet one with just me and Heidi, yet I have had great times in the past with other people (brunch at Barrio with a large group of friends was awesome).

 

So this year as I start my 35th year, I am looking forward to plenty of fun tomorrow with my friends and my new American family…

 

Happy Birthday to Me! 

This trip has been pretty amazing. I can’t believe how much work has gone into it over the last 12 months or so. The planning, the organizing and then in the last month or so the execution of it all. It was so much work, but yet it was totally worth it in the end.

The trip itself was over 22,000 miles (22675 to be exact) and there was both good and bad parts. The good far outweighed the bad. The delays, losing my stuff, all bad. But yet it is fairly small things that happened and are fairly meaningless in the overall scheme of things.

The good outweigh everything here and make this trip the fully memorable journey that it is. Heidi and I had a blast in so many places and it was so good introducing Heidi and her parents to what felt like my entire family. We shared so many good moments and enjoyed doing it.

All of the trip has been sorted out now, putting things away, working out what I brought back and what I didn’t. I have fixed up the majority of my photos (still have all the spotting photos to go) and they are now online at the following links:

Circling the Pacific
Circling the Pacific Pt 2

It is split up thanks to Picasa but otherwise everything is good to go! I loved every minute of this trip and can’t wait to go back to both Australia and Japan again!