Problems With My Sleep

I want to begin by saying no I am not having 'actual' problems with my sleep aside from the usual self inflicted lack of sleep. No insomnia, no distractions, no noisy neighbours...in fact no neighbours at all; it's just a reference to a song. That song would be 'Moving to New York' by The Wombats. Yes, that's right. Although I (Jesse Lewis in case you've forgot) am not literally 'moving' to New York, I do leave Panorama Mountain Village (which has become a ghost town in the days following the mass exodus) and fly to New York in exactly one week and one day, for some good times with great friends, good food, of course some tourist action, possibly going live and then music festivities in New Jersey. That's why I'm writing this blog in two parts; before and after. To be honest it's all quite exciting for me. Not only am I already over the other side of the world from my life in Australia but now that I'm here I'm going to fly to the other side of this country; covering the spreadsheet if you will.

I hope you've already guessed that this bit is part one as I am writing on Monday the 19th of April, 2010. My first thoughts are that I can't believe Dim and myself actually came through with our plans. After much excitement about Vegas and not much action we ditched that idea and decided on New York City and The Bamboozle, and to be honest I had my doubts about whether it would come off. But flights are booked and I received my tickets yesterday (cutting it pretty thin don't you think North American ticketing systems? Your dead to me).

But before I start on my thoughts of New York City, which has completely plagued the planning section of my brain for the past month; I must also talk about the plans in which I have neglected to focus on and are now biting me in the bottom hard leading up to my departure from Panorama. Can anyone remember where I was supposed to be actually moving to? Oh yeah! That's right, Vancouver. Totally forgot. Well at least it feels like it. Today the floor in which I was meant to crash on cancelled on me (last time I rely on a floor) and now I am staying in Panorama an extra two days. But as that thought hit me, it appeared he brought a plus one to the realisation party...I have no job prepared or place to live. Sounds catastrophic. Feels it too. I might have something for the next couple of days to deprive me from my sleep after all. Well, other than a drunk girl aiming a shotgun at my face (true story). On top of all that, I catch my greyhound bus from Golden to Vancouver on the 27th of April, arriving in Vancouver at 5am and then flying to NYC at 8am...3 hour gap...I guess you can tell I planned this with precision.

* * * * * * * *

Turns out the title of this blog fits just perfectly. As much as I thought it was going to be an allusion to the Wombats song "Moving to New York" when I began to write the first half, my two and a half weeks of travel outside of Panorama Mountain Village actually caused many problems with my sleep literally. For the past three weeks I have been living in hostel beds, couches and airport lounges, (and I use the word lounge very loosely, more like doctors waiting room chairs pushed together) eating nothing but ramen noodles and kraft dinner (cheap and very, very disgusting macaroni and cheese).

Part two of this saga is not so much a downfall as it is just a straight out fact of life, and of traveling for more than 6 months overseas. It involves bright lights, big city, sweet music, high times and failed plans. As a side note, I would like to say that just because it involves failed plans doesn't mean everything didn't work out for the best. First off I'd like to say I had a wicked "holiday". New York City was so much fun and even the time I spent kicking back and partying in Vancouver after deciding not to settle in there was amazing. Before I start with the tale of my struggle back to the mountains, let's start with the good stuff.

I left Panorama on Tuesday the 27th of April in a car with my friend Alana to be dropped of at Golden greyhound station, ready for the bus to Vancouver. Overnight I was in transit for 14 hours arriving in Vancouver at 5am, rushing to the airport for my 8am flight to NYC. Basically my Pano room mate Dim and I flew all day to get to JFK airport where we arrived at 9:30pm. My first impressions of New York were scary as hell. Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Law & Order or read too many Jeffery Deaver novels but straight out from the airport I was on alert. We walked out with our bags with every taxi driver harassing the arrivals for their commission; the cheapest ride being an unmarked black "taxi". There were a few like it but I still felt on edge. As soon as we got in the taxi the doors locked and I realised there was no taxi meter to judge the fare. I was freaking but didn't say anything. We drove through Queens and Brooklyn and first red light we come to there are noises of arguments in the streets, people screaming and fights; not helping my attitude much. Lucky I didn't react to the driver, he actually turned out to be really helpful and even when dropping us off, offered to drive around to ask about the apartment when we had trouble finding it at the address it specified.

When the sun came up for the first day we had to spend in the City everything looked completely different. The view from our window in the upper east side showed young kids walking unaccompanied to school, businessmen walking their dogs and sidewalks lined with flower beds. Sounds corny but it was completely true; apparently we picked the perfect neighbourhood. On our first day in NYC, Dim and I proved to be the ultimate tourists. In one day we saw the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, Rockerfeller Centre, Lincoln Centre, Broadway & Times Square, Central Park and Central Park Zoo. The city was pretty busy as expected but was an amazing experience just to be amongst it. The second day was no different. We went to canal street and Chinatown for breakfast, walked the Brooklyn Bridge for Ice Cream in the "Not so secret Park", saw Wall Street and the Stock Exchange, the Trump Building, took the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Centre site, had dinner in Soho and drinks in West Village. Seeing so much in such a short time on the most perfect of days was the best.

Some funny times came after that second day though. We had a few drinks in West Village and after a long, long walk, finally found our way back home to the apartment. By that time I was very keen to go out for a good time and see what the New York nightlife has to offer; even though my travel buddy Dim wasn't. So while Dim hit the sack early ready for the Bamboozle Festival the next day, I found a bar appropriately named "The Stumble Inn" and sat down for a few quiet drinks. On my first beer, a black girl at the bar began to talk to me and after hearing the story of where I was from and what not introduced me to her crew who were all from Brooklyn. It ended up being a pretty crazy night. All I can say is we drank lots, chatted lots and had some loose times out on the streets of the upper east side in NYC. After saying goodbye at the bar I dropped into a 24 hour deli to get a chicken salad sandwich and headed back to the apartment. Straight away it sounded like a shambles; strange loud noises coming from the room downstairs of ours. So before heading home I decided to check out what sounded like a pretty rowdy party. My suspicions were confirmed immediately as I walked into a room full of about 20-30 Uruguayian people jumping around, swinging their drinks and chanting what sounded like a never ending Ricky Martin song but was actually just lots of different latin songs. Within about two minutes of entering the room I had a beer in my hand and was trying to follow the spanish lyrics to the ricky martin rip-off songs. After loads of "What?" and "Huh?", I learned that not only was it someone's birthday party, but these guys did not speak a word of english and couldn't understand a word I said. The funniest part of this was that after they gave up trying to understand me the birthday boy just shrugged and said the only words of english he seemed to know "Oh well, it's a party".

Next two days were the Bamboozle festival. It was boiling both days and I got severely burnt!! Despite this setback it was absolutely amazing. For $104 bucks, the two days were well worth the money and more. I saw MGMT, Girl Talk, Say Anything, Motion City Soundtrack, Ke$ha, The Maine, The Ready Set, Fun., Arj Barker, Something Corporate and heaps of other sick bands in an amazing setting outside the New York Giants stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The most fun and challenging part was on the second day, downing a litre bottle of apple pucker before the festival and then going on every single ride in the theme park section of the festival (which by the way, was all completely free). The night time on the second day blew my mind; Dim left early because she'd seen hanson already (haha) and I doubt wanted to see any of the other acts. When it went dark, all the lights turned on and it looked some crazy carnival with Girl Talk and MGMT's stage and light shows going off and me still in mood to cut loose in the dance pit; it was the perfect finish to a great four days.

Long story short, after sleeping in JFK and Portland airports over a collective 34 hours, I got to Vancouver and was offered two jobs within about three days. I can say that Vancouver is an amazing place to live and stay if you're set up already and would've been perfect had I done all this upon arrival in November. But doing it now when I'm running low on funds and looking towards a much more important one to two month road trip through the west coast of the U.S.A, it seems to expensive, not worth it and I decided to return to Panorama where I have set myself back up with two jobs, making good money and spending very little. Although it's off season and there has been some hiccups getting settled back in with the crowd I am now back on track and am very well positioned to save lots of money for what I hope will be an amazing, haggard and loose road trip with the boys B-Rod and Dad.

As for Panorama summer. I'm not too fussed about golf, mountain biking or hiking. But there is lots to do, more crowd to come and I'm sure lots to blog about, so stay tuned. If there is a big hiatus until the road trip, trust me...it'll be worth it.

Tuning In Live From The Last Day of Panorama 09/10

This week's blog is sad yet simple. The theme; Panorama = Over. It's been about five long and amazing months since we all arrived here in November and now the season is officially done. We had some good snow in the last few days which allowed for a bit of fun for us leading up to what was seeming like a very depressing departure. I have to say I have spent 21 years of my life in Australia and not made such a wide selection of very flippin' close friends as I have spending five months in staff accomodation at Panorama Mountain Village. Panorama life is like real life on steroids.

I'd just like to speak about some of my favourites; as the season has wound down there has been less trips. I've needed to save my cash to buy a new van, which we dubbed "KeVAN Rudd" after our dear Australian prime minister. After that there is the expensive return ticket from Vancouver to New York City to buy. I would say it's putting me out of pocket if I hadn't have had to sell my pockets for petty cash. So instead of saying what's happened in the last couple of weeks I'd like to start with some great memories and just general thoughts about everything over here.

I still remember my first three days at Panorama. No computer or internet, no mode of transport (I had to hitch-hike to get groceries), hadn't made any friends yet, no way of contacting people back home and to top it off I had the worst job in the village working as a janitor in housekeeping. I just wanted to wait it out for a month and bail. The first week I met Brad and Nanna on the friday night at our Monument house party, woke up still kinda drunk the next morning and ended up in Banff that night. That was three days into it, this is three days leaving and what a different feeling it is. Here I am five months later wishing I didn't have to leave. The gradual parade of housemates leaving for different destinations started yesterday morning. First it was Dim and Martha waking me up to say a quick goodbye, then Brad and Alex came in to film our emotional goodbye message which I then followed by chasing the van down the street yelling. But I think the worst of all was seeing pretty much every housemate I've had for about 5 months get onto the staff bus and leave in unison for Calgary at about midday. The thing with this part was that a lot of them I was awesome friends with, but not close enough to be so sure there will be other adventures together.

I've rode seven different mountains and seen a lot of what the Canadian winter has to offer. The list includes Whistler, Revelstoke, Sunshine Village (Banff), Lake Louise, Whitefish (Montana, US), Kicking Horse and of course, Panorama. At times I've drunk enough to feel comfortable walking home from the bar through blizzarding snow in a T-shirt and jeans and I've come dangerously close to winning the Panorama best form competition. I've been lost in Montana and invented the "Boston Browser".

Most notable of the drunk efforts this season has been the recent four day bender to end the season. It all started with friday; tuning in live from outside Monument House where the staff were "getting maggot" as our live broadcaster Sam would tell it. We lunged in the common room, we had a random haircut happening in the middle of the party and we had some moshers destroying the old lounges. Second night involved the last Saturday at T-Bar where once again the staff were "getting maggot". I kept running into the infamous ski-shot after not having done it all season. We decided it was a must but before even ordering some girl asked me to do her shot as she didn't want to do it. We shredded the dance floor but saved a little bit for the next two days. Sunday was slush cup, where Mr. Brad Van Der Linde won best trick for his amazing backflip into the manky water. The night brought in "Drink the Jackpine Dry" where I accidentally spent about $60, ouch. Monday though was the best vibed day I've ever had in my life. Alex woke me up (hungover of course) to do a shot and a have a beer. We grabbed our beers and headed to the end of season staff party we're we had a massive feed and chilled to mid-ninties classics on the great hall deck overlooking the front of the ski hill. We got to ride one run for two hours but it was one of the best rides of my life (partly due to the staff once again "being maggot") but also to do with the fun vibe, riding in jeans and a hoodie instead of our heavy duty snow gear. We had the awards and continued back to staff accomm for a bonfire. The bonfire was irregular to say the least, with it being started by everyone throwing items they didn't need in a pile and lighting it on fire. There were boots, TV's, snowboards, clothes; but most noteably was the 15 metre beam that took almost 30 people to lift onto the fire. In the words of Sam Reindler "it takes a few good men to burn a log", and that it did. It will probably take a small crane to get it off now (good luck summer maintenance team). The night was a mixture of confusion and amazing, mostly amazing though. Tuning in live from all sorts of locations in the T-Bar for pre school pee's, dance floor shredding and texta commando's.

The one word that can describe the new vibe in Monument House is "gutted". It's not sad enough to have a teary but everyone definately feels lost. But I am very grateful for the time well spent and I will always remember everything about this place; my amazing friends, monument house, taynton bowl and hanging out in the great hall for four hours when I'm meant to be working (hope my boss doesn't blog, I still technically have two more weeks of work). But last night in all the confusion and sadness happening around the house I got creative and wrote a song as a sort of personal salute to Panorama, Monument, all my friends I've made and the times I've had. Since I'm blogging on a personal level with this Canada thing, I figured I'd share with you all a few lyrics (fingers crossed it's not gay).

The Monument Lodge

Life is only short if you expect it,
but I found out a time and place that's worth it
When August comes around I hope your waiting
to sweep me off my feet again.
The last four days we waited for the earth to stop it's spinning
we said our goodbye's and cursed our flights
the homecoming's that we never needed.

All my life I've waited for this to come around
All this time, for you to come around.

The ghosts in the Monument Lodge are weighing heavy on me.
The place is closed, and noone knows if we'll ever be here again.
So when I leave, I'll brush my teeth and stare at what's in front of me
trying to figure out if I've just been dreaming

We act on bad idea's as if we mean to

but that's the only vice I'll live and breathe to

In two weeks time I'll be in New York City,

but I'll always revise this time.

All my life I've waited for this to come around
All this time, for you to come around

And I've waited so long, for this to come into my life
You'll never be excavated from my memories
But when I go, I do not know if I'll ever feel like this again
But I'll never forget my time in the Monument Lodge.

All my life I've waited for this to come around
All this time, for you to come around
Getting on the road, the falling snow and I'll never forget the crowd.
All this time, for this to come around.

Back to you in the studio Tom...