Update..........USA vs UK

I guess the other major thing that I think everyone finds tough here is making new friends. Making new friends isn’t hard but it’s finding people who stay here for more than a month or so. Nearly all the friends I had from my first time out here have left. I think 4 remain, the rest have all moved on. It is a transitional place and add to that there is vast amounts of tourists and then lots of students and then lots of military then it’s not the best place to meet friends who are always around. I think a lot of the locals as well don’t waste too much time or energy as they are so used to people moving on. Plus nobody really likes to out for a pint after work on a Friday! Can you imagine! I have met an English woman who lives out here though, and she is fantastic. Also there is a bunch of young people that run a software company in my building at work and they have been great. I have been to their Christmas party & New Years Party and also other events they have had going on. The only sad thing is 3 of them are moving to Boston for a year to start up a new company out there. Since I have been here I have now met 6 people who have left Hawaii for Boston.

Outside of work and trying to meet new friends I have been trying to keep busy. I started playing golf again after someone gave me a set of old clubs and have been playing every Sunday up at a small course on the North Shore. I’m slowly improving and usually playing less than bogey golf for the round. Also been playing a lot of tennis at night after work.

There was 44 days of constant rain in February and March and April which resulted in a huge rush of water overpowering an old sewage line which resulted in it breaking and 248 million tonnes of raw sewage landing in a canal that comes right out into the ocean next to Waikiki Beach. Needless to say I didn’t go swimming for a couple of months and especially when one man who fell in died after the bacteria got into cuts he had on his leg and he contacted a flesh eating disease. I have started to go back in but I am very choosy about the beaches I go too as I have heard that there are still people getting bacteria diseases if they have had open wounds, but not as life threatening as the one who died.

There is a good social scene here a few times a month where parts of the city will be set aside for a particular event. A favourite is First Friday which happens in Chinatown. There are lots of small galleries that open up for the night whilst people walk around them getting drinks and popping in and out of the regular bars that are there anyway. Waikiki is fine if you are here on holiday, but if you live here you get a little tired of the abnokcoious tourists so Chinatown is where most of the locals and business people go out for drinks after work.

I’m still into photography and managed to get a photograph published in the local free newspaper. Still love the free movies they show on the beach here every second weekend. Can’t really beat seeing a movie underneath the stars on a beach for free.

Lost is still as popular out here and they are shooting Season 3 as we speak. They often film at the convention centre across from my apartment for the airport scenes and usually the film crews are downtown using the old buildings as backdrops for scenes. I yet to have seen anyone famous filming but did see Mathew Fox (Jack) on the beach. Lots of people I know have bumped into the stars on occasions and there are certain coffee places and restaurants you are guaranteed to see them at.

American TV is nearly all reality nonsense and its amazing seeing some of the big Hollywood stars are old British stars. Ian McShane from Lovejoy is huge on this western TV Show and then Hugh Laurie is massive as a Dr in a show called House. Even Cat Deeley is presenting over here.

They also have remade a lot of British Shows. The office has been remade, the first season was the same script as the British one but now they have there own episodes and then the other one is coupling that used to be on BBC 2. It’s not as good as the original.

Definitely miss the British shows and a real sense of humour. I have really had to tone down my jokes as people really don’t get my sense of humour here. But then has anyone ever got it????

I listen to Chris Moyles everyday as Radio in America hardly plays any new songs, and then if they do they are on every 30minutes until you are fed up of them. I got to see Jack Johnson & Ben Harper in April which was fantastic as I had been ranting about Jack since I last lived here. I also have tickets to see U2 & Pearl Jam in December but apart from that concerts are pretty few and far between here.

American sports are pretty hard to follow too. American football is just pants and Baseball I think would be good to watch in the flesh but on TV it’s like watching cricket.
Basketball isn’t too bad, but you can pretty much tune into the last 5 minutes and see the game won or lost. I got to see some of the games from the World Cup, but the time difference didn’t help. There is a bar in Waikiki that a guy get’s some Celtic matches on tape a day after they have been played. Then again I would rather watch American Football.

It’s not been all doom and gloom and I do have to pinch myself sometimes when I see where I am living in the world. Every day bar that total weird 44 days of rain has been sunny and warm. Everyday I wear a short sleeved shirt to work or a tee-shirt when I am not working. I only really have trousers to go to work in, the rest of the time its just shorts. The cost of living has gone up, but it is still a lot cheaper here to buy certain things. Clothes are the big one that is cheap compared to back home. I also think it’s cheaper to eat out. It does make a big difference though when it is warm and sunny when you get up. It makes me even more thankful that I don’t have to have another cold Scottish winter morning having to get up at 6am to catch the old bus up the back road to Aberdeen in the dark anymore.