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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Houston: 4th most populous city in USA, say whaaaaat?!

Yes it is! Just behind New York, L.A. and Chicago.

And did you know that Houston has a Theater District second only to New York City?? Annnnd Beyoncé is from Houston.

Knowing all this fact, we were quite excited to move on from Frisco! Well... I guess we were just excited to get out of Frisco and explore more of Texas. We went straight to Houston by bus (4.5hr drive) on our week off between city. Thought we would have a laid back, slow week, but turned out we had a lot on our schedule!

First on the list is clay-pigeon shooting. We armed ourselves with shotguns.

(Photo courtesy to Michel and Ludo)

Gary thinks he's Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Pull"

First time holding a loaded gun

It wasn't too difficult to pick up the sport, but was definitely sore to the shoulders!

Houston hosts the biggest rodeo in the world. Lucky for us we are in town while the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo was on for 20 days, so of course we wouldn't let that chance slide! And the gang needs to wear as much plaid, hats and boots as possible while still in Texas. We also got to watch Janet Jackson's concert right after the rodeo.

Hey y'all!!

Cattle auction

Real leather

A big long horn bull for photo

I loooove petting zoos!

Watching chicks hatch. Incredible!

And exhausting..

Cowboys waiting on the side 'til it's their turn to compete

Herding calves into the fence

Bareback riding

This has got to be one of the funniest thing I've seen. You see the line of people on the left in white t-shirts? Those teenagers were to catch the calves that are coming out on the right side of the photo. One of the girls caught the calf's tail, but the calf dragged her allllll over the field.

A boy pulling the calf but he wouldn't budge

And here's Janet

I'm not sure where else would you see people wearing hats, boots and dress shirts in a bar at night besides a country bar. We checked out Whiskey River on a Saturday night.

And where else would you see people dancing in close position to hip hop??

Beer bottle chandelier..mm...

Majority take their dancing VERY seriously..

And there's Dawn line dancing for us!

Mechanical bull riding--not as easy as it looks

Mich got the hang of the one arm technique

And the last day of the week off, went to a family fun centre for some family fun mini golf.

Alright, that's that. Here we go Houston!!!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

"Everything is bigger in Texas"


Gary demonstrating his satisfaction of the apartment

... no kidding! I felt puny here because everything was so big and wide. Everything is supersized--shops, cars (an abundance of white SUVs and pickup trucks), roads, highways, food portions...and people. I sometime lose my spatial awareness, especially on the road as I get confused which lane the cars should turn into. But then again, I almost drove into a tree on the golf buggy (if you've heard of Gary's side of story, he'd tell you that I did as he was shouting "TREE!!!!!!!!" but seriously, I wasn't going to crash into the tree!)

This whole building is just Target..well, Super Target

We had several snow days second week into Frisco. The whole city was in a stand still as nobody was prepared for snow or ice, which resulted in cancellation of several shows (first time in Cirque's history apparently). All the roads were covered with an inch of ice and nobody had shovels or salts. At one point, Frisco was -19 Celsius including windchill... who would've thought?! Then HAH! The next week was back to sunny 22 Celsius in February.

Laura is upset that her newly-bought car is buried :(

Nicki came to visit me for a day! Worst weather in Texas to visit ever!!!

Out to hunt for food on a snow day

We paid a visit to Dallas to look for some southern goodies and toured J.F.K's memorial (he was assassinated in Dallas).

We generally think of the south as 'cowboys, boots, hats, horses and bulls'...but to some extent it really is cowboys, boots, hats, horses and bulls. You do see a lot of open fields with horses and the infamous longhorn bulls roaming around.

If you want to see more cowboys, go to Fort Worth Stockyards! We did! Once we arrived, we felt like we walked right into a Western movie. The Stockyards was once the second largest cattle market in the world. It is now a registered historic district and the last standing stockyards in USA.

Chief Joseph

Average price for a nice pair of boots? $2500

The daily cattle drive tradition continues to this day by volunteers

Just another day out with the pup and the cow

That's it for Frisco, really. Houston--NEXT!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Tour Break in England!

Janet Chan

last week then England 3 weeks!!

December 27, 2010 at 9:55am . Like . Comment

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The much longed for tour break (3-22 January)...

Gary E Smith

Atlanta done, I coming home for 3 weeks for some rest

January 2 at 8:53pm . Like . Comment

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That's what we thought... then...

Gary E Smith

Im going to need a holiday to recover from my holiday!!

January 13 at 9:07am . Like . Comment

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Janet Chan

Loving England...but I am knackered!! Never had so much tea and alcohol in my life...but I do love a pint of cider and a cup of tea

January 18 at 4:33pm . Like . Comment

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We were completely exhausted but it was a terrific time!!
Things we've done over the holiday:

Totem's Dress Rehearsal
Pub golf
Dover Castle
Rochester
Dog racing
Northampton pub crawl
London visit x3
Canterbury
Monkey Bizz
and the dinners, lunches, gatherings with multiple people on multiple occasions
then of course, not to forget, the many visits to Jumpers Rebound Centre!

Just landed in London. Typical weather in England.

Here we are at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the same day we landed we were out again by nightfall to watch Totem's dress rehearsal.

Although hard for my jet lagged body, it was great to see the show again!!

Taking the boys out to Monkey Bizz was quite a bit of work! They never stop!!

Mum is having fun!

Uncle is having more fun!!

Swim cap is so tight it's giving Gary a face lift!

The much anticipated, and infamous Pub Golf night, which Gary had been mentally and physically preparing for a month for, had finally arrived.
Theme: Hats
Names: Family Guy characters

Gary never expected anyone to bring a swim cap for the hat collection, yet he knew his fate once he saw Dominic dangling the standard latex equipment for competitive swimmers in the 1980's in his face as we started the night of trouble.

7pm-3am, 8 hours of binge drinking, pub crawling, and the generous amount of "Sacred Cards of Truth" giving, we had a several drop outs before Hole 16, and a new legendary Comedy Stack by Kim, Gary had survived another Pub Golf!

We owned the dance floor

Castle storming with the Cirque folks. Gained a few historical knowledge, including people used to sleep sitting upright.

Dover Castle with Genevieve, Eric and Andrew

Mmm fish 'n chips for lunch!

Rochester Castle

We've visited London 3 times including the time when we watched Totem.The second time we went, we visited the London Dungeons, which was very interesting and scary at times, and the British Museum. We met up with Dsani for our third visit and snapped a photo at every tourist spot. Then watched Stomp at night!

London Eye, Big Ben, House of Parliament, NEXT!!

Chinatown, NEXT!!

Covent Garden Market, DONE!!

Dog racing night with Gary's mum and dad and Auntie Carol was fun! I won 30 Pounds on a 1 Pound forecast :D

Binge drinking round 2!! This time at Northampton with the other trampolining lot.

Big G the Circus Freak!

Day out to Canterbury with Vic V and Nicola! Mmm nice afternoon tea at the haunted Tiny Tim's.

This is where they used to drown witches

Beautiful Canterbury

I had a little jump myself at the gym--my first time on a proper trampoline!! Did several basic moves, but most impressed with my straddle :)
A few photos from our many visits to Jumpers.