Honolulu

What a long ass flight ! The Air Canada flight was great ... sat in first class , big seats, free meals , drinks flowing and then we got to LAX where it was just confusion multiplied by a million ! Getting off the plane there is no where to find out where to go to your connecting flight . Basically Toby and myself got off the plane and were lost with absolutely no help . So we asked everyone that looked like they belonged and pieced together that we had to go to a whole other terminal. LAX honestly from me to you - YOU SUCK !

Trying not to harp too much but when i got on my connecting flight after clearing security and all the other bs , i find out that my first class seat is so small ... no video screen in front and the plane was packed with children ( i hated everyone of you ) . well maybe not hated but i would have gladly pushed you out if i could have LOL . Either or being on that United flight made me feel like i was in the 80's as the planed was so outdated . There was actually a phone attached to my seat , yes believe it or not .....

Arriving in Hawaii instantly the heat slapped me in the face and i took off my hoodie and proceeded to the baggage claim . Picked up my bags and went to the Hertz desk to pick up my rental for the week ... ended up with an Impala ( not bad ) . Packed the car in and headed directly to Waikiki , which is where my hotel is . Driving in Hawaii is not that easy ...especially since half the streets are not marked , and it was dark to boot . A couple missed turns and a few u-turns and we were at the lobby of our hotel ...Aqua Aloha Surf & Spa , sounds posh ? cheap and cheerful ! Kathleen was waiting in our room , we dropped our bags and basically went out for a beer . Ended up at a Legends bar watching NHL hockey and hanging out as late as we could .....

Today i am up early as early can be , sitting in the foyer of the hotel in this muggy weather . Really humid ! In a few hours we will head back to the airport to pick up Andi Tanzer ... i think we should start calling him the Tanzmanian Devil LOL .

Hope you all are having a great weekend ... oops it is a Thursday for most of you but for me it is an extended Saturday , with jet lag and heat :)

Maple Leaf Lounge

Once again here i am in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge alone.... Toby wasn't really into paying $15 to get in here so i came on my own . Since i am flying Business class i have free entry to the lounge , and i am about to take full advantage of it :)

Lineup to get through customs was crazy long ... and to make things worse David Miller was just behind us in the line . I must say he even smells like a scumbag , personally i am not a fan of politicians ( liars) . It was kinda better for me as usually my hockey bag is the center of every one's attention but with mr. politician around it kinda took all the attention away from my hockey bag .... there was one person though that asked how many bodies were in my bag , i said 2 and they are both dead HAHAHA!

So i have 4 more minutes and i can officially drink here in the lounge which gives me about 15 minutes to down as many beers as i can ... not sure if there is any scotch around ... might have to pull a hustle for some LOL . Toby is gonna meet me at the gate and hopefully we can convince them to let him up into first class with me ... i shaved , and i smell good ... not sure if the smile will cut it though , we'll have to find out soon enough . 2 minutes now until the booze flows legally here , off to fill up my first pint !!! Hawaii here i come ....

4 days until Hawaii :)

And the countdown brings me closer to take off date ... Yesterday i received the team itinerary and it looks good , we are going on a catamaran ride which i am a bit leary of as i am scared of open water . Only time you will find me anywhere near water is when it is frozen ! It will probably freak me out beyond all belief but i am gonna go through with it regardless ..... aside from this fear of mine the itinerary looks pretty safe :)

Today i have to go change some money to American dollars , hopefully i can find some around here . Apparently due to the rise of the Canadian dollar ( at the moment we are 1.04 to US $ ) there have been alot of people going out and changing there money . Fortunately for me i don't live in a super posh neighbourhood LOL ! Pretty sure that Andi Tanzer left Germany by now and is on his way to San Francisco ... have a safe flight , see you in Hawaii Andi :)

The last few days have been really hectic with work and i have not had any spare time to get on the ice . Today is actually my last day off before leaving so hopefully i can get enough stuff done today instead of waiting until the last minute :) My last icetime is tomorrow after work with a bunch of friends , should be alot of fun . For now i better get ready for a day of running around ... hopefully not in circles ;)

Hawaii : all is booked

Yesterday was filled with tons of researching and trying to maintain a happiness amongst 4 people is not easy .... For myself and Andi i know that we would have been happy to "sleep under the bridge " as Andi told me yesterday LOL ! Not too sure if Kathleen would like that ? I think Toby wants a pool to relax near since he is injured and not even bringing his equipment ..... Yes i did look up prices for the hostel there and no Kathleen was not interested in staying there HAHAHA . Kathleen and myself began looking for hotels the moment i found out we could not get a room for all the dates we required at the other hotel ( which i won't name ) . We basically needed somewhere with a pool , parking spot , and close in proximity to the rest of our teammates ..... we settled for the Aqua Aloha Surf & Spa http://www.aquaresorts.com/our-hotel/oahu-hotels/.... cheaper prices , has a pool , close to Waikiki beach and as Google Maps put it a 33 second drive to our teammates hotel .

Along with getting our hotel booked we also finalized our plans for transportation .... i looked around the internet scouring for a really really cheap place to rent a car , so much crap to go through . When booking a vehicle they always give you a price at the end which does not include Insurance ! So obviously i spent alot of time doing the math myself , which is such a pain .... at the end of it all i decided to just book with Hertz , it is at the airport and should be simple enough to get once i arrive in Honolulu. There are tons of dodgy websites for rent a wrecks , i was not really interested in giving my info online to any of them so i settled with the more popular rental places ....

I also received news on package #3 that was to be sent to me .... apparently John did not have a goalie bag on hand for me , so he is getting one custom made and sent to his hotel in Hawaii !!!! How amazing is that ? I need a bag too , and was actually planning to go buy one this weekend .... thinking i might just hold off and take my beaten up bag there to its final resting place where i will gladly toss it away in favour of a custom made bag :) hopefully it has wheels .... now i can chill out and count the days until i leave , 8 !

Being Picky

Travelling on a budget is not easy ... lets start it at that . Today waking up i check my email to find my hotel reservation for Hawaii . Unfortunately it is too expensive for my taste and not booked for all the dates i need . This is a problem ! With 1 week to go i now have to research to find a hotel in Honolulu for Andi,Toby,Kathleen and myself ...

Kinda hoping that Tim doesn't think any less of me but i just can't afford to pay $130 a night to stay in some posh hotel . We were told it was going to be $50 per person per night , this is not including the prime time Friday and Saturday night which the 4 of us will need + the days beforehand . At the moment i have not cancelled anything but have emailed the hotel ( hoping for a quick reply) , if anything i will get a calling card and call them around noon . With 1 week to go this kinda freaks me out not having a room to stay .... Yes $30 for a night does not seem like much but when you add it up it is and extra $240 for my stay , that is too much , way too much !

Hopefully Tim will understand and we can find somewhere else ... i highly doubt they will switch their hotel , but we are going to . Its gonna suck being in separate hotels then the rest of my team , and if i were travelling without Kathleen i would probably resort to staying in a hostel like my other trips . Today is gonna be stressful trying to find 2 rooms with under a week to go ....yes i am sure there are worse things to be doing on a Monday like working ... hahaha .... maybe if i was working i could afford the hotel i am booked to stay at .

Another Package Arrives ....

Yesterday i knew that at least one of the two packages i am excitedly waiting for would arrive and one did . Waiting for the mailman to knock on the door ( never happened) i decided to check the box . Opened it up and there was a package stuffed inside with some other crap . Grabbed it came up to my living room and looked at the label to find out who it is from ?

When i figured out it was from Stuart Girdler i knew what it was going to be but had no clue how it would look , so i tore into the oddly packed package .... was that a garbage bag Stuart ? LOL ! Once opened i saw that it was a golf t-shirt with Ice Hawks logo , Army logo , and my name and # on the back of it !!! Very classy touch , it will be part of my wardrobe in Hawaii .... i am going to try to bring as many hockey tshirts with me as possible . More than likely i will add some more to my collection while there , or at least i hope to .

So now 2 of the 3 packages i had been waiting for have arrived , both of them i knew the contents and both of them i thought would have arrived after this package i am waiting on from Los Angeles . The package from Los Angeles is sort of a mystery as it MIGHT include a shirt and a hockey bag with some other shwag as well ???? Guess i will have to wait to find out .... as of today i will be leaving in 11 days , next weekend i will visit my friend Luke Attard at Source for Sports to do my pre trip hockey shopping :) and hopefully get my gear washed too . I do need a new bag but i might just use the piece of crap i have now , if there is a bag in the package from LA and it is big enough then i will obviously use that ....more than likely it is a small bag if there is one at all . This mystery will hopefully unfold in the very near future .

Oh yeah one more thing .... HAHAHA yesterday i posted on Facebook that i broke my hand .... April Fools LOL !

Trikot

First package arrived , funny thing is that when i went to go pick it up i thought either it was from LA or from England . There was not even an inkling of a thought that this package was from Germany ! But it was and is still :) Finally i can cheer on my favorite German hockey club ....no they are not in the DEL . EHC Waldkraiburg is my fav team , pretty much because of the good time i had with them experiencing being in their preseason camp in Tachov, Czech Rep.


This won't surprise most of you .... all year i constantly followed their season ( yes i follow ALOT of teams hahaha) but Waldkraiburg was special because out of all my friends teams they actually did a ton of winning , and were actually promoted a division in Germany .... next year will be tougher but i have faith in this organization as they have some loyal fans and the management there have done a spectacular job in keeping them happy . I am looking forward to seeing how they do next year ....surely the Woid Boyz will be shouting their cheers in some new arenas that they have not visited in a couple years . the atmosphere they create for their teams games is something i hope to be a part of again but this time with my Trikot on .

Just to let you all know , a Trikot is the German word for jersey .... thank you so much for sending me this package Wolfgang it means so much to me ! Can't wait until these other 2 packages arrive :)