We Came We Saw We Crawled (In Rome)

Pub CrawlWhen Charles, Rachel and I visited Rome in 2005 the last thing I expected to do was drink until the sun came up.

That’s exactly what happened.

We stayed in the Yellow Hostel in the middle of Rome and, although we didn’t know it until the second night, we were bunking(in the same room not the same bed) with two Australian girls in town for the weekend from their Nanny jobs in Milan. Rachel quickly made friends and what do you know but they both had a thing for partying.  They told us about this pub crawl starting at the Spanish Steps they had heard of:  $25 for a t-shirt, a drink and deals at every bar/club and a night of spending time with people from all over the world drinking till we forget it happened!? Sweet, where do we sign?

We literally drank until the sun came up and we had to catch the bus to the airport to fly back to London. One of the girls didn’t come back with us. No news on how her night went, but since she went home with one of the guys on the crawl with us, you can draw your own conclusions…  Our reward for the night was a shirt that said ‘We came we saw we crawled’ that lasted about 5 washes and a hangover (on the Ryan Air plane) that you wouldn’t believe.

Seriously though, we had an awesome time and have some great stories to share. Getting kicked off city buses in the middle of nowhere, BJ contests  in the bar, drinking beer at the top of the Spanish steps, drunken German speak, drunken French speak. Good times.

That said, if you get a chance to pub crawl in Rome, Do it!

A Few Things

1. Snow
Where the F expletive deleted is it? Ok sure it snowed today but fairport only saw a dusting and my parents place got only a few inches. What they did get is fluff not enough to really ride (snowmobile) on. AND to top it off the rest of this week it’s going to be in the 40’s. I was calculating the other day and my snowmobile has cost me somewhere around $15 dollars per mile ridden not counting gasoline (which at 10 miles to the gallon and 3 dollars per gallon out on the trails…. adds up quite a lot). Let’s figure that in real quick shall we? just for fun…Ok so the gasoline has really only added 33cents per mile but still!!!!???

Thank ‘YOU’ global warming! (for those of you who get the Chuck Norris reference)

2. Goals

I’ve decided to start keeping track of my personal goals. This is my first post on the subject and I will most likely expand upon it later. I think the system society forces you into of working your whole life and saving everything you can so that you can enjoy that last 5% of your life is retarded. That being said, i’m going to try to ‘screw the system’ so to speak. Steps to completion:

– Gain 100% financial independence.
This means no loans, no debt. all transactions paid for with cash (where appropriate). Not to say that i’m really that far off, but a car, student loans and a house all subtract from that
– Retire after 10 years. This may seem impossible but i’m already taking steps to make this a possibility. Rental property being one of my key proponents.
– Learn to Fly. No not by flapping my featherless wings. I’m not on LSD don’t worry. I mean with a plane. Its something I’ve always been interested in but the barriers to entrance are large. lots of time with an instructor which means lots of money. given step 1 and 2 this shouldn’t be as large of a problem as it is now.
– Buy a (pontoon) Plane. This may seem silly to you if Flying is just a weekend Hobby but see what i want to do next…
– Start a Shipping Company that runs cargo to northern Canada. by now some of you are probably thinking I’m off the handle. That may be so. Even more so when I tell you I want to do this in the dead of winter and north of the Arctic Circle if there’s anyone up there.
– Buy a professional (DSLR) camera setup with some very high mm lenses. This will be what I use for wildlife/nature photography on the trips north. Lately Photography has become sort of a hobby and I’d really like to make use of that. Plus it’ll keep me from getting bored on the long long flights.

So that’s it. Now you know at least part of my crazy plans. Maybe you can help make it happen? Maybe you know some people you can get me in touch with to help it along? Maybe you think I’m absolutely crazy and will never talk to me again because of these crazy ravings? Who knows?

To sum it all up: This “working for the other guy” BS is crazy and I cant believe so many people just put up with it. I’ve got 3 ideas for companies (well 4 really but the 4th I’ll talk about some other time) and I just wish I had some capital to get it all started. I’ve started on the 1st (Real Estate/Rental) and I’m going to look into classes to start on the 2nd (photography).