Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne

 Finally had a good chance to properly check out Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne and my personal opinion of what I've noticed, found and liked about these cities so far since I'll be spending a lot of time in all of them.

Melbourne

Melbourne has had this thing against for sometime but Susannah told me that it would eventually grow on me and to be honest now that I've gotten a chance to finally hang out there instead of working it really is becoming a magical and wonderful place.

I will admit there has been some disappointment on my end as people have seemed to have overhyped Melbourne way too much for me but now that my expectations have been brought down a bit, I'm starting to properly enjoy it for what it is.

I won't bore everyone with details but it's interesting to see how different of a city Melbourne truly, it's insanely massive, expensive and definitely not for the feint of heart.  It's taking a while for me to understand how awkward and bizarre the city but it does have it's lovely charm, I've met some great people and I'm looking forward to coming back again.

Highlight of Melbourne, there's been a few but I've enjoyed VnV Visage a lot, it's been a while since I've walked into a store where I've had a sudden compulsion to buy lots of clothes and also there was an amazing nightclub that we were given a special invite and VIP treatment too which we're definitely planning to put our next Neko Nation in 2012.


Perth
I might be all yay, Adelaide but I've generally referred to being part of Perth and it's still going to be a big part of me.  I've definitely enjoyed my time there and I'm definitely looking forward to coming back here in September, even if most of my time is spent on Neko Nation and other business meetings.

Perth has been great to me, I've enjoyed the lifestyle and how easy it is to get around and it's strangely quite modern compared to the other cities around.  It's pretty much been a home ground and testing ground for much of what I have done until I've decided to make the move to Adelaide and I have definitely missed seeing friends in Perth which sadly, I got closer to quite a few just after I left but there's not much I can do.

There are a few things I'm glad to get away from, the horrendous shopping hours, violent nature of Perth and of course all the bogans.  There has been pluses since Perth has the best arcades by far, a kick ass Ikea and the alternative nightlife and rave scene is actually quite amazing compared to what we have in the rest of the country.  I'm looking forward to making my return here soon.

Adelaide
I may have struggled with this city for sometime but it's slowly starting to feel like my new home.  Basically Adelaide beats all the other cities for me quite simply because Susannah.  Oddly enough though I do have a bit of a history back with this place which made me fall in love with Adelaide.

My first trip to Adelaide was in 2009 for DJ Sisen, GPKism and Aural Vampire, ended up going by myself and just decided to go in there and have some fun and meet some new people.  The people in the club were very friendly and actually cared about the music.  Go to a goth gig in Melbourne or Perth and I've more or less gotten to the front while most of the crowd are happy to watch from 8 metres back because it's closer to the bar.  There was a crazy feeling of actual love and passion which I hadn't seen or heard about in any other city.

What really struck me was how much this continued when I arrived here, a lot of people from Perth have been a bit blown away by the amount of work I did back at home but it's not too odd in Adelaide, I know plenty of people involved in their own businesses and it's very exciting to talk and deal with a lot of these people in the fashion, alt, events and anime scenes.

There has been a much epic first half of a year in Adelaide, if in short small doses but it's been fun and amazing exploring the place.  It's a bit insane how old the place can feel at times and there's so much in the way of abandonned buildings here, you seriously do feel like this place looks like it's from the 80's a lot of the time.

Overall everything has felt really nice and comfortable now that I have settled in, I've felt a lot more safer here and so happy to be part of this wonderful city.  While we don't have much in terms of the rave scene, the anime/geek scene here more than makes up for it, it's massive here and they know how to run conventions, having experienced a fair few now.

Adelaide is really becoming this truly amazing place for me and now that I'm starting to meet and hang out with Susannah's friends it's getting a lot better for me over here.  ^^

Saccharine and Catalystic HQ Update!

What an interesting week it has been.  Not quite sure where to start exactly but maybe a fair few shorter paragraphs about things will be good.

Found an ITG machine and a working USB.  Getting close to nailing hard 11 footers so I'm not feeling too flabby and hopefully will start to be getting fitter soon!


Neko Nation HQ has been insanely busy trying to get lots of things sorted out, while I can't say much, there's a lot going on behind the scenes preparing for a lot of events coming up, I'll be most likely doing at least two shows a month!  Considering all the shows are going to be very different, it's a lot of work but we're making some real progress in terms of growing Neko Nation.

Tokyo Hardcore is certainly quite interesting, got Angellic Pretty on board so things are going insanely well.  We've got a fair bit of work before Manifest so I'm looking forward to heading down to Manifest later in the month.

Went raving last weekend, it was actually a lot of fun despite being so unfit and maybe not getting into the music as much as I would it was great to see what Adelaide's rave scene is like.  It's quite small, must admit it's one of the things Perth probably does better but Perth doesn't have a pretty rave girl quite like Susannah,  ^___^

Also falling in love with Ikea, if the cheap furniture, maze, frustrating assembly, $1 hot dogs weren't enough, then it's becoming one of my new favourite brainstorming places, we've dreamt up a few fairly interesting new project ideas which is quite awesome in regards to not having to have a full time job in regards to doing other projects and events.

Geek culture is insanely awesome here, I can not begin to explain how interesting it is to see such a huge thriving anime, gaming and geek community here.  It exists in Perth but I'm still in major shock how open it really is, it's really such a great city for me to be in because of this.  I still can't get over the massive 8-bit Icarus graffiti which is attached to the bottom.

Been exploring a bit more of Adelaide including getting a nice view of the Hills, Hahndorf, sushi, the epic banking services.  It's becoming a nice place, I'm not going to make Perth vs Adelaide comparisons but to me I'm starting to find Adelaide a bit more of my home, it's still missing proper friends rather than relying on bumping into Susannah's friends but it's actually quite nice here.  ^__^

Having said that I'm looking forward to returning back to Perth for a short while next month.  ^^

We don't need no education

Transferring universities has been a nightmare and a half.  My application still hasn't been processed and university is already in it's first week!

Once again, looking like I'm going to be voiding over a year off my life again.  I'm likely to end up cancelling this year of uni at this rate.  It's still the 4th day and I'm still unable to enrol in my course but in the end it might appear as a blessing in disguise.

The move from Perth to Adelaide has been tricky in regards to getting lots of little things sorted out, as a matter a fact today we're still going to finally move things around so I can actually fit my stuff somewhere in this unit.  Most things have been slow but have finally been happening such as switching work and bringing all my stuff over but it's happening, uni on the other hand has not been.

While it does put my career at risk, the reality is that Neko Nation alone is putting my career at risk due to the amount of time it takes up and my plans for it, it's not really possible for me to hold a full time job while putting on Neko Nation and also helping out with Tokyo Hardcore as well.  I struggled a fair bit last year while I was with Susannah in Adelaide and while I thought it was bad, it's only going to get worse this year hitting the con circuit and the Neko Nation tour as well, it's going to be insanely intense.

It's something I'm going to have to seriously consider but as time is ticking, it's likely I will need to drop uni for the time being, pick up an extra job to get some extra cash in (me, with multiple jobs, gasp!) and possibly not end up being an accountant as a career after all.

It should hopefully all work out, if not, tentacles!

Re-animated

 It's scary, tomorrow is finally Tokyo Hardcore's launch into Adelaide.  Things may not have gone to plan but still it's going to be fun to rock AV-Con and meet lots of awesome people there.  Considering how dinner went with Susannah's friends last night, I'm looking forward to catching up with the girls again and so many more, especially since time has been so against me catching up with people in Adelaide as well.

I'm slowly starting to get the hang of Adelaide and I'm slowly getting over all the little differences, overall taking Susannah out of the picture, it's still quite nice here.  Perth definitely has it's charm although I'm starting to like what Adelaide has to offer, it's a bit more multicultural, got a nice old school feel to it and I've really noticed the whole nerd/alt friendly vibe here, it doesn't compare to Melbourne but it's a nice improvement.  There are still a few things I do prefer in Perth, I was horrified to find there were no ITG machines pre-loaded with Caramelldansen!

Despite all the craziness, free time is slowly starting to creep a little bit my way in terms of my life slowing down and making an attempt to get fitter so I'll end up sleeping less despite the insanely freezing Adelaide cold though.  Thankfully Susannah has some pretty warm clothes and keeps me warm at night.

I think the other thing that's really caught my attention is the number of people clicking to attend Neko Nation Adelaide, it's quite insane the following here we've built up, although I've noticed a lot of people said yes despite living in Melbourne and Perth, although we did have a fair few fly over from last time.

Other interesting things, include the AV-Con drinking game where everyone must take a shot when I call "AV-Con", "Wai-Con" instead.

Getting a bit frustrated at how slow the roads are here in comparison to Perth, on the plus side, nobody has screwed up a merge here, seriously, it's nice to be in a place where people can merge!

Things between me and Susannah are great, our relationship may be getting a bit more real with more duller things such as chores, working lives but things are still wonderful and she is still the one I need to be with for the rest of my life.  ^^

Adelaide

 Nyan!

I've been here for around a week now in Adelaide and I've had one pretty mixed week here already.

To start off, it's been awesome living with my girlfriend, I knew what it was like to live with her and to be honest I can't really see us having problems living together.  Honestly being partners in business is far more stressful than living together.

Tokyo Hardcore is only a week till launch at AV-Con and we've been feverishly working away, despite battling through sickness, it's going quiet well, even if we're not seeing everything fall perfectly to plan, things are happening, even if we're achieving more of our medium terms goals rather than our short term goals.

For the record, just to clear things up, in regards to Tokyo Hardcore, me and Susannah are both partners in this business venture, although in essence it is Susannah's store and she has full control in regards to everything that is happening in regards to the store.  My role is more back of house and doing a lot of the financial, systems and advisory role.  Susannah is pretty much leading the way and it's a case of doing my best to make sure I can find a way to make it happen.

Working on Tokyo Hardcore has generally been fun although the last week has been a bit frustrating, after doing more fun things like setting up brands, ordering in stock and getting the store signed.  A lot of our week has been stuck on more boring aspects, which has lead to a lot to exhaustion, especially since we're both not feeling too great.  I'm sleeping for at least 9 hours a day and can barely get through 10 footers in DDR/ITG anymore, may need to start working on a new exercise routine from now on to counteract this.


Despite all the frustrating problems, we put it down to getting very little reward out of Tokyo Hardcore in regards to not really doing much outside of the business so Susannah showed me around outside of the house and we went on adventures to arcades, shopping centres, decorations for the store, food, beer, bowling, laser tag and even crepes!

It's been one interesting up and down week but the weekend really helped put things back into perspective after all the problems in regards to feeling a bit down about being in a new place, getting lost, not really knowing anyone and re-organising my stuff.  There has been some pluses and in particular AV-Con is going to be exciting if somewhat stressful.  I'm very excited and looking forward to it and see a lot of my Adelaide friends there!

Adelaide Arrival Part 2

Nyaaaa, finally back in Adelaide, this time we took the long way, via the road, 2700kms across the Nullabor.  It was one hell of an experience, left sick on 2-3 hours of sleep but pushed through pretty hard to hit the border by the end of the night  The first part was a bit exciting but once a few hundred km's got down it was pretty dull until the wake up in Kalgoorlie with a nice breakfast.  It got a bit dull and slow once we hit the Nullabor which was just a long stretch of nothing and fuel station with high fuel prices.  After struggling to find a motel, found one at Border Town just when I was getting sleepy.

Next day was far more interesting, hit well over halfway and finally started to see terrain that varied including sea which really made things quite nice.  The views got interesting and me and Susannah had a huge talk along the way about everything, I finally got to truly understand and learn all the little things I've always needed to and wanted to learn about her but never really got the time to ask and this was the perfect chance to find out since there was nothing much else to do.

Finally back at home with my stuff, so I'll be moving all my stuff from the car into the house today and starting my new job.  AV-Con stall and Neko Nation tour is virtually good to go now.  Very excited about getting business going and finally getting some money in and finally spending a few quieter weeks with my catgirl, while also having fun on her birthday coming up soon

Kind of disappointed that I didn't really get photos from the trip though.  o.0

A Moving Experience

Don't mind the bad pun, if tomorrow goes well, then I will have officially moved all my stuff from Perth to Adelaide.  It's been a tiring day, still not feeling 100% and moving boxes is something I'm struggling a bit with in terms of my cold getting worse.

Here for probably only 24 hours, didn't make a big deal about being back in Perth since I'm only here to move my things and have an important Tokyo Hardcore meeting with someone in Perth.  I start work on Monday so this move needs to be done quickly as possible.

The move was probably a lot harder than I thought not just physically but also emotionally, although it's not too bad considering the speed I have to do it in though.  While a road trip will be nice, it's a bit frustrating I will be out of action for a while and can't properly rest since I've been doing a lot of travelling in recent times and it will be nice to take a good break from it all, considering I'm still battling this cold which has been stuck on me for a month now.

Also looking forward to updating my business blog soon, will post up the link once I get a few meaningful posts and plans for it.  Anyways, getting tired, will call it an early one tonight before I make the big move part 2.  ^^