Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Fungster back in northern hemisphere, reflecting...

Fung's back from down South, exploring the world as he always done. Verdict: thumbs up. You should go. It's like the middle of winter there, and the temp yesterday was warmer than today in Chi-town, in the middle of summer. 'Nuff sed. Kinda like Chicagah though, the weather can change at a whim. We didn't make it to the Corcovado (that's where the famous statue is) until yesterday - most days it either clouded over or we got lazy. It's also not quite as expensive as I initially intimated - but by golly they'll try and make it so. "Don't be naive" was the advice.

It's probably time to say goodbye to an old friend. My current passport has been to Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and North America. The others didn't make it to Asia or South America, though they have interesting stories of their own. Now, it is getting close to 6 months to expiry, and they don't always let you travel when that's the case. So it's time to renew it. Which means a new passport picture. That should be fun...

8 comments:

Sarge said...

"Fung in Winter, or Reflections of a Life"

Fungster said...

It would be more helpful if you came up with these BEFORE I post...

Sarge said...

Now that you're in Chicago when do I get to see the "Wise Old Man of Edgewater"?

k-mad said...

Sounds like a great place to visit, though I would remind them -- Hands Off Our Olympics. I'm traveling on the cheap this year, so my only travels to Brazil will be through encountering their creativity with alcohol. I just discovered caipirinhas, and my life will never be the same. And possibly, now, much shorter.

Smiff said...

Like you need another drink "to discover"...

Fungster said...

Ah yes, that means I've been to all 4 candidate cities. Well, I can't really speak to the facilities & all that, but...

Tokyo: I just think that if you've already had the Olympics, you shouldn't get to host it again. Only Athens should get to host over, and even that should be 100 years apart. Udder dan dat, it would probably be an awesome place to host.

Madrid: Haven't been there since the 90s. Dunno, just not feeling it.

Rio: Would probably be awesome there, but not sure if they're ready. Their public transit isn't as good as ours - yet. And having the World Cup 2 years earlier may not help.

Chi-town: Well, I could rent out my apartment for that time and make a mint. That and we could introduce a new sport: graft.

So I'd rate them with Chicago 1st, Rio a close 2nd, Madrid 3rd and Tokyo last. So we should watch out for dem Samba dancin futbol playin multi ethnic cariocas.

k-mad said...

Considering how well Brazil's economy is doing and how rapidly we're flying into the tank and how the US will be the farthest flung, most insignificant outpost in the al Qaida caliphate by then, or at the very least dealing with crumbling infrastructure (see: Idiocracy), probably watering our crops with Brawndo (The Thirst Mutilator! It has electrolytes an' s#i+...) and a nation of shuffling, tongue-wagging, functionally challenged trogoldyte homunculi who won't even be able to spell "olympics" by then, I give them a fair shot at closing the gap. Though we have better hot dogs.

Smiff said...

What K-Mad said.