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  <title><![CDATA[malrase dot com]]></title>
  <link href="http://www.malrase.com/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
  <link href="http://www.malrase.com/"/>
  <updated>2016-06-24T09:53:31-07:00</updated>
  <id>http://www.malrase.com/</id>
  <author>
    <name><![CDATA[Michael]]></name>
    
  </author>
  <generator uri="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</generator>

  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Game of Thrones Cocktails]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/06/19/game-of-thrones-cocktails/"/>
    <updated>2016-06-19T14:14:36-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/06/19/game-of-thrones-cocktails</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>If you&rsquo;ve been following <a href="https://twitter.com/malrase">my Twitter</a> over the past few Sundays, you might have noticed I post a Game of Thrones themed cocktail. Some are better than others, and some I put more effort into (the Blood on the Snow is basically a G&amp;T – I was on beach vacation for that one).</p>

<p>Some people said they&rsquo;d be interested in seeing a list with recipes. So here you go: my Game of Thrones cocktails.</p>

<h2>Mother Of Dragons</h2>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/mother-of-dragons.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/mother-of-dragons.jpg">
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</div>


<ul>
<li>2oz Del Vida mezcal</li>
<li>4oz blood orange soda</li>
<li>Juice from half a lime</li>
</ul>


<p>Serve in a Tom Collins glass over ice. Garnish with a lemon peel.</p>

<h2>White Walker</h2>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/white-walker.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/white-walker.jpg">
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<ul>
<li>2oz gin (New Amsterdam or similar)</li>
<li>0.75oz lemon juice</li>
<li>0.75oz Cointreau</li>
<li>Dash of blue curaçao</li>
</ul>


<p>Shake over ice and serve up.</p>

<h2>Dothraki Blood</h2>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/dothraki-blood.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/dothraki-blood.jpg">
  </a>
</div>


<ul>
<li>2oz Bulleit bourbon</li>
<li>0.75oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth</li>
<li>0.5oz Cynar</li>
<li>Two dashes of blood orange bitters</li>
</ul>


<p>Stir with ice and serve up. Garnish with an orange peel.</p>

<h2>Blood on the Snow</h2>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/blood-on-the-snow.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/blood-on-the-snow.jpg">
  </a>
</div>


<ul>
<li>2oz St Augustine gin</li>
<li>2oz tonic</li>
<li>Splash of lime</li>
</ul>


<p>Serve in an Old Fashioned glass over ice. Garnish with two drops of Peychaud&rsquo;s bitters.</p>

<h2>Lord of Light</h2>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/lord-of-light.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/lord-of-light.jpg">
  </a>
</div>


<ul>
<li>1.5oz Del Vida mezcal</li>
<li>1.5oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth</li>
<li>1oz Averna amaro</li>
<li>Two dashes of Reagan&rsquo;s bitters.</li>
</ul>


<p>Stir over ice and serve in an Old Fashioned glass over a big cube. Garnish with a burnt orange peel.</p>

<h2>The Waif</h2>

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<ul>
<li>2oz resposado tequila</li>
<li>0.75oz elderflower liqueur</li>
<li>0.5oz lemon juice</li>
<li>1 egg white</li>
<li>Dash of grapefruit juice</li>
</ul>


<p>Dry shake the lemon, grapefruit, egg white, and elderflower. Add the tequila and shake over ice. Serve up with a dash of grapefruit bitters on the foam.</p>

<h2>The Battle of the Bastards</h2>

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    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/got/battle-of-the-bastards.jpg">
  </a>
</div>


<ul>
<li>0.75oz Diplomatico rum</li>
<li>0.75oz Mt Gay rum</li>
<li>1.5oz dry vermouth</li>
<li>0.5oz Cointreau</li>
<li>Dash of Angostoura bitters</li>
</ul>


<p>Stir over ice, and serve over a large cube. Garnish with a lemon peel.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Japan Trip: Tourists in Tokyo (Part 2)]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/04/09/japan-trip-tourists-in-tokyo-part-2/"/>
    <updated>2016-04-09T09:29:53-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/04/09/japan-trip-tourists-in-tokyo-part-2</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>After our day of exploring by ourselves, Mike and Melissa showed up to help us navigate all the cool things to do. It&rsquo;s incredibly useful visiting with people who&rsquo;ve been to Japan a lot – explaining all the customs and phrases, knowing which areas to go to, and so on.</p>

<p>The first thing we did was go to Disney, but I&rsquo;m going to put all the Disney stuff in one post. But later that evening, we went to what became Hampton and my favourite chain of izakaya: <a href="https://www.torikizoku.co.jp/">Torikizoku</a>. They&rsquo;re dotted around Tokyo and you can easily spot their distinctive yellow-and-red <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_script">seal script</a> logo. The best thing about them? All menu items are 280¥ (~$2.60). Even drinks! It&rsquo;s nice knowing you can eat your fill of delicious yakitori for under $20. That was a great thing about Japan – you can get really good food for really cheap.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/torikizoku.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/torikizoku.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">A selection of our food at Torikizoku</div>
</div>


<p>We then went wandering through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya">Shibuya</a>, and Hampton stumbled upon this guy selling street oysters.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/street-oysters.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/street-oysters.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Street oysters were really tasty</div>
</div>


<p></p>

<p>Hampton loves oysters, so we had to stop. I&rsquo;m usually extremely cautious of street meat, and street <em>seafood</em> is even sketchier, but this guy had a crowd of people eating his oysters – so we had one. It was good and we didn&rsquo;t die of food poisoning, so that&rsquo;s a win.</p>

<p>Next we went to a place where you ordered on a tablet:</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tablet-orders.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tablet-orders.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Minimal human interaction = win</div>
</div>


<p>It was awesome except for the dangerously drunk group behind us. I was very worried someone was going to fall into me, but they didn&rsquo;t.</p>

<p>Then we spent the rest of the night playing games in an arcade. These arcades are everywhere and usually involve a mix of computer games and UFO catchers.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/drumming.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/drumming.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">The drumming game was the best game</div>
</div>


<p></p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/ufo.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/ufo.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Mike looks pretty suspicious</div>
</div>


<p>The next day Mike and Melissa had booked us all a sushi lunch in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginza">Ginza</a>. (PS: if you have an AmEx card, you should definitely use their concierge to book restaurants.)</p>

<p>The place was called <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1066444-d6069493-Reviews-Sushi_Iwa-Chuo_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html">Sushi Iwa</a>, and was down a side alley. It was across the street from where it was supposed to be, due to some renovation work.</p>

<p>Inside, there were six (!) seats at a bar. There were four of us, and for the first hour of the meal it was just us in the restaurant.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-bar.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-bar.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Corner of the sushi bar</div>
</div>


<p>The chef was lovely – he prepped all the food right there in front of us.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-chef.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-chef.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">The chef!</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-plate.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-plate.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Place setting</div>
</div>


<p>We opted for the longer menu, which came to about $80 per person. The chef would get out the fish at appropriate times to ensure it was at the correct temperature when we ate it. He&rsquo;d call for a top-up of rice when necessary.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-fish.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-fish.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Cutting the fish</div>
</div>


<p>It was amazing to watch him work. Once he&rsquo;d made the sushi, he&rsquo;d reach over and place it on our plates. Then, we ate each piece with our hands. And the final products&hellip; wow. They were absolutely incredible.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-tuna.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/sushi-iwa-tuna.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Seriously, can you believe the colour on that tuna?</div>
</div>


<p>The chef would name each fish in English (but also had a handy book to point at things that we weren&rsquo;t familiar with). It was (naturally) the best sushi I&rsquo;ve ever had. I won&rsquo;t bore you with all the pictures I took of each piece.</p>

<p>Sadly, the meal had to come to an end. We decided to take the train to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harajuku">Harajuku</a>/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Shrine">Meiji Shrine</a>.</p>

<p>Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the old Emperor, so it&rsquo;s super-popular and important. It&rsquo;s beautiful inside and we saw a shinto wedding one time we were there.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/meiji.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/meiji.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">The front of Meiji Shrine</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/wishes-meiji.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/wishes-meiji.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">You can write hopes/wishes on these cards</div>
</div>


<p>We popped into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoyogi_Park">Yoyogi Park</a>, which wasn&rsquo;t as easy to get to as you might imagine from Meiji Shrine. They&rsquo;re right next to each other geographically, but there&rsquo;s no connecting gates.</p>

<p>We did see some ume blossoms (although they&rsquo;re inferior to sakura, OBVIOUSLY).</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/yoyogi.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/yoyogi.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Ume blossoms bloom early, apparently</div>
</div>


<p>Then we wandered down the main street of Harajuku, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshita_Street">Takeshita street</a>. It was a Sunday afternoon and it was a beautiful day out, so of course it was packed.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/takeshita.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/takeshita.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">かわいい!!!!</div>
</div>


<p>After that exhausting day of shopping, we went to a seafood izakaya place called <a href="http://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13025693/">魚真 乃木坂店</a>. It was over near Roppongi, which is a sketchy/clubby area we were told to avoid. But this place was great, and we ate lots of uni and other delicious things. And drank lots of <em>nama biiru</em> (draft beer).</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/biiru.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/biiru.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">I learnt how to order beer and I stuck with it</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/uni.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/uni.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Piles of uni and tuna</div>
</div>


<p>To round the night off, we went to McDonalds for something I&rsquo;d been excited about trying for a while: <a href="http://news.mcdonalds.com/Corporate/Feature-Stories-Articles/2016/McDonald-s-Japan-Puts-a-Sweet-Spin-on-a-Golden-Arc">McChoco Potato</a>.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/mcchoco.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/mcchoco.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">McChoco Potato, y u so good?</div>
</div>


<p>It&rsquo;s basically McDonalds fries with milk and white chocolate sauce on them. They were so good and my stomach is rumbling right now with the thought of them.</p>

<p>Next up: we take the shinkansen to Osaka!</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Japan Trip: Tourists in Tokyo (Part 1)]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/02/21/japan-trip-tourists-in-tokyo/"/>
    <updated>2016-02-21T19:58:22-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/02/21/japan-trip-tourists-in-tokyo</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>We landed late on a Thursday, and managed to catch the <a href="http://www.keisei.co.jp/keisei/tetudou/skyliner/us/ae_outline/index.php">Keisei Skyliner</a> to our first hotel. We were staying in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara">Akihabara</a>, the electronics district. It was overwhelming when we first arrived.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/akihabara.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/akihabara.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Nighttime in Akihabara</div>
</div>


<p>I had an idea of what Tokyo would be like, and this was it turned up to 11. Neon signs were attached to every building. Video screens were selling you products or pop bands. People were shouting on the street for you to come into their bar/arcade/store. It was a sensory overload&emdash;not helped by just having taken a 10 hour flight on which I didn&rsquo;t sleep. We went to bed pretty soon after arriving.</p>

<p>The next day, we headed over to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukiji_fish_market">Tsukiji</a> fish market. It&rsquo;s a slightly cliché first-day-in-Tokyo thing to do, but it&rsquo;s apparently being moved to somewhere else in the Autumn, so we wanted to do it at least once. It&rsquo;s a labyrinth of small restaurants, fishmongers, and other shops selling knives/chopsticks/etc.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tsukiji.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tsukiji.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">In the narrow streets of Tsukiji</div>
</div>


<p>But the best part is the cheap, amazing fresh sushi you get find in the area. We picked a place at random, opting for a sushi bar that looked reasonably packed but without too much of a wait.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tsukiji-sushi.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tsukiji-sushi.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Sushi bar!</div>
</div>


<p>I&rsquo;m not going to try to describe the ensuing bounty. The fish was cold and tender, the rice warm and sticky. It was probably the best sushi I&rsquo;d ever had (until a couple of days later, but that&rsquo;s for a different post).</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tsukiji-breakfast.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tsukiji-breakfast.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Freshest fish I&#8217;ll eat, probably</div>
</div>


<p>Just looking at this makes me want to eat it again. The best piece was the fatty tuna, on the top-left of the board. Delicious.</p>

<p>After the market, we headed over to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueno_Park">Ueno Park</a>, an urban park with a number of shrines and museums. Unfortunately, the National Museum of Western Art was closed, so we ended up going to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_National_Museum">Tokyo National Museum</a> instead.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tokyo-met.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/tokyo-met.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Hanging out with the TNM mascots</div>
</div>


<p>It provided a nice overview, for ignorant people such as myself, to the broad history of Tokyo (and, to some extent, Japan). There was also a special exhibition on&emdash;some of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army">Terracotta Army</a> were on display. So we spent a little more and got entrance to that, too.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/warriors.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/warriors.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Some (fake) terracotta warriors&#8230; we weren&#8217;t allowed to take pictures of the real ones</div>
</div>


<p>They were fairly impressive, I suppose, but the exhibition was in its last few days so it was packed. You could barely move in there. But I guess I can check it off the bucket list?</p>

<p>Anyway, we went back to the hotel to relax before heading out for dinner. This was our first major meal in Tokyo, and introduced us to one of the jarring ways to deal with such density of people. In most cities I&rsquo;ve been to, restaurants (and bars) have a street-level entrance. Not here. Restaurants are found on seemingly any floor of a building. In this case, we went for <a href="">yakiniku</a> on the fourth floor of a building. (<em>So, I should note, it&rsquo;s important to figure out what floor a restaurant is on when you look up an address.</em>)</p>

<p>Yakiniku is basically grilled stuff. And we grilled a whole bunch-o-meat on our very own grill.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/yakiniku.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/yakiniku.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Tasty meat, pre-grilling</div>
</div>


<p>Weird cultural thing I didn&rsquo;t know before going to Japan: smoking indoors is pretty much A-OK, even in restaurants. It was odd being in a kinda-fancy restaurant and having the table next to us start blowing smoke in our direction. Boo.</p>

<p>Afterwards, we went &ldquo;next door&rdquo; (read: across the floor) to a British-style pub. It&rsquo;s part of a chain called the HUB. It was pretty fun, but it was odd because inside was smoking only&hellip; so we sat outside, right near the elevator. Odd times.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/hub-akb.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/tokyo/hub-akb.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Chilling in a building&#8217;s elevator lobby</div>
</div>


<p>The next day, Mike and Melissa arrived! But more about that in my next post.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Japan Trip: Singapore Airlines SQ11 in Business Class]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/02/11/japan-trip-singapore-airlines-in-business-class/"/>
    <updated>2016-02-11T22:58:51-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2016/02/11/japan-trip-singapore-airlines-in-business-class</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Our first trip of 2016, and it&rsquo;s a big one: we&rsquo;re heading to Japan for two weeks.</p>

<p>Japan has been top of my destinations list for a while. As <a href="http://melissadreamsofsushi.com">Melissa</a> and <a href="http://mikeferrier.com">Mike</a> booked a trip to Osaka, we decided to join in on their fun. The itinerary is roughly as follows: 4 days in Tokyo, 4 days in Osaka, 1 day in Kyoto, then back to Tokyo for 5 days.</p>

<p>But let&rsquo;s start with the most interesting part: our flights there! We decided to book with [Singapore Airlines]–the LAX-NRT flight was on an A380 (yay) and we&rsquo;ve heard they&rsquo;re pretty nice. Plus, they have recently introduced Premium Economy&hellip; making the 11-hour flight just a little more palatable.</p>

<p>Anyway, the day before we got a phone call saying that there was no Premium Economy on the plane we were going to take. Uh-oh. The person said it would be fine, just ask at the check-in desk when we arrive.</p>

<p>Only problem is: we were flying with Virgin America from SFO to get to LAX. With a tight layover, were we going to have time to visit the Singapore Airlines check-in desk? When we arrived at SFO, the Virgin America crew couldn&rsquo;t even give us the boarding pass for our second leg. That made us even more nervous. But we weren&rsquo;t showing it.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/sfo.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/sfo.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Boarding our SFO flight (plus the amazing new control tower in the background)</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/virginamerica.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/virginamerica.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Virgin America SFO-LAX</div>
</div>


<p>We landed in L.A. and rushed to the International Terminal (which was thankfully just next to the terminal we landed at). We went to the check-in desk and&hellip;</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/boarding-pass.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/boarding-pass.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">SQ11 Boarding Pass</div>
</div>


<p>We were upgraded to Business Class! Holy moly! I never thought I&rsquo;d fly Singapore Airlines Business Class, but there you go. Plus it was upstairs on the A380!</p>

<p>Before we got on the plane, we hung out in the Star Alliance Lounge, which was pretty nice. The best bit (aside from the free drinks) was the build-your-own-noodle-bowl bar.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lounge-bar.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lounge-bar.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Star Alliance Lounge at LAX</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/noodle-bar.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/noodle-bar.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Build-your-own noodle bowl!</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/noodles.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/noodles.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Nomnom, noodles</div>
</div>


<p>Oh yeah, and this is when I started my drinking. It&rsquo;s vacation time!</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/mimosa.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/mimosa.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Cheeky mimosa before the flight</div>
</div>


<p>They also had some really nice dessert &ldquo;shooters,&rdquo; which unfortunately couldn&rsquo;t fit a spoon into them. So I ate them with a knife instead. Keeping it classy, as always.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lounge-dessert.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lounge-dessert.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Passion fruit and s&#8217;mores dessert shooters</div>
</div>


<p>Over the intercom, they announced that our flight was boarding. Time to go! Going up an escalator to get to the entry was awesome. I love the A380 so much.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/escalator.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/escalator.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Up an escalator to the upper deck of the A380</div>
</div>


<p>The seats you get in Business Class are amazing. They&rsquo;re (faux?) leather, and you get some comfy pillows too. The craziest thing was how wide they were. I think you could fit two Michaels in one of these seats.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/seat.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/seat.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">My seat</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/seat-width.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/seat-width.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Seriously, the seat was so wide</div>
</div>


<p>Also, Business Class was really empty. No one was in the seats behind us or diagonal to us. Which came in handy when my table was broken and I had to switch seats.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/empty-rows.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/empty-rows.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">So many empty rows behind me!</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/new-seat.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/new-seat.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">My new seat (only used for eating)</div>
</div>


<p>The seat had a number of cool features. There was a little pop-down table for drinks, and a mirror. There were power sockets for regular plugs and USB! Plus a neat little compartment for putting my phone in. We got some slippers and some noise-cancelling headphones (which were actually pretty good).</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/sockets.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/sockets.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Range of plug sockets</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/phone-holder.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/phone-holder.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Tiny pocket for holding my charging phone</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/mirror-drink.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/mirror-drink.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Mirror and drink holder</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/headphones.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/headphones.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Noise-cancelling headphones (you can see there&#8217;s a neat hook to hang them on, too)</div>
</div>


<p>Now onto the food. Singapore Airlines has a thing called &ldquo;Book the Cook.&rdquo; Basically, it&rsquo;s like pre-ordering the meal you want <em>before</em> you get on your flight. You can choose some really delicious-sounding stuff! The menu we got when we sat down also offered <em>hanakoireki</em>, which was like a bento-box thing. Hampton went for the hanakoireki, and I got the chef&rsquo;s meal. It was all superb.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-layout.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-layout.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">My table layout before the meal</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-starter.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-starter.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Starter: some kind of salmon and crab mayo thing</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-main.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-main.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Main: sukiyaki!</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-dessert.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-dessert.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Dessert: chocolate ice-cream</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-cheese.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/lunch-cheese.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Finally, a cheese course– you gotta have a cheese course</div>
</div>


<p>They also had a pretty decent cocktail list. I got a Singapore Sling (duh), which was really rather good.</p>

<p>Oh, and one more thing: the bathroom was full of useful items. Razors, toothbrush/toothpaste, mouthwash&hellip; handy for a 10 hour flight.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/bathroom-1.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/bathroom-1.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">So many toiletries!</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/bathroom-2.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/bathroom-2.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Plus razors, toothbrushes, combs&#8230;</div>
</div>


<p>After eating, the lovely staff of Singapore Airlines made my seat into a lie-flat bed. It was actually pretty comfortable.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/bed.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/bed.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">My sky-bed</div>
</div>


<p>As we were waking up, we had our &ldquo;dinner&rdquo;. (A weird thing about long flights: the names of the meals you&rsquo;re served rarely correspond to when you get them.) Yay, more yummy food!</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/dinner-starter.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/dinner-starter.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Starter: beef carpaccio with pickles</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/dinner-main.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/dinner-main.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Main: some dim sum, including lo mai gai, har gow, and shaomai (the lo mai gai, wrapped in a lotus leaf, was amazing)</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/dinner-dessert.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/japan/flights/dinner-dessert.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Dessert: green tea cake</div>
</div>


<p>And then, despite my yearning for a longer flight with this amazing service and food, we landed at Narita.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[2015 in Review]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/12/31/2015-in-review/"/>
    <updated>2015-12-31T12:00:01-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/12/31/2015-in-review</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>This year has felt busy, but I&rsquo;m not sure how/why. It&rsquo;s felt like my wheels have been spinning a little. I&rsquo;ve been too busy to come up with a lot of items for this list – but what exactly have I been busy doing?</p>

<h3>Films</h3>

<ol>
<li>Mad Max: Fury Road</li>
<li>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</li>
<li>Inside Out</li>
</ol>


<p>Honorable mentions for It Follows and Whiplash, which I only saw this year.</p>

<h3>TV Episodes</h3>

<ol>
<li>Mother&rsquo;s Mercy (Game of Thrones, S5 E10)</li>
<li>Loplop (Fargo, S2 E8)</li>
<li>Episode 6 (The Jinx, S1 E6)</li>
</ol>


<h3>Books</h3>

<p>This year, I haven&rsquo;t read nearly as much as I should have. I think maybe a handful of books have been completed on my Kindle. I&rsquo;m not even sure I could do a best of. Maybe I should set myself a challenge for 2016?</p>

<h3>Songs</h3>

<ol>
<li>Flesh Without Blood – Grimes</li>
<li>Can&rsquo;t Feel My Face – The Weeknd</li>
<li>The Party Line – Belle &amp; Sebastian</li>
</ol>


<h3>Moments</h3>

<ol>
<li>Seeing parents for Christmas</li>
<li>Getting to know the Third Rail bartenders</li>
<li>No-holds-barred Walt Disney World trip</li>
<li>MaxFunCon</li>
</ol>

]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[The Savoy Cocktail Book]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/08/30/the-savoy-cocktail-book/"/>
    <updated>2015-08-30T12:47:32-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/08/30/the-savoy-cocktail-book</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>It was my birthday a couple of days ago, and I got a copy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoy_Hotel#The_Savoy_Cocktail_Book">The Savoy Cocktail Book</a>. It&rsquo;s been in publication since 1930, with over 700 recipes inside.</p>

<p>To be honest, a lot of the recipes are very similar. Most are based on whiskey, rum, or dry gin. Then, you add varying amounts of sweet and dry vermouths (called Italian and French vermouths, respectively) – plus dashes of bitters or other liqueurs.</p>

<p>The presentation is top-notch, though, with gorgeous art deco illustrations every few pages. Check out the page where the Savoy Cocktail is presented.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/savoy-pages.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/savoy-pages.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">R.A.C. Special Cocktail</div>
</div>


<p>You&rsquo;ll notice the page doesn&rsquo;t quite go to the edge. The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Savoy-Cocktail-Book-Harry-Craddock/dp/1614274304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1440964129&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=savoy+cocktail+book">edition I got</a> is a scanned version of the original, and it looks a little&hellip; unprofessional. Our local bar has a much nicer copy, with feathered edges.</p>

<p>I decided to start a journey of sorts, inspired by a game Jeff, the owner of <a href="http://thirdrailbarsf.com/">Third Rail</a>, plays with other bartenders. The game is as follows: you flip to any page in the book, put your finger on a cocktail, and then make something drinkable from it.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s a tricky challenge if only because the recipes tend to be geared towards old liquors, which were less drinkable than they are now. For example, the gimlet recipe in the book states it should be &frac12; lime juice and &frac12; gin, which would be too citrus-forward even for me.</p>

<p>The other challenge for me is that some of the recipes have rather niche ingredients (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punsch">Swedish punsch</a>, anyone?) that I don&rsquo;t have. Although I suppose that&rsquo;s part of the fun – figuring out what you can replace certain ingredients with and still maintain the desired flavour.</p>

<p>My first cocktail ended up being the R.A.C. Special Cocktail. Their recipe: &frac12; dry gin, &frac14; sweet vermouth, &frac14; dry vermouth, and two dashes of orange bitters. Shake well, serve , and garnish with an orange peel. Here&rsquo;s the outcome.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/savoy-rac.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/cocktails/savoy-rac.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">R.A.C. Special Cocktail</div>
</div>


<p>I lowered the vermouth slightly, to 1/8 of each. I think that makes a nicer cocktail. It tasted pretty much how you would expect – kind of a mix between a martini and a martinez/manhattan type thing. Certainly not that adventurous for a first cocktail, but pretty good nonetheless.</p>

<p>I&rsquo;m sure I&rsquo;ll be using some of these recipes for inspiration for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/we-have-a-microphone/id964234004?mt=2">WHAM</a> drinks, too. Cheers!</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Drinking at the Disneyland Resort]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/06/20/drinking-in-disneyland/"/>
    <updated>2015-06-20T14:00:29-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/06/20/drinking-in-disneyland</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>We were in the mountains above Los Angeles for <a href="http://www.maxfuncon.com/">MaxFunCon</a>, a neat comedy/podcasting conference at which we had a lot of fun. Since we were in L.A., why not head to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, too?</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s Disneyland&rsquo;s 60th anniversary, so there&rsquo;s a lot of cool stuff going on. In particular, the fireworks at Disneyland are spectacular. If you can make it before the celebrations are over, it&rsquo;s well worth it. Make sure to get a prime spot on Main Street and you won&rsquo;t be disappointed.</p>

<p>Anyway, the rides and all that are fun, but a more pressing question is: are those of us who like cocktails doomed to saccharine cruise-ship drinks while at the parks?</p>

<p>We set off to find out.</p>

<p>The first point: of the two parks in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Resort">Disneyland Resort</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland">Disneyland</a> is completely dry (well, apart from <a href="http://www.snopes.com/disney/parks/club33.asp">Club 33</a>). The only park you&rsquo;ll find a drink in is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_California_Adventure">Disney California Adventure</a>.</p>

<p>That&rsquo;s where we started our investigatory stroll. Our first stop was the Alfresco Tasting Terrace. We&rsquo;d been there on a previous trip, but since then they had stopped serving cocktails. There&rsquo;s only wine and beer now.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/alfresco-terrace.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/alfresco-terrace.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Alfresco Tasting Terrace</div>
</div>


<p>They have wine flights, which are pretty fun. And all the wineries seem to have some connection to Disney – some ex-executive started a winery, and now you can drink it here.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s also a pretty good spot to grab a glass of wine to go. This is especially handy before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Color">World of Color</a> show. Seen below is us with our to-go cups of wine.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/alfresco-wine-to-go.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/alfresco-wine-to-go.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Booze you can take with you = the best</div>
</div>


<p>Our next stop was more fruitful: the Carthay Circle lounge. It gets busy after around 5pm, and the lounge is first-come-first-served, so make sure you get a seat. The drinks were good, and decently priced ($10-12 each). Because of the Disneyland 60th anniversary, they&rsquo;re putting diamond-shaped cubes in every drink (including Martinis and Manhattans), so if you want your drink unsullied, make sure to mention it.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/carthay-circle-lounge.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/carthay-circle-lounge.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Carthay Circle Lounge</div>
</div>


<p>They didn&rsquo;t just have standard cocktails, either. They had some crème de violette/tequila thing that came with a candied flower on it. It tasted great!</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/carthay-violet.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/carthay-violet.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Violet cocktail from Carthay Circle</div>
</div>


<p>We headed over to The Cove, which is by the Paradise Pier area of the park. Like the Carthay Circle lounge, this place gets really busy, so come early. It&rsquo;s a lot of fun people-watching and sitting outside (if you can take a little sun). I was pleasantly surprised that the discontinued cocktail menu from the Alfresco Terrace was now over here! So I had my favourite drink from that – the Smoked Turkey.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/the-cove.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/the-cove.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">The Cove bar – Smoked Turkey and a Manhattan</div>
</div>


<p>(Oh, you should also get the lobster nachos while you&rsquo;re there. Deeeelicious.)</p>

<p>After we&rsquo;d exhausted Disney California Adventure, we went to our favourite bar at the resort – Trader Sam&rsquo;s Enchanted Tiki Bar. It&rsquo;s located by the pool at the Disneyland Hotel. It&rsquo;s a bit of a trek from the parks (about 10-15mins walk through Downtown Disney), but we enjoy it. Here&rsquo;s the entrance:</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-entrance.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-entrance.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Entrance to Trader Sam&#8217;s Enchanted Tiki Bar</div>
</div>


<p>There&rsquo;s a doorman – like every other bar, this one gets really busy. The doorman had implemented a one-in-one-out policy.</p>

<p>Inside, it&rsquo;s filled with trinkets and tchotchkes over the walls. Every surface is covered in this stuff, and it&rsquo;s really interesting to read/look at. Like everything at Disney theme parks, there&rsquo;s a back-story to every item. Nothing is just put up without thorough thought. There are letters from people Trader Sam has met on adventures. There&rsquo;s things people have mailed. It&rsquo;s quite incredible.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-indoor.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-indoor.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Inside Trader Sam&#8217;s</div>
</div>


<p>The drink menu has a standard tiki-theme – mostly rums and fruit juices. Most of the drinks have ridiculous names (&ldquo;Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum,&rdquo; for example).</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams1.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams1.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">HippopotoMai-Tai and a Lost Safari</div>
</div>


<p>The Mai Tai was fine, but nothing special. The Lost Safari was really good, though.</p>

<p>For our next round, I ordered the Krakatoa Punch. It came with a glowing &ldquo;ice-cube&rdquo; in it. When I ordered it, the bar lights went low. Through one of the trompe l&#8217;oiel &ldquo;windows&rdquo;, a volcano erupted in a neat little display.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-krakatoa.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-krakatoa.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Krakatoa Punch</div>
</div>


<p>In fact, these things happen for a number of drinks. Every 15 minutes or so, you&rsquo;ll be interrupted. The Shipwrek on the Rocks causes a ship in a painting behind the bar to sink. Plus the bartender sprays you with water.</p>

<p>Our final drink was the Uh Oa. It&rsquo;s a sharing drink, and arrives with a flaming sugar cube. You throw cinnamon and nutmeg onto the flames, creating sparks, while the whole bar erupts in chants of &ldquo;Uh oa! Uh oa!&rdquo;</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-uh-oa.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/disney/june15/trader-sams-uh-oa.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Uh Oa!</div>
</div>


<p>Trader Sam&rsquo;s is entertaining. It&rsquo;s exactly how you&rsquo;d imagine Disney would want a bar to be – adults can get the sense of fun and magic that is often left only to kids.</p>

<p>That was our drinking experience at Disneyland Resort. When we&rsquo;re next down at Walt Disney World, I&rsquo;ll try to do a similar thing for those parks, too.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Tony Awards 2015]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/05/07/tonys-2015/"/>
    <updated>2015-05-07T15:48:41-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/05/07/tonys-2015</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I had a lot of fun doing the pool for the Oscars in February. I&rsquo;ve done a little bit more development on it to make it work for multiple awards shows.</p>

<p>If you go to <a href="http://pool.malrase.com">pool.malrase.com</a> you can now <a href="http://pool.malrase.com/pools/2/ballots/new">submit a ballot for the 2015 Tony Awards</a>. This time, it&rsquo;s free! So although that means you won&rsquo;t win money, you could still win the pride of being an accurate predictor of this year&rsquo;s Tonys.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Oscar Pool 2015]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/02/04/oscar-pool-2015/"/>
    <updated>2015-02-04T16:01:32-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/02/04/oscar-pool-2015</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>The last couple of years, I&rsquo;ve participated in pools for the Academy Awards. I like the Oscars anyway, but competing against other people to see who can guess the most winners adds an extra level of excitement.</p>

<p>In preparation for this year, and to learn a bit of Rails, I decided to make my own pool site. It&rsquo;s found at <a href="http://pool.malrase.com">pool.malrase.com</a>.</p>

<p>It costs $15 to enter and there&rsquo;s some more rules on the site. I&rsquo;d love for you to sign up, submit a ballot, and follow along with the 87th Academy Awards on the 22nd February!</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Travelling While LGBT: A Justified Anxiety?]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/01/10/travelling-while-lgbt-justified-anxiety/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-10T16:34:01-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2015/01/10/travelling-while-lgbt-justified-anxiety</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>The New York Times released its list of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/11/travel/52-places-to-go-in-2015.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=photo-spot-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news">top places to go to in 2015</a>. It puts together two of my favourite things: easy-to-digest lists and travel destinations. This year&rsquo;s list was pretty exciting – among some places that we&rsquo;d visited on this past trip (Manhattan, Philadelphia, and, surprisingly, Orlando), there were a lot of places I&rsquo;m interested in visiting.</p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore">Singapore</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Vincent_and_the_Grenadines">St Vincent and the Grenadines</a> in particular caught my eye. Singapore for its city-state strangeness and St Vincent for its diving. That <a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/01/08/places-to-go/assets/images/stvincent-1254.jpg">coral reef photo</a> looks so inviting! But wait.</p>

<p>Before I can plan any more, before I get too excited about a new travel destination, I go to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory">Wikipedia page for LGBT rights by country</a>. (Or, I recently found a great site called <a href="http://equaldex.com/">Equaldex</a>. I wanted to build something similar – it has a map and an easily-searchable database of countries showing the status of various LGBT-related laws.)</p>

<p>Does that seem strange? It still does to me, even though I do it fairly regularly. But unfortunately I feel like I have to. For example, checking out <a href="http://equaldex.com/region/saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines">St Vincent and the Grenadines</a> shows me that male homosexuality is punishable by ten years in prison. I guess that takes it off the &ldquo;potential diving spots&rdquo; list.</p>

<p><a href="http://equaldex.com/region/singapore">Singapore</a> has a prison sentence of two years for gay guys. Another one off the list.</p>

<p>Going back to the New York Times list, there&rsquo;s a couple of countries that I know are not LGBT-friendly – Oman (<a href="http://equaldex.com/region/oman">up to three years imprisonment</a>) and Morocco (<a href="http://equaldex.com/region/morocco">six months imprisonment</a>). Checking some more, there&rsquo;s also St Kitts (<a href="http://equaldex.com/region/saint-kitts-and-nevis">ten years imprisonment</a>), Zimbabwe (<a href="http://equaldex.com/region/zimbabwe">up to ten years imprisonment</a>), Sri Lanka (<a href="http://equaldex.com/region/sri-lanka">up to ten years</a>), Papua New Guinea (<a href="http://equaldex.com/region/papua-new-guinea">up to fourteen years</a>), and Tanzania (a <a href="http://equaldex.com/region/tanzania"><em>minimum</em> of twenty years imprisonment</a>). That totals nine countries out of the fifty-two! I guess forty-three remaining travel destinations would still keep you pretty well-occupied.</p>

<p>That&rsquo;s just going off countries that ban same-sex activities, mind you. There&rsquo;s even more countries that don&rsquo;t ban LGBT discrimination. When looking at destinations, I&rsquo;m usually more lax with that. I mean heck, we couldn&rsquo;t even <a href="http://equaldex.com/region/united-states/florida">visit Florida</a> if I included places that allow LGBT discrimination in the &ldquo;no-travel&rdquo; list.</p>

<p>What does this serve? Am I just being unnecessarily anxious? Is this narrowing our experience of the world over something quite small? I mean, we&rsquo;re from two globally dominant countries. Surely LGBT travellers aren&rsquo;t arrested that regularly? There&rsquo;s a couple of high-profile cases that spring to mind – a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/11142952/Call-for-boycott-of-Morocco-after-British-tourist-jailed-for-homosexual-acts.html">British gay guy was arrested in Morocco</a>, and <a href="http://www.travelandescape.ca/2013/07/first-tourists-have-been-arrested-under-putins-anti-gay-laws/">four LGBT Dutch people were arrested in Russia</a>. But the number of LGBT travellers far outweighs those, surely. We&rsquo;d probably be &ldquo;unnoticed.&rdquo;</p>

<p>As well as the &ldquo;danger,&rdquo; there&rsquo;s also an aspect of avoiding such countries for economic reasons. We can freely choose to spend our money in, say, <a href="http://equaldex.com/region/spain">Spain</a> – which has far better equal rights for LGBT people – over another country that does not.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s weird having to read through any destination list with the knowledge that you&rsquo;ll maybe have to cut out about ~15% of it. I&rsquo;m interested to hear what anyone reading this – both LGBT and non-LGBT – thinks. Am I being too paranoid? Is it a valid, maybe arbitrary choice (I mean hey, it&rsquo;s a useful way to narrow down <em>all possible countries</em> into a smaller list, right)? Do you have any &ldquo;rules&rdquo; for choosing whether you&rsquo;ll visit a country?</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[2014 in Review]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/31/2014-in-review/"/>
    <updated>2014-12-31T12:00:01-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/31/2014-in-review</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;ve seen a lot of people talk about how difficult 2014 was for them, and I must admit, it&rsquo;s been a pretty stressful year for me too. From quitting my job to putting on a conference to the Mozilla stuff and then travelling for seven months&hellip; it&rsquo;s been hectic.</p>

<p>I&rsquo;ve visited four new countries (Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria and Mexico), stayed in many new cities (Prague, Stockholm, Vienna, Philadelphia, Raleigh, and Los Angeles – to name a few), and far too many airports.</p>

<p>I&rsquo;m definitely looking forward to this upcoming year. It&rsquo;s filled with a lot of promise.</p>

<p>Here&rsquo;s some of the things I&rsquo;ve enjoyed this year.</p>

<h3>Films</h3>

<ol>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_(film)">Guardians of the Galaxy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Babadook">The Babadook</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_Girl_(film)">Gone Girl</a></li>
</ol>


<p>Honorable mentions for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_Tomorrow_(film)">Edge of Tomorrow</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Budapest_Hotel">The Grand Budapest Hotel</a>.</p>

<h3>TV Episodes</h3>

<ol>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mountain_and_the_Viper">The Mountain and the Viper</a> (Game of Thrones, S4 E8)</li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leftovers_%28TV_series%29#Season_1_.282014.29">Guest</a> (The Leftovers, S1 E6)</li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_Ass_(Fargo)">Buridan&rsquo;s Ass</a> (Fargo, S1 E6)</li>
</ol>


<h3>Books</h3>

<ol>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goldfinch_(novel)">The Goldfinch</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Tartt">Donna Tartt</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_of_December:_Stories">Tenth of December</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Saunders">George Saunders</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(Simmons_novel)">Hyperion</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Simmons">Dan Simmons</a></li>
</ol>


<h3>Songs</h3>

<p>I haven&rsquo;t listened to that many albums, so I&rsquo;m just doing songs this year.</p>

<ol>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Bright_(Perfume_Genius_album)">Queen</a> - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_Genius">Perfume Genius</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_of_the_Pine">Hunger of the Pine</a> - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-J">alt-J</a></li>
<li>The Way He Looks At Me - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Reznor">Trent Reznor</a> &amp; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atticus_Ross">Atticus Ross</a> (from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_Girl_%28soundtrack%29">Gone Girl</a> soundtrack)</li>
</ol>


<h3>Moments</h3>

<ol>
<li>Drinking with old friends at Nightjar in London</li>
<li>Seeing Cabaret on Broadway (and just generally living in New York)</li>
<li>Eating at La Degustation in Prague</li>
<li>Visiting Disneyland and California&rsquo;s Great Adventure</li>
</ol>

]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Ai Weiwei @Large]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/29/ai-wei-wei-at-large/"/>
    <updated>2014-12-29T09:59:26-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/29/ai-wei-wei-at-large</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz/">@Large</a> is an art exhibition created by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei">Ai Weiwei</a> to be displayed specifically at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Federal_Penitentiary">Alcatraz</a>. You don&rsquo;t need special tickets to view it – you just buy <a href="http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/">regular tickets to Alcatraz</a>. The art is scattered across a number of buildings/areas of the island, so you can explore it while you&rsquo;re on the regular Alcatraz tour.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/dock.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/dock.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Poster at the Entrance</div>
</div>


<p>The exhibition includes an area I hadn&rsquo;t seen before – the <a href="http://www.for-site.org/places-artists/places/alcatraz-island/new-industries-building">New Industries Building</a>. Last time I visited it was closed off, so it was nice to visit an extra area of the island.</p>

<p>Inside are three of the installations: <a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-with-wind/">With Wind</a>, <a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-trace/">Trace</a>, and <a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-refraction/">Refraction</a>. With Wind consists of traditional kite sculptures – one large dragon snaking through the room, plus a number of other smaller kites.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/with-wind.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/with-wind.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">With Wind</div>
</div>


<p>The dragon had &ldquo;subversive&rdquo; quotes written on it. The smaller kites were made of fabric printed with birds and animals from nations that have less-than-stellar human rights records.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/with-wind-2.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/with-wind-2.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">With Wind</div>
</div>


<p>The fact that these kites – usually symbols of freedom, soaring across the sky – are cooped up in a factory building was jarring.</p>

<p>The next room contained Trace. A series of portraits of political prisoners made in Lego covered the floor.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/trace.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/trace.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Trace – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Suk-ja">Shin Suk-ja</a></div>
</div>


<p>Along the side there were books explaining the portraits – who they were, where they were imprisoned, what they did to end up there. It was overwhelming, and a little difficult to connect with. The sheer number of prisoners – most of whom I&rsquo;d (shamefully) never heard of – made it impossible to know everything about all of them.</p>

<p>Looking at a couple, though, is worthwhile. The most surprising for me was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kiriakou">John Kiriakou</a>, who was the first agent to relase the information that the CIA was using waterboarding to torture prisoners. He&rsquo;s currently serving jail time for this. <a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-trace/">You can see a list of the political prisoners featured in the artwork on the installation&rsquo;s website.</a></p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/trace-2.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/trace-2.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Trace – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kiriakou">John Kiriakou</a></div>
</div>


<p>In the old dining room, there&rsquo;s another part of @Large – <a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-yours-truly/">Yours Truly</a>. Here you can write postcards to the prisoners depicted in Trace. The postcards are already addressed, and on the front have national plants or animals from the prisoner&rsquo;s home country.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/yours-truly.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/yours-truly.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Yours Truly</div>
</div>


<p>It&rsquo;s a nice idea to remind these prisoners that there are people still thinking of them. I certainly felt good about writing a postcard. Afterwards, though, I wondered if they would actually reach the prisoners. I don&rsquo;t mean to question the honesty of the volunteers who mail them – but I&rsquo;m unsure as to whether the Bahrain government (or whereever) would allow their prisoners to get such a large amount of mail.</p>

<p>The hospital wing had an installation called <a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-blossom/">Blossom</a>.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/blossom.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/blossom.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Blossom</div>
</div>


<p>It consisted of beautiful and delicate porcelain flowers arranged in the toilets, bathtubs, and sinks of the wing.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/blossom-2.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/blossom-2.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Blossom</div>
</div>


<p>The flowers chosen were, again, national symbols of countries with serious human rights infractions.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/blossom-3.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/san-francisco/aiweiwei/blossom-3.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Blossom</div>
</div>


<p>Also on the tour there were two sound installations. <a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-illumination/">Illumination</a>, in the psychiatric cells of the hospital, had Tibetan and Native American chants echoing around the tiled rooms.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz-stay-tuned/">Stay Tuned</a>, in A Wing, opened up some cells for you to sit in. Music, poetry, or speeches from political prisoners was piped in through a tiny grate in the floor. Sitting on a stool, alone, listening to these songs gave me a strong feeling of shame. It was certainly the biggest emotional reaction I got from the exhibit.</p>

<p>Here I was, having paid to come here. I chose to sit in a jail cell and listen to music. I could get up and leave at any point I wanted. I was – dare I say it – having <em>fun</em>. It was a little perverse.</p>

<p>But maybe that&rsquo;s the point? It managed to open my eyes to a wider issue, and obviously one that Ai Weiwei is concerned about. I&rsquo;ve researched more of the political prisoners since visiting the exhibit.</p>

<p>So, at least in that way, the exhibition is a great success.</p>

<p><em><a href="http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz/">@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz</a> runs until 26th April 2015.</em></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Drinking Spots in Jacksonville]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/15/drinking-spots-in-jacksonville/"/>
    <updated>2014-12-15T12:05:17-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/15/drinking-spots-in-jacksonville</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville,_Florida">Jacksonville</a>, Hampton&rsquo;s hometown, is pretty sprawling. As such, it&rsquo;s difficult to get to different areas of the city without driving. Thankfully, Uber recently arrived so you can drink and get home safely (although with all the recent controversy, I don&rsquo;t know how comfortable you might be with using Uber).</p>

<p>The main areas of town we went to were Downtown, San Marco, and Avondale.</p>

<p>In Downtown, I&rsquo;d highly recommend <a href="http://www.dosgatosjax.com/">Dos Gatos</a>. The cocktails are great and reasonably-priced.</p>

<p>San Marco has <a href="http://www.grapeandgrainexchange.com/">Grape and Grain Exchange</a>, with the Parlour in the back. Grape and Grain Exchange is an up-scale package store. They have a great range of liquors there – and we got some to drink at home. However it&rsquo;s worth grabbing a drink at the bar, too. The atmosphere is a little bright – it is primarily a shop, after all – but the cocktails are good. In the back there&rsquo;s the Parlour, which is a speakeasy-style bar. The service is pretty slow but they have some decent seasonal cocktails.</p>

<p>Avondale&rsquo;s top spot for drinking is <a href="http://www.mojobbq.com/mojo-no-4-urban-bbq-whiskey-bar">Mojo Nº4</a>. They have an extensive range of whiskey cocktails, all of which were tasty. Their Vieux Carré was great.</p>

<p>If Mojos is packed (and it often is, so get there early), try the <a href="http://mellowmushroom.com/store/avondale-jax">Mellow Mushroom</a> just across the street. Their pizza is pretty good, too, if you&rsquo;re hungry.</p>

<p>All in all, there&rsquo;s a few good spots around town if you&rsquo;re looking for a decent cocktail. Just make sure you have a taxi number handy to get home!</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[The Journey Ends]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/02/the-journey-ends/"/>
    <updated>2014-12-02T10:26:40-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/12/02/the-journey-ends</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;m writing this on a plane. We&rsquo;re travelling back to San Francisco after seven months of being away from home. Here are some fun facts about our trip.</p>

<ul>
<li>226 days on the road</li>
<li>10 countries (with seven languages) visited</li>
<li>21 airports (SFO, IAD, DCA, ATL, JAX, PHL, CDG, VIE, AGP, LPL, STN, PRG, AMS, SXF, TXL, ARN, LHR, EWR, YTZ, JFK, DFW)</li>
<li>10 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Site">UNESCO World Heritage</a> sites (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra">Alhambra</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutn%C3%A1_Hora">Kutná Hora</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_the_Czech_Republic">Historic Centre of Prague</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London">Tower of London</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster">Westminster</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canals_of_Amsterdam">Canals of Amsterdam</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna">Historic Centre of Vienna</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seine">Banks of the Seine</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Hall">Independence Hall</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monticello">Monticello</a>)</li>
<li>41 films watched (3 on a plane, 14 in the cinema, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes">1 with mostly Czech subtitles so I didn&rsquo;t really know what was going on</a>)</li>
<li>8 conferences attended</li>
<li>2 birthdays celebrated</li>
<li>1 Kindle lost</li>
</ul>


<p>Looking back, it&rsquo;s certainly been a lot of fun. But it&rsquo;s also been pretty stressful. At least, I remember it being stressful at the time. Already the rosiness of hindsight is taking over and I almost wish I was back travelling again.</p>

<p><em>Almost</em> wish. I&rsquo;m not leaving my couch for a while.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[The Disney Experience]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/29/the-disney-experience/"/>
    <updated>2014-11-29T06:31:49-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/29/the-disney-experience</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>For our five year anniversary, we decided to head down to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_World">Walt Disney World</a> for a few days. I had never stayed &ldquo;on property&rdquo; (i.e. in a Disney-branded hotel) before, so we opted to stay in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Port_Orleans_Resort">French Quarter New Orleans</a>. It&rsquo;s priced in the middle of the pack – not as expensive as the Grand Floridian or the Contemporary, but not as cheap as the All-Star resorts. (See a handy table on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_World#On-site_Disney_resorts">Wikipedia page</a>.)</p>

<p>We also wanted to get our hands on the new Disney <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyMagic%2B#MagicBand">MagicBand</a>. It&rsquo;s an all-in-one ticket to the parks, key to your room, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Fastpass">FastPass</a>. We were really excited about getting them. You customise them online and they come in the mail.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/band-box.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/band-box.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Magic Band box</div>
</div>


<p>The packaging reminded me of an Apple product – it was uncluttered and put the product up front.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/band-in-box.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/band-in-box.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Inside the box</div>
</div>


<p>The bands even had our names on the inside in case they got mixed up.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/band-behind.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/band-behind.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Inside of the band</div>
</div>


<p>Staying on-site also gives you the opportunity to take the Disney buses from hotels to the parks. You don&rsquo;t need to worry about the hellish carpark at the end of the day. We decided to do the Disney dining plan, too – one snack, one quick meal, and one sit-down meal per day.</p>

<p>We checked into the hotel, and although the surroundings were nice, the room was disappointing. It was laid out exactly like a motel – a sink area you can see as you walk in the door, a curtain to separate it from the rest of the room. It seemed like that could be a useful layout for families, but it didn&rsquo;t have the &ldquo;magical&rdquo; feeling I was expecting – especially for the price we were paying. I couldn&rsquo;t help but compare it to the far better Lowes Royal Pacific Resort at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Orlando">Universal</a>, where we stayed the previous week.</p>

<p>We were there for four days – with one day in each of the four WDW parks. On our first day, we headed to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot">Epcot</a> to catch the end of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot_International_Food_%26_Wine_Festival">Food and Wine Festival</a>. Held every autumn, they put up extra food stands around the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot#World_Showcase">World Showcase</a> representing different countries/cultures.</p>

<p>Anyway, as Epcot is one of the parks where you can drink, we decided to take advantage of the Disney bus system. Here&rsquo;s a pro-tip: <strong>don&rsquo;t use the Disney bus system</strong>. Waiting at our hotel&rsquo;s bus stop, was awful. Three or four buses for the same park would go past, and no passengers would get on. When our bus did come by, it was packed. After about fifteen minutes&#8217; wait for the bus, it was another fifteen minutes to get to the park. Then you&rsquo;re dropped off quite far from the entrance, so there&rsquo;s some extra walking. It was <strong>not</strong> worth it. In the Disney vs. Universal battle, the walkable distance from the parks to the resort hotels makes Universal a much more convenient experience.</p>

<p>Our day at Epcot was a lot of fun, though. Spending a whole day at Epcot allowed us to wander through the World Showcase. We managed to walk through all the countries – into the back areas and shops, which tended to be empty. The amount of detail is incredible. It also helps that some of the countries (such as France and Germany) have wine. That kept us in a good mood.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/epcot-drinking.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/epcot-drinking.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Wine at Epcot</div>
</div>


<p>We did Hollywood Studios the next day, then the Magic Kingdom. I was blown away by how busy the Magic Kingdom was – it was a Wednesday in the off-season and even high-throughput rides like Pirates of the Caribbean or the Haunted Mansion were at 50-minute queue times.</p>

<p>Animal Kingdom we left for the final day. They&rsquo;re apparently undergoing a lot of expansion, and we wanted to check it out before <a href="http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/01/construction-begins-for-avatar-inspired-land-at-disneys-animal-kingdom/">Avatar land opens</a>. We rode <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_Everest">Expedition Everest</a> a couple of times – it&rsquo;s a great ride, but the only must-do at Animal Kingdom.</p>

<p>Two other disappointing things: the dining package and the FastPass options on the MagicBand. We got the standard dining package which, as I mentioned above, covers a snack, quick serve meal, and a sit-down meal. We booked it through Disney – as we were staying there three nights, we assumed the package would cover four days. Unfortunately, that&rsquo;s not the case – so be aware of that.</p>

<p>Also, the sit-down meal gives you two courses. However those two courses are <em>only</em> the entrée and dessert. You can&rsquo;t switch the dessert for an appetiser. That kinda sucked for us as neither of us really eat dessert.</p>

<p>We used two of our &ldquo;sit-down&rdquo; credits on <a href="https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/grand-floridian-resort-and-spa/citricos/">Citricos</a>, the fancy restaurant in the Grand Floridian. I&rsquo;ve got to say – the overall experience was a little strange. The food was top-notch, and you could see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the main dining hall. But the drinks were terrible and there were mostly families there – so not particularly romantic or anything. Can&rsquo;t really complain about families, though, it being Disney and all that.</p>

<p>The best thing to do if you <em>do</em> get the deal is grab a Starbucks coffee at either the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. It counts as a snack – no matter how many extra espresso shots you get. Pretty neat.</p>

<p>FastPass is the way you skip lines at Disney. You used to get a card with a specific return time on it, but now you pre-arrange three rides you want to do at specific times. Staying on Disney property <em>does not</em> give you more than three. Everyone gets that. Compare with Universal, where if you stay on property you get an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Express_Pass">Express Pass</a> &ldquo;free,&rdquo; and it works any number of times for all designated rides.</p>

<p>I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll be staying at a Disney resort any time soon. If we do, I think it would have to be one with better transit options (i.e. one on the monorail). Driving to the parks is a far better option than the bus. I just don&rsquo;t see any real benefit that staying on-property offers.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Halloween Horror Nights 24]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/18/halloween-horror-nights/"/>
    <updated>2014-11-18T07:03:17-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/18/halloween-horror-nights</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Horror_Nights">Halloween Horror Nights</a> (also known as &ldquo;HHN&rdquo;) is an annual even put on by the Universal Studios resort in Florida. On select evenings for some of September and most of October, the park is transformed into a halloween scare-park.</p>

<p>There are usually eight or so haunted houses built in soundstages. These will be themed around something, and you walk through decorated rooms while loud noises play and actors jump out at you. There are also scare zones – areas of the park usually just for walking between rides. In these, there will be a few props around a theme, plus some scare actors who move amongst the crowds.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/entrance.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/entrance.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Universal Studios&#8217; Entrance during Halloween Horror Nights</div>
</div>


<p>This year&rsquo;s event was a blast. We were worried that attending on 31st October (Halloween itself), <strong>and</strong> because it was a Friday this year, the queues would be incredibly long. We bought the express pass (an extra cost on top of the regular cost) but we were still unsure as to whether we&rsquo;d be stuck in two-hour-plus lines to see the houses. The express pass often only cuts the regular lines down by half.</p>

<p>So, we implemented a plan laid out in <a href="http://www.orlandoinformer.com/universal/halloween-horror-nights-2014/">Orlando Informer</a> – by far the best resource to look at if you&rsquo;re thinking of visiting HHN. The trick to HHN is that you can get early entry <em>if you have a ticket for Universal Studios that day</em>.</p>

<p>The park closes at 5pm on HHN nights. Around 4:45pm, the staff set up areas of the park where you can sit and wait until HHN begins. The official start time of HHN is 6:30pm. However you&rsquo;re often let out of the areas closer to 5:45pm. That&rsquo;s a good chunk of time to explore houses before people are let in.</p>

<p>The best area to wait is in New York at Finnegans, an Irish pub. It&rsquo;s packed in there, but we got some drinks and took them outside. We put our names in for a table (it was a 40-minute wait, but we thought we&rsquo;d chance it just in case). At about 5:15pm we sat down and ate a quick salad before leaving the &ldquo;pen&rdquo; and heading into the event.</p>

<p>The Orlando Informer article gives some great advice – head to the houses first, then do the scare zones. The lines for two of the most popular mazes – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(TV_series)">The Walking Dead</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_vs._Predator_(film)">Alien vs Predator</a> – were 20 minutes, which was great! We did those in quick succession.</p>

<p>The Walking Dead was touted as the largest house they&rsquo;d done – and it was filled with scare actors. Overall it was entertaining but unmemorable. There was one great scene in a forest, where I truly felt like zombies were coming at me from all sides. But apart from that, it seemed like a bunch of generic zombie scenes. Maybe I wasn&rsquo;t paying attention to season 4 enough?</p>

<p>Alien vs Predator did a great job of putting you in the <a href="http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Weyland-Yutani">Weyland-Yutani</a> corporation as the Aliens take over and Predators are brought in to control them. At least, that&rsquo;s what I think the gist of the house was – it wasn&rsquo;t incredibly clear. I&rsquo;m an Alien fan, so I mostly delighted in the incredible puppet animatronics they had. Plus the ending – crawling through a narrow air-duct with an Alien waiting at the end – was an exhilarating finish.</p>

<p>We headed over to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_(1978_film)">Halloween</a> house, which was over at the other end of the park. Here&rsquo;s another pro-tip: if the regular queue is pretty short, don&rsquo;t bother using your express pass. You can only use your express pass once per house. When we first went to the Halloween house, the queue was only 5 minutes – definitely not worth wasting our express on.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/halloween.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/halloween.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Front of the Halloween house</div>
</div>


<p>The house had every major scene from the 1978 classic. It was a lot of fun entering the (almost clichéd) house. The decor was perfectly 70s and I&rsquo;m glad we had a second pass at the house later on in the evening. There were a number of scenes we missed the first time around.</p>

<p>After these, we did the &ldquo;non-property&rdquo; houses. These are houses that aren&rsquo;t based on any existing intellectual property. This year, there were three: Giggles and Gore (about clowns), Roanoake (about cannibals), and Dollhouse of the Damned (about creepy dolls).</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/dollhouse.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/dollhouse.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Front of Dollhouse of the Damned</div>
</div>


<p>Once we&rsquo;d done those, we were free to wander around the scare zones and attend the shows (they have special halloween-only live shows during HHN). My favourite scare zone was based around <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purge">The Purge</a>. Hampton and I both enjoyed the films, and the theme fits well with the New York area of Universal Studios.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/gone-purging.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/gone-purging.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">&#8220;Gone Purging&#8221; sign in the New York area</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/purge-bus.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/purge-bus.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Hampton supports our new founding fathers</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/flowers.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/flowers.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Signature blue flowers</div>
</div>


<p>We noticed all of the above while touring the park during the day. At night, they bring out some extra props, like this sign.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/purge-sign.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/purge-sign.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Enjoy the Purge!</div>
</div>


<p>The other scare zone I enjoyed was based around the reality show <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_Off_(TV_series)">Face Off</a>. Some of the most famous make-ups they&rsquo;ve had on the show were there.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/face-off-1.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/face-off-1.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">FaceOff scarecrow thing</div>
</div>


<p>It was cool seeing them, but the scare zone just turned into a photo opportunity. We were guilty, too – we stood in front of the couple of make-ups we enjoyed from the series and took some photos. So not that scary, but fun nonetheless.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/face-off-2.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/hhn24/face-off-2.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">FaceOff minotaur thing</div>
</div>


<p>Halloween Horror Nights isn&rsquo;t <em>that</em> scary. We&rsquo;ve found that smaller, local events are far scarier. Scare-actors at Universal Studios can&rsquo;t touch you. You move through the houses in a giant conga-line, rather than small groups.</p>

<p>With that said, Universal puts so much money into these houses that they&rsquo;re above and beyond anything you&rsquo;ll see at another horror event. The mazes are detailed and, for those based on films or TV shows, often amazingly accurate.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Universal Studios' London/Diagon Alley]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/13/universal-studios/"/>
    <updated>2014-11-13T11:47:30-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/13/universal-studios</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Orlando is a strange place. Knowing a number of people who live (and have lived) there, we&rsquo;re always instructed to explore the city. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much more than theme parks!&rdquo; we&rsquo;re told. And that&rsquo;s true! We explored a little last year – we were recording with Treehouse and found a couple of great places. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hansonsshoerepair">Hanson&rsquo;s Shoe Repair</a> is a cool speakeasy hidden behind a downtown bar/club. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Park,_Florida">Winter Park</a> area seems neat, too – we had a great meal at the <a href="http://www.theravenouspig.com/">Ravenous Pig</a>.</p>

<p>But exploring Orlando as a city wasn&rsquo;t on the agenda during this trip. We had four days booked at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Orlando">Universal Orlando</a>, probably our favourite theme park complex.</p>

<p>In particular, we were there for two things: visiting the London/Diagon Alley extension of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizarding_World_of_Harry_Potter_(Universal_Orlando_Resort)">The Wizarding World of Harry Potter</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_Horror_Nights">Halloween Horror Nights</a>.</p>

<p>I&rsquo;ll talk about Halloween Horror Nights in another post. Here I&rsquo;ll sum up the new Harry Potter area in Universal Studios. The London/Diagon Alley extension opened <a href="http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201407/4112/">earlier this summer</a>. In all, they&rsquo;ve done a very good job. You start in London – it looks like a bunch of generic London buildings stuck together. The most exciting one (for me) was the King&rsquo;s Cross replica.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/kings-x.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/kings-x.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">King&#8217;s Cross Station</div>
</div>


<p>I liked the fact that they used King&rsquo;s Cross (rather than the more gothic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_railway_station">St Pancras station</a> that was used in the films). It&rsquo;s a really good replica of the station (it was my London terminus when we lived in Cambridge). The departure board has legitimate trains – I&rsquo;ve been through Finsbury Park many times.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/departure-board.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/departure-board.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Departure board</div>
</div>


<p>You can walk into Platform 9 &frac34; and catch the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmede (in Islands of Adventure).</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/platform-934.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/platform-934.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Platform 9 3/4</div>
</div>


<p>The train ride is a lot of fun – the windows project your journey from London to Hogsmede. The train takes passengers back, with a different story, so make sure you ride it both ways. If you&rsquo;re short for time, we both preferred the London -> Hogsmede direction.</p>

<p>Diagon Alley itself is hidden behind an unassuming brick wall. So unassuming, we had to have it pointed out by a Universal employee. She saw our confused looks and whispered, &ldquo;You might want to check out that brick wall over there!&rdquo;</p>

<p>It opens up into a narrow alleyway with an imposing dragon perched at the far end. It&rsquo;s sat on top of Gringotts and it makes for a stunning visual introduction to the area.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/diagon-alley.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/diagon-alley.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Diagon Alley</div>
</div>


<p>Make sure to check out the side alleys – there&rsquo;s one to each side as you walk in. In particular, Nocturn Alley (on the left as you walk in) is a dark and spooky area where you can buy all the skull-shaped items you could ever dream of.</p>

<p>Anyway, onto the new ride: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Escape_from_Gringotts">Escape from Gringotts</a>. We had high hopes – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Forbidden_Journey">The Forbidden Journey</a>, over in Hogsmede, is one of our favourite rides.</p>

<p>The line times are pretty hefty – we were lucky enough to get in pretty early on a Thursday with only 30 minutes to wait. For the rest of the weekend, it was at least 120 minutes. The queue area is neat – you walk into Gringotts and see the main banking area.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-entrance.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-entrance.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Entrance to Gringotts</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-hall.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-hall.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Main room</div>
</div>


<p>Along the hallway are animatronics of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_creatures_in_Harry_Potter#Goblins">goblin</a> bank tellers.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-men.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-men.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Goblin bankers</div>
</div>


<p>You walk past these into the vaults and back rooms of Gringotts.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-vaults.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/orlando/gringotts-vaults.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Gringotts vaults</div>
</div>


<p>There&rsquo;s a weird break in the queue where you have your photo taken. I don&rsquo;t know why they do this – it&rsquo;s just against a plain background. Maybe it&rsquo;s because they didn&rsquo;t want to put a camera on the ride? Not a clue. But there&rsquo;s more queuing after that.</p>

<p>Then you&rsquo;re put in a &ldquo;lift&rdquo; that takes you into the deepest vault area. You then walk <em>up</em> some stairs, grab some 3D goggles, and enter a mine-cart-like-thing. It looks a little like the one from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_of_the_Mummy">Revenge of the Mummy</a>.</p>

<p>The ride is mostly large 3D projections following some half-arsed story about Voldemort. It is not an enjoyable ride. It fails in a couple of ways. To begin with, there&rsquo;s very little use of the track as a rollercoaster – there are maybe two small drops in total. It&rsquo;s definitely not an exciting ride, and makes me wonder why they decided to use a rollercoaster-style track without utilising any rollercoaster features.</p>

<p>Also, the ride is essentially a series of short 3D films. The great thing about The Forbidden Journey (or the older <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Adventures_of_Spider-Man">Spider-man ride</a>) was that they seamlessly blended real-life features (animatronics, props, forced perspective) with pre-done projected segments. The problem with Gringotts (and the recently-opened <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers:_The_Ride">Transformers: The Ride</a>) is that there&rsquo;s no inventiveness – you just move from one projection to the next, and that&rsquo;s the adventure.</p>

<p>Anyway, we were pretty disappointed. We wanted to ride it again to see if it improved on second ride, but with 120 minute queues we weren&rsquo;t willing to wait. The good news is that the rest of the area (and the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmede) was really fun – and that&rsquo;s enough reason to go.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[East Coast Road Trip: Part Three]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/03/east-coast-road-trip-part-three/"/>
    <updated>2014-11-03T07:57:55-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/11/03/east-coast-road-trip-part-three</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Driving through Virginia is great – mostly because it reminds me of England. Gently rolling hills, lots of farms, big oak trees.</p>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottesville,_Virginia">Charlottesville</a> was our first stop in Virginia. It&rsquo;s extremely beautiful and worth a visit – it&rsquo;s only a couple of hours to drive from Washington D.C. Just south of Charlottesville is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monticello">Monticello</a>, the residence of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson">Thomas Jefferson</a>. Compared with <a href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/10/28/east-coast-road-trip-part-two">the absurd cost to visit Biltmore</a>, Monticello is a steal – $25 per person. I&rsquo;d suggest booking in advance, especially on busy days. You can only go through the main part of the house as part of a guided tour – and those are every 15 minutes or so. It&rsquo;s nice to know when you need to show up.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello-entrance.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello-entrance.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Entrance to Monticello</div>
</div>


<p>The entrance to Monticello is at the bottom of a hill. It&rsquo;s got the usual visitor centre stuff – a gift shop, some small exhibits, a café, etc. All the stuff that you can&rsquo;t build next to the UNESCO-protected house.</p>

<p>You have two options for getting to the house itself – a five-minute bus ride or a fifteen-minute walk. We arrived about half an hour before our allotted tour and walked up. It&rsquo;s a great walk (although mostly uphill) and I&rsquo;d recommend doing it if you have the time/physical capability.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello-walk.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello-walk.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Walk up to Monticello</div>
</div>


<p>On the way up, you pass by the graveyard where Thomas Jefferson is buried.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/jefferson-grave.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/jefferson-grave.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Jefferson&#8217;s Grave</div>
</div>


<p>The grounds are expansive and the architecture of the complex is unique. There are a couple of terraces stretching along both sides of the house with servant quarters underneath. It&rsquo;s fun to wander around the outside a little. But be careful with your timing: the tours start far before their posted time. We arrived ten minutes before ours was due to start, and the group was already together and being told about the surrounding gardens.</p>

<p>The tour was equally interesting and overwhelming for me. I didn&rsquo;t know much about Thomas Jefferson – my British education wasn&rsquo;t focussed on American history. There were a lot of &ldquo;obvious&rdquo; facts that, for me, weren&rsquo;t so obvious. &ldquo;You all know that Jefferson and Adams had a fraught relationship,&rdquo; &ldquo;naturally you all know about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Hemings">Sally Hemings</a>.&rdquo; I had to nudge Hampton and ask him to fill in missing details. So if you&rsquo;re not American (or didn&rsquo;t pay attention in history), I&rsquo;d recommend reading up a little on his life before you come.</p>

<p>The house had some interesting areas. The entrance hall was used by Jefferson as a museum of sorts to prove to visitors that the Americas were ecologically and culturally distinct from the rest of Europe. Jefferson&rsquo;s bed was in an alcove that split his bedroom from his office. You can&rsquo;t take pictures inside, so I don&rsquo;t have any images of this stuff. But I do have a goofy photo of us standing outside the back of the house.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">&#8220;Back&#8221; of Monticello</div>
</div>


<p>It&rsquo;s really picturesque on the grounds, and it&rsquo;s easy to take gorgeous photos.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello-reflection.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/monticello-reflection.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Reflection of Monticello</div>
</div>


<p>Afterwards, we drove through Charlottesville and briefly saw the Jefferson-designed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Virginia">University of Virginia</a>.</p>

<p>That night we stayed in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staunton,_Virginia">Staunton</a>. It&rsquo;s a small town with a quiet centre and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson_Presidential_Library">Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library</a>. We grabbed a Priceline deal at the <a href="http://www.stonewalljacksonhotel.com/">Stonewall Jackson Hotel</a>, which despite its questionable name, was fairly decent.</p>

<p>We found a well-reviewed cocktail bar and restaurant called <a href="http://zynodoa.com/">Zynodoa</a>. It was packed at 7:30pm on a Tuesday. Its decor and cocktails wouldn&rsquo;t have been out of place in New York. The same went for its prices – the cheapest entrée was $25. So we decided to go somewhere that seemed a little lower-rent: a BBQ place called <a href="http://www.millstreetgrill.com/">Mill Street Grill</a> – it had great reviews so we were pretty excited.</p>

<p>I wish we&rsquo;d have stuck with Zynodoa. The entrées at Mill Street Grill were about the same price (~$25), and the menu reminded me of something out of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Nightmares">Kitchen Nightmares</a>. You know how Gordon Ramsay always complains when a menu is too large or haphazard? This menu was exactly that. There was Italian food, steaks, salads, BBQ, seafood, sandwiches. Hampton couldn&rsquo;t decide what he wanted, so he asked our waitress to pick from one of three. She didn&rsquo;t ask something like &ldquo;Do you like pasta?&rdquo; – she said &ldquo;How hungry are you?&rdquo; A bad sign.</p>

<p>We got our entrées and they were fairly tasty, but definitely not worth the price tag (why is some small town in Virginia charging so much?). The decor was bizarre – they had a bunch of deflated star and moon balloons hanging from the ceiling, a stained-glass window and a bust of Elvis (!?) on the bar. I&rsquo;d avoid it if you&rsquo;re ever in Staunton.</p>

<p>The next day we drove to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington,_Virginia">Lexington, VA</a> – an even tinier town whose main attraction is the two universities. We were there to see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_and_Lee_University">Washington &amp; Lee</a>, where Hampton&rsquo;s father and brother both studied.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/washington-and-lee.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/washington-and-lee.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Washington & Lee</div>
</div>


<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Chapel">Lee Chapel</a> is opposite the main buildings of the university, and we were lucky enough to catch a historian giving a short tour of the chapel explaining its history.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/lee-chapel.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/lee-chapel.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Lee Chapel</div>
</div>


<p>Inside it&rsquo;s all white. There are two portraits above the stage – one of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington">George Washington</a> and one of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee">Robert E. Lee</a>. I found the Washington one amusing as he&rsquo;s in his British Army uniform. It&rsquo;s by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Willson_Peale">Charles Willson Peale</a>, and I had to get a photo of it.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/washington-british.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/washington-british.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">George Washington in his British Army getup</div>
</div>


<p>In the back of the chapel is a statue of Lee. It&rsquo;s not a tomb – he&rsquo;s actually buried underneath the chapel in a crypt.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/lee-statue.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/lee-statue.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Recumbent statue of Lee</div>
</div>


<p>They also have a reconstruction of his office under the chapel. Right outside is buried Lee&rsquo;s beloved horse, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller_(horse)">Traveller</a></p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/traveller.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/traveller.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Traveller&#8217;s grave</div>
</div>


<p>Visiting Washington &amp; Lee was a nice detour on our trip. I&rsquo;ve heard a lot about it from Hampton&rsquo;s father, and it was nice to see that.</p>

<p>A brief aside: I&rsquo;m still not comfortable with the promotion – if not glorification – of Confederate generals that occurs in the South. I&rsquo;ve heard various justifications on numerous occasions. I understand that Lee <em>himself</em> didn&rsquo;t agree with slavery, but had to go with what his home state of Virginia wanted. However it still feels wrong. And it&rsquo;s still jarring when I see names like Stonewall Jackson or Robert E. Lee on schools or highways.</p>

<p>We made a brief family-history stop on the way there. I&rsquo;ll probably write a longer blog post about this in the future, as it might be handy for some Marshall descendants to know about. In short, we visited <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Creek,_Virginia">Happy Creek</a>. One of Hampton&rsquo;s family lineages is the Marshall family. They owned a property in Virginia called Happy Creek which, around 1912, burned down. Here&rsquo;s the ruins:</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/happy-creek.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/happy-creek.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Happy Creek ruins</div>
</div>


<p>Nearby, there&rsquo;s the Marshall family graveyard.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/marshall-grave.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/virginia/marshall-grave.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Marshall graveyard</div>
</div>


<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Markham_Marshall">James Markham Marshall</a> is the brother of the Supreme Court Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall">John Marshall</a> and also Hampton&rsquo;s great-(x4)-grandfather.</p>

<p>After visiting, we went to Washington D.C. to see our niece. Then we had a long drive back to Jacksonville – with one short stopover in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah,_Georgia">Savannah</a> because&hellip; well, why not? Savannah is beautiful. Now we&rsquo;re back in Jacksonville for a few days before heading to Orlando for a conference and (<em>cue spooky music</em>) <a href="http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/orlando/">Halloween Horror Nights</a>.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[East Coast Road Trip: Part Two]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/10/28/east-coast-road-trip-part-two/"/>
    <updated>2014-10-28T08:46:04-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/10/28/east-coast-road-trip-part-two</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>On the southern outskirts of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheville,_North_Carolina">Asheville</a> is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltmore_Estate">Biltmore Estate</a>. Built by the Vanderbilt family in the 1890s, it&rsquo;s the largest home in the U.S.A. and is open for tours. It&rsquo;s ridiculously expensive to visit – $60 per person is the cheapest adult ticket. Once you get in, there isn&rsquo;t much guidance on where to go, so the audio guide is well worth the extra $10. If you&rsquo;re spending $60 already&hellip; might as well, right?</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/biltmore.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/biltmore.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Front of Biltmore</div>
</div>


<p>I&rsquo;ve been to a fair share of grand homes in the UK and France, and it was interesting to see the American version of that. Obviously, this house was built way after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blenheim_Palace">Blenheim</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles">Versailles</a>. It had a lot more modern aspects that surprised me. For example, electricity was used widely throughout the house – the clocks were synchronised that way. The indoor swimming pool (!) was lit with DC bulbs. There was an electric <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbwaiter_(elevator)">dumbwaiter</a> from the kitchens. All of these &ldquo;modern&rdquo; marvels I&rsquo;d never seen in a grand home before.</p>

<p>Also, it was very noticeably a <em>home</em>, which isn&rsquo;t necessarily clear in other stately homes. Wandering around Versailles, how easy is it to imagine people living their lives there? Pretty tricky, in my opinion. Biltmore felt planned as a home – areas for family friends, areas for casual everyday living. It was far more welcoming in that regard. I&rsquo;m still not sure if it&rsquo;s worth the price tag, but I guess I&rsquo;m glad I saw it.</p>

<p>Asheville itself seemed nice, although we didn&rsquo;t stay in the centre. The only place we managed to get to was <a href="http://theadmiralnc.com/">The Admiral</a>, in the west side of the city. It was recommended by a number of people. Booking reservations was tricky – on a Monday night the only two slots were 5:30pm and 9pm. It&rsquo;s a popular place!</p>

<p>From the outside, it doesn&rsquo;t look like much.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/admiral.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/admiral.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">The Admiral</div>
</div>


<p>It seems more like a dive bar than anything. Inside, it&rsquo;s even decorated like a bit of a dive bar. No tablecloths, neon beer signs on the wall. The menu is pretty high-falutin, though. Tasty cocktails to begin with.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/admiral-cocktails.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/admiral-cocktails.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Cocktails</div>
</div>


<p>Then some fancy versions of mostly Southern food. We ended up getting a bunch of small plates and one large plate – the pork chop – as we&rsquo;d heard so much about it. By far the stand-out dish was the mussels.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/admiral-mussels.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/admiral-mussels.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Mussels</div>
</div>


<p>They&rsquo;d been cooked in a PBR/tomato/chipotle broth and it was delicious. We also got the fried gnocchi, which tasted just like tater tots. The steak tartare was nice but came with a bunch of sriracha over the plate (whyyyyyy???). We got some fried sweetbreads with chipotle grits. They were good, but didn&rsquo;t really take advantage of the sweetbread itself – it could have been any random chunk of meat. The creaminess of the sweetbreads, if anything, just melded into the creamy grits. The pork chop was tough but tasty. It came with some way-too-sweet mac and cheese.</p>

<p>Anyway, after the meal we sat outside on the porch – right next to a gas fire. It was a pleasant end to the meal.</p>

<p>The next day, we headed to Raleigh for <a href="http://allthingsopen.org/">All Things Open</a>. It&rsquo;s a gigantic conference – I think there were about 1,000 attendees and ten tracks. I didn&rsquo;t manage to go to half the talks I wanted to, but I did have a good time hanging out. I finally got to meet the awesome <a href="https://twitter.com/trek">Trek</a>, who&rsquo;s hung out with Hampton at a bunch of conferences.</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;re looking for a decent cocktail in Raleigh, head to <a href="http://www.common414.com/">Common 414</a>. They had a solid selection of classic cocktails and didn&rsquo;t seem to get too busy (at least when we went, which admittedly tends to be earlier in the evening).</p>

<p>Due to a scheduling mix-up, we had to leave Raleigh earlier than anticipated. Our next couple of stops were in the heart of Virginia – and I&rsquo;ll be talking about those in the next post.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[East Coast Road Trip: Part One]]></title>
    <link href="http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/10/21/east-coast-road-trip-part-one/"/>
    <updated>2014-10-21T13:08:44-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://www.malrase.com/blog/2014/10/21/east-coast-road-trip-part-one</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>After leaving New York, we flew down to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville,_Florida">Jacksonville</a>, Florida. We borrowed a car from Hampton&rsquo;s grandfather and started the next portion of our journey: the East Cost road trip. Hampton had been invited to conferences in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh,_North_Carolina">Raleigh</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando,_Florida">Orlando</a>, plus we have family in North Carolina and DC, so we decided to drive around a little and I&rsquo;d get to see a few more of the off-the-beaten-track parts of the South.</p>

<p>Our first leg was from Jacksonville to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenville,_South_Carolina">Greenville</a>, South Carolina. Hampton went to college at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furman_University">Furman</a> – just north of the town.</p>

<p>The drive up was lonnng – it took us about eight hours (including stops and some hellish traffic around Columbia). We passed through Georgia:</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/georgia.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/georgia.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Is the 1996 Olympics the only thing Georgia is proud of?</div>
</div>


<p>And into South Carolina:</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/sc-gates.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/sc-gates.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">South Carolina had some pretty sweet gates</div>
</div>


<p>After driving west across most of South Carolina, we stayed in Greenville for one night. It was a neat town, with a fair few restaurants and it was pretty lively at night. There was a young kid busking – doing magic tricks with his Dad, which was super-adorable.</p>

<p>We went to Furman the next morning. It&rsquo;s a self-contained campus and is quite beautiful. There&rsquo;s a lake surrounded by trees and a bell tower on one end.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/furman.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/furman.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">The bell tower</div>
</div>


<p>It was weird being at Hampton&rsquo;s old university. I think it was a strange trip for him, as he started recalling tales of parties or particular professors. What was also cool to see was the football pitch where <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Dempsey">Clint Dempsey</a> got his start.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/furman-soccer.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/furman-soccer.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Furman&#8217;s football pitch</div>
</div>


<p>After that, we continued into the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantahala_National_Forest">Nantahala National Forest</a>. There were a ton of beautiful lookout spots and hiking bits on the way there. Here&rsquo;s a few:</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/slide-rock.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/slide-rock.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Slide Rock: apparently kids slide down this. Seems pretty dangerous.</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/hiking.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/hiking.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Some hiking trail that ended up being way too long</div>
</div>




<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/table-rock.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/table-rock.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Table Rock, an outcrop</div>
</div>


<p>Table rock was a little unnerving. It&rsquo;s basically a large, gently-sloping rock overlooking the forest. Every time you think you&rsquo;re at the edge, you can walk a little bit further down. It was strange seeing people further down the rock and thinking, &ldquo;Wow, they&rsquo;re in a dangerous spot!&rdquo;&hellip; and then passing them.</p>

<p>Of course, driving around the South you see some interesting decorations.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/drivers.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/drivers.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Ahh, the South</div>
</div>


<p>We drove further up into the mountains and stayed at the <a href="http://www.highlandsinnlodge.com/highlandsInnLodgeIntro.html">Highlands Inn Lodge</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlands,_North_Carolina">Highlands</a>, North Carolina. It was a nice place, although a little out of the centre (but I&rsquo;m sure you could walk if necessary).</p>

<p>The leaves were amazing – every road was a bordered with greens, yellows, oranges, reds and browns.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/leaves.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/leaves.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Autumnnnnn</div>
</div>


<p>After spending a couple of nights in Highlands, we drove along the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Parkway">Blue Ridge Parkway</a> through the forest. It&rsquo;s a gorgeous road – you&rsquo;re basically on the ridge of the mountain range and have epic views from both sides.</p>

<p>There&rsquo;s stopping points every few hundred yards because there&rsquo;s that many photogenic scenes.</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/mountains.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/mountains.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Vistas</div>
</div>


<p>Here&rsquo;s a panorama:</p>

<div class="img">
  <a href="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/blue-ridge-parkway.jpg">
    <img src="http://www.malrase.com/images/the-journey/east-coast/blue-ridge-parkway.jpg">
  </a>
  <div class="alt">Panorama of the Blue Ridge Parkway</div>
</div>


<p>We were heading east across North Carolina to our next destination: Asheville. I&rsquo;ll write about that and our time in Raleigh in my next post!</p>
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