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An assessment of today, a look at what I have achieved so far since coming to America. It is eye-opening and intriguing to consider where I came from and where I am now.

 

Thoughts run deep

Crucially it is a time to remember the real reasons I left a fairly cozy life in England and chose the challenge of making a life for myself in a whole new country. I was fully expecting it to be difficult, and have so far been proved correct with the tough times encountered and many obstacles to overcome.

Above all, I am happy, I keep a positive attitude at all times, even when things have been and are bad, I chose to bound over any set-back with a leap and a smile on my face. This has been the most valuable of all things that I have taught myself. It really does make things bearable. My motto or personal philosophy has evolved from telling myself “Everything will be OK”, to a more charged “Onwards and upwards!”.

In the nature of this self-reflecting post, I am pleased to share with readers a BBC radio interview that I partook in just before actually flying over here, almost 6 months ago. I have mentioned the interview in this blog before, but I only had it in tape form and no hardware means to convert it to a digital counterpart to put on here. That is until recently, my Uncle in Berlin was good enough to do the conversion for me and send me a CD. You may now hear it too by clicking on the little player below.

BBC Radio Interview

Listening to myself speak hither and thither about the dreams and aspirations I had back then, it dawns on me that they are still very much the truth, my passion is music, I am a composer and am happiest with a guitar in my lap and leaning over to tweak the soundscapes on the computer.

The realisation however that I have done next to nothing to actually put forth into action these aspirations, get myself into situations that would put me in a position to pursue my dreams did come as a bit of a shock and wake-up call. Why am I wasting my time trying to find gainful employment in fields that are only at best my 2nd, 3rd or even 4th hierarchal interest. This is New York, where dreams can come true. Where I am allowed to create such an opportunity for myself to live the life I want. There is all and everything in this little corner of the East US coast, should you look for it, you will find the things you require to play out your lifes passions. I haven’t been seeking such things till now, it is time to go hunting. What prize will I catch?

Just a note that I am making some (mostly visual) modifications to the blog.  Have been meaning to do this for a while.   So just wanted to enlighten people to the fact that they have arrived at (hopefully) the right place.  The blog for Myles de Bastion and his travels of the US.   It just looks a bit different.  Akin to ‘do not adjust your TV set folks, this is all intentional’.

 I won’t be keeping this design either as I have some fairly big things planned as well for the near future.  For now however, it should hopefully make it a little easier to read and follow my journey.

Let me know if there are any problems though, change can be painful, but keep in mind, it’s usually for the better.

Oh and there are some ‘catch up’ posts coming very soon,  ideal closure for the punter who feels hurt that I didn’t properly document how I got from Savannah back to Vermont in (mostly) one piece.  It was quite the experience I’ll have you know (very shortly, I promise).

I’ve been meaning to tell everyone about the automobile I decided to aquire and the hassle it’s given me since so I may as well do that..

Presenting one glorious ‘92 Subaru Legacy, All Wheel Drive (AWD). 118,000 miles, good for at least another 80,000?

For the whole teary story..

Read the rest of this entry »

To elaborate, the reason for my severe delay in finishing the rest of the Montreal blog postings can be attributed to the frantic headrush of the past 2 weeks that have seen me tackling the huge logistics of an extended Florida trip.

If you can recall, I have been asked to pick up a van for a company and drive it back some 1500 miles to Vermont. I have decided to go ahead with this because I would be paid for my time, have the travel costs covered, get an opportunity to do some real-life US State-wide driving and also visit a large number of friends, family or relatives.

In order to visit relatives in a timely manner, I requested if I could get a paid Amtrak rail pass to chuff along the East Coast and make stop overs to visit people possible. Luckily the company agreed.

The huge logistics problem came about when I realised that I would have the mammoth task of coordinating a rally of visits with about 25-30 odd people that I have addresses and invitations for all the way down to Florida. I would need to schedule a day or two for each person and work out which Amtrak station is closest and if I need a Greyhound from there or not. Then I would need to check which days were suitable with everyone and make sure that it all lined up with the minimum of ‘backtracking’ up the railways.

Whew.

I think I’ve pretty much accomplished a good array of dates all one after the other which succeed their way down the East Coast.

My plans are:

WAY DOWN (Amtrak Train & Greyhound Bus)

Vermont - A ride down with my host Chuck as he had to go to NYC anyway

New York - Visit a friend of my mothers living on Mulberry Street, China Town in Manhattan.

South Carolina - My distant cousin who lives in UK but has a work placement for a year in the US

Savannah - My old hall mate from the first year at University who went to the States to do a different course

Florida - Visit a large number of relatives who have settled up and down the length of Florida

PICK UP VAN, DRIVE BACK UP

Stop off at any of the above who will be free to have me again

plus

Washington D.C - My cousin who I visited 3 years ago also

New York - My grandparents in Long Island.

Vermont - Drop off van and work out how to get a lift back home!

Thus it commences!

“Entering NYC”, a gull watches the cars pass under its domain

What happens now?

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure the word ‘consarn‘ is very close to the word that I’m trying to think of,  if any of you have any ideas let me know…

Meh,  a little deflated today,  small inklings of frustration seeping through the cracks.  I know things will be better,  just a matter of a good nights sleep and a positive week..  Smilie Face!

THE GOOD 

• My laptop rocks
• I’m beginning to get paid for work that utilises my creativity!
• Autumn is beautiful here in the Vermontonian wooded valleys,  golden leaves rain down in the wind
• I’ve been writing some new songs,  pretty high quality work
• Friends and family members being very supportive of me and my big adventure
• I’m going up to Montreal this weekend to visit relatives in Canada
• Seeing and being with the people over here

THE BAD

• My laptop didn’t work on the wi-fi hotspot in McNeils pub (damnit, it worked flawlessly everywhere else,  why won’t it let me drink and surf!?)
• My web-site coding skills need work (darn cross browser compatibility gets me every time).
• Internet really really sucks here in the middle of nowhere!
• Getting frustrated about lack of independance (can’t go anywhere without my Father turning up and giving me a lift to places)
• Car search is going slow (try to rectify the above problem, however all the decent looking car deals get snapped up before I can get anywhere close to checking them out)
• Still no digital camera (sorry folks, that one is long overdue for the blog)
• Seem to have gone a few steps backwards in the music theory I was teaching myself,  will have to relearn some stuff
• Banking sucks here in America compared to UK
• Finally got confirmation that I was ripped off by credit card fraud on the Canon camera I auctioned before coming over to the States meaning I owe Paypal 415 GBP (plus another 10 GBP for them doing me the service of failing completely to prove to the credit card company in question that I am the victim here.)
• Having to rebudget a lot of things for my trip due to the above (really could use that $800,  at worst I will probably have to put off travelling west until I have done some more jobs and reearned the money).

A few other odds and ends,  in general I’m doing pretty well I think.  Nothing every goes smoothly but I am confident that the experiences that are coming thick and fast will give continue to give me big pushes in the right direction and I will be thoroughly making the most out my time here as a young man with nothing holding me back from my potential to create and achieve.

Hip, hip, hurrah.

August 27th, my journey officially begins. An early 6am start to catch a National Express coach from Warwick Parkway Train Station.

The coach journey was as much fun as a coach can provide for a person with long legs like myself but I managed to nod off some before awaking to a scene of congestion; merely the hundreds and thousands of vehicles ploughing their way into the terminals at Heathrow.

The coach clipped a luggage trolley that had escaped the clutches of two teenage girls, sending their belongings sprawling alongside the kerb. The coach got stuck but was freed by an assistant and eventually parked. Everyone stared on haplessly.

My mother had decided to see me off at Heathrow for it was not definite when I would see her again, I appreciated her company if not her nagging and constant checks to see if I had everything but the kitchen sink with me. I knew it would be difficult for her to see me go but such things had to be done. We both were aware that this was an important moment, when the parent has to let go of the child, hoping that they will fly free and be strong on their own.

The queues were about as bad as could be expected thanks to the extra security checks in place. My hand luggage just squeezed into the maximum size restrictions enforced and thankfully was able to continue carrying my hard drives with me containing all my work and data (approx. 600GB worth). Read the rest of this entry »