Author: goodnewsgeorge

Last night, when I checked Google Assistant to find out what the weather was going to be today it told me that it was going to average 3-5 degrees Celsius. Initially, I thought it must be some kind of error, or maybe it was just a mistake. How wrong I was.

Fast forward to many hours later, this morning I took Snuggles out for some fresh air – it was cold as fuck. Google didn’t lie. The worst part? It was cold for the whole day. It felt like being in the UK during winter again. Except I spent a lot more time outdoors instead of hanging out in nice warm offices. The cold weather persisted all day long, and it’s still cold now even though it’s probably the warmest it’s been all day (7 degrees C).

Fortunately, the rest of the week will be back to normal – 13-15 degrees. I’m so looking forward to tomorrow. If I knew today would be this cold, I would have packed some gloves. I don’t miss having cold hands. Smoking was slightly more fun though – I’d exhale way more smoke than usual.

Snuggles seems to be slightly racist. She barks a lot more at people of a certain color than others. Dogs are supposed to be color blind right? Maybe something else is triggering her. She’s still super attached to me. It’s going to be difficult leaving her behind 🙁 those puppy eyes could melt the coldest heart. Sigh.

On a happier note, Austin has some pretty good ramen. Not as amazing as Tomita, but still very authentic and delicious. I highly recommend Tatsuya Ramen if you’re jonesing for a fix (of that Limp Bizkit mix).

Another day of activities ahead tomorrow, the wedding is only 3 days away now!

So one of the reasons why I chose to bring Snuggles to Austin was the fact that this was supposed to be a dog-friendly city. The truth is, it is. It’s amazing how well dogs are treated here in contrast to Malaysia. People bring their dogs everywhere, and some places even let you bring dogs indoors. At one restaurant, they even brought out a huge bowl of water for Snuggles to drink from. At another bar, the cashier even came over to play with her and feed her some treats.

In Malaysia, I get stares for bringing Snuggles to public open parks, even though dogs aren’t prohibited there. You need to bring them to places that specifically mention dogs allowed. I remember when I was a kid, we brought our dog to a public park, and a Malay kid started crying and screaming until he fell off a swing/slide (memory is a bit hazy for this one). One lady, who wasn’t even the mother of the child, came over to chide us. We didn’t even do anything to upset the kid, we were just walking past the park. It was hilarious. If I had been older/more eloquent back then, I would have yelled back at her.

Anyway, if you ever want to live in a city where dogs are treated like how they ought to be treated, Austin should be up on that list. The whole experience has been fantastic for Snuggles so far. Hopefully she’ll grow to love it once she gets over me leaving her behind.

Today was a lazy day – eat, shop for dog stuff, helped my sister to move some stuff into her new place, and drinks at East Cider. If you’re a fan of cider, they have some topnotch drinks. Definitely worth checking out again. Am back in bed, getting some rest so I don’t waste half the day sleeping it away. It’s been a great first day, am looking forward to the rest of the week! Here’s a picture of an exhausted Snuggles.

My plane trip to the US has finally come to a conclusion. After a flight delay (I’m surprised it was the only delayed flight of my trip so far), I touched down at Austin-Bergstrom airport. One thing good about flying late is that there usually aren’t many people on it, and you have a higher chance of not having to sit next to a stranger. A big plus when you’re traveling alone, in my opinion. You don’t have to bother people when going to the toilet and vice versa, you don’t have to worry about your shit getting stolen when you’re sleeping (maybe I’m just paranoid). Also you won’t have to worry about intruding in each other’s personal spaces.

I slept during the whole flight – I guess the trick to not staying awake is to remove all entertainment (it was a small plane with no personal entertainment systems for each chair – there was a common display playing Bohemian Rhapsody (good movie btw). I put on a podcast and shut my eyes.

Most importantly, operation: migrate Snuggles has come to a conclusion. I have successfully brought her over to Austin where she will be spending the rest of her life. Like Jason said: she gets to be American before me. Heh.

She’s super attached to me right now, despite my sister being her favorite back when she was still in Malaysia. I guess she must have forgotten about her after all those years. Hopefully she warms up in the coming days – not like she has much of a choice. On the bright side, she’s going to have a nice backyard to run around and do dog stuff in. Not like back in KL where she’s cooped up in my tiny apartment.

I finally had my first shower. Also, my sister cooked me some instant ramen for supper. She also mentioned that there are some good ramen places here in Austin, so I think I’ll be having more tasty Japanese noodles in the coming week.

The weather is great, just right for me – not too cold or hot. What a great start to this trip.