Why breaking my new smartphone was one of the best things I’ve ever done

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Tokyo Skyline
Tokyo Rooftop Garden

I had a sinking feeling as I stared at the black screen. I was treading water with my fins while I pushed the power button repeatedly to no avail. I swam back to the boat and climbed aboard the deck and wiped the phone clean. The seals covering the slots of the phone were all closed properly on my “waterproof” Sony Xperia Z3, yet somehow water had leaked in within the first minute of my being in the water.

And then it began to buzz. That sinking feeling began to sink to new depths. Shit.

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TGB Goes Fresh Off the Plane in Grand Cayman (And onto a dive boat)

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Note: There is a diving video later on in this post

Diving Grand Cayman
Straight off the plane and into the water

My trip to the Caribbean began as an “Escape from New York.” I don’t recommend last minute decisions to fly out of the Northeastern US immediately prior to a major snowstorm warning, yet that’s what I did. 7am flight booked from JFK to Grand Cayman direct, I set about trying to find myself a car to take me from Westchester to the airport. Everything for the next morning was fully booked. It seemed I had no way to make it to the airport. Fortunately, around 1am I finally found an independent driver to take me. Three hours later we were off, driving through the pounding snow. 

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TGB’s Road Trip of a Lifetime (yet again)

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White Sands
Picturesque White Sands National Monument

It’s been a while since I last posted; for that, I apologize. It has been a crazy month. I drove down to New York from Toronto via Niagara Falls, skipped down to Grand Cayman a couple of days later for one night before heading to Cuba, then spent nearly three weeks in the Southwest United States before arriving in LA yesterday. Currently, I am typing this post as I relax in the business class cabin of All Nippon Airways, snacking on good old rice crackers, bound for Japan. So much has happened in between. Here are but a few of the highlights. For the purposes of catching up, I’m only going to post quick snapshots taken with my phone (Sony Xperia Z3) for this post. Future posts that break down each stop will feature better photos, I promise!

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