Poison

Booger’s finest hour, IMO.

Thanks for the heads up Jay, and for your hospitality throughout the course of the day yesterday. We had an amazing time. The tailgating was a real highlight, the cooking was top notch and everybody went so far out of their way to make us feel welcome which was greatly appreciated. LSU really has the best fans in the world (and they throw the best parties too).

The atmosphere both inside and outside of the stadium was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. It gives me goosebumps thinking about it.

We had great seats in row 4 of section 207 so we were right in the thick of it. At $500 AUD per ticket it’s almost certainly the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought my girlfriend. She’s not that into sport but by the end of last night even she was enthusiastically cheering the Tigers and willing them to win.

Plus, as a diehard LSU fan (albeit from the other side of the world) with a keen sense of history, the significance of that win isn’t lost on me. I could do this trip 100 times over and never see a win like that in a game of that caliber again.

When it was over, I must have hugged about 20 strangers in our immediate vicinity, and you best believe I was one of the first over the fence after Daniels connected with Taylor on that two point attempt.

It really lifted our spirits too. We tragically lost our 2yo dog who was hit and killed by a car back in Australia about 48 hours before kickoff. She was the most faithful little companion and she’s sat alongside me during every 2am/3am start watching the Tigers and the Saints back home. I’m not ashamed to say I was a bit emotional at around 10.30pm last night.

Thanks again to everyone who went out of their way to include us. It was an experience I won’t soon forget. We’re back in NOLA now and heading along to the Ravens game tomorrow, so hopefully we can keep our run of good luck intact.

I started reading it about a week ago. JEB is a brilliant writer, and I consider this to be a very good book and an excellent time capsule of a certain era of LSU football from well before I was born. I'm currently about 120 pages in.

However, it's more a story about the impact of organised sport on a person's life rather than the x's and o's (that is, it more closely resembles "The Blind Side" as opposed to say, "Paper Tiger").

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Do you know TD poster SirWinston?

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Regrettably not. Does he live here? There's only about 120 of us in this country so I'm surprised that I don't, though we are spread out across a surface area nearly equal to that of the US.

That's awesome, thanks mate - I definitely will. I'm not sure if there's a PM feature still on this site or if I need to email you.

Agree with the OP 100%.

I also think we were adversely affected by not playing a week 0 game.

Having said that, the fact that the bulk of our difficult match-ups occurs in the back-half of the schedule is a good thing in that it should give this team further opportunities to tune-up and develop.

Definitely promising signs.

I’m from out of town (well, out of the country actually) and the best day of my entire trip last time was watching LSU play Bama in 2019 at Wrong Iron. The place was absolutely crazy - just a sea of purple and gold. And LSU had that historic win too, of course. Nobody could understand my Australian accent but it didn’t matter. Can’t wait to go back in a couple months. Strong recommendation.

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You of course would be able to rent it out in the season from Mardi Gras through Jazz Fest.

But no one is renting them in August here, and not too many in the dead of winter, either.

I would absolutely try to connect with a local realtor and try to find a condo in a good building but that isn't sky high on pricing. It would not shock me at all to find out that we are at peak pricing right now.

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Thanks for this; I’ve just been put in contact with an Australian guy that migrated to Louisiana and is a realtor there. Presumably a rare (but hopefully helpful) combination.

Your point about vacancy times is a good one too, appreciate it. The reality is I am unlikely to be there during Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest myself. Most likely around November which is I assume a softer period anyway.

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Just my opinion, but for only 1-2 months a year—I’d just rent a house or apartment for that time. The cost of insurance and taxes of owning would be the same amount. Gives you more flexibility on changing locations year to year. I wouldn’t want to be an out of state landlord, much less halfway around the world.

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just rent (Airbnb) unless there is some compelling reason to own. Those reasons should be limited to A. You want the investment B. You have a ton of personal items you need/want to leave at the 2nd place

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These are both good points.

I guess the query for me looking longer term is, if it’s realistic for me to come for 4-8 weeks per year for say the next decade, that’s a cumulative amount of $40-$50k on short-term rentals (after which I have nothing to show for it).

I guess I’d have to weigh that up against buying a 1BR / 2BR condo with capacity to sleep up to four for say $250k-$300k and acquiring an asset in the process. It may not be occupied all the time but I imagine there’d be months like with Mardi Gras etc. when the rental income would be greater than the mortgage repayments. But there’s obviously insurance, management costs, etc as you rightly point out.

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Yes. What if the house gets weather damage of any sort? Dealing with SELA contractors is bad even if you are within walking distance of them.

That said I'm biased and don't think SELA is an appropriate place for a vacation home when Florida is so close by.

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Thanks mate. This kind of local knowledge is really valuable because I don’t have it. Obviously the weather damage is a major concern and while I understand FEMA has different gradings for flood-prone areas, high winds are a different proposition. But if you’re suggesting I’m going to find it hard to get a contractor to fix any damage, or to do a proper job of it should it occur, then certainly that’s a cost I’d have to take account of and might make it less attractive.

And it’s funny you mention Florida as I have a former colleague who bought there as an Australian too and travels there several times a year. I guess the point with Florida is if I’m going to go there and commute to LSU/Saints games I may as well be coming from Australia.

I like Miami and I’ve spent plenty of time in Tampa and Orlando but none of them hold any particular appeal for me to spend 8 weeks a year every year as opposed to Louisiana.