It’s been a hectic few weeks. Emma’s parents, Ronnie and Eleanor were over and they kick started us into doing the tourist thing again. Ronnie and I went to Telstra Dome to see Melbourne and Central Coast in the football. Weather wise, it was one of the worst days since we’ve been here. Cold, windy and raining, Ronnie couldn’t believe he was in Australia as this weather had Northern Ireland written all over it. Once we got into the stadium it was fine as they had the roof closed to keep the elements out. Melbourne won 2-1 after going a goal down.
The next day we hired a car and did the Great Ocean Road again. We did it from the west in the van when we were travelling to Melbourne from Adelaide and weren’t that impressed. This time we came from the east and it was spectacular. We stopped off at Bells Beach along the way and almost got blown away by the wind. The weather was awful again and at one stage there was a wall of water and hail stones coming down and we thought we might have to turn back but we persevered and by the time we got to Lorne it was sunny. We went as far as the twelve apostles and got out and had a look around. It’s a fantastic sight and I’m glad we came back as the last time we just drove past in an effort to get to Melbourne as early as possible.
We had the hired car on the Sunday as well so we took a drive down to Phillip Island. They hold the motorbike grand prix down there, something I have no interest in. The island itself is home to penguins and seals as well as some nice beaches. We were going to hang about for the penguin parade but it was getting late and they weren’t due back from whatever they do all day in the ocean til 8.30pm by 4 o clock we had seen a lot of what the island had to offer and didn’t want to hang about for another 4 hours.
We took Ronnie and Eleanor to a few of our favourite restaurants on Chapel St. Gurkhas the Nepalese place and Mamacas, the Mediterranean place. They didn’t let us down, good food and good value but we went down to Acland St. another night and we aren’t as familiar with the eateries down there and ended up in a place called Greasy Joes. The same says it all. The food was fine though even if the portions were small and the waiter who served us had a sleeveless shirt on with tattoos all over his arms. I don’t think Eleanor had eaten in a place like that before, we kept telling her it was a St. Kilda institution.
Their visit was all to brief and the 8 days flew by (They had been in Australia for a about a month altogether), next thing we were waving them off on the bus to the airport. It was great to see them and took the edge of the homesickness.
Since then we have tried to do as much sightseeing as possible in our last few weeks.
We went up the Eureka Sky deck, one of the tallest buildings in the world. It has fantastic views of the city and suburbs. We also went to Victoria market for a look around and Donal took us to Pin Oak Court in Vermont AKA Ramsay St in Neighbours. You can’t come to Melbourne without going to see Ramsey St. I wouldn’t recommend doing the tour as it’s $60 each but if you can get someone to take you it’s definitely worth a trip. Donal has now started his own Neighbours tour, his unique selling point is that he blasts out the Wolfe Tones on the journey there. After that he also took us down to Brighton Beach and to Lygon St. in the Italian area of Carlton for a lovely Italian meal* (*this is not part of the Neighbours tour)
Last weekend I finally got to see Tasmanian Devils and I didn’t even have to go to Tasmania although it probably would have been a shorter journey to Tasmania as it took me over 3 hours to get to Healsville Sanctuary near Lilydale by tram, train and bus. It was an awful day, we were in the middle of 40 hours of incessant rain (yet still there is a drought here!) but I went anyway. I had to be there 1pm as there is a daily talk about the devils that I wanted to hear. I got there about 12.30 and raced through the park in the rain not sure if I was even going to see anything in the rain. When I got there the park keeper had already begun his talk in this enclosure with a big window that looked outside at another enclosed wooded area where they live. I couldn’t see any of them about but quickly realised that the crowd of people in the corner were onto something. There were 2 smaller windows with nests in them and in there were a baby and its mother both sleeping. The mother was a lot bigger than I thought and the baby was about the size that I expected them all to be. It was great to finally get to see them even though it wasn’t in the wild. Who knows if I’ll ever get to see them again as there numbers have halved over the last decade, the main reason for this is Devil Facial Tumour Disease is wiping them out.
I hung about watching them twitch while they slept for a while as people came and went. Some people thought I worked there so I indulged them with what I could remember from the park keeper’s talk. I walked back through the park trying to take pictures of the animals in the park (mostly indigenous animals: kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, dingos, koalas etc) but they were all sheltering from the rain and it was hard to get decent pics. I did get to see some birds of prey up close as they were brought into the reptile house. One was a wedge tail Eagle, similar to the ones we saw on our road trip that we almost hit as they dined on the road kill. They are so big they struggled to get up off the road as we drove towards them. This particular one was used in Wolf Blass wine adverts.
We’ve seen a few stars of Australian telly recently. Bridget from Neighbours was on the tram the other night coming back from the moonlit cinema and the guy who once played Darren in Neighbours now he plays someone else crossed the road in front of me and headed into the park with a footie. I did a double take and he gave me a look like “yeah it’s me, big deal”. When we went to the Homeless World Cup we saw the guy who played Carl Williams, a famous gangland killer, in UnderBelly. I think his name is Guyton Grantley. I nudged Emma and said “isn’t that….” I didn’t even finish what I was going to say when he said “G’day mate” and walked past us. Later as we left Fed Square we saw him again and he caught Emma staring at him and waved at her. Disgraced. I’ve also discovered that they guy who wrote the screenplay for the film Flatliners lives down the street and oddly sometimes works in the shop across the street from our building so I’ll be stalking him between now and when we leave on Monday.
Also at the Homeless World Cup I went and had a word with one of the Irish boys in between games. It was weird because your first instinct when you meet someone from home is to ask them where they are from but this guy was homeless so I didn’t know what to say to him. Thankfully he was a cheeky Dub (I think by the sounds of his accent) so he had plenty of chat and he started slagging me about my 1989 Liverpool replica shirt. Any time I annoy Emma now she threatens that I’ll be eligible for the Homeless World Cup next year if I don’t shut up. While we were there Ireland stuffed Holland 11-2 not bad for 7 minutes each way. Afghanistan won the whole thing. I can’t think of much worse than being homeless in Afghanistan, so fair play to those boys.
This is my last day at work. I've really enjoyed working with Victoria Police, the people here are great craic and I've made a few friends so that makes it even harder to leave. The other contractors I started with have all gone home to their countries for Crimbo. Although a couple of them got the road. Rebecca one of the Chinese girls was driving all the permanent staff mad as she would ask a question about some process then she would argue with the person giving her the advice that they were actually wrong. This didn't go down well and eventually she asked to leave. Old Jim from Geelong also got the heave ho, I'm not sure if it was because when he spoke to you he picked his nose and rubbed it into his cheek but I'm sure it didn't help. Emma's job with the TAC ends today also. She really loves working there as well as she's made a lot off friends and they're all good craic.
Melbourne is a fantastic place despite the weather and we've really enjoyed working and living here. It was given the title as the world’s most liveable city and we would agree that it’s a great place to live. We've spent more time here than anywhere else in Australia and we have nothing but great memories to take with us. We fly to Sydney on Monday.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Ireland, Ireland in excelcius deo
Last weekend we headed to the MCG to see the second test of the International Rules series. We watched the the first test in perth on the telly the week before. it was a really close game that Ireland managed to win by one point. The series would be won by an overall aggregate score from the two games. The game was on halloween which isn't a big deal over here. I don't think one silo got raided for tyres but a few people did dress up. We headed up to the G after work and got given 2 free tickets as we were going in through the gates which saved us $50. It was looking like rain so we took shelter in the 4th level behind the goals were most of the 42,000 crowd were. We managed to stay dry but the wind cut right through us. The gane itself was very exciting and I missed the first quarter along queueing for beer for Emma. I think Australia were in the lead but Ireland took control in the next two quarters and led by about 20 points. Benny Coulter was unbelievable and we were going daft shouting his name from the stands. There was this aussie guy in front of us on his own who found himself surrounded by Irish when the game started. Along with us were Donal and his girlfriend Karen, his cousin Mary and her husband Sean and some of their friends and Ronan Galloghly, Ferg Wright and his Meath mate from the hostel. This poor old aussie guy didn't know what hit him when Ireland scored. I had no doubt the aussies would come back in the fourth quarter and they did. They got within a few points but then Benny battered one into their net with his fist and that knocked the stuffing out of them. Great nights craic and thsoe two games were better than any of the aussie rules games I've watched this season. Although I wouldn't say that to any aussies over here as they would take great offence.
We had the day off on Tuesday for the Melbourne Cup which wasn't great for us as we don't get paid for holidays but it was nice to get a lie in in the middle of the week. we met Donal and his crew down on Greville St in a bar called College Lawn. All the talk before hand was of an international raider winning and Aidan o Brien and Dermot Weld from Ireland had two of the favourites in Septimus and Profound Beauty. I backed the latter. The other favourite was an english horse called Mad Rush and a couple of New Zealand horses were fancied as well. The race was a classic. Aidan O Briens 3 horses went ahead together and were 6 lengths clear of the field for the majority of the race then when they came round the final bend the field swallowed them up. As so often in big races a horse nobody fancied came from nowhere and one by a nostril from a late challenge. The whole bar went quiet because nobody knew who won it turned out to be Viewed a 40/1 odd shot and he beat Bauer both aussie horses and the 3 O brien horses who took off and tried to dominate the field finished last. The winner was trained by Bart Cummings who is a well known Aussie trainer and that was his twelfth victory, not bad for a man of 81. Afterwards he lit on the hype surrounding the international horses and how they would be too good for the aussies. the next morning on breakfast news the host of it lit on O Brien and his total disrespect for how races are run over here. Apparently O Brien left a very angry man burt he'll be back. My horse came 5th and Emma had Cest La Guerre who came in 3rd. That won her $20 in a sweep.
The Rugby League world cup is on as well. Australia thrashed England last weekend at Telstra Dome. The week before I went to watch the soccer there. Melbourne Victory were playing Sydney. There's a big rivalry between the two cities going back to when Melbourne was capital of Australia and Sydney complained so much that they had to give it to Canberra which is situated between the two cities. Telstra Dome is a great venue. State of the art. It holds 55,000, has a retractable roof for when it rains (and it does rain here), shops, bars and restaurants and a great view from every seat. There was about 32,000 at the game and the atmosphere was good. The Melbourne vans gather behind each goal and sing to each other while a little pocket of sydney fans made noise in one of the corners. It reminded me of watching crowds at european football on telly as there was one guy with a megaphone starting all the songs and then the others join in. The standard of football wasn't great. it's be no better than Irish league but there were a few names i recognised from English football - Aloisi, Muscat, Bobby Petta. I'm gonna go to another game in a couple of weeks.
Went to Stevie Wonder a couple of weeks back. Phenomenal show. He played for 2 and a half hours non stop with a great band behind him, drummer, 2 percussionists, 2 guitarists, bass player, keyboards, saxomophone, trumpet and 4 backing singers. He played a few hits in the first half and a four tops number in memory of their lead singer who died recently, there was a lot of jamming and songs I didn't know, a lot of jazz, blues and latin stuff but he through in the likes of master blaster, higher ground and lately which was particularly poignant. The last hour he just played hit after hit after hit after hit without stopping. Sir duke, I wish, for once in my life, isn't she lovely, I just called to say I love you, you are the sunshine of my life, signed sealed delivered, yester me yester you, part time lover, my cherie amour, superstition, as. He did bang on about obama a bit but musicians and politics seem to go hand in hand these days. Still he's a legend and he can do what he wants.
The weather has been all over the place of late. Usually it builds up during the week monday 23, Tuesday 25, wednesday 26 and by the weekend its about 30 then it can drop back to 20 but the last 2 weekends it has been cold and raining. Rain as bad as at home, i'm not joking. The only thing is it might be like that for a day or two and then it's fine again. They are actually depserate for rain here as the Murray River is running dry but it only seems to rain in certain areas, the city and St.Kilda it seems to me. Emma was down in Ballarat for a conference on Friday and she said it was terribly cold down there. It's about an hour out of the city. We shouldn't really complain but were spoilt in Darwin and Perth. you wouldn't come to Melbourne in winter or sprng for the weather. Still having a great time though.
We had the day off on Tuesday for the Melbourne Cup which wasn't great for us as we don't get paid for holidays but it was nice to get a lie in in the middle of the week. we met Donal and his crew down on Greville St in a bar called College Lawn. All the talk before hand was of an international raider winning and Aidan o Brien and Dermot Weld from Ireland had two of the favourites in Septimus and Profound Beauty. I backed the latter. The other favourite was an english horse called Mad Rush and a couple of New Zealand horses were fancied as well. The race was a classic. Aidan O Briens 3 horses went ahead together and were 6 lengths clear of the field for the majority of the race then when they came round the final bend the field swallowed them up. As so often in big races a horse nobody fancied came from nowhere and one by a nostril from a late challenge. The whole bar went quiet because nobody knew who won it turned out to be Viewed a 40/1 odd shot and he beat Bauer both aussie horses and the 3 O brien horses who took off and tried to dominate the field finished last. The winner was trained by Bart Cummings who is a well known Aussie trainer and that was his twelfth victory, not bad for a man of 81. Afterwards he lit on the hype surrounding the international horses and how they would be too good for the aussies. the next morning on breakfast news the host of it lit on O Brien and his total disrespect for how races are run over here. Apparently O Brien left a very angry man burt he'll be back. My horse came 5th and Emma had Cest La Guerre who came in 3rd. That won her $20 in a sweep.
The Rugby League world cup is on as well. Australia thrashed England last weekend at Telstra Dome. The week before I went to watch the soccer there. Melbourne Victory were playing Sydney. There's a big rivalry between the two cities going back to when Melbourne was capital of Australia and Sydney complained so much that they had to give it to Canberra which is situated between the two cities. Telstra Dome is a great venue. State of the art. It holds 55,000, has a retractable roof for when it rains (and it does rain here), shops, bars and restaurants and a great view from every seat. There was about 32,000 at the game and the atmosphere was good. The Melbourne vans gather behind each goal and sing to each other while a little pocket of sydney fans made noise in one of the corners. It reminded me of watching crowds at european football on telly as there was one guy with a megaphone starting all the songs and then the others join in. The standard of football wasn't great. it's be no better than Irish league but there were a few names i recognised from English football - Aloisi, Muscat, Bobby Petta. I'm gonna go to another game in a couple of weeks.
Went to Stevie Wonder a couple of weeks back. Phenomenal show. He played for 2 and a half hours non stop with a great band behind him, drummer, 2 percussionists, 2 guitarists, bass player, keyboards, saxomophone, trumpet and 4 backing singers. He played a few hits in the first half and a four tops number in memory of their lead singer who died recently, there was a lot of jamming and songs I didn't know, a lot of jazz, blues and latin stuff but he through in the likes of master blaster, higher ground and lately which was particularly poignant. The last hour he just played hit after hit after hit after hit without stopping. Sir duke, I wish, for once in my life, isn't she lovely, I just called to say I love you, you are the sunshine of my life, signed sealed delivered, yester me yester you, part time lover, my cherie amour, superstition, as. He did bang on about obama a bit but musicians and politics seem to go hand in hand these days. Still he's a legend and he can do what he wants.
The weather has been all over the place of late. Usually it builds up during the week monday 23, Tuesday 25, wednesday 26 and by the weekend its about 30 then it can drop back to 20 but the last 2 weekends it has been cold and raining. Rain as bad as at home, i'm not joking. The only thing is it might be like that for a day or two and then it's fine again. They are actually depserate for rain here as the Murray River is running dry but it only seems to rain in certain areas, the city and St.Kilda it seems to me. Emma was down in Ballarat for a conference on Friday and she said it was terribly cold down there. It's about an hour out of the city. We shouldn't really complain but were spoilt in Darwin and Perth. you wouldn't come to Melbourne in winter or sprng for the weather. Still having a great time though.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Spring time in Melbourne
The guy who lives down the hall looks like John Malkovich.
The football season is over and the cricket has begun. Fremantle didn't even make the finals so i started to go for Geelong mostly because when we were travelling they seemed to be the only team on telly and they were the 2007 champions. Me and Gerald went to the MCG to see them play St. Kilda in the finals series. it was very one sided and although the MCG is amazing and there was a crowd of 75,000 there the atmosphere was pretty flat. Geelong only lost one game all season and as expected they got to the Grand Final where they met Hawthorn. Donal McGoldrick is a mate of mine who is sort of from Newry. His da was a bank manager and the family ended up in Newry. i know his brothers from university in Coleraine and when Donal moved to Leeds to study, I invited myself over to stay with him. He's been out here for 6 years. He got caught up in the Bali bomb in 2002 on his way to Australia. Him and his brother Garrett were in the bar across from the Sari club and were luckily only grazed in the explosion that killed more than 80 people. Donal gave an interview to the Daily Mirror afterwards and his famous quote was that they were in this bar drinking with some Belgians before they went to the Sari Club and "...only them belgians were drinking so slowly..." they would have been in it. When Donal was in Leeds he trained as a nurse and, typical Newry, a few stories started to filter back into the town about Donal walking into one of the hospitals, full of injured people and offering his services, working round the clock attending to the injured. I asked him about this and he reminded me that he's a psychiatric nurse and couldn't put on a plaster.
Anyway, he knows a lot of people out here and we were invited round to a Grand Final party at his friends Ben and Laura. It was a great days craic with men, wome and children piled into their big spacious living room of their beautiful house watching the "footie". Now I've watched a full season of this game I feel qualified to say it's an alright game not as good as Gaelic and nowhere near as good as soccer. hawthorn upset the odds and beat geelong so thats maybe why I have the hump with it and we played nintendo wii all evening. it was better after the people with the children left because they were just too good. Also Ben and Laura have foxtel which is like sky at home and I got to watch Liverpool and Everton which was a bonus.
Last weekend we went to the horse racing. it was Guineas day at caulfield and the beginning of the spring carnival leading up to the melbourne cup on 4th November. it's a public holiday over here. Gotta love a state that gives you a day off for horse racing. if you don't know Australia is divided into seven states and each one has it's own government so really they are all like separate countries....with the same prime minister. you think thats confusing, you should see how they work out the finals series in the AFL. The horse racing is a big deal in Victoria and a lot of people get dolled up for the occasion so I treated myself to a new suit and Emma got her slap on, I took the racing pages out of the paper in the library at work and picked my horses for the day. We got off to a bad start as we didn't get there in time for the first race but the horse i was gonna back won. I had all my horses written down in a notebook and pointed out that although i didn't put the bet on I had it written down so morally I won. That was the highlight of my tipping as I didn't have one winner all day. This gay guy who lives near Ben and Laura had 3 winners including one at 60/1. he was just picking horses by names or the colour of the jockeys gear while i'm sitting studying form. Great days craic though.
We managed to sell the van as well. we got a few hundred dollars for it which was good considering it wasn't even going. We're gonna fly to Sydney on 22nd December and we're staying in Manly for 2 weeks and will take in the Harbour Bridge on New Years Eve which should be spectacular. Manly is supposed to be lovely, it has a beach so thats good enough for us. We also have a wedding to go to while we're in Sydney. Maura Magee is a girl from Courtney Hill in Newry who I know from An Ghaeltacht when we were at school. She lives out here now is getting married just after crimbo and has invited us to her wedding. We're really looking forward to it. After Sydney we have a week in Queensland on Airlie beach. it's on the Whitsunday Coast and is close to the Great Barrier Reef. It's gonna be the wet season when we go up there in January and there is a good chance it could rain but we thought we'd risk it anyway. Then we fly home on 13th Janauary from Sydney via Hong Kong and Zurich in a 29 hour flight which i'm not looking forward to at all. I can't sleep on planes. Emma could sleep on a clothesline.
hard to believe we've been out here 9 months. It will be good to get home and see everybody, go to Friar Tucks for a chicken burgers and super chips and watch football at a reasonable hour. We went to a recruitment function a few weeks ago for Emmas work. There was a recruitment company who have an office in Ireland and they were recruiting people to work in Ireland. They gave us all a goodies bag and in it we were delighted to discover a packet of tayto cheese and onion each. They were only free state tayto, free stayto, but they were lovely. They don't make crisps like that over here.
So we're gonna be working flat out til we leave in december. My work is going well. I started with about 7 other people Steve is a chinese guy who sounds like he learnt English from an Apple Mac voice program, a girl from Peru called Patricia who always agressively asks me "when ju go home?" she doesn't mean it, it's just her way. Manasi is from India and she loves food and Will Ferrell films, there are two chinese girls called Maggie and Rebecca who are always whispering, i tell them this is how rumours start and then there is Jim who is from Geelong. It's good craic, I enjoy it. The Aussies who work there full time have got me eating vegemite (bovril) and lammingtons (chocolate swiss roll with coconut on top).
Emma is away with ones from work this weekend and I'm away to play golf in Albert park tomorrow with Donal and Ben. it's supposed to be 29 degrees. On sunday night when Emma comes back we're going to see Stevie Wonder. it doesn't get much better than that.
The football season is over and the cricket has begun. Fremantle didn't even make the finals so i started to go for Geelong mostly because when we were travelling they seemed to be the only team on telly and they were the 2007 champions. Me and Gerald went to the MCG to see them play St. Kilda in the finals series. it was very one sided and although the MCG is amazing and there was a crowd of 75,000 there the atmosphere was pretty flat. Geelong only lost one game all season and as expected they got to the Grand Final where they met Hawthorn. Donal McGoldrick is a mate of mine who is sort of from Newry. His da was a bank manager and the family ended up in Newry. i know his brothers from university in Coleraine and when Donal moved to Leeds to study, I invited myself over to stay with him. He's been out here for 6 years. He got caught up in the Bali bomb in 2002 on his way to Australia. Him and his brother Garrett were in the bar across from the Sari club and were luckily only grazed in the explosion that killed more than 80 people. Donal gave an interview to the Daily Mirror afterwards and his famous quote was that they were in this bar drinking with some Belgians before they went to the Sari Club and "...only them belgians were drinking so slowly..." they would have been in it. When Donal was in Leeds he trained as a nurse and, typical Newry, a few stories started to filter back into the town about Donal walking into one of the hospitals, full of injured people and offering his services, working round the clock attending to the injured. I asked him about this and he reminded me that he's a psychiatric nurse and couldn't put on a plaster.
Anyway, he knows a lot of people out here and we were invited round to a Grand Final party at his friends Ben and Laura. It was a great days craic with men, wome and children piled into their big spacious living room of their beautiful house watching the "footie". Now I've watched a full season of this game I feel qualified to say it's an alright game not as good as Gaelic and nowhere near as good as soccer. hawthorn upset the odds and beat geelong so thats maybe why I have the hump with it and we played nintendo wii all evening. it was better after the people with the children left because they were just too good. Also Ben and Laura have foxtel which is like sky at home and I got to watch Liverpool and Everton which was a bonus.
Last weekend we went to the horse racing. it was Guineas day at caulfield and the beginning of the spring carnival leading up to the melbourne cup on 4th November. it's a public holiday over here. Gotta love a state that gives you a day off for horse racing. if you don't know Australia is divided into seven states and each one has it's own government so really they are all like separate countries....with the same prime minister. you think thats confusing, you should see how they work out the finals series in the AFL. The horse racing is a big deal in Victoria and a lot of people get dolled up for the occasion so I treated myself to a new suit and Emma got her slap on, I took the racing pages out of the paper in the library at work and picked my horses for the day. We got off to a bad start as we didn't get there in time for the first race but the horse i was gonna back won. I had all my horses written down in a notebook and pointed out that although i didn't put the bet on I had it written down so morally I won. That was the highlight of my tipping as I didn't have one winner all day. This gay guy who lives near Ben and Laura had 3 winners including one at 60/1. he was just picking horses by names or the colour of the jockeys gear while i'm sitting studying form. Great days craic though.
We managed to sell the van as well. we got a few hundred dollars for it which was good considering it wasn't even going. We're gonna fly to Sydney on 22nd December and we're staying in Manly for 2 weeks and will take in the Harbour Bridge on New Years Eve which should be spectacular. Manly is supposed to be lovely, it has a beach so thats good enough for us. We also have a wedding to go to while we're in Sydney. Maura Magee is a girl from Courtney Hill in Newry who I know from An Ghaeltacht when we were at school. She lives out here now is getting married just after crimbo and has invited us to her wedding. We're really looking forward to it. After Sydney we have a week in Queensland on Airlie beach. it's on the Whitsunday Coast and is close to the Great Barrier Reef. It's gonna be the wet season when we go up there in January and there is a good chance it could rain but we thought we'd risk it anyway. Then we fly home on 13th Janauary from Sydney via Hong Kong and Zurich in a 29 hour flight which i'm not looking forward to at all. I can't sleep on planes. Emma could sleep on a clothesline.
hard to believe we've been out here 9 months. It will be good to get home and see everybody, go to Friar Tucks for a chicken burgers and super chips and watch football at a reasonable hour. We went to a recruitment function a few weeks ago for Emmas work. There was a recruitment company who have an office in Ireland and they were recruiting people to work in Ireland. They gave us all a goodies bag and in it we were delighted to discover a packet of tayto cheese and onion each. They were only free state tayto, free stayto, but they were lovely. They don't make crisps like that over here.
So we're gonna be working flat out til we leave in december. My work is going well. I started with about 7 other people Steve is a chinese guy who sounds like he learnt English from an Apple Mac voice program, a girl from Peru called Patricia who always agressively asks me "when ju go home?" she doesn't mean it, it's just her way. Manasi is from India and she loves food and Will Ferrell films, there are two chinese girls called Maggie and Rebecca who are always whispering, i tell them this is how rumours start and then there is Jim who is from Geelong. It's good craic, I enjoy it. The Aussies who work there full time have got me eating vegemite (bovril) and lammingtons (chocolate swiss roll with coconut on top).
Emma is away with ones from work this weekend and I'm away to play golf in Albert park tomorrow with Donal and Ben. it's supposed to be 29 degrees. On sunday night when Emma comes back we're going to see Stevie Wonder. it doesn't get much better than that.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Doppelgangers, Olympics, "I" for India "A" for Alpha, Tramspotting.
We've joined a library up in Balaclava (thats what its really called) which is round the corner from us. It's handy for books and also free internet. It's a big Jewish area Balaclava. We were doing the shopping in Coles up here a couple of weeks ago (Coles and Woolworths or Safeway as it is in Victoria are the two big main grocery stores in Australia). As it is a Jewish area Coles have a kosher food section beside the checkouts. I was having a bit of a look at the kosher selction as i've never seen it before when I hear a familiar tune being whistled, I turn round and this hard looking nut is staring at me while whistling the German national anthem.
The amount of people I've seen over here who look like people at home or famous people is frightening. In my first job in Perth there was a guy who was the double of Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso, a girl on the tram looked like Emmas cousin Mark and a guy who was the spitting image of Timmy McParland...oh wait that was Timmy McParland. Also when I was at ECU there were a couple of guys there who looked like Doozer Keenan with a beard and without a beard. In Darwin a barmaid in this place we discovered that done free nibbles at happy hour every day was a ringer for Paula McDonald and oddly my boss in Defence Housing looked like Krusty the Clown from the Simpsons when he done a Reggie Perrin and became Rory B. Bellows. Recently I was working in South Melbourne with a guy called Gerald from London who is Paul McCourts (who used to be in the band Sugar Island) doppelganger. I'm going to the AFL with him tomorrow to see Geelong and St.Kilda at the MCG.
The Olympics were crazy over here. You think the Brits are sickening during major sporting events, they've got nothing on the Aussies. Every morning on the news they would interview the families of the latest medal winner and then they would change the overall medals table to per capita and this would inevitably mean Australia would come out on top because there are only 20 million people live here compared to the 2 billion in China. Most of their medals were won in the pool and if there was an election now Stephanie Rice would be Prime Minister after she won 4 golds i think it was. her ex-boyfriend Eamon Sullivan broke the world record in qualifying but only ended up with a silver and he has been the butt of a lot of jokes since. After the swimming the jubilation slowly started to disappear as the aussie weren't that strong on the track. They did win the pole vault with some guy who looked like the lead singer out of the Frames and a wee girl called Sally McLellan, not to be confused with the bar in the pogues song, won silver in the 110 metre hurdles and then said "shit" in her interview straight afterwards on national TV. If you get a chance to see that interview it's hilarious.
One of the most annoying things I've found has been trying to get people to understand me particularly when they ask me to spell my name. Kieran is a popular name over here but my name is spelt differently. I tell them this is how its supposed to be spelt as it's the irish spelling. I dread having to register with agencies or give my name over the phone because the way we say "i" sounds like the way they say "a". So if I'm spelling my name "CIA.." they're writing "CAE.." I have to spell it out in CB language "C for Charlie, I for India, A for Alpha....breaker, breaker rubber ducky"I think once the whole time I've been here someone got the spelling of my name right first time. I tried to order a chai tea in Darwin, the barman had to get another barman to translate "oh Choi..." swear to God you'd think we spoke a different language.
I have to get a tram to work every morning because we're about 20 minutes outside the city centre. I actually have to get a couple of trams, one into the city and another down to the end of Flinders St. Anyway you can buy a daily pass for $6.50 or get a weekly one for $28. We started off buying them and then nobody was checking them so we didn't bother. You can also buy a 2 hour one on the train for $3.50 so i'd been getting the tram and just having $3.50 in my pocket and sit or stand near the machine and if the inspector got on I'd jump up and buy a ticket. never had to do it. never saw an inspector. Emma had a few close calls and phoned me one morning as she went dwon the road ahead of me to tell me they were checking at Flinders St. The other day in work I was still starvin after my lunch and I only had the emergency money on me so I decided i'd spend the money on chocolate and crisps and take my chances on the tram. Theres a free one goes from outside work every hour and I usally get it up to Federation Square and then get one of about 5 different trams back to ours. I was late getting out of work and missed the free one and then decided to walk through the town and call into specsavers to see if my new glasses were ready. The glasses weren't ready and I ended up walking right over to Fedeartion Square. There was a number 16 sitting at the top of the platform and if I had've walked a bit quicker I would've got it but i turned round and saw a 67 coming and decided to get that and then suddenly had a feeling it was gonna be a mistake. I got on the tram with no money and sat down at a window seat with a person beside and two people across from me. In retrospect I was pure complacent. The tram left Fed. Square. I'm reading trainspotting at the minute, I took it out of my bag and read two lines and I hear "Tickets please" and I just thought "ah Jesus". This Asian woman inspector checks the tickets of the ones beside me and says to me "Can I see your ticket?" I tried to make a joke "Do you have to pay for this? I thought it was free" She smiled and her face quickly became serious again. "You don't have a ticket?" she says "No" says I "Whats your name and address, i'm going to have to report you". She hands me a piece of paper and before i know it I'm writing down a false name and address and looking at the exits to see if I can to a runner but there are too many people around me and this inspector has now been joined bu two male inspectors who smelt blood. "This is your name and address?" she asks "It is" I says. it isn't. "Do you have any I.D. to confirm this?" she wants to know "I haven't" I lie. She looks me up and down, I'm wearing a shirt and trousers and I look like I've just come out of work. "have you just come from work?" she says "No, eh interview" I'm wracking my brains for some sort of excuse and another part of me is saying your making this worse for yourself give it up. "You have no I.D.? you were at an interview have you got a resume?" I'm completely trapped. "No i printed if off the computer in the interview, look if you let me go back to where I'm stayin I can get some I.D. and bring it back to you" she's not buying this. "No have you got a phone number of someone who can varify your name and address?" she hands me back the paper and I write down a fake number and suddenly I'm aware that i'm the main attraction on a packed tram. She tries the number and it goes to soembodys answer machine. what a stroke of luck! "OK, I'm going to have to arrest you, we have to get off the tram at the next stop". So we get off the tram at the next stop and the two male inspectors get off too. I look to do a runner but it's a really busy road. One of the male inspectors tells me to stand beside him and then shouts at me again to stand beside him, he knows i'm sizin up a runner. "Have you any I.D. on you, in your bag, can you check?" No I have nothing I tell them again. "Right we're gonna have to call the police and it's gonna be a whole big thing" so i'm resigned to being arrested and the othe male inspector says "Whats that round your neck?" Screwed. My work I.D. is around my neck. I take the I.D. off and give it to the woman. Different name. She takes a second to realise I've been lying. "What is this Vic. Pol?" she asks. "It's the Police, Victoria Police". She laughs as she starts writing her report. Then the male inspector says "Have you anything with your address on it?" I opened my bag and took out an old payslip with my St.Kilda address on it. "I'm gonna leave this to the discretion of this lady" says the male inspector and he starts checking other tickets at the tramstop. he seemed happy enough that he had exposed me. The woman writes me out a ticket so I can get the tram home with no money and if I get busted again I can show it to the inspector and tells me i'm facing a fine of $300. The she asks is there anything I want to say so I go "look I'm very sorry I lied to you, I'm over her on holiday, I'm only herre for a few weeks, I cant afford to pay a big fine as i'm saving money for a ticket home" She looks at me and says "And would you lose your job?" and I thought "sounds good I'll say that anyway" "Yes I would lose my job". Amazingly she had started making up excuses for me. "Ok, i'll let you off but I'll put your name on the database and if you show up again you'll be reported" I couldn't believe my luck and started walking away from them. She says "You don't have to walk back to St.Kilda you can use that pass I gave you to take a tram" I was like "You're alright, I'll walk" then I walked over to Chapel St. and bought a weekly metcard for the tram.
It must have been the police I.D, not that they thought i was a copper or anything because I told her what I did there but after that the proceedings took a different turn, the two male inspectors were less aggressive and I think one of them actually told her to let me off.
The amount of people I've seen over here who look like people at home or famous people is frightening. In my first job in Perth there was a guy who was the double of Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso, a girl on the tram looked like Emmas cousin Mark and a guy who was the spitting image of Timmy McParland...oh wait that was Timmy McParland. Also when I was at ECU there were a couple of guys there who looked like Doozer Keenan with a beard and without a beard. In Darwin a barmaid in this place we discovered that done free nibbles at happy hour every day was a ringer for Paula McDonald and oddly my boss in Defence Housing looked like Krusty the Clown from the Simpsons when he done a Reggie Perrin and became Rory B. Bellows. Recently I was working in South Melbourne with a guy called Gerald from London who is Paul McCourts (who used to be in the band Sugar Island) doppelganger. I'm going to the AFL with him tomorrow to see Geelong and St.Kilda at the MCG.
The Olympics were crazy over here. You think the Brits are sickening during major sporting events, they've got nothing on the Aussies. Every morning on the news they would interview the families of the latest medal winner and then they would change the overall medals table to per capita and this would inevitably mean Australia would come out on top because there are only 20 million people live here compared to the 2 billion in China. Most of their medals were won in the pool and if there was an election now Stephanie Rice would be Prime Minister after she won 4 golds i think it was. her ex-boyfriend Eamon Sullivan broke the world record in qualifying but only ended up with a silver and he has been the butt of a lot of jokes since. After the swimming the jubilation slowly started to disappear as the aussie weren't that strong on the track. They did win the pole vault with some guy who looked like the lead singer out of the Frames and a wee girl called Sally McLellan, not to be confused with the bar in the pogues song, won silver in the 110 metre hurdles and then said "shit" in her interview straight afterwards on national TV. If you get a chance to see that interview it's hilarious.
One of the most annoying things I've found has been trying to get people to understand me particularly when they ask me to spell my name. Kieran is a popular name over here but my name is spelt differently. I tell them this is how its supposed to be spelt as it's the irish spelling. I dread having to register with agencies or give my name over the phone because the way we say "i" sounds like the way they say "a". So if I'm spelling my name "CIA.." they're writing "CAE.." I have to spell it out in CB language "C for Charlie, I for India, A for Alpha....breaker, breaker rubber ducky"I think once the whole time I've been here someone got the spelling of my name right first time. I tried to order a chai tea in Darwin, the barman had to get another barman to translate "oh Choi..." swear to God you'd think we spoke a different language.
I have to get a tram to work every morning because we're about 20 minutes outside the city centre. I actually have to get a couple of trams, one into the city and another down to the end of Flinders St. Anyway you can buy a daily pass for $6.50 or get a weekly one for $28. We started off buying them and then nobody was checking them so we didn't bother. You can also buy a 2 hour one on the train for $3.50 so i'd been getting the tram and just having $3.50 in my pocket and sit or stand near the machine and if the inspector got on I'd jump up and buy a ticket. never had to do it. never saw an inspector. Emma had a few close calls and phoned me one morning as she went dwon the road ahead of me to tell me they were checking at Flinders St. The other day in work I was still starvin after my lunch and I only had the emergency money on me so I decided i'd spend the money on chocolate and crisps and take my chances on the tram. Theres a free one goes from outside work every hour and I usally get it up to Federation Square and then get one of about 5 different trams back to ours. I was late getting out of work and missed the free one and then decided to walk through the town and call into specsavers to see if my new glasses were ready. The glasses weren't ready and I ended up walking right over to Fedeartion Square. There was a number 16 sitting at the top of the platform and if I had've walked a bit quicker I would've got it but i turned round and saw a 67 coming and decided to get that and then suddenly had a feeling it was gonna be a mistake. I got on the tram with no money and sat down at a window seat with a person beside and two people across from me. In retrospect I was pure complacent. The tram left Fed. Square. I'm reading trainspotting at the minute, I took it out of my bag and read two lines and I hear "Tickets please" and I just thought "ah Jesus". This Asian woman inspector checks the tickets of the ones beside me and says to me "Can I see your ticket?" I tried to make a joke "Do you have to pay for this? I thought it was free" She smiled and her face quickly became serious again. "You don't have a ticket?" she says "No" says I "Whats your name and address, i'm going to have to report you". She hands me a piece of paper and before i know it I'm writing down a false name and address and looking at the exits to see if I can to a runner but there are too many people around me and this inspector has now been joined bu two male inspectors who smelt blood. "This is your name and address?" she asks "It is" I says. it isn't. "Do you have any I.D. to confirm this?" she wants to know "I haven't" I lie. She looks me up and down, I'm wearing a shirt and trousers and I look like I've just come out of work. "have you just come from work?" she says "No, eh interview" I'm wracking my brains for some sort of excuse and another part of me is saying your making this worse for yourself give it up. "You have no I.D.? you were at an interview have you got a resume?" I'm completely trapped. "No i printed if off the computer in the interview, look if you let me go back to where I'm stayin I can get some I.D. and bring it back to you" she's not buying this. "No have you got a phone number of someone who can varify your name and address?" she hands me back the paper and I write down a fake number and suddenly I'm aware that i'm the main attraction on a packed tram. She tries the number and it goes to soembodys answer machine. what a stroke of luck! "OK, I'm going to have to arrest you, we have to get off the tram at the next stop". So we get off the tram at the next stop and the two male inspectors get off too. I look to do a runner but it's a really busy road. One of the male inspectors tells me to stand beside him and then shouts at me again to stand beside him, he knows i'm sizin up a runner. "Have you any I.D. on you, in your bag, can you check?" No I have nothing I tell them again. "Right we're gonna have to call the police and it's gonna be a whole big thing" so i'm resigned to being arrested and the othe male inspector says "Whats that round your neck?" Screwed. My work I.D. is around my neck. I take the I.D. off and give it to the woman. Different name. She takes a second to realise I've been lying. "What is this Vic. Pol?" she asks. "It's the Police, Victoria Police". She laughs as she starts writing her report. Then the male inspector says "Have you anything with your address on it?" I opened my bag and took out an old payslip with my St.Kilda address on it. "I'm gonna leave this to the discretion of this lady" says the male inspector and he starts checking other tickets at the tramstop. he seemed happy enough that he had exposed me. The woman writes me out a ticket so I can get the tram home with no money and if I get busted again I can show it to the inspector and tells me i'm facing a fine of $300. The she asks is there anything I want to say so I go "look I'm very sorry I lied to you, I'm over her on holiday, I'm only herre for a few weeks, I cant afford to pay a big fine as i'm saving money for a ticket home" She looks at me and says "And would you lose your job?" and I thought "sounds good I'll say that anyway" "Yes I would lose my job". Amazingly she had started making up excuses for me. "Ok, i'll let you off but I'll put your name on the database and if you show up again you'll be reported" I couldn't believe my luck and started walking away from them. She says "You don't have to walk back to St.Kilda you can use that pass I gave you to take a tram" I was like "You're alright, I'll walk" then I walked over to Chapel St. and bought a weekly metcard for the tram.
It must have been the police I.D, not that they thought i was a copper or anything because I told her what I did there but after that the proceedings took a different turn, the two male inspectors were less aggressive and I think one of them actually told her to let me off.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Melbourne Identity
We've been in Melbourne for just over a month now. After we spent a couple of days resting after the travels with Dylans brother Ronan in St. Albans we started house hunting. we saw a couple of places in the St. Kilda area. The first place was owned by an Austrian guy called Frank who wanted us to share the smallest aprtment you've ever seen with two people we didn't know. We told him we wouldn't be going down that road again. We saw another couple of one bedroom furnished places also in St.Kilda but we would have had to pay a months rent and a months deposit (bond) up front. We didn't mind that but the places weren't great. We went to see another place on brighton Road that wasn't furnished but it was beautiful, really spacious and recently done up and we seriously considered taking it, in fact we made the guy an offer but having slept on it we realised we'd probably made a mistake because furnishing this place would have been expensive. Thankfully the guy wanted a longer lease so we dodged a bullet there. While we were waiting for him to ring us back we saw a place on Gumtree website in St. Kilda that had no deposit and no bills. i phoned the guy and he agreed to let us see it. Of course the bloody van wouldn't go so we had to find our way there via trains and trams. It wasn't that difficult to get there and when we arrived we saw another couple hovering down the street. Emma knew that they were here to see the same place and when it started to rain we congregated under the porch at the front of the building we discovered that they were the competition. They were a couple from Cork who had been here for 4 months and had been sharing with friends in a very small apartment. When the guy showed up to show us around the girl from the couple rushed ahead of the rest of us to see the place first. When we saw the apartment we all wanted it, not that it was the best place i've ever seen but after 2 and a half months living in a van it was a palace. The guy who was leasing it didn't want to choose between us so he suggested we flip a coin and just before we were gonna do this I asked a question "so can we move in straight away?" and he said "yes you can move in now if you want" the other couple suddenly looked forlorn and said "oh we can't move in for 2 weeks or we won't get our bond back from the other place" I immediately said "we'll take now" and that was it. The couple from Cork skulked out the door and we had an apartment. No bond, no bills, one weeks notice when we want to leave, leave the rent money on the kitchen table every week and some guy comes in and collects it (we thought this very odd in the first place but they let out a number of apartments in the building and it other people we've spoken to said it's fine and it has been so far) great location between chapel st. and fitzroy st. on the edge of St.kilda.
Next thing to do was to try and get jobs. we went through the process of registering with agencies again and we both started off getting a few jobs here and there for a day or 2. I worked up in Collingwood for a few days in the best office i've ever seen. It's a converted loft all open planned with a huge kitchen area, dining area, pool table and real coffee machine. They love their coffee in melbourne. All the Starbucks are closing in the city because they tried to introduce coffee culture but it was already here! I've got into drinking coffee a bit. A mate of mine from home Donal McGoldrick has been over here for 6 years and we've met for coffee a few times. It's winter here and it's pretty cold with the wind coming up from the anarctic but people still sit outside all wrapped up in coats and scarves. We had to buy ourselves winter coats because when we first got here we were froze. It doesn't take you long to get used to the heat especially after we'd had almost 6 months of it so it was a bit of a shock when we got here to find that it may be 12 -15 degrees but with the wind it feels like it's minus sometimes. We were warned though if one more person says to me "four seasons in a day".....
After a couple weeks working in a variety of places I got a 3 month contract doing payroll for Victoria Police. Emma has a 2 month contract with TAC. i think they are like a state insurance company who provide medical care and rehab if you've been in a car accident and she is recruiting staff to provide rehab or something like that. Anyway it's great to not have to worry about where we'll be working for a while so now with the apartment and jobs we've got a bit of time to explore Melbourne.
The city centre is really cool. It's on a block format like in the states and it has all these cool side streets and alleyways full of shops, pubs and restaurants. We walked down by Southgate last night after work and the few of the city is amazing from down there. The trams and trains can take you to just about anywhere you need to go. The are losing a clean fortune on them trams because nobody pays for them and there is very rarely inspectors to check tickets. Chapel St. is right beside us so we've spent a good bit of time down there checking out restaurants and bars. we went to a Nepalese place a couple of weeks ago, the food was delicious. There is a cinema at the end of the street called the astor. it's really old fashioned and when we went to see "There will be blood" a couple of weeks ago they had an intermission. There's a gym across the road from it that I've joined as well. It's in an old church thats been done up. Inside it reminds me of gym tech when it was on Hill St. in Newry. I've started boxing training as well. It's more like circuit training but it's a good work out.
Melbourne is really multicultural. There are loads of Greeks, Chinese, Balkans, Italians, Indians, Israelis,Vietnamese and of course Irish here. All boiled together the city and the suburbs have a really good vibe and we look forward to sampling as much of it as possible.
Next thing to do was to try and get jobs. we went through the process of registering with agencies again and we both started off getting a few jobs here and there for a day or 2. I worked up in Collingwood for a few days in the best office i've ever seen. It's a converted loft all open planned with a huge kitchen area, dining area, pool table and real coffee machine. They love their coffee in melbourne. All the Starbucks are closing in the city because they tried to introduce coffee culture but it was already here! I've got into drinking coffee a bit. A mate of mine from home Donal McGoldrick has been over here for 6 years and we've met for coffee a few times. It's winter here and it's pretty cold with the wind coming up from the anarctic but people still sit outside all wrapped up in coats and scarves. We had to buy ourselves winter coats because when we first got here we were froze. It doesn't take you long to get used to the heat especially after we'd had almost 6 months of it so it was a bit of a shock when we got here to find that it may be 12 -15 degrees but with the wind it feels like it's minus sometimes. We were warned though if one more person says to me "four seasons in a day".....
After a couple weeks working in a variety of places I got a 3 month contract doing payroll for Victoria Police. Emma has a 2 month contract with TAC. i think they are like a state insurance company who provide medical care and rehab if you've been in a car accident and she is recruiting staff to provide rehab or something like that. Anyway it's great to not have to worry about where we'll be working for a while so now with the apartment and jobs we've got a bit of time to explore Melbourne.
The city centre is really cool. It's on a block format like in the states and it has all these cool side streets and alleyways full of shops, pubs and restaurants. We walked down by Southgate last night after work and the few of the city is amazing from down there. The trams and trains can take you to just about anywhere you need to go. The are losing a clean fortune on them trams because nobody pays for them and there is very rarely inspectors to check tickets. Chapel St. is right beside us so we've spent a good bit of time down there checking out restaurants and bars. we went to a Nepalese place a couple of weeks ago, the food was delicious. There is a cinema at the end of the street called the astor. it's really old fashioned and when we went to see "There will be blood" a couple of weeks ago they had an intermission. There's a gym across the road from it that I've joined as well. It's in an old church thats been done up. Inside it reminds me of gym tech when it was on Hill St. in Newry. I've started boxing training as well. It's more like circuit training but it's a good work out.
Melbourne is really multicultural. There are loads of Greeks, Chinese, Balkans, Italians, Indians, Israelis,Vietnamese and of course Irish here. All boiled together the city and the suburbs have a really good vibe and we look forward to sampling as much of it as possible.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
On the road: Darwin to Melbourne
We left Darwin belatedly on Monday 30th June. We'd had a late night previously watching the GAA into the wee hours. We were the only 2 watching the Armagh Down game in the bar and although it wasn't a great game the result was excellent. We also went to see Lars and the real girl in the deckchair cinema earlier in the evening. If you get a chance to see this we'd highly recommend it. Oh and on the saturday I went out on a fishing charter and a halfdays fishing. It was good craic I caught a few Red Snapper, some Spanish Flag and a Rock Cod. There were 10 of us on the boat and we just went about 6kms out from the harbour. I was fishing next to a guy from Queensland called Rusty. he has worked on loads of fishing charters and has caught Marlin that weighed over a tonne. I told him about the time I caught a 12lb pike in the Newry Canal a few years ago. I think he was impressed.
So we had to get a couple of new tyres for the front of the van before we left and this delayed our departure until after midday. Alice Springs was the next "big" place we'd pass through but it's 1500kms from Darwin. We generally have tried to do about 500kms a day when travelling. Just after we left Darwin the radio packed up. This was a sign of things to come with the van. Our first stop was Mataranka. We arrived just before sunset and got down for a dip in the hot springs before dark. Previously we had to get to places before dark so we wouldn't have to cook with head torches on. That was a bit stressful. We eventually bought ourselves a tradesmans light that clips onto the side of the van and we hire a powered site so it didn't matter what time we got in at. Our first night out of Darwin was a cold one. The temperature only 500kms south was 10 degrees colder. When we left Darwin it was 30-32 during the day and 15-18 at night so we just had a sheet round us. As we moved further south the duvet was re-introduced, Emma had bed socks and big heavy PJ's and a hot water bottle and I slept in a track suit. I came out of the showers at the camp site and a wild pig confronted me. We've seen a lot of wild animals on this trip but I wasn't expecting this. Rather than try and go past it I just took a short cut through the caravans.
The next morning the van wouldn't start either. Its always been a problem staring her on cold mornings. We hadn't really had a problem because it had been so warm since we left Perth and travelled North but as soon as we started heading south the problems began. I got one of the site groundsmen to give me a tow and I managed to jump start her in second. Once she starts there will be no problems, the problem is getting her started. So we were off and running and we headed for Tennant Creek, another 500kms down the road. We got there late because of the delay getting the van started and it was dark when we were driving round looking for the camp site. There were a lot of aboriginals hanging about the town but this was nothing compared to what we would experience in Alice Springs.
Tennant Creek was even colder at night that Mataranka. We couldn't even sit outside after dinner so were in bed about 7.30pm. The next morning we got up and made breakfast, showered, checked the van for oil and water and we were on our way........to reception to ask if someone could give us a tow so we could jump start the van. Eventually someone arrived and we we got going again around 11 or so. We only got 60kms down the road when i noticed the temperature gauge was very high and suddenly there was a bang from the engine (located under the passsenger bench seat) and the battery light came on. I pulled over and had a look at the engine. The steam was rising out of it and the radiator over flow bottle was gone. I headed back up the road to look for the bottle and found it about half a km away. It was still very warm during the day and the sun was beating down. I stuck the bottle back in and put some water in it and we decided to head back to Tennant Creek to have it checked out as we were still 500kms from Alice Springs. On the way back it conked out again and the bottle flew off. Now, I know absolutely nothing about cars, at least I knew nothing until we bought this one. I asked the mechanic in Perth when we got her serviced before we left what I need to check. He told me to check the oil and top up the water in the overflow bottle and I done this religiously everyday before we travelled anywhere. Emma thought that we might need to actually put water in the radiator itself but i was like "no, the mechanic told me just to do this and thats what i've been doing, it's obviously some other problem". We had signed up to the RAC road assitance before we left and this turned out to be the best purchase we made for this trip. Even better that the stove top toaster. We went to phone the RAC but we had no signal so we discussed what we would do. Would one of us go into town and one of us stay with the van? It's at times like this you start to think about films like Wolf Creek and what happened to Peter Falconio. Luckily there was some traffic on the road and in the back of the RAC book there is a relay form on which you fill out your details, location where you've broken down and you give it to a passing motorist and then when they get within range of a signal or they get to a roadhouse then they can contact the RAC on your behalf. I stopped a car with a caravan and this German couple said they would do it of course, they offered us water but we had plenty. They took off up the road and we hoped they would deliver the message. We sat for an hour in the van in the hot sun. we couldn't get out of the van because of all the flies. we kept drinking water and eventually Emma very reluctantly had to go to the toilet in the bush. We started to doubt whether the Germans, renowned for their efficiency would actually deliver the message when a tow truck drove past us turned around and pulled up in front of the van. it was nearly 3.30pm at this stage. The tow truck guy had a look at the engine, i told him about the bottle and he said "have you put any water in the radiator?" I hung my head in shame. The radiator was completely empty it took about 5 litres to fill it, even water from the hot water bottle was used. We drove back to Tennant Creek and started out again the next day.
I think the van actually started itself that day and we drove to Alice Springs via the Devils Marbles. When we got to Alice Springs we were almost out of petrol. They have this unleaded stuff called opal unleaded. It was developed because the aboriginals were sniffing the petrol and it was killing their brain cells. I'd heard it had messed up engines so I asked the attendant before I put any petrol in the van and she said it was exactly like unleaded without the smell.
20 minutes after putting opal unleaded in the van, I couldn't take my foot of the accelerator or it would conk out.
I was trying to slow down at roundabouts and the van would conk out. At junctions and traffic lights I'd take my foot off the gas to apply the break and the van conked out. I could restart her again each time but something was badly wrong. Add to this that we couldn't find a camp site because it was a public holiday and we were not happy campers. After we conked out for the 53rd time outside the 5th campsite. we decided to phone the RAC again. They sent out a tow truck and the guy had a look at the engine. I told him about the opal unleaded and he laughed like he'd heard that a few times before and he confirmed that it did mess up engines, particularly in older vehicles. He told us we'd need to get her to a mechanic but it was already 7pm and the next day, Friday, was a bank holiday. Fortunately he knew someone who opened saturdays. We phoned the RAC and told them our predicament and they told us that under our cover we could be put up in a hotel for up to 5 days while our van got fixed. Hurray! we checked in the diplomat motel for 2 blissful days. I took the van to the mechanic on the saturday after it completely conked out at roundabout and I had to call the RAC again to come and tow me this time. The mechanic had a look at the van and it needed a new fuel pump and the carby rebuilt. It ended up not being ready until Tuesday so we maximised our hotel allowance in Alice Springs and it gave us time to sample life in the middle of Australia.
Alice Springs is Abo-mania. It's like Dawn of the Dead. Droves of Aboriginals walking about like zombies day and night. Unbelievable. Like Darwin, a lot of them seem to just live on the streets and outside K Mart. On the saturday afternoon I had the misfortune of glimpsing an aboriginal woman taking a piss standing up practically outside a very busy shop entrance. Awful.
Alice is a fairly small town but it has a fair few shops in it and a couple of shopping precincts so Emma was able to stock up on her winter wear. She bought a pair of those ugg boots and she has hardly had them off her since she got them. There is a bar called Bojangles and it's really cool. It's like a saloon in the wild west with cowboy paraphernalia all over the walls and monkey nut shells on the ground. You can get handfuls of mokey nuts from inside a coffin just inside the door. Emma put her shells in the ashtray and got told off for not throwing them on the floor! We also treated ourselves to steaks in the overlander steakhouse one night.
We hadn't intended to stay more than 2 days in Alice Springs and if the van had have been going we might not even have stayed that long. Eventually on Tuesday we left Alice and headed for Ayers Rock, another 500km round trip off the main road. From about 140kms out we could see a big red plateau in the distance which i thought must be Ayers Rock but Emma thought it wasn't it. And it wasn't. 100kms later we saw the real thing and also another group of rocks called the olgas that from our perspective looked like Homer Simpson lying down. We spent a night at the Ayers Rock resort camp site and the temperature got down to 1 degree. The next morning of course the van wouldn't start and we phoned the RAC again. The tow truck would take an hour or so to get to us and give us a jump start. 5 minutes after we phoned them I tried the van again and it started. we cancelled the tow truck and headed the final 20kms to Ayers Rock. It is a spectacular site. You can climb it but the aboriginal people don't want you to but there were loads of people climbing it. We walked around it instead. It's nearly 10kms and you can't take photos for much of the way round either. it cost $25 and we had to walk round it to get our moneys worth.
At this stage were completely fed up of camping in the cold. We'd had 60 days in the van and we were at the end of our tether. We'd met a couple in in their late 50's in Broome and they were from Adelaide. They told us if we ever come through there to give them a call and they would put us up for the night. We were a bit embarrassed texting them but they were delighted that we'd contacted them and told us they'd put us up. This spurred us on and helped us deal with the cold night we spent in Coober Pedy, an opal mining town where a lot of people live underground because of the extreme weather. It's also were Mad Max was filmed. I was waiting in the van for Emma outside the supermarket just before we left the next morning. I heard something behind me, turned round to see this big ,black, old, aboriginal womans face with her mouth open and 3 rotten teeth pressed up against the window. when she tried to open the door I had to get out and to stop her. She was obviously very drunk and took a minute see me and then she said "Take me to the hospital". I told her to get away from the van.
We arrived in Adelaide on the Saturday and stayed with Monica and Kym (a man with a woman name) for 2 nights. On the staurdy night we went up to a house of friends of theirs and they made us pizzas ands we watched the aussie rules. Its' clear that if Western Australia and the East Coast hate each other, South Australians hate everybody. We travelled down to Victors Harbour and walked around Granite Island then headed back to the city for an indian. We tried to leave at reasonable time on monday but we couldn't get the van started and had to get the RAC out again to jump start us and again on Tuesday. That was the best $116 we ever spent. The problem seems to be the automatic choke on these L300 vans. Once she starts she'll go all day but the problem is getting her started.
We decided to take the scenic route into melbourne along the Great Ocean Road but because we didn't get going til late we didn't have time to do it all because it got dark. What we did see of it was great if you like driving up and down steep windy roads through forests with mere glimpses of ocean periodically. Apparently the part between Anglesea and Apollo Bay is the best but we came from the other direction. What should have been a relatively short journey of 455kms ended up taking us longer than any other day. We arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday night and we've been staying with Dylans bother Ronan in St. Albans. We've been down in St.KIlda looking for an appartment for ourselves and we will hopefully hear something today then we can start to look for jobs. The plan is to stay here for 3-4 months.
The road trip is over. From Perth to Melbourne via Darwin. It could be the equivalent of driving from San Diego to Florida via Detroit. It took us 2 and a half months though we had 5 weeks in Darwin, 7 days in Broome, 5 days in Alice Springs, 2 days in Coral Bay, Adelaide and Tennant Creek. We travelled over 12,000kms through Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria. We couldn't see it all but we got to see almost everything we wanted to. Campsites ranged from $5 to $42 per night but most were around $30 per night. Petrol ranged from $1.45 in Perth to $2.10 a litre in the Northern Territory. We had 64 nights in the van, 7 nights in hotels, 2 nights with friends and a van that was still going yesterday but might not go today.
So we had to get a couple of new tyres for the front of the van before we left and this delayed our departure until after midday. Alice Springs was the next "big" place we'd pass through but it's 1500kms from Darwin. We generally have tried to do about 500kms a day when travelling. Just after we left Darwin the radio packed up. This was a sign of things to come with the van. Our first stop was Mataranka. We arrived just before sunset and got down for a dip in the hot springs before dark. Previously we had to get to places before dark so we wouldn't have to cook with head torches on. That was a bit stressful. We eventually bought ourselves a tradesmans light that clips onto the side of the van and we hire a powered site so it didn't matter what time we got in at. Our first night out of Darwin was a cold one. The temperature only 500kms south was 10 degrees colder. When we left Darwin it was 30-32 during the day and 15-18 at night so we just had a sheet round us. As we moved further south the duvet was re-introduced, Emma had bed socks and big heavy PJ's and a hot water bottle and I slept in a track suit. I came out of the showers at the camp site and a wild pig confronted me. We've seen a lot of wild animals on this trip but I wasn't expecting this. Rather than try and go past it I just took a short cut through the caravans.
The next morning the van wouldn't start either. Its always been a problem staring her on cold mornings. We hadn't really had a problem because it had been so warm since we left Perth and travelled North but as soon as we started heading south the problems began. I got one of the site groundsmen to give me a tow and I managed to jump start her in second. Once she starts there will be no problems, the problem is getting her started. So we were off and running and we headed for Tennant Creek, another 500kms down the road. We got there late because of the delay getting the van started and it was dark when we were driving round looking for the camp site. There were a lot of aboriginals hanging about the town but this was nothing compared to what we would experience in Alice Springs.
Tennant Creek was even colder at night that Mataranka. We couldn't even sit outside after dinner so were in bed about 7.30pm. The next morning we got up and made breakfast, showered, checked the van for oil and water and we were on our way........to reception to ask if someone could give us a tow so we could jump start the van. Eventually someone arrived and we we got going again around 11 or so. We only got 60kms down the road when i noticed the temperature gauge was very high and suddenly there was a bang from the engine (located under the passsenger bench seat) and the battery light came on. I pulled over and had a look at the engine. The steam was rising out of it and the radiator over flow bottle was gone. I headed back up the road to look for the bottle and found it about half a km away. It was still very warm during the day and the sun was beating down. I stuck the bottle back in and put some water in it and we decided to head back to Tennant Creek to have it checked out as we were still 500kms from Alice Springs. On the way back it conked out again and the bottle flew off. Now, I know absolutely nothing about cars, at least I knew nothing until we bought this one. I asked the mechanic in Perth when we got her serviced before we left what I need to check. He told me to check the oil and top up the water in the overflow bottle and I done this religiously everyday before we travelled anywhere. Emma thought that we might need to actually put water in the radiator itself but i was like "no, the mechanic told me just to do this and thats what i've been doing, it's obviously some other problem". We had signed up to the RAC road assitance before we left and this turned out to be the best purchase we made for this trip. Even better that the stove top toaster. We went to phone the RAC but we had no signal so we discussed what we would do. Would one of us go into town and one of us stay with the van? It's at times like this you start to think about films like Wolf Creek and what happened to Peter Falconio. Luckily there was some traffic on the road and in the back of the RAC book there is a relay form on which you fill out your details, location where you've broken down and you give it to a passing motorist and then when they get within range of a signal or they get to a roadhouse then they can contact the RAC on your behalf. I stopped a car with a caravan and this German couple said they would do it of course, they offered us water but we had plenty. They took off up the road and we hoped they would deliver the message. We sat for an hour in the van in the hot sun. we couldn't get out of the van because of all the flies. we kept drinking water and eventually Emma very reluctantly had to go to the toilet in the bush. We started to doubt whether the Germans, renowned for their efficiency would actually deliver the message when a tow truck drove past us turned around and pulled up in front of the van. it was nearly 3.30pm at this stage. The tow truck guy had a look at the engine, i told him about the bottle and he said "have you put any water in the radiator?" I hung my head in shame. The radiator was completely empty it took about 5 litres to fill it, even water from the hot water bottle was used. We drove back to Tennant Creek and started out again the next day.
I think the van actually started itself that day and we drove to Alice Springs via the Devils Marbles. When we got to Alice Springs we were almost out of petrol. They have this unleaded stuff called opal unleaded. It was developed because the aboriginals were sniffing the petrol and it was killing their brain cells. I'd heard it had messed up engines so I asked the attendant before I put any petrol in the van and she said it was exactly like unleaded without the smell.
20 minutes after putting opal unleaded in the van, I couldn't take my foot of the accelerator or it would conk out.
I was trying to slow down at roundabouts and the van would conk out. At junctions and traffic lights I'd take my foot off the gas to apply the break and the van conked out. I could restart her again each time but something was badly wrong. Add to this that we couldn't find a camp site because it was a public holiday and we were not happy campers. After we conked out for the 53rd time outside the 5th campsite. we decided to phone the RAC again. They sent out a tow truck and the guy had a look at the engine. I told him about the opal unleaded and he laughed like he'd heard that a few times before and he confirmed that it did mess up engines, particularly in older vehicles. He told us we'd need to get her to a mechanic but it was already 7pm and the next day, Friday, was a bank holiday. Fortunately he knew someone who opened saturdays. We phoned the RAC and told them our predicament and they told us that under our cover we could be put up in a hotel for up to 5 days while our van got fixed. Hurray! we checked in the diplomat motel for 2 blissful days. I took the van to the mechanic on the saturday after it completely conked out at roundabout and I had to call the RAC again to come and tow me this time. The mechanic had a look at the van and it needed a new fuel pump and the carby rebuilt. It ended up not being ready until Tuesday so we maximised our hotel allowance in Alice Springs and it gave us time to sample life in the middle of Australia.
Alice Springs is Abo-mania. It's like Dawn of the Dead. Droves of Aboriginals walking about like zombies day and night. Unbelievable. Like Darwin, a lot of them seem to just live on the streets and outside K Mart. On the saturday afternoon I had the misfortune of glimpsing an aboriginal woman taking a piss standing up practically outside a very busy shop entrance. Awful.
Alice is a fairly small town but it has a fair few shops in it and a couple of shopping precincts so Emma was able to stock up on her winter wear. She bought a pair of those ugg boots and she has hardly had them off her since she got them. There is a bar called Bojangles and it's really cool. It's like a saloon in the wild west with cowboy paraphernalia all over the walls and monkey nut shells on the ground. You can get handfuls of mokey nuts from inside a coffin just inside the door. Emma put her shells in the ashtray and got told off for not throwing them on the floor! We also treated ourselves to steaks in the overlander steakhouse one night.
We hadn't intended to stay more than 2 days in Alice Springs and if the van had have been going we might not even have stayed that long. Eventually on Tuesday we left Alice and headed for Ayers Rock, another 500km round trip off the main road. From about 140kms out we could see a big red plateau in the distance which i thought must be Ayers Rock but Emma thought it wasn't it. And it wasn't. 100kms later we saw the real thing and also another group of rocks called the olgas that from our perspective looked like Homer Simpson lying down. We spent a night at the Ayers Rock resort camp site and the temperature got down to 1 degree. The next morning of course the van wouldn't start and we phoned the RAC again. The tow truck would take an hour or so to get to us and give us a jump start. 5 minutes after we phoned them I tried the van again and it started. we cancelled the tow truck and headed the final 20kms to Ayers Rock. It is a spectacular site. You can climb it but the aboriginal people don't want you to but there were loads of people climbing it. We walked around it instead. It's nearly 10kms and you can't take photos for much of the way round either. it cost $25 and we had to walk round it to get our moneys worth.
At this stage were completely fed up of camping in the cold. We'd had 60 days in the van and we were at the end of our tether. We'd met a couple in in their late 50's in Broome and they were from Adelaide. They told us if we ever come through there to give them a call and they would put us up for the night. We were a bit embarrassed texting them but they were delighted that we'd contacted them and told us they'd put us up. This spurred us on and helped us deal with the cold night we spent in Coober Pedy, an opal mining town where a lot of people live underground because of the extreme weather. It's also were Mad Max was filmed. I was waiting in the van for Emma outside the supermarket just before we left the next morning. I heard something behind me, turned round to see this big ,black, old, aboriginal womans face with her mouth open and 3 rotten teeth pressed up against the window. when she tried to open the door I had to get out and to stop her. She was obviously very drunk and took a minute see me and then she said "Take me to the hospital". I told her to get away from the van.
We arrived in Adelaide on the Saturday and stayed with Monica and Kym (a man with a woman name) for 2 nights. On the staurdy night we went up to a house of friends of theirs and they made us pizzas ands we watched the aussie rules. Its' clear that if Western Australia and the East Coast hate each other, South Australians hate everybody. We travelled down to Victors Harbour and walked around Granite Island then headed back to the city for an indian. We tried to leave at reasonable time on monday but we couldn't get the van started and had to get the RAC out again to jump start us and again on Tuesday. That was the best $116 we ever spent. The problem seems to be the automatic choke on these L300 vans. Once she starts she'll go all day but the problem is getting her started.
We decided to take the scenic route into melbourne along the Great Ocean Road but because we didn't get going til late we didn't have time to do it all because it got dark. What we did see of it was great if you like driving up and down steep windy roads through forests with mere glimpses of ocean periodically. Apparently the part between Anglesea and Apollo Bay is the best but we came from the other direction. What should have been a relatively short journey of 455kms ended up taking us longer than any other day. We arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday night and we've been staying with Dylans bother Ronan in St. Albans. We've been down in St.KIlda looking for an appartment for ourselves and we will hopefully hear something today then we can start to look for jobs. The plan is to stay here for 3-4 months.
The road trip is over. From Perth to Melbourne via Darwin. It could be the equivalent of driving from San Diego to Florida via Detroit. It took us 2 and a half months though we had 5 weeks in Darwin, 7 days in Broome, 5 days in Alice Springs, 2 days in Coral Bay, Adelaide and Tennant Creek. We travelled over 12,000kms through Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria. We couldn't see it all but we got to see almost everything we wanted to. Campsites ranged from $5 to $42 per night but most were around $30 per night. Petrol ranged from $1.45 in Perth to $2.10 a litre in the Northern Territory. We had 64 nights in the van, 7 nights in hotels, 2 nights with friends and a van that was still going yesterday but might not go today.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
On the road: Broome to Darwin
We ended up staying in Broome for 7 nights and we spent a lot of time doing nothing other than going to the beach. I got in a bit of body boarding. The waves were nothing special but it was a good way to say adieu to the Indian ocean. There was one day we couldn't go in because there was a shark. We hung about Broome for the Staircase to the moon that happens 3 times a month. We headed down to the mangrove hotel to get the best view of the orange moon rising over the mudflats and creating an illusion of steps to the moon. It was pretty cool, there was a guy playing the didjeridoo as the moon rose but it was difficult to get a good picture of it, although we did try. We also went to the famous sun outdoor cinema and caught the film about Bob Dylan called i'm not there. I enjoyed it but Emma wasn't too keen. We had dinner in a couple of places as well, one was an Italian Cafe and they made the best pizzas we've ever tasted.
Broome was cool and all. It allowed us to recharge the batteries but its very small. After all that outback we expected something a bit bigger. There is a place on the coast called Gauntheme Point that was absolutely beautiful. it has huge flat top rock formations overlooking the ocean which looked even more blue than usual.
The day after the moon we hit the road again. We didn't get going till the afternoon because it takes so long to back the van and stock up on groceries for the next part. We got to Fitzroy Crossing just after dark and had a bit of trouble finding accommodation. Fitzroy Crossing has little more than a petrol station in it and this also seems to be where all the aboriginals live as there were dozens of them hanging about there. The camp site we stayed in was described as an oasis and it proved to be just that.
The next day we were planning on staying at Halls Creek but after Fitzroy Crossing we decided to bomb onto Kununurra, the next big town. We stopped off in Halls Creek for petrol. It was midday and the place was full of aboriginals sitting drinking in the shade or coming out of liquor stores with crates of beer. They don't bother you or anything (apparently they get $1000 a fortnight benefits and also a royalties cheque from the national parks) but a lot of them don't seem to live anywhere. A lot of them hang about the roadside and apparently they sleep there as well. The locals call them "Long Grassers". They remind me a bit of the gypsies at home (although we can't talk living in caravan sites). Not many people have any time for most of them but the common line seems to be that they don't do themselves any favours. There are plenty of aboriginals working and raising families in a way we recognize as civilised. In Timber Creek I saw an aboriginal girl breast feeding her baby while smoking at the same time (the mother not the baby) .
Once we got past Halls Creek we drove through the Kimberley which has the most breathtaking scenery. After a thousand kms of vast nothingness the next 1000 were absolutely beautiful. Eagles circled the air above these huge red/orange plateaus that the roads wound around. Kununurra was the next big town and we spent one night there and stocked up again before heading to Katherine via Newry Station just over the border in the Northern Territory. I think it was a horse ranch. In katherine, we had one night in a sub standard caravan park and then we found a nice one with access to the hot springs ( a pool created by water from under the ground, crystal clear and warm like a bath) we also headed to Nitmiluk National Park and took a boat trip up the Katherine gorge. Dilly says it's like Jurassic park and I can't do any better than that.
We arrived in Darwin 2 weeks ago and after a slow start we got ourselves jobs. i contacted some production houses here and had an interview with an editing company. I thought it went well and the guy said he'd defo ring me on friday or monday ( 2 weeks ago) but I never heard from him. Then we were out having lunch one day they guy from the place came in andd said he hadn't forgotten about me and he'd give me a ring so i gave him a ring just to remind him again and he said he'd phone me back in 10 minutes but that was last wednesday. I'm working for the Defence Housing Australia. They sort out housing for the military and their families. It's only for a couple of weeks but it's the best money i've been on since I got here. Accommodation for us has been a lot more difficult to find. We're still in the van and it's difficult working and having nothing to go back to and relax but it's so warm up here it's nice sitting out in the evening. The plan at the moment is to head for melbourne down the middle of the country via alice springs and ayers rock .
Dah-win is a nice place, small only 70,000 people, full of irish but it's the biggest place we've been to in a month and we're enjoying city life again. It's a bit of a pain having to go through the whole process of testing and registration with agencies but thats what we have to do to get work. There are loads of people in the same boat as us working and living in caravan parks. It's difficult to get short term accommodation here which is amazing considering the amount of backpackers. It's still great though we can't swim in the water because of the crocs and jellyfish but we've done a lot of beaches since we've been here so we're in no rush to go swimming in the sea.
We ended up checking into a hotel for anight to get out of the van. God I've missed TV. There was a movie channel but the selection wasn't great and we watched snakes on a plane, big mommas house and gone in 60 seconds none of which I'd watch ordinarily but when you've been without tv you'll watch anything. The Greek Glenti festival was on in the esplanade near where we were staying so we treated ourselves to food from it. It was great to get a break from cooking.
We went to Litchfield park on sunday and swam in the Florence falls plunge pool. There were fish biting my toes, I thought they were piranhas and had to get out. We also went to tolmer and wangi falls but you couldn't swim in them because of crocs. on the saturday we checked out the museum and there is an exhibition about the 1974 cyclone that almost destroyed the city completely. Its a big military town that found prominence during the second world war 2 when the allies used it to take on the Japanese and consequently Darwin took a hammering in air raids. There is a road called Bombing Road and one of the arcaes is called air raid arcade. At the moment there are international air force war games going on and the noise from fighter jets is staggering. Food is excellent here (as it is in every place we've visited in Australia) we went to a restaurant call char, it's the best in the territory and last night we went to the jetty rrestaurant for all you can eat buffet. I had 4 courses before dessert and finished off with some fruit. I got my moneys worth. Mindil beach markets have every type of food you can imagine. There is another national park called kakadu that we're not gonna get to see because we'd need a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I might get some fishing in over the weekend. There are loads of tours. We're gonna hang about until monday and see if we can get to watch the Armagh and Down game somewhere. Come on Armagh!
Broome was cool and all. It allowed us to recharge the batteries but its very small. After all that outback we expected something a bit bigger. There is a place on the coast called Gauntheme Point that was absolutely beautiful. it has huge flat top rock formations overlooking the ocean which looked even more blue than usual.
The day after the moon we hit the road again. We didn't get going till the afternoon because it takes so long to back the van and stock up on groceries for the next part. We got to Fitzroy Crossing just after dark and had a bit of trouble finding accommodation. Fitzroy Crossing has little more than a petrol station in it and this also seems to be where all the aboriginals live as there were dozens of them hanging about there. The camp site we stayed in was described as an oasis and it proved to be just that.
The next day we were planning on staying at Halls Creek but after Fitzroy Crossing we decided to bomb onto Kununurra, the next big town. We stopped off in Halls Creek for petrol. It was midday and the place was full of aboriginals sitting drinking in the shade or coming out of liquor stores with crates of beer. They don't bother you or anything (apparently they get $1000 a fortnight benefits and also a royalties cheque from the national parks) but a lot of them don't seem to live anywhere. A lot of them hang about the roadside and apparently they sleep there as well. The locals call them "Long Grassers". They remind me a bit of the gypsies at home (although we can't talk living in caravan sites). Not many people have any time for most of them but the common line seems to be that they don't do themselves any favours. There are plenty of aboriginals working and raising families in a way we recognize as civilised. In Timber Creek I saw an aboriginal girl breast feeding her baby while smoking at the same time (the mother not the baby) .
Once we got past Halls Creek we drove through the Kimberley which has the most breathtaking scenery. After a thousand kms of vast nothingness the next 1000 were absolutely beautiful. Eagles circled the air above these huge red/orange plateaus that the roads wound around. Kununurra was the next big town and we spent one night there and stocked up again before heading to Katherine via Newry Station just over the border in the Northern Territory. I think it was a horse ranch. In katherine, we had one night in a sub standard caravan park and then we found a nice one with access to the hot springs ( a pool created by water from under the ground, crystal clear and warm like a bath) we also headed to Nitmiluk National Park and took a boat trip up the Katherine gorge. Dilly says it's like Jurassic park and I can't do any better than that.
We arrived in Darwin 2 weeks ago and after a slow start we got ourselves jobs. i contacted some production houses here and had an interview with an editing company. I thought it went well and the guy said he'd defo ring me on friday or monday ( 2 weeks ago) but I never heard from him. Then we were out having lunch one day they guy from the place came in andd said he hadn't forgotten about me and he'd give me a ring so i gave him a ring just to remind him again and he said he'd phone me back in 10 minutes but that was last wednesday. I'm working for the Defence Housing Australia. They sort out housing for the military and their families. It's only for a couple of weeks but it's the best money i've been on since I got here. Accommodation for us has been a lot more difficult to find. We're still in the van and it's difficult working and having nothing to go back to and relax but it's so warm up here it's nice sitting out in the evening. The plan at the moment is to head for melbourne down the middle of the country via alice springs and ayers rock .
Dah-win is a nice place, small only 70,000 people, full of irish but it's the biggest place we've been to in a month and we're enjoying city life again. It's a bit of a pain having to go through the whole process of testing and registration with agencies but thats what we have to do to get work. There are loads of people in the same boat as us working and living in caravan parks. It's difficult to get short term accommodation here which is amazing considering the amount of backpackers. It's still great though we can't swim in the water because of the crocs and jellyfish but we've done a lot of beaches since we've been here so we're in no rush to go swimming in the sea.
We ended up checking into a hotel for anight to get out of the van. God I've missed TV. There was a movie channel but the selection wasn't great and we watched snakes on a plane, big mommas house and gone in 60 seconds none of which I'd watch ordinarily but when you've been without tv you'll watch anything. The Greek Glenti festival was on in the esplanade near where we were staying so we treated ourselves to food from it. It was great to get a break from cooking.
We went to Litchfield park on sunday and swam in the Florence falls plunge pool. There were fish biting my toes, I thought they were piranhas and had to get out. We also went to tolmer and wangi falls but you couldn't swim in them because of crocs. on the saturday we checked out the museum and there is an exhibition about the 1974 cyclone that almost destroyed the city completely. Its a big military town that found prominence during the second world war 2 when the allies used it to take on the Japanese and consequently Darwin took a hammering in air raids. There is a road called Bombing Road and one of the arcaes is called air raid arcade. At the moment there are international air force war games going on and the noise from fighter jets is staggering. Food is excellent here (as it is in every place we've visited in Australia) we went to a restaurant call char, it's the best in the territory and last night we went to the jetty rrestaurant for all you can eat buffet. I had 4 courses before dessert and finished off with some fruit. I got my moneys worth. Mindil beach markets have every type of food you can imagine. There is another national park called kakadu that we're not gonna get to see because we'd need a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I might get some fishing in over the weekend. There are loads of tours. We're gonna hang about until monday and see if we can get to watch the Armagh and Down game somewhere. Come on Armagh!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
On the road: Perth to Broome
We left Freo on the 27th April and moved back up to Trigg with Dilly for a week. We were both really sad to leave our respective jobs because we'd met such decent people. Also Liverpool were dumped out of the champions league by Chelsea which was very disappointing.
We left Trigg on Saturday the 3rd May. The night before we finally met up with Annie Ballances auntie in Gwelup which isn't too far from Trigg. We had a lovely evening with them. They know more about whats going on in Newry than people who live there do thanks to digital radio. There are probably more people listening to 5fm around the world than in Newry.
We got on the road late on saturday and stopped off in Cervantes the first night. The Pinnacles are nearby. Hard to describe them really, just hundreds of pointy rocks from 2-6ft sticking out of the ground. They describe it as being a bit like the moon. I don't know I've never been there. We drove onto Geraldton the next day and met up with a couple called Gareth and Emma from Melbourne who are travelling up to Broome. We stocked up with food and water and other essentials before heading on towards Kalbarri national park. Everywhere of note is off the main road. Before we began this I had visions of driving along the coast to Broome but in reality we are always at least 50kms from it so when we stop somewhere we for the night it's a 100km round trip. Kalbarri was an excellent camp site with shower and toilet combos rather than just the showers at one side and toilets at the other.
Emma has really thrown herself into the camping. To say she had reservations about the whole thing is the understatement of the century but the set ups are really good in most places. Some of the kitchen areas leave a bit to be desired but we do most of our cooking on a two ring gas burner we bought so we can do pasta and bolognese or chili and rice. It sits on a fold away table which does the job. We are pretty much eating the same meals we would have eaten in the house. We have a foam mattress in the back of the van which we fold over when we are driving from place to place so we can get stuff into the back like the esky (ice box) and the cooler bag with the food and the other cooking equipment. At night we just buck all that in the front and there is enough room for us to sleep comfortably. The van also has a built in bed and compartments underneath to fit stuff. We've had to bring all out suitcases with us so it's pretty packed. We've got into a routine now and everything we need everyday is handy and the stuff we don't use is storted underneath.
After Kalbarri we headed to Monkey Mia which was brilliant. It was well of the main road but well worth visiting. The feed dolphins there every morning and hundreds come to watch this everyday. they are there from 7.30 til 10am every morning and they are literally at your feet. They've been doing this for forty years apparently and one of the oldest dolphins is the daughter of the first ones to come in. We spent two nights there becasue it was so good. The ocean was amazing. Crystal clear. The weather before we left Perth was getting changeable but it has been glorious the whole way up the coast. The only thing is drivng in the heat is uncomfortable. we don't have air con but it's not too bad.
After Monkey Mia we drove to Carnarvon which is a town. We stocked up there and stayed in a caravan park in the town. We met two boys from Newry who I'd never seen before in my life. They were working there way up the coast and had jobs in a banana plantation cutting leaves off the trees. One of them said it was the hardest work they'd ever done. AFter that we drove to Coral Bay which is probably the nicest place I've ever been. The reef is 20 metres off the shore and you can literally walk out into it. We spent 3 nights there and met up with friends of Dillys parents from their time over here. Colum and Jean are retired and are travelling around Australia in the lap of luxury. They have a caravan with a lounge, Kitchen and bedroom complete with queen bed. Colum invited me out snorkeling on his motorised rubber dingy, I said aye why not when am I going to get a chance to do this again. So we headed out while Emma and Jean went to the beach. Emma wasn't so sure I should be going but I went anyway. we went a good bit out and you could almost touch the reef below you. Colum saw a good spot and he gave me one of his flippers and we got in. He swam over to the reef and and I edged over behind him but I made the mistake of looking round to see where the boat was and panicked when it was a good 20 feet from me. Colum shouted are you alright? I had the snorkel in my mouth and g\could only mumble know. He saw I was in trouble and swam back to the boat. I was trying to stay calm and keep my head above water but the bloody flipper was catching the reef. Com couldn't get the anchor up and and had to cut it loose but by the time he had done this I was beside the boat anyway. I got in and we headed back to the shore. Pretty embarrassing but I'll not do anything like that again.
We had a lovely lunch with them. We ate squid and snapper that colum caught the day before and we sat chatting til the evening. The next day we were on the road again and we drove for 8 hours on consecutive days as there isn't much to see after Karratha. We did stop off were Dilly was born in Wickham and in Port Hedland which was a bit of a dive. We also drove for a couple of hours after sunset which wasn't too bad as there can be a lot of kangaroos and cows on the road but we only saw one as we drove into our camp site along a 12km dirt track. We were just relieved there was a camp site at the end of it. When we got in there were aboriginals lying about on the ground. we just parked up and went to bed. The next mroning it looked a lot better and we went down to the 80 mile beach for a look. It was absoluetly beautiful.
We arrived in Broome yesterday and we're gonna spend about 4 nights here. We've done about 3000km and it's taken us 11 days so far. We're just gonna hit cable beach in broome for a few days and relax before plannin gthe next part of the trip.
We left Trigg on Saturday the 3rd May. The night before we finally met up with Annie Ballances auntie in Gwelup which isn't too far from Trigg. We had a lovely evening with them. They know more about whats going on in Newry than people who live there do thanks to digital radio. There are probably more people listening to 5fm around the world than in Newry.
We got on the road late on saturday and stopped off in Cervantes the first night. The Pinnacles are nearby. Hard to describe them really, just hundreds of pointy rocks from 2-6ft sticking out of the ground. They describe it as being a bit like the moon. I don't know I've never been there. We drove onto Geraldton the next day and met up with a couple called Gareth and Emma from Melbourne who are travelling up to Broome. We stocked up with food and water and other essentials before heading on towards Kalbarri national park. Everywhere of note is off the main road. Before we began this I had visions of driving along the coast to Broome but in reality we are always at least 50kms from it so when we stop somewhere we for the night it's a 100km round trip. Kalbarri was an excellent camp site with shower and toilet combos rather than just the showers at one side and toilets at the other.
Emma has really thrown herself into the camping. To say she had reservations about the whole thing is the understatement of the century but the set ups are really good in most places. Some of the kitchen areas leave a bit to be desired but we do most of our cooking on a two ring gas burner we bought so we can do pasta and bolognese or chili and rice. It sits on a fold away table which does the job. We are pretty much eating the same meals we would have eaten in the house. We have a foam mattress in the back of the van which we fold over when we are driving from place to place so we can get stuff into the back like the esky (ice box) and the cooler bag with the food and the other cooking equipment. At night we just buck all that in the front and there is enough room for us to sleep comfortably. The van also has a built in bed and compartments underneath to fit stuff. We've had to bring all out suitcases with us so it's pretty packed. We've got into a routine now and everything we need everyday is handy and the stuff we don't use is storted underneath.
After Kalbarri we headed to Monkey Mia which was brilliant. It was well of the main road but well worth visiting. The feed dolphins there every morning and hundreds come to watch this everyday. they are there from 7.30 til 10am every morning and they are literally at your feet. They've been doing this for forty years apparently and one of the oldest dolphins is the daughter of the first ones to come in. We spent two nights there becasue it was so good. The ocean was amazing. Crystal clear. The weather before we left Perth was getting changeable but it has been glorious the whole way up the coast. The only thing is drivng in the heat is uncomfortable. we don't have air con but it's not too bad.
After Monkey Mia we drove to Carnarvon which is a town. We stocked up there and stayed in a caravan park in the town. We met two boys from Newry who I'd never seen before in my life. They were working there way up the coast and had jobs in a banana plantation cutting leaves off the trees. One of them said it was the hardest work they'd ever done. AFter that we drove to Coral Bay which is probably the nicest place I've ever been. The reef is 20 metres off the shore and you can literally walk out into it. We spent 3 nights there and met up with friends of Dillys parents from their time over here. Colum and Jean are retired and are travelling around Australia in the lap of luxury. They have a caravan with a lounge, Kitchen and bedroom complete with queen bed. Colum invited me out snorkeling on his motorised rubber dingy, I said aye why not when am I going to get a chance to do this again. So we headed out while Emma and Jean went to the beach. Emma wasn't so sure I should be going but I went anyway. we went a good bit out and you could almost touch the reef below you. Colum saw a good spot and he gave me one of his flippers and we got in. He swam over to the reef and and I edged over behind him but I made the mistake of looking round to see where the boat was and panicked when it was a good 20 feet from me. Colum shouted are you alright? I had the snorkel in my mouth and g\could only mumble know. He saw I was in trouble and swam back to the boat. I was trying to stay calm and keep my head above water but the bloody flipper was catching the reef. Com couldn't get the anchor up and and had to cut it loose but by the time he had done this I was beside the boat anyway. I got in and we headed back to the shore. Pretty embarrassing but I'll not do anything like that again.
We had a lovely lunch with them. We ate squid and snapper that colum caught the day before and we sat chatting til the evening. The next day we were on the road again and we drove for 8 hours on consecutive days as there isn't much to see after Karratha. We did stop off were Dilly was born in Wickham and in Port Hedland which was a bit of a dive. We also drove for a couple of hours after sunset which wasn't too bad as there can be a lot of kangaroos and cows on the road but we only saw one as we drove into our camp site along a 12km dirt track. We were just relieved there was a camp site at the end of it. When we got in there were aboriginals lying about on the ground. we just parked up and went to bed. The next mroning it looked a lot better and we went down to the 80 mile beach for a look. It was absoluetly beautiful.
We arrived in Broome yesterday and we're gonna spend about 4 nights here. We've done about 3000km and it's taken us 11 days so far. We're just gonna hit cable beach in broome for a few days and relax before plannin gthe next part of the trip.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Rottnest Monster
First and foremost we’ve set up a blog instead of the emails so we’ll just send you a link when we’ve updated it and you can read all about what we’ve been up to and we can post pictures on this blog also. I had always meant to do a blog at some stage and then I was talking to a guy who was selling a van and he was saying about a guy called Earls Eyes who has one of all his travels around the world and he’s even got sponsorship!
This next section is brought to you by Chutney Marys Indian Restaurant, Subiaco – mmmm Indian food.
Easter was nice, we went to the beach on Good Friday, not much surf this last while. On Easter Monday after staying up late to watch Liverpool humiliated by United we got the 9.30am Rottnest Express to Rottnest Island www.rottnestisland.com <http://www.rottnestisland.com/> and spent the day there cycling around the island (well some of it ) and checking out the many beaches. By the time we had breakfast on the island and queued for the bikes it was midday and they had to be back for 5pm. We cycled around to Parrakeet Bay and I had a go at some snorkelling but there wasn’t much to see, although the water was crystal clear I was afraid to go out too far in case I drowned and so didn’t see any reef. Emma got badly bitten again my mozzies just sitting in the house but she got on the bike anyway. We headed back round to Pinky bay and sunbathed there for a while before we got back to the bike place for 5. It’s a beautiful island but the flies are incessant and really docile they will just land on your face and stay there until you swat them off. Where can you get a cork hat when you need one? After we got something to eat we went searching for the Rottnest Monsters or Quokkas. They are marsupials but they just look like big rats and they are only found on Rotto. We didn’t have to go too far to find one as they just hang around the populated areas in the evenings looking for scraps. Apparently when whoever discovered this island first landed there he found thousands of these things and he though they were rats hence Rats nest or Rottnest. The express back was beautiful, we sat at the back and watched the island disappear in the sunset.
On the Thursday we went to see a band called Air who some of you will know. It was in the Botanic Gardens in Kings Park in Perth and it was a brilliant night. The stage was set up over a pond and there was a natural sort of amphitheatre with the banks sloping down to the pond and everyone had their picnics and blankets on the ground, having something to eat and watching the show. It was really idyllic and if you know Airs music, electronic ambient sort of stuff, it all fitted together perfectly. Our flat mates were there and Dilly and his brother Ronan also were there, thankfully as we didn’t think to bring any blankets or anything to sit on. We were straight out of work anyway. We walked back to the train station from the gig and found the most amazing views of Perth at night along the way.
Work is great. I’m still at ECU (Edith Cowan University) working in the FMO (Facilities Management Office). It’s kind of a glorified care takers role. I work with another guy called Lance who moved here from England 35 years ago, we have an email system and we receive jobs from all over the campus to move furniture in offices, set up rooms for functions, take stuff to storage and that sort of thing. It’s good because I get to be out in the sun a lot and when I was working in the last job I wished I was working outside more. The FMO is also responsible for booking a fleet of cars out to members of staff to go wherever they have to go. We have a wee van as well to scoot about the campus which is a square km approx. There’s a lot of photocopying that I don’t really get involved with I’m happy just to deliver it so I can get to be outside. There are 4,000 students here and roughly 70.6% of them are female, many of them look like they’re straight off the set of Home and Away and for all I know they could end up there. ECU is famous for WAAPA (Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts). They run courses in everything from dance to set design, sound and lighting, acting and music. There are free concerts every Tuesday and Wednesday at lunch time and I went to one the other week and it was really good. A band with a drummer, 2 guitarists, a bassist, a singer and 3 backing singers doing a song by the police, a version of papa was a rolling stone, some instrumental jazz number and two others I can’t remember. They try and do something from different genres. The ones in the office prefer the classical concerts they put on here, so they let me go to this one. Hugh Jackman studied at the screen academy here and he was back some time ago top open a new building. The office manager Karen has a picture of him and her behind her desk. I was asking her did Heath Ledger go here as well but he didn’t. He was from Perth though and his funeral was in Karrakatta which is on my route home. I introduced myself to an Irish girl I discovered works in the screen academy and left her round my films to pass onto her bosses to see what they think of them. I was talking to one of them today, he said he’d watch them in the next week. He better we’re leaving here in less than a month.
We bought a van at the weekend. She’s a 1983 L300 Mitsubishi Starwagon the previous owner called Betty. We’ve had trouble starting her yesterday and had to jump start her last night but I got her to the garage this morning and she got a tune up. She needs the radio installed and may need some other electrical work if the starting problems persist but we’ll see how she goes over the weekend. The plan is still to drive to Darwin over a couple of weeks stopping in different places along the west coast on the way. We’ll see how the van goes in the mean time but whatever happens we’ll be leaving Perth/Fremantle at the end of the month.
We’ve had a great time here but we’re looking forward to seeing the rest of it. We’ve eaten in almost every restaurant in Freo and we’ve been to almost every bar. The fashion here ranges from the hippy types to kids who can only be described as looking like Timmy Mallett with ridiculously fluorescent clothing, sideways hats and big silly sunglasses. There was a guy on the telly the other night who tried to save his mate from a fatal shark attack and he was dressed like this, I tried to explain it to Emma and she said “maybe he was in shock”. I’ve both loved and hated getting up at all hours to watch Liverpool in the champions league. I’ve loved watching the games with Chris trying to make as little noise as possible, it’s like a silent disco when Liverpool score. It’s been great getting the train back from work and going past the ocean from Victoria St to North Freo and past the sheds at the docks, over the bridge at the harbour where the dolphins sometimes frolic in the sun. We’d highly recommend Western Australia to everyone. Perth is the most remote city on the planet and the locals want to keep it a secret, they try to tell you it’s boring and when you protest they look at you like you know and say “don’t tell anyone”
This next section is brought to you by Chutney Marys Indian Restaurant, Subiaco – mmmm Indian food.
Easter was nice, we went to the beach on Good Friday, not much surf this last while. On Easter Monday after staying up late to watch Liverpool humiliated by United we got the 9.30am Rottnest Express to Rottnest Island www.rottnestisland.com <http://www.rottnestisland.com/> and spent the day there cycling around the island (well some of it ) and checking out the many beaches. By the time we had breakfast on the island and queued for the bikes it was midday and they had to be back for 5pm. We cycled around to Parrakeet Bay and I had a go at some snorkelling but there wasn’t much to see, although the water was crystal clear I was afraid to go out too far in case I drowned and so didn’t see any reef. Emma got badly bitten again my mozzies just sitting in the house but she got on the bike anyway. We headed back round to Pinky bay and sunbathed there for a while before we got back to the bike place for 5. It’s a beautiful island but the flies are incessant and really docile they will just land on your face and stay there until you swat them off. Where can you get a cork hat when you need one? After we got something to eat we went searching for the Rottnest Monsters or Quokkas. They are marsupials but they just look like big rats and they are only found on Rotto. We didn’t have to go too far to find one as they just hang around the populated areas in the evenings looking for scraps. Apparently when whoever discovered this island first landed there he found thousands of these things and he though they were rats hence Rats nest or Rottnest. The express back was beautiful, we sat at the back and watched the island disappear in the sunset.
On the Thursday we went to see a band called Air who some of you will know. It was in the Botanic Gardens in Kings Park in Perth and it was a brilliant night. The stage was set up over a pond and there was a natural sort of amphitheatre with the banks sloping down to the pond and everyone had their picnics and blankets on the ground, having something to eat and watching the show. It was really idyllic and if you know Airs music, electronic ambient sort of stuff, it all fitted together perfectly. Our flat mates were there and Dilly and his brother Ronan also were there, thankfully as we didn’t think to bring any blankets or anything to sit on. We were straight out of work anyway. We walked back to the train station from the gig and found the most amazing views of Perth at night along the way.
Work is great. I’m still at ECU (Edith Cowan University) working in the FMO (Facilities Management Office). It’s kind of a glorified care takers role. I work with another guy called Lance who moved here from England 35 years ago, we have an email system and we receive jobs from all over the campus to move furniture in offices, set up rooms for functions, take stuff to storage and that sort of thing. It’s good because I get to be out in the sun a lot and when I was working in the last job I wished I was working outside more. The FMO is also responsible for booking a fleet of cars out to members of staff to go wherever they have to go. We have a wee van as well to scoot about the campus which is a square km approx. There’s a lot of photocopying that I don’t really get involved with I’m happy just to deliver it so I can get to be outside. There are 4,000 students here and roughly 70.6% of them are female, many of them look like they’re straight off the set of Home and Away and for all I know they could end up there. ECU is famous for WAAPA (Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts). They run courses in everything from dance to set design, sound and lighting, acting and music. There are free concerts every Tuesday and Wednesday at lunch time and I went to one the other week and it was really good. A band with a drummer, 2 guitarists, a bassist, a singer and 3 backing singers doing a song by the police, a version of papa was a rolling stone, some instrumental jazz number and two others I can’t remember. They try and do something from different genres. The ones in the office prefer the classical concerts they put on here, so they let me go to this one. Hugh Jackman studied at the screen academy here and he was back some time ago top open a new building. The office manager Karen has a picture of him and her behind her desk. I was asking her did Heath Ledger go here as well but he didn’t. He was from Perth though and his funeral was in Karrakatta which is on my route home. I introduced myself to an Irish girl I discovered works in the screen academy and left her round my films to pass onto her bosses to see what they think of them. I was talking to one of them today, he said he’d watch them in the next week. He better we’re leaving here in less than a month.
We bought a van at the weekend. She’s a 1983 L300 Mitsubishi Starwagon the previous owner called Betty. We’ve had trouble starting her yesterday and had to jump start her last night but I got her to the garage this morning and she got a tune up. She needs the radio installed and may need some other electrical work if the starting problems persist but we’ll see how she goes over the weekend. The plan is still to drive to Darwin over a couple of weeks stopping in different places along the west coast on the way. We’ll see how the van goes in the mean time but whatever happens we’ll be leaving Perth/Fremantle at the end of the month.
We’ve had a great time here but we’re looking forward to seeing the rest of it. We’ve eaten in almost every restaurant in Freo and we’ve been to almost every bar. The fashion here ranges from the hippy types to kids who can only be described as looking like Timmy Mallett with ridiculously fluorescent clothing, sideways hats and big silly sunglasses. There was a guy on the telly the other night who tried to save his mate from a fatal shark attack and he was dressed like this, I tried to explain it to Emma and she said “maybe he was in shock”. I’ve both loved and hated getting up at all hours to watch Liverpool in the champions league. I’ve loved watching the games with Chris trying to make as little noise as possible, it’s like a silent disco when Liverpool score. It’s been great getting the train back from work and going past the ocean from Victoria St to North Freo and past the sheds at the docks, over the bridge at the harbour where the dolphins sometimes frolic in the sun. We’d highly recommend Western Australia to everyone. Perth is the most remote city on the planet and the locals want to keep it a secret, they try to tell you it’s boring and when you protest they look at you like you know and say “don’t tell anyone”
Monday, April 7, 2008
Paddys Day in WA
20/03/08
We went to mass, we've turned into our parents going to mass in different countries "to see what it's like". well, it's pretty much the same except the line for communion was a disaster and they had two collections just in case you thought you hadn't done enough for lent. it was also palm sunday so we could have picked a different sunday to go but i suppose it's some kind of penance since i never go to mass. an hour and 15 minutes with two gospels. Emma says she's going every week, i'd be more interested in going to the italian mass at half nine in the same chapel to see how they all get on. There was a lot of Irish at mass, distinctive in their green or in gaelic football shirts from all over ireland. I was disappointed not to see anyone with a big clump of shamrock wrapped in tinfoil stuck to their breast. there were some rosettes though. across the road from mass is clancys fish pub and it has a big park out the back that had a stage set up and a gazebo for shade. it was a real family occasion and we could hear a few irish accents about but the majority were aussies children or grandchildren of irish who naturalized in australia. it was a really nice day and the first st.paddys day where it wasn't about getting wrecked but about being irish. we saw a band called the zydecats in clancys that night after we went home for our dinner and went back out again. they have been residents in clancys for 12 years and have a great following of people in their 40's, 50's and even 60's all up on the dance floor going buck mad. quite a sight. they have a thing called the sunday session here were people go out all day but the pubs close at 10pm. There was also a guy guesting with them called Eugene Hardaway Bridges, he looked a bit like cee-lo from gnarls barkley but he is some guitarist and has a great voice. he finished his set with danny boy. last week was cheltenham at home and I would usually have a few quid on the races (literally a few quid it'd break my heart to lose a fiver) and while they have bookies over here i can't work out the odds so I entered a competition on the sprting life where you picked a horse in every race and they put on a fantasy £1 bet on each race and the winner was the one with the most fanstasy money at the end. the prize was a £2000 HD tv, free sky for a month and some other sky related thing. I had one winner the first day at 4/1 and was in about 600th place, the second day was abandoned because of the weather so the races from that day were spread out and added to thursday and friday. on the thursday I backed 4 in a row our vic, inglis drever, ballyfitz and mister mc goldrick at 66/1 to go into the lead with 93.35. this is all going on in the middle of the night here, so i done my selections for the final day fully believing i had no chance and checked the results on saturday moring. I didn't have one winner and then i checked the leader board and i'd come second and been beaten by £2. I investigated further to find out that I had still been in the lead right up until the last race only for this guy to come from nowhere having backed Silver jaro at 50/1 to win the HD tv!! Chris from the house here said "what goods a plasma tv when you're back packing around australia"
weather is still roasting 30+ not bad for what would be september at home. still working in ECU and really enjoying it. Heading to rottnest Island (Rotto) on easter sunday on the ferry and we're gonna hire bikes as there are no cars on the island and maybe do some snorkelling around the reef. off work now till tuesday. I swear to god i better get a lie in tomorrow. we get good friday and easter monday off here as It's a good christian country unlike you heathens. hope paddys day was good. happy easter
We went to mass, we've turned into our parents going to mass in different countries "to see what it's like". well, it's pretty much the same except the line for communion was a disaster and they had two collections just in case you thought you hadn't done enough for lent. it was also palm sunday so we could have picked a different sunday to go but i suppose it's some kind of penance since i never go to mass. an hour and 15 minutes with two gospels. Emma says she's going every week, i'd be more interested in going to the italian mass at half nine in the same chapel to see how they all get on. There was a lot of Irish at mass, distinctive in their green or in gaelic football shirts from all over ireland. I was disappointed not to see anyone with a big clump of shamrock wrapped in tinfoil stuck to their breast. there were some rosettes though. across the road from mass is clancys fish pub and it has a big park out the back that had a stage set up and a gazebo for shade. it was a real family occasion and we could hear a few irish accents about but the majority were aussies children or grandchildren of irish who naturalized in australia. it was a really nice day and the first st.paddys day where it wasn't about getting wrecked but about being irish. we saw a band called the zydecats in clancys that night after we went home for our dinner and went back out again. they have been residents in clancys for 12 years and have a great following of people in their 40's, 50's and even 60's all up on the dance floor going buck mad. quite a sight. they have a thing called the sunday session here were people go out all day but the pubs close at 10pm. There was also a guy guesting with them called Eugene Hardaway Bridges, he looked a bit like cee-lo from gnarls barkley but he is some guitarist and has a great voice. he finished his set with danny boy. last week was cheltenham at home and I would usually have a few quid on the races (literally a few quid it'd break my heart to lose a fiver) and while they have bookies over here i can't work out the odds so I entered a competition on the sprting life where you picked a horse in every race and they put on a fantasy £1 bet on each race and the winner was the one with the most fanstasy money at the end. the prize was a £2000 HD tv, free sky for a month and some other sky related thing. I had one winner the first day at 4/1 and was in about 600th place, the second day was abandoned because of the weather so the races from that day were spread out and added to thursday and friday. on the thursday I backed 4 in a row our vic, inglis drever, ballyfitz and mister mc goldrick at 66/1 to go into the lead with 93.35. this is all going on in the middle of the night here, so i done my selections for the final day fully believing i had no chance and checked the results on saturday moring. I didn't have one winner and then i checked the leader board and i'd come second and been beaten by £2. I investigated further to find out that I had still been in the lead right up until the last race only for this guy to come from nowhere having backed Silver jaro at 50/1 to win the HD tv!! Chris from the house here said "what goods a plasma tv when you're back packing around australia"
weather is still roasting 30+ not bad for what would be september at home. still working in ECU and really enjoying it. Heading to rottnest Island (Rotto) on easter sunday on the ferry and we're gonna hire bikes as there are no cars on the island and maybe do some snorkelling around the reef. off work now till tuesday. I swear to god i better get a lie in tomorrow. we get good friday and easter monday off here as It's a good christian country unlike you heathens. hope paddys day was good. happy easter
Roo bars and Surf boards
06/03/08
Hello to you, We've been on the batter now for over two months and time is flying. It feels like we've been in Freo and Perth for ages but in a good way. Last weekend was a bank holiday and we decided to head south to Margaret River - wine country. We hired a car and drove down after work on friday. Actually i finished working for the mining co. on friday as the contract ended. It took about 3.5 hours to get there, we set out on the path plotted by google map but soon took a wrong turn and abandoned that but we still found the place easily. Driving over here is similar to home except instead of rabbits and foxes running out across the road, its kangaroos - or so we were told. The further south we drove the more signs we saw warning to be cautious of marsupials and the more cars and jeeps we saw with roo bars on the front of them. So as i drove, face to the windscreen in a cat like state of readiness as davy Smith would say, I had emma ready with the mini dv camera to capture the certain encounter but of course it never happened. We stayed at peppermint brook cottages which were dead on (aussies say "too easy" if something is dead on, green and red peppers are called capsicums. burger king is hungry jacks. can't think of any other differences) and the next afternoon we headed for the 80 odd wineries in the region. Emma in her element being driven around from winery to winery. we ended up going to 6 i think as well as a cheese factory and a chocolate factory that was absolutely packed, proof indeed that people love chocolate more than wine. So it was an inexpensive day driving about getting freebies. Also learnt a bit about wine. Basically when people get a glass of wine, swirl it and stick their nose in it and say "smells like artichokes, alka seltzer and a hint of old holborn tobacco" - they are lying (It's similar to Dylan Morans routine about wine I know) - it smells like wine and funny enough it tastes like wine. nah,it's something to do with the climate and the soil, how the grapes are grown and how much sun they get or if its a bit wet how much water they absorb. I did taste a couple and spat them out like a real connoisseur and some did smell of oak or smoke but that was as much as my palette could pick up. We went to one called mad fish and by chance I discovered that sony tropfest short film festival was on there that night and the next night. I went on the sunday night and there was about 800 people there of all ages with their picnics all watching these films under the stars. Aussie love films and they talk about them really passionately. I went to this talk with peter Greenaway who directed a film called the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover in the 80's. it was part of the perth arts festival that has just ended. He challenges the way cinema is made these days basically saying that cinema died in september 1983 when the remote control came into use yet films haven't really evolved. so his contribution has been to make a 7 hour film that allows the audience to interact with the footage and make whatever film they want out of it all. Its called the Tulse Luper suitcases. Here is a man with with too much money available to him. After a day of driving and wining we headed for prevelly beach in the evening which is famous for surfing and we weren't let down. We sat at surfers point and watched the dots in the ocean gradually emerge on these massive waves for 10 or 20 seconds and then disappear into the foam again. On the way back from the beach Emma shouted "Oh my God I think I just saw a load of kangaroos in that field". I turned the car around and sure enough if it wasn't a field full of roos. They weren't doing much but i had to get them on camera and well it was the first kangaroos we've seen so it was great. The next day we headed south again to the most south westerly point of Australia, a little place called Augusta that is absolutely beautiful. Margaret River is grand and all but it's just a one street town hyped up by the tourist board and it's 9km from the beach. i think the city dwellers like it cos it's rural whereas we see rural all the time we want beaches and oceans. So Augusta was a highlight for us. we spent the afternoon on a beach in this class little cove, the indian ocean meets the southern ocean creating all shades of blue. That night I headed to the film festival and then drove back to margaret river to watch liverpool and bolton in a bar full of nutcases down for the weekend, some kind of brawl broke out and the cops were called and all i want is the tv to be turned over to foxsports 1 but they are showing stoke v QPR and the only guy who has the authority to turn the tv over is out dealing with the cops. Finally I get the game turned over with 15 mins of the first half to go and then the bars all close at midnight so i only get to see 20 mins of the second half. It's not easy trying to watch football in this country. We took our time driving back up to Freo on the monday. We stopped off at Yallingup (there are all these places that end with up karrinyup, miamup, cowamrup, shutup, wiseup I madeup the last 2, oh I done it again) but the beach at yallingup was the best yet. Powdery white sand and massive waves. I had to get out on the body board and was soon getting pounded by 10 ft waves. I managed to catch a couple of them and ended up way up on the beach among peoples feet who were walking along minding their own business and next thing i'm flying towards them "yippee". Class beaches but a bit scary for someone who swims as well as he plays the guitar. we also stopped off in Busselton and Mandurah. We got back late on monday and I left the car back on Tuesday morning in Perth and went back to the agencies to look for another job. Thankfully I only had to go to one this time (although I did spend 3 and a half hours in it registering) and they got me a job working in Edith Cowan University (ECU). It's working in an enquiries office and it's pretty handy plus it will hopefully be the last job I have to get here as the contract goes on for a couple of months but we are still planning to be on the road by mid-april. On that point, we've looked at a few campervans and it looks like the least we will have to pay is $3000 but then we'd hope to be able to sell it when we're done with it and get some money back. There are a good few about, nowhere near as many as on the east coast but still we should be able to get something reliable and comfortable from the various backpacker hostels or this website we use called gumtree. thats all for now. Gonna watch Lost and hit the hay. Still no further on with that show, series 6 or 8 and haven't a clue what it's all about. The QE2 was in Freo yesterday, last voyage or something. There was some crowd out to see it and there looked like one hell of a party going on onboard. Looked amazing sailing out of the harbour into the sunset and it made me think of home for a second then I turned and walked up Pakenham st. past the palm trees and thought I'm glad i'm here though.
Hello to you, We've been on the batter now for over two months and time is flying. It feels like we've been in Freo and Perth for ages but in a good way. Last weekend was a bank holiday and we decided to head south to Margaret River - wine country. We hired a car and drove down after work on friday. Actually i finished working for the mining co. on friday as the contract ended. It took about 3.5 hours to get there, we set out on the path plotted by google map but soon took a wrong turn and abandoned that but we still found the place easily. Driving over here is similar to home except instead of rabbits and foxes running out across the road, its kangaroos - or so we were told. The further south we drove the more signs we saw warning to be cautious of marsupials and the more cars and jeeps we saw with roo bars on the front of them. So as i drove, face to the windscreen in a cat like state of readiness as davy Smith would say, I had emma ready with the mini dv camera to capture the certain encounter but of course it never happened. We stayed at peppermint brook cottages which were dead on (aussies say "too easy" if something is dead on, green and red peppers are called capsicums. burger king is hungry jacks. can't think of any other differences) and the next afternoon we headed for the 80 odd wineries in the region. Emma in her element being driven around from winery to winery. we ended up going to 6 i think as well as a cheese factory and a chocolate factory that was absolutely packed, proof indeed that people love chocolate more than wine. So it was an inexpensive day driving about getting freebies. Also learnt a bit about wine. Basically when people get a glass of wine, swirl it and stick their nose in it and say "smells like artichokes, alka seltzer and a hint of old holborn tobacco" - they are lying (It's similar to Dylan Morans routine about wine I know) - it smells like wine and funny enough it tastes like wine. nah,it's something to do with the climate and the soil, how the grapes are grown and how much sun they get or if its a bit wet how much water they absorb. I did taste a couple and spat them out like a real connoisseur and some did smell of oak or smoke but that was as much as my palette could pick up. We went to one called mad fish and by chance I discovered that sony tropfest short film festival was on there that night and the next night. I went on the sunday night and there was about 800 people there of all ages with their picnics all watching these films under the stars. Aussie love films and they talk about them really passionately. I went to this talk with peter Greenaway who directed a film called the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover in the 80's. it was part of the perth arts festival that has just ended. He challenges the way cinema is made these days basically saying that cinema died in september 1983 when the remote control came into use yet films haven't really evolved. so his contribution has been to make a 7 hour film that allows the audience to interact with the footage and make whatever film they want out of it all. Its called the Tulse Luper suitcases. Here is a man with with too much money available to him. After a day of driving and wining we headed for prevelly beach in the evening which is famous for surfing and we weren't let down. We sat at surfers point and watched the dots in the ocean gradually emerge on these massive waves for 10 or 20 seconds and then disappear into the foam again. On the way back from the beach Emma shouted "Oh my God I think I just saw a load of kangaroos in that field". I turned the car around and sure enough if it wasn't a field full of roos. They weren't doing much but i had to get them on camera and well it was the first kangaroos we've seen so it was great. The next day we headed south again to the most south westerly point of Australia, a little place called Augusta that is absolutely beautiful. Margaret River is grand and all but it's just a one street town hyped up by the tourist board and it's 9km from the beach. i think the city dwellers like it cos it's rural whereas we see rural all the time we want beaches and oceans. So Augusta was a highlight for us. we spent the afternoon on a beach in this class little cove, the indian ocean meets the southern ocean creating all shades of blue. That night I headed to the film festival and then drove back to margaret river to watch liverpool and bolton in a bar full of nutcases down for the weekend, some kind of brawl broke out and the cops were called and all i want is the tv to be turned over to foxsports 1 but they are showing stoke v QPR and the only guy who has the authority to turn the tv over is out dealing with the cops. Finally I get the game turned over with 15 mins of the first half to go and then the bars all close at midnight so i only get to see 20 mins of the second half. It's not easy trying to watch football in this country. We took our time driving back up to Freo on the monday. We stopped off at Yallingup (there are all these places that end with up karrinyup, miamup, cowamrup, shutup, wiseup I madeup the last 2, oh I done it again) but the beach at yallingup was the best yet. Powdery white sand and massive waves. I had to get out on the body board and was soon getting pounded by 10 ft waves. I managed to catch a couple of them and ended up way up on the beach among peoples feet who were walking along minding their own business and next thing i'm flying towards them "yippee". Class beaches but a bit scary for someone who swims as well as he plays the guitar. we also stopped off in Busselton and Mandurah. We got back late on monday and I left the car back on Tuesday morning in Perth and went back to the agencies to look for another job. Thankfully I only had to go to one this time (although I did spend 3 and a half hours in it registering) and they got me a job working in Edith Cowan University (ECU). It's working in an enquiries office and it's pretty handy plus it will hopefully be the last job I have to get here as the contract goes on for a couple of months but we are still planning to be on the road by mid-april. On that point, we've looked at a few campervans and it looks like the least we will have to pay is $3000 but then we'd hope to be able to sell it when we're done with it and get some money back. There are a good few about, nowhere near as many as on the east coast but still we should be able to get something reliable and comfortable from the various backpacker hostels or this website we use called gumtree. thats all for now. Gonna watch Lost and hit the hay. Still no further on with that show, series 6 or 8 and haven't a clue what it's all about. The QE2 was in Freo yesterday, last voyage or something. There was some crowd out to see it and there looked like one hell of a party going on onboard. Looked amazing sailing out of the harbour into the sunset and it made me think of home for a second then I turned and walked up Pakenham st. past the palm trees and thought I'm glad i'm here though.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
ants and mosquitos and spiders and rats
01/02/08
hello, I won't mention the weather unless it changes from clear blue sky and hot hot sun. We moved down to Freo last monday. The flat was pretty bare because the owner was laid up in hospital in the phillipines and couldn't decorate it from there so we just got the basics, bed sheets, plates, cutlery, pots and pans. It's a nice place, first floor apartment. our bedroom doesn't have window so the fan is on all night. Freo is much the same size as lurgan or portadown. there is a cool bar in a brewery called Little Creatures. It's a big open space with vats above and behind you and they do great food outside in an area that over looks the harbour. We went to our local Bar Orient which is 45 seconds from the flat and we encountered our first taste of east coast west coast rivalry. we'd been laughing at this couple in their 40's dancing in front of where we were sitting then they sat down beside us. they were from Queensland and they told us to get out of Perth as quickly as we could as it was too expenisve and go east. we said we planned to but not just yet. we wanted to see what the west had to offer and go to margaret river, Broome and travel across to Alice springs and Ayers rock. The husband was drunk as a lord and said to us "don't go to Alice Springs, fly over the facker on your way to the east coast" We've both started work this week I'm doing data entry for a mining company called Golder Associates and Emma is working in recruitment. The plan is to work for 2-3 months and then move on possibly north to darwin and follow the sun for a year. So most of last week was spent emailing recruitment agencies and doing tests with them as part of registering. On friday we went to this lovely fish n chip place called Kailis in the harbour and then watched the sunset from Bathers bay which is a little beach area near us. we went back to the flat and discovered a colony of ants in our cupboard going through a loaf of bread which we'd only opened that morning. You can't leave anything lying about or they're in it so everything is in the fridge. next morning, australia day, emma woke up with mosquito bites on her legs and by the end of the day some of them had turned into big blisters. she was pretty annoyed as you can imagine. we walked around the town. it was like paddys day on the 15th august. there was an aboriginal guy who wasn't celebrating instead he was letting everyone know that on the day captain cook discovered australia it spelt the beginning of the end for his people. That night we ended up seeing the fireworks from A&E in Fremantle Hospital because Emma's bites got so bad.
After a week in freo we were both thoroughly bored as there was nowhere apart from the bedroom and the outside decking to sit and at times we just longed for a couch to sit on or somewhere else to go. The girl who owned the house arrive belatedly on monday and has bought loads of stuff for the place. Her name is Christine and she is here with her boyfriend from London Chris. lovely couple. we all sat out and had dinner on the decking the other night and the guy from next door, peter, brought out a bottle of champagne. he'd only poured it when emma started shouting "oh my god whats that coming down the drain pipe?" I turned round and saw something shimmying down the pipe I thought it was a squirrel. Peter went over with chris to have a look and said "it's only a rat". I ran for the back door to make sure it was shut in case it ran in. The only time I will feel relieved when someone tells me it's only a rat is when i've just been face to face with a venomous snake. Chris added "it's only a night rat" och will sure then if it's only a night rat.... so we're not altogether comfortable in our flat but it's getting better. we've seen so many creatures this week and we haven't even left the suburbs yet. we're sort of looking for somewhere else to live but we really like christine and chris and freo for that matter. environmental health are due round on monday to sort out the rat and the place is a lot more comfy. they've also got a really old convertible car that they say we can use. so we'll see how it goes. thats it for now. hope you're all well.
hello, I won't mention the weather unless it changes from clear blue sky and hot hot sun. We moved down to Freo last monday. The flat was pretty bare because the owner was laid up in hospital in the phillipines and couldn't decorate it from there so we just got the basics, bed sheets, plates, cutlery, pots and pans. It's a nice place, first floor apartment. our bedroom doesn't have window so the fan is on all night. Freo is much the same size as lurgan or portadown. there is a cool bar in a brewery called Little Creatures. It's a big open space with vats above and behind you and they do great food outside in an area that over looks the harbour. We went to our local Bar Orient which is 45 seconds from the flat and we encountered our first taste of east coast west coast rivalry. we'd been laughing at this couple in their 40's dancing in front of where we were sitting then they sat down beside us. they were from Queensland and they told us to get out of Perth as quickly as we could as it was too expenisve and go east. we said we planned to but not just yet. we wanted to see what the west had to offer and go to margaret river, Broome and travel across to Alice springs and Ayers rock. The husband was drunk as a lord and said to us "don't go to Alice Springs, fly over the facker on your way to the east coast" We've both started work this week I'm doing data entry for a mining company called Golder Associates and Emma is working in recruitment. The plan is to work for 2-3 months and then move on possibly north to darwin and follow the sun for a year. So most of last week was spent emailing recruitment agencies and doing tests with them as part of registering. On friday we went to this lovely fish n chip place called Kailis in the harbour and then watched the sunset from Bathers bay which is a little beach area near us. we went back to the flat and discovered a colony of ants in our cupboard going through a loaf of bread which we'd only opened that morning. You can't leave anything lying about or they're in it so everything is in the fridge. next morning, australia day, emma woke up with mosquito bites on her legs and by the end of the day some of them had turned into big blisters. she was pretty annoyed as you can imagine. we walked around the town. it was like paddys day on the 15th august. there was an aboriginal guy who wasn't celebrating instead he was letting everyone know that on the day captain cook discovered australia it spelt the beginning of the end for his people. That night we ended up seeing the fireworks from A&E in Fremantle Hospital because Emma's bites got so bad.
After a week in freo we were both thoroughly bored as there was nowhere apart from the bedroom and the outside decking to sit and at times we just longed for a couch to sit on or somewhere else to go. The girl who owned the house arrive belatedly on monday and has bought loads of stuff for the place. Her name is Christine and she is here with her boyfriend from London Chris. lovely couple. we all sat out and had dinner on the decking the other night and the guy from next door, peter, brought out a bottle of champagne. he'd only poured it when emma started shouting "oh my god whats that coming down the drain pipe?" I turned round and saw something shimmying down the pipe I thought it was a squirrel. Peter went over with chris to have a look and said "it's only a rat". I ran for the back door to make sure it was shut in case it ran in. The only time I will feel relieved when someone tells me it's only a rat is when i've just been face to face with a venomous snake. Chris added "it's only a night rat" och will sure then if it's only a night rat.... so we're not altogether comfortable in our flat but it's getting better. we've seen so many creatures this week and we haven't even left the suburbs yet. we're sort of looking for somewhere else to live but we really like christine and chris and freo for that matter. environmental health are due round on monday to sort out the rat and the place is a lot more comfy. they've also got a really old convertible car that they say we can use. so we'll see how it goes. thats it for now. hope you're all well.
Perth - roast beef and gravy sandwiches and ginger beer
Hello, There'll be stuff in brackets in this and some of you will know the people and places and some won't. We left our resort in Ko Samui at 6am on Thursday morning after spending 10 days doing nothing but lie on the beach. we had planned this to be a holiday and thats what it was. we could've took a boat to some other islands but we were booked into the resort for 10 days so we thought we'd just make the most of it, reading books (Eric Clapton and Peter Kay biographies emma read kerry katonas first novel) and getting some colour. we flew to bangkok and then perth via kuala lumpur. we didn't know that we went through another time zone so when we landed in kuala lumpur at 5pm it was actually 6pm and our flight was leaving in 25 mins. so we had to hot foot it from one end of the airport to the other. fortunately it was the same airline and there were a lot of other people going onto perth with their luggage being shifted from one plane to another so this ended up keeping the other plane late. I was really looking forward to this flight. The longer flights have tv's and you can watch films etc. you can imagine my disappointment when first of all emma and i weren't sitting together and then I didn't have a tv in front of me either. there was only one screen at the front of the cabin and they put on a disney film about american football starring the rock.> > > > when we arrived in Perth Emma's suitcase had the lock busted open and someone had been through all her stuff. we've made a complaint and we're awaiting a new suitcase and a first class flight home!!> > > > My mate Dilly (Dylan Galloghly from camlough) picked us up and we're currently staying in his place in Trigg one of suburbs of Perth. Scarborough beach is 5 minutes walk and it is incredible. it's roasting here. 42 the day we arrived. really hot and the sun stays out til 8.30pm. we also went to see the place we've arranged to stay here. it's in Fremantle (Freo) which is about 20 mins south of Perth. My brother Liam who was in oz 4 years ago said "it's like the point (warrenpoint)".> > I'll say this it's what the point could be like if we had the weather. it's a port and people go down there at the weekends for fish n chips in ciccarellos like they go down to the point to the genoa.> > > > The flat is spot on . the girl who is renting us the flat is also travelling here from London but she has been struck down with appendisitis in the phillipines and won't be here til next weekend. so we had her mothers friends doing all the arranging for her. These people are originally from hungary and germany but have lived here for 33 years and have changed their names and all to ann and alan foster. they said "what will we chnage our names to?" and alan saw a tin of fosters on the table and said "well that will do". what a couple of characters. when we got to the house the ole boy alan was taking pictures of us "in case we were the mafia". Lovely people.> > > > The flat is slap bang in the middle of Freo and we're moving in tomorrrow and will start to look for jobs on tuesday. it's pretty expensive here. exchange rate is roughly 2 dollars to the pound but my new favourite food, a roast beef and gravy sub (these are available everywhere) is about 7.50 - 8 dollars, crate of beer 40 dollars, 8 dollars a pint and a main course was 20 dollars. went to a party the other night and they had alcoholic slush puppies cocktails. these two girls were celebrating being friends for 30 years!! the party was over at 1am and we were all home sober. very grown up party, very friendly people. I got talking to a woman who says she has some contacts in the film industry here (she may be a nut case though as she was trying to hook us all up with jobs she was trying to get dilly to go and work for her uncle who is a shrink, dilly is studying in australia to be a clinical psychologist) I'll give her a bell anyway, can't hurt. emma was talking to a guy who works in recruitment (which is her profession) so we made a couple of contacts at this party also. a few years ago i would have said this was a shite party but we had a good time. nobody understands my Newry accent so really have to speak to everyone like they have hearing problems. everytime i say something they reply "say again"Australia day next saturday. aw yeah!!anyhoo thats all for now.
bangkok and ko samui
08/01/2008
Emma and I just arrived on the island of Ko Samui last night. we're staying in a resort 3 or 4 miles from the main town, chaweng. we drove through there last night on the way from the airport it looks like 2 mile of madness, crammed with bars and shops and of course mcdonalds in the middle of it. it's far busier than i thought it would be but we were warned it would be so. our resort is in the next town over called lamai http://www.kosamui.com/beaches/lamai-beach.html it's a bit more family orientated and a lot quieter which is what we want really. we're staying in a bungalow which is dead on. no tv though!! me and emma are gonna have to talk to each other. It's really relaxed which is exactly what we needed after the hustle of Bangkok. we spent 3 nights in bangkok which was enough. we booked this holiday to samui on the saturday and then went to this beautiful seafood restaurant where they had all the fish in tanks and then packed in ice like a market. I had to have a lobster and you got to choose theone you wanted from a tank. wasn't cheap but it was delicious. Khao san road (i'm sure a lot of you have been here) is like hill st in Newry on paddys day full of bars, tourists and stalls selling clothes, knock off sunglasses, football shirts etc. I got a 1989 Liverpool candy shirt for 3 quid.On the sunday we just went to a blues bar in the banglamphu district and then sat in a restaurant and watched Liverpool and Luton in the FA cup. I had sea bass, again taken live from a tank at the front of the restaurant. the food is fantastic. we flew to samui last night and will be on the beach here for the next ten days before flying to perth on the 17th.
Emma and I just arrived on the island of Ko Samui last night. we're staying in a resort 3 or 4 miles from the main town, chaweng. we drove through there last night on the way from the airport it looks like 2 mile of madness, crammed with bars and shops and of course mcdonalds in the middle of it. it's far busier than i thought it would be but we were warned it would be so. our resort is in the next town over called lamai http://www.kosamui.com/beaches/lamai-beach.html it's a bit more family orientated and a lot quieter which is what we want really. we're staying in a bungalow which is dead on. no tv though!! me and emma are gonna have to talk to each other. It's really relaxed which is exactly what we needed after the hustle of Bangkok. we spent 3 nights in bangkok which was enough. we booked this holiday to samui on the saturday and then went to this beautiful seafood restaurant where they had all the fish in tanks and then packed in ice like a market. I had to have a lobster and you got to choose theone you wanted from a tank. wasn't cheap but it was delicious. Khao san road (i'm sure a lot of you have been here) is like hill st in Newry on paddys day full of bars, tourists and stalls selling clothes, knock off sunglasses, football shirts etc. I got a 1989 Liverpool candy shirt for 3 quid.On the sunday we just went to a blues bar in the banglamphu district and then sat in a restaurant and watched Liverpool and Luton in the FA cup. I had sea bass, again taken live from a tank at the front of the restaurant. the food is fantastic. we flew to samui last night and will be on the beach here for the next ten days before flying to perth on the 17th.
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