"Where are you heading to in Queensland? Cairns? Townsville?" said the man in the British Lolly shop in Kings Cross "Airlie Beach" I told him "aw yeah thats a little slice of heaven right there, now get out of my shop" he said jokingly jealous. Whenever we told any aussies we were going to Airlie Beach on the Whitsunday coast they immediately gave us the thumbs up, as in "Good choice". We got here last monday from Sydney via Brisbane. It took a couple of hours and weirdly we are an hour behind Sydney despite being further to the right of it. I still can't work this out. Anyway, we've been staying in a place called Sunlit waters which is at the top of a very steep hill that Emma hasn't enjoyed climbing once or twice a day but most of this area is hilly and sweeps down to sea so blue they have to use the word blue in different languages to describe it.
Our apartment was very spacious which was very welcome having stayed in a cubby hole in Manly for 2 weeks. Also it had a pool which is good as although it's called Airlie Beach there is no actual beach but there is a big lagoon which is pretty. The major reason we came up here was to visit the Great Barrier Reef. There are loads of boat trips out there but we picked one called Reef World which is a pontoon built out at Hardy Reef. It's a 2 hour journey out there and the trip gets pretty choppy once you get out to the coral sea past the islands and there were a lot of people being sick on the way out and back. Once out there we had to put on stinger suits in case we encountered any jelly fish while snorkelling. They are not very flattering but everyone had to wear them. Emma was away like hell into the water but I had to sort of edge myself after almost dying the last time I went snorkelling. No offence to Colum but I felt a lot safer out here as there were ropes and buoys surrounding the area we snorkelled and the pontoon was gonna move away either. The water was so shallow that the reef looked like a miles of sand along the horizon and when we were in the water it was literally within touching distance from the surface. The fish were swimming right up into your face and the reef was white in the sun. I saw lots of fish, the ones that stick out were Turkish Harlequin Wrasse which had the same colours as a rocket ice lolly and Five Striped Damsel Fish which had a flat body and and a tiny little puckered up mouth. The divers saw turtles and eels but i was delighted just to be able to go out at all. I am terrified of not being able to put my feet down so it was something of a victory for me. I could have but my feet down on the reef it was that shallow but you don't want to go destroying it with your big flipper feet. I think it's really durable otherwise it wouldn't have survived all these years. It's the largest living thing on earth, almost 3000 kms long. Incredible, I kept thinking to my self as I was looking at it "Great Barrier Reef! woo-hoo".
We went out another day as well around Border Island which is one of the Whitsundays and had a bit of snorkel round there as well. Not as shallow and very murky but you could still see fish and reef. I didn't feel as safe at this one but I had a go anyway and could swim to the shore if I wasn't confident which was quite often. Again Emma had no problems although she forgot to take her watch off before she got in but it didn't break it. I told her I didn't buy her crap! The last stop on this trip was Whitehaven Beach which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It is amazing white silica sand and crystal blue water but we didn't get much time there. Emma was back in the water there as well, making up for all the time she spent out of the water everywhere else. It started raining while we were there as well but because it's the tropics the rain is warm and it cools everything down as it is very hot here. There have been loads of torrential down pours but they don't last long.
Apart from that we've just been relaxing and trying to get a tan befitting of people who have been in Australia for a year. We've seen every season Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter as well as the Dry and Wet seasons they have here. We' ve witnessed the outback and the city life. We've visited every state on mainland Australia as we made an N shape across the country through Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland( Canberra is a territory of its own but is tecnically in New South Wales). Didn't get to go to Tasmania but got to see Tasmanian Devils, didn't get to do New Zealand but met a lot of Kiwis and did very little of the east coast but we've been told by people who have travelled around Australia all their lives "You can't do it all". We're delighted with what we've managed to pack into a year and maybe we'll get a chance to do some of what we missed out on another time. We've been through almost every emotion possible and haven't had one row (yeah right). It has been fantastic to be able to share this experience and it's something that we can always look back on. For all our complaining and slagging off, Australia is the most amazing place with the most diverse, friendly, generous, patriotic and funny people, a great climate and so much to see and do. The whole place is a little slice of heaven.
Thanks for reading. We look forward to seeing you all when we return. We leave tomorrow and 29 hours later we arrive in Dublin. Hopefully we bring some half decent weather back with us.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Hollywood and Hanley go to Manly
After a weekend of packing and wondering whether one of the seven entities involved in our apartment in Melbourne would return with the deposit we made it to the airport on time and reimbursed for our flight to Sydney. Unfortunately the airline was all over the place and gave our plane to some poor souls who were scheduled to go to Perth on the flight before ours but they couldn't board as the flight couldn't be serviced they announced over the pa. It may have been the Australia Cricket team took out their frustrations on the flight from Perth to Melbourne having lost the first test to South Africa. This may not mean a lot to anyone who doesn't follow cricket or is not Australian but over here its a national disaster. I got to watch a lot of it as Emma took charge of all the packing, well she is better at it than me and she had to make room in my case for some of her own stuff. Emma was a fair bit through the packing by saturday night when she took a well earned break to go to see Kylie Minogue in concert.
We were running late for this as we misread the start time as 8pm instead of 7pm. We got there for about 8.30pm but it hadn't even started. We had time to get a drink before we took our seats and everything. It was in the Rod Laver Arena again, same place as Stevie Wonder, though this time we were in much better cheap seats side on to the stage. If I had any doubt as to why Kylie is a gay icon I know why now. There was a wide range of ages there from young to old and a wide range of sexualities as well it must be said. One drag queen who was right up the front and was on the big screens as Kylie went through the crowd to see who had come in the best costume (won by someone dressed as her hot pants in gold lycra from head to toe) sat in front of us on the tram the whole way home. Five months ago I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face but this is Melbourne and anything goes. It was a very entertaining show that lasted 3 hours. She has come a long way from one of her first concerts that a wee girl from our street went to about 20 years ago when her and her da queued for hours to get tickets and Kylie played for 15 minutes.
So that was our last weekend in Melbourne. On the sunday we went down to Acland st. for dinner, avoiding Greasy Joes we went to the place we should have taken Ronnie and Eleanor, the Zenith Club. It was a lot more like a restaurant and an altogether more enjoyable dining experience. We stopped into a bar called The Local on Carlisle st. on the way home with the attention of having one drink but we ended up hanging about for a pub quiz that was good craic and amazed ourselves at how much we had learned about Australia in the last year.
So the airport the next morning. Donal very kindly ran us there and we thanked him for his generosity by leaving him with a bag of food that we took from our cupboard. It was just rice and pasta that we hadn't opened, paprika, pepper etc and some saffron from my attempts at making paella. We had accumulated an awful amount of stuff since we came to Australia last January and had to to several runs to the charity shop with clothes and shoes that we weren't able to bring with us or no longer wanted. when we got to check in my case weighed 37 kilos so we had to promptly get rid of a 5 kilos. Most of what we discarded, unfortunately, was leaflets, brochures and mementos we had gathered on the road trip.
So we made the weight and after our plane was given to the people going to Perth we had to get to another gate and we were informed a smaller plane was waiting for us and 30 passengers wouldn't be able to get this flight because of the downsizing. We were on it so we didn't care and off we went to Sydney. The flight was alright, they announced we were being served lunch and then retracted that statement and said we were getting afternoon which was a biscuit. We landed at Sydney Airport, got or bags and were on a train to circular quay all within 30 minutes which was better than any airport I can remember. We got to Circular Quay which I didn't know sits snugly between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Our first view of Sydney when we got off the train to get the ferry to Manly was this iconic sight. Then it just got better as the ferry goes out beside the Harbour Bridge and turns right past the Opera House then we chugged out to sea with this incredible view in our wake. Every time we go into the city this is the way we have to go ( I think there is a bus as well but who wants a bus when you can see Sydney harbour in all its majesty).
When we got to manly we first of all mistook the harbour for the beach and then when we got our hotel room we discovered as we were warned the scale of a budget room is roughly the size of a bed. Emma reminded me we'd lived in a van for 2 and a half months so this should be no bother and to be honest it's been fine although I thought we would have had foxsports but we don't so i'm still without football. Also we discovered that beach was on the opposite side from the harbour and what a beach! It has everything, soft sand, big waves, warm blue sea and beautiful women and it's a 100 metres from the hotel. We've been down every day trying to get the sort of colour would make you believe we've been in Australia for a year.
On Christmas Eve we got the ferry back into Circular Quay. The harbour emerges after a right turn round North Headland. It really is magnificent and something you'd think you'd never get sick of looking at. This day were going to get even closer to the bridge as we were going to climb it. First we went round to the Opera House for a closer look. My first thoughts were that it's not as white as it looks on telly, it's more of a creamy colour. Emma didn't think it looked as big as she thought. The bridge climb was brilliant, it took about 3 hours what with getting on all the gear (jump suit, harness, windsheeter, fleece, hat, handkerchief, radio, headset) the training that entailed climbing up a ladder walking across a walkway and climbing down a ladder and then the walk out to the bridge arches to begin the climb. You go with a group of people (usually 8) they put you with, you have introduce yourself to everyone and all that but eventually the climb began. The toughest part is the beginning and the end when you have to scaled 3 or 4 vertical ladders up a pillar through the traffic and train lines til you reach the arches after that it's a pretty leisurely stroll up a steady incline with unbelievable view of the harbour and city. We walked up to the very top and then crossed over the middle and walked back down again.
Christmas day was spent on the beach amongst thousands of people. Some had built snow men in the sand. We had crackers and dips for Christmas lunch and then went to a Thai place for dinner. Pretty different from Christmas at home. It was a complete non-event here. There was no stress about presents, no last minute shopping, people just seem to take it in their stride here.
Another unconventional event was Maura Magee's wedding. It was in a surf club in North Curl Curl not far from Manly. The surf club over looks a beach, naturally so the back drop to the ceremony was spectacular. It was a great wedding as the nuptials lasted no more than 10 minutes and next thing two of the groom Iain's brothers were in the ocean boogie boarding. I would have joined them but I didn't bring my shorts. The wedding dinner was a big barbie with 3 roasts and a load of salad and more drink than could be consumed then we all ceili danced until we were exhausted. Great craic. Really brilliant wedding.
Maura and Iain have a beautiful apartment overlooking part of the harbour and at the bottom of their street is the most amazing view of the Harbour bridge and Opera house. It was absolutely perfect for New Years Eve. Emma did take some photos that look great on the viewfinder on the camera but not so good on the computer for some reason. It's a huge event new years over here and it was one of the reasons we wanted to be here. People are out all day trying to secure good spots in all the different points that surround the harbour area. Luckily we didn't have to go out until 4 or 5 because the location of Maura's is so good. The fireworks were spectacular and it is a fantastic event. Still had the usual nightmare getting home. We were on a train packed with people. We were sardines but worse was to come when it came to a halt and had to crawl into the next station because someone had vandalised the signal. A short trip took the guts of an hour. We got out at the next station and walked to Circular Quay to get the ferry back to Manly.
Sydney is an amazing place. I know a lot of people who have been here and heard a lot of stories about the place but it didn't really prepare me for the geography of the place. I had no idea that you could get ferries all over the place or how spread out it all was. We went up to Bondi yesterday, it was cloudy so wasn't great and then we stopped off in Kings Cross on the way back which is full of strip joints. We went over to Darling Harbour one night to this ribs and steak place called Hurricanes. We had to wait an hour to get a table with about 100 other people but it was worth it. North Sydney were Maura lives is, like a lot of inner city Sydney it seems, on steep hills. Apart from that we've just spent most of our time lying on the beach in Manly. The weather has been brilliant apart from 3 or 4 days. Sydney is a lot different from Melbourne. You can tell they get a lot of sun here just by the way people dress and how tanned they all are. It's also a lot more Mediterranean looking I think. Everything points to the harbour, the jewel of the city but i'm sure there is a lot more to it than that. Also maybe because we are on holiday and not living here there are a lot more nationalities here and I haven't heard that many Aussie accents. Anyway it's a great place, full of diversity.
We leave tomorrow and head for Airlie Beach for a week before home.
We were running late for this as we misread the start time as 8pm instead of 7pm. We got there for about 8.30pm but it hadn't even started. We had time to get a drink before we took our seats and everything. It was in the Rod Laver Arena again, same place as Stevie Wonder, though this time we were in much better cheap seats side on to the stage. If I had any doubt as to why Kylie is a gay icon I know why now. There was a wide range of ages there from young to old and a wide range of sexualities as well it must be said. One drag queen who was right up the front and was on the big screens as Kylie went through the crowd to see who had come in the best costume (won by someone dressed as her hot pants in gold lycra from head to toe) sat in front of us on the tram the whole way home. Five months ago I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face but this is Melbourne and anything goes. It was a very entertaining show that lasted 3 hours. She has come a long way from one of her first concerts that a wee girl from our street went to about 20 years ago when her and her da queued for hours to get tickets and Kylie played for 15 minutes.
So that was our last weekend in Melbourne. On the sunday we went down to Acland st. for dinner, avoiding Greasy Joes we went to the place we should have taken Ronnie and Eleanor, the Zenith Club. It was a lot more like a restaurant and an altogether more enjoyable dining experience. We stopped into a bar called The Local on Carlisle st. on the way home with the attention of having one drink but we ended up hanging about for a pub quiz that was good craic and amazed ourselves at how much we had learned about Australia in the last year.
So the airport the next morning. Donal very kindly ran us there and we thanked him for his generosity by leaving him with a bag of food that we took from our cupboard. It was just rice and pasta that we hadn't opened, paprika, pepper etc and some saffron from my attempts at making paella. We had accumulated an awful amount of stuff since we came to Australia last January and had to to several runs to the charity shop with clothes and shoes that we weren't able to bring with us or no longer wanted. when we got to check in my case weighed 37 kilos so we had to promptly get rid of a 5 kilos. Most of what we discarded, unfortunately, was leaflets, brochures and mementos we had gathered on the road trip.
So we made the weight and after our plane was given to the people going to Perth we had to get to another gate and we were informed a smaller plane was waiting for us and 30 passengers wouldn't be able to get this flight because of the downsizing. We were on it so we didn't care and off we went to Sydney. The flight was alright, they announced we were being served lunch and then retracted that statement and said we were getting afternoon which was a biscuit. We landed at Sydney Airport, got or bags and were on a train to circular quay all within 30 minutes which was better than any airport I can remember. We got to Circular Quay which I didn't know sits snugly between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Our first view of Sydney when we got off the train to get the ferry to Manly was this iconic sight. Then it just got better as the ferry goes out beside the Harbour Bridge and turns right past the Opera House then we chugged out to sea with this incredible view in our wake. Every time we go into the city this is the way we have to go ( I think there is a bus as well but who wants a bus when you can see Sydney harbour in all its majesty).
When we got to manly we first of all mistook the harbour for the beach and then when we got our hotel room we discovered as we were warned the scale of a budget room is roughly the size of a bed. Emma reminded me we'd lived in a van for 2 and a half months so this should be no bother and to be honest it's been fine although I thought we would have had foxsports but we don't so i'm still without football. Also we discovered that beach was on the opposite side from the harbour and what a beach! It has everything, soft sand, big waves, warm blue sea and beautiful women and it's a 100 metres from the hotel. We've been down every day trying to get the sort of colour would make you believe we've been in Australia for a year.
On Christmas Eve we got the ferry back into Circular Quay. The harbour emerges after a right turn round North Headland. It really is magnificent and something you'd think you'd never get sick of looking at. This day were going to get even closer to the bridge as we were going to climb it. First we went round to the Opera House for a closer look. My first thoughts were that it's not as white as it looks on telly, it's more of a creamy colour. Emma didn't think it looked as big as she thought. The bridge climb was brilliant, it took about 3 hours what with getting on all the gear (jump suit, harness, windsheeter, fleece, hat, handkerchief, radio, headset) the training that entailed climbing up a ladder walking across a walkway and climbing down a ladder and then the walk out to the bridge arches to begin the climb. You go with a group of people (usually 8) they put you with, you have introduce yourself to everyone and all that but eventually the climb began. The toughest part is the beginning and the end when you have to scaled 3 or 4 vertical ladders up a pillar through the traffic and train lines til you reach the arches after that it's a pretty leisurely stroll up a steady incline with unbelievable view of the harbour and city. We walked up to the very top and then crossed over the middle and walked back down again.
Christmas day was spent on the beach amongst thousands of people. Some had built snow men in the sand. We had crackers and dips for Christmas lunch and then went to a Thai place for dinner. Pretty different from Christmas at home. It was a complete non-event here. There was no stress about presents, no last minute shopping, people just seem to take it in their stride here.
Another unconventional event was Maura Magee's wedding. It was in a surf club in North Curl Curl not far from Manly. The surf club over looks a beach, naturally so the back drop to the ceremony was spectacular. It was a great wedding as the nuptials lasted no more than 10 minutes and next thing two of the groom Iain's brothers were in the ocean boogie boarding. I would have joined them but I didn't bring my shorts. The wedding dinner was a big barbie with 3 roasts and a load of salad and more drink than could be consumed then we all ceili danced until we were exhausted. Great craic. Really brilliant wedding.
Maura and Iain have a beautiful apartment overlooking part of the harbour and at the bottom of their street is the most amazing view of the Harbour bridge and Opera house. It was absolutely perfect for New Years Eve. Emma did take some photos that look great on the viewfinder on the camera but not so good on the computer for some reason. It's a huge event new years over here and it was one of the reasons we wanted to be here. People are out all day trying to secure good spots in all the different points that surround the harbour area. Luckily we didn't have to go out until 4 or 5 because the location of Maura's is so good. The fireworks were spectacular and it is a fantastic event. Still had the usual nightmare getting home. We were on a train packed with people. We were sardines but worse was to come when it came to a halt and had to crawl into the next station because someone had vandalised the signal. A short trip took the guts of an hour. We got out at the next station and walked to Circular Quay to get the ferry back to Manly.
Sydney is an amazing place. I know a lot of people who have been here and heard a lot of stories about the place but it didn't really prepare me for the geography of the place. I had no idea that you could get ferries all over the place or how spread out it all was. We went up to Bondi yesterday, it was cloudy so wasn't great and then we stopped off in Kings Cross on the way back which is full of strip joints. We went over to Darling Harbour one night to this ribs and steak place called Hurricanes. We had to wait an hour to get a table with about 100 other people but it was worth it. North Sydney were Maura lives is, like a lot of inner city Sydney it seems, on steep hills. Apart from that we've just spent most of our time lying on the beach in Manly. The weather has been brilliant apart from 3 or 4 days. Sydney is a lot different from Melbourne. You can tell they get a lot of sun here just by the way people dress and how tanned they all are. It's also a lot more Mediterranean looking I think. Everything points to the harbour, the jewel of the city but i'm sure there is a lot more to it than that. Also maybe because we are on holiday and not living here there are a lot more nationalities here and I haven't heard that many Aussie accents. Anyway it's a great place, full of diversity.
We leave tomorrow and head for Airlie Beach for a week before home.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Oh Victoria
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.
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.
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.
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