Sponorship

Well, three months has passed since I started working and legally time is up with Ericsson so they’ve offered to sponsor for another three months. Which is great news but it does eat into our travelling time home, which is really what this whole trip is about. We’re aiming to be back home by the end of June ‘05 in plenty of time for John and Trish’s wedding.

We’ve two months left of the apartment lease and once that’s up we’re moving to the beach and forsaking the city for some suburban beach living, to County Bondi no doubt. It’ll be an extra commute but the city skyscrapers are getting a bit claustrophobic at this stage and we’ll probably never get the chance to live beside a beach again. Plus we’ve to savour the whole Oirishness of Bondi that everyone gives out about. I’m off to by my GAA shirt now.

Now that I’m sponsored I can apply for all sorts of allowances so it should make up for staying on a bit longer than planned. Tax (30% + 9% pension) and how you get away with paying as little as possible seems to be the biggest talking point amongst travellers here. Everyone has their own take on what can be done. Offshore companies are the latest one but no doubt the Irish Revenue Commission will find out about them at some date in the future and recoup the money with interest so I’m doing it by the book. Sal is going to continue her career in salad tossing and stay on at the café. Her folks are here in two weeks, which is going to be great and my mum arrives a week later.

Australia Day

Yesterday was Australia Day and we'd the day off work, which was nice as it was a scorcher. So we wandered down to the harbour bridge a spent the day in a park over looking the harbour. As always there was plenty of free entertainment as we soaked up the rays. On the bay there was a fancy dress ferry race (best dressed won a prise), which seem to involve anything that floats, a tall ship race that was very slow, an aeronautical display and some guy's parachuting into water.

After all that we went for some food and drinks with friends down the Rocks and then on to Darling Harbour for yet another excellent free fireworks show, the Aussie just love their fireworks.

Symphony in the Park

You got to hand it to the Aussies they are great at putting on free events. The Symphony in the Park, in Sydney’s Domain is another example. It was basically a free classical concert, with lots of sound tracks like ET, 2001 A Space Odyssey and Star Wars thrown in for those of us who haven’t a clue about classical music. It was great laugh and like the Moonlight Cinema the Aussies were out in force with their Mega Picnics. We saw people carving chickens and others had industrial sized bar-b-q’s. Needless to say we’d a few stubbies and we were happy out. Great night topped with some fireworks.

Moonlight Cinema

The Moonlight Cinema is an outdoor cinema in Sydney’s Centennial park and its such a good idea. Basically you rock up with your picnic at about seven and the film starts when the sun sets around nine. So you have all the Aussies who are totally prepared with four course picnics, champagne, pillows, duvets, bean bags and deck chairs and then there was us with measly towels and bar of chocolate. We went to see The Goonies, which I wasn’t looking forward to but it turned out to be such a laugh. Everyone there was in their late twenties so it was a real step back into childhood watching it again. Lots of crowd participation some much so a guy streaked. Not often you see that at the cinema. Really good night except for a bat shat on us but hey how lucky must that be!

Christmas Time

What are the odds of a cold overcast Christmas in Oz and a white Christmas at home. We braved the beach anyway just because it had to be done. The amount of nutters in the water was amazing but apparently it was warmer in the water than out of it. We braved the cold for a few hours,had a few beers and turkey sambo's and then went home put the feet up watched some movies with a couple of ports. A very different Christmas day I must say. The hole holiday season here less of a drink induced haze as it is back home so my liver must be loving it.

We went down to the Rocks on New Years Eve and then on to the harbor bridge for the fireworks which were a bit poor in my mind. We were right beside the bridge thinking it would be the focal point of them but it barely had more than a few minutes worth. I've seen better in Edinburgh. A lot of people were giving out about them. Good night otherwise. Finished it off in a Belgian bar.

After that we had two weeks off, We only went back to work on the 10th. We spent the rest of the time doing some well needed touristy stuff. Like the zoo, the beach and we spent a couple of days down the south coast which was nice. We borrowed Sal's bosses car and drove a couple of hundred km down the coast to Kiama and Jervis Bay. All in all a very chilled Christmas which was a welcome change.

things are going well on the Job front my contract has been extended by a month and Sal's cafe have hired a few more people so it's not as manic as it used to be.

Sal's folk's and my Mum are coming over in February/March and we're really looking forward to seeing them.

Sal's ?th Birthday

It was Sal's birthday at the weekend. I can't tell which one but it was a big one and put it this way the free bus pass isn't as far off as it used to be.

We celebrated it around the corner from the apartment in bar over looking Darling Harbour. We started off with a bottle of champagne but quickly we lost the posh pretence and it was on to scooners (the Aussie attempt at a drinking vessel - 3/4 Pint) and shots. The flavour of the night was a "Cock Sucking Cowboy" which is butterscotch brandy and baileys shot, ahh the thought of it now. Very entertaining night, between Liz's general madness and watching Clem (who's staying with us at the moment) and Pauline (Paddy's friend)chasing each other around the bar trying to soak each other with beer. All in all a great night with a trip to Maky D's at 5am to top it off.

Bellurgan, Sydney, NSW, 2000

While I was working in the Irish pub Padhraic Mulligan and Stephen McShane came up to the bar I was well shocked I'd no idea they were coming over here. Later that night they met up with a guy called Raymond Finnegan also from Bellurgan then Liz Carlon and her sister Catherine came in. So for a couple of hours there six people from Bellurgan in PJ's. Small world eh! And thats not even mentioning the stacks of heads from Dundalk we've bumped into.

Ho, Ho, Hot

Its just doesn't feel like Christmas down here. We went shopping recently and the shops are full of fabulous Christmas decorations, amazing animated window displays, carols playing in the background but it's just to wierd because it's in the 30's and we were walking around in shorts and flip flops. The Christmas cards have snow scenes on them too!

Gainfully employed at last

Well after about four weeks and five interviews later I've finally got the start!

I'm starting with Ericsson Australia tomorrow working on Hutchinson 3's 3G services. So I'm a happy bunny at the moment, well at least until I start. I don't think its going to be one of those job's that you sit around for the first month waiting to get you user name and password to login. Basically the project deadline is Christmas, six weeks away, which doesn't leave a lot of time to get my head around all I need to know. But hey, I'm looking forward to getting stuck in besides day time television is worse here than back home. I can now go to the pub at the weekend in the full knowledge I truly deserve being there. Plus it'll be good to be back on the correct side of it too.

Beachin'

We eventually got off our asses and went to the beach on Sunday (we got there about lunch time, everyone else was there from about 8am we reckon, there is no lying in on the weekend here).



Out to Coogee beach we went which is a fabulous beach complete with Aussie life guards with ridiculous hats on. It was pretty cloudy when we first arrived but then the sun came out and its safe to say Sal now knows how strong the sun is in the southern hemisphere. On the beach we got a nice call from a very drunken, but still coherent John and Trish (back in Ireland) who where just home from Nicoles 30th b'day party which we sorely missed.

I'm starting in P.J. O'Brien's our local Oirish pub tomorrow just to keep the money ticking over until I get sorted with a proper job which is taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. So "torty tree of the buggers" to you too mate!

Civ Eng Reunion

The Civ Eng reunion was a good laugh, reminiscing about the nonsense we got up to in Edinburgh. I've such a bad memory so it was good and bad to be reminded of a few things.

We all meet up out at the Coogee Bay Hotel which was the first time we saw one of the eastern suburb's famous beaches not that we saw it properly it was more a glimpse as we got off the bus and walked the two meters into the hotel.



Big Willie couldn't make it which was a pity. We started in CBH and after several rounds of jugs we sensibly went for some food in Ranwick (12euro a head - eating out in Sydney is ridiculously cheap) and on to a proper Aussie local (bookie beside the bar) to finish. Great night.

Some more photos here.

When it rains it pours

Well last week was postitively miserable here. It rained all week and when it rains here it tens to rain! Everyone we met keep joking that we'd brought the Irish weather with us. We weren't finding it funny, we were feeling pretty down, the job hunting wasn't going to well and we couldn't even go outside. We even sat in over the weekend to conserver our precious euro.

With a break in the weather on Monday we also had a break on the job front. Sal has started in a salad bar across the road from the apartment. It looks like a quiet little cafe from the outside but its turned out to be one of the busiest in Sydney. It's not her ideal job and its very hard work but she's just glad to get working.

I've a couple of job interviews tomorrow so fingers crossed I'll get sorted by the weekend. This weekend is a mini Heriot Watt Civ Eng reunion in the Coogee beach Hotel, Colin, Chris Cuthbert, Big Willy Dorethy, Kenneth Anderson and Me. It should be a laugh hopefully I'll have a new job to celebrate too.

Sunny Sydney

We arrived in Sydney from Fiji expecting some restbite from the heat only to arrive on the hottest October day in 150 years. It was 37C! Not the nicest weather to be running around trying to get stuff sorted. Thank God that was a one off and the heat has abated to the mid twenties.

We got ourselves a very swanky pad in the city centre. Fully furnished which right down to a selection of DVD's for the DVD player which isn't the norm here most pads come unfurnished but we're not complaining. Its got that show house look about it plus it has a gym and swimming pool. We're sharing with Derek a Corkonian we meet in Russell NZ.

All we need now are jobs to pay for it all. I should be able to find some contract work easily enough, well, so everyone keeps telling me. Sal has it a bit harder. She has to get approved before she can teach and that can take a bit of time. She's a bit apprehensive about what she'll end up doing till then and doesn't really want to be doing nothing!

So far so good, it been quite a soft landing a lot of it due to Colin and Claire help and connections.

Bounty Island - Fiji

After an over night on the mainland which was well needed,ordering from menus and hot showers become luxury's after a week on the islands, we arrived on Bounty Island. We stayed here for 5 days. Bounty in comparison to the earlier resorts was luxury. It had hot showers, dvds and the food was amazing.



You can walk around Bounty in 20 mins so its exactly what you expect from a Fijian Island. We walked, swam, snorkeled, eat well and generally chilled out for the next few days.

Kuata - Fiji

When we got to this island we found out sals bag had gone awhol.We did get it back the next day but it was a bit of a scare. To make things worse they had over booked and we ended up in the Dorm instead of a double room. This didn't really bother us but because I snore, esp after some beers, its a problem for everone else. So I ended up sleeping out on the beach in a hammock which was quite cool. Got to see a really nice sun rise. But as I was dropping off to sleep a english guy who obviously couldn't see in the dark tried to get into the hammock with me. He got a shock when I said "hello". He'd just fallen and seriously cut his leg but assured me he was fine as he had half a bottle of vodka in him. He hopped into the next hammock and we had a Waltons moment before we both started a blissful soring session.

He was gone in the morning and I didn't see him again but a week later, on another island, we bumped into an English couple who meet him since and his gash had got quite infected and he had told them about some irish guy he met on the beach that night who was kicked out of the dorm for snoring!!

Korovou - Fiji

Korovou was more of the same but a bit more civilised. The accommodation and food was getting better. Korovou had a huge beach side deck on which we ate our meals as the sun set over the cove. There was more Meka and Kava drinking and even a fire dancing show which was different.

The second day I went snorkeling with Manta Ray which was truly amazing. The Manta Ray are huge and if you are brave enough you can ride their backs. Did some reef snorkeling after the Ray which I hadn't done before and I'm now hooked on. You can swim for hours and still see fish you haven't seen before.



Four of us sat up till 5.30am drinking and playing cards with two of the locals. We played presidents and assholes which is a great game but needless to say I never made president even though everyone else did. It wasn't helped by the Fiji Bitter, Jim Beam and some home grown. I think the last hand took about an hour to play. At one stage I thought I was playing the game under water and expected to see Nemo swim between us. Memorable night.

I'm a shithead

After dinner each night the Fijians put on some music and would ask everyone up to dance and while this was really nice of them, all we wanted to do was chill so one way to avoid dancing was to play cards. Some of us were playing shithead and I mentioned doing a forfiet who ever is the shithead. I suggested that the looser ask a Fijian up to dance. As soon as I suggested it I knew I was going to loose. Its happened me before: Princess St, run, nearly naked. I ended up being the shithead and had to do my own forfiet. At this stage the dance area was totally empty. So in front of about 80 people I asked one of the Fijian girls for a dance. As soon as I asked her my heart sank as she was absolutly delighted to be asked to dance(the Fijians love to dance). I felt really quilty that it took a dare to get me to ask a Fijian to dance. As punishment the CD player stopped for what felt like and eternity just as we started danceing. There I was with the Fijian girl standing like a pleb in frount of the whole resort while they struggled to fix the CD player. They eventually fixed it and I got the dance out of the way but it felt like I was in one of those bad films where the jock does something for a dare then falls in love with the girl who in turn finds out about the dare and breaks it off and he spends the rest of the film trying to win her back. I don't think the Fijian girl found out but what a shit head.

Yasawa Islands - Sunrise - Fiji

The Yasawa islands are a group of Islands to the North West of Nadi. Basically the further north and away from the main island you go the more rustic things get. So unbeknownst to us we started on one of the most northern islands.

The resort was called Sunrise and it really was rustic. The accommodation was a very drafty bure(straw hut) which Sal just didn't enjoy staying in for fear of inscets. With spiders the size of my hands I felt her pain. The showers were cold and one set didn't even have heads so it was just a slow trickle from a pipe in the roof.



But this was all part of the charm of the place and it was great to know you weren't in some serille touristy resort. We were actually living with and like the Fijians.

The food was interesting but the portions were tiny. Put it this way no food was left on anyone's plates by the end of a meal. If you didn't like something someone else ate it. I ate a Danish girls whole lunch one day because she felt sick. Waste not want not and all that.

But apart from this, which wasn't really a problem because we all could do with loosing a bit of weight, the welcome we got here was amazing. We were literally welcomed into their family. The Sunrise people where the most friendly of all the islanders we meet. Dutchy was the main man, who could remember everyones name where they came from which was no mean feet.

Because Sunrise is so remote and we were all part of one big (starving) family we got to know some great people most of them just starting their Fiji experience too and what happened was we ended up traveling down the islands towards the mainland together which was great craic.We'd meet people from Sunrise on the ferry and on every other island we stayed on.

About 20mins from Sunrise is the Blue Lagoon beach where the film of the same name with Brooke Shields was shot. It has to be the nicest beach we saw. Just amazing white sandy beach fringed with palms and the deepest blue water.

Apart from Blue Lagoon there wasn't much else to see or do but the Fijian lads kept us entertained with coconut tree climbing, crab racing, fishing, Fiji lesson and of course Kava drinking.

Kava is what the Fijians like to drink and by all accounts drink it every night. Its made from a plant root and is added to water in a big tea bag and hand squeezed. Its looks like muddy water and tastes pretty bad. Its doesn't get you drunk more numbs the body but a have enough of it and you'll sleep like a baby.

We were lucky enough to join the Sunrise Kava drinking ceremony one night. Which was immense, this wasn't any show put on for tourists this was just what the do at the end of the day. While the Kava was dished out they just sang, practicing the Bula (Welcome) song and other Mecka (a dance) songs. It was really cool thing to experience. Sal and Claire kept wetting themselves because its kind of rude to say no when offered Kava but the guy giving them the bowl had his big dirty green nail in it.

Arrived in Fiji

We topped off a great six weeks in NZ with a fabulous dinner in the revolving resturaunt at the top of the Skytour in Auckland (Highest building in the southern hemisphere). I totally recomend doing it. The meal was really resanonable and included the entry fee to the tower. We got to see the sun set over the harbour and all the lights come on accross the city which was quite a sight. We traveled back accross the bay by ferry to get back to the camper.

We've just arrived in Fiji and first impression are great. Its cloudy and hot, we're hoping it'll be sunnier out from the mainland. We head to the islands in the morning.

Sal has just been attacked by a monster frog in the shower...happy days ahead.

Auckland

We've just spent the final couple of days in Auckland before heading for Fiji. It's great to be in a proper city again. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the match. Only one pub in NZ was showing it and it was going to be too expensive and awkward to get to it. Hard luck Mayo...we were praying for you! Going for a nice meal tonight and then up early for the flight to Fiji.

We're really looking forward to the sun at this stage but a bit apprehensive about what to expect from Fiji. Possibly no electricity, phone coverage or internet for the next two weeks. Think of the film Castaway and thats what we reckon its going to be like. Will Sal survive with out a mobile and hair straightner. If not, no doubt Alan gets the blame... ;)

Bye bye camper van, we will miss you.