Location: Melbourne, Australia
So its been about 2 and a half months since ive returned home to Australia form my 3 and a half years in the UK.
After a few weeks at home with mum and dad and the family, i decided to get down to Melbourne after organising a few interviews.
Was booked into a hostel for a few days and then going to stay with my mate Jason
After being here for a day and a half, and 4 interviews, i had 4 job offers and some serious decisions to make!
Finally decide on a job with a company called Bovis Lend Lease, a world wide construction company. My position is onsite office manager for a new job they have just signed the contract for, which is to build the new royal childrens hospital, a 1.2 billion dollar job.
So been here for almost 2 months and really love it. The guys are great to work with and cant wait to get on site in about April i think.
Have moved into a house in Albert Park, which is 4 blocks from the beach and 15 minutes on the tram into the city which is where im working at the moment. Living with 3 randoms from the iternet, going ok so far!
Have been to the Caufield cup, Melbourne Cup and last weekend scored some corporate tickets for the Bovis tent at the final spring carnival day stokes day! crazy times.
And now im in detox!
Location: Dubl, Ireland
Well had to head to the fracture clinic this morning at Dublins St Vincents Hospital. Last week at our first game of TAG Rugby i managed to break my ring finger on my right hand, got it tangled in a guys shorts of all things. At the time i thought i had just dislocated it (i know as if that wouldnt have been bad enough), so being as tought as i am, quickly pulled it back inot place (more out of shock i think) and kept playing, even scored another try!
So that was last Tuesday, by Thursday i thought i should go to the hospital as my finger was quite swollen and blue and starting to tingle, suprisingly not too sore though.
After a wait of 6 hours in the A & E (apparently thats good for Dublin) i got an X-Ray and it was confirmed it was broken, congrats to me my first broken bone ever at the age of 28!
Radiographer showed me the xray, diagional break right across the bone, and what i thought was me pulling my dislocation back in place was me actually pulling the broken bone back inline.
So she said to me it was possible i would need it wired, but they still only lightly strapped it and sent me away for a week!
But thankfully today have been told by a young Aussie doctor that there is minimal chance of wires, and to come back next week to check it out, but should be ok.
Yippee for that!
Location: Northern Ireland, Ireland
Today we got up and had a hearty breaky of bacon and eggs to start us off, and headed North out of Belfast towards a town called Carrickfergus. Its a little town on the coast and had a small castle there so stoped and took some pictures.
Then continued on up towards Larne, we took the 'scenic route' which went out onto a seperate kind of arm off the main land, thought we could cross a bridge to Larne, but turns out we had to go back the way we came, but that was fine scenery was lovely and lush.
So then somewhere above Larne we pulled in to a coastal village, we were right on the ocean fron the whole drive, very pretty. There was atulip festival at the place we stopped so we went in and had tea and scones! very lovely, and took some pictures of course!
Then onwards and upwards to Cushendall and then to Bushmills, where the Rope Bridge is. Have pictures of it. We lined up waiting to cross the bridge which takes you across to a tiny little island. Just before we crossed Stacey chickened out, so i had to brave it alone. So with extremly jelly legs i crossed it with the wind tunneling through. Was very glad to reach the other side.
On the way back across, i was half way when the people in front decided they would stop to take photos! Not happy jan! I just kept looking straight ahead and prayed! But survived to tell the story, although took a while for the legs to get back to normal!
Next stop was the Giants Causeway. It was a bit of a hike down to it from the car park, so we jumped on the shuttle bus, we got there and had a look around, taking pictures, and then the heaviest down pour of rain arrived! and of course no cover, but to stand up against the stones, needless to say we got wet!
But all in the name of exploring!
Then we headed on further around through Coleraine and spent the night in a hotel in Letterkenny, we were exhausted yet again and it was 8 by the time we checked in so had a meal and a few drinks then off to bed!
Location: Belfast, Ireland
Well after a few nights on the town, Saturday morning was a struggle to get out of bed and head for the airport by 8.30, but i made in time.
So collected Stacey from Dublin airport then we got the hire car and headed off to Belfast.
To our suprise it was only 150kms away, so made it there by about 11, and found the hostel, had to kill some time before check in so we headed for the main street to look around and get some lunch.
Then back at the hostel we booked in and headed off on a black cab tour of Belfast, they cover all the Shankill area and tell you about the history of events. Very interesting.
Afetr that finished we headed back to the hostel for a cat nap, then out for dinner. We befriended a young canadian girl who came on the tour with us and so she came out to dinner with us as well.
After dinner we were pretty exhausted, and the cab driver had warned us about a few pubs so we werent really sure which ones to go to so we played it safe and got a good nights sleep for the travelling ahead.
Location: Cardiff, UK
Today we headed off to Cardiff to watch the wallabies play wales. Ed and i hired a car, and our mate Hamish came with us as well. Between the three of us it was cheaper to hire a car than to get the train, and a bit quicker (although wasnt that much cheaper after the £50 parking fine we got on the friday night!).
So we left about 9 and got there about 11.30 with one stop along the way. the place was crawling with rugby fans. Eds cousin Sam goes to uni in Cardiff and said we could stay with her over night, which was great, one less expense.
So we parked the car in the train station car park ( only place that had spaces left) then headed to the cardiff walkabout for a few drinks to wait for the others to arrive (they had taken the train option). It was sooo packed and i was glad to get out of there. It was such a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in sight.
So it was about 1.30 by the time we met up with the others for a quick hello then because our tickets were purchased at a different time, we were in different spots, so we headed off to find our seats.
We were right up the top behind the posts and it was a great view.(see pics). The game was awsome although Australia made a lot of mistakes which saw the game end in a draw 29 all. Very disappointing, but a great day none the less.
Then it was off to find cousin Sams house and drop the car off. Due to bad directions this took us a while, but got there in the end, dropped our stuff and Sam was kind enough to drop us back down town where our friends were.
The evening was filled with great company, very cheap drinks and plenty of dancing, topped off with a pit stop to maccas and then home!
So we got up about 10 the next day, got ready and had some breakfast and then met the others back in the centre of town. Headed home about 1 and made it by about 3.30.
Was a great weekend and good to get out and about meet new peopel and see new places, will definatley like to head back to cardiff for another night out!
Location: London, UK
Tonight Ed and i went to the sissor sisters concert at the Brixton academy. We went with about 8 of our mates. As it was halloween they requested that the audience dress accordingly, you didnt have to but hey, you wouldnt want to be left out.
We didnt go to too much trouble, Ed and i doned matching sequened devil horns, tail and pitch fork, and we dressed in all black so it looked pretty cool.
The effort that some people went to was amazing. There were murder victims walking about, freddy crugers, witches, goblins you name it they were there, there was even a scooby doo!
It was Ed's first ever concert and he really enjoyed it, except when he got hit on by a group of gay guys!! he found that a bit uncomfortable, but i told him he should take it as a complement!
Location: Munich, Germany
Well day three, and we were determined to get into a beer hall today! When we got there ready to line up, much to our suprise the doors were open and there were no line ups, even though they were quite full. The weekend was obviously over for most of the locals, having to head back to work on monday, so was mainly tourists there.
So we got in and found ourselves a position in the 'Pig Pen', and very appropriatley named i must say!
So a day filled with many a stein, pork knuckle and about 5 cooked chooks in total, followed by the boys trying to rip each others nderwaer off and strategiaclly through to land on a huge statue of a pig that hung from the roof! ( hence the name pig pen)
An official applaude to sarah's parents who endured a whole afternoon with us in the pig pen, encountering sights such as their future son inlaw standing with no pants on, removed himself, with the fear that they would be painfully ripped off by one of the boys. Im sure sarah was most proud.
I seem to remember vaguley meeting a lovely american boy, and we spent the rest of the evening running about the side shows, scaring myself in the ghost trains and rides that were way to high.
Location: Munich, Germany
Well day two and we were raring to go. Got up about 9 got ready and headed down for some breaky which consisted of a cheese and spam roll, yum yum. But it lined the tummy which was the main thing.
So we headed down to the festival, we were meeting Dave and Sarah about 11, we thought that would be early enough, considering the place was meant to open at 11. We got there and wondered around, the beer halls were packed and had huge lines outside them, it was crazy, these people had obviously been there a lot earlier than us, and were well on thier way. The noise that was coming from them was amazing, we had to get ourselves in there.
didnt happen, we lined up for about half hour, by which time we were all pretty thirsty, and a table came up outside near the line, so we grabbed it and ordered a beer. We again mingled with the locals, they filled us with plenty of local knowledge, which was all very interesting.
The other boys arrived about 4pm, and we all carried on into the night, finishing up about 12am.
Location: Munich, Germany
So today Verity and i set off for the land of beer, Munich! for 5 days at beer fest.
Jumped on a plane about 12.30, got stuck in the middle of a huge bucks party group, that had obviously been drinking before they got on and were quite clearly not stopping for anyone. Very loud but we got a few laughs out of them. There was this one guy, and maybe you had to be there, but imagine the annoying brother in law that you have to invite along, you dont want to but hes your fiances brother and your obliged. Add a little bit of simplicity and you have this guy, who was directly across from us, he kept ordering two beers at a time, so he could then shout out 'hey guys im double parked, im double parked', 'oh no what am i to do!! gee i dont know, drink one!
Very funny to us anyway. So we arrived in Munich, got ourselves on the train and into the centre of town, verity had the directions to the hostel, so i was leaving her to it, we came out of the tube, and ended up walking about 4 blocks in the wrong direction (with our packs on mind you), turns out we were no more then 100 meters from the place when we stepped outside the tube!!
Not to worry, back on our way towards the hostel, and who should we bump into but mate of mine i met through shane, guy i used to live with, and his girlfriend, such a small world. Had a chat to them for a bit and organised to meet up later that nite.
We checked into the hostel, after the most painful bookings conversation ever!!!The guy clearly didnt have a brain, and we were not in the mood for it, well i wasnt anyway. But non the less we booked in an dropped our packs, and set off to explore.
We headed for the festival and when we found it discovered it was one big amusement park, at this satge we hadnt found the beer tents of course. Im sure verity wanted to go on the rides but i quite calmly explaned that i didnt do heights, or spinning upside down. Although in the days to come she did eventually talk me into getting on a ride, i think i stopped breathing.
So we evntually met up with the others and found a place to rest the feet, ordered a few steins and mingled with the locals. I particularly remember one guy, verity seemed to think he looked like one of the kids from the goonies, and we tried to translate this to him. His friend actually spoke a bit of English and evntually translated it to him. He thought it was funny and asked for my number, so naturally i gave im the first 10 numbers that came to mind!
The evening ended with farewells to Dave and Sarah, and verity and i having a go on the swinging chair ride, i just handled it, then we past a ride that was playing the Dirty Dancing sound track, so naturally we did a little Patrick and jen moment, well about 15 minutes actually, we drew great crowd!
