Thinkabouting.......

Hey all, again Its left to marty to write an update on the blog. Steve will probably put this down to the lack of internet wherever he goes but im putting it down to the fact that hes a lazy bugger.

It was Sineads birthday last week so big birthday shout out to her Steve, sinead, emily and niall arrived up in brisbane last monday, it was also the day of sineads birthday. So we decided to have a bbq in the park. The park is down near the rive and is quite picturesque looking over the lit up city with the skyscrapers etc. So we all tucked into hot dogs, burgers and salad and have to say had a great wee nite. Also had several beers, the weather is here a lot better than it was down in sydney. Prob about 20-25 during the day and about 12-15 at nite, although i think because i've more accostomed to the warmer weather i def think its really cold at nite, god only knows how i'm gonna survive when i get back the warmth of good old belfast.

My work is going well, good experience and i'm on flexi time too which means i rack up the hours at the start of the week and can have a wee half day on fridays meaning a long weekend. AJ left the country last week and was sad to see him go, been really good to see someone from home and myself and steve hope that he had a good time. Have started thinking about going home as well in the last week or two, not that i haven't been thinking about it throughout the whole journey. It has only really hit me that i'm leaving oz in about 5 weeks. Suppose i thought it wouldn't come so quickly, the year has flew in. Looking forward to seeing everyone again but on the other hand wish i was going away again, think once you catch the travelling bug it stays with you. Now i just have to plan my next adventure!

Steve went to the adventure/theme park last week called dreamworld, i gather he had a good time although it seems he didn't get his moneys worth as he didn't go on all the rides, instead he opted for the much more thrill seeking attraction of getting his pic taken with a koala. It seems that you can hold a koala up here in queensland, not like down in politically correct new south wales where to touch one is illegal, rather up here anything goes and that includes killing kangaroo's as their a pest. Don't know what Steve Irwin would have to say about that, but i intend to ask him as we're hopefully heading up there in the next few weeks to go see come croc's, roo's , wombats and whatever else is australian. Gonna go here, cos its 2130 and i'm out on the balcony and its beginning to get quite cold.

Take care and speak soon Marty

Hi everyone from Sunny Brisbane. Well, while Steve has been sunning himself down the coast and living the life up meeting all sorts of monkeys i've arrived in brisbane.

Arrived on Monday nite, quite a nice little city. Everything is within walking distance and the pace seems a little more relaxed that the metropolis of sydney.

As my financial situation isn't quite up to Steve's i've been forced to look for work straight away and as the luck of the god would have it some work came my way on Wednesday Evening. Applied for a job at approx 14.34, 2 minutes later i had a phonecall from an agency asking could i come in for a chat to register with them and by 17.10 that day i was starting a job the next day.

Working for a mine company who are quite big in queensland on big litigation case, so quite excited to be part of that
So everything seems to be working out ok, fingers crossed and the job should be there right up until i leave brisbane in mid sept so couldn't ask for anything better. As a wise man (Mr Cathal O'Neill) once said " Good Things Happen to Good People!"

Heading to the Lions game tomorro nite so that should be good craic, they're playing the hawthorns.

Anyway for now, hope everyone is enjoying the hot weather back home

BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE MR BADGER, HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT NITE

HI everyone. Myself sinead emily and niall are travelling up the coast of Australia after a gruelling 5 months slogging away in sydney!
We arrived in Coffs harbour after about an 8 hour bus ride from sydney. all went smoothly. we had punch night last night which involved drinking copious amounts of punch and playin drinking games. all good craic. went out after that and got a lil drunk on jack and Jaegger-Bombs. mmmm
Happens that the aussie rugby team trains in this area. so in the bar we were at last night Lote Tugiri , George Gregan and George Smith were gettin bit drunk. was pretty cool. NIall got a good photo with George Gregan , i got pic with Lote but he was actin like a monkey. anyway all good

just after a all u can eat BBQ so i ate all i could . gona go watch lost now and then 24. ahh the joys of travelling.

Heading up to brisbane at some point in the next week to see marty. Sineads Birthday comin up on monday too. WHat am i gona do for her?!?!?

anyway hope you are all good , i will talk to y'all soon

take care Steve

Heres a pic update from Saturday nite when we met up with AJ, Neesey Paddy, Deborah and Ann-Marie. Very drunken night had by all!

After a long wait we finally get our hands on some buckfast! It all went downhill from here

The Sydney Opera house:

Was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon
Was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973
Presented, as its first performance, The Australian Opera's production of War and Peace by Prokofiev
Cost $AU 102,000,000 to build
Conducts 3000 events each year
Provides guided tours to 200,000 people each year
Has an annual audience of 2 million for its performances
Includes 1000 rooms
Is 185 metres long and 120 metres wide
Has 2194 pre-cast concrete sections as its roof
Has roof sections weighing up to 15 tons
Has roof sections held together by 350 kms of tensioned steel cable
Has over 1 million tiles on the roof Uses 6225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable

This lovely blog has been compiled with the lovely assistance of AJ

The Sydney Opera house:

Was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon
Was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973
Presented, as its first performance, The Australian Opera's production of War and Peace by Prokofiev
Cost $AU 102,000,000 to build
Conducts 3000 events each year
Provides guided tours to 200,000 people each year
Has an annual audience of 2 million for its performances
Includes 1000 rooms
Is 185 metres long and 120 metres wide
Has 2194 pre-cast concrete sections as its roof
Has roof sections weighing up to 15 tons
Has roof sections held together by 350 kms of tensioned steel cable
Has over 1 million tiles on the roof Uses 6225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable

This lovely blog has been compiled with the lovely assistance of AJ

Yes Jorn Utzon has never been back to Sydney to see the Opera House Completed, in 2003 however relations were again established and since then he has set in place guidelines for any further restoration to the Opera house. Furthermore he has also designed a meeting room in the Opera House called the Utzon Room, his daughter(who married an Australian) designed a tapestry which hangs in the Utzon room and his son is currently working as an resident architect, he still however hasn't returned to Sydney. Hope that keeps u going CJ

The Sydney Opera house:

Was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon
Was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973
Presented, as its first performance, The Australian Opera's production of War and Peace by Prokofiev
Cost $AU 102,000,000 to build
Conducts 3000 events each year
Provides guided tours to 200,000 people each year
Has an annual audience of 2 million for its performances
Includes 1000 rooms
Is 185 metres long and 120 metres wide
Has 2194 pre-cast concrete sections as its roof
Has roof sections weighing up to 15 tons
Has roof sections held together by 350 kms of tensioned steel cable
Has over 1 million tiles on the roof Uses 6225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable

This lovely blog has been compiled with the lovely assistance of AJ
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Well as usual steve has been to lazy to get off his ass and write a blog so its been left to myself to try and fill the void between the last entry and the next update when hopefully there should be something more substanial alongside some pictures.

Well we both finished work last week and so have been trying to do as little as possible in the way of spending money, this has revolved around going for walks down to bondi, sleeping, watching tv, eating and just jumping on the bus and heading into the city and dandering about to waste a day!
Its also involved me going to the library and getting some books out to read, polished off a biography of mussolini inside a week and moved onto dostvoskey's demons, suffice to say that i didn't get past the first 10 pages without screaming and my head hurting. So gave up on that and will prob never return to him again as i've also tried to finish off crime and punishment but god just doesn't seem to want me to finish any off his books! ah well who wants to be smart and all literary anyway.
So AJ arrived yesterday morning, we got up at 5.30am and made our way to the airport, arrived about 6.45am and waited at the train gates for about an hour(otherwise we would have to pay 20 dollars to go through the gate) Needless to say security gave us some funny looks weighing us up and down as to whether we were a potential security threat, probably added to this was the fact that steve had been hanging about like this twice before waiting on jenny and linda. Aj Arrived around 8am or so (held up and searched by customs because of his straw hat)and we made our way into the city and showed him his hotel, we then went for some breakfast in scruffy murphys, an irish bar (god i'm gettin sick of them) and then went for a coffee along circular. Quite a good morning all in all.

Last weekend we also met up with our cousins noeleen and paula and their families a for great meal( esp the wheaten bread mmmm) Must have been about 3000 kids running about the place and paula showed us her new baby that she'd had the week before, his name was Finn but to me he just looked like any other baby, a baby is a baby right! So that was great to see them again before we head off.

Think we're going to have a few beers this weekend (alongside some buckfast! Yey) and then head to brisbane on monday afternoon. Steve, sinead, emily and niall head up the coast on Tuesday and then we're meet up again in brisbane for Sineads birthday the following week. All in all a busy week ahead, esp as we have to clean up the house before leaving it so if anyone fancies the following:
2 boogie boards
an iron
ironing board
a fishing seat
a huge sharp tv
video player
artistic screen

drop me a line enclosing the post and packaging and it could be winging its way to you straight from down under! We'll even throw in a free kangaroo

Anyway bye for now, hope everyone is keeping well.
COngrats to Elaine on her graduation last week, please tell badge to stop socialising with people in the front bar! Otherwise we shall be forced to terminate him

Ciao for now
Marty

P.s To Dear wes,
I'm sorry we couldn't post u any buckfast while miss aliza has been away, however i promise that as soon as i return home i will post you over a lovely bottle, then when you come over to ireland we can go on a buckfast bender!