Redoak beer tasting – August 08

A birthday gift from Kieran was to do a taste testing class. It was more of a dinner and drink beer class which was wonderful. It was at a microbrewery in clarrence st Sydney called redoak. http://www.redoak.com.au/. I went along with Brendon, it was such a cool little place and what we got was excellent. Really good food that went well with the beers (the whole point of the night) and then we finished off with more beers after all the food. We had 6 beers all up and a 4 course meal. Just superb I can recommend it and even for the price it is really good value. As mine was a gift I also got 6 assorted beers to take home. What a bonus!

Bledsoe Cup Wallabie Vs All Blacks – July 08

During my time back in Aus I have been living with Cavell. As a thank you for everything she has done for me. I took her along to the Wallabies vs the All Blacks at ANZ Stadium at Homebush.

I decided not to drive there nor catch a bus. Instead we were to travel there via Ferry. This was a great idea in theory it was to be awesome in practice not so much. The deal was that there were beers on the ferry and then a bus to the stadium then a bus back and a ferry back into town, pick up and drop off out side cargo bar in darling harbor.

We got in early to get some lunch/dinner, have a few beers and wait till the ferry left at 5 pm (kick off at 8). It was a really nice day, we hoped on the ferry and took our seats after grabbing a few beers first. Nice little cruise up the river looking at all the houses (all though it was night and you couldn’t see much). We made it to the drop off point. This is where the theory fell apart; we sat on the boat for ohhh about an hour waiting for our turn to disembark. Finally made it off the boat and then we had to wait for our bus, Made it on lucky, ohhh I was standing next to (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruentransfer/panel.htm Todd Sampson from the Gruen Transfer….ok it was a slight brush with fame.)

After we got off the bus we only had 10 mins till kick off to get to our seats. The seats were at the other side of where the bus dropped us off and almost at the very top level. We had to walk very quick to get there, I had to stop to use the gents …to many beers. Cavell kept on walking. I got out and realized I only had 5 mins to get there from where I was, I had to get there and so I started to run all the time looking for Cavell. I had to legg it up the corkscrew and only just got to our seats b4 the haka….. Cavell was not there. I sat in the seat and waited for Cavell, eventually she arrived after not being able to hear me yell to her over the roar of the crowd as the game kicked off.

The game was good we won a thrashing 32-18. It had good atmosphere too. Getting home was another saga in its self. Hoped back on the bus and off to another pier for a pick up from the boat. There were hundreds of people there all waiting for their boats. Finally security came just in time to let Cavell though but not me. Happily Cavell came back and we waited together for the next boat. After a long cold wet night we made it back to the city at midnight and then onto the last train back and finally home at 1:30.

Next time I go I will be taking the bus and leave the beers at home, it was an evening to remember.

Goldcoast (Boys Weekend) – July 08

This weekend marked a weekend I should be going to Rock Werchter with Kieran and the rest of the gang. Instead I was stuck in Aus. Being down about not going to a massive music festival in Belgium I thought lets go to the gold coast that is just as good! I drummed up some of the boys to go with me.

We landed on the Thursday night and had hired a car to get us around. We all packed into our tank a giant ford falcon way to much room for all of us but was gr8 to have that space and I do love arm rests while you drive. That night we met up with Craig’s mate Cheynne who was in the hotel room right next door was a crazy coincident.

The Friday had us going to Dreamworld. Had been ages since I went on rides there. As Jarrod hates rides but still came into the park anyway, we had someone to mind all out stuff very handy. Went on the Claw the newest ride since I had been there. From the ground it looked pretty weak, when you were on it, it was another story.
That night we got some beers, port and other drinks for a night in the hotel and just played cards till the wee hours of the night.

On Saturday it decided to rain for most of the day, we went out to the shops saw a movie. That night we went out to Jupiter’s casino to try our hand at some betting. Unfortunately no one won L. Afterwards we hit the clubs, it we really busy out more than Sydney on a Saturday night (it could just be that all the clubs were in such close proximity of each other). It was a good night out.

Sunday day saw us driving up to Brisbane; we had to hit the new shopping factory outlet to see if anything was on sale at the surf clothing shops. When we were done with our shopping fest. I dropped Greg off at his nans and then headed into Brissy to see an old house mate Ellie. It was a good time catching up over a beer although I did crash her nephews 1st birthday party oopppss. We had to cut our visit short so we could get back to the Gold coast on time for jarrod to pack his bags and then take him to the airport.

Although it was raining on Monday that didn’t stop us for going to movieworld. Ohhh man was it the best choice ever. Due to the rain the park was not that busy, the rides were still operating though. I won’t go on too much about the park just that the new Superman ride is AWESOME!!!! We went on it around 4 times it was sooooo good.
When the park was all done we headed back to pick our bags up from the hotel and off to the airport to drop the car off and catch our plan.

The weekend wasn’t as warm as I would have like nor did it have the best weather I was looking for (after having no summer for the last 2 years). All up though I was out of Sydney for the weekend with mates, it was a good time away.

Grinspoon – June 08

It had been a while since I saw a concert (sept 07) and Grinspoon too. I thought while I am back in Aus bugger it I am going to go see some music gigs. Asked around and got a few takers. Another reason for going was to test out my new eyes. No more glasses in mosh pits (see living end post). The concert was really good, met up with the group before hand for some beers in a pub and then over to the Metro theater. They played a bit of their new stuff but heaps of their old stuff which is what we really wanted. Ohhh it was soo good to see a band live again and get into a moshpit once again.

Up the Coat Hanger - Jun 08

This weekend I celebrated my birthday by doing the Sydney Harbor Bridge climb (with Greg and Craig). Me having a fear of heights (remember the Eiffel tower), I did not even think of that as I made the booking. I was just thinking I have living in Sydney my whole life and as a Sydneysider this is something I should do, especially for my travels around the world I need to advertise for Aus.

I did not really have any fears of the height until it was too late and I was locked in all dress (in the sexy jumpsuits) and ready to go off with the group. The practice with the safety clip was fine. As we started to go out onto the platform over land to begin the walk is when I started to go weak at the knees. I had to keep telling myself just look out and not down and you will fine. Walking over the water looking down through the open grates was ok for me it felt very open and if you were walking on air at some points. As it turned out I was the slowest person and the only one with a fear of heights.

Scroll back in time……..the reason why they didn’t look after the person with the fear was due to Craig and me running (literally running) late. Greg was there and when they asked him if the other people have any conditions or fears of heights that will stop them from doing the climb he replied with a no. Not even thinking of me….nice. Craig and I after our run up the hill we made it to our time and the group. We just didn’t get the debrief about something! Must not have been too important. We did our breath test and were back with the group.

As we started to walk up the arches I felt much better, if I looked down I saw a giant piece of metal and I could tell my brain it was the ground ahhh… much better. The Views were amazing and we picked a cracking day to climb. After a week of rain looking towards the weekend was not good. It all came good and it was amazing just to look out over the harbour at that height and not enclosed by glass. It was truly amazing. We reached the middle had our pictures taken with the group and individuals. Then came the decent back, I had no issues on the bridge at all and by the end I was loving it and could stay up there for ages.

It was a really good walk and I can totally recommend it for anyone, even those with height fears.

After the climb we met up with jarrod at the Australian hotel, had some wedges and a few beers to enjoy the climb we had just done. The night started with dinner and many many beers at the Lowenbrau at the rocks and then kicked on to a whole bunch of pubs. Was a good night and great way to celebrate a birthday.

Globe Theater - April 08

King Lear

Today we went and saw King Lear at the Shakespeare globe Theater, was a really good show and for only a £5 it was a bargain. I had always wanted to go and see something on at the Globe after watching a few Shakespeare plays (at the globe) on the ABC years ago. I was happy to fulfill that wish. For the price of the ticket we were in the pit this meant we had to stand for ohhh around 4hrs. Standing for that long isn’t as bad as it sounds because you mind does not think about it due to what is happening in front of your eyes. The acting was brilliant and being so close to the actors was amazing. We were right at the front of the stage. I thought that my height would have been an issue for other people but it wasn’t. After the play we went to the pub around the corner and had a few beers in there along with the actors.

ANZAC Day April 08

Up at 4 am to go to the 5am dawn service. Sure it was early but had to be done especially when living abroad. I had never been to a dawn service in Australia but after leaving I have been to 2 and feel great about it. I think it has that sense of pride about ones country when away from it.

We were up bright and early to go down to the dawn service which was held at the NZ war memorial near Hyde Park. We didn’t get there too early as we still need our sleep and the others had to work that day. We caught a bus down and got there just as it was starting. Ok so we were at the back of the pack and could have got there earlier and actually heard every word they were saying. It was still a good atmosphere to be apart of. After the ceremony we went over to the Aussie memorial to watch the laying of the wreath.

On the way home we stopped at the greasy spoon (café) downstairs (from home) for an English breakfast, one of the best rewards after waking up early.

That afternoon Kieran and I went to the Walkabout (Aussie pub) at Temple for some drinks with the group of friends. It was a good big night and there were a lot of old fellas in there who served and they were having a wonderful time, so were we.

Reverse Clark Kent – April 08

I decided to get my eyes corrected through lasik (laser eye surgery). Had the procedure on the 1st April (no joke) I made sure it was after midday so the joke would be on them and not me muuhahaha, we were all safe.

Having glasses for the last 4 years I finally got sick of having them, and not being able to use contacts. I just kept feeling how restricted my active life can be when I really thought about it. Snowboarding at Christmas – needing to wear glasses under the goggles, swimming at the beach – will I be able to find Kieran on the beach? I though heck I’m overseas I might as well come home looking like a new man (well most people have seen me without glasses in Aus, so I am only a new man to my UK friends) and be more active with my new eyeballs.

The whole thing took only 10 mins 5 mins per eye. Really painless and very easy to do. I was in the clinic for around 3 hrs. It was an interesting feeling when they put the suction cap over your eye to make the laser incision to peel back a flap on the eye so the lasik can get through. It starts to go dark and not the kind of dark if you are sitting in a room with your eyes closed and no lights on. It was darker as if you were blind, there was just nothing. There was nothing that bad of the whole procedure. My eyeballs were numbed with an anesthetic. And when the laser when it wasn’t scary at all. Sitting the waiting room I was more worried about finishing my book before I went in (I new I would not be able to read for a good 4 days after).

When it was all finished and done. They took me to the recover room, more of a storage room with a few chairs and close curtains. A nurse was telling me about the eye drops I had to use. One problem there nursie I can’t see what your showing me!. I had to get Kieran to read them out to me later.

I was lucky to have Kieran come after work and pick me up, she didn’t walk me into any poles or make me trip at all and was a very good nurse out of work. I had to rest my eyes all that night and for the next few days. Not that you would really want to open your eyes as it stung a bit, like when your really really tied and just want to close them.. I did have to wear these very sexy (not!) goggles to bed every night for the next 2 weeks, Kieran loved waking up to a man swimming everyday.

The night of the surgery I noticed straight away how good my vision was and it was excellent. I loved it and now I love my new eyes.. Thank you cosmetic surgery.

4 Seasons in one day – March 08

This country has some really jacked up weather, it is meant to be spring and yet it decides to snow, we have a gr8 week where you only need to go out in a thin jumper. Come weekend and it decided to chuck it down full of snow and cold. I’m not really complaining too much just having a winge (been over here tooo long) it’s always nice to see some snow fall though.

Weekend Off: Tate & Avenue Q – March 08

Today we had a day out to celebrate Kieran not having to work. It had been a while since we had spent some time together and had made a whole day of something in London.

First we were off to the Tate modern to see an art exhibition by Juan Munoz

After which we thought heck we are in town might as well go see a show, so as you do in London we got some last minuet tickets and went and saw Avenue Q a musical with puppets. It was good.

To finish off the wonderful day out we had an ice-cream dinner….. Yep only ice-cream for dinner (we are so healthy us). It couldn’t just be any ice-cream we went to the Hagen Das Restaurant in Leicester Square. Ohhh man was it sooooo good, sickly good

The crazies are out (Speakers Corner) Feb 08

We went over to speaker’s corner for a walk around, interesting place but way to much religious talk. There were mostly Muslims and Christens ranting about their gods and how they will save us all. There was a woman who hated the Irish and anyone else who wasn’t an original English person from England………she was Scottish! Crazy mental people love that place somewhere they are treated normal I guess.

We will rock you – Jan 08

Kieran’s brother-in-law Greg came for a few weeks after the New Year. While he was over here he treated Kieran and I to a night out to “We will rock you” a queen musical. It was interesting to see a musical made up of songs that we all know (even some we didn’t but do now). The way the story was written and how they made it work with the songs was really well done. We can totally recommend it for anyone to see.

Australia Day 2008

Again what an awesome day, as it always is over here.

Started out with a BBQ for lunch of course, then headed over to our friends place Kell’s, otherwise known as the Fairway palace, where we had a BBQ dinner and lots of drinks, ozzy music and fun(video). Feeling very happy we left and went to the walkabout where most drunken Aussies also found themselves. Hot tip for the new players…..flip flops AKA thongs are not the best foot wear for the Walkabout!

Moving house

Yes that’s right after more than a year in our last place we have finally moved house. Its only 10min walk from the old place so not too much of a change there and still in the same area. We loved the area with Kieran’s job so close, and well I work anywhere so it doesn’t impact me too much. We just wanted somewhere a bit smaller with our good mates Simon and Shell and it is nice so far. Top level 2bed flat which is split level and we also have a terrace on a great street close to shops, restaurants and great pubs.

Welcome 2008

What we have planned this year, trying to stay in the UK for a bit longer and to travel around the World more. … so not much, just a lot of travel and work I think and hope.

A Year in review JAN 2007- JAN 2008
Here we go let’s recap the last year in as short of space as we can (today’s challenge)

Trips we have done/places we have been
Egypt – bloody brilliant, best holiday so far can’t beat the felucca ride
Turkey – Anzac cove, cold and interesting. Great to be there and pay our respects.
Jersey (Kieran) – Beach Island life met some great people and a fab bday weekend with my mates.
Australia – both made it back, good to see if and what we missed about the UK as well as back home. But we will always call Australia HOME!
Bulgaria – Ski/Snowboarding, was an interesting a wonderful way to spend Christmas why would u not want to experience Christmas as all the carols and tradition say it should be…..whit and cold.
Munich Oktoberfest (Glen) – Beer, Beer, Beer, Massive party 1 word AWESOME
UK Tour (Glen) - Brilliant way to see the country and a few places that I don’t think I would have normally went or places I would have stayed.
UK Places we visited:

• Glastonbury
• Alton Towers
• Weymouth
• Great Yarmouth
• Edinburgh
• Bath (glen)

Still way more to see and we are not ready to stop traveling just yet

NYE 2008

Cruise down the Thames with our house mates and their friends, 14 all up.
Cold food
Crap music
Smokey fireworks
Not drunk enough
Moral to the story nothing and nowhere will ever beat Sydney NYE fireworks…..ever!

Next year think we will go OS sumwhere.

Christmas in Bulgaria 22nd - 29th Dec

We decided to go to Bulgaria for xmas this year we thought we would have a proper white Christmas, the kind you just can’t get in London and skiing which is really expensive in Britain.

We went with Simon and Shelley our new housemates to be. The week went like this….

Saturday
Flew out of Gatwick, took a couple of trains to get there. Landed in Sofia with Monarch air. First time we have ever been offered to buy scratchies on board a plane, and had to buy our own drinks!! Got taken to the resort at Borovets by our Ingham’s reps, must say Ing-hams as it is spelt the same way the Bulgarians say it.

Sunday
First day of lessons with equipment fitting, I successfully changed from skiing to snow boarding, when we booked online there was no option to snowboard. I was lucky to change, all the other stayed with their skiing.
We stayed at the Rila hotel with the ski slopes just in front of us, we has a gr8 view.

Monday - Christmas Eve
More skiing and snowboarding all day and more lessons for Kieran and I, today was the day that simon and Shelley ditched their teacher as they had already learnt what he was teaching them and just wanted to get out and ski.

As all good Christmas Eve’s went out on the town and got very drunk, had to make up for no Moorebank pub night.

Tuesday- Christmas Day
Was a weird day to spend Christmas day – skiing and snowboarding from 11am, we has a sleep in of course. Today was my last day of lessons and was now ready for the big slopes so headed up the mountain for the long way down, as we were in a group it took a good 2 hrs, what would take a normal person only 30 mins.

Christmas dinner, was provided with the tour package, along with bottles of wine. The food was interesting not your typical Christmas meal. Were drunk before we got dinner because it took so long to be served! We sat at a table with some of the other people my (Glens) Snowboard school. After some other people left our table more of the snowboard school came over. There was some dinner entertainment from Bulgarian performers, Glen got draged up to Dance. With what we called his new wife and kids (check out the Video). We all got very drunk and danced the night away. The DJ only had a few English Christmas songs. Well only 1 CD of English songs at all, one of which was cotton eye Joe which he played over and over again. Actually spent this Christmas with English people but were in Bulgaria!!

Wednesday
More ski and snowboard, Kieran continued to go to her school while I met back up with people from my class to continue boarding with around the fields. Much better to have people the same level with your rather than by yourself.

That night we had a free night to do what we wanted on the town, as always we decided to go out, but then came back to play cards and drink our port in our room.

Thursday
After a day on the slopes we went on a trip into a Bulgarian village. Where we ate at Mamma Rosas house, she was a big lady who loved to give us her home made warm brandy. She even gave it to the kids we were sitting with who were under 11 ( and their parents let them drink it) the thing with mamma was that every time she would pour you a drink she would rest her big boobs on your shoulder when she lent over you to pour into your glass. This made me not want to drink her strong stuff any more. She was a happy lady (we believe drinking to much of her home made brandy) she was singing songs for us and spinning wool.

Friday
Today is our last day of snowboarding and skiing for tomorrow we go home. So we finished up at 3:30 and had to hand back our equipment. Then onto our Horse drawn sleigh ride through the country side around the Forrest. It was great the horses had bells and all.
As it was our last day, we ended up meeting up with my snowboard friends and we had a big night out. Nice end.

Saturday
After a nice lazy sleep in, we packed and went to get our bus into Sofia for a day trip around Sofia before getting our plane. We had a guide who showed us around the city and then had our own free time. While walking around Simon and I went to look at the city as the girls wanted to look at the shops (that’s how girls see a city by shopping) on our walk we saw a beggar man with massive cuts and scabs on his legs and he should really have been in hospital. Then on our way to meet up with the girls we got approached in a very unusual way by a pimp, who asked us for the time and then stopped and gave us a business card with his ladies services on there. After that we were talking about it then got approached by 3 ladies wanting to know if we knew anywhere good to party in Sofia as they had not meet any normal people and thought we might know (not fully sure if I believe their story) we told them no and we were on our way again….strange. Back to the bus and then onto the airport.

It was a hell flight, not only did we choose the slowest person at the counter and were the last checked in but the plane was sooo small owww my legs hurt.

That was our Bulgarian experience, but hot tip…..great place to purchase a tazer or mace, knuckle duster or ninja stars you can pick them up really cheap too.

Weymouth Road Trip 14th – 16th Dec

Friday
This evening we all (our Benbow flat mates) piled into our hire van and our trusty tight arse tour guide Deano drove us down to Weymouth with a few drink stops on the way. We got to our lovely B&B and had a girl’s room and a boy’s room. It was fairly late when we arrived so sleep was soon on the cards

Saturday
10.5 mile walk along the coast. Dean had told us we were going for a walk…….Deanos idea of a walk is more like a cross country trek to any normal person! In short it was cold, windy, beautiful and bloody tiring.

We started walking from Weymouth and ended up at Durdle Door Rock . That night we did a bit of a pub crawl, top night with karaoke and drinking games, dancing and despite the fact we were totally buggered from our massive walk we pulled ourselves together to celebrate Deans birthday till 4am in the morning.

Sunday
We were all a bit worse for ware but we had a schedule and as most tours go hung-over or not you soldier on! Unfortunately in the morning we discovered our mirror on the van had been stole so after we made a police report continued on to a visit to Corf castle and had a nice lunch in the small village before driving back to London.

Mary Poppins

Was a wonderful musical and can highly recommend it…. too bad it has finished! Sorry if u were coming over just for it. We were left walking away singing songs wanting to dance down the road

Roller disco 17th Nov

Tonight we went to roller disco at Camden. It is a night club roller rink. There are 3 different rooms/rinks. One of them had a very steep ramp entrance and being on roller-skates, heaps of people stacked it. Man it was funny to stand there and watch hahaha. Unless it was one of us….. which it wasn’t. We went in 80’s dress, well as best we could with a limited budget and clothes we had. I think we did pretty well. It was a good night out but we only skated for about 2 hrs. Just couldn’t go any longer.

The interesting thing is that you can drink there. So not only do you have people who can’t skate and keep stacking it, you now have drunk people who can’t skate and think they can … and they keep stacking it, this time they have no fear so they take ppl out while skating. What a Gr8 idea!!!