the blog

First post of 2009

2009-04-07T21:40:00.006+01:00

Its been a while alright since i posted on here.
Mostly i assume because noone reads it... but still !

No thats a good reason.

Doing some house cleaning on the site, updating the about me.
I moved the servers in the background so am still trying to upload the databases.
I started working on a new What am i now page too, with an integrated google maps which might turn out nice. check it out.

first trip home

2008-02-03T22:36:00.000Z

Well i showed the face at home this weekend. was out in belfast on friday night. a boston-based band that plays irish punk music named Dropkick Murphys. heard some of the music before i went to the gig and really enjoyed it. all the irish songs i know and listen to, but in a punk style, electric guitars and the like.
left at about 10am for a 10.30am train. wasnt home til like 4pm. after a few detours. another 3 hours today to get home. dont know if it was worth all the travel to go home. so might be another few weeks til i go back.
work is going well. fitting into the routine of the work. The project im on is to test the software on security cameras that are used in malls and security places. pretty straight foward with plenty of time to do it. finished early on this project so gonna have to find another project in the company.

Belfast week #1

2008-01-27T12:46:00.000Z

As of last sunday i am now living in Belfast. The company im working for as a consultant has placed me up here for a 3 month contract and see what the story is after that.
Monday morning i got up at 7am which isny much of a different from home. went for the bus which is only a short walk away, though i dont have a wet muddy country road to make my way through.
it was cold and wet and dark so absolutely no change from home.
Work was interesting this week. There was some electronics wiring work which kept me interested but i fear that that will be finished and starting of the normal testing as of tomorrow. so see how long i can keep my interest up.
Got a flash new laptop from work to practice all my work programs on and turns out that i left the program i wanted at home! right. next time home.
Pay day is Thursday and down to my last few pennies so gotta stretch it out for the week. but bring on next weekend !

monday

2007-10-01T13:52:00.000+01:00

Right true... its been a while since i decided to blog to noone that reads this thing.
Ill try and fill in if i get a chance... or can recall :)

Im working as a Software Test Consultant for a German company that spread as far as ireland.
Was working for 3 weeks in Hibernian as a consultant and am hanging about in effect now until another contract comes in.

I went to SouthAfrica for 3 weeks training, fully paid for by the company. lots and lots and lots of photos but none uploaded to this site. have a few on my bebo site if anyone is connected there. i should have the link there somewhere.

I bascially finished my room completely but started putting stuff back into it that i took out while cleaning it and yeah its a mess again... a good like 2 hours would clean it... maybe only an hour. but yeah :) its on my list.

some talk of my heading to london for a few months on a project but we are kept in suspence about that. see what happens!

right !

2007-02-19T10:27:00.000Z

Alot has happened.

Im no longer in Australia. Im back in great Ireland.
Its 8 °C here at like 10am and its like 23.1 °C in Brisbane right now ! and its 8pm over there !
On my front page i put up 2 feeds saying the temperature in dublin and brisbane :9

Got home alrightie. Was travelling from like midnight on Friday until midday on Sunday. stayed over night in London where got a good rest! Family didn't know that i was coming on so i got all the way to the local hotel, and phoned my dad at home, and after about an hour of ringing i got through to him. Started off by saying that i made the decision to come home, and asked if i did need a loan of cash to get home would i be able to get it from him, and he went on to say that there would be no problem, that he could transfer it over immediately, and if i needed to i could send him the details of my account.
I then told him that with him knowing my bad sense of humor, i would probably just turn up into Dublin and phone and say i was home, and he said that would be totally OK, so i verified it once more, and told him that i was in the local and whether he wanted to come up for a pint, he immediately said OK and hung up. Seemingly he just copped onto what was happening and reacted like that cos the sister was listening in worryingly and he wanted to play it up with her a bit.

My sister had the great idea to cook her dinner from last night at lunch time today, so i jumped in for some of it! pasta with chicken Kiev!... hmmm
Came out and she cooked *allot* but... i ate a piece of the chicken she said was nice, i enjoyed it, tried some pasta and went back for more chicken... then found out that it was half cooked ! so she tried to poison me !

Ill make another post either today or tomorrow about a few more of my memories of my trip, or maybe a bit more on my trip home. It was long, i welcomed the sleep over in London.

Can anyone who reads this post make a quick reply, maybe just welcoming me home or something, just wondering who actually reads this.

its valentines day !!!

2007-02-13T16:06:00.000Z

happy valentines day !!!

such a romantic day im gonna have.
its 2am now obviously... gonna be working til 4am, asleep til prob about 8 or 9 when the lads will be waking in the backpackers, then wake again at 10am when the cleaners will be in.
Then back into work for 3pm til 11pm !

Locations of bris

2007-02-13T15:52:00.000Z

A Few links to google maps of places ive spent too much time in brisbane!

Back Packers Hostel
QM Tech(work) - Cept its not where a is, its the building thats in the middle of the screen
Apartment in Coorparoo - see the shiny white one smack in the middle of the page on a t-junction with a round about... its not that one... its the grey one directly to above that.
bus stop at the end of my road - see the t-shaped building in the middle of the picture, thats the 24hr shell garage, right at the road outside that is the bus stop that i spent *way* too much time at ! Macdonalds is the purple looking roof to the right of that building. **way** to close !

Feb 1st

2007-02-01T11:58:00.000Z

Right!
things are slowly starting to fall apart... or come together.

handed the keys of the apartment in as lunch today, so officially a backpacker again. Yesterday afternoon i didnt know where i would be sleeping tonight... but i got it organised when i got into work(4pm)... I dont know whether i organised that too soon, for those of u that know my track record.
Staying at The Brisbane Backpackers Resort. middle of West End, a good, lively, place in Brisbane. Should be interesting.
Right now i have no idea what im doing.
There is a natural break in my work as of 2 weeks, in that my job, as a scanner, will be stopping and the scanning side of things moved to Sydney. I can transfer to a full time Data Entry as that will be kept in Brisbane for a further 6 weeks, as i have done it before. But as i said its a natural break in the work. I could just up and go. Ive nothing left to tie me down to this city so might as well experience a different city.
Ive a number of options that i will be considering over the next week.
Either:
- call it quits and make a move home
- Stay in Brisbane
- Move to another city and work for a while
- Save up enough money to start heading home and spend a month visiting different countries, Hong Kong was one place that came to mind, as was the Himalayas mountain range, italy came to mind too for some reason... well the reason is i know someone there.

I will be clear from everything as of tomorrow when i get confirmation on what i need to do rent wise. so can start thinking about the next few weeks then!

Now ! back to the backpackers place !!!
There is a pool !
There is a jacuzzi !
There is a pub !
There is like restaurants, Internet access !
man this is gonna be fun !
update with more info then.

mustard eating competition

2007-01-24T12:22:00.000Z

OK. this is more a note to myself.

In the company here one of the departments were having a chilli eating competition last week. this week it was mustard. We were told about it last week, but not invited, but this week they made a point of inviting us.
A list was going around of who said they would partake, the last entry being: "The strange Irish guy from imaging..." myself.

so i did it, along with another lad thhat works with me, Joelii.
5 quid in, winner takes the pot.

they started off with a milder hot english mustard, and putting a small amount on the end of the spoon. then half a teaspoon full, then a full, then they changed to the hotter of the mustards where we took a half teaspoon... found out that it was the milder of the 2 so went back to the previous.
then he who was judicating started measuring out heaped teaspoons, i think we got 2 of them, and the last 3 of us our of the 10 that were left, who werent being affected at that stage atall, decided that we would just split the money down the middle. 15 dollars each way
earned an extra 10 dollars for like 30min work. not bad... at that stage

I am *not* feeling well ! been on the toilet since ! :( suggestion... dont do a mustard eating comp ! :) they have wasami on the menu for next week.
i never heard of it... so when i was out in the main production where they all were, being the strage irish guy when they offered me to taste it, and after a few him's and haw's and holding my stomach, i decided to try it.
The group of them that were around, i found out, were watching me keenly to see if i actually was mad enough to taste it. they enjoyed that show.

i wont be doing the wasabi comp!

friday night

2007-01-12T11:29:00.000Z

right.
its friday night at 9:30pm. I got to work at midday, and will be here until 11pm. then im in again at 7am tomorrow morning until prob about 3pm!... not really complaining complaining... cos i do need the money but i will be tired !

Not much is happening this side of the world to report at this time.
heat is still hot !, ads are still every 2 minutes on tv, the hill from the bus stop to my apartment is still at the same angle.

I didnt get any brekkie this morning... i was going to go for macdonalds but i dont think that worked out... no it didnt. i got a call to come in earlier than i expected kinda threw me. had a subway for lunch, and i think pizza is on the menu for dinner. there is a dominos right at the end of my road ! and its closer than mcdonalds... and its open later at the weekend ! :)
i dont know what i have... but at least i know im going to ask for garlic, and fresh chilli(i ask for that to be put on any pizza i get!)

Ive been feeling down for the past couple of days, loads of things suppose. heat change, money(though not so much). need to just get out of the rut! hmmm maybe by typing it it will get me out of the rut! hmmm... ill see how i am for the next post.

seems one of the girls that i met in eBay that came to australia a few months before me, got her self a nice "german porn model" and has been travelling everywhere will be ending up in brisbane in a few weeks ! should be a good laugh ! cant wait for a pissup davina !

I ordered a 1gb XD card for my digital camera, and it should be here by today or tomorrow. so hopefully will start going a bit photo mad soon ! the payment bounced from my bank account and now my australian Paypal account is in negative balance ! ah well !... lucky i know that if the account is in negative balance for 180 days it will be limited and wont be able to recieve or send money until the negative balance is restored, after 270 days the account will be locked and the money will need to be send my cheque or postal order to Paypal themselves, then the account can be unlocked and i can get back into it. and yes it is silly to stop a paypal account recieving money if the account is in negative balance... but yeah ! they may even have changed that by now *shrugs* ill settle it up later on.

ack scanner stopped scanning... need to fill up the input... brb
OK granted that was a little longer than i suggested... but yeah i did some other work.

One of the lads made a good point today !...
one of the girls will be going away for maybe a month of two and i may be gone by the time she comes back. and i said that monday(being the last day we are working together) may be the last day we ever see each other.
He said that that would be one of the hardest things about travelling, in that i would make friends then at the end i would inevitably be leaving them prob never to see them again.
What ever would happen if i were to find a certain someone that i did care alot about... it would only end up in me having to say good bye to her. a heart ache waiting to happen ! ?

2007

2007-01-02T08:38:00.000Z

Well firstly I uploaded two more sets of photos.
Fraiser Island and Whale Watching when I was in hervey Bay.
New Years Eve 2007 - Brisbane.

It was a quiet xmas, which is good I suppose. did go out much due to lack of funds, but the bottle of jack daniels and bottle of vodka kept us gainfully employed for xmas eve and xmas afternoon. New Years went much the same. there were fireworks in SouthBank that we ended up going to which were pretty good. I got a few photos from it, but it seems that they are blurry... and I did only get a hand ful of them since my memory card was full ! ah well. I enjoyed it though.

In work today for 4 hours(need to wait for the bus at 7) and wont be working for the rest of the week now it seems. back in next monday, but I was told that there will be alot of work, so that will get the money flowing in again. which is a necessity.

last day b4 xmas

2006-12-21T11:54:00.000Z

Well im finishing up today so wont have internet access til after xmas.
Its like 21 degrees here ! this isnt xmas this is summer... though thats what *they* actually call it over here. crazy upside down people !
21 deg isnt actually warm... for some reason. maybe since im used to like 28/30 these days :( i will need a hot water bottle for when i get home i think !!! :)

i think the plan for xmas day is traditional: cocktail sausages with beans for brekkie, salmon and cheese for lunch, and i think steak is on the menu for dinner.
a bottle of whiskey thoughout the day, and i think ill be picking up some sparkling wine for myself, found a nice cheap tasty bottle over here.
I think we will pick up a DVD series of some sort and watch that... and also Need For Speed: Carbon, the latest car racing game for the PS2.

boring xmas, but yeah. not that its not just another day, hey ! ?

I dont think ive put up a rant on Hey yet... seemingly alot of australians put hey at the end of every sentance... hey ?
i dont know... ill save that for another time.

got photos from home for oh so long ago and one stood out from the rest. Though u will probably be the only one who will be reading this, so since u sent it to me, im sure u know it :)
I barely remember it :) good times :) hehe.

Happy xmas to all, and ive i dont get to blog before new years, happy new year too.
(havnt even got a draft of whats happening on new years... too soon :))
There is a place called South Bank which is right across from brisbane city, on the river. its very nice. There is going to be alot of festivities on, fireworks at 9pm and midnight. might be a possibility.

Photo Upload

2006-12-06T11:27:00.000Z

OK quick post here.
I have uploaded all the photos from yesterday and today, about 130mb in total i think !
ill make a post about what i did in the two days in the next couple of days.
Here are the photos:
Tuesday
Brisbane Science Centre
Wildlife World
Sydney Tower
Wednesday
Sydney Power House Museum
Sydney Maritime Museum
Sydney James Craig Tall Ship
Sydney Opera House

Sydney Day #1

2006-12-05T00:56:00.000Z

So it was late Friday and I just arrived into work. 3pm-11pm shift. and my boss said that I wasn't needed on Monday for work, then after me querying the amount of work, said I was needed, then said I wasn't needed.
He offered for him to get me work in a different department, but after a quick moment of contemplation I decided against it.
within an hour I had decided to go to Sydney for a few days, and had my tickets and accommodation booked.
I left Brisbane on Monday at 12:30pm, and arrived in Sydney two hours later at 3:30pm. good old day light saving times.

I got to the hotel, and paid the rest of the bill, 30 quid a night, which wasn't bad. I booked for a 4-person shared, but got what looks like a twin to myself...*touches wood that I haven't jinxed it for the rest of the week*

Anyway. the most important thing an irishman does when they enter a new city is to find the nearest irish pub, of course. so after asking the taxi man on the way in, I headed off in the direction that I was told. after about 10min walking I knew I wasn't finding it so found the next pub and entered. It was small, and quiet, and looked more like a betting place than a pub. so I left. I saw an internet cafe(the one im in now) and went there to get more info.
I found directions to the pub, and I planned the rest of my day.
The Irish pub was called Scruffy Murphy's. It wasn't that bad, first place I found with bulmers on draft... and it was at a reasonable price. I didn't like it, maybe im used to the sweet stuff ive been drinking.

I picked to visit the aquarium since it was open until 9pm or 10pm. I went in paid for my tickets and went to the first display and remembered that I didn't have batteries for my camera ! not the first time that happend to me on my trip... and I went out last time and bought about 16 batteries, and rechargeable high-powered batters, and a charger, which is fully charged sitting at home in Brisbane waiting for me to bring out... typical!
After about 20min walking I found a store that was open that I could buy the batteries and was back.
I was actually impressed at some of the stuff there. did ya know that the way you can tell a croc and an alligator apart is that you can see the bottom teeth in the croc, and the alligator has like sockets for their bottom teeth to go into in their mouth !!!... I did see a display on the fresh water and sea water crocs... but yeah I didn't pay attention to that one.
One display they had was a display tank that had under water corridors so you could get under the tank to see all the fish... and crocs... and stingrays.
2m crocs swimming around with fish and even a tortoise ! I didn't get a pic of the tortoise though ! :( check out the pics in the photo album here.
I think I spent about 2 hours in there. It was good ! :)

Next on the list was the imax cinema, which boasts the biggest screens in the world, so I had to see it. From the moment I walked into the cinema I was amazed. the screen was atleast 50m wide and prob same tall, there were about 50 seats in the front row, and as the rows went further up into the hall there were more, 10 rows back. I sat about 4 rows from the front, which turned out to be a bad idea.
Oh I didn't mention that the screen was a 3d screen... so I was given the most ridiculous ive ever seen! deadly ! :) pity I didn't ask anyone to take a photo of me in them ! :)
I watched Deep Sea 3D which was about 45min long and showed all about all the fish in the sea, how each helped others, and which ate which. but it was all in 3d ! which was really amazing.
that brought me upta 10pm, so I decided to walk along the promenade and see what I would have for dinner. all the way down I saw a restaurant on a ship, so headed towards that, and see what they had. They had a full lobster for about 40 dollars, which I decided I would go for. so walked up to the entrance and walked in and was informed they just closed ! :( went back to find a steak restaurant and had a nice sirloin with pepper sauce... I didn't really list the pepper sauce, but the garlic butter I got was the best garlic butter I ever got in my life ! well impressed ! :)

Well that was my first day. I have tickets for another two places: Sydney Wildlife World; and Sydney Tower + OzTrek. and I have the opera house to goto aswell. there is a 2hour tour that will bring you back stage and all. hmmm.

end of nov

2006-11-30T12:54:00.000Z

well its been a while since i posted, obviously.
Havnt been online all that much.

and ive about 2/3min to post now. finishing up work tomorrow it seems. a week and a half off, so will need to find something to do. started to consider how to pay for a plane ticket home then realised that ive about 850 euro tax waiting for me to claim from ireland, and i think with this wage slip today i have about 1200 AUD to claim, either of which would buy me a plane ticket home. so ill get both ! and have a better time.

One of the lads in here comes from a little place called rockhampton, a story he told me is that if you look from the local mount, the street lights spell the work HELL... what a town eh ! :)
seemingly the government considered spending 60k to put more lights in so it would read HELLO... go figure :)

quick post

2006-11-03T07:04:00.000Z

working away. as much as i can. i just got a call from the boss saying that im not needed on monday, and ive half day on tuesday. thats not up !
less money !

There is this island off Brisane coast called Fraiser Island, this is the place that 4 wheel drives were made for. 75km of straight beach if i remember correctly. one of the people we were talking to goes there every year to a massive 2 week fishing competition, dozens of "4by4s" all in the middle of the outback ! sounds great. looking at packages, looks like we can rent a good jeep for 140 a day. that sounds like it has to go on the menu at some stage !

First day of work !

2006-10-18T07:55:00.000+01:00

Well started today.

How did it go...
alarm was all set for 5:30, showered and dressed by 5:45, cuppa tea by 5:50, and out the door for 5:55.
For some reason i woke at 1:30am thinking that i was late for work, but was happy when i saw the time... i closed my eyes and at most 5min later i got a friendly knock on the door telling me it was 5:15... "Are you sure?" was my reply. He was. so i had 15min before my hectic day started.
Up and out at 5:30, showered and dressed by 5:50... ack! half a cup of tea drank and i was out the door.

Half way down to the bus I saw a dogeen(puppy), no more than 4months old. Saw me from about 200m(bless his eyes) and started running for me. I kept walking. but it caught up. Knowing where i was going had main roads that was only going to get busier, i stopped and instructed the dog to stay. walked a few metres and it followed. instructed it again, and walked and it seems to comply.
I got around the corner and was about to cross when i say him follow me around the corner. I got him to stay in a doorway while i crossed the road. Waited about 2min and sure enough the silly dog started to follow. got across, and the other two at the bus stop got involved. Phone number on the gos neck was rang with no answer. The bus came so we all jumped on... and of course the dog followed. The driver wouldnt allow the dog on(of course(i think he left his cash in his other fur)). the girl that was at the bus stop, and another fella from the bus took the dog into the petrol station and got some1 to look after it. Kept the bus waiting for about 5min which was kinda funny.

Got into work with lots of time to spare, first one there. 3 of us in total, a bulgarian guy, and an australian girl, and myself.
Bascially we have 5million documents to scan, the 3 of us and a night shift. over the next few months. It is boring and monotonous. its money though, which at this stage is what is needed.
finish at 3pm too. takes about 30min/45 min to get home. so home for 4pm.

I gotta get two buses, one from where we are staying into the middle of brisbane(though i could get off at the stop right outside brisbane, which i might start doing... lay off its my first time doing it !:)) and then out again. The stop in Brisbane where i literally have to cross the road and get onto another bus to go out again there is this net cafe... Its a gaming net cafe so i can spend 30min on emails and this, then another 2 hours on computer games wooo !!! meh.

Anyway. Its 5pm now and done for the day. skipped the touch rugby last night, planning to get an early night, but was still up when kev got in. meh.

right.

2006-10-13T05:30:00.000+01:00

Well firstly Happy Friday the 13th to everyone!

I got a job yesterday, wasn't the money that I was looking for. but yeah. its a job. So i think everything is nearly setup up over here. We have an top-floor apartment, TV, DVD, 5.1 surround sound. got a job. playing touch rugby. hmmm gotta start dating now ! thats the only thing left.

Started playing touch rugby last wed, well 2 days ago. scored a try and all ! team effort!, for some reason i went to ground when I was putting it down, and I ripped my leg apart ! OK that's a bit of an exaggeration but it hurts ! :( and I got a bump. OK that's a bit of an under exaggeration but yeah well.

What else ? lack of cash is limiting my alcohol intake. Was out emmm 2 weeks ago i think, made a night of it. i was *not* well the next day ! and that something from me.
Some beer fest on tonight, but well i dont drink beer and the funds are getting tight. so we will c.

OK i cant think of anything else to say. so...

right...

2006-09-29T12:12:00.000+01:00

OK... where are we...

Bascially still looking for a job, went for a few interviews but no job yet. We got our apartment and are moving in as of tomorrow morning, so as of tomorrow morning i wont be online for the foreseeable future. Probably will get a cheap ex-gov PC and get the dial-up in. dial-up ! ack

Getting everything sorted for the move in tomorrow, spent like 100 dollars on stuff today so atleast we have some stuff to put in empty shelves... so we have plates... knives forks spoons... cooking utensils... iron... kettle... and toaster.
so we have the stuff to eat the food outta and something to the cook the dinner with... but nothing to cook the food in, no pans or pots or anything. ah well !

Im on my mobile if anyone wants to txt me... i got on this plan that i pay like $49 for $230 worth of calls... it doesnt make sense but ive already spent about $150 on calls and texts. even get those expensive daily horoscope and weath type of txt messages, so i have 5 txts when i get up. i dont know what to do with so much credit !
i even found out how to surf the web on the phone... all going against the $230. great ! :)

laters.

life cycle

2006-09-27T02:25:00.000+01:00

I think the life cycle is all backwards

You should start out dead and get it out of the way.

Then, you wake up in an old age home feeling better every day.

You get kicked out for being too healthy; go collect your pension, then

when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day.

You work 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You drink alcohol, you party, you're generally promiscuous and you get
ready for High School.

You go to primary school, you become a kid , you play, you have no
responsibilities, you become a baby, and then...

You spend your last 9 months floating peacefully in luxury, in spa-like
conditions; central heating, room service on tap, larger quarters every
day, and then, you finish off as an orgasm.

I rest my case...

Back in Brisbane

2006-09-12T12:39:00.000+01:00

Its been a while that I post and thanks for the abuse for not ! :)...
Ive been on the go since I got into Brisbane. I have just updated the "WHERE AM I NOW?" section at the top of the page to what ive been doing for the past 2 weeks. not 100% sure on the date I left Brisbane 2 weeks ago, but its about right.

Kevins brother was over from New Zealand with the lady and we stayed with her parents in Hervey Bay... to get this straight here... that is not pronounced Hervey Bay, its pronounced Harvey Bay. I dont know why but it is, one of those Australian things I suppose. That was deadly. really nice people who loved Ireland and the Irish so we fitted right in. I think we had a fish BBQ the very first night which was gorgeous ! We stayed there for a few days and shot right back to Brisbane as there was a show on in Brisbane called the river fire, check out some photos here. which was absolutely kewl ! I have a few photos on my phone while ill try and upload at some stage.
We were positioned right infront of storey bridge was a good place to be. F111 jet planes shot over head burning their fuel which turned out to be a really good display. The fireworks lasted about 30min in total I would say. All the bridges on the Brisbane river were synchronised so their either shot the exact display at the same time or one after another. Most of is was synchronised except one building in the middle of Brisbane who obviously had a lot left over from last year cos they just kept shooting them up after every1 paused. hmmm.
After the display we stayed in the house for a little while, got drunk then made a move to the local irish bar which we stayed in until about 4am. seems bars dont shut til about 5am, ah well. Rather than starting to mess around with getting home, the Kev and Paul decided to sleep in the car. we all got into the OK on space nissan car and closed our eyes. Two minutes later kevin started screaming his snores about 1meter away from my head. 20min later I decided to make my way home. I got to the bus stop at about 5am and after convincing myself that the bus was coming along very shortly I decided to sit at the bus stop... then walk around, then sit again... then lie at the bus stop... I think I even dosed off once or twice.
This was at 5/6am on a Sunday morning in the middle of a big city ive never been to before. at 6.15 I decided to re-read the bus timetable, after convincing myself what it really said I hailed a cab and was home in 15min. Jumped into bed and had a good 6 hours sleep.
We hit the road back to Hervey Bay at that stage for the next few days. I would type a few things about what we got up to... but yeah no I forget.
So anyway. Surfers Paradise is about 4 hours south of Hervery Bay(45min south of Brisbane) so we started our trek back down the Brisbane east coast, needing to stop off in Brisbane so Kevin could get his swimming trunks and made it to Surfers Paradise after a while.
After a small drive thinking we were getting totally lost and arriving right outside the door of the apartment we found ourself on the 29th floor of a hotel overlooking the main city and a good mile of nice beach. We were on the corner of the building so we had 3 views from the rooms. The only view that we didnt have was the actual full view of the beach, but from one of the sides we did have a good look.
It was a nice place. sunny beachy :) that kinda place. women walking about in nearly nothing everything which was good ! :) We went to the beach one day... I had shorts and a tshirt on so was a good boy and suncreamed my legs and my arms and face and ears and back of my head and everything !(the suncream stuff was extra heavy and all and I turned out nearly white) anyway got down to the beach, threw the ball around for a while and the water looked so tempting the 3 of us decided to jump in. off came my tshirt and jumped in. Havnt swam in the sea in ages ! (it tastes very salty!!! *yuck*) but anyway, got out and lied on my towel to get dry, knowing that I didnt have any sunscreen on my back or front I only stayed there for 15/20 min, got tshirt on and we bascially left. So I wake up the next day. my arms and legs and head are perfect. from just over my tshirt arms all across my back was red as an apple(a red apple!). some reverse sun burn !
so next day I think I stayed in bed cos I was tired. We were meant to leave on the Friday Morning and go back to hervery Bay and go whale watching on Saturday, more about that in a min, but the weather was starting to get bad, windy and the likes so we decided to stay another day.
The Friday we decided to goto Dream World, which was bascially a massive rides theme park thing. $62.00 to get in and I did not go on one of them. I spent the entire day just walking around and following the other 3 around the place. Kevin, Paul, and Elisha. I did see a Tiger Presentation, which was really impressive ! the tigers jumping 10m between stands. standing up on their back legs, then standing up further atleast 8ft I would say. We even saw them climbing up a tree that was there... which was really deadly !
Last day was a slow day too. So we headed back on Saturday morning.
Back to Hervey Bay. We were meant to go out on the boat whale watching on the Saturday, but the weather did say it was going to be too windy so it was postponed. We also had planned making a trip to Fraiser Island on the Sunday with Elishas dad. Fraiser Island is a really impressive island just off the coast of the sunshine coast. People from all over Australia and the world come just to see this island so it seems. There are miles and miles of open beach, yearly fishing competitions which elishas family took part in. I got a full description, with the aid of videos and photos of what a 4 wheel drive 4by4 is really meant to do... and we do *not* use them in Ireland. Elishas brother has a 4b4 and enters competitions with it. I say a video of him pulling the keep up the side of a mountain with just the engine and the pulley thing at the front of the jeep.
Anyway... We didnt goto Fraiser Island on the Sunday. We went out in the boat. kev had a massive grin on his face from the moment he stepped onto the boat. We went straight out of harbor and headed for the other side of Fraiser Island, where the whales would be. about an hour out we found about 3 dolphins swimming around which was good. After another little while we saw the whales in the distance. so a course was set. After about 10/15min of heading to where we saw them and waiting we found out that they disappeared to somewhere else. Which went out for about 5/6 sightings. elishas brother was not getting happy !
We did see the whales in the distance, about 3/4km away breaching the water and everything. The most we saw when we got in close(100m) was them turning over in the water, and waving at us to! which was good. Seemingly we saw a few seals in the water too which was meant to be very unusual for the area and the time of year... but well yeah. I dunno bout that :) We also saw about 3 water spouts... image which didnt look bad as every1 reacted to it being. but yeah! :)
let me see that brought us up to Sunday. I think on that that night we went out to the local pub to watch the final in the rugby league. The place was called the tavern. They had a massive outdoor projector screen with the game playing on it. I want one ! :) the first half was crap so decided to try and get food and make our home. Everywhere had closed just about the same time. so went home and called it a night.

Bascially that was the highlights that I can remember of the past two weeks, my first 2 weeks in Brisbane.
I started writing this last night, but cut it short and finished it tonight. ah well :)
I was up at 8am this morn, and kev got up at 10am. I wanted to go right into Brisbane to start looking for houses in there but kev had in his mind to watch a DVD so I got online and started sending a few CVs out. half an hour later I got a phone call and had an interview setup for the middle of the afternoon for a tech support job. which was good ! better than spending the day walking around in town. Had the interview by the recruitment agency, lasted about 10min and was finished. lets wait to hear word back now. Kev went for an interview this afternoon aswell, and he starts work on Friday ! so need to start looking for places around here. he made nice spicy beef fajitas which were very nice.
So that it for now.

Tuesday night

2006-08-22T14:42:00.000+01:00

outta bed at 8am this morn to visit the Kuala Lumpur famous Petronas Twin Towers. 3 of us got there and there was a room that could fit about 200/300 people... and there was about 200 or 300 people. a queue that started at the counter to get tickets and went directly to the back wall, the queue then turned around and went all the way back up and folded again approx 6 times full of people. 2 of us went off to get food, which at 8am turned out to only be noodles and cold chicken, but the sauce on it was nice. 25min later we went back and the queue only had moved approx half. I swapped over and about 40min later we got our tickets. They were free, but since there were so many people to go up tickets are only given out for that day, and are usually all gone by the morning. thats why we went so early. 12:45 was when we went up so we had 2.5 hours to waste. the bottom 6 floors of the towers are all shopping malls so we went to the bottom floor and walked up to the top. there were loads of shops for everything. womans dream(or credit card owners nightmare)
12:15 anyway we decided to head to the reception and start going up. about 20 per tour going each 15min. while entering to go up the woman that was taking the tickets saw that I had my green Ireland rugby jersey on, she asked me was I a fan of the Irish, and once I said that I was Irish, she requested that I kiss her shoulder... what could I say :)

the rest of the day was spent in bed. lads are gone out now but im too tired, or not thirsty or what not. im hungry now. there is room service... its 45RM for a steak meal, or I could go across the road, where they have this fry up place. quarter of the price and prob alot nicer but I would have to get up and go out and stuff.
about 15min after typing this up, been looking for apartments in brisbane and chatting on MSN and still too tired to make the move so its room service so !
10 euro for a full steak meal isnt bad.

we are leaving first thing on thursday so we need to organise a taxi to pick us up at like 5 am or something. lets hope we dont forget that !

malaysia

2006-08-20T11:15:00.000+01:00

so been in malaysie since thursday.
nice place. really fast moving.
jumped into a train right in the airport and went into the main block to get our bags from the plane ! got a taxi to our hotel which was 15RM, which is about 4/5 euro worth, which is really good. we had a mess up in the booking of the room and we only booked a 2 person room, even though we said there were 3 of us. so we had to pay another 100 euro about i think to get a fold up bed put into the room.

food is nice... and cheap here too ! just back from macdonalds, and it was like 8RM(which is about 2/3 euro) for a full big mac meal... man ireland are ripping us off !
nice malaysian food place across the road, which we have tended to fall into when we stumble home from the pub at 4/5am. the first night after ordering the food, i got the cook to make it hotter twice ! *tut* ! :)

the heat here is quite bad ! doable but just not nice. we went on a city tour today, alot of places visited: the kings mansion, which we coule only go to the main gate, one of the security guards(who were standing outside the gate like the guards in england, not allowed to move) looked like he was about to collapse; we went to the city monument i think they called it, had a big statue in the middle with like WW1 WW2 and another period that they were fighting, they also had this statue of soliders, 1 solider with a gun which represented war, 1 solider with like medial aid i think, another one with something else, then a few dead people... they said what it was about there and then... but yeah... meh.

the other two lads were out last night until 4am, one only came home this morning... i think he got lost, but those 2 are asleep now... weak ! :)... i stayed in last night. got 5 hours sleep before one came home... then another 5 hours sleep after i could get to sleep with his snoring !

price for electronics isnt as cheap as i thought it would be, all the same price. Sony PSP is about 180 euro worth, which is much the same as in ireland. I need to buy a camera though, i was leaving it for here since i thought it would be cheaper... but its not. prob still pick one up sometime.

no photos yet to upload(cos of the no camera thing) but will soon.

two hours to go

2006-08-15T14:12:00.000+01:00

So not only last hours but last minutes. Everything is nearly done.
Letters all typed and printed, ready to go out, should have been out about 2 weeks ago but meh :)

Packed nearly everything by now, but dont know if i have too much weight, 8 euro for every kg over ! errr ???
Insurance is done so thats summin. i can go out and have an accident with the knowledge ill be covered.

right. i should go back to getting ready!

4 days to go

2006-08-12T19:11:00.000+01:00

emailed out to about 100 people in work about going out last night, and 4 people from work turned up, lucky i sent out about 20 txts on the way in last night which brought in another 5 or so... ah well. Nice one of turning up, those who did.

Porter house was first where the pear cider was top of the agenda, tried one Mixed fruit, which boasted 7% alchohol but was too blueberry-tasting i think. q-bar was next i think, and had a few fat frogs.

So 4 more days til i leave. havnt packed, havnt got travel insurance, havnt sold the car, havnt cleaned my room... havnt had dinner yet or the piss-up tonight so suppose they are on top of the agenda.