Singapore is great. After all being natured out in Australia, Singapore is all about the shops, and oh my gosh there is lots and lots of shops, and the best thing is that they all contain bargains. Today i had my hair washed and dried, because ive decided as i just cant continuously buy clothes because we cant carry them and we reckon they will be even cheaper in Thailand it was time to pamper myself instead. Im trying to convince Simon to come with me for a foot massage by visually impaired women (recommended by Lonely Planet????).
The first couple of nights was spent at the Central Singapore Hotel, we didnt particularly like this place as it was a bit dark and dingy, but great for the shops, we are now at the Hotel Bencoolen. (we plan to leave here on Thursday) Whilst a little further out it is a bit cheaper and is a much nicer room except it smelt of stinky feet initially until we got the cleaner to spray it.
Its been Simon's turn to be ill so he spent the first day in bed whilst i went shopping and then yesterday he was fine and then in the middle of the night he woke up with earache, its got better though as the day has progressed and hasnt stopped us doing a bit of a walking tour around the place, past Raffles Hotel where we thought it was only right to spend half our days budget on a Singapore Sling Cocktail with Souvenir Glass. We were good though and only bought 1 to share.
The weather is.... very very humid and unfortunatly very cloudy, not stopped Simons head going red though.
The reason we like Singapore so much apart from the shops is that majority of people seem to speak Singlish (a pigeon form of English), it has a New York cosmopolitan attidude, apartently a very safe city, of course its bargain city, its really easy to get around and can go on the tube for 30p, and its a little nearer to England then Australia. We do kind of agree that its great city but its not beautiful like Sydney for the harbour bridge etc, its trying to be though.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Cairns and a bit of Outback and finally Simon catches a fish
Stayed at the Greenhouse Backpackers place for 2 nights, which is the first time we have even stayed at a backpacker place and to be honest i was expecting it to be an awful room but it was massive. Really pleased about this, also loved the atmosphere of the place.
First night we were in Cairns we got pretty drunk, and it was Simons turn to have a hangover the next day. We pretty much wrote the next day of as neither of us were up for doing anything. The only thing i did was to look around the second hand exchange places to find lonely planet books for our trip ahead (i dont want to pay the aussie prices for new books) We did however book on a Crab and Fishing trip with our new friend Bernie (we met him the night before sat in the Irish bar, hes english backpacking around and works as an architect). So whilst the other backpackers we were chatting too, was arranging to go skydiving we decided to go fishing :-) in the evening. Which we did and it was great. Simon finally caught his first fish. Its still 2-1 to me though. This was the first time I had ever used a proper fishing rod and i wasnt very successful. I did at one stage manage to wind in the reel from someone elses rod with my rod by catching their reel, however my biggest catch was the other side of the boat. I even left it in the water for 5 minutes and reeled it back in to find out that i had managed to get the hook stuck on the other side of the boat at the back. Fairly embarrassing. The crabs we caught were absolutely enormous, the video we recorded shows the crab in simons basket grabbing hold of a coke can and crushing it with his claws. Wouldnt like to touch that.
So the next day, could have been spent snorkling in the great barrier reef or going to Cape Tribulation exclaiming at the rainforest, but we decided to do the opposite to what you would normally do in Cairns and drive East and try and find some of the outback that had proved so elusive(WOTD) to us. So we got up early hired a 4x4 and set off driving 200k to a place called Chillagoe http://www.tablelands.org/chillagoe.html . The drive we knew was going to be the most exciting part of this journey as 18k of it, is on unsealed roads and this meant bouncing up and down along red sand roads, being overtaken by infrequent non-rental 4x4's (We didnt want to cause any damage on ours as the excess is so high), doing the lifting of the arm to acknowledge a driver on the other side of the road. They wave at me but not Simon. As we drove it got less and less rainforesty and more and more drier. It was great seeing it like this, with cows trying to walk across the road. We even saw Cowboys on their horses rounding up the different coloured cows. Oh yes and the other thing to mention is the termites mounds, enormous and everywhere, we had to stop and get pictures of us standing next to a termite mound that was taller then us (not that difficult to find).
Once we got to Chillagoe, we did a cave tour - amazing stuff but back to nature again it was the bats, the queensland nuisance toad, and the huntsman spider. Did u know that a Feral Cats each bats, when a bat poos, the cockroach then eats it, cockroachs are eaten by Huntsman spiders and then other things eat the spiders.
At the tourist information centre we were given a map of Chillagoe and the attractions. This includes the rubbish tip (bit short of attractions). A shop where I had a Chillagoe special burger, which i was hoping may have had some sort of Chilli on it, but it was a burger with absolutely everything on it, including beetroot.
The next stop in Chillagoe was the historic copper smelter ruins, that didnt really do anything for us. We did however get recommended to find the bp garage and look at the cars around the back. I did kind of imagine that this was going to be some posh garage with some lovely shiny cars around the back all lined up nicely. Nope it was this old mans yard who was about 80 who had a stack of restored Ford cars and wagons and then a stack of scraped cars. He was a very interesting man, who talked very strangely but seems to be a local legend.
In the evening we drove back to Cairns and stayed in the cheapest motel place we have stayed in in Aussie called Bayview hotel. It was hanging but it was $65(£30). We did however spend $80 on our last Aussie meal. I had Kangaroo fillets, and Simon had pork wellington???.
Loved Cairns, loved the Outback, loved in the end Aussie. Hope to come back at some stage to see Andy/Allison and Amy and/or to go to Josephines and Nicks wedding that may happen in a couple of years. Roll on ASIA.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Amy the little cutie
Quiet day today, the day before we fly to Cairns so wanted to sort out some bits and bobs. We met Andy for lunch up in Mareeba. We then went for a walk to a waterfall which yep had amazing views of the mountains, did not see much of the waterfall. Had a good walk around the track though.
In the evening we all went out for a posh meal together. We had oysters for starters which is something ive been wanting to try for ages. The meal was gorgeous. The restaurant was great though as even though it was posh it wasnt a problem with Amy being with us and she was quite happy playing with her Dora bag climbing up and down the chairs and in general entertaining herself with eating a bread roll. What we did however discover when we got back was that she had managed to put the restaurant menu in her dora bag, and in her dora backpack was a fork and spoon. Hahaha little cutie.
Crikey Simon stroked a baby wombat
Today was the day for visiting Australia Zoo, again its all about the nature again, just wait until we get to Singapore and its shopping galore.
Australia Zoo is the zoo created by Steve Irwin and its very obvious when you walk around that he made a huge impact at this zoo. The supposedly highlight of the day was the Croc show, however if im honest and i think Simon agrees it wasnt that great. It had some elephants, birds and snakes but the thing we was waiting for was the Crocs, and all we got was one croc who wasnt in the mood to play with the guy so only jumped out of the water once which really was a little disappointing.
The actual highlight for Simon of the day was him feeding a wombat. Simon being the gentlemen that he is, went into the area to feed them and let the other 5 people (women and kids mind) choose their wombat and he got the last one that nobody wanted, which was the baby one. Simon claimed though thats the one he wanted as it was the cutiest one, the picture we have got is so cute of the 2 of them.
My highlight of the day was feeding the elephants fruit out of my hand - that was cool.
Lots of Koalas and Kangaroos, and its like we are so over them now, yep they are mega cute especially the Koalas but we have seen them in the wild which is way cooler then seeing them in the zoo.
The otters were pretty cute as well, clever little things when they know they are going to get fed and its interesting to see that they have personalities and will react in certain ways for food.
Been a bit disappointed with the weather as its given Andy reason for not doing a bbq which really would have been cool as we wanted to see him being a true Aussie. Hes bought the flag, hes still pecking on about how great the place is. Him doing a bbq would have completed the true wannabie Aussie that he wants to be.
Before we went to the Zoo today Andy showed us the house that they had been thinking about buying. It was a beautiful place, 4 bedrooms, amazing views from the balconies, pool table. It was amazing to think that with Andy and Allison moving here this is the type of house that has everything you could want for and its at an affordable price.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Wild Whales and Koalas
After Andrea's loo drama and dicky tummy, we did Fraser Island and then some Whale Watching. It was another early start to get to the boat for 8. We weren't really expecting much from the whale watching as it was the start of the whale season where they travel from the Whitsundays down to Hervey bay/Fraser Island to rear their young. The journey there was quite good as there was a few pods of dolphins traveling alongside us jumping out of the water and also swimming sideways alongside the boat so they could see everyone taking pictures and waving. :)
Then it was a little traveling around looking for signs of whale activity and watching grass growing too. We'd pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren't gonna see any, when on the radio another tour broadcasts that they've found one. All of a sudden about five big whale watching boats descend on the location and lo and behold it was a baby humpback whale :) The boats had to keep a distance from the whale, but it was pretty impressive nonetheless. It kept coming up to the surface and doing the tail thing and having a nosey at the boats too, it didn't jump out of the water though. We also saw a big sea turtle whilst looking at the whale, which was a bonus. There wasn't much else to this trip to report on, other than the "fantastic" underwater viewing room downstairs on the boat. This consisted of going to the bottom of the boat and lying down to peer out of these portholes ! Not the underwater spectacle we were expecting.
After returning back to the harbor, it was time for the 3 hour drive back down to Andy and Allison's place. The next day it was a day trip around the area with Andy and Allison. Alistair was down in Brisbane preparing for his lawyer exam so it was just the four of us plus Amy! The first part of our journey was to have a look at the house that Andy and Allison were interested in. The place was absolutely stunning with ocean views, the only problem with it was the fact that it was on the side of a hill, which meant a steep incline on the garden and it also wasn't very Amy friendly. It never had a pool either and would of involved a lot of work getting one put in. For Aussie Andy the pool is a must. Leaving here, we then decided to set off for Noosa Heads, but first Amy gave everyone quite a scare by waking up screaming and holding her head, so we headed for the hospital at Nambour. By the time we got to Nambour though, Amy's distress had subsided. We decided to have a Mac lunch in the area so they could keep an eye on her, she was fine though. I must admit it must be hard being a parent and a doctor, I think that all sorts of terrible things must of gone through Allison's head when Amy was in distress. Not that i'm a parent (unless you include my cats), i would honestly say that ignorance is bliss in instances like this.
With a decidedly chirpy Amy, we then headed for Noosa Heads. We went for a walk in the nature reserve there and actually saw our first wild koala ! That was really impressive. I think you can tell when your close to a koala because you get this overwhelming smell of eucalyptus and poo, that's a good tip that David Attenbourough would be proud of. :) Walking back to the car through the park, we then saw a pair of wild Tawny Frogmouths, wow! They were snuggled up together on a branch. Noosa heads itself is a very posh place and has some very famous people that live there. Having a beer and a bit of window shopping we then headed back home.
Then it was a little traveling around looking for signs of whale activity and watching grass growing too. We'd pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren't gonna see any, when on the radio another tour broadcasts that they've found one. All of a sudden about five big whale watching boats descend on the location and lo and behold it was a baby humpback whale :) The boats had to keep a distance from the whale, but it was pretty impressive nonetheless. It kept coming up to the surface and doing the tail thing and having a nosey at the boats too, it didn't jump out of the water though. We also saw a big sea turtle whilst looking at the whale, which was a bonus. There wasn't much else to this trip to report on, other than the "fantastic" underwater viewing room downstairs on the boat. This consisted of going to the bottom of the boat and lying down to peer out of these portholes ! Not the underwater spectacle we were expecting.
After returning back to the harbor, it was time for the 3 hour drive back down to Andy and Allison's place. The next day it was a day trip around the area with Andy and Allison. Alistair was down in Brisbane preparing for his lawyer exam so it was just the four of us plus Amy! The first part of our journey was to have a look at the house that Andy and Allison were interested in. The place was absolutely stunning with ocean views, the only problem with it was the fact that it was on the side of a hill, which meant a steep incline on the garden and it also wasn't very Amy friendly. It never had a pool either and would of involved a lot of work getting one put in. For Aussie Andy the pool is a must. Leaving here, we then decided to set off for Noosa Heads, but first Amy gave everyone quite a scare by waking up screaming and holding her head, so we headed for the hospital at Nambour. By the time we got to Nambour though, Amy's distress had subsided. We decided to have a Mac lunch in the area so they could keep an eye on her, she was fine though. I must admit it must be hard being a parent and a doctor, I think that all sorts of terrible things must of gone through Allison's head when Amy was in distress. Not that i'm a parent (unless you include my cats), i would honestly say that ignorance is bliss in instances like this.
With a decidedly chirpy Amy, we then headed for Noosa Heads. We went for a walk in the nature reserve there and actually saw our first wild koala ! That was really impressive. I think you can tell when your close to a koala because you get this overwhelming smell of eucalyptus and poo, that's a good tip that David Attenbourough would be proud of. :) Walking back to the car through the park, we then saw a pair of wild Tawny Frogmouths, wow! They were snuggled up together on a branch. Noosa heads itself is a very posh place and has some very famous people that live there. Having a beer and a bit of window shopping we then headed back home.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Two-wheel drive on Fraser Island
The plan was: Drive to Hervey bay Wednesday morning, go whale watching, drive down to rainbow beach feed the dolphins and then go over to Fraser Island. This was delayed though and we had to scrap rainbow beach and unfortunately returned back to Andy and Allison's Saturday evening when really we should have been back by Thursday, but with being ill i needed time to recover so we stayed an extra couple of days.
The only thing we managed to do on the first day was go to Hervey Bay Reef Park, which took about 30mins to get around and consisted of a big fish tank and a pool outside with some turtles that you could touch and a baby shark. We spent the majority of the next day in the room either sleeping or watching tv. We stayed at the Bay view hotel. Grumpy german owner but okay place for $75.
So we drove up Wednesday evening, did nothing Thursday and then got up at 5.30 Friday morning to go to the harbour to go over to Fraser Island. The only way to get around this island is to drive a 4 x 4 as the island is made completely by sand. We were therefore on a trip that consisted of 40 of us on a bus which had 4 wheel drive which the guide took great pains to tell us how it cost 600k to buy. The first road we went down is nicknamed the rollercoaster because it is such a drop down and is just pure sand. Its really weird to appreciate that the roads are all made of sand and its perfectly normal to drive up the beaches. What was even stranger is that only about an hour into our journey did the tour guide (Hayden) report to us that the 4 x4 drive electrics had broken and we were therefore now acting like a normal bus, which meant that we were very likely to get stuck in the sand if he wasnt careful. We therefore had to drive behind another bus and he would warn us when we came to soft sand and Hayden would have to drive extremely fast just to get through it and not get stuck. Very funny and added an extra element of fun which really if Hayden wasn't concentrating on this he would have been nattering about the trees which seemed to be his favourite subject. I'm all for nature (Simons converted me) but... i draw the line on trees. Im not going to get excited about trees.
The first stop we did was Lake McKenzie, this was a beautiful Lake which we were able to go in for a paddle, neither of us were brave enough for us to go into it for a full swim as it was probably one of the coldest mornings since we have been to Australia (apart from Tasmania). Which reminds me apparently the past couple of days have been the coldest the Sunshine coast has had in 30 years.
After lunch we went on to the 75 mile beach and drove along it. First stop was the coloured sands, and then a quick stop at the wreck of the Maheno and then down to Eli Creek. Me and Simon did both brave the water for this one and we walked up the creek and then swam down it. It was lovely and refreshing but still cold. When we were drying off at the bottom of the creek though we saw a dingo, which was amazing to see especially as reading about it there does only seem to be about 100-200 on the island.
We had to change buses at the end of the day as there was no way our broken bus would have been able to get us back to the other side of the airport through the sand, its stange that the island is just pure sand and even though all the roads are used they dont want to seal them and they want to keep them as natural paths. Good though. Because of the bus issues this meant we missed the boat back to Harvey Bay so they had to charter a boat especially for the 40 of us which was good.
The evening was spent in the local bar near to our hotel. Simon liked this place as its a good people watching place and there was lots of very drunk Aussies dancing away to the live singer/guitarist. Whale watching in the morningm so it was early to bed again.
The only thing we managed to do on the first day was go to Hervey Bay Reef Park, which took about 30mins to get around and consisted of a big fish tank and a pool outside with some turtles that you could touch and a baby shark. We spent the majority of the next day in the room either sleeping or watching tv. We stayed at the Bay view hotel. Grumpy german owner but okay place for $75.
So we drove up Wednesday evening, did nothing Thursday and then got up at 5.30 Friday morning to go to the harbour to go over to Fraser Island. The only way to get around this island is to drive a 4 x 4 as the island is made completely by sand. We were therefore on a trip that consisted of 40 of us on a bus which had 4 wheel drive which the guide took great pains to tell us how it cost 600k to buy. The first road we went down is nicknamed the rollercoaster because it is such a drop down and is just pure sand. Its really weird to appreciate that the roads are all made of sand and its perfectly normal to drive up the beaches. What was even stranger is that only about an hour into our journey did the tour guide (Hayden) report to us that the 4 x4 drive electrics had broken and we were therefore now acting like a normal bus, which meant that we were very likely to get stuck in the sand if he wasnt careful. We therefore had to drive behind another bus and he would warn us when we came to soft sand and Hayden would have to drive extremely fast just to get through it and not get stuck. Very funny and added an extra element of fun which really if Hayden wasn't concentrating on this he would have been nattering about the trees which seemed to be his favourite subject. I'm all for nature (Simons converted me) but... i draw the line on trees. Im not going to get excited about trees.
The first stop we did was Lake McKenzie, this was a beautiful Lake which we were able to go in for a paddle, neither of us were brave enough for us to go into it for a full swim as it was probably one of the coldest mornings since we have been to Australia (apart from Tasmania). Which reminds me apparently the past couple of days have been the coldest the Sunshine coast has had in 30 years.
After lunch we went on to the 75 mile beach and drove along it. First stop was the coloured sands, and then a quick stop at the wreck of the Maheno and then down to Eli Creek. Me and Simon did both brave the water for this one and we walked up the creek and then swam down it. It was lovely and refreshing but still cold. When we were drying off at the bottom of the creek though we saw a dingo, which was amazing to see especially as reading about it there does only seem to be about 100-200 on the island.
We had to change buses at the end of the day as there was no way our broken bus would have been able to get us back to the other side of the airport through the sand, its stange that the island is just pure sand and even though all the roads are used they dont want to seal them and they want to keep them as natural paths. Good though. Because of the bus issues this meant we missed the boat back to Harvey Bay so they had to charter a boat especially for the 40 of us which was good.
The evening was spent in the local bar near to our hotel. Simon liked this place as its a good people watching place and there was lots of very drunk Aussies dancing away to the live singer/guitarist. Whale watching in the morningm so it was early to bed again.
Beginning of trip home via Sunshine Coast
Well we have left Sydney now and its off to visit the next continent Asia. However, before that we have a pit stop of at Andy and Allisons at the Sunshine Coast. We are staying here until Wed 25th July.
On the Tuesday after we arrived we had a great day with the 4 A's - that being Andy, Allison, Amy and Allison's brother in law Allister. Andy drove us around showing us some of the sights of the area in particular the loo with a view at Mooloolaba. To be honest I could have done with moving in there for the next couple of days as I think i ate a bad jalapeño pepper (possibly) and was extremely ill and in bed moaning about a bad stomach. Anyway..
We went up in to the hills and went to this bar with the most amazing view. I cant remember where it was melamy or something but it was one of the best panaromic views i have seen with mountains on once side and the ocean on the other. We sat down and had a nice bottle of wine to celebrate the view.
After that Allison showed us where she worked and then we went to a bar near for a quick drink and a game of pool. We were advised by the staff that it would be advisable to sit in the pool room as adult entertainment would be appearing in the main bar. It was only a replica of Simons friday lunch time. Haha he cant get away from them.
Aimee is great. She is at that age where she is full of character and will repeat everything you say so i was teaching her to say 'Simon Rubbish' because we didnt bring out the cameras to take pictures of the view.
On the Tuesday after we arrived we had a great day with the 4 A's - that being Andy, Allison, Amy and Allison's brother in law Allister. Andy drove us around showing us some of the sights of the area in particular the loo with a view at Mooloolaba. To be honest I could have done with moving in there for the next couple of days as I think i ate a bad jalapeño pepper (possibly) and was extremely ill and in bed moaning about a bad stomach. Anyway..
We went up in to the hills and went to this bar with the most amazing view. I cant remember where it was melamy or something but it was one of the best panaromic views i have seen with mountains on once side and the ocean on the other. We sat down and had a nice bottle of wine to celebrate the view.
After that Allison showed us where she worked and then we went to a bar near for a quick drink and a game of pool. We were advised by the staff that it would be advisable to sit in the pool room as adult entertainment would be appearing in the main bar. It was only a replica of Simons friday lunch time. Haha he cant get away from them.
Aimee is great. She is at that age where she is full of character and will repeat everything you say so i was teaching her to say 'Simon Rubbish' because we didnt bring out the cameras to take pictures of the view.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Leaving Las Sydney.
It's kinda strange really, of all the time we've been here we haven't really bonded with Sydney. OK, the Opera House and the Bridge are pretty amazing and the skyline is really good, but there was nothing apart from that that really made it standout from Manchester. Err, ignoring the weather of course. But the moment we decided to start our journey back to the UK, we started to see the city in a different light, the Opera House looked whiter and not a dirty cream colour, the bridge stood magnificently on the harbor and not just stuck there. The upside of this time limit on Sydney was that we've managed to squeeze in a lot of sight seeing and pub quizzes the past month. :)
Of course there was the leaving doos to consider too. Our last week in Sydney really did consist of Andrea and I chain-eating :) Andrea has had her leaving lunch, now it was my turn. I knew both Daniel and Gustavo were up to no good by the constant "Make sure your here on Friday lunch" comments and also "Make sure Andrea isn't about" ones too. With Andrea's company moving from the cockroach infested crows nest office to the very grand Atlassian office in the heart of the CBD in Sydney, there was the possibility that Andrea would be at home on Friday ! This came as a shock to Daniel who demanded that she makes sure she's working or just gets banned from home during the day. We all know the lovely pub i go to on Friday lunch times has great food and boobs, so it goes without saying that this is where we were going. I took my camera with me just in case. ;) It Turns out, my worries as to just how far Daniel could go, were unfounded. The "lady" spent the whole time with just one bloke that she knew and certainly didn't serve beer. The food was really good though and up to it's usual standard. Once we'd finished, Daniel dashed off to try one last ditch attempt at getting the girl to come over, turns out she was getting changed into her normal clothes to go home, so Daniel settled for the barmaid (Danni) that I get along with. As you can see, she very much has her clothes on...however, Andrea never knew this. Daniel decided to not tell Andrea about what happened and also banned myself from telling Andrea too, until Daniel had "done something". Andrea spent the whole weekend pestering me about it all. Saturday it was "What happened Simon?", Sunday it was "I'm you girlfriend Simon, I wont say anything, tell me?!", then Monday it was "If you've got boobs in your face or worse, I'll chop your *&%£ing %£*$ off !". I'll get back to this thread later, but for now i'll continue with the weekend of eating.
Saturday was a night out with Nick and Josephine to say goodbye, it was a good evening. The highlight of the evening for Andrea was getting refused entry into a bar because both her and Josephine looked under age, we went to another and they asked the same question but were a bit more reasonable.
Sunday, Andrea and I spent the last full day sightseeing Sydney again. We took a ferry to Manly. Wandered round the botanical Gardens, went to the opera house, and shopped in The Rocks. Then it was back to the flat for the last of the packing and a big meal provided by the Brazilians, a big piece of rump marinated in red wine, garlic and onions...very good, and a fun filled evening :)
Monday, Myself, Andrea, Daniel, and Gustavo all went for Yum Cha (pronounced Yum Chow for those from Bury). It's like an Asian tapas and is very good :) After lunch we got back to the apartment where Daniel and Gustavo shot off to get something done, then came back and presented Andrea with a photo album containing the photo's in this set. After the comments from Andrea earlier on Monday, she finally saw what really happened at the pub which was, err.. nothing :)
Of course there was the leaving doos to consider too. Our last week in Sydney really did consist of Andrea and I chain-eating :) Andrea has had her leaving lunch, now it was my turn. I knew both Daniel and Gustavo were up to no good by the constant "Make sure your here on Friday lunch" comments and also "Make sure Andrea isn't about" ones too. With Andrea's company moving from the cockroach infested crows nest office to the very grand Atlassian office in the heart of the CBD in Sydney, there was the possibility that Andrea would be at home on Friday ! This came as a shock to Daniel who demanded that she makes sure she's working or just gets banned from home during the day. We all know the lovely pub i go to on Friday lunch times has great food and boobs, so it goes without saying that this is where we were going. I took my camera with me just in case. ;) It Turns out, my worries as to just how far Daniel could go, were unfounded. The "lady" spent the whole time with just one bloke that she knew and certainly didn't serve beer. The food was really good though and up to it's usual standard. Once we'd finished, Daniel dashed off to try one last ditch attempt at getting the girl to come over, turns out she was getting changed into her normal clothes to go home, so Daniel settled for the barmaid (Danni) that I get along with. As you can see, she very much has her clothes on...however, Andrea never knew this. Daniel decided to not tell Andrea about what happened and also banned myself from telling Andrea too, until Daniel had "done something". Andrea spent the whole weekend pestering me about it all. Saturday it was "What happened Simon?", Sunday it was "I'm you girlfriend Simon, I wont say anything, tell me?!", then Monday it was "If you've got boobs in your face or worse, I'll chop your *&%£ing %£*$ off !". I'll get back to this thread later, but for now i'll continue with the weekend of eating.
Saturday was a night out with Nick and Josephine to say goodbye, it was a good evening. The highlight of the evening for Andrea was getting refused entry into a bar because both her and Josephine looked under age, we went to another and they asked the same question but were a bit more reasonable.
Sunday, Andrea and I spent the last full day sightseeing Sydney again. We took a ferry to Manly. Wandered round the botanical Gardens, went to the opera house, and shopped in The Rocks. Then it was back to the flat for the last of the packing and a big meal provided by the Brazilians, a big piece of rump marinated in red wine, garlic and onions...very good, and a fun filled evening :)
Monday, Myself, Andrea, Daniel, and Gustavo all went for Yum Cha (pronounced Yum Chow for those from Bury). It's like an Asian tapas and is very good :) After lunch we got back to the apartment where Daniel and Gustavo shot off to get something done, then came back and presented Andrea with a photo album containing the photo's in this set. After the comments from Andrea earlier on Monday, she finally saw what really happened at the pub which was, err.. nothing :)
Sunday, July 15, 2007
The phantom crossword puzzler on my last day
Well this is out last week in Sydney, and therefore my last week in work. Which of course is a happy moment, but as Simon will agree. After eventually really disliking the job i got to know the people i worked with and got on with them really well. Me and Nick would always have our mini arguements but that was part of us being seen as the other married couple. Pete and Brendan being the other not Pete and Michelle. Because of the quiz night Simon got to know them as well so i would consider them more as friends not work colleagues and really i dont think the amount of work we did could amount to much. Its strange how having lunch and doing the quick and doing the cyptic crossword will take a couple of hours. My last couple of days was even slacker because as they had been taken over by a bigger company, we were supposedly packing te office up, which we didnt do. I did however put all the old newspapers away into a bag for recycling, which accidently i put in the last days paperwork and we hadnt done the crossword. Major crime. Now that was considered a major crime, but Nick topped this and was sentanced to solitude because we discovered that he had already started the crossword on the train and did the target, on my last day. He tried to say someone at the newsagent must of done it and then put the crossword back. We were all pretty disgusted by this and we just could not get into the mode of crossword answering - pretty serious stuff this :-) We gave him a guilt trip all day and as we pointed out the fact that i had threw the paper away originally and had to rummage threw the papers to get it back gave him a perfectly good reason to buy a new paper and nobody would have been any the wiser to his crimes. Wally.
When i did eventually leave the all gave me a hug which was nice. Im going to particular miss Michelle as it was so nice working with a woman for a change and even though she was the bosses wife, she didnt act like it, so i didnt feel threatened by her.
They have also said that if we come back to Australia that they would put in a damn good word for us in this new company and if its in 3 years time when they have made there millions, we can then work for there new company. Which really as they are going to have millions each im not really sure what that would be.
Definatly end of a strange work life for me: I learnt a lot of things:
When i did eventually leave the all gave me a hug which was nice. Im going to particular miss Michelle as it was so nice working with a woman for a change and even though she was the bosses wife, she didnt act like it, so i didnt feel threatened by her.
They have also said that if we come back to Australia that they would put in a damn good word for us in this new company and if its in 3 years time when they have made there millions, we can then work for there new company. Which really as they are going to have millions each im not really sure what that would be.
Definatly end of a strange work life for me: I learnt a lot of things:
- Technical skills, Microsoft V Apple
- justified (again) that developers are pain in the butts at times,
- learnt that companies do succeed and have happy endings (tainted by the kms era),
- I tried to to play a part in doing the SMH crossword, i have even learnt how to do cyptic crosswords as well.
- learnt that there are some very intelligent people in the world and i think most of them worked in my office, and i therefore was the dippy english girl, who they loved taking the mick of, accent wise.
- I also and this one is for Grandma, Win and Bern, learnt that when i say words that begin with H i miss the letter H off. No wonder people dont understand me.
- I learnt that http://www.thesuperficial.com/ is a good site to get gossip from
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Dam it !
On the Last day in Tasmania we got up early to start the long drive to Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder. With stops for pies and water (and filling up the tire with air), we managed to make it in 3 hours. For Andrea and I, it's the best of both worlds here, i get awe inspired by the nature around and Andrea feels the same about the Dam and what a monument of engineering it is. It's a world heritage area which has some amazing views for miles of mountains and untouched temperate rain forest (apart from the dam). Both of the lakes are enormous. Driving about here was good too as we tended to see another car every hour and the roads were nice and bendy. I can imagine it'd be great drive on a motorcycle. Getting to the Dam, and a well earned toilet break, we realised just how tall it is. The problem for Andrea was getting down to the dam as it meant that she needed to navigate the metal stairs with holes in. Andrea hates these at the best of times, but when you've got a big drop below you it made it doubly so, at least she didn't have her heels on. ;) The dam itself was impressive, but...err...it was just a dam. The views were amazing here too. Hitting the road again, after catching our breath from the stair climb, we started to head back on our journey to the airport. We stopped at a place called Strathgordon which i think serves as tourist accommodation for the lakes and a place for some of the workers at the dam to stay. Population 75 ! The fact that they have a wikipedia entry shows how boring it must be, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathgordon, although not boring enough to include a picture ;)
The driving today was that Andrea would do the more built up areas that needed navigation, and when it hit the country roads i'd take over. It makes it sound like we'd be swapping all the time, but it was only the once each way. We had an hour to kill on the way back so we stopped off at Russell Falls, it was a 20 minute hike into the rain forest to these amazing waterfalls. On the way there was some wallabies munching on the vegetation. It's still strange to see these really weird creatures in the wild in Australia. The visitor center was asking for people to keep an eye out for platypuses(? or platypi) as they wanted to track their numbers and times. We spent ages looking for the things, but to avail, they just weren't gonna perform for us today. ;( The waterfalls were really good though, even Andrea was bowled over at how beautiful it was...too cold for Andrea to mimic the Timotei advert though.
After this stop, it was pretty much straight back to the airport with a detour 'cause Andrea took the wrong lane somewhere. My fault of course as i was navigating so should of told Andrea "Colin McRea" Popplewell where to go! ;)
My personal view of Tasmania, is that the place is amazing and pretty much untouched by tourists. Its leaving me wanting to come back again. :)
The driving today was that Andrea would do the more built up areas that needed navigation, and when it hit the country roads i'd take over. It makes it sound like we'd be swapping all the time, but it was only the once each way. We had an hour to kill on the way back so we stopped off at Russell Falls, it was a 20 minute hike into the rain forest to these amazing waterfalls. On the way there was some wallabies munching on the vegetation. It's still strange to see these really weird creatures in the wild in Australia. The visitor center was asking for people to keep an eye out for platypuses(? or platypi) as they wanted to track their numbers and times. We spent ages looking for the things, but to avail, they just weren't gonna perform for us today. ;( The waterfalls were really good though, even Andrea was bowled over at how beautiful it was...too cold for Andrea to mimic the Timotei advert though.
After this stop, it was pretty much straight back to the airport with a detour 'cause Andrea took the wrong lane somewhere. My fault of course as i was navigating so should of told Andrea "Colin McRea" Popplewell where to go! ;)
My personal view of Tasmania, is that the place is amazing and pretty much untouched by tourists. Its leaving me wanting to come back again. :)
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Tasmania Devils and Ghosts
Just got back from a long weekend of 900k of driving. We went to Tasmania and had a great time. Tasmania apparently causes sniggers for Aussies because its shaped like the bikini area and apparently you are not to ask for a map of the area!
We arrived Friday evening at Hobart Airport and got into our zippy (but with a slow puncture) manual Toyota Yaris and after having the initial problem of, ehrm how do you drive a manual car? we were away. We seem to have come to an agreement throughout this journey that as i get car sick reading, and Simon thinks i cant read a map that if we dont know where we are going i drive and when its in the dark or the return journey Simon drives. I also admit im a rubbish passenger, i want to shout BREAK all the time.
Anyway, Friday we booked into a really tacky Best Western that was half price so we got that for $80(£35) and went for food at the really happening place (thats what it said on the signs) Glenrochy. It was a dead town and the only real lights in the place was for the dominos pizza that Simon zoomed in on. In the end they took so long makin his food and ended up burning it, he got a free pizza.
We got woken up at 1 in the morning by the loudest alarm i have ever heard in my life. Simon was running round the room naked saying what shall i do, what shall i do. It switched of after a bit. We think it was a car's alarm that was parked directly outside our room. Simon normally sleeps through anything so it was funny to see him rattled by it.
Saturday morning was spent at Salamanca Market in the middle of Hobart. I got a little obsessed with the stalls selling wooden bowls and kept wanting to buy things. We ended up buying a wooden ashtray bowl thingy. Totally impractical and will probably hate it for $35 and a pink and black polka dot bowl that smells of something.
In the afternoon we made our way slowly over to the SE area of Tasmania to Port Arthur Pennisula and took in the amazing???? pavement lookalikey stones near the waters edge at EagleHawk. At this stage we started to think about where to stay for the evening and wanted to ring up Best Western to get the half price hotels(but no mobile phone signal) or reading the lonely planet guide when we realised that we were packed directly in front of the hotel that we wanted, coincidentally. We managed to book the Lufra Hotel for bargain price of $65 and it had a sea view which apparently is the best view in the world, but even better then that was that it had electric blankets.
For the rest of the afternoon we went to the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary, which really had nothing to shout about apart from Tasmanian Devils, which of course Simon being the soppy man that he is just loved them. They were very funny when they got feed as there are really cheeky little things pinching food of each other, but they are fierce as anything, i wouldnt like to come across one of them on a dark night.
In the evening we decided as we didnt have time to do Port Arthur during the day we would do a ghost tour instead around the prison town. Lydsey our guide took us around some of the buildings and of course told us how ghosts had been seen in different areas. What was so entertaining abut this, though was that Lyndsey decided that 3 of the women of the group had to be a lantern holder, and one of them was me and because we were at the front of the group me and Simon had to lead at times. At one instance Lyndsey had told us about a ghost in one of the buildings and then me and Simon had to walk up to the front door, open the door and walk inside. I made Simon go in first, lol. Lyndsey played a trick though on us and knocked on the door really loudly that made both of us jump.
What we didnt realise at the time was that Port Arthur was the source of a horrendous massacre in 1996 but there was no reference to this what so ever. I suspect our guide had been around at the time of this occuring but from a ghost story point of view they definatly dwell more on the ghosts from the 19th century which i gather from what ive read, understandably the guides find it difficult to talk about what happened in 1996. Our guide had even got married in the beautiful church thats in the town a couple of years ago.
Whilst I was driving to Port Arthur, Simon shouted STOP, very loudly and being the good driver that i am braked hard (he doesnt listen to me though when i say BREAK) only to see a Kangaroo jump across the road. How Simon saw it im really not sure. Further down the road we also had to stop for a little cute bandicoot.
Sunday was another get up early day and drive through Hobart and go SE, to go to the Tahune Airwalk park. We walked around the treetops and then Simon stood on the end bit that bounces up and down, i kind of did but got scared. The best bit though of the walk was walking across 2 swing bridges.
In the evening we stayed in Hobart (at another Best Western) and had a great mexican meal. I would say the food we have had in Tasmania is the best food we have had in Australia. Venison Sausages on Sat night, and massive mixed fahitas on Sunday and lots of rubbish throughout the days.
We arrived Friday evening at Hobart Airport and got into our zippy (but with a slow puncture) manual Toyota Yaris and after having the initial problem of, ehrm how do you drive a manual car? we were away. We seem to have come to an agreement throughout this journey that as i get car sick reading, and Simon thinks i cant read a map that if we dont know where we are going i drive and when its in the dark or the return journey Simon drives. I also admit im a rubbish passenger, i want to shout BREAK all the time.
Anyway, Friday we booked into a really tacky Best Western that was half price so we got that for $80(£35) and went for food at the really happening place (thats what it said on the signs) Glenrochy. It was a dead town and the only real lights in the place was for the dominos pizza that Simon zoomed in on. In the end they took so long makin his food and ended up burning it, he got a free pizza.
We got woken up at 1 in the morning by the loudest alarm i have ever heard in my life. Simon was running round the room naked saying what shall i do, what shall i do. It switched of after a bit. We think it was a car's alarm that was parked directly outside our room. Simon normally sleeps through anything so it was funny to see him rattled by it.
Saturday morning was spent at Salamanca Market in the middle of Hobart. I got a little obsessed with the stalls selling wooden bowls and kept wanting to buy things. We ended up buying a wooden ashtray bowl thingy. Totally impractical and will probably hate it for $35 and a pink and black polka dot bowl that smells of something.
In the afternoon we made our way slowly over to the SE area of Tasmania to Port Arthur Pennisula and took in the amazing???? pavement lookalikey stones near the waters edge at EagleHawk. At this stage we started to think about where to stay for the evening and wanted to ring up Best Western to get the half price hotels(but no mobile phone signal) or reading the lonely planet guide when we realised that we were packed directly in front of the hotel that we wanted, coincidentally. We managed to book the Lufra Hotel for bargain price of $65 and it had a sea view which apparently is the best view in the world, but even better then that was that it had electric blankets.
For the rest of the afternoon we went to the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary, which really had nothing to shout about apart from Tasmanian Devils, which of course Simon being the soppy man that he is just loved them. They were very funny when they got feed as there are really cheeky little things pinching food of each other, but they are fierce as anything, i wouldnt like to come across one of them on a dark night.
In the evening we decided as we didnt have time to do Port Arthur during the day we would do a ghost tour instead around the prison town. Lydsey our guide took us around some of the buildings and of course told us how ghosts had been seen in different areas. What was so entertaining abut this, though was that Lyndsey decided that 3 of the women of the group had to be a lantern holder, and one of them was me and because we were at the front of the group me and Simon had to lead at times. At one instance Lyndsey had told us about a ghost in one of the buildings and then me and Simon had to walk up to the front door, open the door and walk inside. I made Simon go in first, lol. Lyndsey played a trick though on us and knocked on the door really loudly that made both of us jump.
What we didnt realise at the time was that Port Arthur was the source of a horrendous massacre in 1996 but there was no reference to this what so ever. I suspect our guide had been around at the time of this occuring but from a ghost story point of view they definatly dwell more on the ghosts from the 19th century which i gather from what ive read, understandably the guides find it difficult to talk about what happened in 1996. Our guide had even got married in the beautiful church thats in the town a couple of years ago.
Whilst I was driving to Port Arthur, Simon shouted STOP, very loudly and being the good driver that i am braked hard (he doesnt listen to me though when i say BREAK) only to see a Kangaroo jump across the road. How Simon saw it im really not sure. Further down the road we also had to stop for a little cute bandicoot.
Sunday was another get up early day and drive through Hobart and go SE, to go to the Tahune Airwalk park. We walked around the treetops and then Simon stood on the end bit that bounces up and down, i kind of did but got scared. The best bit though of the walk was walking across 2 swing bridges.
In the evening we stayed in Hobart (at another Best Western) and had a great mexican meal. I would say the food we have had in Tasmania is the best food we have had in Australia. Venison Sausages on Sat night, and massive mixed fahitas on Sunday and lots of rubbish throughout the days.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Sand and Wine
This weekend we took advantage of the weather and hired a car, this time to head north to aussie geordie land...Newcastle :) It's about a 2 1/2 hour journey up there and we took the scenic route up route 1 and across to Gosford and up to The Entrance and north. By sheer fluke, this took us right past Lake Macquarie which is the largest salt water lake in Australia. It's probably the same size as the entire lake district or something, nature seems big here. We stopped off half way up the lake for a bite to eat (we made sandwiches, had apples, and stuff!!!) at Norah Head. We wandered down the beach so we could walk off the ham and cheese butties and get some shells in the process. In the rock pool was a massive pelican, Andrea called him "Sid" and fed him some crumbs from our butties. Sid had the most amazing eyes and was about the same size as Andrea, but not quite as big as me ;)
Burning daylight we headed to Newcastle. We're not really interested in Newcastle as it's quite an industrial town and there's not a lot to see....except for the Pasha Bulker in which some (I might be making this up) drunken sailor drove it into the beach. I mean the guy must of been really desperate for a kebab. It's been pretty big news here and thousands of people have been going up to see it and the attempts by the authorities to move it. As i write this now though, it has just been moved off the beach and onto deeper water (where it'll probably sink or something). If this was in Britain, the burger and ice cream vans would of taken full advantage of the crowds going there to watch. Much to the disgust of Andrea's belly, there was nothing here except for a Hare Krishna taking the opportunity to spread the word and give away free books. We also saw the Channel 10 network doing a news broadcast from the site though, which was nice.
We stopped over at Nelson Bay in Port Stephens. We'd heard a lot about this place as it was a hub for backpackers to go off elsewhere, much like Airlie Beach. So we found the cheapest possible Motel...very classy as it had genuine brick walls on the inside of the room! No bloody heating though as we found out. Anyway, we were both starving so had to hit the town. At 8:00 this place was a ghost town. Half the restaurants were closed, the only pub that was open was like some labour club. We ate at one of the few places open and then just went to the supermarket for some munchies (past the tramp and the tumbleweed) ;)
Up early the next day, having a one of Red Ned's pies for breakfast. This guy professes to have over 50 different pies and has won the best pie award in Australia, Andrea asked for a "cheese and onion" pie, but just got a gruff "no" in return. Andrea settled for a Kangaroo pie i had a mince beef and cheese one.
From here we traveled south to Anna Bay to see the massive sand dunes which are the largest in the southern hemisphere, they even had camel rides but it was too cold for that. It's also a place to see whales migrating at this time of year, but the sea was far too choppy to see anything.
On our journey west we mulled over the idea of heading north a bit to go to a place called "Stroud" which is twinned with my home town, but it was too much of a drive out of the way and some fancy wine tasting in the Hunter Valley beckoned. Even though we weren't going to actually buy anything we still managed to come out of the place with some cheese, chocolate and 8 bottles of wine. The place is full of really good vineyards, hotels and restaurants. Andrea said that i went all posh when discussing the wine with the sellers, i was just going along with it all and saying the words they wanted to hear :) We even saw some Passion Pop going cheap (if that's possible) ! After that it was the long journey back to Sydney stopping off for fish and chips and a traffic jam. We didn't realise it until the next day but the car absolutely stunk of fish, dropping the car off at the hire place i kinda left before they went inside it ;)
Burning daylight we headed to Newcastle. We're not really interested in Newcastle as it's quite an industrial town and there's not a lot to see....except for the Pasha Bulker in which some (I might be making this up) drunken sailor drove it into the beach. I mean the guy must of been really desperate for a kebab. It's been pretty big news here and thousands of people have been going up to see it and the attempts by the authorities to move it. As i write this now though, it has just been moved off the beach and onto deeper water (where it'll probably sink or something). If this was in Britain, the burger and ice cream vans would of taken full advantage of the crowds going there to watch. Much to the disgust of Andrea's belly, there was nothing here except for a Hare Krishna taking the opportunity to spread the word and give away free books. We also saw the Channel 10 network doing a news broadcast from the site though, which was nice.
We stopped over at Nelson Bay in Port Stephens. We'd heard a lot about this place as it was a hub for backpackers to go off elsewhere, much like Airlie Beach. So we found the cheapest possible Motel...very classy as it had genuine brick walls on the inside of the room! No bloody heating though as we found out. Anyway, we were both starving so had to hit the town. At 8:00 this place was a ghost town. Half the restaurants were closed, the only pub that was open was like some labour club. We ate at one of the few places open and then just went to the supermarket for some munchies (past the tramp and the tumbleweed) ;)
Up early the next day, having a one of Red Ned's pies for breakfast. This guy professes to have over 50 different pies and has won the best pie award in Australia, Andrea asked for a "cheese and onion" pie, but just got a gruff "no" in return. Andrea settled for a Kangaroo pie i had a mince beef and cheese one.
From here we traveled south to Anna Bay to see the massive sand dunes which are the largest in the southern hemisphere, they even had camel rides but it was too cold for that. It's also a place to see whales migrating at this time of year, but the sea was far too choppy to see anything.
On our journey west we mulled over the idea of heading north a bit to go to a place called "Stroud" which is twinned with my home town, but it was too much of a drive out of the way and some fancy wine tasting in the Hunter Valley beckoned. Even though we weren't going to actually buy anything we still managed to come out of the place with some cheese, chocolate and 8 bottles of wine. The place is full of really good vineyards, hotels and restaurants. Andrea said that i went all posh when discussing the wine with the sellers, i was just going along with it all and saying the words they wanted to hear :) We even saw some Passion Pop going cheap (if that's possible) ! After that it was the long journey back to Sydney stopping off for fish and chips and a traffic jam. We didn't realise it until the next day but the car absolutely stunk of fish, dropping the car off at the hire place i kinda left before they went inside it ;)
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