The Oz landing

  Sydney, Australia
Sunday, October 1, 2006

G'DAY ALL!!!!

Finally got my finger out and decided to get this updated. Im sure you all have been wondering if we have went into hiding to try to evade the Thai authorities! Not true though, just been a bit lazy, too busy, plus digital camera was stolen in Singapore so havent had any photos to put up.

We arrived in Oz on the 1st Oct after our flight from Singapore. We (Melissa) must have looked a bit dodgy as we were the only people off our flight who were taken aside by the airport police - they did an extra search of our bags and asked us what we were doing in Oz! With Melissa's experience in matters like these, we decided not to say anything until we had access to a lawyer - only joking but you do start to question yourself and whether you do have something dodgy stored in your bag that you forget about!!! thankfully we got through no problem :)

the first couple of weeks in sydney were spent doing a combination of things - trying to get permanent accomodation sorted out (we were staying in the Wake Up hostel which was really nice but expensive for stayin long term), trying to get jobs, doing some sightseeing and visiting all the local Irish bars!!! Happy to report that most places over here have Guinness and its pretty good standard as well. so anybody who was worried about coming over here and not having access to good supply of quality Guinness can relax! unlike a so called Irish bar in Nelspruit, South Africa which ran out of guinness, what the hell is that about!! we've also seen the main touristy spots like Syndey harbour bridge, Opera house and Bondi beach. Bondi is a beautiful beach although gets a bit overcrowded

01 Gerry @ Sydney Opera House

02 City Centre

03 Opera House

04 Circular Quay

05 Sydney Harbour Bridge

06 Night sky at opera house

after looking at quite a few shitholes we got a place to stay near Coogee beach. Coogee beach is a smaller less busy version of Bondi so suits us well. we are sharing a 6 bedroom house with a Canadian couple (Jen and Alex), a German couple (Ute and Florian), 4 Frenchies (Simon, Isaballe, Kathleen and Yumani) and a New Yorker called Russell. house is pretty old but its close to the beach and the pub so that ticked all the right boxes for me!!!! everybody is really sound and we all get along well. We also got sorted for jobs, Melissa is working with a big legal firm called Freehills, and I got a job in IT support (MS Exchange engineer wooohoo). was tough getting back into work after 3 months off, but money is badly needed so no choice!

weather hasnt been great so far but its starting to pick up a bit now, was 27 degrees today so we are hoping that summer has started - time to get out the BBQ and get down the beach me thinks. the ozzies are really big into their outdoor stuff - theres a park near us called Centenial park, and every evening its packed with people running, playin footy, rugby, ozzie rules, frisbynig, eating and loads of other stuff. they have free public BBQs in places like the park and beside the beach as well which is really cool.


there are loads of irish people over here, its true that you will always meet someone from home out here. We were out in an Irish bar called PJ Obriens one evening and met 3 people from Roslea. couldnt believe it! also met an older guy from Newtownbutler who recognised Melissas Fermanagh top and introduced himself. he turned out to be the driver for the Irish ambassador over here. he introduced us to a load of people from the embassy including the Irish consulate for Australia Pat Scullion who is apparently one of the top dogs in the embassy!


anyway i think thats about all for now, will post some photos once we get snapping with the new camera

Take care,

Gerry