It's amazing how much you can see in ten days! We thought it would all be about the wine......how wrong we were! We had 2 weeks holidays for Christmas so on Stephen's Day Sean and I headed off to on massive roadtrip to South Australia. *Melbourne to Warrnambool This was a long day - we clocked up over 400km, setting off in the morning and getting to a campsite till late at night. We hugged the coast all the way and stopped off at lots of the 'sculptures' along the Great Ocean Road. At one point there was a koala on [View Full Entry]

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After living in Australia for two and half years it has taken me until now to visit Sydney! (I have been there with work but that doesn't count!) We had no plans for the long Easter weekend but at the last minute decided "why not drive to Sydney". Along the way we stopped off to have a look at the big sub in Holbrook - a submarine miles from any water! And the Big Merino in Goldburn! We left Melbourne at 5am on Friday and hoped to make it to the outskirts of Sydney that night. However, an early start on [View Full Entry]

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I went back to Ireland in February to see my family and Sean came along for the ride! First stop England After 27 hours of travelling we arrived in London and stayed with Lisa for the night. We were thoroughly exhausted when we arrived. Luckily it was late in the evening so we didn't have to stay up too long. The plane was a bit late so we missed out on going to a glam-rock gig with Lisa. Instead we had some food (dinner? breakfast? I'm not sure!) Giraffe by Spitalfields and then walked to see the "Gherkin" and the Lloyds [View Full Entry]

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Christmas this year was at Sean's parents house. There was a bit of a party first on Christmas eve. On Christmas Day we had turkey (and free range chicken for me!) which was roasted on the barbie. Yes you can roast stuff on a bbq (you just need one with a lid!). There was Christmas crackers, pudding and all the usual suspects. The weather - cold & rainy just like home!!! For New Year's Eve we headed over to Vedran's place for a bit of a barbie. We had KANGAROO!!! Yummy! For the countdown we went to North Brighton beach. From [View Full Entry]

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For my birthday this year we went to Lala Land on Chapel for a few drinks. Then it was off to Rutherglen for the weekend with Sean. The region is famous for it's wineries and gourmet food:). On Friday night we just made it as far as Wangaratta. We had breakfast there in the morning before slowly making it to Rutherglen. We stopped off in the historic little town of Chiltern on the way. It's like a town from a Western (it was actually used in a Disney movie). We visited the quaint homestead by the lake and had a look [View Full Entry]

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I haven't posted anything for a while so just thought I'd post a selection of photos to show you what I've been up to over the past few months. One of my last trips was camping at Ninety Mile Beach. Sean and I went for a long weekend but we came back after one night! A storm brewed during the night and the fly came of the tent so it wasn't much fun. The wind the next day was just too much as well. Far too cold to be outside so came back to Melbourne. There's some pictures of the new [View Full Entry]

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Lucky got a promotion and which meant he had to exchange Melbourne for the big metropolis of Sydney. Before he left we couldn't resist having a party (any excuse!). It was also a leaving party for Sean and I as we were moving out of Union St to another place the other side of Chapel St. [View Full Entry]

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MORE PHOTOS TO BE ADDED SOON For Easter I went to the 17th Annual East Coast International Blues and Roots Music Festival with Sean. It's held in Byron Bay about two hours south of Brisbane. Day 1: Wednesday evening we caught a flight from Avalon airport to Brisbane. We got a cheap one so of course it was late and we didn't get to our hotel till after 1 that night:(. Day 2: The next morning we got up early to catch the bus to Byron Bay. We had a bit of spare time after checking in so we left our [View Full Entry]

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Friday was Paddy's Day and to celebrate we headed to Bridie O'Reilly's on Chapel. This is where I went last year and had a fantastic time. However, this year was a little different. They played no Irish music at all except for a few token David Gray tracks, and had a really BAD U2 cover band playing for the night. So there was no Irish dancing, in fact not much dancing at all. Had a bit of fun but it was certainly no match on last year. [View Full Entry]

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Last night the Opening Ceremony for the 2006 Commonwealth was held in Melbourne. The newly renovated MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) was centre stage for the night with the limelight occasionally passing to the banks of the Yarra. Here a flotilla of fish (each country having a native fish represented) was watched by the thousands of spectators who wanted to experience the atmosphere of the games for free! Emma, Sean & I went to see if we could spot Mel who was taking part in the ceremony on the river. Don joined us later. At first the fish were impressive as they [View Full Entry]

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