I have managed to land a 4 week contract working as a Financial Modeller. I will basically be building models in Excel and reviewing existing models. Starting tomorrow (Wednesday), and there is free booze EVERY Friday after work......! We went to the St. Paddy's Day parade here last Saturday, it was good craic with all the Irish coming out of the woodwork. They even had St. Patrick himself......on the back of UTE! Only in Oz ! Bought a crappy car yesterday to get us around (1986 Silver Holden Barina - now names the Silver Bullet), and used it to collect Andy [View Full Entry]

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Just back from Melbourne. Had a brilliant weekend down there and managed to meet up with everyone on Friday and Sunday nights for 2 wild sessions! The Grand Prix was excellent, noisy, but excellent! We moved positions during the race to check out a different vantage point. It's difficult to make out what is happening in the race unless you are in a spot where you can see a giant screen. Melbourne weather gets a double thumbs down, can't wait to get back to nice warm reliable Brisbane! Stayed with Ruth's great-aunt, which was great. Dale (aka Crazy D) drove us [View Full Entry]

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We signed the lease this morning, and moved into our appartment in Auchenflower. It's a beauty. Our bedroom has an ensuite and it's own little balcony. The lads will be sharing a room and have the use of the second bathroom. There is a decent sized lounge and seperate dining and kitchen areas. Off the living area is a huge balcony where we can play 5 a-side soccer !! It's fully furnished which is the business, and we have a garage downstairs for a car. There is also outdoor tables downstairs and a BBQ which anyone can use. We have a [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick one to say that I am still homeless and jobless! We have applied for a 2 bed appartment, fully furnished as well which is hard to come by here. Hope to hear back on that today. We are going to be living with ex Popstar Andy Orr (of Six fame), and Anto - a guy I played football with in DCU. They arrive in Brisbane on the 14th. Flying down to Melbourne tomorrow for the weekend to catch the Grand Prix. The Aussies we are staying with here are coming down as well (Dave - ex Pioneer colleague), [View Full Entry]

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The long overdue summary of my Asian trip has finally arrived! Hopefully this might give some pointers to those of you thinking of hitting that part of the world. So, without any further ado......... Favourite Country: Vietnam Hard to put my finger on why, I think it is just a combination of many things. From the crazy maze of street life in Hanoi to the blissful peace of the beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam has something for everyone. Great food, amazing people, propaganda played over loudspeakers on the street every day, an unbelievable history. Laos just pipped to the post here. [View Full Entry]

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I am currently in Singapore airport availing of the free internet access terminals. Tomorrow morning will be a new dawn in Australia which I am VERY excited about. Spent 4 nights here in Singapore. It's a nice city if a little bland. Drank a Singapore Sling in Raffles Hotel which is the touristy thing to do here, plus some other decent stuff. Sentosa Island is not bad, nice view from the cable car out to it. We were due to go on a night safari last night, but we ended up having too many beers in Molly Malone's Irish bar with [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Kuala Lumpur is fantastic, a beautiful city with lots to see. We have been here for 4 nights and leave on the night train to Singapore at 10:30pm tonight. Our accomodation was in the Allson Genesis Hotel which was very nice indeed. We paid 165RM a night for a lovely room. The location is also very convenient. Naturally we went to see the famous Petronas Towers here in KL, very impressive & the 2nd tallest building in the world (after Sears Tower in Chicago). Have done LOADS of shopping here, in fact we had to buy a wheely suitcas [View Full Entry]

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We left Langkawi yesterday after a great 3 nights on the island, it is truely beautiful and I hope to go back sometime when i have the money to enjoy it to the full. the season was wrong for scuba diving which was a pity. WE rented a car for one of the days and drove around the island abit. Went to an Oriental village which was nice, and went on the longest Cable Car in the world !!! it was pretty nerve jangling, but the view at the top was amazing..... Arrived on the island of Penang yesterday via ferry. [View Full Entry]

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We departed this morning, and reached a town called Trang without incident. We then learned we were the only 2 people who wanted to go to Langkawi so we would be getting a 'private car' rather than minibus....sounds glamourous? Picturing us in a nice air-con Mercedes? A 1960's Nissan *insert crap car name here* pulls up with the windows wound all the way down. Leather seats (HOT) no less.....but off we trot anyway. Made it in one piece and caught a ferry to our current location. Due to the Tsunami ruling out some islands and the West coast of Malaysia still [View Full Entry]

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Has been a while since my last update, so here goes: Left ghost-town Krabi and got a minibus (via 2 car ferries) to an island called Ko Lanta. We were told that it had not been badly damaged by Tsunami and that they were desperate for tourists to return as the people were struggling to make ends meet. It was really quiet in Ko Lanta. We stayed in one place for 2 nights way down the south of island where no one goes even when the island was busy, so we had the beach to ourselves there. The hut had a [View Full Entry]

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