WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!

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Its a been a while since the last blog. Im actually thinking, now I mean seriously thinking, about changing blog sites. Hold on you say? Don't be so foolish I hear! Has he forgotten the people that made him famous already says Cleve(typical). Has the male modelling career he should have had such a long time ago but things didn't go his way finally took off. Well, hold on I wont, foolish I shall not be, no Cleve I remember the people, and maybe on the modelling career but that's not it yet. This is a travel blog and our travels have ended a while. Yesterday we received our Permanent Residency, yes you read correct (I'm pretending we didn't already post it on Facebooky yesterday and you are all pretending you didn't like it). So before I end this family award winning blog machine I intend to, and do I will, write a 3 year recap..............of each day.



Feb 6th,2012- Day 1

It was a hot one, We just landed in Perth and be the lord jaysus it we felt it. Full of crazy abos, no jobs, vile hostel. We were slumdog millionaire-ing it.

Skipping a few days here and there and back and forth from now on the aul memory isn't what it used to be. 26 yesterday I know, may aswel be 86. Before we left ARE-land as a few 'Irish' people are getting to fond of saying(ill get back to that in a sec) a wise man by the name of Shane Mooney said he liked my first blog while drinking a cup of tea in Tarahill waiting on the school to finish. Shane then said to make sure I keep it up and don't forget about it once we get over here. Well SHOCK EFFIN SHOCK. I didn't keep it up......but I never forgot (how about that for a line in a movie). It was something I kept meaning to do but here's the embarrassing truth, we only bought a laptop last September, yes yes we went 2 years without a laptop. Let me just say a big congrats to the world of technology for kicking ass the last 2 years because i'm about 10years behind now. iCloud? WTF??? SD Cards(okay that one I should've known), USB's??? Getting a bit off track now but yeah I should have kept it up. I just looked up previous blogs and I seen that some of them(1) had 125 views. What the hell we're like celebrities.

After we moved out of The House of Gonzalo, we landed on our feet in a little unit as they say(its just a small house) because some durrrrty bitch was breaking her lease. I say durrrrty because the womans skirting boards were filthy and that's it for me. We've been here for 2 and a half years and its a lovely area really close to the Swan River and loads of mansions. Theres a few mansions on our road but ill be honest, the road is long and by the time you get to our....ahem....unit....its getting close to shanty town. Kiddin. Its worse than shanty town ha nah im kiddin its a beautiful area and one of the richest in Perth we really did get lucky living here. VERDY POSH. Myself and Rae Rae as I never call her are engaged. Yeah that went down. Aint no Biggie. Massive diamond on her finger whatevs. We're hopefully going to get married this year, just a quiet ceremony at a registry office maybe and then away for a holiday the 3 of us. 3 of us I hear you all say in unison !!! Yes we have a beautiful little girl, Leia, for those of you who don't know(pretend time again). Princess Leia as we call here. Theres a new sheriff in town and its definitely not me.

We've had a few visitors from home come and see us. Me nanny came over..........yep. So.......Laura(rachels sister) came over October just gone to meet Leia and see us which was lovely. We did all the touristy things and Laura did her own thing a lot walking down by the river and heading into the city for the hustle and bustle, everything went well and she had a great time and shes planning to come over maybe twice this year(money bags-gis a lend). Gemma came over for the birth of Leia for a month, it was great seeing her after so long. The month went by in such a blur. 28 days, 80 rolls of toilet roll, and 7438 full pint glasses of kia-ora left all over the house later she was gone. The night I came home after Leia was born(they kick the da's out early after seeing me kid for like an hour???????????) I was fall down tired hadn't slept in 2 days straight due to the unfortunate timing of Rachel going into labour which I felt was slightly selfish. It was old days once again as I fell asleep or tried to on the couch and Gemma, good aul Gem-meister, remembering her roles of years gone by, trying in vain to get me to go into bed before a fell fully asleep and woke up in the middle of the night like Frankenstein on the couch. Leia's birth, memorable obviously on its own merit for the significance of the day for both myself and Rachel. But cutting the cord aside. Changing her first nappy aside. Giving her her first bottle aside. Dressing her aside(I know I sound very greedy here but poor aul Rachel was preoccupied getting fixed up). Plus over here fathers cut the cord and change nappy and clothes so I just kinda stole the first feed. Yes, I am trying to justify my guilt here that I never thought about until now and am sortve ragah I brought up but Leia is a real mammies girl so it all worked out.....moving on.....Rachel was very very brave giving birth I was so proud of her. Men are not made for that sort of thing, that level of pain. I still to this day wince, close my legs and put my hands over my 'private' area in protection when I think of child birth. When I seen Leia for the first time she was obviously squashed looking, still red, had bits of the membrane still on her and she was screaming very loud which was a bit inconsiderate to my lack of sleep but I said nothing, but the 1st thing I noticed was she looked the exact image of me in a picture id seen of myself as a new-born. When I say exact, I mean 100% twin looking. It was weird but amazing. Even now at nearly 10 months old she still looks like me a lot, but I'm hoping she grows out of it by the time she goes to school because what girl wants to look like their da dressed in a dress?? Blue Ivy I hear?? God love that kid. So following the birth came the stitch up saga which again, still haunts me but not for the unsightly factor. No no. For my lack of manliness and for the shame I brought on my family. Picture this. Rachel had to get a small cut to get Leia out so when Leia was delivered they handed her to Rachel and THE MIDWIFE (she gets capitals because she was an animal) and Rachels student midwife, Kumsoon(real name), began the stitching up job. Kumsoon was new to it so she was a bit clumsy and at one stage during the panic she had her glove on and asked me to tear open a sterile packet of cloths but I had to not touch a certain part of them. Anyway, I shouldn't have been put in that situation is my defence. Sure enough I touched the wrong part and the look of disappointment on Kumsoon's face was very hard to take but I put on a tough front......Or so I thought( movie line #3). It got a bit hectic in there, the baby monitor was going off, im talking a siren here, the moniter is in the baby bed that they weigh and measure babies on but since it took so long for Leia to get there the alarm went off to say there was no kid on it. Actually that's what they told me but it sounds ridiculous writing about it. I smell a rat. Then THE MIDWIFE goes to me, ''push that green button behind Rachel's head!!''. She didn't say please, she meant business. So I get up, the button says EMERGENCY on it. I press it and about 5 seconds later the room is flooded with midwifes and a doctor or two. Im gona say the scene was nothing short of the opening clip from years ago of ER. A tad dramatic? Not quite enough!! They put me to the side of the room but all they did was give me a better which really meant worse view of the room. There was me poor love Rachel still up in stirrups holding Leia and smiling across the room to me oblivious to what was going on. GORE COMMENT ALERT. The blood was flowing out of Rachel like a milk carton on it side. I actually thought she was going to die. In my defence no one told me this was an every day thing and that it would all be okay. Im not proud of the next moment for me. I could feel my head getting a bit light heady and id never felt that before so I thought I better get out of the room and be out of the way. I stood up to get out of the room but as soon as I stood I could feel this weight pushing down on my head. I was too embarrassed to say anything to anyone but just as I was moving past the curtain towards the door(the door was open thank god) I was like screw it im asking for help. And as I was stumbling past the curtain halfway to the ground I poked a nurse on the back and said something along the lines of ''help me!!'' but I cant be sure what came out. That was it, I hit the ground like a big awkward mess and clattered my head on the floor. I wasn't 100% knocked out, a load of nurses were shaking my head and squeezing my cheeks so I wouldn't go unconscious. I could hear Rachel in the room panicked and screaming, shouting after me. I still feel awful, it was like I was trying to steal the limelight as I'm sure some nurses thought. So after a half an hour of them mammying me in the hallway giving me hot chocolate and making me feel like a child they let me up(yeah they wouldn't let me stand up) and go see Rachel and Leia. We had a little cry holding Leia, its very emotional,its hard to describe all the feeling you feel in those moments when you hold your child for the first time. Its something we will never forget and its there as the best day of our lives. And THE MIDWIFE made me feel so much better about the light headed moment as i'll call it. She says to me,''Couldnt you tell you were about to faint and tell someone?''. Ta for that.

Christmas Day -2014. Location-Perth Airport. Its time The Fambily came back togevah. We're talking Ma Lanigan, we're talking Cleve, there's Dyl, Niall has come along for the ride. And then out of nowhere, hunched down, wearing a hoody and moving towards us in a shady manner which would have made bin laden walking through an airport look like a bunch of happy nuns heading to Lourdes, is The Gem-meister. Rachel was howling and screaming. Yep. In an airport no less. Disgraceful ha kiddin. Australia is free range crazy and since that's what meat Cleve eats but there isn't much choice at home, we literally blended down the meat to liquid, all 47 stone of it and kept Cleve on a permanent meat drip for the 3 weeks. Only joking, 47 stone is insane. Myself and Rachel didn't know ourselves getting all the lie ins because Leia has taken to waking up at half 5 - 6 every day now and we needed rest badly. Dyl and Niall slept in the sitting room on camp beds which Id say are after doing there spine some serious long term damage but they had fun. We did so much over the 3 weeks. Kings Park and a picnic. Adventure World twice. Hillarys boat harbour a few times. Swan Valley Wine and Cheese tasting. Cottesloe Beach twice. Fremantle multiple times. CBD (city centre or Central Business District). Sunset on City Beach. Fed Kangaroos in John Forrest National Park. Leia's Christening. Multiple BBQ feasts by LE Chef Seamus(me). A great time was had. Myself, Cleve and Dylan went to the NIB stadium in the city to watch Perth Glory vs Adelaide United in a football match. An Irish player, Andy Keogh is the god over this way. Couldn't get a game with Scunthorpe but hes God over here. And that says nothing for the quality of football in Australia......NOT!!! It was a great day though, I actually surprised the 2 men, well one man and Dylan(thanks for the birthday msg pal :P - look at me with the smiley im catching up) they had no idea we were going to the game. What I actually told them was we were going to a ''sports bar'', with an ''open roof'', with a ''giant screen''. 'Hey, I wasn't lying, me and Cleve had a few pints so bar part filled in. We were walking towards the stadium with about 500 Perth Glory fans beside us, jerseys on. They still had no clue, it wasn't until were across the road from the stadium I told them....I felt bad.

Cottesloe Beach 15-01-2015. Voted 2nd best beach in the world 2009. No Lie. A bit embellished but I wont go into it but yeah, 2nd best beach 2009 worldwide. It was a happy day. A day of joy and fun. 2 days before the sad farewell so we thought we'd go the beach and have fun in what has to be the best waves any of us had ever felt, they were insane(aussi in me comin out). They were also far out( aussi again, I just mean awesome(still aussi), they were actually really close in). But scene is set. Its 3:35, we plan to go at 4 and go home and get ready for a farewell in dinner in Al Fornettos Italian Restaurant. ''Lets go in for 15 minutes'' some one says. ''Isnt that a swell idea'' adds Gemma id say, very Gemma. Myself and Rachel watched as they all ran down to the beach, Dyl included who beforehand hadn't gotten into the sea all holiday(typical moody teen who stays covered in a tent with a hoody over his face in 40 degree heat). The waves were rough, and hitting them hard. The sea was I was so jel and I'm talking in a major way. In the end Rachel knew I was dying to get in and made me go down( I was trying to be all daddy and packing up all the stuff but who was I foolin). Before I went down though id been watching this helicopter hovering very closely above all the swimmers, id heard of shark spotting helicopters but it never dawned on me they'd be in this close. I did say it to Rachel that there might be shark in the water with the helicopter but I more said it for the dramatic effect, if anyone knows me they'll vouch for that. So in I go. Waves were amazing, some were easily 10foot tall coming in and belting us. When they got you down they kept coming and hitting you and keeping you down. The adrenaline does be pumping, at least mine was anyway because as fun as it is its extremely dangerous and the current was stronger than any of us were used to and it could take you in a second if you weren't careful. Anyway I stupidly swam past the group( I wouldn't be an amazing swimmer as it is) to were I couldn't stand and the waves would lift you over them and you'd be floating whichever way the sea would take you. Sharp rocks below our feet so you wouldn't want to be coming down to hard....as Cleve found out with a lot of bruised and swollen toes. Out of nowhere the loudest and scariest siren goes off, I'm talking warning sirens during the London bombings in WW2 aint got shit on this siren(tad dramatic and maybe a tad insensitive). Needless to say its a shark siren. Cleve, unfortunately, was outside the water at the time taking pictures of us when the siren goes off. I remember screaming ''SHARK!!''. I think Gemma roared it as well. Lets just say if I was the furthest out when the siren went off I wasn't the last one back in, I'm ashamed to admit. I just remember swimming past people, pulling, tugging, punching, basically just trying to put as many bodies between me and the shark as possible. Kidding. Well sort've. There was no punching....I think. I just want to say to all my family in the water that day that I only acted that way because I knew we were all going to get out. When we got to shore the adrenaline was extra pumping, we were in hysterics. Definitely up there with the highlights of the holiday. Gemma (sister) and Dyl (brother) later found out that there was a 3.5 meter Tiger shark a couple of hundred meters up the beach heading towards us. I never liked getting into the sea water at home because I had a fear of sharks???? In 3 years in Australia I avoided the beach for the same reason, on my third trip to the beach in the month The Fambily were over I was finally getting over the fear and we get sirened out of the water because of a tiger shark. Last night I had an anxiety dream. Cleve had gotten these goggles for the water(this part is real life), the sea is so clear over here so he wanted them to see all the fishes and under water magic. My dream was that I was wearing those googles, on that day with the shark. I let the waves crash over my head as all The Fambily were around me. As my head went under the water I seen the shark coming straight for us using these super clear goggles. I woke up in a sweat. I lay in bed for a few minutes and thought, " what would I have done?".



They've all gone home now, minus Niall. He'll be going banana picking on the east coast tomorrow. Some might say he got a better offer. Some might say he got a calling by God to pick bananas in 40degree heat through lashings of rain but we may never know. Others may say he wanted a 2nd year visa but I wont, cant and refuse to speculate. Myself, Rachel and Leia will soon be on our toblerone again. We don't mind. Last night we watched the sunset in Cottesloe beach on the grass eating fish and chips and then went on a walk and got ice cream. Today, Australia Day, we went to Hillarys boat harbour and set up camp. We relaxed, read our books, took a swim, had a pizza and just enjoyed life.

Anyway, thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed it. I also hope I didn't ramble too much. Leave a comment if you want. If its family, don't bother because we talk all the time and it would be a bit fakey ha DO IT!



Live Long and Prosper,

The Rae, Jae, and Lae Express

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Photos

Summer Splashdown
Rachel putting on her medal

Swan Valley
Rachel and me wine tasting

Busselton Weekend away
Me and Leia about to walk the longest jetty in the world, with Rachel.

2 brothers
Re-united after 3 years for a sing song

New Years Eve 2014
The Fambily

New Years Eve 2014
Me and me Love

Perth Glory vs Adelaide United
Cleve, Dyl and Myself at the game. 37 degree heat

John Forrest National Park
City View

Comments

[angels davis]

Congrats on getting permanent residency loved reading your blog and catching up don't leave it so long next time :-)