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Published: March 1st 2007
Flaming gallah!
Strewth-Me and Alf the legend!!Hi people, you wait 3 weeks on the edge of your seat for a blog and then 2 come along in a week, very bus like! I had to blog this one though, so many pictures to show, oh yes we met the legend that is Alf Stewart, Toadie (yawn I've already met him before, we're like, best mates or something!) and Steph-hotter in the flesh than on TV which was a bit weird!
Now the natural question is, what in Lords name was Alf Stewart, the Home and Away star and rival of Neighbours, doing at a Neighbours night. I don't know the answer, he was just there, and we were excited like school kids that he was, seriously it was embarassing. The guy was awesome though and even had a brief chat to us as he was apparently in Belfast for 11 weeks doing a play and recognised the accent on Andy. We resisted screaming Alf related sayings at him like 'you flaming gallah!' etc and instead uttered them behind his back and then watched him walk off with big grins on our faces, I presume he left to get supplies form Yabbie Creek...Before him we got our
Me and Toadie
He is faking the overly happy cheesy grin, I am not!! pictures done with Toadie, another great guy, shaking hands with us all on meeting and then posing for God knows how many cameras and pictures before we let him go. Despite us being one of the last to see him he was still all smiles and banter, and of course pulling stupid faces as is the norm when the boys are around. I was sad that it appeared he did not remember me from our meeting last time, I mean OK it was 2 1/2 years ago, and he does this once a month and must have seen a million people, but still I thought we had something special...still at least I didn't meet him last month like the boys and get forgotten, ha 1-0 to me in the camp Toadie dosen't remember me competition!! Last up was Steph, and I mean last up because we had to beg the bouncer guy with her for a picture about 3 seconds before she left the place. We had turned up fashionably late and so had a bad position without a table, naturally we stood at the bar but it meant we got seen last by everyone as the stars do the
Us and Steph
It was eventually decided that she DEFINETLY wanted me more tables first and then the randoms. Our meeting with Steph was literally about 5 seconds but from what i had seen of her all night she was really bubbly and lively, chatting with everyone etc. She was also (obviously for the men reading this!) very hot in real life and also tiny-clearly a bonus and marriage material in my eyes!! I will risk further camp/gay connotations by pointing out that this is now twice we have been to Neighbours night and that I am starting to worry we are turning into middle aged housewifes, however we are contemplating a third visit as the ratio was about 90% women ha ha!
Earlier in the week I also visited the Ice bar in Sydney, located right on the front near the Opera House and looking out to the Bridge. For those of you that don't know about it, the answer is really in the clue, a bar built of ummm ice! You have to don massive parka's (mine went down to about my ankles), gloves and for those in sandals-big fluffy boots. You are then led to the bar which was a little surreal but as expected I guess, some lovely
Us and Alf!
We were like school kids at this point! ice structures all carved out of ice surrounding the room. The chairs and tables were all made of ice and some covered in animal skin (don't know if it was real, animal lovers please don't send me abuse for sitting on it!) and you got cocktails to drink out of glasses also made of...yes you guessed it, ice! The temperature inside was -5 Celsius (hence the bar name!) and as you would expect pretty cold but not amazingly so due to the parka's and also the fact we are from the UK, cold? ice? tut we laugh in the face of minus 5!! Holding the drink was fricking cold on the old hands mind! The bar had good and bad aspects on reflection, it was only 30minutes in there and you couldn't take pictures with cocktails costing $15 (about 6quid). Naturally we ignored the rules and myself and Gav snuck off to take some sneaky pictures-well lets face it my blog is nothing without the pictures so I had to risk being chucked out!! Overall though it was really good and worth the money I think, a very surreal experience and a good laugh, we went there for Helen's birthday
Us and Toadie
Several cameras on us at once to ensure we had a decent picture can be confusing! (a friend from back home I have shown you in previous blogs) so it was good to meet up with them again and then we went for a night out after that with her, Kate and some randoms whose names I forget (hey its my memory we are talking about!).
In between the Ice bar and Neighbours was the rugby on Saturday-a looong day!First was the the Man United game at midnight, then there were 3 rugby games, the last of these being France Vs Wales starting at 7am Australia time!! Sadly staying up all night and getting drunk was the least of our problems! The night started off OK, we got to our good old faithfull local Scruffy Murphys and met up with Jane Scodwather, Hannah, Helen, Kate and a random Belfast friend of theirs who turned out to be a top guy and a good knowledge of bars thankfully! We got to see the football but rugby match days in Scruffys is always heaving, but this was Ireland vs England so the place was beyond busy, no space, no view of the TV and a nightmare for us being a huge queue to get to the bar.
We went to Plan B and went for the second local Irish bar (yes it must always be an Irish bar, its like a religion or something) and so off we went to Paddy McGuires. It was the same story there though and we stood in a queue for about 30minutes just to get near to getting in and then saw it was just as busy as Scruffys. After a quick meeting of minds (me, Andy and Gav cursing a lot and deciding we had enough) we went to Plan C and got a taxi back to Bondi Junction as there are a few pubs near us. Well 2 of them were closed and the main busy one called the Tea Gardens (naturally I love the place) was closing at 3am so no chance of watching the games. A mild panic now swept over us and there was lots more cursing, shaking of heads and fists at the injustice of it all etc. Then the Belfast boy had a brainwave, he knew of a 24hour sports bar in Kings Cross that usually wasn't that busy...salvation?? we hoped so! So off into yet another taxi to yet another part of town
The gathering that night
Trying to look glamourous with eskimo coats, gloves and boots on! we went and then we found it, a perfectly good sports bar that wasn't heaving, where we got a table in front of the bar and only had to queue about a minute to get a drink with about a million TV screens around-heaven! kind of. However as is life the fun didn't stop there, we got to see the tail end of Italy beating Scotland (wooo come on the Iti's!!) and then also got to see Ireland beat England by a massive score (wooooooo to that!). The place had got a bit busier by then and so there was a good atmosphere with most people doing the sensible thing i.e. wanting England to lose! However, then it went a bit pear shaped. Now it may just be me being stupid here, but does a TWENTY FOUR HOUR sports bar ever actually close? Apparently this one did, first of all they closed the bar at 5am, half way through the Ireland Vs England game, spot the logic there, a bar full of IRISH who drink masses and they close a bar half way through the game-way to lose some money people! Top management there. The place stayed open but the
Look-its ice!
Gav can strike a catalogue pose anywhere bar closed, and then after the Ireland game the 24HOUR BAR closed and chucked everyone out, before the Wales game started!! I was somewhat dismayed by this shall we say?! However after the hassle it had taken to get there in the first place, the 8 hours of drinking, and the fact it was 7am I bit the bullet and went home. A fitting end after a night of chaos like that! Moping somewhat I retreated home, rang my mates (must give a shout here to Haines, Yank and Rawlings, can't remember a word of what i said but was nice chatting guys, loving your work!!) and got them to text me the final score, maybe it was for the best I missed it as we lost, again!
And that my loyal reader is pretty much it, I mean its only been a week since I last blogged so you can't expect too much! The rest of the week was avoiding looking for a job and wasting days away, actually got in the sun a bit and then a few nights out, not too shabby! We did also see the QE2 ship that came along, the massive one that
I'd rather a cup of tea!
Me sat on an ice seat, drinking a cocktail from a glass made of ice, surrounded by ice, spot the theme! is the biggest in the world or something of that nature, it was pretty big news over here so I have attached some pics, it was huge! We didn't board it sadly as we are far too common and cheap for that. However, we have been living more like poshpackers these days, sitting in our fancy apartment with our pool on the roof, eating, drinking and taking it easy. We have actually been eating very well, Gav has turned out to be a master chef and has done us some great food, he cooks, I wash up and Andy oversees operations, a perfect working family! I have attached pictures showing the roast dinner we had, a culinary delight and beats pasta and pot noodles like those other lowly peasent backpackers! The Sheikh spits on such backpackers! Actually speaking of the Sheikh he is still lording it as ever, however me and Andy are planning a revolt as we are tired are living under such an opressive ruler and being persecuted on a daily basis. But the Sheikh has eyes and ears everywhere so keep this to yourself please, he is not so merciful when anrgy. A thousand apologies if you
Naked ice sculpture man
After careful studying of him up close we decided his ass was about 2 feet higher than the umm 'front' area, but it was made from ice so we let them off are reading this my Sheikh...
Other smaller news is Fight Club still missing in action and no word from him, we assume he is either lying in a field drinking goon or busy with his driving and celery, or all 3 at the same time. Jane Serenity Scodwather is also the same as ever, more comments from her on a daily basis, one such being Gav texting her to ask her if she could get us the number for the boss where she works as we are job hunting and her replying saying the boss wasn't in so couldn't speak to her, but should she get her number instead?? Other comments include seeing the rugby on the TV and the teams being NOR vs LEIC, now i admit that knowing that the teams were Northampton and Leicster might be a long shot, but assuming it was Norway and Liechtenstein is beyond silly. There have been many others too but I forget them now, they all tend to merge into one.
However Jane is not alone, I must mention a few quick indiscretions of our own as the boys will kill me otherwise. Most are ones you had to
The Shiekh lording it for a change
The new fan has lasted an entire week so far and thnakfully the wise and merciful sheikh has also bestowed a fan on Andy and myself, he is so good to us!A thoushand thank you's our Sheikh be there for but I will mention them anyway. Firstly we have Gav with a couple, he has been looking for a job and got the number of a boss in the call centre. He rang it and got her answer phone so of course left a message, and what a genius one it was too
"Hi my name is Gavin etc etc.. you can call me back, my mobile number is 0412 SH*T!!! thats the wrong number, i mean umm my number is 042.."
But there is more! He then had to go to an interview the next day, but he managed to get lost and go to the wrong building, ring the woman involved and ask to be buzzed in the building only for her to say he was on the wrong side of the road, wrong building and there was no buzzer. So let me recap, the job he was going for had 2 options, either call centre work or door to door selling, and Gavin had managed to swear down the phone at her and then get lost trying to find the right door!! and the worst part? he got the job doing the
Poshpacking!
Gav cooked us a roast dinner one night, hands off ladies he's mine! door to door, they will hire anyone these days. Another couple of his were drink related I admit but still funny as he was on the pull at the time, trying to chat to a not so hot barmaid. After a while me and Andy decided to do the just thing and swoop in, Gav drags me over and says, "Hey Mike meet this girl, you will NEVER guess where she is from it took me ages" "Umm Sweeden I reckon?" Cue Gavin hanging his head in shame and going red. It got worse, he then turns to Andy and says "This girl lives in Loeman you know", Andy never missed the opportunity for a wind up so says back "Thats near JaGardens I think" (a total made up lie) so Gavvy, smooth and as cool as you like, walks back over, leans on the bar with a big grin and a gleam in his eye and says "Sooooo you live near JaGardens then?" "Ummm no" Cue Gav shaking his head, cursing a lot and dying on the spot. Suffice to say he didn't get any further than that. Another night he also got thrown out of Scruffy Murphys (I
Look mum I am eating well!!
Roast beef, roast potatoes, mash and gravy :-) wasn't around at this point) but Andy eventually found him outside and asked what he was doing, Gavs response was thet he got thrown out, Andy obviously asked why and Gav replies "I don't know, I think its because I'm Irish, and Catholic", cue Andy running off and nearly starting a fight with and getting killed by a 7 foot bouncer, it turns out Gav had actually got thrown out for being too drunk and spilling his drinks everywhere-to this day he dosen't know where he got the Catholic line from, typical Gav.
However it appears I am not immune and the Irish are rubbing off, we came in drunk one night and Andy had bought a few chicken wings on the way home. I fancy one of those I thought and he duly obliged me with one. "Mmm I'm going to put this in bread I think" "No Mike you can't its a chicken wing" "mmm maybe I'll put some salad cream on it too" "No Mike its a chicken wing, it has a bone in it" Cut to me taking a massive bite into my bread and chicken sandwich, cursing loudly and saying "OW! This has got
More good eating
Chicken cooked in breadcrumbs, inside a roll with wedges and chips, he may be a Sheikh but he cooks well! a bone in it!!!". Andy has never let me forget it since!
OK thats me done, thanks again for all the readings and comments and emails, always great to hear, my total viewings of my blog is nearing 1000 now so either I'm doing something right or there are lots of bored people out there, I suspect its a mixture of the two. However, I do love the comments so please leave one if you read it, in the bottom left hand corner, for example so far my last blog has about 120 views and there are about 6 comments! Leave me some no matter how random as they make my day, and when you live under a dominant dictator like the Sheikh you need whatever small comforts you can get! Hope all are well back home and life is grand, all is good here as you can tell and ticking along nicely, just the job to get now!
Love and kisses to all
xx
HAPPY ST.DAVID'S DAY TO MY WELSH READERS OUT THERE! IECHYD DA!
P.S- Can I just say here my Welshies, I had always used Yakke-da to be the spelling for Cheers in
We're gonna need a bigger boat!
The not so small QE2 docked in between the Opera House and Harbour Bridge Welsh, however I looked it up on the net for the purpose of my blog and that's how its properly spelt, well I never!!
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Jasmin aka Jazz
non-member comment
Bursting At The Seams.....
Hey Mike, That was absolutely hilarious, I had to stop a few times and catch my breath....great read. I luv the pics and I have to say that the phone message that Gav left....that was priceless. Good luck with the job search. Take care and keep having a great time.