Brisbane

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And where am I now I hear you ask.....well Brisbane! Queensland! Australia! And for the first time in a very long time I am happy to announce that my blogs have once again caught up with me! They are once again back in 'real' time! In the words of Fat Boy Slim..."Right here, right now"!!

And be it fortunately or unfortunately, for the first time in a long time I can no longer call myself a backpacker! For I now have a job! Oh that first morning wasn't an easy one! What’s this "having” to get up all about I ask you? I am not used to such restrictions on my sleeping patterns! Working life brings with it such demands on one! And what’s this about having to travel an hour to work? I thought I had all this left behind me in Ireland? But no it seems I have not! But I am glad to be doing it. I was really beginning to feel that I could do with a break from the "10 bed dorms" and living out of a rucksack! I had been searching for work for over a month....closer to two and well I was getting really depressed that there was nothing to be got out here. Ireland it seems is not the only place where the jobs are becoming few and far between.

But now I am back into the rat race again....no more wondering about in shorts and flip-flops Monday to Friday. Shiny shoes and pleated trousers have now been added to my collection of outfits (bringing the total to an amazing 4!) and I once again mingle seamlessly with the working minions of this world. As 7am approaches the drones that we are make our way by car or by bus or by train to our chosen place of work in an effort to contribute our bit and attempting to make this world a better place. This time I have cleverly disguised my talents as a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Officer for a major Gas distribution company. Basically they own thousands of kilometres of gas pipeline throughout Australia and as the men on the ground repair or upgrade the lines I get to add the information onto their electronic maps and into their databases Wooohooo! I hear you say! Aidan is once again in a role that will land him a Nobel prize! Always trying to save the world! (Yes, that was sarcasm on my part in case it passed any of you by!)

But enough about work.....where have I been in between the job hunting I hear you ask. Well to be honest with you, this shouldn't take long as I haven't been far! I wanted to but I knew the second I did I would get a call for an interview and not be able to make it. So I stayed around the Brisbane region since getting here from Lightning Ridge. For anyone in Ireland, remember Brad and Lin? Brad who I lived with in Drogheda once upon a time..you know Dr. Brad Ramori!!! Well anyway, I had been staying with Brad and Lin while I job hunting and they have been more than good to me. I have been treated like royalty; the best looked after backpacker in Australia without a doubt! Unfortunately Brad is busy with studies at the moment too and so has a very restricted social life but that being said, between himself, Lin and Liam and Lisa (Brad's brother and sister) I can safely say that I have at this stage left my own little impression on Brisbane’s social scene. We have done it all...from crazy golf in the hills around Brisbane to Cockroach racing right in the heart of the city. From 11am walks around the banks of the Brisbane river that meanders through the city centre to 11am beer drinking in many (and I mean many) of the cities pubs! Walking home from town has never been as much fun! You do realise it gets very hot here in Brisbane and it suffers from a very poor ozone layer and very VERY quick burn times (6 minutes) so you have to realise that it was for health reasons that we needed to stop off at each bar on the way home.....to get a break from the sun and to rehydrate the bodies of course!!!

But before we reverted to protecting ourselves from the sun in pubs we had tested Brad's car as a sun protection measure and had done a number of trips out of the city. The first trip was north of the city to a small little country town called "Pomona". This is set in beautiful rolling farmland and Brad's uncle owns a farm up there. We went up and spent a night there to celebrate Brad's cousin's birthday. The place was nothing less than idyllic in my eyes. Set at the end of a quite country lane, the house looked down at their farmland from the elevation of a hill and if the weather is good enough (its Queensland... it almost always is!) you get to spend your evening in the outdoor swimming pool in the back garden looking over the herds of cattle and stable of horses. Pure idyllic I say!

From there we headed to Noosa, Sunshine Coast. Famed for its beauty and slightly up-market visitor. You get the feeling that people here are not short of much. It was a really nice spot, although coming from Asia....it was far too clean or me!! And busy....this of course being the middle of summer in Australia, schools were out and there seemed to be only one place that they had headed to....the beach! So we kept out of the water there and headed further south towards Brisbane and to a quieter section of the Sunshine coast where we stopped off and had a dip in the water for ourselves. And I have never come across rougher water in my life. The "dump" of the waves, even the smallest waves is so strong that if you have not yourself fully braced for them they will grab you and send you head over shoulders in the water without warning. Thankfully it didn't happen to me but I saw it happen to quite a few people. For this reason the lifeguards have the beach well patrolled and you can only swim in a very small stretch of the beach where they can see you. That of course and the fact that everything in Australia is out to kill you...and marine life is no different! I'm talking about sharks! And that particular day a guy in the Gold coast (the southern/ opposite side of Brisbane from where we were) was attacked by a shark as he surfed in the water. But it is not just sharks...as I am writing this there is a news story on television about killer jelly fish after being spotted along the coast of Frazer Island, again north of Brisbane and not too far from where we were in Noosa. So for good reasons you don’t see many people swimming outside of the flags along the coast of Queensland!

The following weekend we took a trip down to Surfers Paradise and The Gold Coast. This is where, only a week before someone had been attacked by a shark.....so what did we do only go for a swim! But we made sure we were surrounded by a lot of children. In case of any trouble...we were confident that we could get out of the water faster than any of them and we felt safe that in general they were much easier picking than us for any passing sharks in search of a snack!! (joking...joking....there wasn't a lot of children......only a few!!!). And speaking of swimming....I thought Australian waters were meant to be warm? We nearly froze ourselves to death. God but it was cold. And this is coming from a guy who has been in the Atlantic Ocean in the month of October!! On the way back from the Gold coast, we stopped off and sampled what is an Australian institution.....Meat Pies! And not any old meat pie, but Yalata Meat Pies...famed to be the best in Queensland. While they were really really nice.....did I mention that they were really nice...they were however really really fattening and if this is an Australian institution (along with all the fast food outlets that are dotted at every street corner) then it is easy to see why Australia has now become the "fattest" country on the planet!

I won't bore you too much longer with what I have been getting up to. As you can imagine, it has quietened down a lot since I started working. I have anchored myself up now and glad to be replenishing the bank funds for a few months. I have moved into my own little place sharing with two others. It is almost right in the centre of the city and far to close to someplace that I can call a local!

My original plan as of last year when leaving Ireland was to move onto New Zealand come April and begin my journey home. But as you may have guessed, with no jobs to go home to and no signs of any out there, I really do have to contemplate whether that is a viable option for me at the moment. And that’s a little sad. It is great travelling and being away from home when it is your own free choice to do so but the moment it becomes something of a necessity things change just a little. The blue skies of Australia are not always as appealing all of a sudden and a slight longing grows to be fighting icy roads and avoiding rain showers in a cold and miserable Ireland once again. Mind you for the moment at least I know that I will be more than quite content in soaking up the sun on everyone’s behalf! I know I know....I am a martyr for you all! Exposing myself to those horrible rays of sunshine for your benefit! You can thank me later!!

I suppose I will finish this blog as I began...letting you know that I have finally brought my blogs around to real time once more. And hopefully I should be able to keep them that way for the foreseeable future....now that I am a boring old fart that works and sleeps...works and sleeps...works and sleeps! No more writing to you about something that happened two months ago! Mind you, now that I am no longer doing any travelling for a few months I am not quite sure that I will have anything to write that will be of interest to you. But if the demand is there I will gladly keep you up to date with "Life according to Aidan"...just say the word! But for tonight I better stop...it’s late and I have work in the morning!!

I think I am going to be sick!

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Photos

Brisbane City
The view 2 minutes from the door!

Liam, Lin & .....
We were trying to frighten the cockraches!

Comments

[Barbara]

welcome
hi aidan, well welcome to the inner circle of people who work... why should you have it better than the rest of us *gg*?? great to see you're enjoying urself in aussie land.. i'll have a pint for ya next week when i'm in miserable ireland as u so nicely put it..