My Place...in Newtown(20/01/07)

After much searching, and meeting some of the strangest people, I found a place....
Honestly it was quite trying...at one house I was interviewed while the share mates played risk and were asking me how to capture Ontario.. One girl at another house told me she didn't believe in TV because it was always "like bombarding me with so much like violence and hatred, I couldn't take it anymore"..ok, so it's like better to like block out the world....also as some of you know I have a slight attachment to tv(although here where you get all of 4 channels that's changed a bit)...
Anyways, my new place is in a suburb called Newtown, an artsy gay/lesbian area, which is really cool. I live with 3 kiwis (Nathan, Kat and Carl) they are really friendly, pics to come. It's great, three floors, my own bathroom and balcony,what a change from the hostels!!!! But cost of living is ridic here, I'm paying $162/wk(and that's considered cheap here), I saw some serious dumps for $200/wk...
Soooo glad I have a home!

New Year's Eve in Sydney AU(31/12/06)

New Year's Eve is a pretty huge thing here. In particular,watching the fireworks at the Harbor Bridge/Opera House is a big thing, and attracts massive crowds. We had heard you had to head down early to get a good spot so we headed down about 1:00pm, with some new Canadian friends to meet our German dorm-mates(Climens and Tina see pics) from the hostel...You can drink all you want, but if you have to use the toilets, you are totally screwed as I found out...I completely missed the first set of fireworks at 9pm even though I left for the toilets at 8:15pm and they were only about 100ft. away...it was absurd! The fireworks however were amazing they were all over the harbour and behind us on buildings...everywhere, not to mention they started them off with a Rufus W. tune...it was superb...

Christmas at Bondi Beach (Dec 23-26 2006)

Steve and I moved down to Bondi beach for the cmas holiday, because we heard it was a huge party and it's a beach...We met some pretty cool people and had a great time.. Christmas day was a little dull weather wise, beaches full of people wearing santa hats, apparently they don't really decorate here and only tacky people put up "fairy lights"(christmas lights)...bars shut fairly early and we just ended up watching "Bad Santa" on the tele....man did I wish I was home at that point....mmmm turkey and latkes...

Christmas at Aaron and Patty's (10/12/06)

I was lucky enough to have been invited to a true Christmas lunch with turkey and all the fixins' at my good friend Laura's(b-dot) brother's house, who came to Australia years ago on vacay and never left, and since married a lovely Australian Patty. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but fortunately I forgot my camera at their place and they took a couple for me...people in pics are friends of both, Aaron's in the blue on the left here, with Vicki, and Patty's ducking out in the background...thanks for the pics guys..

Week 1: Living With Trudy in Newtown

Gwen and Peaches(Top)
Hard to tell who, I think Trudy is in the red wig
More people in wigs..and Seamus(Cynthia's man)
Wigs for all!
Trudy and Peaches...Aussie flag tattoos...

For the 1st week that I arrived I stayed with a lovely girl named Trudy, who was a previous flatmate of my brother Brendan, when she lived in Dublin. She(and her flatmates Gwen(Eng) and Cynthia(Fr.)) were kind enough to let me stay at their beautiful terrace in Newtown. The 1st w/e I was here they were throwing an Australian BBQ, fancy dress was recommended, however most came plain clothed. I have some pics which I hope can illustrate how crazy Aussie bbqs can get...

The Flight to Australia (5/12/06)

I won't bore you with the minor details..
In total the flight was 23 hrs.. a little long.
My sister maeve bought me an Ipod(30G) days before I left, and I spent hours uploading songs, I had nearly 2000...before even reaching Honolulu, I stood up to stretch, it fell from my lap and gave me the whole :( "I'm broken" reading...I was so pissed because I was babying it the whole time, and then one little fall, it's over, all of that work gone...
One funny thing that happened was from Honolulu to Sydney we sat in front of a girl who was carrying a 5' trophy, covered with maple leaves, a couple sitting next to us asked her how she'd won the trophy, she replied "Dancing", they replied" That's great! What kind of dancing do you do?" Her boyfriend replied "Exotic dancing.", the couple seemed a little shaken then said "Congratulations" and that was that...apparently she had won a STRIPPING competition in none other than Cambridge Ontario!! Had a good laugh there...