Piccies

I've been asked by the Ma to put some more pics on the site, so here they are.  A few of the different holidays we've had over the past few months.  Note that I've got slightly shorter hair in the Vanuatu pics - our friend Gabby has a lot to answer for :-)

Em and I at Erakor Island after a swim (hence the bad hair!)

Ni-Vanuatu Kids at Hideaway jetti

Blue starfish at Hideaway Island, Vanuatu

Em at Hideaway Island - location of the only Underwater Postbox in the world - ah the clear water is to die for :)

Em in the Cascade Waterfalls - Vanuatu

Em chatting to a German girl we met in the Cascade Waterfalls - Mele, Vanuatu

Inside of a 'bus' at Vanutu (they all tend to have a 'Raster' feel!)

Erakor Island Resort - Vanuatu

Getting food from the locals at the market in Vila, Vanuatu - the only way to eat

Vanuatu - the welcome parade at the airport

Australia Zoo with Chris - mad fool playing with tiger cubs!!

Halloween 2008 - Me with Jeff as one of the Wrestlers from WWE

RMO (Resident Medical Officer) Ball Gosford  2008 with Freyja (our new true friend & O&G Reg)

Meeting Alan Fletcher (Dr Karl Kennedy) from Neighbours during Chris' visit

The hotel we stayed at in Port Stephens (about 100 miles north along the coast)

Me and Em at one of the viewpoints at port Stephens

Sunset at the marina of our hotel in Port Stephens

2 holidays in 2 weeks - life has to be good!!!

The holidays keep on coming :)  I'm starting to think that the life over here is pretty darn good!!

As Em is on Emergency at the moment, she gets quite a few days off and one of the number one things that we had on our to do list is go back to Vanuatu ... so that is what we did this week :)

Sunday we headed off to the big V on a flight at 9.30 and we were there just after 1 - and as the time zones are the same, there was no jet lag to be had.  We booked a cheapish, but still a nice hotel in the main town and spent the few days we had over there going to the old haunts that Em used to visit when she was out there on elective.  Much swimming in the lagoons, sea and waterfalls, and eating the freshest food you can imagine.

Was definitely a trip worth taking and I think that Em needed the break after a few weeks of hectic work in ED.  We came back on Wednesday well refreshed and ready to go back to work (well Em was ... he he!!).

Today I played footy with the junior doctors against the consultants and after an hour's play we ended up winning 4-2, although it should have only been 4-1 as I gifted them a goal whilst attempting to roll the ball to the keeper, but instead laying up a sitter for one of their strikers ... D'oh!

Ah well, I'm now set for a night in with a Crocodile Dundee marathon on TV (well, marathon may not be exactly the correct word as there are only 2 films) and Em is about to go off to a night of ED (although I believe she will probably be doing ward cover which is much less hectic and means that she can at least grab the odd 15 mins break at some of the wards).

Tootle pip,

Rich

Nothing for months and then ....

Hmmm .... First up, apologies to all and sunder for not posting anything over the last 6 weeks or so.  I have no excuse, but I have been up to a fair bit over the last couple of weeks which I'll get to shortly.

Last time I posted, I mentioned that I had some work - well that is what I was doing for about half of each of the proceeding 3 weeks or so.  This work was scattered about the time off that Em, Izzy and Rhys had so that, in a morning if one was working an evening I would do things with them and then get down to work in the afternoon - sometimes working through to 10 or 11 at night.  I am pleased to say that I heard from the registrar last week and he has had his final prototype made and at the last conversation was about to test it out and see if it was working correctly.  As I've not heard back as yet, I am pretty sure that this means that he is happy with what has been produced.  Job done!

The last fortnight (well actually the fortnight before this week) was spent with my mate Chris from Burscough who came over to visit for a short - but jam packed holiday.  A brief account of which is thus:

Monday he arrived and we wandered about Terrigal, he slept for a bit then we had tea and went off to bed early-ish.  Tuesday we got a flight from Sydney to Brisbane and drove up to the Sunshine coast for the night.  Had a really nice place on the beach almost, and wandered into town for some Thai food that night.  Finished off with a few beers in front of the TV before bed.  Weds, we headed down to Australia Zoo (former home of the Crocodile Hunter Mr Steve Irwin himself) where we stayed all day.  It rained - and I mean rained - for most of the day, but as we were just looking at animals it wasn't too bad.  Headed south through Brisbane to Surfers Paradise for the next couple of days.  Thursday we'd planned to go to a theme park, but got side tracked by the hunt for a hat for Chris, great weather, miles and miles of white sandy beach, a legendary miniature golf course (King Tut's Putt Putt) and an evening spent in the sea and the hotel pool!  We went out for the night in Surfers and had a great time - kangaroo, crocodile, oysters and octopus were consumed followed by a drink or 10 in the bars around the centre of Surfers.  Friday we finally went to Dreamworld - Chris loved all the rides once the hangover had worn off, I was feeling a little fragile all morning and still didn't feel up to going on the big drop (think detonator at Thorpe Park, but bigger).  Have to say I was fairly disappointed by the place as it didn't really have enough to keep you occupied for the day.  If we'd gone on all the rides from the off and not taken an hour or so out at the cafe recovering, I reckon we'd could have gone round it all in 2-3 hours.  It claims to have the Big Six, 6 rides which are meant to be 'extreme' but at least 2 of these wouldn't even be mentioned on the brochure of Alton Towers!!  Went up to Brisbane for the night so we were closer to the airport for saturday.  Sat we got a flight to Melbourne and met up with Em.  Was most disappointed by the hotel I'd chosen - two beds which were hard and not particularly clean, pretty grotty bathroom, single glazing onto a balcony over the main road and a smell which reminded us of a crossed between a primary school and a hospital, so we wandered around St Kilda and found ourselves a new place for the 3 days.  More expensive but far more comfortable.  Met up with a friend of Chris's from uni who had moved out to Melbourne a few weeks earlier for drinks after food which was cool.  Sunday we did the neighbours tour (yes, this is the second time for Em and I, and I suspect will not be the last!) as Chris was dying to go round.  Twas better than the first one in that we got to visit the back-lot set of Lassiters which was good.  It is amazing how the camera lies when you see the shots on TV.  It is no-where near as big as you'd expect, and all sorts of things are mobile and are just moved into shot as and when it suits.  Went out for a nice meal on sunday night, followed by a couple of drinks in one of the bars.  Chris went home early as he wasn't feeling great, and we followed about an hour or two later.  Monday Em had to go, so Chris and I went off to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and did the tour there.  It was pretty interesting to see behind the scenes and we got to walk in their long room, and the changing rooms (almost big enough for a 5 a-side match!) as well as all the media centre.  Lots of pictures were taken by Chris and then we headed back to the hotel before heading out to the Neighbours Trivia Night.  This is an event which is known throughout the mass of british backpackers as a must do - and as such I reckon I was the oldest person in the place (av. age must have been 20) and we played the quiz and I was surprised our team didn't do better, but I guess you think that when they don't give out the answers(!) and of course met some of the cast of the show.  We met Dan Fitzgerald and Michelle Scully and of course saw Dr Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) and his band play the night away.  Much chasing of stars by Chris led to us eventually getting photos and autographs of all of them!!  Was a really good night.  Tuesday we headed back to Sydney and once landed, found somewhere to put our bags for the day and then went and climbed the Harbour Bridge.  This was good, although after deciding to walk up George Street and then get food meant that we didn't start until 15:05, so we didn't get down till after 6pm and our bags had to be collected by 8!  We then had 2 hours, or an hour and a bit given the time to go back and get the bags, to run around circular quay and get as many photos of the opera house and bridge as possible!!  Eventually got back to Terrigal about 11pm, and off to bed.  Wednesday we went to the Blue Mountains and spent the day walking around the three sisters and most of the pathways around Echo Point at Katoomba.  Thursday we headed over to Palm Beach from Ettalong on the ferry as North Palm Beach is the location for the exterior shots of home and away.  This is only about a 20-30 minute ferry ride from a town which is about 20 minutes drive from us in Terrigal.  This was the only day where I got sunburnt as I forgot to do my legs (you'd have thought I'd have learnt by now) and didn't top up on the arms!!  I also think it had something to do with wearing my new Crocodile Hunter shorts which although not Steve Irwin short, are somewhat shorter than the ones I have been wearing for the last few months.  Went out for farewell drinks in the cocktail bar in the evening and then I got up at 3 to take Chris off to the station.

As you can see it was a very busy couple of weeks!!  Throw into the mix a day when I got a call to see if I wanted to have a bash at kite surfing (muchly fun) although I only got as far as flying the kite and being dragged (in an almost controlled manner) along the beach and through the sea.

I've spent the last week trying to catch up with the house-work (yeah it can get messy in only a couple of weeks) and starting to cook stuff for Xmas (the Cake is in the oven as I type).

Off to play soccer in a few mins (I hate to say it but I've finally succumbed to calling it soccer after confusing everyone around here!) for the second time.  Last week was the first time in 11 years that I believe I've played - not since the halcyon days of Priory High have I kicked a ball in anger - I just hope that the cake finishes before I have to go ... I may see if I can get a lift!

Tootle pip,

Rich

Work

Got a bit of work today. One of the registrars that Em works with has a design for a medical instrument that he's been working on for a few years on and off, and has just had a prototype made. It has a few problems so he's asked me to redesign parts of it to make it more user friendly.
Should be an interesting little job that keeps me occupied for a few days. I've long considered getting into medical engineering, so if I enjoy it I may have to look into it in a bit more depth.
Been a bit of a busy day all round really as I took Iz to the station at lunch, but we missed the train by a minute or so - saw it roll out of the station as we stood watching on the bridge. So it turned into a trip into the city to drop her off at the airport. Only downside is that I have to stay up until midnight to go and pick Em up from her evening shift at the hospital.

Tootle pip for now,
Rich

Port Stephens

After suffering for a week with man-flu, Em and I booked in to a hotel in Port Stephens (2 hours north) for a couple of nights as Em had just also finished her nights. Weds morning, Em got back with a load of canulas as I had agreed to be Izzy's pin cushion as she practised inserting grey canulas as she keeps failing them. Just to picture it, a grey is a 16 gauge needle (roughly 1.6mm diameter) and looks pretty evil! Luckily, she got it straight in, and then with a bit of advise and assistance from Em, she got the plastic canula tube into the vein, and I have to say it didn't hurt a bit :-)
We then jumped in the car and headed north. As we got to Newcastle, it started to rain as we passed through a rain cloud. We got to the hotel about 4 and then went for a stroll around the place. It was right on the waterside, had a 90 berth marina outside, pool, beach - the works. We got back, got changed and then went for a couple of drinks in the bar before heading down to the restaurant for some food. Was excellent food, but the service was a little slow.
Thursday, we got up late and had breakfast and then Em spotted that there was a beauty treatment area in the hotel, so we wandered down there and both ended up having a half hour massage. After that we drove around Nelson Bay and walked up the headland beyond Shoal Bay. We made our way over to Soldiers Point for a late lunch and then went back to the hotel. Em wanted to make use of the pool, so we went for a dip (Em stayed to do 60 laps of the pool) before heading back to the room to get showered and changed. I challenged Em to a couple of games of pool which whiled away an hour in the bar before tea. We ate in the restaurant again, but the service was even slower than the night before. If we had stayed another day, we would have definitely gone looking for an alternative restaurant nearby.
Spent the Friday on the beach, and going to one of the wineries on the way home.
Was a nice break and was good to find another part of the central coast.

Birthday

Apologies for not being in contact for a while - after my birthday I came down with a dose of manflu and haven't really been online since.
Birthday was nice and quiet - spent the day reading and playing the guitar - learnt Jose Gonzales' Heatbeats - and then went out for a meal in the evening to an Italian in the village called Onda. Good food, even better company and finished it off (reluctantly) with a drink out as I really didn't fancy being plyed with drinks all night and ending up with a stinking hangover. Thankfully I managed to stick to the same drink all night, so any ill effects were minimal. Ended the night round at Freyja's and stayed the night as didn't fancy the walk back.
Didn't do much on Sat, but Sunday I was told I had to be up earlyish, and I was taken for a drive by Em and Iz. Ended up at Glenmore Valley Horse Riding centre and we had a 2 hour ride booked. Was great fun. I actually trotted, and maybe cantered - although at that stage I was just holding on for dear life!! Loved every minute of it though, and I now plan to go and get a couple of lessons just so that I know roughly what I need to do in future as Iz and Em both want to go again, and want to hire a few horses for half a day and just go off and ride, so I need to be able to keep up with them!
All in all, a pretty cool weekend

Return of the Ginger-Dread Man

Went to see Newton Faulkner last night in Sydney, and I was absolutely blown away by his performance.  I knew, from his album and a few tv appearances that he was bloody good, but to see it live was something else!!

His style is a mix of fingerpicking, hammer-on/pull offs, slides and of course his trademark bongo-styley beats which run throughout many of his songs which he gets from hitting and tapping the body of the guitar.  The sounds he gets out of an acoustic guitar - admittedly going through a distortion/sustain pedal at times - are mind blowing.  Fantastic harmonics, drum beats, great melodies and to watch him in one song moving the capo mid song and then de-tuning and re-tuning notes to give a whammy bar effect was awe inspiring.  What can't he do??

If you ever get a chance to catch him live - do it.  He's got a real monty-python sense of humour too, which was nice to hear!  The encore - although he openly admits he doesn't see the point in walking all the way off stage to come back on again, so just stayed on stage whilst people shouted for more - was stunning, culminating in a performance of Bohemian Rhapsody which he wanted to do on Radio 1's Live Lounge a couple of years ago, but realised it would take a bit more work to get into his style.  So a culmination of about a year's worth of fiddling with the tune produced a stunning performance.  I've found a copy of it on Youtube (last night's performance) so you can see it here.

Sarah Bareilles was supporting in her first Australian gig.  She's an american act who had a number 1 in Oz, and probably in the UK with her song 'Love Song'.  Cracking vocals, bit of a jazz/blues mix with a pop overtone.  Of course being the support act, didn't get the reception of Newton, but she was deserving of one.  I reckon there'll be plenty more from her in the future - I'll definitely try to get to see her on her own in the future.

When faced with danger, run away! Works every time!!

On Tuesday night we won through to the final of our group of the Oztag tournament. I'd like to think that I was an integral part of the victory ... which I actually was, but not in a particularly good way.

First half, we're defending on our try line, the ball is passed to one of their players, I step up (literally just stood up and took a step forward) in an attempt to tag her, but instead of trying to run around me like most people would, she decides to run full pelt, head first into my chest. I was fine, but she bounced off and was looking a wee bit dazed for the next 5 mins or so.

10 mins later, after we were matching each other try for try, I am passed the ball. Have nowhere to run to, and someone in front of me trying to tag me so I do what any sensible person would ... I run away (just happens to be towards my own try line as there's nobody behind me to pass the ball to. In hindsight, just getting tagged would have left us further up field, but in the heat of the moment I ran, dodged back and forth, and eventually one of my team mates ran back to receive the pass. However. Just before I made the pass I jinked to the right and as I turned to watch our guys running the ball back up the field and prepared to make chase I heard a blood curdling scream from behind me. Hastily thought 'what did I do?!' looked down and saw the guy who had been chasing me writhing on the floor in agony clutching his knee. I reckon what happened was he went over on his ankle, but his knee (which was already strapped up) decided to go 'pop', quite literally! Thankfully half time was blown and everyone came back to see what was up with him. Turns out he'd had some lateral ligament/muscle knee probs before and it had gone big time. Queue feeling rather guilty, then realising there was nothing I did other than run away, which I can't really be blamed for. Turns out that that incident opened up the game for us in the second half, and we scored quite a few more tries and ended up winning fairly comfortably, so as I said, I was an integral part of the victory!

Tootle pip.

Rich

What to do???

Since I got back from the UK I've not had a great deal to do.  As I've been saying in these blogs, I've taken up painting again, which although a little frustrating to begin with, I'm starting to enjoy again.  However, I can't shake the feeling that I ought to be doing something more productive with my time.

I have a couple of options:

a) I can spend the time to get properly fit, weight training, running etc to a specific regime and come 6 months from now, hopefully be ecstatic with how I'm feeling.  I'd love to do this, but would feel guilty that I'm doing something a tad selfish and purely for my own gain (something I'm not generally prone to doing)

b) Devote most of my time to painting and slot the odd bit of exercise in when I have time, with the intention of hopefully selling some of my oil paintings and learning how to airbrush.

c) Go back to work.  This could be in engineering or any other discipline which I could do for a break.

I admit that this is not the normal way that people do things like this.  Usually people work for 40-odd years and then when they have reached retirement age, they take up a hobby like painting.  I'm pondering doing the painting and hobbies now, and then maybe go back into work in a year or so.  My worry is, 'will I want to go back into work if I take that much time off?'

I also am thinking about the future, financially.  If I were to work whilst over here, I could potentially be earning big bucks (50% more than Emma) which would allow us to save, to be able to go and enjoy some of those holidays we've spoken about with people, and when we do our round Australia drive next July, be able to afford to see all the sights.

I want to do the exercising, with a bit of painting thrown in, but with my sensible head on it is telling me to just go to work and save.

For these reasons, I've sent off my CV to an agent.  I don't know yet if it is going to be that straightforward to get a job or if I'll go all the way and take one, but I'll at least see what my options are.  And if Chris reads this (don't worry, if I do get anything I'll make sure I have a fortnights holiday when you are here!)

Expats ahoy

Following the three weeks in the UK, there has been quite an influx of British doctors into Terrigal.  This is because the current 'academic' year has just finished back home and so anyone wanting some time out from the NHS or a new start has just arrived.  Most of them seem pretty cool, with a few new recruits for the OzTag team looking quite likely, a bonus as they are girls and we are seriously lacking girls on our team at the mo.

We've had Chrissie (X) and Mariyam (Mizzle) staying with us for a few days, both of whom have previously either studied or worked with Em and Izzy, although they have now gone to stay in the infamous Hotel Gosford to meet some of the other new doctors and hopefully find some housemates.  They have found out why the Hotel has got such a reputation - apparently all the people that are in the bar are middle aged men, sitting and drinking on their own whilst either watching TV or gambling on the machines... and I think that the same people turn up every day, the decor is really grotty and the 3 star rating should be more like 1 star!

Took X out surfing yesterday, as she really wanted to have a go, although when we got to the beach we realised maybe we should have walked down to look at the surf first.  There were bugger all waves, and it made for a long few hours of constant paddling against the tide and rips.  Got a couple of sets at the end, but was a bit too dangerous to surf proper as the waves were sending us right onto the beach which was heavily populated with families and small kids.  Bailed after about 2 hours deeming safety of beachgoers was a higher priority.

Planning on some better surfing tomorrow down at Avoca with Rhys.

Bolt's Olympics

Not working is a great excuse to catch as much Olympic action as possible, and I felt I had to write about a certain Usain Bolt.  I unfortunately missed the 100m final as I was in the air en-route back to Sydney, but I managed to watch the 200m earlier this week and what a race that was.  I don't agree with most commentators that Usain is a freak of nature though, I reckon he's just the first of the tall sprinters which will now begin appearing over the next 5-10 years.  It has long been said that tall people don't make good sprinters and I reckon that's one of the reasons there haven't been any decent 6ft 5ins sprinters before, but he has now shown that if they can get the leg speed of the shorter sprinters that they will indeed fly down the track.

I can't wait to see him go all out in the 100m and run the 200m without a head wind.  I think that a sub 9.6 second 100m and a 19.20 second 200m must be within reach and possibly a sub 19 second run if he gets a tail wind.  This does unfortunately mean that the sprints may become a bit like F1 back when Schumi was on top form, and everyone will get bored of him winning in a couple of years when the only question to be answered is "who will get the silver this time?"

But personally I'm happy to watch a supreme athlete at work.

... and for all you people complaining about the wet summer, I can report that as I type the rain is absolutely torrential here!

Back home (yeah Australia really does feel like home now)

Well that 3 weeks flew by, which is more than can be said for the flight back.  Unfortunately, this time I didn't really manage to sleep during the flight (apart from the odd hour here and there) so it felt like it dragged on, and on, and on...

One up side to the flight, however, was that I happened to be sitting in the same row as a world renowned violinist, and had a pretty good chat with her and another guy on our row.  I only realised that she was a violinist after the first leg of the flight from Dubai to Sydney, where we had to get off and re-board.  It was when we were boarding again that we spotted the violin, and then got chatting.  She is only in her early twenties, but from the sound of it, has been touring for a good few years, leading with some of the biggest orchestras around the world.  She was on a personal trip to see some friends, so unfortunately I won't be able to catch her playing whilst she's here, and she wouldn't give in to the persuasive calls from all the people in our row asking for a mid-flight concert!!  Turns out she's played some of the best violins around, including being the first person to play on a violin that came up for auction last year and sold for 11 million pounds.  She'd currently fund-raising for a late 16th century violin which is going to cost her 1.2 million!  Oh to live in a world like that :-)  I've since listened to some of her stuff online and I love the emotion she puts into all the bits I've heard.  Definitely think I'm going to be a fan from now on, and will have to see if I can catch a concert  one day.  If you like your classical, then check her out.

Positive note about the flight was the lack of jetlag:-)  And I'm also glad of the time back as it has put me back in my early rising mode, and have been up with Em and Iz since I returned.  Had been getting lazy and not rising till around 8-8.30, which for me is like midday!!!

Since I got back, I've not yet begun the job hunt.  Will look into that next week.  But I have picked up a paintbrush for the first time in about 5 years, and I have to say it has taken me an hour or two to get back into it.  The old technique is coming back though, so I'll post a photo of it when it is finished - hoping that it is of a decent standard.  Hopefully there will be a fair few pics in the coming weeks as I really want to get back into my painting, whilst trying to learn to airbrush (a forthcoming present from the parents) which has been an ambition of mine for about 11 years.

Tootle pip,

Rich

Long-time, No blog

First off, apologies for not updating this in over a month as many people have informed me over the last fortnight! I'll try and see that it doesn't happen again - I feel well and truly told off.

As our intention was always to return to the UK after 6 months away, we had bought ourselves a return ticket each and the return leg of that ticket was to bring us back home just under a fortnight ago, Em and I returned to good ol' blighty last Tuesday for a holiday. It has been a manic couple of weeks and I'm now only just beginning to recover from all the travelling!

After returning a week last Tuesday, we headed to Em's ma's place for a few days where we caught up with all her family, had a pleasant shock at the size of all the kids (amazing how much they can grow in only 6 months) and spent a day out at Hever Castle in the midst of running about trying to see everyone. Amazingly we caught some good periods of weather, although not the searing temperatures we'd been informed of just days before leaving Oz, but it was nice to leave the thunderstorms behind us (yes even Australia gets rain in Winter).

Drove up to Pedmore on Saturday to do the ashes scattering thing with family. It was quite a collection, with Nan, Aunty Joan, and Aunty Freda (Gill had been keeping her ashes at home as she didn't know what to do with them) plus a bit of Uncle Percy which Gill had dug up from round the tree they scattered him at a few years back!! All the family (Me and Em, Mum and Dad, Ann, Frances and Andrew, and Gill plus Olly and Anka - the two dogs) headed up to the Monument (same place as Gang's scattering a few years back) and did the honours. Ann going first and discovering that throwing to the right caused a bit of blow back, so the rest of us took a cue from that and threw leftwards!! The weather was really good, and at some point this week I'll look at taking pics off Dad's cameras and maybe uploading a few on here.

Sunday was the busiest day with visits to Em's brother in the morning, driving to Bournemouth in the afternoon to see Tash and Kat (thankfully Sascha had a hard night the previous night and wasn't able to see us on Sunday which gave us more time with the Moffatt's) and then heading over to Pam and Tom to talk wedding and get a viewing of all the pics from their big day.

Monday was the first day we could relax, and did a bit of shopping (new pair of boots for Em after realising that the ones she had on were letting in water) then met Sascha for dinner down by the beach. Quiet afternoon followed, then we met up with Tim for a couple of drinks in the evening at Yates's and then we stayed out till about 2am as we're not anticipating being back in Bournemouth in the near future.

More travelling on Tuesday to see Marita, Izzy's folks and my work before heading to see Tash and Kat again and staying with them for the evening. We'd found out the last time we met that Tash was going to Manchester Airport on Weds morning (getting a coach at stupid o'clock to get her to Manchester for an 11am flight) and as we were going that way anyway, we offered her a lift, and got a free night's kip in the process.

Weds we got back home via Manchester to find an empty house, no mother and no dog, so they were either in village or at Nan's house sorting stuff. Took a couple of trips round the village but found no mum and no dog outside any shops, went to Nan's and nothing there either, so decided to pop in on Mike and Liz as they were pretty much guaranteed to be in as Mike works from home. Spent a good 2-3 hours there with them and had some lunch (ta guys) catching up on everything they've been up to since their wedding which was the last time we'd had a good chat. Was introduced to Mike's shed masterpiece (I reckon the clear roof idea is gonna take off) and played with the cats before heading home. Out for meal that night, and spent Thursday going through boxes at Nan's to fins things for Em to take back with her. Marita et al, she did have that O&G book at home, so panic over!! Em went home on Friday - enduring a very bumpy journey with a number of sick bags used by all accounts - but is home safe and sound.

I'm taking it easy this week - gonna attempt to find a few more bits over at Nan's some time, and the odd bit of shopping over at Southport or Preston, but nothing much more than that planned. Got to see Ash last night after his trekking in the alps, and am seeing him a couple more times this week, but other than that, a relaxing week.

Since being back I think two of the most common comments I've heard are:
1. You two really look well (Which I thought was a comment on having a bit of a tan etc.)
2. You don't have much of a tan do you?! (Dashing my belief that everyone thought I was tanned)

I expect the surfing this summer will change all that once we don't need to wear our wetsuits anymore, so I may come back next year with more of a tan!

I'll have to try and figure out what I'm gonna do when I get back as my 6 month contract with work is now over. Hopefully I can get something similar as I don't fancy the commute, which I expect Em thinks is a shame as I could be earning more than she is out in Oz! Hey-ho, I'll just stick with the painting and a bit of part time work if I can't find anything :-)

Tootle pip!

Rich

Funerals and dying toes

Top week with the Parents interspersed with two cases of feeling really, really shite.

Mum & Dad had arranged to come out for two weeks and spend one with me in Oz and the other with our relatives in NZ.  My nan had been going steadily down hill in hospital and hursing home since February/April time, but had been keeping in pretty good spirits.  Cue first case of feeling shite.  Got home the day before I was due to meet mum and dad to be greeted with a facebook message (which thankfully Em got as I'd not checked my mails for a while) telling us that nan had died at 05:15 on the Tuesday morning.  It was now Tuesday evening in Oz, around a couple of hours later, and mum and dad were in mid-air somewhere between Dubai and Sydney.  Rang ash, got the lowdown on what happened and then it dawned on me that although he'd texted dad, (dad os not the kind of person who will turn on his mobile the instant he gets off a plane) I would have to once again tell one of my parents that their parent has just died while they are on holiday.  It happened a few years back with Pop (Dad's dad).

Following morning up at 3 to get the 04:07 train to Sydney in order to get to the airport at 06:15 to meet their plane.  Spent most of the trip asleep, worrying about what to say to mum, and wondering how Ash was coping with being on his own to deal with all the funeral stuff.  Met mum and dad around 06:40 as they just got let through customs with no stops - most unusual for Oz.  Could see that they didn't know, so tried acting fairly normal for a few mins to find out how things had gone with the intention of sitting down on some of the chairs for a chat.  Mum being mum took one look at me and said "she's gone hasn't she?".  Must have looked pretty rough even though in myself I was feeling ok, so then had the conversation.  She seemed to take it ok after the initial shock which was good.

Navigated them through the train stations of Sydney and Gosford to get back to the car and then the short drive back to our place.  Thankfully was great weather so they got to see what the place looks like.  Had a few hours sitting around and talking funeral stuff before giving ash a Skype that evening to discuss everything and for mum to get across some of her wishes for the funeral.  

Next day, spent around Terrigal and doing a bit of shopping at what we've been told is the largest single storey shopping mall in Oz (Erina Fair).  Walked along beaches, admired views, took many pics and dad got to play with his new video camera.

Went off to the Blue Mountains on Friday to see some spectacular scenery - the Three Sisters at Echo Point, the canyons and the haze from the Eucalyptus trees that give it the Blue tinge.  Great day with dinner overlooking the canyons and watching the birds feeding off any leftovers.  Couldn't go see the Wentworth falls as the path was closed for renovation, but managed to go scouting for some other waterfalls which although sounded impressive, were a bit on the small side.  Got home and just as we were about to go back to their B&B, cue second time of feeling really shite.  This time, self inflicted as I thought ma was in the car as heard back door shut (already thought Em had shut her door), let handbrake off and heard a scream as I'd rolled over her big toe.  Cue a 3 hour visit to Emergency where we got to see Izzy at work.  I was seriously shaken up - Em had to drive to the hospital where mum sat shaking in the bed and I sat shaking in the chair.  3 x-rays and a load of bandaging later we were back at the B&B again with mum now using an elbow crutch.

Saturday went to Hunter Valley to do a spot of Wine Tasting.  Hadn't really got over the night before, so Em was driving.  Mum was in a bit of pain, but not too much thankfully, especially after we went shoe shopping for something to fit her bandaged foot.  Went to Bimbadgen Winery - a really nice place which Em and I had been to a few days before when Rachel was visiting - and the guy there recognised us and gave us the spiel on all his wines.  Found some really nice ones, especially the Viognier - would highly recommend it if you can find it!  Had food there.  Mum said, and I quote "That was the best salmon I've ever eaten", so you can guess the quality.  Sufficiently fed, we went on to a few more small places, with dad buying a couple of bottles from an organic place.

Next day, Iz had a day off, so we went to the Australian Reptile Park which we've all been wanting to go to since the day we moved and saw the big dinosaur advertising the place on our first drive into Gosford.  It was a fantastic day - really good keeper who did some hilarious talks, and mum fell in love with the Tasmanian Devils.  I'm sure the parents will show the vids to anyone who wants to take a look!  Went out for the evening to the Letterbox for a meal - not quite up to the standards of the previous day, but not far off!  Good food and good company is always a good recipe.

Spent the next couple of days not doing a great deal - just relaxing as I think the jetlag was still catching up with them both.  Got mum a nice new stick on Tuesday so she didn't have to take her crutch on the plane - she was walking at her normal pace by then - except for stairs.  Took back mum and dad to the airport on Weds, and bade farewell until the following week when they're due back for a day in Sydney.

Got a text from dad yesterday - Tuesday - expecting it to be a "we'll see you in the morning at X o'clock" text, but instead it was a "we got the days wrong and won't be in Sydney until Thursday" text!!  So instead of being in Sydney today, I'm writing this.  At least they were a day early, and not a day late as that would have REALLY screwed things up!

The worst phone call in the world

Well that was a kick in the stomach to say the least!  Just had a phone call from Ash to tell me that our last grandparent (my nan) has just passed away in her sleep (05:15) this morning.  I'm actually quite glad to hear it as although I've not been there to see her, I've heard some awful stories about how she was and the amount of pain she's been in and just wanted it to be over for her.

The worst thing about it is that my parents are visiting me and some of our relatives in New Zealand and left the UK last night so are currently en-route to Australia, somewhere between Dubai and Sydney.  The last time one of our grandparents died (Pop - on my dad's side) I had the unenviable task of informing dad that Pop was first looking extremely close to death and then actually telling him that he had died whilst dad was on a cruise holiday, and was something I didn't ever want to have to do again.  This time I have to do it for my mum (although hopefully she'll be pre-warned as Ash has sent a text which they may get if dad switches his phone on when they land) but it'll still be a pretty awful thing to have to do.

I currently have no idea whether they are going to cut short their holiday, or if they're going to go back, and if they do, whether I'm going to go back with them.  I really want to, so I might switch my holiday back home that I was planning for August to now if I can make the funeral.  Will have to discuss this more with the parents when they arrive and let it settle in.

Hopefully the rest of the week will get a bit better.

Skype - bloody great!

Since I bought a new laptop a couple of weeks ago I've been coming back into the modern world with things it can do that my old one couldn't - or was too slow to do.  One of those is Skyping.

We stuck it on the mac last week and had the first chat with people back home yesterday - Em's ma and Giles, plus the odd appearance by one of the cats as they wandered by, or should that be "one of the cats as they were captured and brought to the screen"!?  Think Em was well chuffed to have seen as well as spoken to them - is a great way of feeling like you really are talking to someone.

If anyone wants to say hello, we are now running on the skype name of:

terrigal_towers

It'll be great to hear from you all!

balcony blocade

I figured it was about time to show you our adopted pet.  Well I say pet, more like pest, but as none of us is brave enough to remove her we figure we'll just have to live together.  She is a real man-eater as we have witnessed a few weeks ago when she devoured her mate and then left him hanging until the rain washed him away.  She currently has built her home across most of our balcony so we no longer go out there :-(

Is that a shark?!?!?

Spent this morning recovering from our night out for Izzy's birthday.  Went to Terrigal Thai for food and had a bizarre woman serving us - we'd booked a table for 5 but Alex couldn't make it for the main meal but was turning up a bit later for dessert.  When we told the waitress that she'd be there later she said "yeah, right!" and took the place setting away.  We couldn't fathom this as first, if we were lying that there was a fifth person coming, what would we have booked a table for 5 for, and secondly if you were a waitress and the table said somewone else would be coming, don't you think you'd want to make sure that even if there was the slightest chance of that person coming that you'd want to keep them sweet so that they spent more money with you??

Anyway, Alex did turn up as we were finishing our main course, but we decided against a dessert and instead headed off to the Lord Ashley in the Crown Plaza for cocktails, which for the girls was basically pudding in a glass!  Came home and watched the video for Soulja Boy's Crank That which has become somewhat of a house thing lately and then played a few games on the console before heading off to bed at around 1.30am.

Got up around midday and had a fry-up, mainly because there was no milk in the fridge and the bacon was out of date in a couple of days.  Sat playing with macs with Izzy - found out how we can share our music across the wireless network which is pretty fancy, and set up bluetooth filesharing which is dead useful when trying to get photos from one machine to the other.

Went off for a run this afternoon with Iz and after making it to the end of the beach in one hit (a first for Izzy) we sat down and chatted for a bit before I spotted a few fins in the water and initially thought, is that a shark!??!?  I then realised that it was a pod of dolphins making their way up the coast.  They even put on a display for us as they reached us, surfing the waves towards the shore and jumping around in the waves.  We could even see them swimming through the waves as the water is so clear here.  It was really cool to watch!!  We are both unsure as to how we'd have reacted if we'd seen them whilst out surfing; do you piss yourself and run for the beach because you've seen a fin, or go play with them and tell people that you've swum with dolphins.  I'd want to say the latter, but I reckon in the heat of the moment we'd have run for the beach!

Birthdays and Surfdays

It was Izzy's birthday today and me and Em had planned a good day for her seeing as we are all away from our families and that it would just be the three of us around for the day.

Last night Iz and I finally turned in to bed at 1.30am and then began my mammoth ballon inflation session.  50 ballons and a good three quarters of an hour later I'd blown them all up and then I just had to set out the house for the morning.  Banners and a plethora of Winnie the Pooh birthday goodies were laid out and I finally went to bed at 3am.

Got up at half 8 for the first part of our surprise day we'd got installed.  Iz got up at 9 and was amazed by the house.  birthday horns were blown and she opened her mum and dad's present followed by us telling her we'd bought her a surf lesson which started at 10 at the next beach down the road.  So we hastily got changed (I'd decided to tag along for the lesson) into our wetsuits and jumped in the car.  Em had just got off nights and was going to laze on the beach taking piccies of us while we had fun.

Shane was our instructor, a former pro world tour surfer.  He was a good laugh and a great teacher and got me standing on my first wave and Iz on about her second or third.  We stayed out there for 2 hours (he gave us some extra time as it was her birthday) and caught loads of waves ... as well as being dumped by just as many, but hey - that's half the fun isn't it?!

We headed back to the flat after the lesson and Iz opened our presents and then we headed out to the Crown Plaza hotel for some lunch followed by an ice cream on the beach.  I forgot to say that it was dead sunny and warm today (a good 21 degrees).

We then took Iz to part 2 of her surprise - an hour long massage at an aromatheraphy/reiki/sports therapy massage parlour.  She loved it which was cool as she'd never had one before.

When she got back we then cut the cake - a chocolate marble cake which she normally has for her birthday - her ma's recipe - accompanied with Tasmanian Jansz champagne.

Just about to go out for food now, so will write more later!

I'm a Mac

After much deliberation I've gone and bought myself an Apple Macbook.  I've been pondering whether to buy one for a month or more, and decided that the pros out-weighed the cons.  After growing up with Windows and Microsoft, it may take some time to get fully used to the new system, so I hope that it doesn't mean that I screw anything up as there's no brother to call on for help!

Surf's up!

This week a few of the UK doctors left to go back home after spending up to 8 months out here working at the same hospital as Em and Izzy.  Chrissy was trying to find a home for her surfboard and Iz was interested so we went round there to have a look-see.

We've started to realise that although our house is amazing, it isn't quite up to the same level as a lot of the other housing around here.  Chrissy's house was a 3 level affair with an enourmous living area on the top floor the size of the entire top floor of our house.  They even had a swimming pool!!  Any-hoo, after much ogling of their place and a cuppa later, we went back down to the garage and bought the board.  It is a mal (7'6" epoxy board) with a rather fetching pink frangipan design which Iz fell in love with.  

Went out on Wednesday to buy a wetsuit for Iz, and for me to have a look at the boards and see if I want to get one.  Half an hour of Iz trying on wetsuits gave me ample time to decide to buy both a suit and board, basically the men's version of Izzy's (blue stripes instead of flowers!!).  Spent a good three hours in the water on Weds, leaving only when it started going dark and I realised I had to get food ready before Em went to work that night.  Managed to kneel up and half stand in between being thrown off the board, sharing waves with fish and Iz being licked to death by a passing dog when she got washed up to shore on a really big wave.

Plan to go do more this week - will see if I can get Em to come along and take some piccies to show you all.  (Yes I suddenly realised today when Dad said it had been a month or so since the last blog that I've not added anything since Tasmania!)

Decided?? .... yeah right!

Well that decision didn't stay as it was for long!!

Em got her rotations back through from Jersey and we spent a bit more time researching living on the island and found that it really is pretty bad if you want to get work there and aren't born and bred jersey.  With the fact that I wouldn't be able to earn much well and truly confirmed from this research and asking a couple of questions of the helpful ladies at the Jersey NHS recruitment office; plus the information from Jersey that Emma hadn't got her favoured rotation of Anaesthetics made us realise that if she had stayed here in Australia we would have been far better off.

Queue grovelling email to the Wessex Deanery and an anxious two week long wait to see what came of it.  Finally it came and it was good news.  They had agreed that we were in an exceptional situation and that Jersey is a very specific set of conditions which would have caused us to potentially struggle next year.

So suffice to say we are dead chuffed that we are now staying down under for another year!  We are going to be coming back to the UK in July to use the return tickets that we bought and spend a week or more with the parents and visiting friends.

Decision .... Decided

Just a quick one to say we have decided ... with the help of Zac and a couple of bottles of vino ... that we are going to Jersey from August. Is going to be VERY sad leaving, but hopefuly we'll be able to come out for a holiday and who knows what the year after will bring?? Should be a good time over there - although it looks like I may end up being the house slave once more .... as I said before, not many jobs for the foreigner in Jersey.

Pics

Another picture update.

Pull off on the way to Hobart - topiarised dinos

Wineglass Bay

Wineglass Bay

Cradle Mountain

Cradle Mountain

Tasmania

Last week we had another week off so the three of us planned a trip across to Tasmania seeing as we knew so many people from there we thought we ought to finally see if it was as good as they all said it was.
Got into Launceston late on Monday after the girls had finished a night shift on Sunday night. Met Zac and Shevan that night as they were letting us crash on their sofa bed. We'd previously had Zac stay with us a year or so back and was good to meet Shave. Went to Breakfast with Shave on Tuesday and began the week long tradition of eating out for brekky. Can definitely get used to this, although maybe its a good job I've got my weights now to work off the calories!

....

I just found this blog that I hadn't posted so the rest may be a bit sketchy!

...

Weds we drove down to Hobart - got a Pug 307 (a more high class form of transport apparently!) - took about 4 hours to get down there as 1. it was raining, 2. I took a slight detour (planned I may add), 3. did I mention that it was raining?!?, 4. had lunch at a nice little cafe and 5. it was raining!!  Didn't see much of Hobart as the cloud base was so low, but what we did see seemed nice enough.  Decent restaurants and bars, nice shopping and a nice sea front.  Had fish & chips on the front which was really tasty - fish is the Hobart specialty.

Thurs left Hobart via Frecinet National Park where we visited Wineglass bay.  Made our way up the East coast after leaving there at around 3.30pm and after reaching St Mary's detoured back to Launceston via Fingal.  This then turned into quite an adventure - gravel roads at night - Wombats on the verge, Kangaroos hopping across the road in front of the car, wallabies on the road, all sorts!  It was fantastic and soon made Iz change her mind from it being a bad idea to one of the highlights of the trip!

Fri went to Cradle Mountain - another mammoth drive from 8am right up to 5pm when we dropped the car back at the rental place.  Cradle Mountain was good although all the 'tracks' were wooden board walks - even those purporting to go to the summit started off with a boardwalk that disappeared over a ridge.  I don't think they have quite the same idea of rambling/hiking as we do!

Sat got up lateish and went to a Tasmanian Devil park.  Did you know that their bite is 11 times as powerful as a pitbull??  And Iz was wondering if she should hand feed them a meaty stick!

Sunday we headed home in the afternoon after spending the day with Zac doing a few more wineries and the Jantz sparkling wine factory.  Got the plane and missed our train back from Sydney so had to wait with all the remaining party goers hanging around the only food stand still open at that time of night.  Grabbed a few cups of hot chocolate and then caught the train and finally arrived home at around 2.30 in the morning.  Em was a tad pissed off as this meant she had only 4 hours sleep before work.

Exercise

Well chuffed this week, I was. My weights arrived :-) I've now commandered the consevatory, and Izzy is talking about me turning it into a small gym so we can all use it. Will have to see about that, but it sounds a good idea. Very happy to be getting back into it though!

More BIG life decisions

Yet more big, and once again we mean proper BIG, decisions are looming (or should that be have loomed, hit us on the head and we're now standing watching the bluebirds fly around our heads?).

This time it is regarding what we do next year. As most people know, Em applied for Jersey to do her second year of her training, what they call F2 (Foundation year 2). Well the good news is that she's gone and beaten the competition and has got the place in Jersey. The bad news, well potentially bad news, is that we have started looking into the whole living in Jersey thing and things couldn't really be much worse! If, and it is a BIG IF, the hospital can get us a place for both of us to live - not hugely common for them to put couples up apparently, then we'll be fine. If they can't do this, then we will have to go and rent a place ourselves. Now this wouldn't normally cause a problem, with our track record of 7 places in the last 8 and a bit years we are used to going through the rental loop. However, Jersey being Jersey, a place where you have to live there for 10 years before buying a place, the rental propery market is extremely complicated with the VAST majority of households being open to those people who have lived on the island for at least 5 years, or if not, then extortionately priced - I've never seen as many 1 and 2 bed apartments over £1500 per month (and that's the cheap end!!!)

Now if we can find somewhere, then if we scrimped and saved then in theory at least we could do £1500 - wouldn't leave much in the coffers at the end of the month.

Now here comes the good bit!! Em has a job. All good. I haven't.

I've looked on the 'jobs in Jersey' website where the government puts all the jobs up for grabs at any given time and have discovered something that could be a massive problem. As I haven't lived in Jersey for more than 5 years, I'm only going to be able to look at around 5-10% of the jobs on there. They give preference to locals. Local jobs for local people. This leaves all the dross in terms of jobs :-( I may well end up being a barman or a taxi driver for the year getting paid peanuts!! There are only 2 engineering companies on the island that I've found so far, so if I can't get anything with them, and if we don't get hospital accommodation, then we are technically buggered as we'll have to do it all on Em's salary. Possible but not preferable.

Haven't discussed this with work (GEL) yet - trying to get my head around everything first, but I severely doubt that I could continue with them but it is a path I can try and look at if I have to. It may also be a good time to reassess where I am and decide if there's another 40 plus years in engineering (seeing as most in the business agree that over the next 20 years the jobs are going to move steadily eastwards as China and Indian graduates come through the system). This would be a fairly easy thing to do in any other country, but again, all trainig posts are open to people who have lived on the island for 5 years or more. Do you get the feeling they don't want immigrants in their country?!?!

We do have a fall back plan. As Em's been given Jersey, under the NHS rules she has got to take it. However, as we are now in Oz and Em's in the Australian system, she has gone down the route of getting an F2 year sorted out here as a backup in case she decided that this is where she wanted to stay. We had decided not to bother with Australia as she'd got Jersey, but now this back up has come back to the table. If she stays here, she has a job in a hospital she knows, we have a place to live, I have a Visa that allows me do work in any industry I fancy and the Engineering jobs (although not on our doorstep) are out there and pay pretty well.

As you can see we have a HUGE amount to think over.

And now for the REALLY good bit.

We have to decide by Tuesday night.

Hope you all have a more exciting weekend!

Tootle pip,

Rich

Piccies

After a few requests for some photos I've decided to stick a load of pics on in this post.

Sunrise over Terrigal

Sunrise over Terrigal

Em & Iz on a beach north of the Entrance ... seconds later a wave came and soaked them both!

View from the ferry on the way to Taronga Zoo

A view from the restaurant we stopped at on the Rocks

Same view - later that evening

Wallaby at Taronga Zoo

View from the Bird Show arena at Taronga

Sydney

This week we had planned a trip to Sydney. The two main purposes to this excursion were to firstly get a bit of down time for Em and Izzy after 7 nights working at the hospital, and secondly for Izzy to meet up with her parents again as they come back around to New South Wales for a week or so before flying back to the UK. On Monday morning, Em and Iz got back from work and went straight off to bed. Em and I were planning on going to see Ciara (a medical registrar from Ireland who was moving up to Darwin) to go and finalise the purchase of her 7 year old Ford Mondeo.
I had gone to see the car on Sunday with cash in hand, but we realised that the 'pink slip' which is neither pink or a slip but simply a cut-down MOT type test printed on a piece of A4, had run out and we would need a new one to re-register the car in our name. The car had passed this fine, so I woke Em at around half past twelve and we headed down to meet Ciara. Cash was exchanged and much questioning of what we were all doing began. Ciara had never sold a car, we had never bought a car, so all got rather interesting trying to figure out which bits of paper we needed, which we didn't need, and what required either our signature or Ciara's signature. About ten minutes later, we'd got the keys and were driving it back to our place.
That afternoon, we headed off to Gosford and got the train to Sydney. Now for all my ranting about how much more expensive everything seems to be over here, they've certainly got it right when it comes to train fares. It cost £17.60 ($8.80 each) to get to Sydney each way. That's around £8 return for what would cost around £30 for an equivalent distance into London (i.e. Southampton to London). Why can't the UK get its act together and charge similar prices? Maybe then they would get a decent percentage of the population using public transport as seems to happen here.
Arrivedin Sydney on time and headed out to Wake Up, a hostel that Em and I had booked a double room at. Although this was a hostel and obviously all facilities were shared, it was still costing the equivalent of £50 per night which I think was pretty ridiculous. I'm sure in the UK we'd be able to find some cheap b&b for under £50 per night, even in London! Saying that, we were glad we'd stayed there as it was a really friendly place, loads to do, and if backpacking then there'd have been shed loads of excursions that we could have done for not a great deal of money.
Once bags were dropped off, headed to Izzy's parents hotel and Iz dropped her bag off as she was kipping on their floor. Went out to the Opera House and instantly remembered the layout of the city. Had food on the waterfront and soaked up the view - Opera House on the right and Harbour Bridge on the left. We'd wanted to do the bridge climb but we all realised that we'd not be able to afford that this time, so I'm sure we'll be back in the not too distant future.
Met up the following day to go with Iz and her folks around some of the bays in the harbour and wander around to Bondi. Was great weather. After the rains of a couple of weeks ago, most of South Australia is now in the middle of a heat wave, so some of the hot dry weather has been spilling across to New South Wales. Temperatures were around 26-29 all week, and the sun was out pretty much all the time. Great views around Watsons Bay, the north eastern peninsula on the south side of the harbour, and out to sea. Bondi was, well, Bondi really. Loads of people soaking up the sun. The odd surfer trying to catch non-existant waves but still somehow managing to surf a long way in to the shore, and loads of people in the sea having fun. Went and did the obligatory paddling and then walked around the coast to one of the other small beaches before catching the train back to central which is right next to Wake up. Found a nice place to eat up George Street selling pub-type fare at low prices then headed back to the hostel for the night.
Decided to go to Taronga the next day, but at a leisurely pace after all the walking of yesterday. Strolled up George street to Circular Quay - the main ferry terminus up by the Bridge and the Opera House. Popped into a fair few shops on the way up - saw the largest Camera Lens I've ever seen, but no price tag although I'm thinking several thousand dollars - and got to the Ferry around 11am. Booked onto a Cruise of the harbour which includes Zoo entry, so had a bit of a tour of the sights of the harbour and heard some of the history before arriving at the Zoo. Took the cable car up into the Zoo rather than walk up the hill and got great views of Sydney, not to mention the Orang-utan who was sitting at the top of a pole with a sack on his head to shade himself from the sun - most funny.
Spent the whole day wandering around the zoo. Some highlights were the bird show, which unlike most shows which just show the birds, get them to fly around a bit and then sit them on a perch, actually had them trained so that they would fly to certain points of the arena, swoop over the audience's heads, and make a noise at the right time to coincide with the handler's speil. The snake exhibit was quite a good one to look around as I at least know what they look like now and know that you're meant to keep still if one sees you and then it will just slither on past. Obviously one highlight was the Orang-Utans, although Mr I've Got a Sack on My Head was still happily sitting at the top of his pole even up to when we left at half 4! Saw a few spiders too - so also what some of the common poisonous ones look like. Unfortunately a number of exhibits were closed as they are re-developing the site and are building new enclosures so that was a shame, so we may have to return at some point to see it once they've moved them all.
Got back to Sydney at 6pm, and headed over to the Rocks, the area around the base of the bridge. Found a proper Irish pub in there and had a couple of pints of the black stuff whilst waiting for time to tick around so we could go for food. Got chatting to the Irish bar girl. Found out she's a nurse in training on a few months out before she heads back to finish off her degree. Went back to the harbour side for around half 7 and got a table in a nice place with a great view. Picked the cheaper meals from the menu as I reckon average prices there were $40 per meal. I had kangaroo - just had to be done - and Em had a pasta thing. Roo is a crossed between beef and venison, although a bit tougher than venison but not quite so gamey. Met with Iz again after our meal and had a drink by the Opera House then headed off to Jackson's on George a pub/bar/club which Iz's friend worked at for a while before starting medicine. We were told the barmaids dress as cowgirls so we wanted to go see that, but the club wasn't open and we think that must be where they do that as the pub downstairs and the bar upstairs didn't. Played a few games of pool before strolling back down George St to the hostel.
Checked out at 9am and had breaky in the hostel cafe before crossing the road and getting the train back home. Were back in Terrigal for about half 12, although that would have been around half 11 if the train had been a couple of minutes earlier as we only just missed the bus back home. The next one didn't turn up either, so Sydney to Gosford was marginally quicker than Gosford to Terrigal!! Got back and registered the car down at the RTA so we now officially own it. Em had a drive and is just about getting used to the size of a Mondeo after her Corsa and MX5.
Just relaxing for the rest of the week before Em starts work again on Monday night.

Tootle pip,

Rich