Meatball footlong please!

25th Oct

The day began very early this morning, at 5 am to be exact. Not by choice mind you but because of our housemates again. I know we are complaining about them a lot but its all true and most definitely getting beyond funny. As they came back from beer drinking and they knew that we were sleeping, it didn't stop them playing music, singing etc until when David had to leave for work at 8 am. All day they are very sorry and blaming the drinks for their noise pollution, but its been happening every weekend since we have moved in here. Its not fair and we made a mistake moving in here it seems. If it wasn't for the location and the place being nice, well who knows we could be moving out sooner than we think. Not easy to move around though and full of hasle too, so David had a talk with them after he finished work. They were sorry sorry and using the oldest excuse in the book, "I was drunk, sorry". We have used that one ourselves on occasion, but not every weekend. Now they don't really speak to David and times are hard in Brisbane.

Oh yeah a funny thing happened in David's work today. While he was engineering his subs, some problems in the crowd occured. The queue was long and then he sees a down syndromed boy lying on the ground. They run out to see what has happened, and the boy (who is a regular to subway) has fainted. He gets some water and as he comes around all he says is "Meatball Footlong please", oh boy, what a guy. Dedicated to his meatball. Of course he ends up getting the sub for free and a bottle of water too. So you should all go to a busy subway and faint to get your free sub, that is the new way for cheap meals.
I was working today too in the eveing time, its Sunday so the comedy is on. Don't worry though as tomorrow we are driving up to the Sunshine Coast for some beach relaxation and sightseeing of Queensland. It shall be fun, we hope?!

Angela & David

Eating Kangaroos!

21st Oct-24th Oct

The sun is still shining this morning, as it always does! We are waking up happy with the thoughts of Koala's and Kangooroo's, and on that thought it reminds me that today is the day we are going to eat 'Kangaroo Burgers' for dinner. The preparation of the meat brings back all the cute memories from yesterday, all the playfulness and curiousity of the kangaroo. However here is a little fact for you "Australia is overpopulated with kangaroo's and to add the meat is 97% fat free and ful of iron" so what wins in the end is human carnivourous nature. Its a bit tough, its a bit meaty but David appreciates every bite and goes back for more. I think its gonna be his diet for the next few months and don't forget the steak of course.

Thursday comes and goes, and the sun is splitting the stones again. Its getting hotter each day and more and more people a flocking to the man made beach in Southbank, everyone is sunning themselves even if the risk factor is most in Australia (skin cancer at its fiercest). Anyway, the point is that we get to the cinema to watch SAW VI, and its slightly disappointing but still a must see, if you like that sort of thing (and we do).

Friday was suppose to be my day to work, but a call comes and its cancelled!!! I need more hours, its just not fair. I love the job and just wish that they can give me the hours. So back to the cinema we go, through our usual route on the boat with beautiful scenery of the Brisbane skyline. Its so much nicer than Dublin, but Dublin is Dublin and will always be great craic.

Angela & David

Koalas and Kangarooos!

19th Oct-20th Oct

Happy Mondays, thats what they should be called from now on, or sleepy Mondays would suffice aswell. Wakey wakey David its time to work now........."No chance". The phone dials the work number and a very sick Dave makes his first sick call to work, and he is not even working there two weeks. Oh oh, trouble trouble but its better than turning up smelling like a chardonnay and stale vodka. The tought of making sandwiches was enough not to go to work, so he slept all day until 5 pm. I braved the day from 1pm, it was still hot and very sunny as it always is here. Praying for rain is unheard of here.

Tuesday was more creative on our part, we woke up early to the sound of the birds and fresh minds. It was time we did something with our days off. We went to visit the 'Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary' which is a short ride away on the 445 bus. When we got off the bus the immediate smell of eucalyptus that has passed through a stomach of a Koala was evident (I heard they're not supposed to smell that good, but my lord, that was a disgusting smell), but nice to be out of the city. We went in and got discounts with our backpacker cards. We strolled around this small enclosure, we saw a sheep dog demonstration and some man shearing a sheep. Some free running turkeys who snatch any type of food out of your hands at any given moment. Then we got to meet the kangaroos in the open enclosure (you can't skip them......ha ha ha), we roamed free with the roo's, trying to avoid their droppings everywhere. They are strange looking animals, with their little arms that remind you of the T-Rex dinosaurs. But i promise you, they are the most coolest and cutest animals!

Angela

Trying to connect with the kangaroo

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Then it was time for the days big event, and that was to get a cuddle with a Koala. We got to hold a Koala named " Scarlet", she was not moving very much as you can imagine (they tend to sleep for 20 hours per day, and when not sleeping they only wake up to eat the Eucalyptus plant, and get rid of the previously eaten plant). She was very cute indeed so we got a little souvenir and went back to the roo's for a second look, and had food for them this time to get the better picture.

This time we even made them kiss us :) with a little food stick stuck on our lips they were more then happy to give us a little kiss! I wonder if there is such word as "Animalphelia"??
When i get the chance i'll be back there to cuddle with the roos, the koala was a bit too boring for my liking! But they sure are cute!

Angela & Kanga

_______________________

David & Roo

______________________

Today was a lovely day and it was finished off by having a super veal stroganoff with a nice cup of tea.


Angela & David

Monthaversary

13th - 16th October

The meat Platter

oh so yummy

Its our monthaversary and we are very close to being 4 years together, so we decide to enjoy our time and go to a lovely restaurant for dinner. Well in fact it is the place that I work in and I get 20% discount on the food there. We get dressed up in our best rags and go for some amazing food and wine. We start of with a fantastic platter of cured meats (just saying that makes my mouth water) and mains and dessert to follow and all at a reasonable price of 110 australian dollars (€65). We had a great time and managed to get some snaps of the creatures of the night while walking home. The place we live in is peaceful and quiet but at night time it comes alive with possoms and crows start singing in the morning (well crowing in that annoying tone kakow kakow at 5 am). It is a nice neighbourhood though and full of activity. We sleep happy tonight, still on that crazy matress that is too big for the bed as we have not got around to getting a new one yet.

David

With a glass of red and some dessert in mind

Angela

The saffron dessert was to die for!

Possum

On our way home we found a lost possum in a tree

Happy Monthaversary!

Angela & David

Night out...Not

16th Oct-18th Oct

Friday. Tonight was suppose to be our night out in "The Valley", which turned out to be not the case. I brought clothes, vodka in a plastic bottle, and everything else required to go straight out after work and David was suppose to meet me after his shft finished at 11 pm. What happened was that I finished earlier than I thought because it was not busy and David didn't finish until 1 am because he was too busy.... So there went our night of fun. We kicked back at home and did nothing instead.

Next day was work again, and yet another late night. We finished off with a couple glasses of wine and went to sleep at 2 am, to be woken up by our housemates voices again at 5.17 am. They were of course just coming back from their night out. We eventually fell back asleep at around 7 am and slept until 12pm. When we got up to make lunch (a delicious tuna pasta sauce thingy) all we could hear from our housemate was " oh my god, I can't believe they are making noise outside as I'm trying to sleep" the flipping cheak I though! As she stormed out of the room without saying anything, and went back in without saying anything......thats what you get with living with people that only care about themselves.

I got called into work early, and David joined me in work later. Well he was only there to enjoy the free stand up comedy night and of course the added bonus of cheap beer because I work there. Bloody excellent for him anyway..... So thats how the day/night suppose to end. But of course it is not the case. I finished work and Dan, Glen and Ryan from work, wanted to get a few wines, so we arrived at my house and to our cosy basement. David joined us with a few beers and some music and the night turned into day very very quickly. We saw the sunrise and the cold of night turn to hot day. We watched our flatmates leave for work one by one as we waved them on there way, because we did not finish the party until 8 in the morning!


Angela & David

Responsible Service of Alcohol

11th Oct-13th Oct

Saturday. Good morning indeed, as I was a bit tired and David had to work in the afternoon and so did I of course. It sure does feel strange to have to say the word work all of a sudden but hats how it is I'm afraid. We have wanted this in Australia and now we have it. So now we miss travelling and doing what we want in the day. But ok, it is what we need to do and we will do it.
We worked this saturday, we came home to find more of the same. The house alive with the sound of drinking, however all the off liences close at 10pm so we have nothing to enjoy after work unless you plan ahead that is, its ok on this occasion as we are tired and happy to sleep or in our case listen to the rest of the house have fun (or another word for it is 'keeping us awake'). I know what you are thinking, "you are in another country, you should be doing what they are doing too" however sometimes sleep is all we want. So on Sunday morning we wake up to the usual question "Did we wake you last night?" and we say "Yes". But there is no remorse in their voices. David has his day off and I work again. The last day for the week, oh boy short week.

Monday comes and goes, and our housemates are little angels that go to bed at 8pm, all nice and quiet. I get to do my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol Certificate-which is compulsory here if you wanna work in the bar industry). I do however have to travel to Starbucks in the city to get internet as our one at home is not set up yet (but promises promises it should be here soon. While David is doing his best to try and reform the Subway personnel by arguing with them and trying to get them to understand that if you work more than 6 hours a day, then you should have at least 30 mins break for it. It is not the case however here, he only gets 10 mins if he is lucky. The funny thing is that Australian law says otherwise, but no one pays attention and if a place is busy well then you work all day. So we are finding out exactly how the system works here, but hey, now we are the ones that are desperate for work and its hard to beat the system.

Angela & David

Weekend Ahoy!!!

9th October-11th October

Friday. David was up again at the 4.45 am, crack of dawn, to face his subway challange. While I had the evening shift to look forward to as it starts at 6 pm. When David came back from work he felt like having a beer or two even though he probably shouldn't have as he got his last Hepatitis B vaccine. But sure how can you stop the Friday feeling. He got his six pack of Grolsh of all things and enjoyed them with the company of housemates, as at the weekend this house turns into a party house. As I finished working my first day there were some free drinks being offered to all the staff, and what better way to get to know them than with a drink and some chat. So that was fun, and instead of one comlimentary glass of wine I ended up having three and feeling a bit tipsy. When I got back home David had already gone to bed, he did however finish his six pack of beer, and even got some southern comfort that was left over from Malaysia. He was out for the count, but I was in a good mood and decided to join my fellow house mates downstairs for some more fun. We ended up playing the Roxanne drinking game and staying up til 4.30 am.That was only me going to bed though, the rest were up to their usual and drinking until 7 or 8 am.

Saturday came too fast, with not enough sleep and hangover for me. I swear to you my ability to handle a hangover is not the same as in the younger days. But all in all I had work to look forward too and so did David. We watched a lot of "Friends" episodes and did what we had to do which was work work work. At least working weekends we don't spend money and will keep it for seeing Australia later.

Angela & David

Work and No More Play

7th Oct-9th Oct

David started his job, all 6 am morning shifts. Getting up at 5 am to start the prep work. Those salads need to be chopped alright. But its good to have work after 4 months of travelling, plus this is when the bank account will hopefully start to grow again. Plus to add, he met some strange people at that hour of the morning. Let me explain: While he was sitting outside the subway store in Southbank, an old man comes out from the restaurant next door with a leaf blower in his hands. The man turns it on and starts running around chasing leaves away from the restaurant. Then he blows away the leaves from outside Subway and at that time he runs over to David, starts touching him on the head and shoulders while saying "oh, I'm 77 years old and still can do this every morning....ha ha ha". Then he runs back and starts to blow leaves again. Lucky the manager came to open the store, otherwise who knows what would have happened with that leaf blower.

As for me, well I just did some house work and enjoyed my days off leading up to the Friday when I begin my new working experience. We also went to the cinema to watch Mao's Last Dancer this afternoon, and it was a nice film. I even cried at the end, just a little though.

Angela & David

Life is so typical!!!

5th October-6th October

Monday. This day belongs to David and his job interviews are all lined up. Three in total. So the first one was "Subway", the sandwich shop, and dressed in his newly bought shirt and pants he went. Interview went reasonable, and the competition was huge around 50 people to get through. So off he went to the second interview for the sales and marketing. It went great, and he got a training day for Tuesday. So all good there. The third was back closer to home in "The Valley". More sales and marketing only door to door this time promoting energy and giving people discounts. Sounds great, but all the sales jobs are commission based and not a constant flow of cash. So hard to know what to do.....

Anyways, the good news is that "Subway" rang back and gave the job to David. He was pleased, then another bloke rang and invited David for training for the door to door sales role. So successful day with 2 and a half jobs offered. He accepted them all, and it was time to make some decisions.

But first a training day on Tuesday. He basically went to a shopping centre and had to grab people and get them to sign up with their credit card details....so not exactly a fun job. Lots of lies, and dishonesty in this job, so it was the first one to be urned down. Then the other sales and marketing job was turned dow. So the winner is "Subway", he loves that place, and making sanwiches is an honest way to make a living, feeding people gives a great satisfaction indeed. Plus I'm sure he will get some discounts on the subs ha ha ha ha.

So we are all set now, job, house, bank account and now its time to have some fun.

Angela & David

Hello New Farm, our home for the next six months!

3rd October - 4th October

We moved in to our bright, spacious double room in New Farm. Fantastic room when compared with what we lived in Dublin, and costs less, but that comes at a price. We did have a rough night sleep for the first night as we got to know our house mates and their weekend habits. These habits include drinking all night, making noise all night, and basically staying up all night. To add there are birds singing their lungs out at 4.30 am right outside the window. We were a little bit tired to say the least the next day and it didn't help as I had a job interview to go to. But we struggled on as best we could, I went for the interview. I came out smiling as the manager was very nice, and he agreed to give me a trial day tomorrow. I was on a high and very excited. To celebrate we just went to sleep early that saturday and try an get the energy back for the trial day. Our new flatmates were still in the party mood and decided to do another all night session, this time they did keep the noise down and showed a bit of respect for their fellow flatmates. (We would normally join them for that sort of a party aswell, but just when we get a job and have something to celebrate).

Sunday, the nerves, the butterflies in the stomach, it was all there. I started my trial with a bang. A broken glass and broken plates all within the first hour. I was not feeling very confident about getting the job. So I got called in to the office by the manager, he smiled and gave me the job. Yipee, I got a job now. Well that was easy, but don't start until next Friday though, so another week of rest for me. Yipee to that too, I sure need it as the crocs that I bought gave me the biggest blisters imaginable, damn you crocs, you were suppose to be comfortable.

Angela & David

Fugitive on the run, must be caught. its name is JOB!!!!

28th September - 2nd October

Monday to Friday sure felt like a working week, as we were still on the search for that job. Every job website was visited and many jobs applied for aswell, but still nobody was ringing for interviews. So what shall we do we thought, should we give up the search ???? Should we just not bother with work and just travel Australia and South America and come back home early and without any money in our banks???? These were all the questions going through our minds. Plus we had to change the round the world tickets and that costs money too. Pressure, pressure and lots of coffee was the answer for this week.

Me, i'm going to try barwork again.

As for David, well he got a call from a sales and marketing company for a job interview for Monday 5th. Then another call came for him and he had two interviews on Monday, both for sales and marketing. Things were looking up. I then got a call for a restaurant/bar job in the same district were we actually live. We were on a high, and ready to move into the new house that Friday. Things were happening fast, and looking like we were staying for a while.

Angela & David

A life in Australia

Yes, a few new blogs are coming tomorrow!!
We haven't had any internet for a few weeks so haven't been able to do good updates. But hopefully they are coming tomorrow.

LOVE Angela & David

Relax its the weekend!!!

26th - 27th September

We had enough of city life for this week, so its time to stay in the house and enjoy good food, good tv and a bit of poker too. All day things were taking at a leisurely pace, another sand storm was brewing outside, so it was a good night to chill out and play some cards. Poker is fun, and when its for money then it becomes even more fun. We were both playing well, and were left in the last three. However, David had to go and take al my chips from me, so I was gone. Two players left to fight it out for the poker champion of Ashgrove. David did not win I'm afraid, but it did come down to the last card for Johnny to take the championship. Luckily for David they struck up a deal before hand so he ended up winning some money anyway, and a bottle opener. Even though all bottles of beer in Australia seem to be twist cap.....Then the Liverpool match followed, and wow it was 6-1 victory. A bloody good day.

Sunday..............you can imagine what happened. Yes, correct. Absolutely nothing, apart from some house work, some tasty homemade burger meal with a fresh boiled sweet corn on the cob. And "The Dark Night" followed. We are slowly getting into the routine life once again.

Angela & David

27 years + 1 day Celebrations

25th September

WOW! It is no longer anybodies birthday but the headache suggests otherwise. However we had a super time, with super friends and thats all that matters. So now it is time to get on that yellow bus and go back into the city to meet Mikaela and Par again, just for coffees this time though. While in the city we get some very tasty sushi, which is a very popular food group here, we have a very nice sober chat. Then we say our goodbyes and arrive back at Colin's, and guess what they are doing?????????.........drinking beer of course, as it is Friday night. David could not resist the pressure, so he takes one, then two and then its another night of drinks for him. While I just chilled out in front of the tv and that was even better fun. The birthday continued for him all through the night.

 
Angela & David

David is finally 27 years old!!!!

24th September

IT'S DAVID'S BIRTHDAY!!!!

David, Marilyn, Colin and Angela

At the Gap Tavern, enjoying the steak dinner and lovely cake

Today was a day all planned out to be fun, fun, fun. But we still managed to get some important things done before the beers started flowing. I applied for many jobs, while David got his course finished and approved by the Justice of the Peace (who was a strange man that made comments such as "I can tell that you are not Irish, it's because of your vowels, they sound like vowels of a 14 year old). Aswell, the screening system going into the courts is not very good, as David had a swiss army knife in his bag and when everything was x-rayed they didn't see it. Crazy pointless system, but lucky that David is not a crazed serial killer even if he does listen to pscycotic metal at times.

Angela and David

David

(Wishing for a job, really hard)

After returning to Ashgrove (Colins house) we all had a beer or two, David opened his presents, which he liked a great deal (a metal hammer, some thai massage shower gel, and a shrek sweet dispenser) and then went for a fantastic steak dinner in "The Gap Tavern". Delicious steaks and a jager bomb was had, plus the singing of the Happy Birthday Song with a scrumptious cake made by me. Yummy yummy. After we were full to the point of bursting it was time to go back to the city and meet our fellow travellers from Sweden that we met in Thailand. We met them for one or two beers to celebrate David turning old. Of course the first thing they said to us wa "oh we booked an extra night here, because we know what happens when we all meet up", and they were right of course. We stayed drinking until 4 am, and had a great time sitting in the Queen Street Mall. It was Jimmy's Bar that kept us entertained for hours.

Par, Mikaela and Angela

(Travel reunion, from Thailand to Australia)

David was very happy with his first and last birthday in Australia. It was perfect.

Angela & David