On the road again

So here we are..5 months have gone by since we left Europe, believe it or not.
After driving for 3 whole days we ended up in Adelaide and after a weeks journey to Melbourne we are now back in Adelaide to celebrate Christmas with our new found family!

Here are a few pics from our road trip across Australia. This car is called a high top and fits 2 people. Perfect!

We got it through a relocation deal which basically means that when a car rental company needs a car to be somewhere else they let people like us drive it there for free, instead of getting one of their own men to do it.

Breakfast

 

We had four days to return the car in Adelaide so we spent 3 nights in 3 different caravan parks and lived it up with a few stubbies!

 

In the outback

After a few nights in Adelaide we took the bus down to Melbourne and managed to squeeze in a week with the legendary Cathal before Christmas.

On the last night there we started up in the highest bar in Australia, then we went to the casino and then home for a legendary Christmas Party with Cathal's roommates, Steven and Sorcha.

The Casino entrance

After a lot of singing and dancing Cathal had to go directly to the airport to catch his flight to Alice Springs while the rest of us finished it off with a dart tournament which myself ended up winning!
It must also be mentioned that I got a bull's eye!

Christmas Party with a Mexican twist

Delighted

And now we are back in Adelaide celebrating Christmas real Aussie style! More about that some other day...

The celebration of a very special boy!

On the Sunday before David's birthday, Therese was kind enough to bring us on a sightseeing trip around the coast of Sydney. Luke was the designated guide!

Feeding a Galah

With a Galah

We went to a lovely pub with the best view of the ocean and the cliffs and had a real pub-grub with a few beers! After the dinner Therese went to the ¨toilet¨ and came back with a very special surprise - - a cake, a hat and a badge for the soon to be birthday boy! Good times!

 

Now of course we promised Therese that David would wear the badge on his actual birthday too so we took some pictures to prove it to her:

In front of Town Hall

In the Rocks

And in front of the Delorian from Back to the Future

This is how much fun we had!

And now our journey in Sydney is almost over...We are packing our bags and heading south for we hear there is much to be desired down there. All will be known when we update this blog again.
Until then folks.

Struth! It's Jesse!

Just a normal Sunday arvo, hanging with my mate Jesse!

Stone the crows! It's Summer Bay!

 

One Monday morning we got up early, packed our ham sandwiches and jumped on the bus to Summer Bay, or Palm Beach as some might call it.
The first thing we spotted when we got off the bus were a big line of filming trucks and we knew we'd hit the jackpot!

We knew then that they were filming that day, but not where. Now the bay is actually a big enough place so we figured where better to start than by the flamin surf club!The galaas...

 

We couldn't see anyone there so we headed on to the Pier Diner and the Bait Shop.

When we couldn't see anyone there either I started freaking out a bit. Had we really come all the way to Australia only to not see anyone from the show? I made the decision to go back to the vans and get David with his Irish charm to ask them straight out where they were filming.
Turns out they were filming some house party scene in a house up the hill from the beach, but that they were gonna be having lunch soon and that we were welcome to meet them then!

 

So we waited while enjoying the most beautiful beach we've ever seen, thinking that every person walking by was someone from the show...finally the house party was over and they came stumbling down the hill. Now we are not freaks so we let them eat in peace and we did not stand around watching them, but while we were standing in the shade talking someone came along. And in this case I think pictures says more than a thousand words. Well, in this case it only needs one -- WILL!!

A little bit starstruck!

We also got to see Ruby, Xavier, Nicole and April and a lot of crew members. No Alf though, cause he's in London doing some Christmas thing. But next time.........

Upside down

When we landed in Sydney we were dreading the thought of the border checks. We've all seen the tv show! Luckily it was pretty straight forward, although we did have to stand in a queue for ages, which was helped along with some sneaky cutting! We were told that if we had anything wooden we had to declare it otherwise they would take it from us. So our little Buddha statue, which we have grown so fond of, along with our croaky frog, had to be checked out by the man! An extra bit of queuing, a couple of x-rays and form filling out later we were off! We left the terminal and for the first time in two and a half months we felt the sweet caress of a cold breeze! We had to put on a jumper! It was great.
It was easy to spot that we were back in civilisation also. Cleanliness. Friendly people giving actual help, not a scam disguised as help. We would do well here!
Our first week was spent house hunting. Our second day of looking led to a so-so place in Double Bay, or Double Pay as it's nicknamed, you need to be paid twice in order to live there! After a, non salmonella laced, meatball filled trip to Ikea we had our room furnishings and were ready to go! Step two a job. Now that proved to be much harder, and it's hard to live in Double Pay without any pay at all! Well I guess it's hard to live anywhere without money. At almost three weeks we're still unemployed! But we have a couple of leads so watch this space! What seems to be the problem is that we are probably over qualified for the jobs on offer, we just want a part time sweeping the roads kind of job, pay the bills and spend the rest of our time having fun. Plus the employers see that we're only here for six months and they head for the hills. It also seems that everyone is covering their backs insurance wise. In order to do most things you need to carry out a course of some kind. Pull pints? Do a course, carry bricks? do 3 courses and so on. Work with kids? Don't even think about it!

The only way to fly!

CHEESE!

On the next blog: Something exciting!