Our house and that

It’s the 2 week anniversary of our arrival in Australia and we’re already starting to feel really settled and happy here. There’s no doubting that we got lucky with our flat. It’s bigger and nicer than anything else we’ve seen and it’s in a really good area too. We’ve uploaded pictures of it so at last you can check out where we’re living. The weather is a bit mad at the minute. Our first weekend was mental. The storms were so bad and we still had to go out in it to move into the flat and buy stuff to make it liveable. According to the news June has been the wettest in 48 years, people have died up north, boats have been wrecked in Sydney harbour but on a positive note dams are overflowing for the first time in 9 years so we’ll have plenty of water to wash our cars and water our lawn in the summer.

We both had our first days of work this week after the Queen’s birthday bank holiday at the start of the week. We both got on fine. Coming home at the end of the day is a good buzz. We’ve made some nice dinners this week and we’re starting to get over the high price of alcohol. We had some wine last weekend and a few beers during the week. The fact that it gets dark at 5pm in June is weird but we’re adjusting. We even plan to be in the city this week till 8pm! Madness. We’re going to the Sydney Opera House to see a live symphony orchestra! Just when you thought going to see a symphony couldn't get any geekier...click here! Should be a good laugh anyway and we'll know a few of the 'pieces.'

Before the link to the pictures we’d like to say a happy father’s day to both our daddies and every other daddy out there. Also congratulations to Bradley’s sister and her new husband who got married yesterday. They’ll still be drinking as we type this. We appreciate the emails from people keeping us informed about the TV event of the decade, Sean ‘Seany’ O’Kanes stint in the Big Brother house. Oh yeah, without net access we can’t post so frequently but we’ve plans to write up interesting things that happen to us as they happen then post them when we get a chance, probably at the weekend.

On a final note as we were walking to the internet cafe in the city centre we happened to spot Drew from Home & Away. Chris was star-struck. It was funny seeing all the girls recognising him as they passed and cracking up to their mates. Our first Aussie celebrity!

Photos of da gaff

Short Update from Down Under

Hi everybody. We've been very busy all week and couldn't locate a cheap place to use the internet until now but all that has changed, well a little. We don't have internet at our new flat or anything but there's a good place in the city centre (or CBD as they call it here) that we can use the laptop at to put photos up. We reckon we'll have a big update with photos and everything at the weekend.

We're both getting on well. We've got employment and a lovely place to stay in a suburb of Sydney very close to the city. Hope you're all doing well, we hear the weathers been nice, in stark contrast to here where we've seen the worst storms in decades! It's passed now though and we're looking forward to 19 degree winter days.

You can click below to get a look at our area on Google Maps:

Map of Stanmore

First look at Sydney

We survived the 14 hour flight OK. We had a little more legroom because we were sitting in the front row of a section of the plane just behind business class. It was night time the whole length of the flight and we lost a whole day but we felt surprisingly decent when we arrived. We were speaking to a nice man on the flight, an American citizen living in Tasmania who gave us some useful information about Australia like the huge duty on alcohol!! Customs at the airport were fine but we had to queue for a while to have our bags scanned for outside organic material. There was also a lovely wee hound running around the baggage terminal sniffing for things.

Really easy to get to our hostel because it's just beside central station. The rail links seem pretty good here. We'd planned to pay for the airporter bus but it was dead cheap and quick to take the train, another tip from the American man on the flight. The hostel is really nice, great location and clean safe etc. There's a big oscar trophy in the lobby cause they won the best large hostel in the world award! We got in at 8am expecting to have to wait till 12 to check in but they let us go straight up to the room which was really welcome. Had a wee sleep and got up and took the train to the harbour beside the opera house. It was a beautiful as we expected and the weather's fine, warm enough for this time of year – 15 degrees or there abouts (back to celcius now that we’ve left America!)

Pictures from Sydney

End of the USA era

We spent or last full day in LA getting some errands done. Looked into jobs and accomodation in Sydney on the internet, did some laundry and ate at In 'n' Out burger again. Messed around at the Hollywood and Highland Centre. The Muppets were on at The Kodak Theatre. Didn't get to see any of the stars of show apart from Elmo who's a lot bigger in real life than he looks on TV.
Our flight wasn't until 10pm on Friday evening. We checked out of the hostel, stored our bags and took a Hollywood tour to pass the time. We did the stars home tour around the Hollywood Hills, Santa Monica boulevard and Beverly Hills. Our driver Danny was a celebrity photographer, doing the tour on the side. He was a bit of slabber too, showing off his press credentials and telling us stories about his minor celebrity friends. He was a decent guy though and the tour was entertaining particularly when he took us up Paris Hiltons street where there were about 20 people lying in wait for her. Crazy. We thought that just seeing the houses would be pretty boring but boy were we wrong, ended up pure star struck even though we only saw some guy off Entertainment Tonight and Jennifer Anistons dogs. Some of the homes we saw included: Tom Cruise's (gate), Will Smith, Richard Simmons, Cathy Bates, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Reese Wetherspoon, Lindsay Lohan, Dr Phil, Demi Moore, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Lucille Ball, Toby Maguire, Columbo!, Jennifer Aniston, Judge Judy. Simon Cowells house was a wreck but he'll probably give it a lick of paint before he moves in.
Our camera batteries died and the replacements were packed so we didn't take anymore that day. That afternoon we had a nice meal in an Italian restaurant. Dave had to make a few phone calls back home cause he lost his bank card. On the feckin' last day! He blames the different bank machines and stupidity. Have to get it sent out to Australia somehow now.

Our photos are uploading really slow at our hostel in Sydney so for now we've just put up the gallery of our first look around here. Probably put up the last batch of LA photos soon though!

LA catchup

We haven't been able to post all week because as well as being dead busy our internet connection hasn't been very good. We decided to lay down $5 and get the wireless connection in our hostel. Cheap, us? Never. There's a few posts below to check out. Hope you enjoy.

6 Flags Magic Mountain

We love big rollercoasters and Universal just didn't cut it in that department so on Wednesday we decided to go to Six Flags Park in not so near by Valencia. We caught a nice train to Newhall but our luck ran out there when the local buses that called at the park only seemed to run every 6 hours. An anxious 45 minute wait for a taxi later and we were on our way. The park was great, the rollercoasters lived up to our expectations (particularly Tatsu and Goliath) but unfortunately so did the queues. The most annoying of these was the queue for an overpriced burger which lasted about 45 minutes. We had a great time anyway especially as the lines died down later in the day. On the way home our taxi driver recommended a bar beside the train station cause we were early. Really nice all american place. The beers were delicious, served in frozen schooners (which weren't of the Australian variety)

Photos below!

Six Flags Magic Mountain



And a video of the best rollercoaster!! Taken on Dave's camera so not so clear. Chris' was in the lockers. Girls don't have pockets.

Day 3 - Tour of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica

On day 3 we had a big lay in and got a double decker bus outside our hostel around 11am. We saw the Paramount Studios, the Viper Room, Steven Speilberg' s house, a dog driving a car, the Hollywood sign, the Pollo Loco, where Brad Pitt onced worked dressed as a crazy chicken and lots more. After the tour we decided to walk down to Santa Monica Boulevard and get a bus to try and find Rodeo Drive - despite not having a map. When we got there it was like we stepped out at a new country. It is really classy and nice! Saw a few places from Pretty Woman. Then we got on to the bus again and headed to the beach. LA is huge by the way!!! Santa Monica was really beautiful. Had a drink in an English bar and walked through the town to the beach. Golden sands but it wasn't all that warm and the ocean looked freezing. Shame we didn't pack our swim gear.

You can check out the photos on the link below:

Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Hollywood Tour

More Universal and downtown LA

Memorial day in the states. A time to remember pretty much everybody from what we can gather. Went to Universal early to aviod the crowds but they found us none-the-less. Did some of the best rides again and saw the animal actors show which was dead good, especially the orangutan coming out with a towel wrapped around him after a little dog stole his bra. All improvised we're fairly sure.

Can't remeber why now but we ended up on the other side of town in the downtown area which is really really nice. The Walt Disney Theatre there is really futuristic looking and beautiful. There's also some lovely gardens and fountains around the Museum of Contemporary Art. We were surprised how nice, clean and accessible LA has been because of the picture that's usually painted in films, TV and books.

Anyways the link to the photo gallery is below as usual. Dave is playing around with a new feature of Picasa here so there's also a little flash gallery below for those with Macromedia Flash installed.


More LA photos - Universal and downtown

First day in LA. Universal Studios.

First batch of photos from LA are mostly from the first day we spent at Universal Studios. Dead easy to get there cause our hostel is on the red line of the LA metro. There's also a few snaps of North Hollywood where we're based, right around the corner from the Hollywood and Highland Centre where the Oscars are held in the Kodak Theatre. You can see the Hollywood sign 5 minutes walk from our door and the walk of fame and the hand and footprints in front of the chinese theatre. Amazing location, really makes a big difference, Vegas being the other side of the coin. On Hollywood boulevard there were street entertainers everywhere, spiderman, superman and Captain Jack Sparrow and they didn't even hassle you for money like most of their ilk tend to do. At Universal there were a few great rides and the back-lot tour was really enjoyable cause it's an active movie studio where outdoor sets and sound stages have been used for loads of productions. Back to the Future's Hill Valley, The theatre from Spiderman and Tom Sellecks wheels were all on show. Chris hurt her shoulder while trying to escape from a guy dressed up as Igor from one of the Frankenstein films. She fell into a fence poll while in a blind panic.

Hope you all enjoy the photos!

LArgely Universal Studios Pics

We've changed the comment posting on this

So it's now much easier to write a comment on one of our posts. Reminds me must check on the settings for posting comments on photos which hasn't been working.

You don't need to sign up for a Google account to post a comment now just write it and choose an 'identity' to leave either your Google details or just your name or whosever. You can see the new choices below. No mischief now we hope!