It's isn't always sunny here

It's been raining plenty this year and sometimes, after a warm day, it really goes for it. February was the wettest month since time began. This year it's been one bad weather record after an another. Still nicer than Ireland mind. Here's an example of a particularly violent rainstorm. We haven't been able to capture the thunder and lightning properly though but perhaps in time. It's class!

Plant Watch

Yesterday on the way back from seeing a couple of Queens in Sydney town (with Mardi Gras only a week away there was many a joke about another type of Queen this week) we got a couple of free plants! A few council types were chucking out loads of potted plants that had been used for Chinese New Year displays. Thousands across the city actually. We did the only thing one could in the face of such barbarity; we rescued a couple and are going to care for them for the coming months. We have named them Chopper and E.T. Check them out on day one. Expect regular riveting updates!

The Two Queens

Dave had been working overtime because the Queen Victoria and the QE2 were in Sydney over the weekend. He saw them come in at dawn and had to help with wee tours for the rich folk. On Sunday Morning we went down to Circular Quay to act the tourist.


Those boats are class and loads of people came down to check them out. The Queen Victoria is huge but the QE2 is prettier. Chris' Auntie Elish O'Hea was the QE2 back in the day on a trip to Philadelphia. Cool or what! Anyway. We did not have much time as Dave had to work that evening so we made our way through the Royal Botanic Gardens which is always an experience. The bats slept as we past them which is weird cause normally they are flying about mad.


You remember this tree????

The Two Queens Gallery

The Rocks with Jonny and Edel

We were so glad that the weather picked up for Edel and Jonny during their stay in Syders. We arranged to meet them to go for food and a few drinkypoos in the cool drinking quarters of the Rocks.


The Glenmore Hotel roof garden did not look a glamorous as the time we were there with Iain, until it got a bit darker and the city lit up. Dave was adamant there was a lunar eclipse over the harbour but we all slagged him cause we thought it was just a cloud. We later found out he was right. DOH! Later we went to the Australian Hotel which is so daggy and cool. We had loads of fun talking crap, laughing at ridiculous things and taking stupid photographs as you will see. Those two are class craic and we wish them all the best with their travels. Edel we will contact you in Melbourne for defs! And Jonny maybe we will meet up again back in Glasvegas. xox


Check out all the wild shit they have on the menu! I'll be back(Dave)

Jonny and Edel Gallery

New blogsperiment

We're decided to diversify with the blog, for a little while anyway. Negative feedback from our regular readers could put an end to it though maybe apathy's more likely causing us to get bored with it. Anyway in addition to our usual posts we've decided to put up more news about us, littler things we do, local stuff that catches our eye and other such quirky things.

First off here's a photo from the Sydney commuter paper Mx (which is officailly despicible cause of it's unfair crticism of Sydney Ferries) that's probably made news back home. Check out the size of this guy 208cm (about 11 feet) Croatian tennis star Ivo Karlovic. He's either going to take over the world of tennis through skill or, failing that, he'll club his opponents to death and eat their bones.

Tropfest 2008

It only took is 20 minutes to get to Coogee Beach for our Sunday morning swim as there was barely any traffic. Chris only lasted 5 minutes in the waves as the water got in her eyes, nose and mouth! Dave on the other hand practised body surfing and is getting pretty good. But he also got tossed about a lot and scraped his spine on the sand pretty bad. A war wound... He was all lurd!


During the evening we went into town to meet Chris' old uni friend Jonny and his friend Edel. We went to (the free) Tropfest in The Domain, the cool open space in the midst of the skyscrapers. Tropfest is the world's biggest short film festival. Here is the link to it. http://www.tropfest.com


We watched 16 short films and two of the judges were Geoffrey Rush and Naomi Watts (which Chris was very excited about!) Bryan Brown from Cocktail and F/X was also there. The films were excellent and we got to spot some Glasvegas sights in the Scottish entry, (well Chris, Jonny and Edel did.) It was such a class event and the four of us really enjoyed ourselves.

Tropfest Gallery

Outdoor Cinema at Centennial Park

We had booked to see the film Two Nights in Paris at the outdoor cinema in Centennial Park. The weather has been so awful and we feared the film may be cancelled. But after a few miserable showers in the morning the sun came out and it was a stunning afternoon. We bused it down to the park, passing waist coated boys holding chocolates and flowers. Gacks. Anyway the outdoor cinema was gorgeous with the sunset.


Everyone brought so much food and drink and blankets and pillows. We regretted only bringing a bottle of wine and a packet of crisps. We were laying back on our comfy beanbags, looking around at our surroundings and sipping wine when Dave remarked “This is perfect”. BIG MISTAKE. A few seconds later Dave spotted a dark cloud which seemed to creep up on us. The next thing we knew the rain had us soaked! We dashed under the trees but the damage was done. We were soaked and the film had not even begun! The organisers said that they checked with the meteorologists and said there would be no more rain and they would show the film anyway. (Which means we would not get our money back if we left).


We and stacks of other people decided to leave anyway because we would have got a cold sitting down on wet beanbags and it would not have been comfortable. We were laughing in the que to get our beanbag deposit back when this couple in front gave us their beanbag token and said they did not want to wait. We got $20 for free! Lurd. It paid for most of our taxi home so we decided to treat ourselves with a kebab. The outdoor cinema experience was cool despite not seeing a film. We only hope that it does not rain for Jaws in Bondi in 2 weeks. So excited!


Moonlight Cinema Gallery

North Head

The weather has been really awful over the last few weeks, with thunder, lightning and heavy rain and the temperatures have dropped significantly. We did not get out on a proper adventure last weekend (apart from getting soaked going to the Travel Expo in Darling Harbour).

This Saturday was just the same – gloomy and miserable. So when the forecasters predicted a cloudy but mostly dry day we were determined to get out of the flat! We took one of the Sydney Ferries to Manly (Dave is now one of their employees!) We decided to adventure around the historic North Head which is on quite high ground overlooking the Northern beaches, Manly, Queenscliff, Curl Curl and beyond.


We first climbed a residential hill up to St Patrick’s Seminary which is now an International College of Management. It’s a gorgeous old building with amazing views. Then we walked on up into the National Park, not quite expecting what to we would see.

The interior of North Head is a former military ground. We passed the old officer’s quarters and the ceremony pitch and a ceremonial path. Apparently this place was quite busy during the World Wars and Vietnam. We did not take any photos because it was mostly just military buildings and stuff.

We passed through some cool nature trials, passing huge spiders hanging over our heads. The sounds of the trees creaking were class and we had to be careful not to get ticks. We thankfully did not see any snakes or the endangered bandicoots (or as Chris called them Bandidots) However we did see a rabbit, a giant queen ant and heard loads of frogs croaking away. We also saw weird plants and flowers and learnt their aboriginal use.

One particular trail lead us to incredible views of the harbour overlooking Watson’s Bay to the left and Bradley’s Head to the right with the city in the background. We could also see Balmoral Beach where we have been a few times.


North Head was also a major quarantine area for colonists and they had special cemetery for people who had died with the plague, small pox, scarlet fever and the flu. I think these dead people were very lucky to be buried in such a nice place.


On our way to the Hanging Swamp we passed a park ranger who was walking through the flooded path from the recent heavy storms, in his bare feet. He asked us to check his legs for leeches! We decided not to go though the swamp and backtracked. But before we did he told us about a secret military look-out point that is not on the map as it is too tricky to find and get there. We decided we would take a chance. We crawled under a closed gate (Chris got muck all down her backside!) and scrambled through a tiny walkway. It seemed like the park ranger was taking the mick but then we go to the old look-out tower. It was bloody class! The views were pretty nice.



We decided to take another wee trail that would lead us down to Shelly Beach where we passed really unusual but beautiful ponds on top of a cliff. The views of the beaches were magnificent. As we made our way down through Manly we realised that our faces were completely burnt! It was so embarrassing. So much for it not being a sunny day!

North Head Gallery