On Tuesday night in January 2010 and I walk in the door from work to be greeted by Neil and Dan saying “are you up for the tennis tomorrow?” Well I had a day off but I didnt even know there was tennis on! It turned out there was what is known as the “Medibank…
Read More
It was mid November 2009 and we were in our first few weeks in Parramatta, Australia where I worked in the awesome PJ Gallagher’s Irish Pub. We lived with Ruben and Rebecca. Rebecca was working for the local government in New South Wales. When she mentioned she was organising a public conference in the last week…
Read More
Manly is famous mainly for its beach, but there is so much else to see and do there, that it meant planning another day trip. We went there in December 2009, on one of my days off, a Monday. Unfortunately on that day, the weather wasn’t that great and so instead of spending the day…
Read More
Cronulla was another of the famous beaches in and around the Sydney area. It wasn’t on my list of must sees, but we decided to do it anyway. My current pub job normally means I have two full days off (or one over Christmas and New Year!), and so at the start of December I…
Read More
Sydney itself is the place most people end up in Australia at some point. Yes its big and great and yes it has some amazing things to see, but don’t get caught in the “rut” of Sydney. There’s more to Australia than the city of Sydney. Although for the benefits of this post, I’ll outline…
Read More
Halloween in 2009 crept up very slowly and took us all by surprise, especially in this new land and new environment – life in Sydney. As a child Halloween had always been special. Living in Kilmaine in Bangor, Northern Ireland Halloween meant Church Services, Remembrance Day, Harvest, School Plays, Guy Fawkes Night and fun for…
Read More
It was all a bit unorganised getting to and arriving in Sydney. Just a few days before the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, I had to book a hostel, as I wanted to be sure where we would stay the first few nights. As it turned out, the pressure and randomness of booking the…
Read More
I have only lived in Australia for 6 weeks or so and already I have three qualifications to my name! (the two mentioned here, and a “publife” certificate) I didn’t expect that to happen! I thought my days of studying were well and truly behind me. Over the years I’ve spent too much time doing…
Read More
As a visitor to Sydney it was slightly obvious that in the first week we would go to the famous Bondi Beach. The weather wasn’t amazingly hot during the first 7 days however, but the night before the 8th day, we were led to believe that next day would be the ideal day to “do…
Read More
I didn’t exactly expect to watch live football in my first 2 days in Australia, but as an added bonus I did! On arrival at Sydney Airport, I noticed a light blue Sydney FC kit being sold in one of the shops, and with it a fixture list for the local team, which revealed they…
Read More