Saturday, December 29, 2007

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update with a few photos from the last week or so,


Our tiny apartment has a few new inhabitants, Gugs, Henry and Michelle, Personally I feel for Michelle who has to put up with the smell combination of Henry/Gugs.


We said we would do it, and we did! A BBQ down the beach on Christmas day, It doesn't get much better than this!!


Well, not quite on the beach, but just as good but without all the fecking sand in your food.


Charlie and Michelle made some SAVAGE Chicken Skewers, Don't tell anyone but I ate about 4 while cooking them......


Our Crew.


Charlie and myself. (with my Christmas T-shirt on!)


Charlie hits the booze.


Michelle gets her eat on. Henry and herself went all out on the clichés and had some Shrimp on the Bar-B.


Yup, I was entrusted with the cooking!


Henry.


Anna (Banana), Michelle and Gugs.


The Gun Show!


All of us!


Anna & Charlie.


Dane having a blast on Gugs Kite.


Dave, Charlie and Anna.


Charlie still hitting the booze.


Michelle & Henry.


Gugs takes off!


But he lands safely!


So Gay.


We turn our back for 2 mins and the boys are straight on the booze, well it was their Birthday!! (Stripy = 2, Woolly = 1)


Well, that was our Christmas day, it was great spending Christmas with everyone, we hadn't seen Henry, Gugs and Michelle in well over a year so it was great to Catch up and swap stories about traveling.

Lots of love

Sean, Charlie, Gugs, Henry and Michelle.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas from all of us down under!


Gugs, Henry, Me, Charlie, Dane, Banana, Dave, Michelle.

Lots of love and I hope everyone is having a great time!!!!!


S.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Hello,

Before you get too excited, this is just one of those tiny updates I do in between the big ones to keep you interested!! Ive not a huge amount to say so ill tell you some (kinda lame) facts about the blog:

1. We get on average about 18 different people checking it everyday, although some days it can be up to 40-50.

2. There has never been a single day since we left that nobody has looked at the site. (Thanks sis!!)

3. The average time someone spends looking at the site is 4 mins.

4. Charlie does not like the smell of my farts.

5. The reason the blog is popular is because your all fecking nosy.

6. The truth about my terrible written grammar and atrocious spelling has finally caught up with me.

Anyway, Mr Henry Taylor and his lovely sidekick Michelle are arriving into Melbourne this Saturday, and Gordon Kavanagh (AKA Gordo, Gugs, Gugsie) is arriving on monday (Christmas eve), and frankly we are very excited about it!

Christmas day is going to be a BBQ on the beach, so expect some very annoying photos afterwards!


Just so you have something nice to look at, here is a photo I took a couple of years back on Achill Island.


This one was an amazing sunset out at silverstrand in Barna.


Thats God making an appearance over Galway bay.


Thats a whole lot of Cheese at a cheese farm in Liscannor.


And thats us eating pizza on the beach in Salthill. Yup, we rang 4star and said we were on the beach, and about 20mins later a moped pulled up and delivered pizza to us while sitting on the sand. Legend.

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope your all having a great time where ever you may be.

Lots of love
Sean & Charlie.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Hello everyone,

This is going to be part 2 of Jacqui's time in Australia!! She's home now and is back at work, so could probably do with a bit of a reminder of what she got up to. I'd also just like to remind everyone that it is now officially summertime over here, I'm sure that's not what you wanna hear, but don't forget we are working over here, so its not all lying on the beach and getting drunk. (That's what everyone would do if they didn't work, right?) Having to go to work in a shirt and tie is pretty nasty when its 37' outside. Yesterday, for example, I walked out of work at 9pm and it was still over 30'. That's just not comfortable, but enough of me whining here is Jacqui having a really bad hair day:


Nope, that's not a photo taken in the late 80's, that's what happens when your GHD breaks on holiday....... Jacqui at the beach in Port Campbell. (Sorry sis!!)


When we were driving down here we saw a few places advertising helicopter flights over the coast, so when we got up early the next day and the sun was shining we decided to go for it, even Woolly got to go!!


Its seems to be a running theme of this road trip, Jacqui being scared of heights and then doing something that involves going really high off the ground.


The Helicopter was pretty cool looking, I don't know what type it was but it's worth about $2.4 million Aussie dollars. While we are on the Subject of Helicopters, I'd like to wish Brian Fitz the best of luck, I believe he has just arrived in New Zealand and should be learning how to fly one of these bad boys over the next few months. Good luck man!!


Jacqui was trying to get me to go in the front as she was pretty scared, but the Pilot wanted her up front!!


This is a little video of the take off, sorry about the noise, but the views were sweet.


Jacqui had an active control in front of her, that did make me kinda nervous.


I cant remember how far it was but the whole trip was about 20min long and you got to see a huge stretch of the coastline.

Another video clip.


Port Campbell. That's where we stayed.


Those stone towers are the famous 12 apostles, although there are actually 16 of them.


Coming back around for the landing.

The end of the flight.


This obviously isn't us landing but the next people taking off, but I'm pretty sure it's what we looked like as we did land. The Helicopter ride was pretty special, it was a real treat and was loads of fun, even Jacqui wasn't that scared! I'd recommend it to anyone, a definite highlight of our trip!!


Right. After a little lunch we went to see a few other areas along the coast, this is over looking Port Campbell.


The day before was kinda overcast on the drive down with only a few breaks in the clouds, but today was a scorcher, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect for pictures!!


"The Arch"


"The Hair"


This is called London Bridge. The little island used to be joined to the mainland, but in 1990 the joining piece collapsed and stranded 2 people out on it. According to our Helicopter pilot the two people who were caught out there were married, just not to each other. Naughty feckers.


Jacqui and London Bridge.


Me and the Arch.


The 12 Apostles.


I think this was called The Grotto.


The top of The Grotto.


The pile of rubble closest to us is the apostle that collapsed recently. Judas.


The view up the coast was just amazing and the colour of the water was this deep green.


That would be a nice private beach.


Jacqui took this photo, you can tell as she has managed to block out most of the background with me! when we got home we started going through the photos, I got some great shots of Jacqui and the scenery, and she got some great shots of me and the sky, me and a few fences and of course me blocking out the view! Only messing Sis, I can just photoshop you out of the good photos and put me in your place!!


It was time to start heading back towards Point Lonsdale, but first we stopped at this little petrol station. Very Australian. We had heard that there was a little surviving patch of rain forest that we would pass by on the way home, not really much to get excited about except that it happens to have the one of the highest tree-top walks in the world!


And this is it!! It's called the Otway fly treetop walk and ranges between 25-35 meters high.


Yup, you guessed it. Jacqui + heights = Fun!!!


Right in the middle of the walk is the highest point, its a whopping 45m above ground level, right up those spiral stairs.


The View was seriously impressive, to be able to look down on these massive trees was amazing.


Jacqui was handling the heights pretty well until I mentioned that it was swaying (which it was)


I even managed to get a photo of her before the fear really set in, although you can kinda see by the look in her eyes thats she's not really enjoying being 150ft off the ground on a metal tower that is swaying a couple of feet with each gust of wind!!!!!


Well she managed to get down the tower bit OK, but that wasn't the last scary bit, you see the bit im standing on? Well that's called the cantilever and it's not supported by anything:


See! Its just attached to a tower and is very bouncy!! Jacqui even made it out to the end, but I wasn't allowed to jump up and down. (Spoil sport!)


And at the very end, you got to walk back underneath the walkway and see the jungle from ground level.


One of the 25m platforms.


The walk out of the forest was kinda tough as it was really hot and Jacqui was still a bit shaken from the tree top walk, but we made it!!


Back on the road again!! After a slightly annoying detour (thanks to the worlds worst placed sign) we were heading back up the way we came, I was looking forward to the drive but wasn't as excited as the day before as I assumed it was just gonna be the same stuff we saw on the way down, but it was just as amazing as it looked totally different going the opposite way!! The actual road was just stunning, massive sweeping bends and tight corners, a real pleasure to drive. I'll be back here one day with my Porsche.


Honest.


The end of the Great Ocean Road.


Shark fin bollards. Scary.


A photo for my mammy.


Isn't my girlfriend brilliant!! The day we got back was my birthday and as she was home alone for the last couple of days, she baked me a serious birthday cake!!! Thank you Charlie!!


Charlie even had a little birthday party laid on for me, with rice crispy cakes and jelly and crisps and everything (and beer) (yup, I may have been turning 27, but I still like to party like I am 7!!)


I even got to blow out the candles!


Although I forgot that I didn't need to blow as hard as when I was 7 and I blew all the chocolate bits everywhere!!


Crazy Dane.


Tasty cake!!!


Im gonna save the bucky till New years, but I just needed to let it know I hadn't forgotten about it....


Dane doing a party popper with his mouth!!


To top it all off Charlie had bought some sparklers, so it was off down the beach to have a mess around!!!


Charlie.


Me.


Dane.


Jacqui.


Me. I had a blast on my birthday, even after 3 days of driving! Thanks to everyone who texted and sent emails.... they were much appreciated. Although you were all shown up very badly by Jonathan Sheridan who actually bothered to pick up the phone and call me to wish me happy birthday..... That goes for you too Mum!


Melbourne at Night. On one of Jacqui's last nights we decided to bring her in to the city to see it at night as it's pretty spectacular.


Along the river front is the Crown Casino. Every night, on the hour about 8 towers all along the river blast massive balls of fire up into the air!


The heat coming off them is something else, I'm not sure what they are doing to the environment, but its very cool looking.


I must have seen these dozens of times, but they always impress me!


Charlie & Jacqui with two of the stupidest grins ever!


Jacqui posing with her new best buddy! (I don't think he has a name yet?)


The 3 of us!


I don't like tickles.

Well, Jacqui I hope you had fun while you were here, both Charlie and myself really loved having you here, partly because we are sick to death of talking to each other and partly because you're great fun!!

Hope you're having fun back home.

Lots of love

Sean & Charlie.

EDIT: I also just found out I got done for speeding on the last day of the trip, which just happened to be my birthday. Nice.