Saturday, April 28, 2007

Hello,

My Doggie, Scott died during the week back home.


I love him.

I cant bring myself to say anything about him.


Sean.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Hello Folks,

Well, its been all go this week, I have had my first few days at work!!! Ive gotten a part-time job in a shop called EB Games, Its a games shop, selling PlayStation games, PC games and all the consoles. They have taken me on part-time to see how I get on, they are looking for an assistant manager so that's what I'm aiming for. Its pretty basic stuff but its money coming it, and being part-time, its a nice way to break me back into working....... although strangely enough I quite like the idea of having some structure to my weeks, While we were in Asia, it was a running joke that we never knew what day it was, I'm being serious, not a clue whether it was Wednesday or Sunday.
Anywho, I also had interview for Harvey Norman and they seemed very professional, its commission based so that would be better paid, I'm still waiting to hear back from them so fingers crossed. Basically I don't care as long as I get paid.



Oooohhhhh............ We were without a laptop for just under 2 weeks. The plan was to save really hard to get a basic one, but my amazing parents offered to LEND me the money to buy a new one and pay them back in the next couple of months. It makes sense as we were spending loads on Net cafes and it was quite hard looking for jobs and using skype to ring home. I would really like to thank my parents for this, I didn't ask for it (but I sure as hell wasn't stupid enough to turn it down either!!) but I really appreciate it and so does Charlie, It was a pretty close call, Charlie soon discovered exactly how annoying I am without a computer to distract me, I'm pretty sure she would have killed me if I didn't get the laptop.


This is the first computer I have ever bought in a shop, I could not buy online as my Credit cards address is in Ireland and would had to been delivered to that address.


I did my research and found that the Sony center was actually the most expensive place to buy a Sony Laptop, so I found an independent shop that had it for $100 cheaper than Sony, but they didn't have it in stock (it would take 10 days) So I went to Harvey Norman and got them to price match the cheap store. Sweet.


WARNING, this is about to get nerdy: Its a Sony SZ44, 2ghz Core2 Duo, 2gbs Ram, 100gbs HDD, 256mb Nvidia 7400, Wifi/Bluetooth, DVD Burner and a webcam. Its got a 13.3 widescreen and weights about 1.6kgs which is very important for when we move on from here. Basically it is an animal.


Its case is made from Carbon Fibre and the frame is made from Magnesium. (Every nerd reading this just went "Oooooohhhhhhh", Everyone else, you can skip down to the pictures of St. Kilda)


That, Ladies and Gentlemen is a Finger-Print Scanner, Yup, no more passwords for me, just swipe my finger (and Charlies) and I'm in. Its like being in the Future!! (Or an Episode of Knightrider) Would you belive, it wont work if you chop off my finger? (Well, it would if the finger was still warm, but its still pretty cool)


Having a laptop again meant I could take photos again and look at them straight away, so the camera was out today in full force!! This is the view from the entrance to our building.


St. Kilda has loads of old buildings. This one is called the George and looks very cool. It weird the way a place looks different once you have been here for a while, it obviously isn't any different but it just seems that way.


This is Fitzroy St. Its one of the 2 main streets in St. Kilda. There are loads of shops and cafes and its a nice place to walk around. Sometimes at night there are a few junkies, but they are pretty much like zombies and you can just walk around them as the move so slowly.


This is the prince ballroom and its a local pub that has loads of live bands/DJs, We have Tickets to Architecture in Helsinki (Great band, Crap name), Cant wait!!! Its pretty cheap ($20/E12) so hopefully once we have cash coming in, we can go to loads of gigs!!


Further down Fitzroy St., Just to the left there is a fast food shop called Coneheads, they have the nicest burger, called the Elvis Burger. My belly keeps telling me to buy them but my head and pockets say no. Evil Tasty burgers.....


St.Kilda Beach at the bottom of Fitzroy street, which is about 5 min walk from our house.


That's a small marina that's protected by a breakwater.


St. Kilda Pier.


Charlie on St. Kilda Peir. (Wearing a banksy T-shirt)


Down to the Marina... (not allowed down there)


Charlie "Cherry Bomb" Ratcliff


Seagull.


Crazy Seagulls. (Im pretty proud of these shots, they are not easy to frame!)


Attacking each other.


On the inside on the break water, they have a few nice places to relax and enjoy the views, quiet a few people obviously had the same idea as us!


Check out these Chocolates Charlies father, Nick bought for her as a leaving present!!


Each one is hand painted or printed and is a work of art.


It took 2 days of Charlie just looking at them before she could bring herself to eat one.


She even gave me one, although she did have a taste of it because she wanted to taste everyone!


On Nicks last night we went out for a meal with a friend of the Ratcliff family, Di. Nick was trying to get in contact with her and ended up bumping into her in our local shop (In the Organic vegetable section, no less!) We had a great last night, If you take a closer look at nick's shirt pocket (click the photo if you want), you will see "Nibbler" he joined nick for the journey home, and from what we have heard may have earned him an Upgrade on the flight.... Lucky Sod!

It was great having him over with us, we went to another Aussie rules match at the Telstra dome (St. Kilda kicked ass!!) which was deadly! If anyone else is thinking of coming our way, your more than welcome, we even have an inflatable mattress and sheets now!!

Hope your all well,

Lots of love
Sean and Charlie.

PS. Thanks again Mum and Dad!!!

Friday, April 13, 2007

Its DEAD.........



Ive stripped her and am selling the parts to get back some of the money..... I had to pay $165 just for some prick to say. "Your laptop's motherboard has died, its will cost $1720 to fix her."




To be continued.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Hello again!!!
There is still no news on my laptop its gonna be a few days at least till I hear back. I have asked the broadband company to cancel my order, and they said they will get back to me and let me know if I can get out of the 12month contract.
We currently have our very first guest staying with us!! Charlies father, Nick Ratcliff has joined us for a few days before he fly's back home. He is spoiling us rotten and has treated us to a few things that we probably could not afford to do for a while!


Like going to the "Telstra Dome" to watch an Aussie rules game!!!!!


Its probably the most famous stadium for Aussie rules and is certainly one of the most impressive!!


The Match was between Carlton and Geelong (The Cats!!), both of which are professional teams from Melbourne (There are 9 altogether from Melbourne!!)


We had great seats and had an amazing view of the entire stadium. (No cheap seats for us!!!)


There is ALOT of rivalry between the teams from Melbourne, so at the drop of a hat they were getting pretty rowdy with each other!!


Sir Nick enjoying his first game at the Telstra Dome!!


Doof!!


Yup, another prick showing off his fancy white Lense...... One day.


Ive never been in a stadium that the roof closes, It was 15' outside, but 21' inside, Personally I think it was a bit of overkill, Now a stadium with a roof on it in Ireland would make sense, but just to keep people warm is taking the piss!!!


Only a Cork man would be throwing headbutts while the ref wasn't looking!! Would you believe that's is Setanta O hAilpin, brother of Sean Og. He played terrible, but was really pissing the guy off he was marking which is great in my book!!


These lads like a bit of rough and tumble, Id say they barely even noticed the ball while they were kicking the crap out of each other.


One thing that was very impressive is that the game is a full 2hrs (4 quarters @ 30min) I was pretty tired after 2 hours of just watching them (while drinking beer), I would hate to guess how they felt.


I decided to support Carlton, who setanta played for while Nick and Charlie choose to support Geelong (What a stupid name for a place) Well, I guess the luck of the Irish was not around as "We" got killed. It was very embarrassing! I was not sure about the game before the visit to the Telstra Dome, but Its actually a great game to watch and is very fast paced, so it has now joined Rugby as the only games Ill actually watch now.


Looking very smug after his team kicked my teams ass....

Well, yesterday was Easter Monday so we decided to go for a walk in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Its totally free and is really really big!

Nick and Charlie.


There is a few lakes in the Park, this is the main one.


This is a bottle tree.


I don't know what this tree is called, but it was very weird looking.


Big.


The park is pretty much in the city center, but you would never guess it after 5 minutes in there, Very Peaceful.


Black Swan.


Seagull.


Deadly White tree. (I like this photo!)


Some type of flower.......


Smelling the roses.


Red Flower. (My mum would kill me for not knowing all the names!!)


Melbourne!!!!


This is the view from our apartment, I used a special filter to get the sky like that!!

Well, Its back to job hunting again this week, but im sure we will get upto something exciting soon enough, Keep wishing my laptop well, you never know!!

Lots of love

Sean, Charlie (and Nick!!)