The Mighty Cold

It’s early. Very early. The person in question is wrapped up extremely snugly in bed. It’s like a fort. Fort Warm. So well is he wrapped up that no cold air can infiltrate his fort of warmth even as mighty as the colds troops may be. He is in that state, you know, when you are kind of awake but still mostly asleep. The kind of state where you know you could wake up if you wanted to but you are far too comfortable and warm to do so and its very easy to lapse back into the coma you were in five minutes ago. No you stay in that state, aware but not awake.

Movement. Somewhere outside Fort Warm a door has opened and cold air is pouring through. We will call this door to the cold Colds Gap. “So the cold has a few tricks does he?” thinks the man. He retreats further under the walls of Fort Warm while five shadowy figures pass through Colds Gap. The man is more aware now. He can hear the faint scuff of slippers on a wooden floor. He knows whats coming and he thinks he is prepared for it. The cold and its minions have battled with Fort Warm before and this time they have a new trick. The man curls into a ball under his cozy walls pulling them closer and prepares himself for a wild and vicious assault. There is a small giggle and then sudden silence. What the man doesn’t know is that the fifth of these shadowy figures isn’t human.

A wet nose somehow breaks under the bottom of his warm walls of warmth and touches his foot. “Damn it” the man yells as he pulls back his now slightly colder foot. It’s the horrid hairy four legged beast of the great back garden plains. The beast is so surprised by the man’s outburst it yelps and runs back out through Colds Gap. “Awww Donny. You scared the shit out of the dog” A small voice says. “Just get up so we can open our presents!” This is when the man decides to go out fighting.

As I am trying to wrap at least 2 of my sisters up in my duvet and make a break out colds gap to the bathroom so I can get rid of the "ghost" of drinking past my mother is already up and shouting at us to come and help with the food prep. Christmas morning in my home is never an easy task. There is the rush for the bathroom followed by the rush of get some milk for your crunchy nut corn flakes before its all gone followed by the rush of get the hell in the car we have to go to mass. Mass is forever the same. They sing the same songs, you see the same people and you give the same greetings. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to have mass trough interpretive dance or suddenly jesus himself would appear and tell the church how bloody boring the whole thing was and that some people in the quire really need to learn how to sing or stop singing.

The scene that follows once we are safely back in the comfort of our own home is one of carnage and violence. Never will you see wrapping paper taken off presents in such a bold and vicious way. If one of the presents happened to be a small animal there wouldn’t be much left of it after the opening.

My favourite part of the day is dinner. I never laugh so much as I do at the table in Holycross. At a wedding quiet recently the drama that happens at our table was described as we were being “wonderfully horrible” to each other. I think that you need to be part of a big family to understand how it all works. Lets just say that we are usually holding our sides somewhere between starter and main courses. The day is rounded off nicely by steady drinking the consumption of several tons of chocolates.

My last comment on Christmas is my reaction to the sudden change of weather. It went from about 28 degrees to minus 11 in the space of 2 days.

From this




To this


Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year too.

Redman

A week worth of moments

We hit Sydney.

I would like to say we hit it "big style", I would like to say we hit the town and painted it red, yellow or whatever colour you paint a town when you hit it "big style" but at this point we were so bloody broke that we were surviving off rusty tins of beans and chicken flavoured noodles. Any money we had went straight into petrol. Life in a purple and green tin can can be harsh. When we arrived into Sydney we were broke, smelly and hungry so the only thing we hit "big style" were the showers. My lawyer (Conor) headed into the centre to chase after some French business transactions (that's for the boys in the exford) and I headed out to Springwood. Jo and Jim Cashman are living saints. To those of you who dont know them they are my Gran Aunt and uncle. While they were about 1000k away in a lovely placed called Colac outside Melbourne they allowed my lawyer and I to stay at their beautiful home in Springwood. It rocks out there. Out in the middle of the Blue Mountains. I can tell you that after spending a week or so living in a bed that had wheels and an engine it was so freaking good to sleep in a bed!

With our bellies filled and our spirits soaring we hit a lovely place called Palm Beach. If you don't know what this beach is famous for you should watch THIS but open it in a new tab.

If that made no sense to you we were at the home and away beach. Now before you go off ranting "Oh god this twat watches Home and Away" (or H&A for the buffs) There was not much else on the cards for two broke Irish guys in Sydney. It was a bit windy but it was still warm so we went for a bit of a surf. It was good but there was only one set back. Seaweed. At one point I turned around to Conor and shouted over the breaking waves "I have NEVER been in this much seaweed in my life." It was no ordinary seaweed. In Ireland you can take baths in the stuff but at H&A beach you could sand wood with it. It was akin to taking a wavy bath filled with sandpaper and fibreglass. Ive head or ex-foliating but this was ridiculous and missing a layer of skin we headed home.



To be completely honest not much else happened in Sydney except Conor and I regenerating lost skin and a bit of down time. We headed south after a day or two to see if we could go canoeing down kangaroo river out in kangaroo valley (bet you can never guess why the area is called Kangaroo Valley!) but Australia is having its worst floods in a few decades and despite Conor and I thinking that the extra few meters of water would make it more fun they were closed because of the weather. So we decided to go climb a mountain instead.

Mt Kosciuszko

Its named after a polish freedom fighter and was first (officially) climbed by a polish explorer in 1840. 170 years later Conor convinced me to go on the 21k trip up four mountains ending with Mt Kosciuszko. I bitched and I moaned but Conors simple encouragement was "Man Up" So with a fierce hangover and half a subway sandwich for lunch we headed out. I didn't regret it. The snowy mountain range in Oz is breathtakingly amazing. There was snow and hills and all the usual explorer titbits. It was the first time I was cold in about 5 months. The walk back to the car was the longest walk of my life. The longest, coldest walk of my life. We slept in the van and it was finally time for the last stretch of our trip. The road to Melbourne.

Now open and play THIS in a new tab and read the next part of the blog.

Is it playing? Right. I have to tell you something my hansom readers. I am back in Ireland. Its cold here, really FREAKING cold I dont know if I can afford to go back to my adventure land. Im a little worried that Il have to start being an adult and all that malarkey and Im also a bit sad that my trip has come to an end. I have come home for Christmas and I promise il give a few updates on what its like in my home at this time of year because it is extremely entertaining.

That last weekend in Melbourne was great. I met my good friends in the exford hotel in Melbourne and caught up with very good friends in St Kilda. I wish I had more time. I miss them and that town. Perhaps I will have some sort of Xmas miracle special and be able to afford to go back but I need to think seriously about what I am to do with myself. Its not all bad. Its great to see my family and friends. Bloody fantastic. Next up will be my Christmas post. Chat soon

Redman

Traveling Madmen part III

After the experience that was Surfers we headed on down to Byron Bay. Here I ended up loosing my Australian phone. Byron Bay was kick ass and if the weather wasnt so bad we would have had a fantastic time. The hostel we parked outside was called The Arts Factory and it was a a pretty laid back place. This particular weekend it was packed with new age hippies their associates. There was also a reggae concert on. So i can tell you that there were stoners everywhere.

The first night we went out and we ended up in a club and I was amazed to see that the ratio of girls to guys was about 4 to 1. After closer inspection I noticed that most of these girls were infact just that. Girls. 4 to 1 ratio and they are all under 18. I remember thinking "Oh christ its surfers all over again" but it turned it to be a pretty fun night out. We chatted to hookers, got free drinks, skipped a massive que to get into a new club and danced our little Irish hearts out. At one point I was told I was the best dancer in the club. Looking around I thought that either shes pissed or no one can dance but I now think it was an extream combination of both.

The next day there was a reggae concert on in the pub across our hostel. The music was nice and loud so we didn't have to pay to get in. It turned out that to go into the pub, get stoned from secondary smoke and listen to a few different bands would cost us 120 dollars. So we just chilled out in the hostel and met 2 very interesting characters. It was late in the evening and Conor and i had gone out to the car to fetch some things. I decided to take the guitar in with me to jam a bit inside mayhap I would attract some new fiends for us to have a laugh with but we never made it inside. As we were passing by some bushes we hear a gruff male voice call out to us "Hey mate, gona come and play us a song?" Peering into the bush we saw two men, a rasta dude and an aboriginal man. They were smoking something that smelt like paint stripper mixed with fertilizer. Conor and I took one look at each other and something of a silent "This could be brilliant" passed between us and we sat down next to them. The rasta dude played a song and it was a classic. For a guy who, at that moment, was having trouble telling left from right he sure could sing. He played a song about imagining having a better life but life was pretty alright as it was. When he finished his aboriginal friend showed us his story stick which was hung around his neck. Apparently "you white guys and the man" are not supposed to be told about them but he blessed us with the story anyway and to be honest im not going to go into detail. I would need to show you guys the stick with he drawings on it to explain it and you lot are all too white to hear the story.

After that night it was time for the long haul drive to Sydney.

More soon

Redman

Traveling Madmen Part II

Whats green and purple, travels at 40kph (up hill) and is full of energy drinks and pasta. If you haven't guessed its our van.



Jucy Lucy is our 1.5 meter tall camper van made from metal and hope. Mostly hope. She got us from Brisbane to Melbourne without much incident, well we did manage to hit a kangaroo but he was fine. Im sure he has a freakish fear of cars now but thats a good thing.....right? The first stop after Brisbane was Surfers Paradise.

I would now like to talk about what I saw in Surfers


Schoolies


Pronounced - school·ie

–noun
1.
a fish that swims within a school.
2.
Australian Informal. a schoolteacher or student.

At this time of year the students in the high school final years are let out of their galvanized country homes to flock....wait....flock is too soft a word SWARM to the gold coast to drink, curse (not very brightly) and fornicate in public. We were convinced to go on one of those "G'day mate! Fancy going on a night out?" trips. We agreed and attended. The drink was good, the music was what you would expect it to be in a series o night clubs and the people were, for the most part, underage. I have never seen such a gathering of underagers in my life. There was, and I shit you not, about 1000 of them crowding the center of town when Conor and I stumbled out of the last nightclub. There were kids dancing on bins, fighting, getting sick, fighting on bins while getting sick, fighting to get sick into bins, fighting bins of sick and being escorted home by either the police or taking the scenic route home via the stomach pump ward and Im relatively sure that the local hospital has a ward dedicated to this by now and if it doesn't it would need one or at least a tent set up on the main beach or something like that.

I felt old.

Old and bitter

I felt, more than once, like going up to one of these "schoolies" slapping them across the face and asking them in my most horrified Irish mammy voice "Does your mother know you are out this late?" or "Do you even know how to spell the word vagina? Get off that girl! I have a some words for you to learn. Fatherhood and child benefit"

I guess i was, in a way, slightly jealous. I looked at one or too and saw me. A younger, drunker me. A younger drunker me fighting to get sick in a bin. Then I remembered. Responsibility is about to hit them. You finish school and the wonderful, criticizing, judging world comes crashing down. Happy with this thought I felt better about the whole thing. Let them have their fun and watch out for the bins in Surfers Paradise.

Redman out

Travelling Madmen

He stumbles out of the tent. Its 6.45am and its already 26 degrees. He has sand in places he didn't know he had, he hasnt showered, had a decent meal, drink or bathroom break in 3 days. He has no clean clothes left. He has cuts on his hands, legs, knees, feet and toes. There are dingos 7 feet to the left, jungle to the right and flies the size of small bats hovering in front of him. He is hungover and he is me.

After i realized I had drank most of a bottle of whiskey (yes of course I shared with Conor) i decided it was breakfast time and fortunately, like me, Conor is also an early riser. This was the third and final day of our trip on Fraser Island and as Conor and I tried in vain to wipe all of the sand off our cooking utensils I thought to myself. "F@#k....this weekend was amazing."

Frasier Island is 122km of white sand, blue water, massive sand dunes and a bit of jungle thrown in for good measure. In the 6 months Ive been away from my broken homeland ive been to many beautiful places. I have seen places, sights and people you read about in books or see in those "DONT YOU WISH YOUR LIFE WAS BETTER? LOOK HOW HAPPY THESE PEOPLE IN COSTA DEL SOL LOOK! BY LAND IN SPAIN!" advertisements on the telly. Nothing measures up to the tranquility and brilliance I experienced on this blessed sand island of wonder. We got to drive a 4 wheel drive jeep that was built in 1992 down dirt tracks and on beaches that would challenge Colm McCray. We swam in fresh water lagoons that God himself would go for a swim. There was wild-life everywhere. All that was missing was a running commentary from David Attenbouragh.

The first day consisted of loading the van up in the hostel we stayed in at rainbow beach. 80 cans of beer, 4 bags of goon and one bottle of whiskey and what ever food there was. Along with 3 tents and cooking gear. Little did we know that most off the booze and food would be gone after the first night. All packed up we squeezed into the jeep......all 8 of us! 2 Irish guys, 1 Welsh man, 2 english guys and 3 english girls. The banter was fierce. 1 boat trip and 40 bouncy minutes later we pulled up on on the biggest fresh water lake on Fraser. Lake McKenzie. No one warned any of us. none of us had a clue and we were all shocked at how FRIGGIN AWESOME IT WAS!! Crystal clear water that was cleaner than any swimming pool Ive ever been in and sand as white as clouds. After gawking at all the ladies in swimwear and a filling lunch we headed to our camp site and began to drink. My night went something like this.

Drinking games
quick walk on the beach
more drinking
scene missing
being chased by bugs
scene missing
Conor shouting something about dingos
running from dingos
more drink
scene missing
waking up in a roasting hot tent

Day 2
As you can imagine it was a bit quieter on the second morning and more than one person was holding their head. A nice walk up Eli creek sorted that out. Amazing clear water and soft sand once again. The banter continued and we headed out to the champagne pools for another swim. Let me stop your train of thought right there. No they were not literal pools of champagne. They were in fact the only safe place to swim in salt water what with the sharks and the jellyfish and the 10 foot waves with rip currents. Its a massive rock pool this is where Conor and I had the great idea of swimming to the front of the pools and held on for dear life as long as possible without being blown back by the massive waves crashing against the walls. On the way there we passed the brown skeleton remains of the (ship name) After it had served the British and ozzy navy it was turned into a cruise liner and then it was sold to the Japanese where on it was beached on the way to japan. After it very ling life of service it was used for target practice by the ozzy airforce. Typical ozzies! Private "its stuck commander what will you have us do?" Commander ".....................lets.........lets blow it up!" So there it sits all rusty and burned out. Bits of warped metal fading away against the waves. A quick trip up indian head for some sight seeing where I finally saw my sought after turtles and we headed back to camp. That night was a milder repeat of the sat night and the following morning was is described in detail in my intro to this blog.



il tell you this, after 2 nights sleeping in and around sand the hostel was like a 5 star hotel. I didnt stop after we got cack tho I headed straight for rainbow beach to do some surfing on waves im clearly not able for. I had an amazing, sandy time on fraser. One of my life ambitions was to see turtles on this island and even tho i didnt get a close as I would have liked I can say, with confidence, that I can tick this off my "things to do in life" list.

We continued south to Brisbane and met with more of my family and we finally have the camper. It is a nice piece of metalwork and as i sit here in Byron bay writing this I can only think that I hope that conor and i have more fantastic manly adventures like we did on fraser. We did have a good time in surfers paradise with all the schoolies plaguing the place and il write more
on that soon.


Redman out

A quick hello

Dear everyone.

This will be the last update again for a few weeks. I will be traveling a lot and im not too sure if i will have time to update.

Il be sure to post up a massive update when I get back to Sydney for Christmas.

Well the day has finally arrived. After a very long weekend of drinking, dancing, feasting, un-adulterated fun and some skinny dipping Conor and I are leaving Melbourne. Im sad to be leaving because i feel like its been like a home away from home. I have a very tight group of friends here. Ones I hope to keep for life. Some people I wish I had met earlier in my stay. Im sorry that this is so short but Im pressed for time. When I should have been packing I was sleeping or arseing around.

Il leave you all with this.

If i go missing..........DONT TOUCH MY STUFF

Peace

Redman

Horseing around

Lucky breaks, lucky draws and lucky runs

Just spent the week feeding the rich, getting bad horse tips and learning to hate ridiculously rich people. All loathing of wealthy fat people in suits aside the week was pretty cool. I worked in the most expensive club in the flemmington complex. Flemington has about 15-20 bar/restaurants which range from a shack where you can buy a 7 year old sausage roll from a one eyed, buckled old woman to where I was working where you can have pheasant stuffed with swan stuffed with gold and all glazed with tears of the poor. The Chairman's Club is a 40,000 dollar a year high society club where 59 year old men and their 24 year old girlfriends can be fed and pampered by very well trained staff and some kick ass chefs. The first order I had to run with was for a 200 dollar bottle of champagne. They drank one glass and left the rest to go flat in the silver lined ice bucket. I kept thinking that it would have been better if they had just gave me the 200 dollars and we all would have been happy. These people, in my view, dont have a grasp on the true value of money. They put down 500 quid on a horse only to loose it and then they simply react by saying "Ah it was only 500 dollars" They honestly pissed me off. Despite the rich egos and money wasting I did kind of enjoy it. I had the best view of the race course and some of the tips I got were well placed. In fact on the last day I manged to turn 3 dollars into 76 dollars
which I think is a good win.

Australia Vs Sri-Lanka

I also had the pleasure of watching 7 and a half hours of cricket. 450 minutes of no-stop blitzing cricket action surrounded by crazy cricket supporters. I watched more sport in that day than I have in my entire life. Cricket, once you understand it, is actually a cool sport. What made this particular match excellent was that there was a total of 19000 people in the stadium. 3 Irish guys, 997 ozzies and 18000 Sri Lankans. Lanka were kicking the Ozzies asses and they were loving it. It took Connor 7 hours to explain what was going on but I fully understood and for the last half an hour I got that you get to dance every 2 minutes and sing "Go that guy, go that guy, go."
The Lanka boys were living it up. Here I was thinking that cricket was about as entertaining as having your eyeballs flogged but I was surrounded buy by men who I can only describe as looking like drug smugglers from Del Monty Island singing with a brass band and roaring abuse at the Ozzy team. I have to say it was freaking awesome. I have a 2 simple photos to describe how the day went.

It went from not understanding the game






to this...........




I dont think I need to say anything else.


2 weeks to go until Cunningham and I hit the road on our awesome adventure tour of the east coast. Il be sure to update again before I leave.

Redman out

Redman rage

A few simple steps to make a red man rage.

1. Get him up early
2. Make it rain really, really hard.
3. Make him walk in the rain to a packed tram
4. Make the tram late.
5. When he gets off the tram surround him by people moving really slowly
6. Make him work in a really shitty uniform thats 10 sizes too big for him
7. Make him run EVERWHERE
8. When he gets his break make sure all the food is gone
9. Make him finish early when he is getting saturday rates
10. Make him walk in the rain again
11. Fill a train with extremely drunk people and put Redman in the middle
12. Stop the train for about 15 minutes 3 meters away from his station.
13. Make the drunk people talk to him about how much money they have to waste on horses
14. Make him walk in the rain......again
15. Finally when he looks in his cubard ensure he has already eaten everything he had.

Rage

How to make him happy

1. Feed him

Thats it. Maybe give him gifts.....and tell him hes hansom.......and clever.

Dearly Forsaken

Dear followers, readers and random Google finders,

My apologies for the massive delay in the posting of a recent update. I have, in all honesty, been too tired, lazy, too busy and just too drunk to post anything up. As i had not foreseen any of these events I pass all blame onto Connor Cunningham.

Right, down to business. Im sure the delay in my updates has had people asking "ohhh I wonder is he ok?' or "Is he getting enough sleep?" Who is Conor Cunningham?" and naturally "I wonder is he still as hansom as ever?" Well my mighty followers Im perfectly alright, I get enough sleep, if you dont know who Conor Cunningham is you are missing out and yes, oh course im as hansom and as modest as ever. Now that all of your major concerns are dealt with I shall move onto the news.

Im sure that those of you on facebook saw the photos of me in the Grampians national park. If you didn't I suggest you go right now to my humble and modest facebook page and make your life a little more complete by looking as me sweating it out on top of a mountain. In all seriousness the Grampians were breathtaking. The views where spectacular and so vast that I dont have the words to describe them. A good friend and I rented a small car and drove the whole three and a half hours too the park. Just to let people know that the good friend wasn't Conor because he was too busy following a bus full of mexicans to Alice Springs. The best part of the whole trip for me was the driving. It felt so good to be behind a wheel again and despite a few arguments with the sat nav on whether a road existed or not we never got lost and made good time. The road up the mountain side were kick ass. All bendy and brilliant. It was like one of those roads you see on top gear where they drive an Ascari A10 with a tail wing up a Swedish hillside except I had a Hyundai Gets with a dodgy radio and Im clearly not in Sweden.

here is a sketch that my friend Eva drew of our journey to the Grampians that pretty much some up the trip.



The 150th Melbourne cup is on next week and Il be working at it. For those of you who have never heard of it before its a 4 day horse racing festival here in Melbourne and its no small thing. 400000 people will attend it over the 4 days and shizz loads of politicians, celebrities and all round important people will grace the grasses with their extremely high heeled shoes and hats that look like Christmas decorations that were made in 1952 and destroyed in a freak forest fire only to be remade into hats. I look forward to making fun of them. The main race, the actual melbourne cup race, basically brings the country to a standstill. The day it falls on was made into a public holiday so nearly everyone in this sun blasted land will have the day off to shout abuse or praise at the best horses in the world. I may lay a bet or two myself while Im ushering food and drink to Melbourne's high and mighty.

I only have 4 weeks left in Melbourne before Conor and I head on our trip up the east coast followed by a nice long Christmas with family in Sydney. I have to say that I am getting really excited about this trip up the coast. Ive been in the same place for too long and although Im brilliant at my job, everyone loves me and Ive made loads of friends I cant wait to see all the new places on our travel map. Its going be epic.

Redman out.

Bear Grillin'

Conor has finally arrived and despite popular belief we haven't been in trouble yet. He almost killed a child with a football but that's another story. Just been working hard and saving money. Conor has booked himself a 10 day trip to and back to Alice springs. As much as Id like to be going with him I just can afford it but now that Conor is here the real trip planning has begun. Some serious traveling will be done from the 22nd of November onwards. The basic outline of the plan is Sydney first and then after visiting family there its off to "Spot X" for a four day surfing blitz. When I say "Spot X" I really mean spot x. Its a surfing resort thats hidden away from the usual public. Exclusive to surfers. After that its off to Brisbane. This is where he plan gets a little sketchy. We will have about 7 days in and around Brisbane. I plan on meeting family there and heading a bit further north. There were a few reasons for me to coming to Australia and one of the main reasons was to visit Fraser Island. Thats defiantly on the travel list. After this we will finally rent out a camper van and drive from brisbane back to Melbourne traveling all along the coast. Its gona be awesome.

Today we took the train out of Sydney to a place called Belgrave where the Dandenong National parks are. It was awesome. We were surrounded by fresh air and forest. It was a real Bear Grills day. Trudging our way through the forest, surviving off the land....and the sandwiches we brought with us. I would love to say that there was a great view at the top of the first mountain, thats right we climbed two, but there was so much forest that we couldn't see around. I don't know why its called "One Tree Hill" there is, after some counting, clearly more than one tree. In fact the where a whole bunch of trees. Some might say it was a forest. So why not call it "Forest Hill"? The second mountain I would aptly name "Bitching climb to the water fall Hill" but its called "Sherbrook Hill" We didn't meet anyone the whole way up. It was like a scene from Jurassic Park minus the dinosaurs. Totally worth the hour long train journey.

I will leave you all with these puzzles.

How much bear could Bear Grills grill if Bear Grills could grill bears?

and

How much bears could Bear Grills bear if Bear Grills could bear bears?

Full of it

Im nicely settled in now. Haven't been up to much except working and some of the places I have been in have been pretty cool. Im working in a company called "Hotel Staff" In a nut shell a person needs extra help in their kitchen/restaurant/ball room/multi-million Jewish house, they call my boss, they ask for "X" amount of people, my boss rings said "X" amount and we go to that place and help out. Its freaking easy and I usually get fed. Smile, take your time and talk nice. Couldn't be simpler. I clean tables, serve wine clean up, all that stuff. The getting fed part is my favorite, that and the getting to see cool places.

My first day i worked at a cocktail party on the 33rd floor of a multi-story building. The view was amazing. I could see the whole way across the city and the sun was setting. Last week I worked in the kitchen of the mazda HQ. Got to see advertisement plans that aren't out yet plus some design plans. This week I was in the BMW HQ and I got to see a prototype of a new BMW that wont be on the production lines until late next year and it had a new fancy V8 engine that still isn't out of its 2nd BETA faze (not to sure about what they call the different stages of engine making so BETA will have to do) Yesterday I worked in a million dollar house for a Jewish family celebrating the Jewish new year. MY GOD it was fancy. Filthy rich fancy. Indoor swimming pool, tennis court, 3 kitchens, silver everything, 200 dollar wine and so on. What struck me most about last night was that even tho these people were SURROUNDED by luxury there was still a huge felling of a close family. It was nice to see that endless amounts of money didn't effect the closeness the family had. It made me miss home.

This new job has me thinking a lot. Im sure a lot of people out there, including myself, get nervous on the first day or two of their new job. You don't know the people, your not too sure what exactly you are supposed to be doing, when will you get fed and so on. You know, first day jitters. Every day in this job is that first day. You need to believe that you can do it and you are always in somewhere new. It made me start thinking about self belief.

People have a hard time believing in themselves. Some people rely on others, some on themselves and some get it from both. Ive seen people crippled, again myself, by relying completely on another person for belief. Ive seen belief come from nothing, everything and anyone. Iv learned something over the last year. I believe in myself. I believe in myself, my family and my friends. I believe that if you want others to believe in you you have to have some of that spark in yourself. The more I believe in me the more others react to my belief, the more I have in myself the more I share with others. A big old loop.

What I want to get at is that if you are feeling down or a bit out of yourself remember who you are. Remember to believe in yourself, remember where you came from and who your friends are, remember your family, remember easy days and long nights, remember your heros and remember your mentors. There is ALWAYS belief in you, you just have to remember it and it will help you do anything.

Redman out.

On a lighter note fell free to count how many times I said believe, believing or belief. ha

Mellers

Melbourne is awesome. I gotta say I love it here. The city has a real nice buzz to it that you dont find in many places. Been busy enough this week so I haven't had a chance to look around much and to be honest Im kinda saving all that for when Conor gets here. Just took a walk around the city a small bit and found all the cool arty lanes that are riddled with graffiti. Kick ass graffiti. Some of the most awesome pieces I have ever seen. Il post up some pics on facetube when I get the chance.


Got myself a job but Im not sure if its one of those "come and work for us for a day or two and we will see how you get on" places. I think Ive been screwed and not the good kind. The job did seem too good to be true. I sat in an office all day making phone calls trying to get people to switch their electricity biller to my one because it was cheaper. It was a pretty good deal but on one occasion I got through to this old man who was recovering in hospital. I didnt want to bother him as he was recovering so I told him not to worry about it. After I hung up the woman working beside me asked me "Why the hell didnt I try to sell it so him? People in hospital are perfect. They always want to talk to someone" It was from that moment on I realized the true horror or telemarketing.

These people will do ANYTHING to get a sale. I was really annoyed. I dont want to sell stuff to people who only buy stuff off the telephone because it gives them someone to talk to for 15 min. It makes me really sad. Lets just say I wasnt exactly disappointed when I didn't get a call back to work on Saturday. Its back to the job boards Im afraid.


Went to see the Tim Burton exposition and I have to say it was FREAKING AWESOME



It had hundreds of his sketches and paintings as well as a few models from well known movies like Nightmare before Christmas, Edward scissor hands, Charlie and the chocolate factory, batman returns and so on. I saw the freaking bat-mobile. It was amazing. Im going to wait for Conor and go back again because the only draw back was that I went on a saturday and it was packed with people.




Im finally going to bust out the guitar. Im pretty much running out of money so Im going to have to busk. It means learning a few songs I dont particularly care for but il swallow my pride if it means making a copper or two singing and a playing a few cords. I welcome any (real) song suggestions. Fell free to facebook me.

Redman out....and about

And now.....

This is just a quick blog to keep Vincent J Smyth happy.

New Views

Since coming back to Perth things have been quiet. Just been taking it easy. I just spent a great week with Duxxa and her family again.
They have been so good to me. I may have said this before but the world would be a better place if there were more people like Duxxa and her kin in the world.

Im finally in Melbourne. First impressions, awesome. I had a late flight so I had the privilege of seeing he sun rise just as I came into land. Really rich colours. It started off as a pale blue but orange spread up through it and when the sun burst up from the edges there was brilliant red and the whole city was bathed in the light. I had heard that Melbourne is a moving, living city but I think I saw the center at a very rare time. It was empty. A little spooky actually. There were only a few people jogging and the odd punter wobbling home. It was nice to be able to walk down the big streets without having to dodge people and when your carrying a 14 kilo bag, a 3 kilo rucksack and a guitar your hard not to bump into so you could say I was delighted to have the streets to myself.

After 2 hours sleep it was like the city transformed, people everywhere, trams all over the place, shops that looked haunted and empty 2 hours before were riddled with the oh so hopeful bargain hunters. it was like a different city. Only explored a small bit and met a friend for lunch. Il do some more exploring tomorrow but I am shattered. I also have 2 job interviews so I dare to hope that will have a job by the end of the week.

More soon.
Redman out

Mai Chau and Home...ish

Birdsong, crickets, smoke from cooking fires, hazy horizions, a cool mountian breeze and the smell of rich clay. 

Despite running over someones chicken with the motorbike I wish I had more time to look around Mai Chau. It's bang in the middle of the mountians three and a half hours south west of Hanoi. The drive up in the bus was mental. It was about 35 degrees outside, the bus had no aircon and I was melting. The humidity percentage was around 75%  

Got off the bus and after the useual bombardment of men asking "motorbike?" we made our way to a little village called Pom Coonig. We stayed in a Thai stilt house which is made entirely of wood, most of it was bamboo. It was beautiful. After the mad hustel and noise of Hanoi and the crazy bus drive through the mountians this place was a dream come through. It was so peaceful and quiet. After meeting the people who owned the home we set off on a walk. The views of the rice fields and peoples wooden homes were really calming.

Met a really cool Japanese man called  Suzuki Kaita. He was also staying in our place and we got talking straight away. The more I talk to Japanese people the more I want to go to Japan and I can tell you it's very high on my "things to do after Austraila" list. Suzuki works for a travel magazine in japan and was spending 5 days cycleing around north Vietnam. Which is a bit crazy because there are a crap load of mountians.

http://suzukikaita.com/

In the house arcoss from ours there seemed to be some sort of party going on and our curiosity got the better of us. Suzuki and I ventured across to check it out and we were praticaly draged into the house. Drinks were put in our hands and we were asked by everybody (all men) to sit with them and eat. This is where the night started to go crazy. This party only happens once every 4 years so the locals, most of who were Thai men, had broke out the local brew called "ruou" which is made from rice and after looking it up I discovered that "ruou" litlerly means "alcohol" It kind of reminded me of japanese Sake but stickyier and sweet Jesus was it strong. As soon as my shot glass was empty it was filled again from a small green bottle and I must of had around 10 but strangly I wasn't wasted. It was a really happy kind of drunk and everybody was talking and singing. Watched some card games, went for a small drunken walk and after I found my drunken way into my bed I fell sound asleep. It was around 11:30pm.  

I was biblicaly hung over. 

Mai Chau was the last of our visits to the countryside and it was brilliant. Headed back to Hanoi and jumped on a plane to Sai Gon and the following day, after a bit of of last minute shoping, we got on plane to Kuala Lumbar (where I was robbed, my bag with a few bits and pieces in it was taken from under my nose) and then back to Perth. On the way back I wished I was going home to Ireland, I have so many more stories I can't wait to tell that just wouldn't be done justice in this mad blog.  

My 3 weeks around Vietnam have been nothing but fantastic. Even tho I had my board shorts stolen on the boat, I abandoned my camera on an island, I killed a chicken and I had my bag/wallet/clothes stolen in Kuala Lumbar airport I still feel like I had my heart stolen by the land, my belly filled by the food and I've been humbled by the hard working people of Vietnam. The last thing I will say about it is:

You should go. 

Redman out

P.S. Big thanks to the welsh boys who decided to put a mate up for a day or 2. Proper mates are hard to come by. And a big thanks to Duxxa and her family for letting me crash with them for a few days.  

                

Trips and travels part 2

After the mad adventure that was Ninh Binh we went back up to Hanoi. We booked a trip to the wonderful Halong bay. Halong bay was formed about 6 million years ago by an earthquake but the legend goes that a dragon lived in the nearby mountians. For reasons I cannot fathom it charged towards the coast, while doing so it's tail gouged out valleys and creavasses in the land and when it finally plunged into the ocean all those valleys and what not filled with water and only the limstone pinnacles were left visable forming the islands we see today. The only 2 words I can think of to decribe it are majestic and mysterious but even thoses don't do it justice. It's not far from China's doorstep and covers around 300 squared km. 

We spent 3 days exploring the islands (there are about 2000 of them) we went to cat ba national park where, after a pleasnt motorbike trip around the park, I left my camera. It had about 200 photos of the last 3 weeks and I'm very sorry to have lost it. It's not the camera I want but the photos. After Cat Ba we went to monkey island, that's right monkey island. It had an amazing beach but lurking in the forest just behind the beach are those blasted monkys waiting to steal anything you leave ungaurded. Anything from shoes to children. 

Slept on the boat the first night in the middle of the bay. I thought it would be virtualy pitch dark and we would be only surrounded by the sea and the islands but there were other boats everywhere. Halong bay is the biggest tourist attraction in north east Vietnam so everywhere we went there were other people.

Spent that evening fishing for squid with a bamboo rod and drinking beer with a few friends I made.  As it never falls below 25 degrees here we all slept on the roof of the boat. Watched a big orange moon rise between 2 islands and fell asleep watching the stars drift along. Bliss

I like to think I have a good sence of direction. I'm no Bear Grills but I can find my way around new places pretty well but my god is it easy to get lost in Hanoi. 3 or 4 streets can look identical and I have to admit I got lost more than once. Thankfuly the locals are incredably helpful and often will give you a lift for free to where you want to go.

Food (as requested by my sister Maria who well knows my love of the delicious)

My god. If you are looking for a place to get a million different flovours Vietnam is the place to go. No dish tates the same even if it's identical. Everything is delicious. You can get an amazing 2 course meal and drinks for about 90000 dong which is about €3.50. If you are willing to spend a little more, say 200000 dong (€7.80), you can get a 3 course goumet meal and sweet Jesus it is good. The best places to eat however are on the side of the street. Dotted evrrwhere are little street side shops/reaturants. Resturant is too big a word for these places as most of them don't have menus or even forks and knives. You can get a massive range of meat and veg and some home made drinks for under 20000 dong which is less than a euro. 

It's too hard to decribe all the different things I've tasted. In the Mekong Delta outside Sai gon I had honey fresh from a hive. The bees were so calm I litlerly just had to stick my finger in the hive and scoop out some honey (that's right Dad I diddnt need 6 weeks of training and I diddnt have to wear any protective clothes or use smoke, I was handed a slat with about 600 bees on it and was told to "work away")
In My Tho I tasted curried snake, in Halong bay I tasted fish who's names I couldn't even begin to pronounce and by mistake I tasted a bug or two while on the bike also.

The food here is undoutably the best I have ever had (except for mams and Nannys of course) and for an unbelivable price you can eat like a king. 

Lastly I have been here in Vietnam for 3 weeks. I haven't had a single vacination jab nor have I taken a single maleria tablet and I have been fine. Some (like my very protective aunts) would say lucky. If you watch what you eat, only drink water that came from sealed bottle (including ice) and use insect repellant you will be fine. 

More soon trust me.

Reman away          

Trips and Travells

I haven't been able to write on here much in the last 3 weeks. I have been moving around so much I don't really have time to come online for updates. 

I've been all over Vietnam and I've met so many interesting people and been so many beautiful places. After spending nearly a week in and around Sai Gon I moved to a beach resort called Mui Ni. It was a nice mix of action or relaxing. Good spot for surfing (wind, board or kite) or spudding on the beach. The waves were dissapointing but the local area that we explored was amazing. 

Stayed in Mui Ni for 2 days and then got on the wrong bus and ended up in a city on the coast called Nha Trang. The beach was filthy and it was HOT. Walked about 8km that day in the scorching heat and it was not fun. Went to a big Cham historic site. It was nice but the heat had me beaten down. Hopped onto a night train for some rocky traveling and a lovely sleep on the floor where I was eaten alive by bugs.

10 bleary hours later I arrived into Da Nang (I forgot to mention that the 10 hour train journey only cost around €20 dollors) what we thought was an extreamly friendly local showed us where to get the local bus but it turned out he was only showing us where the bus was so he could book us into his sisters hotel in the town we where heading to, Hoi An

I've been in many beautiful places and have had my heart captured by flowing rivers, breathtaking mountians and humble markets but never have I been so lulled and in love with somewhere but the beautiful and relaxed town of Hoi An in central Vietnam. You can get lost down it's many worn cobbled lanes, lose track of time in it's old French style houses or visit some of the local countryside that hosts sone amazing sites like My Son or the Marble Mountians. We spent 3 days there and I was heartbroken to leave. Spent the 3 days exploring on a motorbike and it certianly was a mad expierence.  

Flights are amazingly cheap here. Booked a flight from Da Nang to Hanoi for about €46. Hanoi is a moderen busteling city that is alive and kicking. I only spent one night there and got a bus to Ninh Binh. It's a tiny town compared to Hanoi but the surrounding countryside has some amazing places to visit. Van Long national park is like something from a fantasy novel. We rented out a motorbike again and drove around, under and over the massive limestone mountians. Ended up in a tiny and I mean tiny villiage where none of the locals spoke english. These people live off the land and spend most of there lives supporting their familys by growing there own food. 6 generations of family often live in the same house over the years and some traditions are still going strong. Driving around on the bike and doing my own exploring was so freaking rewarding and Sophie and I had some great laughs along the way. At one point I was about to overtake another bike that had a big basket on the back of it. On closer inspection we noticed a brown tail sticking out the top, attached to that tail was a cow. There was a guy driving at about 45kmh on a main road with a cow wraped in a basket on the back of his bike. I almost wet myself laughing. 

I know this has been a long update and there is plenty more to come but il cut it here for the moment. My advice is if you go on a trip, please, do your own thing. You don't need a guide to show you everywhere and you don't need to book into tour groups to see the country. Get yourself a bike.

Redman out       

Rules of the Road

Vietnam's Rules of the Road

1. You, the driver, have the right of way over Pedestrians, Animals and all other types of transport. Nothing and noone can get in your way

2. Try to have more people/items than allowed on your motorbike at all times. Including when parked

3. Which ever side of the road you are on IS the right side

4. If you see even the slimmest chance of over-taking someone do so with aggression, determination and as much speed as possible.

5. Beep at other cars, motorbikes, trucks etc. when ever possible. Sometimes you must beep for no apparent reason.

6. Speed limits are a challenge not a regulation.

7. Pedestrians have the right to NOTHING! Beep at them when ever possible and use speed and aggression to deter them from ever going near a road again.

8. Bridges are an "option"

9. Try to multitask as much as possible, the more distracted you are the better.

10. If you are driving a motorbike it is of upmost importance that you are in someone way at all times.

11. You have the right to park where ever you wish.

12. Finally if you do happen to crash remember that it is not your fault. Argue as loudly and as aggressively as possible until the other person/persons/animal backs down.

Crazy has 2 wheels

Where do I even start. Sai Gon or Ho Chi Minh city is amazing. I truely wasnt traveling until now. I was hit in the face with a brand new culture and I am god smacked about how different it is here to anywhere I have been so far.

On the flight (it was night) over we flew over a thunder storm and it was one of the most astounding sights I have ever seen. Such beauty and sheer power I have never witnessed.A flash of lightning lit up about a miles worth of cloud like nothing I have ever dreamed of. A real natural treat.

When we arrived in Sai Gon we were greeted by about 300 people out the front of the airport. The taxi ride to the hostel I am staying in is better than any rollercoaster I have ever been on. There are motorbikes EVERYWHERE. I mean EVERYWHERE. Im begining to think that there are more motorbikes here than people.

The hostel I am staying in is in the heart of the backpacker district right next to an open market where you can buy fruit and the like. It is an amazing sight to behold and Ive seen fruit I never knew existed. ha

Yesterday and today Sophie and I walked around the city center where you are constantly asked "where are you going" by dodgy looking men on bikes, I take you, I take you". We went to some of temples and pagodas and that I cant even begin to decribe. The main market where you can buy a conterfit of ANYTHING is a mad hustel of trades and rip-offs (If you are coming here you have to learn to haggle.) The first day we went I was overwhelmed by the people in there grabbing at you "You buy, you buy".

The most amazing place (and extreamly depressing) is the War Remmenants Museum. Outside is a load of tanks and planes from the Vietnam war during the 60s and 70s but inside are horrible pictures and sad stories of the war as it was and the effect it had on Vietnam. War truely is hell. It is EXTREAMLY anti-America.

On a lighter note we are heading out into the country tomorrow to go to the floting markets. Please forgive me for not putting the names of the places down. I would be 2 hours+ if I tried to name everything Ive been to and Im going to. At the end of this 3 week trip I will write a large summary on my journey through this mase of a country. Im looking forward to seeing the real Vietnam outside of this 7million people city. Not much net around but I will try to update again soon.

I wish I was able to decribe properly how I feel about what Ive seen and heard but woords will not do it justice.

Redman out.

Leaving already?

So im back in perth. Broome just wasn't working out. I did a load of nice stuff but i couldn't find work. Then a friend of mine asked me did I want to go to Vietnam and I said why not. When will i get the opportunity to go to a place like that again. So Im flying out on the 20th and coming back on the 10th of August and I cant wait.

Not much else to report on guys sorry, just been keeping my head down and trying not to spend money. Vietnam is cheap as so I wont be spending too much there.
ADVENTURE!!!!

Plastic Beach

Broome, see the whales, get lost in the local outback and then get eaten by snakes(or the locals). Try our local expensive food, find an escort and ride a camel. Top it all off by getting stung by one of our many many jellyfish and being peed on.

Broome is built for tourists. Its beautiful but its all gift shops and expensive restaurants. You have to travel outside the town to see any real countryside and there is plenty of it. Rented a scooter (which i christened "the hog") for 2 days and going around broome was much easier and 40 times as fun. Went out sight seeing and happened across some fossilized dinosaur footprints, apparently the broome coast is full of them. Needless to say that awoke the nerd in me and now any time im near rocks at the beach I start looking for footprints.



I also caught the biggest fish I have ever caught. Its called a Cobia and it weighed in at 9.5 kilos which in irish fishermans weight is 20lbs 14oz. It took me over 20 minutes to land and it almost pulled me off the boat twice. Epically manly day!!



No luck so far with the job search. Ive handed in my CV EVERYWHERE and nothing. Iol give another week of solid searching for a job and I may move off. If you dont get a job here its too expensive to stay here.

Il have to look at my options again, I wanted farm work or something akin to that but there is just nothing here.

Me thinks its back to the drawing board.
Redman out.

Move along, get along

Well here I am once again in an airport. After 4 weeks in perth I have had enough of city life, I was always too much of a country boy. After the amazing weekend I had in lancelin(more on that in a minute) I got off the bus at perth station and was hit by the noise, the smell and the traffic.
Went out that night and when I woke up the following morning and opened my eyes I thought NO MORE.

Dont get me wrong, Perth is a beautiful city I love it but Ive had enough of the crowds and the noise. I want open, fresh air and a big sky. So I went straight down to the internet shop where they sell interent and I bought myself some flights to Broome. Its 32 degrees there at the moment and its a big tourist destination for the Ozzies. Il try to get work in the town but if i can get out into the country near by I will love it.

Lancelin
Paradise. Never have I fell so at peace and so relaxed. The whole weekend was uplifting. I was surfing for about 6 hours everyday. The waves were perfect and so was the weather. Bone white sand. The water was crystal clear and clean. Everyone on the beach was in a great mood and the sun was beating down. The more I think about it the harder it is to describe how amazing it was. Lancelin, paradise.

I will update again later in the week.

Redman out

A to Z

Here is my list of things that could kill/maim you here in Oz.




A is for Ants - They are EVERYWHERE
B is for Blowfish - dont let it sting you
C is for crocodiles
E is for Emus - They WILL get you
F is for Frogs - dont touch them
G is for great white shark
H is for heat - 45degrees
I is for insects there all out to get you
J is for Jelly fish
K is for Killer bess.....KILLER BEES
L is for lisards
M Magpies - known to attack people
N Nighlife - If you thought the day was bad...
O the outback, everything there will get you
P parties - people here party hard
Q Quokkas - dont ask
R Redback spider
S my favorite Snakes, sharks, spiders the sun
T Trees.....thats right even the trees are out to get you
U UV rays (sorry I know this is a lame one U is hard alright!!)
V Venom - everything and its mother is poisonous here
W waves - MASSIVE
X xenomorphs..........
Z .....................................god damn You Z

Swan valley

Im back again friends.

Ive had time for some quiet reflection. Just taking all of my trip so far(a quick 2 weeks) Between tasting a 1996 wine from the back of the truck and being escorted out of a club for falling asleep its been great. Ive been keeping the job search up and even after an unsuccessful job hunt in Swan valley Im still hopeful.

I had the honor and pleasure of spending the weekend with Duxxa and her wonderful family. They really made me feel at home and I had an amazing weekend with them. They are all generous and very kind. They have a beautiful home in Elenbrooke and I was welcomed with open arms.

We went wine tasting in one of the many vineyards out in Swan Valley. Tasted some delicious red wines. Moved swiftly on to a chocolate factory. Big ass bowls of free chocolate and some pretty cool gifts that Im sure never make it home because of their delicious chocolate nature. My sisters would have loved it! Chocolate up the walls! They had chocolate everything. who ever heard of chocolate massage oil......tasty night in ;)

Went to Trig beach early on sunday morning. Its one of perths many beaches. Got in for a swim and it was amazing. It was funny, everyone around me in the water had wet suits on. There I was in just my shorts out in the dead of Ozzy winter and loving it. The water was a good temp and the waves were strong. I got some queer looks off the locals out walking and even queerer looks off the surfers. I wish I had brought my surf gear with me on this trip but i think it would be too much to be lugging around with me.

Im slowly compiling a list of the things I forgot or should of brought.

Three Types of Truth

1. The easy truth

I sure il find work somewhere theres bound to be something I can do.

2. The hard truth

OH GOD WHERES THE FREAKING WORK, i apply to jobs only to be beaten to them by a bunch of physic job hunters.

3. The real truth

Im loving it so much here that not finding a job yet isn't very depressing.

Right ladies and gents I'm only here a wet week but its great. The hostel I'm staying at has turned into one of the most legendary places I have ever been. I'm now sharing a room with 2 Irish guys and a welsh bloke. Yes I know I said I was pretty much going to avoid any other Irish people as much as possible but the two guys are legends.

Perth is a gem sticking it out alone here on the west side of Australia. The more I explore the more I love it. Anyone that comes here MUST go to Kings park. Perfect views of the whole city. Looks like something you would see on a postcard. Its also Western Oz's memorial garden for the army, navy, Marines and so on. I got lost in there for a good 5 hours and even went back again with some of the guys from the hostel.

I want to say a massive thank you to Duxxa who is probably the kindest person I have ever met. She would give the shirt off her back to a friend who needed it and has made me feel more at home here with great constant contact and help. Im really looking forward to meeting all of her family out in swan valley.

Heading out to do a bit more job hunting today. I want to put more up in this blog, Im always thinking of stuff to write about when Im off adventuring or exploring and when I go to write here I draw blanks. Think il get a small notebook and pencil to carry around.

Il update further in the week.

Redman out

Perth at night

Howdy folks, been a mad few days so far. Just been chilling at the hostel and taking in the local sites. Made some friends at the hostel Im staying in http://www.shiralee.com.au/

Two English guys, a Finnish girl, a french girl, a German guy and his Japanese girlfriend. We all went out last night(yes on a Wednesday) to a club, no idea what the name was. I was reminded again how much i dont like dance music and drunk people in large groups. I may sound like on old man but clubbing is no way to meet new people. Anyone i did try to talk to was either drunk or couldn't hear what I was saying. Think Il go looking for a band playing tonight.

I cant get over how nice Perth smells, yes thats right smells. Its like summer at home mixed with a sauna. Its so relaxing here. Heading out to see if I can find a beach or two today. I really have to start to look for work properly tho its not cheap here but shopping around pays off.

Im going to finish off with a plug for a place I went to the other night

http://www.themoon.com.au/

The people here are soo freaking friendly (and good looking *winks*) the food was good and the all round atmosphere was great. Think il go back there on my way home today for a pint and a chat.

Redman out

oh and I booked a surfing trip for next weekend. WHOOP

The redman has landed

Well after 2 episodes of how i met your mother, 3 episodes of the pacific, one episode of the simpsons, the book of Eli and Sherlock homes I made it here. After 26 hours of travel I made it here 1/2 alive.

I certainly wont be making that kind of trip again anytime soon. I was hoping to update in Frankfurt but it seems the airport was unable to internet. The flights were grand, I always loved flying anyway so there was no problems for me.

The best part of the flight was when we were circling around to land at Singapore. I have never seen such menacing clouds in all my life. We banked right through them and when we came out the other side i saw something that took my breath away. Giant pillars of pure white cloud. It was like something you would see in a space telescope. They were so beautiful, I could imagine god sitting between them looking down on earth. What was even more awing was perth at night. The lights were amazing.

Got the worst taxi ever last night. Barely spoke english and diddnt know where he was going. In the end I got out of the taxi and used my beloved Iphone to navigate to my hostel.....which was closed. After a minute of colorful swearing i started my way back towards where i had seen other hostels. Met some people coming out of a bar and they were friendly enough to tell me about local hostels and one of them even gave me a lift to where i ended up staying. The people need more people like that. Heading back to that pub for dinner tonight and to say thanks again.

Right Im off to find a bank and a phone. Il be writing again later in the week.

Redman out

Countdown

Well there is only a few days left until I travel. I guess I should start updating this blog.

The last few days have been a bit surreal. Hanging out with my friends and family knowing that I wont see them for quiet some time. I was truly humbled and flattered by the big turn out for my going away party on Saturday last. Big thanks to Vincent for letting us party in his house and fill his bath with ice and booze. Big thanks to everyone that came out. By Christ we all looked smashing in our formal wear.

If anyone is looking for a bit of fun I HIGHLY recommend renting a boat for day in Ballina by lock Derg. Exploring islands, getting chased by geese, jumping off a boat and a bridge are definitely on the to do list for anyone up for a bit of irish adventure. One of the most fun days out I have ever had and I will hold the memory close to me as a reminder of the fun to be had at home.

Packed my bag (sort of) today, never really sure how many pants I should bring with me anywhere. Im thinking 3. I should really just pack sunscreen and nothing else as I will be bathing in it every day for the next few months.

Right I will update this next when Im about the fly out.

Redman out

Cats outa the bag chaps

Well its all settled! on the 30h of May 2010 i shall be leaving the lovely green lands of eire and heading off to Oz! I cant say what has caused this madness but I can say that this is going to be awesome.

Flying from Dublin to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Singapore and Singapore to Perth. A total of 23hours of travel. I figured out that Im going traveling back in time. I leave at 4:20pm and arrive at 12:20am a total of 8 hours of "real" time will have passed but I will have spent 23hours traveling!!? Im pretty sure that thats time travel.....right?


I think that I am more excited about handing my notice to work than going at the moment. Its been really busy at work and funny enough I have begun to enjoy it a bit again. I guess it comes down to my new boss its a legend.

Il keep you guys posted on my adventure and I will use this blog to talk to you all

Redman out