Jo & Seán's Blog

19th January to 6th February 2007

2007-04-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

As our final adventure in Australia we packed the kombi and headed out west towards the Blue Mountains. The plan: to drive across the NSW outback to Adelaide, via Orange, Parkes and Broken Hill. Then onto Phillip Island, near Melbourne, via the Great Ocean Road and back to Sydney. We only had 12 days in which to cover approx. 3500 kilometres (approx. 2200 miles), which some might think is a bit ambitious in a 1974 air cooled bus – but we were keen!

After approx. 3 hours and only a brief stop for petrol in Orange, we arrived at Parkes. We had decided to take a bit of a long detour to include Parkes (despite it being a small blip in the middle of nowhere) as it is the home of the huge radio telescope used as a relay for the moon landing in 1969 (as featured in the film The Dish, with Sam Neill). It was Seán who wanted to go and I wasn’t that excited, but upon seeing it approaching from miles away then up close, its enormity impressed me. What made it even more interesting is that it is still in use, so every few minutes it would move as the astronomers inside tracked a star across space. The only other thing that Parkes is famous for is the annual Elvis Impersonators Festival. Apparently people come from all over the world!

After lunch in Parkes we decided to get a shuffle on and get some km’s behind us, so we drove for hours across the vast empty wasteland that is the outback, in 40°c heat until we reached Nyngan. The only things of interest during the tedious journey were the wild emus we saw every now and again – how they survive out there is beyond me as I can’t imagine what they eat or drink. We had ensured that we were well stocked with water, food, spare petrol, a spare tyre and tools for fixing the car in case we broke down out there. Although we didn’t break down as such, the poor engine didn’t cope well in the horrendous and unremitting heat and we limped into Nyngan feeling grimy, hot, bothered and exhausted. Unfortunately the heat didn’t ease up until about 4am so despite showers and fresh clothes we still felt dreadful and after 2-3 hours sleep (during which we were eaten alive by the mosquitoes), we dragged ourselves out of the kombi at 6am in order to get some km’s done before it got really hot again. Needless to say this part of our road trip was our least favourite and we wouldn’t rush back to do it again!

Our next stop was Broken Hill. This had been sold to us by friends as a lovely little town with lots of art galleries and arty types floating around. Well, we must have been talking about 2 different towns because the Broken Hill we saw was a tatty service town useful only as a stop enroute to Adelaide. To make matters worse, as we approached the town the heat gave way to the biggest rainstorm the area had seen in 50 years and the road to Adelaide was closed whilst the railway line was washed away in places. Some smaller towns and settlements in the area were cut off by flood water for days afterwards. So we arrived at the local campsite wondering how long we would be stuck there. Luckily we survived the night without being washed away and awoke to discover that the road to Adelaide had been re-opened. So after some expert mechanical repairs by Seán (hastily learnt en route from a book!) we set off once more.

After all that relentless heat, dust and nothingness we were extremely relieved to arrive in the luscious Barossa Valley. The area has a strong German feel to it thanks to the Lutheran settlers who fled to the area escaping persecution in their country. The region is best known for its vineyards and in particular it’s “big reds”. So we booked ourselves on a chauffeur driven tour of the smaller boutique wineries and spent a whole day enjoying the products of what the region does best! Needless to say we slept well that night, helped by the much cooler temperatures and lack of creepy crawlies.

Following more car maintenance by Seán we decided to head into Adelaide to find a VW garage to help our poor kombi feel better after being fried by the heat. After a few tense hours at the garage thinking that we might have to drastically change our plans and find alternative transport home, we were delighted to be told that the problem was fixable and that the kombi should have no problem continuing with our trip. So we headed into central Adelaide and met up with a friend at the Adelaide oval for an afternoon of one day cricket to celebrate. Unfortunately, England were beaten by the Kiwis but we still enjoyed sipping cold beer on the grassy embankment in the afternoon sun.

We would have liked to have stayed for a few more days in Adelaide and explored all its lovely parks but we were already falling behind schedule due to our extended car maintenance delays. So we left the city vowing to return another time and see it properly.

We drove across South Australia and down through the Coonawarra (another great wine growing region) towards the limestone coast and the famous Great Ocean Road. We spent a more leisurely day stopping to look at and photograph all the geological formations along the coast including the Bay of Islands, The Arch and the 12 apostles (sadly now only 7 due to erosion). It was a gloriously sunny day and it felt really good to be back on the coast enjoying the sea breeze and sound of waves.

Port Fairy was an absolute must as I always remembered it from my last visit. It is a very quaint little seaside town with lots of lovely old style wooden buildings, a lovely beach and a laid back feeling. It began as a settlement for sailors and Irish settlers and many of the original buildings have been preserved. It also has a lovely bakery – perfect for road-trip snacks!

We stopped for lunch at Apollo Bay where we watched the surfers “catching tubes” or whatever it is they do! We stopped again briefly at Lorne for a rest and to admire the view. Eventually we stopped for the night near Aireys Inlet where we relaxed in a campsite in a lovely setting by the mouth of a river and right on the beach. Apparently you can do the drive from Adelaide to Melbourne in one day, but if you drive along the Great Ocean Road it takes days as it’s so stunning you just want to keep stopping. We compromised and did it in 2 days in order to enjoy it as much as possible but still make it to Phillip Island in time for Australia Day with our relatives (Sean’s granny’s twin sister, her offspring, their offspring and their offspring – 4 generations of Mason’s!).

After stopping for supplies in Bells (famous for Bells Beach world surfing championships) we steamed on and arrived on Phillip Island late on Australia Day Eve and were greeted by the rellies and cold beers placed in our hands – just what we needed after a long, hot road trip! We whiled away a couple of hours until bedtime catching up on everyone’s news – it was good to see them all again.

On Australia Day we had a leisurely breakfast (cooked on the barbeque of course!) and eventually gathered up chairs, picnics and children and headed over to the park opposite the campsite where we were all staying. After a few fun and games we fired up the barbeque again (provided free in nearly all of Australia’s public parks!) and got stuck into a long and leisurely lunch involving an awful lot of food and drink (including some of the sparkling reds we had acquired in the Barossa Valley). Interspersed with some terrible displays of drunken cricket, lunch lasted a good 3-4 hours and eventually we staggered back across the road to the caravans. A good day was definitely had by all and needless to say we didn’t need any dinner!

The following day Sean, Peter & I drove up the coast to see Aunty Vera (Sean’s granny’s twin sister and Peter’s mum) who was staying in a small rehab hospital. We spent some time with her catching up and enjoying her company again. Finally we had to go and made a teary departure, promising to send postcards from London and hoping to catch up again soon. Sadly, that would be the last time we would see her as Vera died shortly after we arrived back in the UK.

We spent our last night on Phillip Island in the local pub and had a suitably fabulous night with the crazy Mason family. After an enormous and amazing seafood dinner one of the local bands fired up on stage and the two youngest members of the group (4 & 6 yrs old!) hit the dance floor for some very impressive moves – the whole pub was enamoured with them and they had quite a few people joining them on the dance floor including Sean & I. Eventually it was time to head back and after a few more beers and crazy limbo dancing we hit the hay exhausted.

We headed to Peter and Lorraine’s house in the Melbourne suburbs for one day and night before finally saying our goodbyes and heading back to Sydney. This in itself takes 2 days so we stopped the night at our regular halfway campsite in Gundagai.

Finally we arrived back in Sydney, exhausted, tired of driving and feeling very grimy – but showers and cold beers on the balcony soon put us right.

The next two days was a blur of unpacking, laundry and packing as we moved into the final stages of our preparations to move back to the UK. The tedium was relieved however by a fantastic day at the Sydney Cricket Ground watching England finally thrash the Aussies. It seemed a very fitting end to our sporting entertainment in Australia!

Our main leaving party was held, a few days before we left, at our flat. Approximately 40 people came so we had a really good send-off and it was lovely to see all our friends one last time. We started off with a barbeque around the pool in the sun and then moved back up to the balcony of our flat for another barbeque and of course lots of lovely beer and wine. The barbeque was fired up again much later in the evening so it really earned it’s keep that night! As the evening progressed many people became quite merry and it was hilarious, and lovely, to see everyone so relaxed and enjoying themselves. During the evening we were presented with our leaving present from all our friends at the Sydney Sub-Aqua Club, a fantastic photo album of all our antics, activities and friends throughout the year. The perfect present – we will be looking at that for years to come.

The day before we flew our Kombi was loaded to the gunnels with all our stuff and taken to the shipping agent to be packed into our container and loaded onto the ship. In the evening we had one final farewell dinner with our hosts for the year Mike & Sue (& Jake the dog!) – as a special treat Sean was taken to the wine cellar and told to pick anything he liked. Of course he chose a 1977 bottle of Penfolds Grange Hermitage – a rare treat indeed and probably the most expensive bottle of wine we will ever taste!

Eventually our year in Australia was up – we closed the door on our lovely flat for the last time and sweated all the way to the airport clutching our winter coats and jumpers for our return to the UK.

1st – 19th January 2007

2007-04-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

In our last few weeks before we finished work we had a busy schedule of dinners, BBQs, drinks and leaving do’s with friends and colleagues. I also managed to squeeze in a couple of shores dives with SSAC friends at Bare Island which ended up being my last dives in Australia as unfortunately the dives on the wreck The Valiant were cancelled due to bad weather.

I was also invited to attend the final wedding dress fitting of a work colleague as we were unable to attend the wedding itself in New Zealand.

Otherwise we spent quite a lot of time packing, packing and more packing which we got bored of very quickly!

All of a sudden it was our last week at work and after a few quick days tying things up, handing things over to colleagues and lunches out it was all over.

31st December 2006

2007-04-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

New Year’s Eve

With the sun shining brightly we boarded the Manly Ferry and headed across the harbour to Fairlight Beach for a BBQ with our friends from the dive club.

We whiled away a few hours with eating, drinking, swimming, dinghy races, snorkelling and a few keen people went diving.

Eventually we packed up and all headed our separate ways for our various evening entertainment plans.

Seán & I joined some friends on someone’s roof in their flat in Woolloomooloo where we watched the fireworks in style (both the 9pm and midnight displays). We then climbed very carefully back down the trellis to the balcony where we got drunk on fizzy wine and set off lots of party poppers.

No need to say any more really – the photos say it all!

7th to 26th December 2006

2007-04-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of December, my sister Heather arrived for a long awaited 3 week holiday in Australia.

After she arrived we hit Bondi Junction for some retail therapy and then Bondi beach to admire the beautiful people! By mid afternoon jetlag got the better of Hezz so we went home.

The following day we headed to Port Stephens for a SSAC club trip stopping for a few hours on the way at Glenmore Lodge for a horse trek through the bush. We were in a small group with a guide, and had a real rustic Australian horse trek experience. We saw a wallaby, snake and Lyre bird whilst forging our way through thick eucalypt forest and through an idyllic river where the horses gratefully filled up with water. We did a fair bit of trotting and some even had a few spurts of cantering. I was just pleased that my horse and I came to an understanding after about half an hour and she did everything I asked her!

After the horse riding we continued onto Port Stephens, checked into our very swanky apartment and met up with the others for a curry. The weekend was filled with diving, BBQ’s and reclining in the plush pool and spa. We saw millions of nudibranchs (like very colourful slugs!) and scorpion fish, and a fair few wobbegongs (carpet sharks) and rays. Despite the poor visibility and strong currents we all had a great few dives and I completed my Sports Diver qualification in the process!

Back in Sydney Hezz & I walked the Bondi to Coogee coastal path, starting with a swift beer at the Bondi Trattoria (where her fiancée used to work before they knew each other!). Initially we were in blazing sunshine but it deteriorated into unbelievable thunder and lightning storms. The clouds started rolling in as we were snorkelling at Clovelly, so we shuffled on and just made it to the pub in Coogee when the heavens opened. Seán arrived literally a few minutes later looking like a drowned rat!

During a break in the storm we dashed to A Fish called Coogee for a lovely posh fish and chip supper, where all the fish is marinated and you can choose what you want and then they cook it for you while you wait.

A few days later we spent hours getting ready in our finest for an evening at the Opera House. We started off the evening with a fantastic seafood supper at the Sydney Oyster Bar (where I used to work years ago!) over looking the fabulous Harbour Bridge. Amongst other things we had oysters (of course), huge prawns, beetroot and asparagus salad and smoked salmon. The food was spectacular and the wine not bad either!

We moved onto the Opera House and enjoyed an excellent performance of Handel’s Messiah; the acoustics of the concert hall are amazing so that when the whole choir was singing the hair stands up on the back of your neck. During the interval we enjoyed sparkling wine on the balcony with harbour views.

The following day we decided to have a touristy sight-seeing day. We really crammed it in and were exhausted at the end of the day. We started by getting a ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo to see all my old friends (both human and feathered!). We stayed there for a few hours looking at all the birds and animals and I said a final goodbye to the ellies. Then it was back across the harbour and a short walk to The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney. We wandered around all the old historic buildings, did a bit a shopping (although we refrained from buying a cane toad purse!) and had coffee and cake in my favourite patisserie. Then we headed off across town to Darling Harbour for more sight seeing. We wandered around the harbour, went in every shop, just about, in the shopping centre and finally visited the aquarium, where we spent our last few hours. We just managed to gather our last ounces of energy to walk back across town to catch the bus home. Then we went straight to The Duke of Gloucester (or the DOG as it’s known locally) for beers and a big slap up meal.

After a well earned lie-in we packed up the kombi and headed out west towards the Blue Mountains. After a two hour drive we arrived at Katoomba and headed straight for Echo Point & the 3 sisters (see previous entry). We admired the view then headed back into Katoomba for lunch and a browse around the antique and second hand shops. Then it was onto Blackheath a bit further along the highway. We drove down to Govett’s Leap lookout first, to see the damage caused by the huge bushfires which had happened since Seán & I were here last. Then we settled into our campsite.

Over the next 5 days we had bizarre weather ranging from 10°c to about 30°c, which made camping rather interesting! At one point we were stuck in the kombi all day playing backgammon and spying on the neighbours as the whole area was shrouded in cloud. The quick walk to the toilet block was cold and wet.

The weather soon cleared up (proving the campsite manager right when he said “Oh it’s just a bit of mountain weather!”) and we decided to explore the area. The first day we got the scenic railway down to the valley floor near Katoomba. I thought this sounded like a poxy little tourist train – what I didn’t realise is that it’s the original track from the mining days and goes down at a 45’ angle! Hezz & I were sitting at the front and there were no seatbelts – we had to put our feet on the front board to stop ourselves falling out! Very exhilarating.

Once at the bottom we spent a few hours walking through the forests to the base of the 3 sisters which we had seen from the top a few days previously. Then we walked back and around to the cableway which is a less exciting way of going back up, but still with stunning views of the surrounding forests and canyons.

The next day we set off from Neap’s Glen to do the Grand Canyon walk. Parts of it were inaccessible due to fire damage but we saw all the best bits and still managed to have a good day walk (and not the 7 hour 35°c epic that Seán dragged us on last time!!).

On our final day we drove a bit further back to Wentworth Falls and did the fantastic Valley of the Waters walk. This is without a doubt the best walk that I have done in the Blue Mountains area and I highly recommend it to anyone who goes there. It starts with a steep descent past the fantastic Empress Falls where the local canyoning club were having fun. Then we walked along a path halfway up the cliff face with stunning views of the blue gorges laid out before us. After sometime we arrived at Wentworth Falls which are spectacular (even though there wasn’t much water going over them due to the drought). We descended Slacks Stairs which are a series of almost vertical metal ladders which are totally exposed and not recommended if you’re afraid of heights. If however you love heights like me then I totally recommend it!! It was great fun  Some of the ladders are so steep that they are enclosed in cages so that you can’t fall off and plummet to the valley floor far below. At the bottom, the final task is to lower off on a short piece of in situ rope. I got to the bottom and could have quite happily gone back to the top and started again!

It was then a fairly short walk through the thick forest to the base of the falls which were totally idyllic. A little beach, tree ferns, mossy rocks and to top it all off – a tiny little bright green frog hopped off a rock into the water and swam away. We sat and admired the peaceful surroundings for a while before heading off on the path back along the valley floor. This path obviously doesn’t get used much as we had to fight our way through the under growth a fair bit and there were a few places where mini land slides had occurred and blocked the path completely. We passed over a few streams and saw the most enormous fresh water yabbie I’ve ever seen – unfortunately it was dead. Eventually we arrived at the base of the gorge at the other end and had the huge task of walking up hundreds of uneven steps past 3 waterfalls (Sylvia, Lodard and Red Falls) back to the base of Empress Falls (the original waterfall where we started) and then up more steps to the top of that one – not something I suggest doing if you’re out of shape! We headed back to the campsite and after a great big dinner we slept liked logs.

After nearly a week our time in the Blue Mountains was sadly at an end and we had the unenviable task of driving 5 hours through the enormous Wollemi National Park to the Hunter Valley. Amazingly we arrived in one piece without hitting any kangaroos and in fact the only ones we saw were lounging around under a tree when we stopped at a remote homestead for a drink.

We spent the following day on a wine tour of the lower Hunter Valley. We went to about 6 or so wineries including Lindeman’s, Arrowfield, Rosemount, Robyn Drayton and Tyrrells. Unfortunately we weren’t very impressed with the tour but the wine was good and it gave Hezz a good taster of some Australian wines. We also had a very quick stop at a couple of cheeseries (is that a word?!) and stocked up on yummy cheese, relishes and nibbles for xmas. The following day with, surprisingly, no hangovers we went to Tamburlaine and Pieterson’s Champagne House as they weren’t included on the tour but are definitely the best in the region. I was driving so only Hezz was tasting and by the time we hopped in the kombi to head back to Sydney she’d gone all quiet and before long was fast asleep! We had a quick stop to admire the view in the pretty little seaside town of Terrigal before heading home.

In preparation for xmas we spent the next few days eating lots of yummy food and drinking lots of good wine, including our selection from the Hunter Valley. We also explored Paddington Markets and picked up a few bits and pieces for Hezz’s wedding preparations. We went to Five Ways in Paddington and after a fantastic lunch on the balcony of The Royal we embarked on Seán’s “cultural tour” of Paddington & Woollhara. This is a great way to see all the fantastic architecture of the region but is essentially a pub crawl of all the lovely old pubs. We crawled home and fell asleep!
Despite the unfavourable conditions we spent Christmas Eve doing a couple of shore dives at Bare Island in La Perouse. It was a bit surgey and the visibility wasn’t great due to recent storms but we did see my first ever octopus – a great big red one! I looked everywhere for weedy sea dragons to show Hezz but of course when you want to see one there aren’t any! Unfortunately the weather had been very unpredictable while Hezz was here so the diving hadn’t been as good as it is normally. Of course as soon as she left the weather calmed down!

Christmas Day! We got semi dressed up (it is Australia afterall – the centre of casual dressing!) then headed over to South Coogee to have xmas lunch with Mike & Sue and their family. We walked over to enjoy the sunshine which is still a novelty after 5 xmases in the antipodes. We were surprised at the amount of people out and about having BBQ’s, picnics, swimming in the sea - all in big family groups – it was nice to see. Upon arrival at Mike and Sue’s, after introductions to the family and a few quick presents, we started on the aperitifs and nibbles. At around 2pm we were called to the garden for xmas lunch and we were in for a treat. Mike & Sue had created a 5 course extravaganza for 13 people including a selection of unbelievable wines from their private cellar for each course! The courses were: home made gravalax and Sydney rock oysters; a huge platter of Balmain bugs (a type of fresh water lobster), lobsters and king prawns; a whole Atlantic salmon; xmas pudding (English style!); a selection of Australian cheeses. There were lots of fancy sauces too but I can’t remember all of those – the day got more and more blurry as Mike brought out all his lovely wine! Lunch finished at about 9pm! when we retired inside to escape the mozzies and blob out on the sofas. It was a fantastic day and we were all very grateful to Mike & Sue who made us incredibly welcome in their home whilst we were away from ours.

Boxing Day. With fuzzy heads Seán & I dragged ourselves out of bed and made ourselves eat a hearty breakfast and drink lots of water. It was sometime before Hezz emerged looking very worse for wear. She was unable to eat or drink anything and the water she forced down didn’t stay down too long! Unfortunately she didn’t get better anytime soon. However, we managed to get Hezz up and out the house and headed off to Nielsen Park to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart race. It was a scorching sunny day (which was a bit uncomfortable for those with hangovers!) and we enjoyed watching all the boats racing around the harbour warming up and then flying off at the start gun. There were hundreds of other boats out in support so the harbour was more boats than water! After the boats had gone through the heads and out into the ocean we could no longer see them so we joined some friends for a picnic in the sun.
Eventually we headed back to the flat and had a cooling swim in the pool and Hezz finally perked up enough to eat something! By evening Hezz was feeling much better so we helped her to pack and then drove her to the airport for her flight home.

25th November

2007-01-11T01:38:00.000-08:00

Joint SSAC Birthday Picnic – Shark Island

To celebrate the birthdays of four SSAC members (including Sean) we went en masse with picnics, swim gear and games to Shark Island, one of Sydney Harbour’s National Parks.

The advance party (i.e. hard core drinking crew!) arrived about 11am to secure one of the picnic areas and immediately opened the first bottle of bubbly! Before long we were all quite tiddly and having a very merry time. We followed the bubbly with Pimms & lemonade, complete with mint leaves and plenty of ice.

Sometime later the rest of the group arrived and as it was a beautiful sunny day we went for a lovely swim with the bridge and Opera House as a back-drop, before tucking into a feast of salads, samosas, quiches, sausage rolls and the like. The enormous eskie (cool box for all you poms!) was still overflowing with wine & beer so we made a courageous effort to lighten the load for the return journey.

After birthday cakes (the Little Mermaid for the girls and Nemo for the boys) we passed the afternoon playing cricket (well whacking tennis balls into the tops of the palm trees anyway – it’s no wonder we lost the Ashes!) and being shown how to play Boules properly by our French club member.

After a splendid day of fun and games we retired to our flat for a swim in the pool and BBQ on our balcony.

18th November

2007-01-11T01:35:00.000-08:00

Lynn’s Birthday Bash

To celebrate one of the dive club members’ birthday some of us did a dive in Port Hacking, south of Sydney, then got dolled up for an evening of fun!

We started at Oscar’s bar, near Darling Harbour, for cocktails which was a great way to start. Some people were quite tiddly by the time we left there and we still had many more venues to go to! We moved onto Wentworth Park for my first experience of greyhound racing. It was surprisingly lots of fun – but then when you get a large crowd of pissed friends together anything seems fun! Some were getting very serious about their bets and rushing off to the TAB office before each race, so before anyone developed a gambling addiction we moved onto Star City, Sydney’s casino complex. We lost a few people at this stage as some people just can’t handle their drink!

The casino is a weird place, a bit like being in another dimension. There’s a strange mix of people – some just having fun, some addicted to the pokies and quite a few desperate people with fake tans, too much make-up (men included!) and interesting clothes with lots of sequins. We fitted right in! We found a bar with a small dance floor and drank more cocktails. A few of us braved the dance floor but when a guy with tight jeans, a grey mullet and cowboy boots started to inch closer I decided it was time to leave!

Again we lost more people at this stage and only the hard-core amongst us moved onto our final venue, Retro nightclub.

I had heard alot about Retro so was quite curious, but having been there my curiosity has been satisfied and I won’t be rushing back! It’s a huge nightclub with 3 floors of different styles of music – all bad! Also, everyone else in there was at least 10 years younger than us. We therefore attracted quite alot of attention, especially as we were all quite drunk so there was no inhibitions on the dance floor – anyone who’s see Sean’s crazy drunken “interpretative” dancing will know what I mean! You also need to remember that Sean & Nick (both over 6 foot) were sporting very suspect moustaches for Movember which made them look like a couple!

After hurling ourselves around all the dance floors for a few hours we left Retro at approx 4am and headed home – there are photos, but I think we’ll keep them hidden!

10th – 12th November

2007-01-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

Blue Mountains with SSAC

We joined a few friends from the dive club for a non-diving weekend in the Blue Mountains. The plan: to walk, climb, eat and drink. We camped in Blackheath, them in tents, us in our lovely Kombi.

On Saturday we did the Grand Canyon walk from Govett’s Leap via Evan’s Lookout and Neap’s Glen. A fantastic 6-7 hour walk along the cliff-tops then straight down into the green and shady canyon. The tree ferns are spectacular and the whole route is a photographer’s dream. In places as you walk along fenced off paths half way up the canyon you can look over the edge and hear the water running through the bottom but it’s so deep you can’t see it. There are chains in places where canyoners can lower off which must be amazing.

In the creeks at the bottom we saw fresh water yabbies, a small type of crayfish which is the main component of the Platypus diet – but unfortunately we didn’t see any of them.

The walk back up and out the canyon was a challenge especially as the temperature soured into the mid 30’s and we all ran out of water (I did not! S.). At the top, like an oasis, was a little café serving freshly squeezed orange juice – I think we drunk them dry!

Finally we arrived back at our sauna-like car where we shared a can of boiling coke – nice!

Suffering with heatstroke a bit, I retired to bed for a little nap before showering and then joining the others down the local pub to watch the rugby and eat their famous enormous pies (that’s the entire meal – a great big pie the size of a dinner plate!).

We were all aching on Sunday, so we had a fairly leisurely start and headed off to Mt. Victoria to check out some local climbing. Sean, Paul & I attempted the easiest climb on the easiest crag in the guidebook and still struggled – well it’s been more or less a year since I climbed regularly and it was hard! The girls lounged around at the top of the crag in the sun whilst the others pretended to go for a sturdy walk only admitting later that they spent the afternoon in the pub!

We returned home feeling very pleased with our weekend of outdoor activity and vowing to do some more climbing on the sandstone crags in Sydney!

27th – 29th October

2007-01-11T01:27:00.000-08:00

Hunter Valley with Prince of Wales Hospital Hyperbaric Unit

The excuse was the POW Hyperbaric Unit AGM, but really it was all about the wine! (Speak for yourself! S)

We stayed at the Tuscany Wine Estate – a very grand place with excellent accomodation, lovely meals (all taken in different rooms!) and stunning views across the vineyards. We arrived Friday night after a 2-3 hour drive from Sydney and had dinner and beers at the Blue Tongue Brewery across the road.

Saturday morning was the AGM so I explored the grounds, unfortunately the pool hadn’t been cleaned for summer but I enjoyed the pure decadence of reading for hours in the sun (with hat, shirt and 30+ sunblock as standard!). Saturday afternoon we headed off on our tailored wine tour. Over the course of a few hours we visited Ivanhoe, Lindemans, Tamburlaine, and Misty Glen Cottage, a tiny family run winery with only two wines which we loved. We tasted some of the best wines we had ever had and struggled off the bus with 3 boxes full of bottles for our wine rack. We were also treated to some rare and old wines such as the 1962 Semillon we tried at Lindemanns which was a great way to experience how wines change with age.

On returning slightly wobbly to the accomodation I managed to sneak up on a family of kangaroos and get some photos whilst Sean played AFL with the “boys”, only 2 of them being children! Then we freshened up and sat down for a pre-dinner bottle of wine!

Eventually we got dolled up for the AGM dinner where we had excellent food and lots more lovely wine! Not even someone knocking a full glass of red wine all over my brand new, never worn before pale green jacket, could ruin such a lovely day!

We retired rosy cheeked and slept like logs.

After a nice lie-in and relaxing in the grounds (not for everyone I might add. S.) we joined everyone for a final BBQ on the deck with the stunning views of rolling vine covered-hills unfolding in front of us.

A few of us drove back to Sydney via the Peterson Champagne House and chocolate shop which was a hit all round.

8th – 15th October

2006-12-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Tasmania

Whilst in Fiji, Seán helped out a fellow conference attendee by accompanying him to Suva hospital to have his arm stitched back together. The guy, David, invited us to stay with him and his family in Tasmania as a result. We finally decided to take up the offer and flew into Hobart on a sunny but bracing October Sunday morning.

After collecting the hire car we spent some time exploring central Hobart on foot including Salamanca Place, Sullivan’s Cove and battery Point – all historic maritime areas almost as old as The Rocks in Sydney.

We then set off on a walking tour in the surrounding, more residential, area. The trusty guidebook took us to some fabulous old residences and Arthur’s Circus – a quaint little circle of Georgian houses.

We continued our tour by spending some time contemplating the colonists’ cemetery in St David’s Park, a sobering insight into the hardship of Hobart’s first European settlers.

At the end of our walking we tour we still had time to kill before David finished work so we drove up Mt Wellington, a rather impressive lump of rock 1270m straight up from sea level.

The top was covered in snow and ice and absolutely bloody freezing!! I managed a couple of photos on the very top, admired the view through the snow flakes and then had to return to the car to warm up – I hadn’t come prepared for snow!

In the evening we drove to Howrah for dinner with David and Annette, our hosts and their two girls Caitlyn and Joanna (as Seán said – a mini version of me as she plays the flute and swims regularly in a club).

After dinner we drove to “the Shack” on Carlton Beach nr Dodges Ferry. Despite sounding like a decrepit beach hut the shack is infact a rather large beach house with wooden floors, large deck, half acre section and 30 seconds walk to a long stretch of deserted beach. We lit the log fire, opened a bottle of wine and settled in nicely.

Monday morning - a leisurely breakfast and just enjoying being in the shack and on holiday. We eventually went for a walk along the beach and back, with smoked salmon sandwiches on the beach for lunch. I spent the rest of the day recovering from a work stress-induced cold by reading, sleeping and relaxing by log fire.

On Tuesday we drove the 40 minutes back into Hobart and whilst Seán went to the hyperbaric chamber with David, I wandered around town. Then an al fresco lunch at Salamanca Square and onto the rather excellent Maritime Museum and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (which included a brilliant exhibition of Antarctic Exploration).

On the way back to the shack we stopped in the domain and wandered through the soldiers remembrance walk and admired the views of the Derwent River from the top.

By Wednesday we thought it was about time we explored the area a bit more and headed to the Tasman Peninsula. Our first stop was the Port Arthur historic site, the original and mostly intact, convict penitentiary and settlement. The site is huge as it was a thriving settlement not just a penal station, so we took the best part of a day to go around all of it including the main prison building, asylum, school, governor’s house and perfectly manicured English style gardens. There is also the shell of the café where the tragic shootings took place in 1996 and a remembrance garden behind.

After dragging ourselves away from Port Arthur we did a little Tiki tour of some local natural sights including the blowhole, Tasmans Arch, Devils Kitchen and Eaglehawk Neck – the narrow isthmus connecting the Tasman Peninsula to the rest of Tasmania where a line of vicious dogs were chained to prevent convicts escaping.

Finally, it was back to Carlton Beach for a bottle of wine on the sand dunes over-looking the beach, watching the sun set over Mt Wellington 80kms away.

On Thursday we got up early again and drove 3 hours to Freycinet National Park. On the way I narrowly avoided hitting a yellow tailed black cockatoo as it hurled itself in front of the car – it’s the only one I’ve seen in the wild, so I would have been a bit miffed to have to pull it out of the radiator vent!

After hours of discomfort in our hot little car we arrived, donned our walking boots and rucksacks and walked into the visitor centre to get a map only to be told that the entire peninsula was closed due to extreme fire risk (30+°c & gale force winds).

We were gutted – this was supposed to be our “big walking day” and after visiting the area 8 years ago and being stunned by Wineglass Bay and the Hazard Mountains I was eager to see it again and show Seán.

Instead we had to settle for a short walk along Friendly Beach in blistering sun whilst being sand blasted by the wind. And just to top it all off my little sit mat, which I’ve been using for years in the Lakes, blew away!

We then had to get back in the car and drive 3 hours back again!

We did manage to salvage the day by visiting Richmond on the way back. Once a strategic military post and convict station, Richmond is Tasmania’s premier historic town. Its beautiful sand stone colonial buildings & the much photographed Richmond Bridge, made by convicts in 1823 and the oldest bridge in Australia still in use, reminded me of England – especially whilst strolling along the willow fringed river watching the ducks and geese.

Whilst coming into Richmond earlier we had noticed a lot of black smoke on the horizon. As we drove nearer to Hobart we realised that large parts of the Eastern shore of Hobart were on fire. We later found out that they were the worst bush fires in Tasmania since 1967 – there was still some smoke when we left 3 days later. The fire fighters, including volunteers from all the surrounding districts, were working 12 hour shifts day and night to put the fires out. The biggest fire in Fern Gully was unstoppable and not only took out power cables cutting off all the power to the airport and a local shopping centre, but managed to jump the highway and continue on its destructive path towards more residential area. The highway and Tasman Bridge (the only bridge across the river from East to West Hobart) was closed due to dense smoke. Our friends, David and Annette had a call from their electrician saying that he was unable to come and fit their new bathroom as the flames were 20 feet from his back fence and he was trying to hose down his house and when he’d finished that he had to go to the airport and fire up the generator so they could land the planes!

Needless to say Hobart was in chaos all day. Miraculously and thanks to the hard work of all the fire fighters, no-one was killed and no property was lost (apart from one garden shed and a car!).

David, who works at the A+E in Hobart reported that they had a few casualties with smoke inhalation injuries but nothing major.

That night we returned once again to the beach to watch the sunset but this time through thick black clouds of smoke and an eerie orange glow.

Friday – we set off determined to get our walk and found the excellent 4 hour walk from Fortescue Bay to Cape Huay on the Tasman Peninsula. The bush was stunning (and not on fire luckily!) and the sea views fantastic over the very impressive pillar stacks on the cliffs.

We saw lots of Echidnas too – some in the bush and some wandering along the side of the road. The heat was still sweltering but the wind had dropped slightly.

After showers back at the shack, we drove to David and Annette’s for a very good dinner at the Yacht club. We were quite alarmed that the bush all along one side of the highway was still on fire and noticed that the whole of the hillside in Fern Tree Gully was still covered in smoke and flames, but were assured that there would be no risk when we drove back to the shack.

Saturday – our first lie-in of the week (and we’re supposed to be on holiday!). We drove through Hobart and up Mt. Nelson to see the views. Just as we reached the top, the clouds broke and Hobart got its first rain in a very long time – not good for us but great for the fire fighters. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Salamanca Markets and the shops, then home to the shack for a glass of wine on the balcony, packing, cleaning & dinner.

Despite the rain, parts of the bush were still smoking & back burning continued to prevent re-ignition.

28th September -2nd October

2006-12-07T03:44:00.000-08:00

Great Barrier Reef – Diving

On the long weekend in October I went on a Sydney Sub-aqua Club (SSAC) trip to the Great Barrier Reef whilst Seán was away completing his Day Skipper sailing qualification.

There were about 14 of us in total, but unfortunately we didn’t have the whole boat to ourselves as it was absolutely enormous. We joined Reef Encounter after a very bumpy 2 hour ride out to the reef in a smaller boat.

Over the next 3 days I did 10 dives at Hastings, Norman and Saxon reefs, including early morning dives at 6.30am and a couple of night dives.

The staff, unfortunately, were not all great but the food was good and the cabins very comfortable.

I will let the photos speak for themselves as I was lucky enough to be diving with a very experienced group of divers including a number of excellent underwater photographers.

However, I will just say that we saw an unbelievable 7 turtles (including 2 together), squillions of reef fish, including Frank the huge Maori wrasse (who is, without doubt, the friendliest fish in the world!) and oodles of sharks including a very close and heart pounding encounter with a large bronze whaler during one of the night dives (both myself and the shark were like bunnies in car headlights and equally terrified!).

I dived every available dive and came away virtually fizzing with nitrogen overload in my blood. It was a fantastic trip and a much different experience to the last time I visited the reef 8 years ago.

I have no doubt that I will be returning again in the future, hopefully next time with Seán.

23rd September

2006-12-05T03:38:00.000-08:00

Sydney Harbour Sailing

Having had our sailing fun previously blown out a group of friends from the dive club headed off to Port Jackson (aka Sydney harbour) with beautiful sunshine and some pretty good wind.

Our skipper for the day was Paul, one of our friends from the dive club, who at the time was the only one of us qualified to hire and skipper a yacht of that size (Seán has since qualified as a day skipper too – well done Seán :-D).

After boarding and checking out all the facilities (most important – fridge for beer and wine!) we got under way. Initially, with the engine to get us safely out of Darling Harbour and into Port Jackson proper, but then we put up the sails and let rip! The view was spectacular as we sailed under the harbour bridge with the opera house framed behind and there was suddenly lots of frantic camera snapping. A few able people helped out with ropes, sails, steering etc etc but most of us just lay back and enjoyed the ride (just moving from one side of the top deck to the other as required whilst tacking backwards and forwards).

We tacked smoothly out through the harbour (well apart from a slight mis-communication between Paul & Ben when we nearly collided with Fort Denison!) and headed to a quiet little cove on the northern side for lunch.

We had all come very well prepared so the lunch spread was huge and included a fantastic supply of wines and beers.

As the weather was so lovely and the setting so stunning, a few of us decided that the first swim of the season would be in order. We stripped off and dove into the water only to surface with cries of “aaarrgghh – it’s bloody freezing” and the like. Obviously, with it being early spring, the water had yet to heat up so to say it was refreshing would be an understatement!

However after a few circuits of the yacht we went numb enough to stay in and drink a cold beer whilst treading water!

Post swim we tucked into the food and then laid back in the sun to dry off, groaning with full bellies.

After some time we decided to start heading back slowly across the harbour and around the back of some of the harbour islands towards port.

We rounded off the day with a “few” beers and games of pool in a couple of the bars and pubs in the Darling Harbour area.

All in all, a very enjoyable introduction to sailing, especially as I didn’t have to do any work!

2006-11-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

28th-30th July

Snowy Mountains

To celebrate one of the dive club member’s birthday and to experience some cold weather (bit of a novelty here!) we joined a dive club skiing and walking trip to the Snowy Mountains. After an uneventful long drive and motel stop-over in Canberra we arrived in Jindabyne and eased ourselves in with a low level walk along a river valley (the name of which escapes me!). Despite the much cooler temperatures we enjoyed a lovely walk in the weak winter sun. Towards the end of the walk as we approached dusk we were rewarded with the sight of lots of wildlife. What we thought at first was a large boulder, surprised us by moving off on squat legs – our first wild (and alive!) wombat sighting. Shortly after this we entered an area of small trees and startled a group of grey kangaroos which bounded off at great speed through the woods. Then in the car on the way back to the lodge we spotted a rock wallaby, another kangaroo (casually scratching itself at the side of the road!) and a lyrebird – the emblem of the Snowy Mountains National Park. So a very successful wildlife spotting day.

We spent the evening at the lodge playing pinball, drinking port and stoking up the log fire.

Next day we decided to do something “big”. As Mt. Kosciusko is the biggest mountain in the Snowy Mountains range and in fact the biggest in Australia we decided to have a crack at the summit. In summer this is a pleasant, but strenuous walk through alpine pastures with stunning views. In the middle of winter it is somewhat different!

We decided to get the Thredbo chair lift to the top of the ski runs to avoid being mown down by novice skiers. We stepped off the lift into gale force winds and a complete white-out. Hiding behind the ski-lift building we put on every piece of clothing and goretex we had with us and set off into the bleak whiteness. Within 2 minutes we could no longer see the chair lift buildings or infact anything else. We could have been on the moon. There was nothing but white in every direction. We trudged through the snow for hours relying completely on the compass (an Australian one bought especially for the occasion!) and map. Eventually we stopped behind a snow covered rock for a hot drink and sugar fix. By this stage everything had frozen including the water in my platypus, the camera batteries and the condensation in our hair. I even had frost icicles forming on one side of my walking poles where the wind had blown horizontally across the snow and ice. To avoid getting even more frozen we only stopped for a few minutes before setting off into the white wastelands again. We trudged on wondering if we would go all day without seeing anything but whiteness. For a few seconds we were rewarded with a tiny square of blue between some clouds, but it disappeared just as quickly and all was white again.

For hours we kept trudging through the snow with the wind howling and blowing the ice and snow into our eyes. Eventually after consulting the map and compass (and trying to consult the GPS but discovering it didn’t work properly) we decided that we had to turn back. The general consensus was that we thought we were somewhere on the summit ridge but it was impossible to tell exactly where and with only a couple of hours until it got dark, we decided we needed to get out of there. So we turned around and started the slow trudge back through the same whiteness.

We had a heart stopping moment when we turned around and discovered Ben (the third member of our party) had disappeared into the white-out. We tried calling out but our shouts were whipped away by the wind. We were just deciding what to do when he reappeared from behind a snow covered boulder – he had been no more than a few metres away but with visibility reduced to virtually nothing he might as well have been a mile away. With sheer cliffs on both sides of the ridge hidden by the white-out we had to stick together and stay on the route.

Just when we thought we had got lost a building appeared in the gloom and we breathed sighs of relief. We descended back to civilisation in the valley and had a few well deserved beers. Needless to say we slept well that night and woke the next day aching all over.

A week or so later when we got the GPS working we plotted our route on the computer and discovered that we had been within minutes of the summit having got further up the summit ridge than we thought.

We’re already planning a return trip in summer.

25th – 27th August

Blue Mountains and my birthday

For my birthday we decided to spend a long weekend in the Blue Mountains. After arriving and spending a rather unsuccessful afternoon looking for “do-able” climbs, we checked into the campsite in Katoomba.

Katoomba is the most popular option to stay thanks to it’s proximity to the fabulous Three Sisters rock formation near Echo Point. There is an Aboriginal legend that the three rock pinnacles were once three sisters who, fleeing some male “admirers”, were turned into stone by a sorcerer who died before being able to turn them back. Unfortunately, due to erosion it is no longer possible to climb on the Three Sisters (although all the routes are pretty difficult so I’d probably fall off into the abyss anyway!)

The town itself has a quaint selection of art deco style coffee shops including the fantastic Paragon Café which is fully intact inside including intimate booths for eating the hand-made chocolates and wood panelled dancing and dining rooms at the back.

The 1880’s Carrington Hotel is pretty impressive as well and it’s easy to spend an afternoon trawling through the antique dens looking for books, knick-knacks and vintage clothes. Seán managed to find himself a tweed jacket which he insisted on wearing at dinner that evening (at least he didn’t have his selection of hats with him as well!). Although we were drinking a $125 bottle of wine courtesy of one of Seán’s colleagues who owed him a favour, so perhaps a jacket was the right attire (ignoring the fact that we drank the posh wine out of plastic camping cups!)

The following day we did an excellent walk to the Ruined Castle via Golden Stairs. It’s a large outcrop of rock left behind after glaciation rather than an actual castle, but from a distance the resemblance is remarkable. As with most of the walks in this area, it involves a steep descent into a dramatic gorge which forms part of the Great Dividing Range and I think it is the only walk I’ve done where we descended at the start and ascended at the end! The views from the edges of the gorges are spectacular and the whole area really is blue, caused by the eucalyptus oil rising off the trees and refracting the suns rays.

As we walked through the dense bush surrounded by towering eucalypts and tree ferns, we could hear the calls of exotic birds including the whip bird which sounds like something from the Amazon (Infact it’s a rather small and unobtrusive black and white bird).

On Sunday, we had a birthday breakfast whilst I opened my presents. Then we headed off for Jenolan Caves. Despite the long drive deep into the interior of the Blue Mountains, it was time well spent as the vast system of limestone caverns is extraordinary. We joined the next available tour and spent the next few hours ducking under stalactites and admiring weird formations. The system is so extensive that you would need to come back dozens of times to see all the accessible caves and they haven’t explored them all yet.

We spent the afternoon driving back to Sydney via the scenic route including the very English-like Hawkesbury River area.

30th June – 26th July

2006-08-15T01:33:00.000-07:00

Over the next four weeks we did a number of fun and interesting things – some educational and some involving copious amounts of wine (which could be seen as educational I suppose!).

Maritime Archaeology Talks

As Seán wanted to remain an active member of our dive club despite his current inability to dive, he decided to arrange a series of lectures and talks on Maritime Archaeology. Some took place at the excellent Sydney Maritime Museum on Darling Harbour, some were on the SS South Steyne – a beautiful old harbour ferry moored in Darling Harbour and some were more informal affairs over a few beers on our club nights in the pub.

We were fortunate to hear speakers from all over the world including the US and the UK (including the guy who filmed the raising of the Mary Rose).

We heard about projects to find WW1 and WW2 vessels in Papua New Guinea, off the coast of Gallipoli and Western Australia.

We were also shown fascinating slideshows detailing the intricate and pain-staking process of recovering, preserving and restoring artefacts after they’ve lain on the sea bed for hundreds of years.

The whole club came away inspired and everyone is talking about signing up for the next set of Maritime Archaeology courses run through the university.

So all in all, a very successful project – thanks Seán!

(Still no heating)

TIPA Performance

My next event was a performance by the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts at the City Recital Hall. A TIPA tour of Australia had been organised by the Australian Tibet Council (to which I belong) entirely on donations.

I felt very lucky to be able to see one of their performances again, especially since I saw them perform at their home base in India when I was volunteering at the Tibetan Children’s Village 8 years ago.

The performance was funny, emotional and fascinating.

The traditional hand-made costumes were incredibly colourful and intricate and there were even two life-sized yaks with moving eyes, ears and mouths, controlled by two people inside each one!

The best part though was the music. The women’s voices were clear as a bell and filled the room right to the high ceiling and the deep resonating rubble from the traditional horns seemed to come up through the ground.

The entire thing was in Tibetan with just a small explanation in English at the beginning of each piece. But it didn’t matter – the acting, gestures and emotions in their voices whilst singing left a lump in the back of my throat. The audience was on its feet in a standing ovation before the last piece was even finished.

Should TIPA do a tour in your area I strongly recommend that you take the time to go and help to protect an important part of Tibetan culture.

Wine Australia International

The following weekend we experienced culture of a different kind – the wine drinking culture of Australia.

When people think of Australian alcohol they generally think of beer, usually all those awful exported beers such as Castle Maine 4X which no-one in their right mind would drink in Australia! However Australia has some spectacular wine growing regions and on 16^th July we got to taste every wine from every region in Australia - in one day!

Well obviously we didn’t quite make it around all of them but we gave it a damn good try!

Our guides for the day were Mike (Seán’s boss) and his wife Sue who are Australian wine experts and own a rather impressive cellar to which we are often invited to take part in “tastings” i.e. get sloshed on the really expensive stuff!

The winefest was held in the rather impressive Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour and after a very modest entry fee we were free to drink fantastic wine until we could drink no more! When we started, we were using the spittoons and tipping out the remainder of the glass after a few sips. But after Mike arrived and we started on the really good wines we decided they were too good to spit out – so things got very wobbly very quickly!

It wasn’t long before our friend from the dive club had to retire, although she had made a great effort – she had attended the Friday evening, all day Saturday and all day Sunday, had covered every region in Australia and hadn’t been using the spittoons – a weaker being (such as myself or the lady found unconscious outside the toilets) would have fallen at the first hurdle.

Of course my favourite of the day was the most expensive we tried – although at $150 per bottle, it was nothing compared to the bottle we saw on the list at a wine tasting dinner which was on offer at $1500!

Needless to say we haven’t actually bought any wine yet!

When we had acquired purple tongues like everyone else we decided to stagger home to dinner and a glass of…. water!

(PS Got tired of waiting - bought a heater!)

Sports Diver course

For some time, Seán had been nagging me to catch up with him on the diving qualifications so we could do more diving together without the current depth and time restrictions.

So I signed up for the next level of qualifications – BSAC Sport Diver (similar to PADI Rescue Diver).

Obviously I signed up before Seán’s diagnosis but it’ll give me a chance to catch up!

Over a lovely sunny weekend in July, my fellow students and I were stuck in the Nokia building conference rooms being taught partial pressures, decompression tables and how to conduct in-water rescue breaths.

All very interesting and useful – although on the Saturday there was a dive club barbeque which ended in the Astro Bar at the casino in the early hours. So Sunday’s lectures were less invigorating!

Despite raiding the complimentary coffee supply many times, we all found it hard to concentrate and have been revising like demons ever since to catch up before the exam.

There will also be a series of practical sessions and tests in open water including underwater navigation (which going on my previous performances and the fact that UK compasses don’t work down under, should be interesting!)

WFOT

On 26^th July I was lucky enough to attend the World Federation of Occupational Therapists conference, which just so happened to be in Sydney.

I had been looking forward to it for weeks and the thought of spending all day with thousands of other OT’s from all over the world and talking OT all day – left me beside myself with excitement! (OT’s get very excited about all things OT related – yes I know it’s very sad!)

It was a very surreal day. Not only did I attend a lecture presented by one of my old lecturers from university, but I bumped into a girl I trained with in Cardiff, who now lives in New Zealand, and a girl I worked with in London who now lives in Sydney. I also met at least 4 people who know, or work with people I’ve worked with in the past and vice versa. The OT world is very small!

I attended fascinating lectures on projects going on all around the world, including a WFOT team put together to respond to the Asian tsunami and a community based rehab program in Nepal.

I came away all inspired with a list of projects I’m going to start and papers I’m going to write.

I did wonder if that would be the last time I looked at the list, but just today I was discussing with my manager how we could implement the AusTOMs in our team to measure the outcomes of our service. So watch this space….

2006-08-07T03:45:00.000-07:00

Stephen & Yoshino visit from the UK ( 29^th May – 2^nd June)

Upon our return to Sydney from Port Stephen’s we decided to try the heaters for the 1^st time to heat up the freezing flat and discovered that only one of the 3 work. So, we either sit freezing and wrapped in blankets on the sofa or lock ourselves in the bedroom with the one and only working heater cranked up to full. I reported this to the estate agent thinking it would be seen as a rather urgent issue with it being the middle of winter and everything…. Yeah right, I forgot who I was dealing with.

Stephen and Yoshino arrived for a week and we welcomed them into our freezing flat from the rain outside (come to sunny Australia!!)

The one good thing about the temperature drop is that all the spiders and creepy crawlies have gone north for winter.

But despite the cold and rain they spent most of the week sightseeing and on Thursday whilst Stephen, Yoshino and Seán were on a scenic flight over the harbour I was at the assessment centre at Taronga Zoo.

I had applied weeks earlier for the volunteer keeper program and was really excited. But after the 1 hour written test (surprisingly hard), 2 interviews and realising that most of the other 100 people there were zoology students at the university, I started to feel that maybe I was wasting my time. I trundled back to our cold flat.

We rounded off the week by initiating Yoshino into her 1st rugby game at Aussie stadium between NZ Maori and the NSW Waratahs in the pouring rain. Yoshino cracked open the hand warmers but before we turned blue we got moved to the posh seats in the stand, which must have annoyed all those who paid for them!

Still no heating.

Fiji (3^rd – 18^th June)

1^st week

SPUMS (South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society) conference at Pacific Harbour, Viti Levu.

A posh resort with fantastic pool, beachside bar, hammocks, coconut palms (“trimmed” of coconuts regularly to prevent injuries!), fantastic food, amazing wine, great company and no need for heating because it’s so bloody warm – need I say more?!

The diving was ok but not spectacular, but the water temperature was a lovely 26 degrees, about the same as the air temperature, and the dive boat crew were great and always smiling.

Seán visited Suva hospital with one of our divers who had an unfortunate accident on the dive boat and gashed open his arm (luckily not during the shark dive! See below). He had to have an impromptu operation and missed the rest of the week’s diving but should make a full recovery – there was talk of stitching him up in someone’s hotel room, after all the hotel was full of doctors, but luckily they decided against that course of action!

Shark Dive

After much debate and peer pressure I decided to go on the shark dive despite misgivings about the concept of feeding sharks. I was terrified about the idea of swimming with numerous large sharks and therefore didn’t sleep the night before and nearly threw up in the boat on the way to the dive site (due to nerves not the usual sea-sickness).

The sharks were circling below when we reached the site and after the dive crew had lowered the 2 wheely bins of raw meat and fish to the sea-bed we kitted up and got in – we descended down to the platform as one group (we had been told not to leave the group at any time during the dive). A platform of paving slabs remains in situ with a rope along one edge where we lined up. I made sure that I had a diver on each side of me, a rock in front of me and an instructor behind me – I wasn’t taking any chances!

There were already a few small sharks circling which didn’t bother me too much as I’ve dived with the occasional 2m reef shark before. Then the instructors (armed with 1.5m long metal spikes) opened up the wheely bins and all hell broke loose. A wall of small fish came from no-where to feed on the food and after a few minutes of watching with fascination I realised that there were large shadows behind the wall of fish in front of me. The bigger sharks had arrived. I turned around to check the instructor was still behind me and realised that he was fending off a feisty young white tip that was coming at us from behind. I sunk lower behind my rock with all limbs tucked in tightly and before long the dive was over. The sharks, to my surprise, had stayed at the edge of the platform catching food and fish as they floated or swam out.

I ascended with the group, did my safety stop and exited the water feeling quite pleased with myself – I had survived a shark dive and I hadn’t even peed in my wet suit! We had our surface interval (to off-load nitrogen for all the non-divers) on the boat above the dive site and after an hour and numerous cookies we kitted up for the second dive.

This time I took my camera as it was to be a shallower dive. As with the previous dive we descended as a group and lined up on the rope next to the platform. I was feeling a bit more confident as the 1^st dive had proved ok but I still wedged myself in-between two divers – with a rock in front and an instructor behind – and I soon thanked my lucky stars for doing so. There was no mucking about on this dive – the sharks were straight in for the food this time and there seemed to be dozens of them. White tips, silver tips and 5m long bull sharks were all circling, swimming over our heads (so close that their white bellies virtually brushed the top of my head), coming at us from behind and swimming up and down the rope in front of us eyeing us up.

The platform in front had turned into a frenzied blur of fish, food and large dorsal fins and tails. One of our group who had been placed up on a rock promontory for a better view was hastily returned to the main group and the instructors were looking decidedly twitchy. I managed to fire off a few photos but it’s hard to consider photographic composition whilst shaking behind a rock. My eyes must have been popping out of my head and my air consumption was atrocious as I sucked in huge lungfuls of air.

I had the distinct impression that we were no longer in charge and should one of the larger sharks decide to take a bite out of somebody, there wasn’t much anybody could do to stop it – even with a large metal spike (I discovered later that a diver in one of the other groups who had been out earlier in the week, had his first stage (a bit of diving equipment at the top of the tank directly behind the diver’s head) chomped by a shark during the dive).

I was relieved when the instructors signalled for us to leave but then realised that we had to swim back to the anchor line and sit-out a safety stop with all those sharks still circling. But everyone started heading off and as I didn’t want to be left behind I stayed with the group whilst scanning the murky depths wildly (why is the visibility always shit when there’s sharks in the water?!)

Everyone seemed to be dawdling a bit too much for my liking so I did a swim to the anchor line that Sharon Davis would have been proud of (I knew all that swimming training would come in handy one day!) and ascended to 6 metres and started watching the 5 minutes count slowly down.

As I signalled to my buddy that my time was up and I was going up to the boat, one of the instructors appeared and started frantically signalling to everyone by drawing 3 fingers across the back of his hand – it only took me a split second to remember what that signal means – Tiger Shark.

To my horror all the divers around me started descending again to follow the instructor to see the Tiger Shark – I had a number of thoughts in 1 second - “noareyoumadnotigershark!noshitnof@*kthatI’mgettingout!”

If they all wanted to be shark bait that’s up to them but there was no way I planned to remain in the water whilst a tiger shark was known to be in the area. It’s the quickest exit (kitted up with dive gear) I’ve ever made!

Despite being able to appreciate the awesome sharks that we saw during the dive, the whole experience just confirmed my initial misgivings that feeding sharks artificially whilst divers are in the water is bad and wrong. I did it, I’ve made my opinion and I won’t be doing it again.

2^nd week

After a farewell dinner in the fantastic banqueting hall and good byes all round we hit the hay and felt somewhat smug that we weren’t booked on the 5am coach back to Nadi with everybody else. Although, despite having a more leisurely start we still had to endure the 3 hour coach trip (the travel agent in their infinite wisdom decided to book everyone’s flights into Nadi which is 3 hours from the resort rather than Suva which is only 1 hour – but don’t get me started on that!).

I felt a small, if rather pathetic, moment of triumph by fooling the check-in staff at the airport by storing nearly everything from my hand luggage in the pockets of my goretex (there had to be some advantages to stupidly taking a ski jacket to the tropics!). This was to avoid the strict weigh-in (including body weight!) and excess baggage charges (I sneakily left my coat on the counter whilst I was weighed with my now empty rucksack!)

After a rather laid back security official breezily waved us through the beeping metal detector, we boarded the flying pencil, also known as a plane. I was rather alarmed to notice that one of the young boys in cleaners uniforms I had seen mucking about in the airport canteen was infact our pilot! (bad karma for fooling the check-in staff probably)

With my eyes watering from the aviation fuel fumes, we took off almost vertically and I spent the next hour alternately admiring the amazing view and leaning over the seat in front feeling queasy.

We stopped to re-fuel and off-load some passengers on Vanua Levu which was in fact the island our resort was based on, but due to it being so remote our final destination was Taveuni followed by a boat ride back to Vanua Levu. All a bit confusing really so not surprising that the Canadian tourists sat next to us had to ask which island we were on and whether or not they should be getting off the plane!

So after hours of planes, 4WDs and boats we arrived at the Dolphin Bay Divers Retreat (obviously booked before Seán’s diagnosis!). Our hosts were Viola and Roland (a German/Swiss couple), the Fijian staff and a menagerie of cats and dogs. We checked into our Bure (bamboo and coconut palm hut) which was a stone’s throw from the idyllic, palm fringed beach.

We quickly settled into the laidback routine on “Dolphin time”, one hour ahead of Fiji time to make the most of sunrise and the daylight hours. Most of the activities evolved, understandably, around the limited supply of electricity and water. At approx 7am Roland fired up the generator which acted as our alarm clock. We crawled out of bed and straight to the breakfast table for home grown papaya with lime juice, home baked bread and jam, tea and coffee. After the staff had finished breakfast, washed up, run the washing machine through once and filled all the dive cylinders from the compressor, the generator is turned off for the rest of the day. By 8.30 or 9am I was geared up to go diving for the morning and poor Seán had to retire to his hammock for a day of reading and sleeping in the sun. As there wasn’t much else to do he was forced to relax which was probably a good thing – although a week of lying in a hammock can get a bit boring. On two days we diversified a bit and went for a kayak and snorkel around the bay and a walk at low-tide along some of the other bays.

I dived 4 of the 6 days we were there and (unfortunately for Seán) it was probably the best diving I’ve ever done. The area is called the Rainbow Reef (due to the rainbow colours of the fish and corals rather than the frequent rainbows overhead) and is based in the Somo Somo Strait. People come from all over the world just to dive on this reef and now I know why. The soft corals (for which that area is famous) were spectacular and with the plethora of fish I was reluctant to get out of the water at the end of each dive and itching to get back in again after the surface interval. To name but a few, they included: puffer fish, lion fish, angel fish, clown fish, trigger fish, blue tangs (like Dory in Finding Nemo!), blue spotted sting rays, lobster, moray eels, hard corals, anemones, sea-cucumbers, banded sea kraits (a type of sea snake), giant clams, white-tip reef sharks (fairly small and harmless compared to the last lot!), a green turtle….. I could go on and on!

We went to a different dive site every day (and sometimes every dive) including the famous Great White Wall, Barracuda Point, Fish Factory and my favourite dive of all time (so far!) Rainbow Passage. I was buzzing after every dive but tried not to look too excited when I got back to our bay and a bored Seán. I would soon be brought to my senses anyway by my cold shower (our daily allowance) which was much more enjoyable in the day when you can see where all the spiders and hermit crabs have hidden!

Something that, by coincidence, Seán had to keep himself busy was the World Cup which started whilst we were in Fiji. The day after we arrived at Dolphin Bay, a satellite dish and TV were delivered by boat and wheelbarrow (!) from sources unknown. Seán started to get very excited at that point and was even more excited when Roland said that he would fire up the generator everyday at whatever ungodly hour was necessary, in order to watch that day’s live matches. We had some difficulty trying to convert German time into Fiji time and then into Dolphin time (and getting confused by British and Australian time) but our Fijian World Cup guide was of great help.

Every morning from then on Seán (sometimes with me in tow) would get up when we heard the roar of the generator and sit in the main hut in the dark drinking Fijian coffee, eating banana muffins and cheering various teams on depending on the nationality of favour that day. Just having a TV was of great interest to all the staff and neighbouring locals so we would often end up with a hut full of people ranging from the gardener and boat driver to the kitchen staff and cleaning ladies – whether or not they were working that day. Some came by boat from Taveuni! It’s amazing the effect the World Cup has and it doesn’t matter what language you speak, everyone understands GOAL!!

On the Thursday we celebrated our 5^th anniversary with (probably) the only bottle of sparkling white wine available – and it was cold too! We went for a romantic walk along the palm fringed, white sandy beach (avoiding the falling coconuts!) and thought we couldn’t have picked a more idyllic spot to celebrate.

I didn’t dive on Friday due to our flight on Saturday so I joined Seán for some serious relaxation in the hammocks, strung between two coconut palms on the beach with Boxer our trusty canine friend underneath. When we were both woken up by a loud thud and saw that a coconut had fallen about a foot from Seán’s head we decided it was time to freshen up for dinner which we always had with the other guests and our hosts by the beach under the stars.

By the time we reached our farewell song (sung to all departing guests by the staff) and had our lei’s of shells hung around our necks, we were reluctant to leave. We had experienced a short but extremely enjoyable glimpse of life in Fiji and found the people hospitable and friendly (unlike their cannibal ancestors!).

We left with promises to return in a few years when Roland and Viola have finished building their tree-house resort a few bays along.

A boat, 4WD and pencil plane ride later we arrived back in Nadi for last minute shopping. We are now the proud owners of a rather large but spectacular kava bowl, which we haggled for, for (what felt like) hours. After an uneventful night in the Raffles hotel opposite the airport we bid “Moce” to Fiji.

New job at St Vincent’s Hospital (19^th June)

We arrived back to a very very cold flat – still no heating.

But good news – I was accepted on the volunteer keeper program at the zoo! Who needs a degree in zoology?!

I also started my new job at St Vincent’s hospital the day after we got back from Fiji. Although I’m based at the hospital I’m working in a new community rehab team so I spend my day with clients in their own homes, providing rehabilitation to facilitate early discharge, prevent re-admission to hospital and enable people to remain independent in their own homes. It’s very similar to the job I was doing in London and it’s nice to be back in the community again. I even get my own car which makes life a lot easier. St Vincent’s is based in Darlinghurst which in some ways is similar to Hackney although on a smaller scale. It has similar issues with homelessness, drug and alcohol misuse, mental illness and there is also a relatively large HIV +ve population. But as with Hackney, the higher need for community healthcare has led to a really good service provision and it’s great to be involved in developing a new service. The team are all very friendly and supportive – yesterday we had afternoon tea to farewell one of the team going off on long-service leave. Chris (our boss) brought in bottles of red wine and cake and we all spent the last hour of work getting pissed, stuffing our faces and giggling like school children! It was all a bit surreal – but then I had to stagger off to my aerobics class and work through endless squats and stomach crunches which soon sobered me up!

A few weeks ago Seán decided we couldn’t miss anymore of the World Cup and came home from work with a borrowed TV. We tried to get up for most of the important games but it was a struggle – especially as I’d just started a new job. One day he set his alarm for the England game and we slept through it and woke up just in time to hear that they had been knocked out with penalties! I decided to support someone else and went back to sleep! A few days before the final, the screen went on the TV so we took it to the menders and had to borrow a spare from the shop. But unfortunately it only had two volume levels – silent and booming. We didn’t think the neighbours would appreciate that kind of noise at 4am so we had to watch the final in silence! We managed to wake up for it, but I kept drifting off due to the lack of excitement in the middle of the game (and no sound to keep me awake). I then had to go to work and sit through a day of hospital orientation – I made the most of the free coffee!

We didn’t manage to watch any of Wimbledon but Seán has been keeping track of the Tour de France. It’s getting a bit exhausting getting up at the crack of dawn to watch sporting events in Europe!

Opera house (24^th June)

Thanks to a voucher from Vicky, our previous house guest, Seán and I went to see a modern performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Opera House. In true Australian style, Shakespeare was interpreted using, amongst other things, a Bart Simpson plastic head, a baseball bat, a purple plastic cat suit and a batman costume! Needless to say it was interesting if a little strange! Despite a great performance, the highlight of the evening was drinking sparkly white wine during the interval, on the promenade, with a spectacularly lit-up harbour bridge as a back drop.

Thanks Vicky – it was a very much appreciated present.

The only other thing of note to happen that week was that I cooked and it was great!
“Pan-fried Tuna steaks on a bed of wilted spinach and creamed pomme de terre with caramelised onions”
Even Seán said it was good and he’s the worst food critic I’ve ever met!

Still no heating.

Started voluntary work at Taronga Zoo (30^th June)

Another reason for feeling exhausted at the moment is that I started at Taronga Zoo, in the bird department, not long after starting at St Vincent’s. I have to get up at 5am every Friday and walk to the bus stop in the dark to get two buses across town and the harbour bridge to the north shore and start at the zoo at 7am. It’s hard physical work mostly involving food preparation and cleaning out aviaries and ponds, but I love it! It still amazes me how much time and effort goes into designing and then preparing the birds’ diets. The seed alone is washed and left over night 3 times then soaked in a special vitamin solution overnight and washed again before being dried – and all by hand! It takes 2 people an entire day to prepare the 2 feeds for the following day and includes an awful lot of chopped fruit, shredded greens, washed and soaked seed, calcium powder, dried figs, nuts, dog food, kangaroo meat, live meal worms, live crickets, fly pupae, fish (two sizes with vitamin pills in their mouths!), defrosted dead mice (two sizes!) and defrosted dead chicks (for the wild Kookaburras to stop them stealing the food). Needless to say that the kitchen is everyone’s least favourite job!

Still no heating.

Bad News

2006-07-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hi again.

The observant among you may have noticed a little note in Jo's last post about me not diving and feeling a bit unwell. What a big softie; put off by a bit of a rain and a sniffle! Well, not quite, as you'll see.

I had been doing a *lot* of diving, as much as time and work allowed. All jolly good fun as I dived and watched my logbook fill up with the details of lots of underwater excitement.

Worryingly I developed a couple of migraines after some recent dives. The first was a trivial dive (not too deep or long) and I just put it down to the fact that I have from time to time had a migraine or too. No worries, mate.

My second headache was a different kettle of fish though. Really severe visual disturbances and a hammering pain in my head to follow. Very unpleasant. I hadn't really had anything so bad since my teens, when I had used to get headaches like this a fair bit.

Of course, being the good Diving Doctor that I am, I worried about some possibilities that are not immediately apparent to the non-diving medicine specialist.

So, off I went to the cardiologist, and I had a trans-thoracic bubble contrast echocardiogram. This is an ultra-sound scan of the heart; rather like those that pregnant women have, with the added element of having a solution containing small bubbles injected in to a vein at the same time.

And, well, wouldn't you know it? I have a Patent Foramen Ovale - a flap valve in the heart, which normally closes over after birth, has not done so in my case. This means I can get bubbles to cross into my arterial circulation and am therefore at risk of strokes and the bad sorts of decompression illness if I continue to dive.

Bugger.

So no more diving for me, at least until I get home and get it plugged up. I could do it here, but it would cost me $11,000. That's not the sort of small change falling out of my pockets.

So, I’m looking for new hobbies. So far, I have won the first poker tournament that I have ever entered (sadly not for cash prizes), and am looking at learning to sail once the weather clears up. Still a bit miffed, though.

Toodle-pip,
Seán

Port Stephen’s (26th – 28th May )

2006-07-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

On a sunny Friday afternoon in Sydney we hopped in Corky (our VW kombi) and headed northwards for a SSAC (Sydney Sub Aqua Club) weekend trip to Port Stephen’s. We soon regretted it.

It chucked it down all weekend. The glossy brochure promised sparkling waters, white sandy beaches and tall trees surrounding the campsite, laden with cuddly koalas. All I remember is rain and lots of it - no koalas in sight (no doubt they were all tucked up in their little koala houses, sipping hot tea in front of a warm fire). The “laughing” kookaburras woke us at dawn everyday and should be renamed “cackling”. We ended up not diving due to poor weather, strong currents, poor visibility & Seán’s not feeling too well after a previous dive (more details to follow on that).

But despite all the moaning we had fun anyway.

We sought out the local cinema and went to see Kokoda – a moving, but very gruesome, movie about the ANZACs on the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea during WWII.

We also made the most of the BBQs provided on the campsite using them to cook dinner and breakfast! (Needless to say they were under cover!) During a rare rain interval we walked into town to have a poke around the shops and buy fishing bait (which we ended up feeding to the pelicans before we left!). And the best find of the weekend was Red Ned’s Pie Shop where we all tucked into hot pies for lunch.

On the last evening we crammed into one of the chalets and watched a rather foggy and disappointing Super 14 final. But the wine, beer and jokes flowed into the night and we slept soundly in our little van snuggled up with our borrowed duvet.

Catching Up

2006-06-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a perennial theme; sorry for being so slack at updating. We are going to give you a massive catch-up load of entries over the next few days. Bear with us.

VW Show/Easter

So then, Easter. We had a few options open, but decided to go for a new and exciting choice. A car show.

Having bought the VW, we thought maybe we should go the whole hog and see what VW obsessives do for Easter weekend. As it turns out, they drive their VW's to a big covered car park and show off. We decided to join the car nuts.

The show was due for Sunday, but a few souls gathered the night before to arrange stuff, drink and watch Herbie films. How could we resist?

Unfortunately for us, on the Saturday evening we stopped for petrol at our local garage. Not too dangerous an undertaking usually, but things went a bit wrong. Our suburb, Randwick, is home to Sydney's big posh racecourse, and Easter was race weekend. Many very pissed people were about on Saturday night, including one individual who managed to reverse his car at high speed into our bus while I was filling up. He then roared off into the night (with me running and screaming blue murder after him) leaving us with a badly dented bumper and severe forecourt rage.

After leaving a report with a policeman who clearly couldn't give a flying fcuk, we headed off. We had a great weekend of wine, pizza, and Herbie. There were lots of lovely people who really liked our bus and asked us questions about her. A lot of seriously beautiful VW's were present, and even Jo thought the whole thing worthwhile.

You can go here and click on '2006 VW Nationals Photos' to see what it was like. Sadly, our beautiful bus wasn't deemed worthy of anything more than being in the background. Philistines! Although the dents may have counted against us.

St. George's Day

23rd April comes around, and no-one remembers a thing. Apart, of course, from the ex-pat desperately clinging on to some bizarre idea of a barely existent cultural heritage. Hurrah for St. George!

We felt that the day should be marked in a suitably heart-felt patriotic manner. We swelled with pride as we took the only true path for the genuine Pom to celebrate such an event. Curry Night!

For those with a love of chillis and the food of the sub-continent, Australia is a cultural desert of epic proportions. A decent curry-house is a difficult to find thing. Bizarrely though, there are a good few specialist Indian shops doing spices and other stuff, so our choice was clear - if we can't go out for a good curry, then we will make it ourselves.

So, armed with a carrier bag or two full of herbs and spices, and a Cyrus Todiwala cook-book, we went to work. Hours later we were tired, but inviting our guests to enjoy home made onion bhajia, Goan prawn samosa, green fish curry, kangaroo kebabs, sag paneer, with pilau rice, roti's and paratha. Parsee-style bread-and-butter pudding for afters. Joy!

The suggested fancy-dress theme had died of death owing to late planning. Shame.

However, thanks to our guests and their generous beer offerings, we went to bed tired but bladdered, and with a fridge still half-full of beer.

Jervis Bay/Close Encounters of a Kangaroo Kind

A big diving weekend beckoned, and we got it at Jervis Bay. This was a Sydney Sub-Aqua Club excursion, and we had booked Aquatic Explorer for a couple of days of fun in the water.

Friday night and a convoy of people motored out of Sydney heading south. We waved as they passed us in the Kombi.

After a lovely Thai meal, we stocked up with beers and wine, and jumped into the inflatable taking us out to our aquatic home for the next two nights. Thanks to our hosts Lyn and Mick, we were made to feel welcome on board their obviously well-organised boat.

We had a fantastic weekend of diving, seeing a huge amount of underwater life, including grey nurse sharks, bull rays, lots of weedy sea dragons and many, many more. Thanks to Claire who was a more than able student, and the first ever person to qualify with me instructing. Yay!

Saturday night was a typical dive boat night, where we all understand it is of the utmost importance to get to bed early, relatively sober and ready for the diving activities early the next day. So, at 1a.m. I decided that as I could no longer see or walk properly it was time for bed. I think no-one noticed, apart from Nick, my late–night drinking buddy, but it’s possible that after the amount of rum he’d knocked back, maybe he didn’t either.

At the end of the weekend we were tired, recovering from hangovers and pleased with the diving we’d done. We unloaded the boat and bid adieu to our hosts. After loading the cars we headed off up the road.

5 km up the road I spotted a kangaroo on the side of the road. I knew that kangaroos were deadly beasts at night time, when they could run unpredictably across roads. Still, this was 3pm, and bright sunshine bathed the trees in a cheery glow.

No-one told the f*****g kangaroo, though, did they?

We approached, and Skippy started looking a bit twitchy. Fearing some ridiculous behaviour on his part I eased off the gas, and cruised to the opposite side of the road (no oncoming traffic green-cross-code-man fans). Skippy didn’t move. Skippy stayed still. Skippy waited until we were almost level. And the bugger hopped right into our path. No chance to move out of the way; we had a Skippy-sized dent in the front panel of the van, and one dead Skippy.

Bit of a downer for the weekend, and another big dent in our bank balance.

But, it’s not all bad, as you’ll see……

2006-04-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

Well hello,

It's been a while, but I'm sure you didn't really want to read too much of "Got up, brushed teeth, went to work....". So here's a conglomeration of our recent adventures compressed in such a fashion that it appears we are wild and crazy cats on a
Hell-bound ride to oblivion, baby. Or on holiday, anyway.

A quick mention of work - I am settling in nicely, have spent a couple of weeks on courses and meeting the great and good of the Hyperbaric Medicine world. As this is of little interest to about 99.99999% of the world's population I'll leave it there, I think.

Jo was struggling to find gainful employment as a result of the restrictions of her visa, which is piggy-backed onto mine. If effort in finding work was correlated with the level of work achieved she would be Governor of the Bank of England, Secretary-General of the UN, or some-such. Good news recently, however; finally success and a really good post. The only cloud is the official start date is not until halfway through June :-(

We're fitting in with life in Sydney as best we can - we have hosted a few barbies, and been out to a few dinners and suchlike. Many thanks to the members of Sydney Sub-Aqua Club (hereafter SSAC) who have mainly been our guests and/or hosts on these occasions

Incidentally, a funny thing happened at the dive club which I forgot to mention earlier. If you were never a student at Queen Mary and Westfield College in the early 1990's you may skip to the next paragraph as this will have absolutely no interest to you whatsoever. It just so happens that the SSAC is populated by a goodly number of poms, being a branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club, where most British divers get their training. As I settled into my comfortable bar-room chair, pint in hand, I got chatting to a number of the afore-mentioned poms. I would like to say that one of them immediately seemed strangely familiar, as I believe that's the kind of thing you're supposed to say in these situations, but it wasn't so. I did know that there was something up, though. As the evening progressed I thought maybe I had seen this chap somewhere before, and right at the end a searing flash of recognition occurred, although apparently no-one else saw it. "QMW!" was all I could say to this poor young fellow, who instead of staring dumbfounded at me, immediately recognised our common heritage. And so it came to pass that I met an old acquaintance known to a few of you out there in internet land - Alaric! I kid you not. He was accompanied by Anne, also an alumnus of that great East End institution. Things got stranger when they arrived at a subsequent club meeting with their old friend, Trigger (now a plasterer living in the Isle of Dogs). Well, I never did, etc. etc.

Didn't go to QMW? I told you you should have skipped that last paragraph. Don't blame me if it was incomprehensible.

And so, as ever, onwards. Our next big adventure was on the occasion of our first official holiday. The bunting and tickertape parade to signal our departure from Sydney never materialised, and thousands of environmental activists breathed a sigh of relief.

I have the good fortune to have some family in Melbourne, a short 1000km hop down the coast. Everyone flies and arrives feeling refreshed and ready for action. We decided to drive.

We arose on day one sluggishly, and in no particular state of readiness. Unsurprisingly it took us so long to pack the Kombi, get in provisions, and so on that we finally left Sydney late in the afternoon. Still, we were on holiday and what could possibly go wrong?

Our first brief stop was to have a look at the viewpoint overlooking Wollongong. It was nice and there was a kookaburra. We continued on.

At Kiama, we decided to leave the highway, as we had heard of the famous blowhole. It was ok.

We pressed on and stopped at our first campsite, at Nowra, right on the bank of the Shoalhaven River. We made a roaring fire which failed to burn any of the supplied logs, which had all the flammability of damp asbestos. Not a great barbecue, then.

We woke to sun, clear skies and a flat battery. Somehow it had drained despite our checking all our electrics. Sometimes technology seems to be there just to make you cry. However, a quick jump start and we were away.

Stopping only for morning tea at Milton, we drove on and reached Bateman’s Bay by lunchtime. We left the highway and drove off onto the local roads. Bateman’s is a pretty town, and a popular holiday destination. There's lots of arty and crafty shops, and great beaches.

Our plans centred around Guerrilla Bay, a bay on the rocky coast extending down from Bateman’s to Broulee Island. The bay is shallow, dominated by kelp, but has an interesting drop-off to rocks and sponges, or so our diving guide told us (thanks Nat and John!). It certainly was a pretty place, and we squeezed into our wetsuits and headed off into the deep. The water was cloudy, and a fair bit of surge made things a bit difficult, but we still managed to see a Port Jackson shark, and a Fiddler Ray.

We managed a few more k's down the road, before stopping at Narooma, where we found a great camp site right on the beach. After a quick session on the trampoline we cooked up our tea, which seemed to interest the local possum population no end. A quick call home for Mother's Day and it was bed-time.

Although we had enjoyed our drive down so far, we hadn't made much of a dent in the total distance required to make Melbourne. We pointed south and put pedal to metal (i.e. 0-60 in under 5 mins). All was going smoothly as we motored down the road, the sun shone, and the worries of work and jobs were left behind. The rolling hills and winding roads north of Bega rolled and wound under our steadily advancing wheels, until a large cloud of blue smoke appeared from our exhaust as all power disappeared. Bugger.

After a quick check up of our badly overheating engine we crawled off with sinking hearts, eventually making Bega, the next town. A mechanic looked at our engine, and it was decided that while we didn't have to turn round and go home, we would be stuck for a top speed at 80 or maybe 90kph. That’s 50mph to you, and not very fast when you've got hundreds of k's to your destination. Still, what can you do? Off we went.

We crawled along the Princes Highway, stopping at Davidson Whaling Station on Twofold Bay. We saw kangaroos hopping by the side of the road. We crawled on.

We crossed the border from NSW to Victoria late in the day and crawled on to camp between Point Ricardo and Cape Conran.

We bought fishing rods at Lakes Entrance (still unused, but maybe this weekend), motored through Stratford upon Avon (no, really) and had a look at 90 mile beach. Made camp at Rawson, up in the mountains and in the back of beyond.

Melbourne appeared eventually and we limped into town. We stayed with family, as I have relatives here. First we stayed with Auntie Vera, who is not my Auntie, but actually my Gran's identical twin sister. She regaled us with naughty jokes and more tea than you would have thought it was possible to drink.

Next up was a visit with Pete & Lorraine (Pete being Vera's son, my Dad's cousin and therefore my, er, well, who cares anyway?). We had a great time - wine, penguins, beer, koala's, you name it. Got to meet Donna's hubby Simon and baby Chelsea which was great. I spent a great deal of time under the bonnet poking at the VW's engine, and must thank Pete for his help. Unfortunately this was to no avail, and I am still laughing at Pete's ex-mechanic friend who arrived, cracked a stubby of VB, inclined his head and listened intently to the noise of our clattering machine. "Hmmm, that's rooted, mate" he offered, before wandering off in the direction of the fridge.

Still, the VW is an amazing beast, and we were able to drive (slowly) back to Sydney in 2 days on the highway. Mostly on 3 cylinders.

Bizarrely we were travelling back along said highway, when we saw a mass VW graveyard by the side of the road. We went off to investigate and found the most incredible field full of VW's slowly rusting away - Type I's, II's (including splitties with moss growing on them), notchbacks, squarebacks and more. All locked up and no-one home. A few questions to the locals and we discovered the owner is in Germany and return date unknown.

If that wasn’t enough of a slightly surreal moment we then passed through Holbrook. A rather nondescript rural town in up-country NSW, apart from the fact that it has a submarine parked by the side of the road. And this despite being many hundreds of kilometres from the coast.

After getting back to Sydney we made offerings to Tex-a-Co, the local God of the internal combustion engine, for our safe passage, and hotfooted down to the local VW specialists. $3000 poorer and we have a new engine and a big hole in our pockets.

There's a lot more to tell, but I need a rest. Next episode may possibly include: close encounters of the kangaroo kind; Sea Hunt; Oval ball excitement; VW shows and becoming a car nerd; St George's traditional curry night. How can you wait?

tara,
Seán

Long time no post

2006-03-06T01:57:00.001-08:00

Wow, last entry on the 21st. of January. A long time ago.

I'd say sorry for the time I haven't spent updating, but it's maybe more apposite to apologise for the length of this compensatory post. Maybe there's no need to apologise. Like, whatever.

Last time we met, Jo and I were living in a hotel. Or maybe an hotel, if you're posh or grammatically obsessive. It was a lovely hotel and we liked it very much, but it was, without doubt, a hotel. Or an hotel. In no way was it the home we thought would be easy to sort out. After all, we were young (-ish) and free (apart from the constant requirement to fill in forms) and had money (a bit left from SF). Three weeks and a bit later we moved into our new place, after seeing every flat in a 3 mile radius, being gazumped, and finally realizing things just ain't like what they are at home. If travelling broadens the mind, then ours were surely squashed flat by the experience.

Despite my whingeing (I am a Pom, with certain contractual obligations) we have a great flat in a location noticeably different from Hackney. We live on a quiet little street in a little block backed by a Nature Reserve. We awake to the call of lorikeets, minah birds and cockatoos. This would be fine if we weren’t trying to lie-in. At night the air fills with swooping fruit bats.

If you have Google Earth (it's all the rage I understand) I could tell you exactly where we live, if only it showed up properly on this blog. E-mail if interested.

We can walk to the beach in 20 minutes (so that's a 5 minute drive, then) and walk to work in 10.

We have a pool in our block and a barbie (called, somewhat confusingly, Sindy) on the balcony where we throw our shrimps.

We are happy here and invite you to come and stay in our spare room. Unless you're reading this by chance after accidentally coming across this site - you can piss off; and why haven't you got anything better to do?

I have a job. It is not too bad at all.

Jo does not, but is hoping for some forward movement in this regard following many applications and interviews.

A couple of weeks ago we decided that one home is just not enough. It must be our fancy London ways. As a result we drove some five or six hundred miles up to the Gold Coast where a mysterious Oriental gentleman invited us in to sip strange herbal concoctions (or tee, as I believe he called it) and barter for a small piece of mobile real estate. We proceeded fruitfully in our negotiations and I enclose photographic evidence of our new second home.

As for other activities, we have spent our time as best we can. But, apart from drinking wine (hellfire, it's bloody good) we have also filled up the non-drinking hours with:

Football!

Yes, indeed. Strange as it may seem, Sydney FC is our local football team. Like, with feet, and a round ball. We saw them a couple of times, before they qualified for the A-league final. Bizarrely, we went off to buy to tickets for the final and it was sold out. Bloody glory-hunters. They won 1-0 (a certain D. Yorke was man of the match, fact fans).

Shakespeare!

Oh yeah, baby. The bard rocks our world.

Summer's here and outdoor plays are all the rage. We saw "A Midsummer's Night Dream" in the park; Ozzie style. Bottom as an Ocker farmer, if this means anything to you. Safari suits (Egeus), wholesome country girls (Helena), surfing dudes (Lysander) and plaid clad nerds (Demetrius) all playing a part. There was a worrying amount of fake fur, which we won't discuss further.

Diving/snorkelling!

24 degree water, 20+ metres viz. This is either incomprehensible, or makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I shall say no more. Apart from Woo-Hoo! And, Yay!

Ethnic Art!

We went off to Wollongong for a Tibetan Art festival. Hey, we have a VW camper and hippy stuff is part of the deal. Nice sand mandala's by the Tibetan monks and art from Karma Phuntsok. Good stuff, with possible purchases should we get rich.

So, enough about us.

Thanks for your e-mails and news of events at home. Congratulations to Sophie & Xand; Rachel & Dan; Ant & Kukka. Sorry to miss out on your exciting events. Did I miss anyone? Hope not.

Best wishes, and thanks for listening,
Seán

G'day

2006-01-21T00:11:00.000-08:00

Hello there,

Sorry that I've been a bit slow at updating but we've been pretty busy this week.

USA

We had a couple of days in San Francisco after getting back from Las Vegas, which we used to see a few more bits and pieces, and take Kier and Kubi out for a thankyou dinner. We had passed a great looking restaurant down in the buildings where the Sausalito ferry docks, which we booked before going to Las Vegas. We were all, I think, excited about our posh night out.

We went to the Slanted Door, where we were treated to excellent service, great food and the finest wines known to humanity. Heartily recommended if your budget allows.

The day after I enjoyed climbing up to the top of the Twin Peaks and looking out over the Bay, the Pacific, and a fair bit of California. I was wandering down into town, when I looked up to see a couple of funny looking birds circling overhead - Eagles! I think anyway, being no twitcher, but I will have pictures soon.

So I think it only remains to thank our ever-congenial hosts for a wonderful time, and to hope we can return the favour at some time - Cheers!

Sydney

So we made it. Our flight was much better from the States so I cannot honestly continue my ranting at the staff of United; although we did get charged for our bags again.

I'd love to tell you what great sights we've seen and how we're bronzed and toned from our non-stop beach lifestyle, but sadly I cannot.

I've spent much of the last week filling in forms as we sort out medical registration, job stuff, bank accounts, phone contracts and try and find a place to live and a car to drive. And we seem to have walked into the most unseasonable weather in Sydney this year - we had a months worth of rain in the last week!

Despite our travails, we have managed to see a fair bit of the city, which is beautiful and at least warm, if a little damp.

We are staying in Coogee, at a lovely little place called the Dive Hotel. The staff have been lovely to us and we will feel sad to leave when we do finally get some accomodation sorted. It has been great to get up in the morning and, if the weather is not too bad, go off and have a swim and snorkel before breakfast.

Finding a flat has been a bit of a pain; we think we're nearly there, but we're not going to count our chickens yet. We certainly should be able to afford something big enough to have a spare room, so start saving your pennies and come and visit.

The weather has been better yesterday and today, and we finally got some beach time in this afternoon. Great to be in the sun (only a little burnt) and to see the fantastic fish life in Clovelly Bay - near where we hope to live in the not too distant future.

So, thanks for listening, and see you soon!
Sean

(Vauxhall) Viva Las Vegas

2006-01-12T01:07:00.000-08:00

And so it came to pass, that Jo & Seán headed off to spend 40 (ok, 3) days and 40 (ok, like, whatever) nights in the desert.

But there's no fasting in Las Vegas, just endless buffet meals and stretchy lycra pants; yeah, baby, yeah!

So there we were, the gambling capital of the world. On a budget, and suffering from a cold. We know how to party.

Luckily for us, our flexibility about days off meant a cheap deal from lastminute.com and a frankly ridiculous room at Caesar's Palace. Not that we complained about our King-size bed, 96" TV (approx.), spa swimming pool/bath etc. etc.

Never been to Vegas? It's difficult to explain what it's all about. It doesn't get much easier to comprehend when you're actually there. But I feel sure it's an experience everyone should try at least once in their life. This was my second.

The last time I was here, I was a young strip of a thing, backpacking around the USA, and guarding every penny as closely as I could. I remember coming in to Vegas on the train, late at night, with the neon sliding suddenly into picture as we turned the last corner around the desert rocks. I walked off the train into 40 degree heat despite it being 10 at night - almost knocked flat as I stepped from the air-conditioned carriage and into downtown Las Vegas. Heady days indeed.

This time didn't match the visceral impact; we left the airport in pleasant temperatures and daylight hours. But, Vegas has changed and still seeks to amaze and confound. It succeeds.

The strip has changed radically and is unrecognisable from 15-or-so years ago. The newest casinos then - Mirage and Excalibur, are dwarfed by the newer generation of Caesar's, Bellagio, Venetian and TI, which are unbelievable in their scale. They may not have much heart, but they are truly breathtaking.

Vegas as a purely gambling resort is long gone, but it still keeps the punters happy while offering a huge number of diversions, from shopping to parachuting, through golf, Hoover Dam tours and having your picture taken with Elvis.

We attempted to see as much as Vegas had to offer in our short time, and enjoyed ridiculous food portions, and as many free shows as we could. Our favourite probably was the water show at Bellagio - hundreds of dancing water jets and pyrotechnics to the sounds of Frank Sinatra.

Our big spend was the Jubilee! show at Bally's. Girls, girls, girls and covered patchily in rhinestones. And feathers. Apparently the costumes were amazing, but I was distracted.

I think I gambled. I am poorer, but only financially.

The old downtown is now the Fremont St. Experience. The heart and soul of the original Vegas is now a covered pedestrian walkway. It still had more soul, but its corporeal body was eviscerated.

So, I've seen Vegas again, and it was different. I was sad about some of the changes, but still found the experience fantastic. If you've always wanted to go, then go. If you're not sure, then go. If you're not interested, then why are you still reading? You know you want to. Go.

NEW!! Subscriptions

2006-01-11T19:26:00.000-08:00

Want to keep up to date with everything in Jo & Seán's world?

I've added a subscribe function which should let you know when the site is updated.

Let me know how it works (if at all).

PS Anyone with good HTML skills care to help with editing it so it looks like the rest of the side-bar? I am rubbish at coding.

San Francisco II

2006-01-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

We're nearing the end of our time in the USA now, so we thought we'd describe some of what we have got up to here, before we submit to the hell of long-haul air travel on a shitty airline.

Downtown

For our first day in SF, we were taken downtown by our hosts Kieron and Kubi. However, shopping requires fuel so we hopped on the bus and had brunch at Bambino's on Cole and Carl (don't I sound authentic?). Seafood is the thing here in SF, so I had a bowl of lovely clams and mussels. Yum. Shame my glass of wine never arrived.

Next we hopped on the MUNI - a kind of combination bus/tram/tube type thing that sped us into the centre of SF and the shops. We strolled around Macy's, Saks 5th Ave and other American shopping institutions. We were a bit disappointed as we expected everything to be really cheap compared to home, but this didn't seem to be the case. Bah.

Rounded off the day with a ride on the F car (a streetcar, not named desire) to Castro. Had a Fat Tire in Harvey's, a bar named after famed gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk .

Rained. Quite a lot.

Golden Gate Park and Haight/Ashbury

Second day of our stay in SF and we were let run free by our minders. We managed a whole bus ride all by ourselves. Got off at Haight/Ashbury but it was too rainy and cold for there to be many old hippies cluttering up the pavement. Small mercies indeed.

I got a bit excited to see Escape from New York Pizza, for me a mythical place which I remember visiting as a 19 year old and having the yet-to-be-seen-anywhere-else Pesto Pizza. Well, they're still there and they still have Pesto Pizza. I advise you to try it if you're there.

Onward we strode and into Golden Gate Park. We visited the touching National AIDS Memorial Grove, which had an understated and peaceful air.

Next up was the de Young Museum, which we accidentally broke into avoiding the entry fee and bag searches. We didn't mean to, they just left the cafe entrance open. There was a great collection of modern and older American Art. Jo liked Georgia O'Keeffe and Dale Chihuly. I liked a painting of a cellist but I can't remember the name of the artist.

We rounded off our visit to the park by looking around the Japanese Tea Garden, where we had a cup of green tea and a fortune cookie.

Jo's Cookie: You are kind-hearted and hospitable, cheerful and well-liked

Seán's Cookie: You are very expressive and positive in words, act and feeling

So, there we are.

Wandered back to Haight where we discovered the delights of the Magnolia Brew-pub. Smashing.

Rained. Quite a lot.

The Presidio/Golden Gate Bridge

More intrepid bus journeys and we found ourselves at the Presidio, an ex-military base turned National Park. A great way to walk down to the bay from the City, with views over the Bay and the Islands, including Alcatraz.

The bottom of the hill found us at the somewhat bizarre and totally fake pseudo-Roman Palace of Fine Art. Then a stroll along the promenade through Crissy Field and we stood at the base of Golden Gate Bridge. It's quite big, you know. Took a load of pictures and will put some up once we have them developed.

Didn't rain.

Coit Tower/Alcatraz

Well, a tourist's work is never done, and off we went again. We tried to tour the towers of SF, but we were stopped at our first attempt. Despite the suggestion of our Lonely Planet, the Trans-America Pyramid doesn't let in visitors. We did get a great spiel from the security fellow, who explained the photographic opportunities of every other tall building in the city, with the aid of laser pens and much enthusiasm. He needed to be in showbiz. The surrounding Chinatown was interesting, anyway.

Instead we struggled up the hill to the Coit Tower, at the top of the Greenwich Steps. Trust the sun to finally put his hat on when we had a mountain to scale. Hrumph. Still, we were rewarded with great views over the Bay which made it worthwhile.

A quick visit to the frankly daft Lombard St and on to the tourist heaven (or hell) that is Fisherman's Wharf. Took the opportunity to have the local specialty, Cracked Dungeness (!) Crab. Very tasty, and enormous.

We spent the evening touring the island of Alcatraz, learning much about the history of "the Rock". We'd booked the more expensive evening tour as recommended by our hosts, and it didn't disappoint - the cell blocks and outlying buildings full of dark shadows, relieved only by the sweeping beam of the lighthouse, while we heard tales of Al Capone and the Bird-man of Alcatraz.

Following the tour, we met up with K'n'K and made for a Chinese Restaurant they liked, which had all the stylistic pretensions of a transport caff. There was an irrelevant menu - the proprietors decided what you were having on the basis of some basic questioning regarding preferences, which you barely understood due to the thickness of the accents. It was the best Chinese I've ever had.

Didn't rain. Mostly sunny, even hot.

Sausalito

Typing fatigue is setting in now, so I'll be brief. Following a minor sartorial hiccup the boys were able to come and join us for a day out. We took a ferry across the Bay to Sausalito, a very pretty village across the bay from the city. Jo bought loads of salt water taffy (not made with salt water, strangely enough), and we watched a man stack stones, which is more impressive than it sounds.

No rain again, we're on a roll.

And that's enough for now. Our next entry will be about the Neon Nirvana that is Las Vegas. See you soon.

Thanks for listening,
Seán

San Francisco

2006-01-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

We flew out of the UK on the 1st of January after a long drive from Suffolk to Heathrow (thanks to our chauffeurs Matt and Heather).

We were flying with United Airlines, who had appeared to have the biggest possible luggage allowance. We turned up with 2 enormous suitcases and a bag of diving gear each, after being assured by the staff on a phone line that we were entitled to do so. Unfortunately, their ground staff hadn't been told. We had a lengthy discussion with various members of United's staff, who told us we were wrong and refused to acknowledge that we had been told we were ok with this luggage. We were charged £140 for our diving bags. Bugger.

The flight was worse. We were lucky to be sat together at all, after being told at check-in no pairs of seats were available (much thanks to the check-in girl who must have done something very clever by the time we arrived in the departure lounge). Embarkation was chaos, as the stewards and stewardesses stood around while the passengers tried to guess where their seats might be, and fought for luggage space. Repeated tannoy announcements told us to get on with it, while the more intellectually and physically able passengers directed their co-passengers to their seats (row = number, seat = letter - how difficult is this?) and stowed their luggage. Once we were all set we taxied off, having missed our take-off slot by 30 minutes, to the sound of a steward loudly complaining to his colleagues that someone had had the cheek to move one of his bags on top of the other one to make more space.

I could go on at some length about the disaster that is customer relations and United Airlines, but will try and limit myself. I do have to express outrage that we had to pay for any drink containing alcohol, including the wine for our meals. I think I should also mention the amazing response of the stewards to the significant turbulence we encountered. In the first instance this consisted of loud serial proclamations of "Shit! ... Shit! ... Shit!" as we bumped along - clearly heard by occupants of the rear of the plane. Secondly, on our final descent in high wind, thick cloud and driving rain, we were encouraged to hear another of our fantastic staff explain to his colleague: "oh yeah, this is bad ... look at the weather ... we're being held back ... you know, the pilots can't see a thing ... this is when they earn their money ..." etc. This monologue certainly soothed those passengers already looking green from the fairground-like gyrations the plane was performing.

And that isn't everything. I broke a nail. I'm suing.

Still I can relax now. We have ate, drunk and slept well with our hosts in SF, Kieron and Kubi. The weather hasn't been too kind to us so far, being about as rainy as it could get, but we hope for improvement. We have the low-down on the best shopping, the best travel cards (which you are not able to buy in any of the stations or on the transport itself - I wonder if United Airlines are involved) and the various tourist attractions worth checking out. Indeed I can sit here and type this while Jo has a snooze and our hosts search the shops of our locality for our tea. What good eggs they are.

And that's it for now. Thanks for listening.

Seán x

"A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine." -- Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin, never employed by United Airlines

Bowling

2006-01-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

On the 17th of December we went to Bloomsbury Bowling lanes with a few friends to say our good-byes. Thanks to everyone who came and made this such a fun night out :-)

If you'd like to see some photos of this evening go here

We hope to see you all in Sydney!

Hi

2006-01-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

This is our first post - we have a Blog!