They’re almost non-existant. The ones that do exist suck a bit.

Therefore the bloggage promised by my little blue friend is, whilst still on its way, going to be postponed by a few days. Needless to say that things are going well, Jersey and I are ROAD TRIP-ping it to the max and we’re seeing lots of lovely sights.

I’ve managed to throw some piccies of the sights from the past few days on the net – check them out at The Usual Place™ (although currently without any names or descriptions…).

Take care folks and I’ll speak to you soon!

Toodles,

Pat

Howdy!

Yep, ok, firstly I’ll admit: I’ve been lacking in Sydney-based updates. Mainly this is because I figured the daily update thing was a bit too much… but then I just got lazy.

As it happens I’ve been writing a diary at the end of the past few days, which I’ll be uploading soon, but before that I figured I should fill you in on what Pat and myself have been up to between getting to Sydney and the 23rd (diary writing start time thing).

Saturday 13th

• Pat and I left sunny Melbourne and headed to Sydney
• The flight was fine (despite leaving from the out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere Avalon Airport (hint: don’t choose Jetstar if you want to fly from Melbourne to Sydney and you might get to use the normal Melbourne Airport), and the somewhat bumpy ride down into Sydney)
• After checking into the Wake Up! hostel Pat met up with Scottish Iain from the Kiwi Experience, had a wander and had a couple of drinks in the evening – including visiting some irish bars (every city must have at least two, it appears) – and then hit the sack.

Sunday 14th

• Pat and Iain (who seems to like shopping and is therefore strange – that’s the only explanation I can see!) spent the day wandering around looking for a new camera to replace Pat’s “finally bitten the dust” one. After lots of pushy salesmen in shops (“We give you extra SD card if you buy today!”) we went back to the hostel to think about it.
• In the evening we saw In Pursuit Of Happyness, which is a pretty feel good – if predictable film… and rather shocking in that it included Will Smith actually doing some acting. Seriously, I’m not joking. It wasn’t awful either. I know!!

Monday 15th

• Pat finally bought a camera in the shops during the morning (at the place which wasn’t trying to force cameras down his neck the day before) – fortunately it was the last in the shop so he got a discount. Unfortunately it was the last in the shop so it’s a girly purple/pink colour. Oh, and even with the discount it’s about as expensive as his old camera – but two models down from it. HOORAY FOR HIGH STREET RETAILERS!
• In the afternoon Pat met up with Iain and wandered around the town a bit, grabbing a bite to eat at a nice Italian restaurant in The Rocks (near the Harbour Bridge) – oh and checking the views from Sydney Tower:

  

• In the evening Pat and Iain had a couple of bevvies in a few bars: Side Bar (Wake Up!’s bar, which is quite good, if somewhat dark), Three Monkeys (good live music) and Bar Broadway (featuring a quite fit barmaid that Iain spent a while chatting up). Pat wasn’t much in the mood for beers so was on soft drinks most of the evening. Hard core!

Tuesday 16th

• Pat moved to the awesome City Central YHA today and then spent most of the day chilling by himself in their huge lounge, doing some drawing and listening to chooooons. Twas lovely to not have to wander around shops for a change!
• Exciting thing of the day: Pat got himself a hair cut! Sadly the “grow hair long” thing he wanted to do hadn’t quite worked – twas more a case of “grow hair into an unmanageable birds nest-style mess” by the time he got it cut.
• An early night was had too, which was lovely.

Wednesday 17th

• Following a lazy day on Tuesday Pat decided to get out and about, so set off in the direction of Sydney Harbour Bridge.
• A veerrry long walk later and he’d walked both ways across it, seen the “disappointing” Luna Park fairground and even trundled to “Hello” Darling Harbour to enjoy the sights:

  
  

• After another quiet evening Pat headed to bed.

Thursday 18th

• A surprisingly similar day to Wednesday occurred, although this time in the company of Iain – and with some swimming pool action later and another cinema trip – this time to see the tres bonne Pan’s Labyrinth.

Friday 19th

• Iain left for Byron Bay and in his place Jersey arrived:

  

  He’s in the same room as Pat, which is cool.

• Quite a chilled day occurred today but Pat managed to pay off his credit card in spite of crappy internet banking connectivity, so that was a bonus!
• Late in the evening Pat accompanied Tim and “Shirtin” (phonetically spelt – it’s actually spelt with some Js, Ks and, frankly, I’ve no idea how to spell it – sorry dude!) for a couple of beers – sans Jersey who was fully knackered (having not actually gone to sleep on Thursday night due to a late night tattooing followed by sitting in an airport for 8 hours… mmm, nice)

Saturday 20th

• Pat and Jersey went to the glorious Coles supermarket and did a big food shop! The plan is to a) eat healthier and b) save money! How long will it last? (Well, about 4 days. But it’s still clinging onto life now :-))
• In the evening we all trundled to the Symphony In The Domain, an open-air orchestral concert courtesy of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It was brilliant – and packed – complete with a fireworks finale to the awesome 1812 Overture:

  
  

Sunday 21st

• Highlight of the day: we went to Games Workshop! Wow! Jersey’s a big fan of the Warhammer stuff – to the extent that he didn’t give up buying Games Workshop kit 15 years ago when it all became funking ridiculously overpriced! Now that’s dedication!
• We met up with a guy called Sam, who Jersey met on his latter leg of his New Zealand trip. Sam’s a fun fella and gets extra points for taking us to the awesome Easy Way Tea for some bizzare yet great tea-based drinks. Pat had a Pineapple flavoured Fruit Milk Tea(!). It was odd, which is not surprising. What is surprising is that it was really tasty!
• In the evening Pat actually did some cooking (!!!), making a tasty vegetable sauce for some pasta… then Pat dragged Jersey to see Pan’s Labyrinth. Again. Wooh!

Monday 22nd

• Today we secured our Friday night plans: we bought and picked up tickets to see My Chemical Romance play Luna Park. Wooh!
• Also, we went to the Museum Of Sydney, which despite being small was really interesting. Particularly cool was the exhibition about the Sydney Harbour Bridge design and construction – loads of interesting designs and the construction of the thing was an awesome feat! Alas photos weren’t allowed, but we got one of the outside:

  

• After that we browsed some cool shops (comics and games stuff), made some more pasta + sauce and spent the evening chilling out doing some drawings…

Tuesday 23rd – Friday 26th
Well… you’ll have to wait and see. There’s some ramblings a’coming, I just don’t know when. :-)

That should do for now, methinks.

In summary: Pat’s enjoying Sydney. It’s a nice city to walk around in with lots of cool sights and loads of things going on. Apparently he’s quite keen to be getting on the road though – which is lucky as he and Jersey are hiring a car on Sunday to take a trip to the blue mountains and down the east coast. Wooh!

Anyways, will no doubt blah on at length shortly… so I’ll leave you for now. Hope all’s well where you are!

Toodles,

Squage

(N.B. I’ve seen Pan’s Labyrinth twice now. It’s fecking awesome. So long as you don’t mind reading subtitles – the film’s in Spanish – and don’t mind some rather grim violence – there’s a bit of that too.)

Toodles :-)

Pat

So that was Melbourne.

Few things about it:

Good

• Public transport: I suspect the Melbourne/Victoria Government once followed the Tony Blair “Education, education, eduction” approach… but with trams. There are loads of trams in Melbourne, taking you to all the areas you need – and – they’re pretty easy to get around on. What’s better is that they’re air conditioned too. Oh and they’re TRAMS! Come on, don’t tell me the idea of going around on trams doesn’t excite you a bit? Just a little? No? Just me? Ah.
• People: Friendly, easy going folk. There’s a wide range of cultures too – a fair few Chinese and Japanese residents, alongside a great deal of travelers. In fact, there’s probably more non-Australians in and around the CBD during the day than there are Australians. Still, everyone seems pretty chilled and, on the whole, pretty happy. It’s a nice city to visit and a great city to work in, I’d say.
• Weather: Well, on the whole. It’s nice and hot, sunny and with just enough wind to stop it being too horrendous. Only the fact that it can be a bit sticky occasionally detracts from the otherwise ace nature of the weather. Oh and also that it chucked it down on Christmas day. And that it attracts loads of bloody flies. In fact, I guess the weather’s not all good. Just ignore this point.
• Sights: From the singing bridge, through the MCG and to the lovely parks around the CBD (Central Business District), there are lots of nice places to see on your travels around Melbourne.
• Lord of the Fries: The best chip shop in the world, mainly because of the awesome sauces on offer and the quantity of chips you get. Sitting at the bottom of Elizabeth Street, just opposite Flinders Street station, it’s a must if you’re out and about on the town late at night. This was one of the contributing factors to me not losing weight in Melbourne.
• Smoothie shops: There are a LOT of smoothie shops in Melbourne. These are all great because a) they’re quite good value, b) the smoothies taste looovely and c) you can convince yourself (pretty legitimately for a change) that you’re being healthy by drinking stuff that tastes bloody good.
• Internet cafes: Aside from the crap hostel ones these are generally fast, good value and allow you to download such things as Paint Shop Pro and Limewire (not that, er, I used Limewire at all. Because that would be bad. Yes.) without breaking a sweat (aside from emotional sweat through the fear of being caught illegally downloading music. Which I didn’t do. No. So that was fine. Yes.)
• Socialising: Not so much in the CBD, but places like Fitzroy are chockablock with pretty, good value cafes and bars, always bustling with people and a great place to hang out / grab some food / have a night out.
• New Year Celebrations: Huuge fireworks display, loads and loads of cheery revelers out and about and a really great feeling of fun throughout the city. They know how to celebrate New Year in Melbourne.

Bad

• Internet cafes: Through being good and allowing lots of things to be done, these ended up causing several hours on certain days being totally wasted. These hours could’ve been better spent in a pub. Actually, maybe that was a good thing…
• Flies: FUCKING flies. Everywhere you go, they’re there. And they don’t leave you alone. For some reason, a long time ago I had the romantic notion that flies had a “home”. A territory, if you like. But no. They follow you for MILES. And sorry, but what is the POINT in them anyway? They buzz around you, sit on you and then fly off. GAAAAH!
• TV: Advert-ridden, US sitcom filled tosh. Honestly, it’s worse than the US telly I’ve seen. The adverts seem to be every 5 minutes and it’s the same damned ads every break. My particular “favourites” were the Optus ad – which featured lots of animals in the outback “singing” (hooray for computer generated mouth movement) Give Me The Simple Life for about 30 seconds – and one for a bargain warehouse place – which involved an Aussie bloke SHOUTING ABOUT ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU CAN BUY FOR A REDUCED-YES A REDUCED PRICE at 200kmph for 30 seconds. It felt akin to having your head beaten in by a lump hammer for half a minute.
• Christmas Celebrations: I’m guessing Christmas celebrations in Melbourne happen at home and not out in the bars and clubs, because the most Christmassy thing I heard all night in the pubs was a Christmas Mix of “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit”. By “Christmas Mix”, I mean a version of the song with the DJ mumbling something about it being Christmas day over the start. Ho ho bloody ho!
• Flies: Did I mention these were annoying?

Ugly

• Not many: There are a LOT of attractive people in Melbourne.

Ooh yeah, and about the hostels…

• Freeman Lodge: Really nice – the owner’s really friendly, the rooms are comfy and the kitchen, whilst small, has all you could ask for. It’s rather quiet, mind, and a bit of a walk from town, so Chris and I moved to the hostel “Hotel BakPak” after a couple of weeks to mingle a bit more with other travelers.
• Hotel BakPak (or Hotel Discovery as I think they’re renaming themselves (each day I was there they seemed to replace another BakPak sign/poster with a Hotel Discovery one… but without anyone actually mentioning anything)): Not so good. Despite the cheapness of rooms it’s a bit basic, feels run down, the kitchen is fully crap and the place is so understaffed that you have to wait bloody ages to check in/out, find info, book anything, get a replacement room card (you tend to need to at least every day or so as they inexplicably decide to stop working rather often)… or get a drink in their bar. Oh, AND you have to hand in your passport/drivers’ license in order to get your room access card. Secure! Ok, so maybe I’m being harsh – after all it’s situated at the top of the CBD and the place does have a rooftop garden, which is awesome to chill out in – but frankly I’d rather stay somewhere that felt a bit friendlier and well run.
• Greenhouse Backpackers: Slap bang in the CBD, it’s recommended by all who go there. I didn’t go there. Why’m I personally recommending this then? Because they made me feel Christmassy on Christmas day (yep, this was the TV Lounge I watched Only Fools and Horses in). That’s enough for me :-)

Anyway, enough waffling… I’m off to the Museum of Sydney with Jersey!

Toodles,

Pat

Howdy,

Right, firstly: hello! We’re in Sydney! More on this in a second.

First though I’m afraid I need to draw your attention to this:

Less Than Three

It’s AWESOME. But only if you’ve been using computers long enough and are nerdy enouhg to find Myspace and all that just a bit too, you know, “hip” and “cool”. Hence both Pat and I like it.

Thanks to Mr Rik “This will ruin my reputation as someone who doesn’t at all like silly happy hardcore songs filled with acronyms” Ward for pointing this out to Pat :-)

Right, that’ll do for now – see you in a whi-what? Oh, right, yes, other stuff:

We’re in Sydney! Wooh!

Following an easy flight from Melbourne on Saturday Pat and I checked in to the hostel (Wake Up!) on Saturday afternoon. Since then we’ve met up with Ia(i)n and wandered around a bit, mainly looking for cameras (yep, Pat’s camera has finally given up the ghost) and seeing the “pretty good actually and what the hell, is that Will Smith doing some proper acting???” The Pursuit of Happyness.

We’ve not really had a chance to see the sights (although from a distance the Opera House and Harbour Bridge look fully awesome and the harbour they sit on/over is very pretty) so can’t really comment on that yet, however the first impressions of the place are that it’s a lot busier with a lot more rushing around than Melbourne. It also feels a bit more cramped than Melbourne as the streets aren’t quite so wide and the buildings are generally taller.

Still, we’ve not seen that much of the place (only really from Chinatown to the harbour) so who knows what the rest of it’s like. We’ll reserve judgement for then.

Today we’re going to be tourists and see the bridge close up, go up the Sydney Tower and check out such things as the Luna Park fairground! Tomorrow we’re going to be checking out of Wake Up! and into the nearby YHA. Wake Up!‘s good, it’s just that the kitchen’s tiny and there’s not much room for chilling out.

Right, time to go and get a camera and then wander up to the Sydney Tower to check out the views!

L O L O L

Squage

P.S. I don’t think I mentioned this, but terrestrial TV out here is AWFUL. It’s all US Sitcom reruns with adverts every 5 minutes. We miss the BBC…

So, Pat and I went to Phillip Island for a couple of days.

And we couldn’t’ve picked a better time either – hot, sunny and with just enough of a breeze to prevent it from being ‘orrible. Awesome.

What did we get up to? Well, given I’ve not done this for a while I’m thinking a day-by-day approach could be adopted (not only because we were only there from Wednesday PM to this morning)…

Wednesday 10th January: Melbourne -> Phillip Island

• After waking up too early (well, for someone who’d spent the whole day beforehand recovering from the Neighbours night), Pat stumbled out of the hostel and to Southern Cross train station, ready for a couple of days by himself after traveling with people for over 2 months.
• The journey to Phillip Island was a bit of a hassle:
  • First leg (train): Pat spent an hour holding onto his rather heavy rucksack (and Obligatory Coles Green Shopping Bag (every traveler has at least one)) to prevent them smashing into commuters on a rather packed train.
  • Second leg (coach): supposedly this was to get to Phillip Island, but after an hour everyone got off the coach and onto another (at that point empty) one. Why? Well, we’re not sure. The coaches seems identical. I’m suspecting they were coming up to a motorway and had just noticed a Speed-style device under one of the wheels. Pat holds the dull view that the second coach may’ve been bigger. No imagination…
  • Third leg (coach): Yep, this was supposed to get to Phillip Island, right? Nope. A swap into a minibus, which couldn’t fit everyone in – taxis were called… class.
  • Fourth leg (minibus): This was rather, uh, warm, cramped and full of flies. Still, this did at least get us to the destination, which was something of a surprising bonus at this point.
• Once at Cowes in Phillip Island, all was good. The hostel (Amaroo Park) was lovely and the views from the beach in Cowes were, well, like this:

  

  

• Pat spent most of the afternoon on the beach, getting a bur-er, nice tan, before grabbing some dinner at a seafront restaurant and going back to the beach to enjoy the sunset:

  

• An early night later and that was the end of the first day.

Thursday 11th January: Phillip Island

• Pat woke up nice and early, feeling quite tired from lack of sleep due to the massive snore fest going on in his rather small 4 bed dorm really chirpy and after some free brekkie (did I mention Amaroo Park was lovely?) hired a bike from the hostel and set off in search of the Koala Conservation Centre, and Woolamai Cape area.
• He soon realised he was massively unfit (By which he means “realised it was massively hot and easy to get tired in those sort of circumstances”) – Pat) but also how much he enjoys cycling (particularly the awesome feeling of freewheeling downhill after slogging it uphill)… methinks he’s going to try and spend the money he’ll not have anymore on a bike when he gets back home.
• The Koala Conservation Centre was pretty cool – you got to get really close to Koalas as they rested in the trees (although personally I decided to stay safe in Pat’s bag – Koalas have claws that I don’t want to get to know):

  

  

  Cute, huh?

• After that, Pat went on another big cycle, eventually reaching Woolamai Cape (in a somewhat tired state) to take in the views of the surf beach:

  

  As I say, Pat was a bit tired, but you’d never guess from this:

  
  (And you should’ve seen him on returning to the hostel…)

• After cycling back to the hostel, Pat had a much needed shower, headed out for some grub and got in a taxi to see Phillip Island’s biggest attraction: the Penguin Parade!
• In the taxi were a couple of cousins (one from Toronto, one from Melbourne) who were a good laff – Pat spent most of the journey talking with them about why British travelers are obsessed with the Neighbours night. I could’ve ended that discussion with two words: Steph Scully *
• Watching the Penguins was a lovely experience for Pat… they wandered up onto the beach in groups (to give themselves a feeling of safety against predatory birds and the 200-odd humans watching), then waddled past the crowd of people watching in awe and up into their burrows in the tall grass of the beach banks.
• It looked a bit like this:

  

  Ahem.

  Sadly they didn’t allow cameras. This is as good as it got:

  

• After sitting and watching the penguins for almost an hour, Pat and the other guys grabbed a cab back to the hostel.
• Pat had another early night – this time rather pleased that he was the only one in the 4 bed dorm.

* Note to Pat’s mate Dave Smith: I’m afraid she’s just called me and told me that she’s not going to be your wife. And neither is that Carla Bonner who you keep on about.

Friday 12th January: Phillip Island -> Melbourne

• Pat spent the morning chilling out by the beach, before grabbing a coach (which only swapped once and didn’t involve flies, crampness or any need for trains) back to Melbourne.
• I then dragged him to an Internet Cafe. Ha ha!
• Tonight we’re doing… er… no idea. But we’re doing it soon (Pat keeps tapping his watch so I guess he’s ready to do whatever it is)… so I’d best say toodles.

Before that though, just a bit of advice: if you ever happen to go to Phillip Island, make sure you hire a car:

Public transport’s none existent, taxis are too expensive and the biking thing’s not really that practical if you want to bring anything around with you (e.g. beach stuff, picnics, drinks etc). Pat’s yet to see the majority of the island – and if he can convince someone else to hire a car with him, he’s going to go back and have a proper look around.

Righty, that’s enough from me – toodles for now and speak to you in Sydney!

Squage

It’s not going to get better than this:

Toadie (legend), Steph Scully (mmm) and Dylan (apparently well known). In photos. With me. And a sign saying “Squage Rules”.

Awesome:

Toadie

Steph

Dylan

The Neighbours night was last night in a pub called the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in St Kilda, Melbourne.

Twas excellent fun (Chris, Ian, Katie, Katie and Matt were there and we were having a great laff all night) even if it was bloomin’ expensive (captive audience, anyone?).

Well worth the money though. :-)

Pat

Yep, two months ago at around about this time, I was just getting up at some ungodly hour, looking at my packed rucksack and thinking “Oh God, what AM I doing?”

I wasn’t sure whether this trip was going to be the best thing or the most stupid thing I’ve ever done.

Turns out that, so far, it’s almost certainly the best.

I’ve seen so many things I never really thought I would, I’ve done things I would NEVER have imagined doing (I know, who’d’ve thought I’d get on a bus at 7am?!?! Oh, and some bungy thing…) – and even now am amazed I did – and I’ve met so many ace people, some of whom have become good friends who I hope to keep in touch with for many years to come.

Sure, there’ve been times where I’ve been feeling a bit down, but that’s to be expected when you’re the other side of the world, sometimes wondering what the hell you’re doing.

On the whole though I’ve felt really great out here. My stress levels are way down, I’m feeling positive about life and like I have the world at my feet regarding what I want to do after I come back (hopefully that’ll not change when I return to the UK broke)!

I’ve learned quite a bit about myself and have also realised that getting to the other side of the world and travelling around is actually pretty easy (provided you’ve got the funds). People are so friendly in both NZ and Oz and there are so many other people travelling that you end up finding it hard to stay on your own for any period of time.

I’m really looking forward to seeing more of the Real Australia™ over the next few months too as I wander further north and to such places as Alice Springs/Uluru. First though is the next stage of my trip:

On Wednesday I’m saying a tearful, waving-hanky-from-the-side-of-the-train(well, tram) goodbye to Chris and heading to Phillip Island, to see such things as lots of cute penguins (hopefully visible to the camera this time, unlike NZ’s Curio Bay…), Seals, awesome beaches and to do some walking + cycling. Then on Saturday I’m off to Sydney, where I’ll be staying for a couple of weeks, meeting up with Jersey (from the Kiwi Experience kru) and if all goes well heading to Tazmania for a week or so.

It’s all booked (well, up to Sydney anyway), which is nice, so I can spend the next few days sunbathing.

Sorry, did I not mention it’s lovely and hot out here? :-)

Right, better dash… got some sunbathing to do (it’s hot here, by the way).

Take care peeps,

Pat

Hi all!

Just a quick one to say a big HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and thanks again for keeping on reading this here blog.

Not a massive deal to tell you about (hey, Pat and I have been taking a (we reckon) well deserved break from dashing about the place) aside, probably, from New Year’s Eve.

Here’s a few things to note about Pat’s New Year’s Eve:

1. Early Afternoon: Pat bought a shirt, a gold steering wheel cover, a string/bead necklace, thick permanent markers, elastic string and kitchen foil
2. Late Afternoon: Pat cut up a Special K box into a sword, eye patch and hat, cut “2007” from the steering wheel cover and stuck it to the hat, cut circles from the cover to use as a medallion / belt buckle… and…
3. Evening: …He looked like this:
   

Yep, it was a Pirate Party at P.J. Obrien’s (an Irish Bar) in the centre of Melbourne and Pat, Chris, Matt, Katie and Katie were all there dressed as pirates:

From what I understand, it was quite fun getting to the pub as Pat and Chris kept getting lots of confused/amused stares, shouting of “YAAAR!” and even photos taken of them.

Pat says he spent the evening pretty much sober (given that he was a bit tipsy before even leaving the hostel I’m not quite sure how accurate that is), but had a pretty damned awesome time. The aussies certainly know how to party and there were loads of friendly folk who Pat got chatting to. His views on people here have changed (a little) over the past week or so – people really are pretty chilled, friendly and generous. It’s ace.

The fireworks at midnight were nothing short of spectacular… these pissed tired photos don’t quite do it justice:

After getting in at about 4:15am, Pat and Chris didn’t manage to move until about 1pm.

New Year’s Day? Well, that was – at best – a write off.

Pat managed to go for a long walk down Bridge Road, by a river and then around Richmond (getting lost on the way… almost as though he was, say, hungover or something? (Look, ok, so I may have had a couple of beers – it’s New Year, damnit! – Pat) Finally he admits it!) and Chris didn’t even make it out of the hostel.

Good to see that New Year’s Day in Australia is pretty much the same as in England, eh? ;-)

Anyways, that’s pretty much all I’ve got for ya at the mo… as I say it’s been quite chilled aside from that. Pat’s been getting a good bit of walking done, which he’s pleased with, and has now decided that he needs to get the next leg of the trip sorted.

We’re planning on getting up to Sydney in a week or so – via Phillip Island (to see the penguins!) – so expect more details as we do it!

Take care and we both hope 2007 proves to be your best year ever.

Toodles,

Squage (and Pat)