Something for the connoisseur!!

There is something so very very wrong about drinking wine from a sachet!! I spotted this in my local off-licence (bottle shop in Aussie lingo) for the princely sum of: $2 .

I think I'll stick to bottled wine for now.

The Comedy Store

Went to The Comedy Store tonight. We read Maeve Higgins was going to be on. Tickets were only AUD$15. Its a really nice spot, Tina of course decides to dice with death and pick the table in front of the stage! We got off pretty lightly! It was a brilliant night, there was 6 comedians only and they were all f**kin hilarious!

www.ausspecs.com.au

Another one bites the dust! My glasses ended up on the floor and unfortunately fell victim to one of my size 11's! Glasses in Oz go for mad money $400 upwards! I had a look online and came across Ausspecs .

I came across this thread (click here) on a Australian forum and they got great reviews.

All I needed to do was punch in my prescription (Thanks Laura / John!) and 6 days later they arrived. The build quality and lenses are excellent and for AUD$80 to your door you really can't go wrong.

Time to invest in some sunglasses I can see in!!

Blue Mountains

We are trying to see a little bit every weekend. We took a trip out to blue mountains. Its a 2 hour train journey from the city. The train was pretty full and there was a couple of annoying Germans across from us that were hogging the seat across from them with a jumper like it was a sunbed!

Well we stepped off the train and words can't describe how cold it was!! In my infinite wisdom all I had on was a T-shirt and 3/4 length shorts! So our first port of call was to get a jumper! I spotted some jumpers outside a shop and at $2o they were a good investment. So on to the matching jumpers in the photo, NO we are not one of those American couples that wear matching tops, jackets, socks, etc.

We done the scenic walk down what must of been well over a 1000 steps, which is by far the best thing you can do here. The view is exceptional! When we got to the bottom we took the Worlds steepest Railway back up the hill.

We ended up in the village of Leura and had a bite to eat. We arrived for the train 30 minutes early and it was raining and absolutely freezing so we went to a cafe to sit it out because there was no way we would have escaped without catching a cold.

Wierd Sign!

Whats wierd you say? Well the guy on the far left missing a leg!

The Shark Hotel

$2 Steak + $4 Beer + $1 Pool games = A good night!

I was sceptical about what sort of steak you get for $2 but it was a damn tasty one. The steak was 300gr (10 oz in our money!).

Pool Score: Ciarán 5 : Girls: 0 ...:D

Case of Wine arrived

Our case of wine we purchased at the Easter show arrived today, as if we didn't have enough bought at the weekend!

Waverley Council B*stards - Traffic Ticket

Woke up this morning to drop back the Corolla to 'No-Birds' and I spot this ticket under the cars wiper

"Offence: 8405 - Not parallel park in direction of traffic" .

Basically there was a spot on the other side of the road and I cut across and parked her up, this is by no means a busy road but apparently its a traffic offence if you don't park in the direction of travel. $135 is harsh all the same, guess i'll have to strike it down to experience!

Hunter Valley

We drove to Hunter Valley this weekend. It took about 3 hours to get there from Bondi (which included leaving Sydney). The road was excellent, it had 2 and 3 lane motorway most the way. We stayed in Abernethy and the guest house was very nice and the service was excellent. We drove around looking for somewhere to eat, our first stop was potters which we retreated from, it was like what you see in the Southern states of America....I'll leave the rest to your imagination! We went a couple of km's further down and turned down Broke Road (a very apt name!) and had a meal in the Hunter Valley Steak House. The area is very rural and well worth seeing, However I'd imagine it would be had to get to places if you'd no car with you.

Saturday We booked a wine tour that took us around the various vineyards, we met a few Aussies on the tour that were very nice and we had a great days craic with them. They threw aload of places at us that we should visit so most our weekends are booked up now!! We decided to have a quiet night in with a pizza and a bottle of wine. We met a few other Aussies that were staying in the B & B and had a chat and drink with them and were given a run down on the history of the area and other things to see.

Sunday We took a drive to the Hunter Valley gardens, had a bash of "Aqua Golf" which basically was a driving range over the lake. They gave us a 1 yellow ball per basket and there was a a prize between $100 to $1000 depending on which net you hit the ye llow ball in, the closet I got was hitting one of the signs. We went back to Allandale Winery to replace the Chardoonay (highly recommended) which we demolished on Saturday. The trip back was pretty smooth and we got back in just over 2 hours.

Thai Brown Rice - Bondi Junction

We went to this little restuarant and were very impressed with the food and overall price. They don't serve wine but you can bring your own for AU$2 corkage per person. The food ilooks and tastes very fresh. We got 2 starters and 2 main courses for the grand total of [drum roll]....... AU$39.

The Easter Show!

We went to the Easter Show today (Easter Sunday). A good clean day! Plenty to do at it, we wandered around for a few and went to the sheep shearing contest (modern shears vs old school shears) and the old school shears won the race!

The food show was massive and plenty of tasters to be had! We bought a case of wine (NICE wine mind you!) which should be en-route to us as we speak... I tried the "Worlds Hottest Chilli" appartemtly...load of bollocks until 3 minutes later when my mouth was on fire!!! no laughing matter. It was like that for another 20 odd minutes with Ice cream included!.

The Races

Went to the Races for Ladies day today , good day out lost a bit on a few horses destined for the glue factory!

They've a good system over here they provide free buses afterwards for people leaving presumabely so nobody is hanging around causing shite, with amazement I watched people (that had a few drinks) actually queue with no pushing, shoving, a concept that is alien to Ireland!

We met one of Tina's workmates and aload of her Ozzie mates. They were a nice bunch and they took us to this bar where I had my first Guinness in Australia! Not a bad sup either! Good night indeed!

The Long Good Friday

Not as long as it would be in Ireland!! they serve drink on Good Friday here! Not much done ....Beach & Drink :D

Scary eyes in the Picture I hate the flash! ---->

Chinese Gardens

This weekend wasn't too hectic. Saturday we had a house warming party which ventured into the city centre!

I seen my first spider well group of spiders! I was helping 2 girls get their car out of dirt and went to get a bit of log so I could break the traction and one of them mentioned "Mind the spiders!", They're bloody big as well :O!

Sunday we done a fair bit of walking! We had dinner in Chinatown, we were given the sale of the year by some chinese girl "$15, You get, Entree, Main Course and Happy Day" LOL. We went to Darling Harbour where an indian festival was taking place (you could smell the spices a mile away). They had Bolleywood dancers and indian music. After that we took a trip into the Chinese Gardens which were very well preserved