Adventures In Deirdre Land

Can’t believe I haven’t updated this since November! Well nobody has complained so that goes to show how many of you are reading it really! I got an email from an Uruguayan that came across it while googling his girlfriend though. That was kind of random. He found my blog on Uruguay and was shocked that I didn’t have the best time ever! I didn’t have a bad time, I was just to tired to go mental so it was a quiet few days. Sorry Antonio!

So I probably should do a quick re-cap on what I’ve been up to for the last few months though my photos might give it away anyway… ok, really briefly…
December: Lydias rellies that we stayed with in NZ came over for the Ashes and a weekend break so we did a bit of toursty things with them…Went to see Ben Watt in the sceptre and got him to do an angry face >:o| … Special Lady friends end of soccer season awards ceremony, did’t win anything but got a lovely medal and scroll for participation! … Kim’s birthday in Lotus lounge cocktail bar - we got her a deadly pressie…got a mate of Lumais, Nish to do a painting…sort of chinesey geisha thing. She does street art. Was cool. … Moved from Bank SA job to Origin Energy, cos Banks SA kept offering me a job and sponsorship and taking it back and offering it again! … lot of organising for falls was done and playing with my new iPod that I bought for myself before I left Bank SA…. Christmas was spent in the Botanic Gardens with Kims family…picnic type thing. It was cold though! Not what I imagined Aussie xmas to be like but it was nice. That night we went to Pete’s house for a party. We did Kris Kind with our mates and had santy in the house as well for the Kent Town folk. … Day after St. Stephens day we went to Melbourne in convoy, drove Basil - legend of a car! Went to Ashes test dressed up as Monty Panesear… Falls the next day…BRILLIANT! 3 Day Music festival in a forest. .. Drove back via a bit of the Great Ocean road and stayed in a little place called Port Fairy on the coast for a night. Oh woops! I’ve moved into January!!
January: meant to have a quiet one…didn’t really work out! Went to an Ugly Duckling gig in Producers Bar - got them to do an angry face >:o| … Went to an Aerobics Oz Style house party…weird! Had a super bowl Sunday at the lawn bowls place near our house. People at home will think this is a very old peoples game that your granny would watch on telly on a Saturday afternoon, but in Australia it’s a young peoples day out in the sun drinking beer! Good fun. … went to the beach a few evenings after work … Anneliese moved in with Kier for a while and they had a beach/hawaii themed house party which the Kent Town crew (Bec, Steve, Denise and me) dressed up as surf life savers for! … worked in Melbourne for a few days which was fun, got to do the markets again and see some comedy - that muppet Dave Callan - eugh! … Australia Day was great! Had a party in Claire and Damo’s house. BBQ and Saladoff - I was judging. Denise won best coleslaw (there were 6 categories) - she made all the coleslaws! … Went fishing for the first time ever properly, cos the first time was in Arno bay but I didn’t do any fishing, I just watched, but I caught a fish this time! … that’s Jan done.
February: BIG DAY OUT was deadly! My highlights were Kasabian, Muse and Crystal Method dj’s. was bloody hot!! 39 or something…. Went to Kerry’s hen night and learned how to Pole dance! Was great fun! … Saw Jurassic 5 at the Thebby, deadly venue! … Went to Good Vibrations music festival in Melbourne! BRILLIANT!!! Highlights were Cut Copy, Ursula 1000, Beastie Boys, Timo Maas and Razhel…but it was all so so good! Stayed with Marty and Lucy - Thanks fellas … Bec and Benn both had their birthday celebrations at Kumfy club - always good. Deadly night! … Lisa had lawn bowls for her birthday - see, not for old people! … Ben had a birthday fun day in the park. It was like a school sports day with sack races and dodgeball, egg and spoon. SO MUCH FUN! Went to Zhivagos after - brilliant night. AND Ireland bet England in the rugby! YAY! … next day kim organised for Ben and his band to play a gig in the Thebby - as a surprise for Ben, so about 40 people were waiting at the Thebby and Kim asked him to help her move stuff in the theatre and we all surprise him when he came in. He was chuffed! …
March: Fringe festival kicked off in Adelaide. Lots going on. We all dressed up as farm animals for the opening night and wandered around handing out Holden street flyers. I was a rooster. Feel like I’m always making costumes … They have a few venues and bars set up in the park near our house. It’s called the Garden of Unearthly Delights. It’s cool. We get in without lining up cos we have Artist passes! Hee hee! Ruined myself last weekend… Went to the Garden Wednesday, Thursday TESS came back, and we picked her up at the airport!!! That night was Fringe opening night and we were out til about 5!, Friday was Damo’s birthday and he had it in the nightclub in the Garden. Saturday I was working in the bar in Holden street theatre and went out to Buffs house after for his 30th birthday celebrations. He lives on the top floor of big office buildings right in the centre of town. They have the whole rooftop. So cool. Had a barbeque cooked by Asa, played cricket on the roof. He has a ball attached to a long elastic band so that it doesn’t go off the roof. Genius! Stayed out til all hours again … working in Holden street bar again the next day for the matinees. Wasn’t too much of a struggle once we got there. Went into auto pilot. … Dannys leaving do was that night. She’s going to a wedding in America and then going to France for a while. She’ll be visiting us in Dublin too! … Monday was Future Music Festival!!!!!! BRILLIANT! Dancey festival with Felix Da Housecat, Carl Cox, Ferry Corsten, and many more. Highlights were Ferry Corsten, The Egg live set was excellent, and of course FELIX! And - being on stage with Felix! Yep - we had VIP passes and blagged our way on stage for a boogie. Such a good day! Was wrecked this week though because of it. Falling asleep in work on Tuesday. Just when I thought I was recovered for Paddys day I get a cold. AARGH!
So now we’re up to date! I’m in work at the mo, on Paddy’s Day!!!! Terrible! Sneezing away and I’ve run out of tissues. I’ve to work next weekend too boo. Only doing a half day though so leaving in a few minutes. I was sitting at my desk and I heard bagpipes and ran out to the lifts and outside and sure enough, there’s a Paddy’s Day parade!only about 2 blocks long mind you and mainly people in Irish dancing costumes, walking, and the contenders for the Adelaide Rose of Tralee title, and a few big Shamrocks, oh, and a St. Patrick. No tractors though!
So I’m heading to the Brecknock hotel about 3. They close off the street there and have a seisun! Hope they are showing the rugby later.
What about Ireland not losing the cricket the other day! Great game! Wonder how they’ll get on against Pakistan…

Anyway, that’s all folks. That’ll keep ye reading for a while. Photos are only up to Big Day out. I’m super busy in work these days so no time for too much messing. I’m leaving soon though so I’ll see what I can get done before I go. Around 10 working days left - WOO HOO!

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY EVERYONE!

Went to Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon gig last night and it was sooooooo good!!!!! Though it was seated!! What a terrible idea to have a rock concert seated! It was so strange. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Especially when Kings of Leon were on because they were on at 7:30 and the place was still fairly empty and there were about 3 people in the front row and the bouncers wouldn’t let me up there! So frustrating! Mind you, I was only 6 rows back from the front but slightly to the side so it was a pretty good spot but it was very weird not to be up the front jumping around. I felt really bad for Kings of Leon cos it looked empty even though if you got all the people that were there together and put them all up at the stage it would have been a pretty rockin crowd. They were absolutely EXCELLENT though!!!!! I’d love to see them in their own gig with no seats.
And then Pearl Jam!!!!!! SOOOOO GOOOD! I just couldn’t believe that I was going to a Pearl Jam gig. The 14 year old me would never have believed that at 26 I’d be finally going to my first Pearl Jam concert! I have to say though, I don’t know much of their new stuff….in fact not since Yield I think, although I have their new album now. But they played heaps of songs from Ten, practically the whole album! Again, very weird to be confined to the seats though. We were allowed to stand but not move away from in front of our seats. It was a bit less strange for Pearl Jam though cos the seats were all full.
Eddie Vedder gave a tambourine to a girl in a wheel chair who was literally sitting a few feet away from me, and I was frantically trying to delete a photo off my camera cos I’d run out of memory space, but I couldn’t!! AARGH! He was practically right beside me!
During the encore they did Crazy Mary and during the words “Take a bottle, drink it down, pass it round”, he came down to the edge of the stage and passed the wine bottle he was drinking during the whole gig, to someone in the front row to take a swig and pass it on!
Anyway, both bands ROCKED! But I’d definitely think twice before I’d go to an all seating gig again. Very frustrating! Unless you are in the front row I suppose.
Pictures are here

I can’t BELIEVE that I left this bit out!!!! HALLOWE’EN!!! my favourite time of year!
This year, we tried (and succeeded) to get the folks of Adelaide onto the best frickin holiday ever!!! Most of them were very sceptical at first but they all love a good dress up party here so it didn’t take too much convincing and we ended up with 12 Smurfs roaming the streets of Adelaide and painting the town blue!
I know we’ve done Smurfs before so it’s not very original but we wanted to do something with the most impact and you couldn’t get much better than 12 people painting themselves blue and singing the smurf song!
So we went on a bit of a smurf crawl…gate crashed a party on the way into town. Some of the lads played a bit of golf in the Tap Inn pub that has a driving range, we did Smurfeoke, I did some smurfy dancing on the stage in a strip club!
Needless to say everyone had an AWESOME night and will definitely be dressing up next year for Hallowe’en! Go on the spreading Irish customs all over the world!
Photos are here…

G’day. Well it must be getting into Summer now cos I am absolutely COVERED in mozzie bites. The feckers love me. It’s the sweet Irish blood I think. So today is going to be a great day, itching my 25 bites. OUCH!
So what have I been up to lately…well considering I haven’t updated this in a while (hmmm about 3 months), a good bit really!
Let me try and sum it up in a ramble….
Bec and Steve came back from their travels and moved into our little home with us which as been lots of fun! They’re great housemates! We’ve done the PA a good few night, needless to say there’s been many a night in Zhivagos and the Sceptre over the last couple of months too. We’re creatures of habit, what can I say. If it’s not broke…
Ehm, went to Willunga to Russells for yummy pizza for Lumai’s birthday, Lumai had a joint Bday party with her fella in Zhivagos too which was lots of fun with a live funk band. Been to a couple of gigs…Josh Pike, the Grates, Little Birdy, Sneaky Sound System,…saw Ed’s funk band play at the Sceptre too and was well impressed! Have played a good bit of Soccer with the Lady friends…we are getting much better and had a 4-1 score this weekend. We only got the one goal but that’s probably our best score yet! Eeehm, what else….Oh good few German club nights for the cheap steins of beer including my glorious victory during October Fest in the Strong Arm Stein holding competition where I won a bottle of Jagermeister! YUM! Went away a couple of weekends…one to Arno bay in the Eyre Peninsula to Asa’s beach shack with Kim, Neecie, Buff and Twinch, Chris Ball and his mate and of course Asa and Sabre! Ate oysters and abalone, never had either before and they were yummy. Lots of playing in Sand dunes and flaming footie and other such teenage antics! It was great! I’d never played these things when I was a teenager. You soak a toilet roll in methylated spirits and kick it around on the beach and it leaves trails of flaming loo roll. Looks cool! We also did a spot of Pirating and commandeered a boat in the marina and went for a bit of a row! Arrrhhhhh! I’m not as nimble as the pirates you see swinging around on ropes and things on the telly and smacked on my arse trying to get into the boat and got a few rather nasty bruises! The other weekend was down to good old Port Elliot to stay in Carolyn’s family’s holiday home at the sea, with Denise, Kim, Ben, Cars, Brad, Caz and Ben. I met these girls in Dublin where they stayed with us for a couple of days on their travels around Europe. Didn’t go swimming at all but we did go to Greenhills Adventure Park!!!! Think the field day on craggy island in the first episode of Father Ted! A child has been lodged in the tunnel of goats. They had a maze!!! Which was just made of wooden slats that you could look through to see the dead ends! Hee hee! The bouncy castle was fun! And Ben and I were the only brave people to go on the water slides which were lovely. That weekend I discovered (as if I didn’t already know) that I am CRAP at golf, but Denise and myself kicked arse at Articulate! So there are advantages to being a twin.
There was a good few birthday bashes to fill up the weekends too…Clem turned 25 and we all had some celebratory steins at the German club and a boogie in Zhivagos… who else…Kate’s birthday was last week and a load of us went for dinner at the Astor… hmmm, maybe that was it. Oh no, Danny had a birthday too but she didn’t tell anyone the silly billy! So we celebrated hers with Clemies too. And little Ayla, Lumai and Dans little girl turned 2 and a lovely day was had yesterday in Hawthorndean to celebrate this and Lumai and Dans engagement with BBQ and nibblies and drinks. Hence the mozzie bites. GRRRR!
Ehm, think I covered almost everything there!!! I didn’t really sum it up really did I? Hope I didn’t bore ye too much!
Oh and BIG BIG BIG HUGE news from home….Trisha and Bob got engaged!!!!!! I feel terrible cos I haven’t met Bob yet, but I hear he’s a lovely bloke and he’d want to be to nab a catch like our Trisha! CONGRATS YOU TWO!
So now, myself and Denise have had to change our travel plans so that we can go home and be bridesmaids and try on dresses and organise drinking sessions (doesn’t sound like a bad job does it?!) so we are going straight home at the end of our Australian working holiday visa at the end of April, and we’ll try get work in Dublin again for a 4 or 5 months and then hopefully skip off again to do the travel we were supposed to do from here and head back to see a bit more of Australia.
That’s the plan anyway….we’ll see what other spanners will be thrown in the works.
Looking forward to it anyway! YAY! So you folks at home will see us sooner than you thought you lucky things!
Right, all of the above events (most anyway) are illustrated through photographs in my photo gallery!
Have a look at the latest folders here…

I know you at home are all gloating about the lovely weather at the moment but it’s the middle of winter here and it’s sunny and 21 degrees! I LOVE AUSTRALIA!
Nothing much to report really. I have put some more photos up on my website of birthday celebrations and our Melbourne trip. See the new folders here

Oh I suppose I haven’t written in a while have I….Well Melbourne was deadly! We shopped LOADS went to a footie match which was great a hip hop gig was was also deadly. So funny…one of the acts was Brother Ali, who is a black albino muslim….I’m not joking! he’s an albino who is a black man….he hates white people! hilarious! Our appartment was FABULOUSLY swish with a lovely view and a stones throw from all the shops. We drank, we ate, we were merry and generally had loads and loads of fun!
It’s been all go really. We had our pseudo birthday celebrations before Lydia went home….ya… Lydia has gone home now, most of you know that though… and we had a few more birthday celebrations besides! Sure if your birthday doesn’t last at least a month it’s not worth talking about really!
Annette was here for a while too! She met us in Melbourne and then stayed with us in Adelaide for a few weeks which was great! Lovely to have her around for a while and lots of fun. Now she’s gone and I’m all alone in my big room again! It will be very weird.

I was a tourist in South Australia this weekend! It’s about time. Kim’s mammy is a legend! She drove us around all day Saturday.
The morning started with a wine tour in the McLaren Vale wine region, which is just south of Adelaide. When Janet pulled into the winery I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea considering we had all been out for dinner drinking copious amounts of disgusting sweet wine the night before… but the hair of the dog was just what we needed and the wine was yummy.
Then we headed down to Victor Harbour and Port Eliot and we went for a lovely walk along a cliff and watch the enormous waves breaking against the rocks. The weather cleared up nicely for us, cos it had been miserable and rainy all morning. I am getting Victor Harbour and Port Eliot mixed up now so I don’t know which was which and what we did in each place, but we ate some pasties in Port Eliot I think, and walked in Victor harbour. And we saw whales, but I can’t remember where they were. They were unbelievably close to shore…practically beached! There were a couple of baby ones too splashing around and waving their fins at us. So cute! And they have an estimated IQ of 2000! HOW COULD YOU EAT THEM? Crazy!
Anyway, then it was on to Goolwa where we had a cuppa on the banks of the Murray River and stood REALLY close to a pelican! People over here laugh at me for being excited about that but they are feckin HUGE! And I used to love the Roald Dahl book the Giraffe the peli and me! Did you know that they bark though? Well this one barked at me when I came too close…weird!

So that was our tourist adventures in South Australia. I’m thinking of buying a car so that I can make loads more mini trips. You can pick up a 1985 banger for 500-1000 dollars. OLDER THAN CYRIL!

So living up to her legend status, Kim’s mammy has got us on the door at the You Am I gig in the Gov this friday. It’s an aussie band that have been around for years. Should be a good’un!

Sorry guys, the link to my photos was just linking to my South America photos… I have fixed it now!

I’m in work….poo! I have to be in at 8:30 every day…I think that’s a record for me! It’s grand though cos the money is good and hopefully I will be able to save for the rest of the trip and afford to have a great time while I’m here which I already am!

We had our housewarming last week….it didn’t warm up! The place is worse than the fun house! Why don’t Adelaide homes have central heating? It’s cold!!!
Was great fun though. I don’t know what fun we will get up to this weekend but I’m sure it will be another good’un!

I just uploaded the rest of my New Zealand photos and Australia ones too.

Enjoy!

11.2.2 Just thought that I would write my blog instead of doing work this morning.
11.2.3 I am writing it in the template of a contract so that people walking past my screen will think that I am still doing work. I am so clever! Only 4 more days in this job and then we have a long weekend for the Queens birthday. And then I start my new job on Tuesday in Bank SA. Got a testing job…can’t believe I am happy about that! Ah no, I don’t mind testing too much. It is way better than this typing contracts rubbish anyway, and so much more money!! HURRAY! I will be on more money than I was at home…which is really weird because salaries here are quite low I think…well the cost of living is anyway so hopefully I will be able to save save save. Oh, better move onto the next clause.
11.2.4 Ah that’s better. Hmm, I don’t really have anything to write really. Still having a great time here! We were supposed to have a quiet weekend this weekend and I think we may have had the mentalest one ever. Typical! We had our first Aussie barbeque which turned out to be not quite what I expected it to be;…it LASHED rain! Hee hee! It was more like our birthday barbeque in Dublin, except colder!
11.2.5 We did get out and do something outdoorsy this weekend though which is quite an achievement. We went for a walk in one of the parks around the Adelaide hills. It was really lovely but we didn’t see any Koalas. Next time Gadget.
11.2.6 So we are almost all sorted for our gaf now too. We are meant to be collecting the keys this Thursday and the only thing we are really missing is a fridge which we think we might be buying off Mike the german dude who’s leaving. Kimmys dad has kindly offered his time and van on Saturday to move beds, couch (donated by Roz, Kims mam’s mate) washing machine, telly, dvd, plates, cutlery etc (donated by Kim’s folks). I will probably be better kitted out than I was in Dublin!
11.2.7 Ok, I better do some work now. I’m going to put up LOADS of photos tonight.

Yes we are in Australia!
To cut a long story short, we arrived in Gold Coast on the 26th April. Decided to have a few days of the beach before we headed to Brisbane and the flights there were way cheaper. We were very hungover the whole time we were there and never actualy got to the beach….total flakes!
Ah well. So after the short train ride to Brisbane we checked into the hostel which was to be our home for the next couple of weeks. We were staying in a dorm with 29 other people and it was surprisingly alright. Not at all like some of the smelly sweat boxes we slept in in Brazil and Argentina. So we spent a while looking for a gaf and a job. Got crappy telesales jobs, did a couple of days unpaid training and decided that we would go to Adelaide!!! We were all thinking it before but nobody was saying it! Brisbane was great though, and the weather was lovely. And Dan, Henrys mate was very hospitable but we realised that it was really hard to set yourself up with work and a place to live and that we didn’t want to be doing it too often, and that we should just do it once or twice and do it where our mates were….well, mate, but we knew that we would get along with Kim and Tess’ mates too so we counted them!!

Anyway, we were dead right!
Adelaide has been great fun! We decided to surprise Kim by just showing up in Adelaide. We probably should have checked that she would be there first….she wasn’t!! So we arrived in Adelaide saturday morning and Kim wasn’t due back til monday night! Bec took care of us and let us crash at her place and brought us out. Kim had been sending us texts and emails trying to convince us to go to Adelaide for ages and had given up and was really pissed off with us. So while we were out having a great time with her mates in Adelaide, drinking Pale, we sent her messages saying what fun we were having in Brisbane and how much we liked Queensland beer! hee hee!
Anyway, she came back from Melbourne monday night, walked into her bedroom, and we jumped out of her bed! Her flight was delayed and we had been lying in her bed for an hour, almost asleep, going “shhh, I think she’s coming” at every little sound! We recorded it. She sounds like a turkey - very funny, I will put it up on the pics site.

Anyway, it has taken us a while to get sorted here too but it looks like we are almost there now. Nobody wanted to let to us for a while…we’ve been looking for a house since the day we arrived but real estate agents were picking the Adelaidians over us…Sure why would 3 Irish girls want to stay in cold Adelaide in the WINTER?! Good question. Ah no, I haven’t regretted the decision, eventhough I have very few warm clothes!
So yesterday a landlord agreed to rent us a lovely little house just outside the CBD, in a nice area called Kent town. And we are all working as office temps. Sorted!
The money is coming in slowly but surely and we will soon have our own gaf to go back to. YEAAY! We have been staying with Kim’s parents and they have been SOOOOOOO good! Not only are they feeding us restaurant quality delicious meals, but they are lending us a washing machine, telly and dvd player for our house!! And some kitcheny things! So good!

So since we have been here we have gotten to know lots of really nice people! There hasn’t been a dull weekend yet. This weekend was Bec and Steve’s going away do…twas a goodun but a sad one. Bec is one of Kim and Tess’ best mates. Jane (another one!) had a jungle birthday party last week and of course we went all out!
Check it out….

So now it’s sort of back to reality a bit…working and saving, but we can always afford to enjoy ourselves, don’t worry!