Australia Zoo 17 March 2007
In keeping with tradition - I spent St Patrick's Day at the Zoo. Australia Zoo, that is. I was working in our Brisbane office on the Thursday and Friday of that week so on the Saturday, Kim very kindly drove us up the Sunshine Coast to what was Steve Irwin’s Zoo. I was actually a little surprised because I was expecting the Zoo to be the biggest one, like, ever. But in fact, the zoo is fairly moderately sized and is very focused on conservation and education and most of the inhabitants are either native to Australia or were introduced a long time ago.
In the Crocoseum, we saw a show aimed at educating visitors to the Zoo about Crocodiles and Snakes. I learned that when confronted by a snake, you should not panic and try to kill the snake (most snake bites are the result of a person trying to whack the snake with the nearest stick, apparently). The best thing to do is to panic and run away. Sound advice as far as I'm concerned!
Sydney St Patrick's Day Parade 11 March 2007
St Patrick's Day came early in Sydney this year. This was because the 75th anniversary of the Harbour Bridge was on the 18th of March, so the city couldn't really cope with two large celebrations over one weekend. So Sydney went green on the 11th of March.Emma (flatmate), Saloni (workmate) and I had a great day although it wasn't really like a St Patrick's Day Parade at home. The sun was shining for a start, and we were..... DRY! No rain at all.
This is Damien Leith - he's Irish but has been living in Australia for years and years and he recently won Australian Idol.
These wee Irish dancers were sooooooo cute! Wobbling all over the place... just adorable!
QE II and QM II Visit Sydney 20 Feb 07
My cousin Ciara McLoughlin came to visit Sydney during her trip around the world, and as luck would have it - the QE II and QM II were also visiting Sydney at that time. Ciara, Saloni, Emma and I took a trip into town and waited while the QEII made her way in to Circular Quay.
It was a spectacular sight and there were helicopters everywhere. Circular Quay, The Rocks and the Opera House were crowded and there was a wonderful atmosphere as everyone came to see the two most famous passenger ships in the world.
Chinese New Year's Parade Feb 07
Ballarat 26 - 27 January 2007
After the Great Ocean Road, we headed inland towards Ballarat to visit my mother's aunt, Vera. The landscape driving though Victoria was pretty bleak. It's difficult to imagine the effects of a severe drought when you come from the West of Ireland. Fields with scattered tufts of brown grass stretched to the horizon and there was no stock to be seen.
We arrived in Ballarat at about lunchtime and were warmly welcomed by Auntie Vera and some of the other Sisters. We then went to see Sovereign Hill, a recreation of a gold-mining town. This was how Ballarat (and many other towns and cities in Victoria) was founded. It was well worth the visit, although the height of summer may not be the best time. We were well toasted by the sun.
The following day, we had a stroll around Ballarat and a walk through the Botanical Gardens. One of the most striking things about Ballarat was the empty Lake Wendouree. The lake was the site of the rowing events in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and now, due to the severe droughts, it is utterly dry. The locals are, naturally, very concerned but Auntie Vera told us that a man who was old enough to remember the last time the lake dried up completely said that the following year, there was such flooding that the lake expanded out on to the road that surrounds it.
After a delicious lunch, we headed off to Melbourne again as we were both flying out very early the next morning.
Great Ocean Road Jan 07
After watching lots of Tennis in Melbourne we hired a car and hit the Great Ocean Road. We drove through Torquay and made our way to Warrnambool via some lovely towns like Lorne and Apollo Bay where we stopped for a swim. As we left Lorne, we noticed a number of cars pulled in along the side of the road so we stopped too and got out to see what was going on. As it turned out, there were a number of Koala's in the trees at that point so we spent a few minutes there watching them and taking photos. There was one baby Koala who was
particularly cute. S/he was cuddled up with Mammy Koala at first, but then climbed down a branch backwards to have a snack on some leaves and pose for some pictures:
Melbourne 21 - 25 January 07
Australian Open 22 - 24 January 07
Three of our days in Melbourne were spent at the Australian Open Tennis Championships. On our first day there, we just got a general admission pass which allowed us entry into the second biggest arena (the Vodafone Arena) but not the main arena (the Rod Laver Arena). We spend the day moving further and further towards the back of the arena to escape the blazing sun. Still though, we got to see some good matches. First up was the Bryan Brothers from the US taking on Wesley Moodie and local boy Todd Perry in the third round of the doubles. Bob and Mike Bryan are twin brothers whose only difference as far as I could see is that one is left-handed and the other is right-handed. But that only helps if you know which one is which. The Bryan brothers won the match and as far as I can remember - went on to win the doubles tournament outright... Yep - I've just checked that out on australianopen.com and I wasn't leading you astray.
Next up was Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) V Patty Schnyder (USA) in the 4th round of the women's singles competition. Chakvetadze won that, but was beaten by compatriot Maria Sharapova in the Quarter Finals.
Finally we watched some of Tommy Haas (GER) V David Nalbandian (ARG). We didn't watch the whole match because we were a bit tennis-ed out and just about ready to melt so we headed back to St Kilda for a nice cool beer by the beach. Oh yeah - and Tommy Haas won that match by the way.
Our second day at the tennis was actually a night session at the Rod Laver Arena. This was where we saw the great man himself, Roger Federer play Tommy Robredo of Spain. There were a few breaks of serve and even a tie-breaker but in the end, Federer kept his record of not dropping a set and moved on to the next round without too many worries.
Our seats were right up in the back of the stadium giving us an impressive view of the Melbourne Skyline through the partially opened roof. Would you believe that they turned the tennis court into a swimming pool just a few weeks later for the World Swimming Championships? Honestly - it's true!
Our third day at the Open was a day session at the Rod Laver Arena. The first match was the women's singles quarter final I already mentioned between Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze. Sharapova of course, won this one... but lost to the unseeded Serena Williams in the final.
Next up was the Qtr final between Kim Clijsters (BEL) and Martina Hingis (SUI). This one was a tough one for me because I like them both a lot. In the end, Clijsters won out and went on to meet Maria Sharapova in the semi-final. This match was pretty cool for us because we got to go right down the front for a while when we spotted some free seats there. In the Rod Laver Arena - you are assigned your seats, but people aren't allowed come and go during play. So if a seat is empty just as the players are about to start a game, then it will be empty for at least three games until the next change of ends. So we were looking right over the press box - we could have read the next day's sports column if we'd read over the shoulder of the right journalist...
The final match in Rod Laver that afternoon was the men's qtr-final between Tommy Haas and Nikolay Davydenko (RUS). The match was a bit of a battle by all accounts; Tommy Hass eventually winning out, although it went to five sets and
still wasn't over by the time we got back to our hostel. We were too hot and tired to stay for the whole thing so we went for a stroll around the grounds before heading home. And look who we spotted on a practise court - Andy Roddick himself...
A kindly passer-by took this photo of us in front of the exit - just to prove we were there....
Maura and Mick Visit Sydney 12 January 07
Instead of being wet and cold at Christmas, Maura and Mike decided to treat themselves to some sunshine and headed down under for their holidays. They arrived in Sydney just before Christmas and I met them briefly one evening after work before I headed off to NZ to spend Christmas with Andrew’s family. After Christmas, Maura and Curls headed north and toured around Queensland before coming back to Sydney for a few nights before flying home. The night before they left, we all met up in The Orient, a pub in The Rocks (the area of Sydney between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House). A great night was had by all and I even impressed myself by getting up the following morning to meet them in town for brunch before they headed out to the airport.
Jazz in the Domain 13 January 2007
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Jazz in the Domain with some of the girls from work. We brought along our picnic blankets and nibbles enjoyed some jazz music with a Brazilian twist for the evening. Lots of people were very well sit up indeed - with wine coolers, full picnics, chairs the works.
This is Saloni and Alison
Ciara, Susan and Laura
This is Saloni and I. If you look in the background, you'll see lots bats. Just behind us are the botanical gardens where all the bats snooze during the day. As the sun sets, they head out for the evening - often towards the harbour bridge where lights attract lots of bugs for the bats to snack on.
