Round the World Trip 2006/07

Just thought i would update you all on our mini-Brisbane Adventure... Things are currently going peachy creamy as we have met some great people and seem to have fallen in with a nice crowd.
First off there is a guy we call Wolverine.. a 28 year old bloke who was born in Beverley (how random!) and has wild silvery black hair!!
Next is Si.. or Malcolm in the middle.. a Southerner who has a liking for Gold Chains and sportswear (need i say more!?) His Girlfriend, or Lisa Hunter from Hollyoaks as Pol Calls her and their friend who doesnt say much, watches continual Scrubs and is called Borat...
Dico... a Kiwi, who left three days ago but has been sleeping on the TV room couch for the last two nights (Without paying) before being caught by reception and having his stuff confiscated until he paid for the extra nights! And Sabrina.. A Kiwi/Oz girl who seems to be a spitting imagine of a certain teenage witch of the same name!!

What a group we make...

Our days revolve around working (of course) and then heading up to the roof where we drink beers and talk until three am before heading to bed. It really has been a great couple of weeks but alas, the management have decided to close the roof at night so that people on the fifth floor can get some sleep! this means we will have to look else where from tonight.
Hope you are all ok back in the UK and im sure we will speak to you all soon.

Pol and Ali

xx

Brisbane, Brisneyland, or Brisvegas... call it what you will (and trust me, they do here!) seems to exist for one reason to travellers..its the last stop before Fraser Island and the Whitsundays and a lot of people use the city to wash their clothes and get drunk.... very drunk...
Pol and I are currently residing in Staff quarters of the palace Hostel in Down town Brisbane (which is very compact) and i am employed in the more upmarket of the two bars that is attached to it. Pol is working at Picasso's Pizza restaurant so as you can guess, we dont get to see a lot of each other at the moment. We did partake in a few drinkies with some Canadians over the weekend which resulted in Pol taking part in the drinking competition with three others. And guess what, her team won! $25 each.. not bad!
Brisbane itself does not really hold much to keep you occupied. There is a man made beach on the South side of the River (roughly 100 metres long) with a salt water lagoon attached to it! The South side of the river also hosts the University and is far more sedate and laid back that the north side (where we are!) Brisbane in all honesty seems to be half complete. There are diggers and cranes everywhere and come early evening, all the bars are full of Large workers (All Irish!) who are hammered!
Couple more interesting points to make about the city:
We have just had level five water restrictions imposed on us. This means 4 minute showers and absolutely no car washing apart from the windscreens, mirrors and rego plates.
Brisbane is one of the most liveable cities in the world. it polled higher than London (unsurprisingly) and Paris! According to one local i was speaking to last week, more Australians are flocking to the area than anywhere else in the Country (nearly 2000 families a week) This is putting an enormous strain on the water supplies and apparently the situation is so bad, the city may run out water next year!
Anyway, i wont harp on any longer.. we shall write more as it happens.

Polly and ali

xx

Hi folks,

Its been a while but we are back on the road after slogging our guts off for 2.5 months and it feels great!!!
We left Sydneyshire on Friday evening after picking up our little car and headed off into the great unknown (not before ali had stalled 12 times whilst reverse parking)
First stop was the blue mountains. We stayed in a place called Katoomba which was absolutely jam packed with crustaceans (our new word for crusties!)
Hostel was a shock to say the least. Walking in, we spied a chandelier in reception and thought we had hit the big time (we ended up staying in a scout hut!) Saying that, we had an eight bed dorm to ourselves which was sweet, but we returned on the second night to find the door open and a drunk local passed out in another bed! The snoring was so loud that neither pol or i could bear it!
As for the blue mountains themselves, wonderful! we went to a place called scenic world (how corny!) which consisted of three scenic transport rides and a hell of a lot of Japs! Got some top pics and we nearly got snapped ourselves as we changed into shorts half way round thinking no-one was watching!
Departing Krustyville, we headed off past the hunter valley where we scored some great wine and some chocolate port! (how rock and roll are we!?) Headed to an old industrial town called newcastle which bore an uncanny resemblance to Grimsby and Hull, needless to say, we went to bed early and left around 8am!
On the way up to Byron Shire, there was not much to see. We did bump into a Koala Hospital and took some great pics of half stoned Koala's sleeping!
Byron Bay. What can we say about it... well, if will is reading, we can kinda understand why you got lost there... it's a hippy heaven, full of weed smoking surfers who just chill on the beach all day and party at night! We met our pal, katie there (she was working in a hippy commune called the arts factory - recommended!) and chilled on the beach as the sun went down and the locals played didgeridoos and bongo's! what bliss!
We are now in Surfers paradise (paradise being somewhat of a lie!) but we intend on aving a beer or two and a larf whilst at it!
We shall update on tonights antics asap!

Peace love and a big phat kiss

Polly and ali

x

Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday as the French call it. Shame it happens on a Saturday and there wasn't much eating of food being done..

We were told to expect something big.. and wow. Sydney sure knows how to throw a street party. People started arriving at 3pm and by 4 there was a small army of young and old lining Oxford Street waiting for the festivities to begin.
Alas, we were unable to see much of the parade that night as the sheer numbers prevented us from having a clear view (oh and waiting for the girls to get ready meant we arrived late!) So after half an hour of photographing backs of heads we called it a night and headed to the first of the nights venues.. After being ID'd and almost kneecapped by a swarthy Maori doorman with a metal detector (Apparently it was a bit of an unsavoury part of the City!) i nervously wandered into the pub, half expecting a scene from Trainspotting (the one where Begbie throws a pint glass off the balcony and hits someone on the head!) It actually turned out to be a bog standard boozer! Set out over three floors, it had a smattering of pool tables and the obligatory gambling den filled with chainsmoking, lizard skinned men and women.
After a quick drink, we were herded off by one of the loud mouthed Southern Ladies in the Group to find a proper party (she literally herded us. im not kidding!) So off we went, dodging the endless crowds of drag queens, fairies and hot panted men along Oxford Street before we joined the back of a rather large queue outside a place called the Gaff. Here's where it turned nasty.. really nasty.
After paying the $10 entrance fee, we were ushered into a largish bar which had "the Venga Bus" blasting out of the speakers.. Need i say more?
After an hour or so and several plastic schooners of Fosters things weren't looking any better. We sat next to glass panel which looked out onto the sweaty dancefloor and were promptly entertained some of the states that were trying to dance.
After an hour of DUMFF DUMMFF DUMFF we headed outside to grab some air and to clear our heads and to survey the Post Mardi Gras carnage that littered Oxford Street. by this time it was about midnight and the cleanup operation had begun. A Fleet of open lorries had arrived and their crews (rather scary looking men with big tatoos) started to pick up all the beer crates. Now, i wasnt aware of this at the time but sean (our old landlord from Melbourne) told us that people steal the beer crates and then make a fortune selling them to the vertically challenged!
After ten minutes or so of random abuse from a group of German guys, we tried to head back into the club but were rudely informed that we had to join the back of the queue! So we did the honourable thing and walked off!
And that pretty much summed up our Mardi Gras experience!

Now then!
Its been a long time coming but i feel that i should write another blog whilst in Sydney so you lot out there (if any of you read this) dont feel too forgotten.
What have we done since we last spoke?.. well, ermm, Australia day was fun.. and ermm. Well, to start with, i now have a new job! i am currently employed with the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home care (sounds very George Orwell - 1984!) and have been appointed to write a training manual for the departments Data Entry Officers. Anyway, the week before i started, we bagged some top tickets to the One Day Cricket Final. Had a top day (albeit being marred by several torrential downpours and not being able to get drunk as the beer was 2.5%!) England won (Hurrah) and all the Aussies at work had their tails between their legs when 9am came on the monday morning!
Other than that not much has happened. We spend our weekends exploring the City and the one past we found a lovely little walk through some interesting flower arrangements and water displays. It was however, spoiled by the multitude of Mcdonalds and fast food resturants around it! After finding a nice pub that sold Pints! (yes, pints, not those silly little Schooners!) we took our selves to the Supermarket where we bought some nice fresh stuff to make pasta!
Sunday was spent lounging around and making more plans for our trip North which is due to start around the 1st April. Again i tell all this but have no clue that any of you are actually reading so if you are.. please leave us a nice comment telling us that you care!
Also came to realise today that the customer service here is terrible. I tried to complain about some flowers i bought for Polly for Valentines day. To cut a long story short, they died after 24 hours and when i asked for a refund i was fobbed off until this week (yes... nearly two weeks later) when a manager called me to say that the flowers were fresh when delivered and it must have been something that we did to them. HE then offered me a 25% discount off my next order to which i just laughed! Spend more money with them!??!?!?
Scum bags.

Anyway, enough of my whinging. im off to veg infront of t'telly

Ali