One step at a time

We arrived here in Melbourne, and the plan was to get up and running as soon as we could so the day we arrived we dropped our bags hit the library, only because it has free internet access,
and began searching for both apartments and jobs, anything and everything we were applying for. We at least sent out about 50 Cvs, sorry Resumes on that day alone. We thought we wouldn hear back
from anybody at all, well thats because you usually dont at home unless you send out at least 100. We stayed at a hostel in the city for the first 2 nites, it cost just about A$100 for the 2 of us and straight away our faces were not the same as they had been. We were going to be robbed of our money fairly fast if we didnt get something and fast. Luckily, Damian in Sydney had given my number to Shani, Diones sister living here in Melbourne and she offered us a spare room out in her house. We were actually so happy but didnt want to impose at all but it was cool she said they would be delighted  to have us so off we rocked, to a place in the suburbs we didnt know, to meet a sister of Diones that we didnt know, so much could have went wrong but turned out it was easy and there was nothing  to worry about at all. They are the coolest and nicest people ever. They took us in treated us like family and made us feel so welcome here in Melbourne. It was awesome, Im just glad Dione has such a nice family pretty much everywhere in Australia, Happy Days! As Dad said, if i fell into the canal I would come out with a TV on my head! Sounds about right Id say haha. SO we stayed out with them guys out in epping for about 3 weeks or so i reckon, we were still searching for jobs and a place to live. Things started looking up but then the application we had put in for the apartment wasnt picked so that just kinda disheartened us and knocked us back a bit. Hey but in teh doom and gloom of the reality, we had to go to the tennis, The Australian Open like, do you think we could come here and miss this?? Not a chance. SO bought tickets for the opening day in the Rod Laver Arena and got to see Ms Sharapova with all her moans and screams in full flow, it was actually pretty high pitched, then the womens world number 1, some Danish chick who actually played ok and then Roger Federrer. He can move so fast around the court. He can cover so much ground so fast, it was amazing to watch. Then when we thought our day was over, when play had finished in the  Rod Laver, we actually managed to sneak into the second arena and see Venus Williams and Justine Henin play over there. So all in all it was worth the bit of money that we spent to get intp both the courts and see some of the top players in the world grace us with their presence. Then it was back to the reality of looking and looking and looking but eventually finding. I got a job in a restaurant called The Baths, a swanky place that is the Rolys of here, dunno how i got the job there really but handy as and money isnt too bad either so it was looking up. And actually within a day of working there they had promised
Ailbhe a job in the cafe downstairs too so that was even better. So within a few days of that we found a nice place in the centre of St Kilda that would be perfect for us. After the last property went pear shaped though
we werent banking on it but my god did it turn out good. A bedroom the size of our sitting room thats fully furnished along with the rest of the aparment. Chh-Ching! Everything finally slotted into place and we have a
cool place to live thats close to everything. SO now its no more searching and its a lot more enjoying, comedy festivals, food festivals, AFL, Grand Prix and tons of other stuff Im sure but roll on teh next few months of
fun and Melbourne!

Yet another Unknown

SO what have we been up to lately, hmmmmmm its a tough one, well I havent told you all about our New Years Eve Experience and oh was it an experience. People have said that NYE in Sydney was one of the best events in the world to do and yeah the fireworks were spectacular
but what people dont tell you about is the gruelling wait that you have to endure in a 3km line of people, mainly irish at the back and chiese at the front who camped overnight, bloody overnight to get first in teh line so they could all run and get the best spot for their camera.
It was about 40 degrees out on NYE and we were stuck out in a plain open filed that they call the Botanic Gardens. We actually managed to survive the wait and got into the gardens at about 12pm but had been stuck in the que outside for about 3 hours, little did we know that we would be sitting oin the same
spot inside the gardens until 11.59pm until the show actually started. It was pretty funny because there was supposed to be an "Airshow" on at 7pm but it was pathethic, weither it our excellent up bringing of watching the Baldonnell airshow, a proper airsghow, or the fact that it was a single
plane flying around doing circles in the sky. It just looked like the pilot had got lost on an imaginary roundabout. Shocking! The fireworks at midnight tho were unreal. They just blew us away. Think they lasted for about 13 minutes or something crazy like that and there must have been a few million
people around the harbour watching as the new year rolled on in. So it was the New Year and what way to start off 2011 than taking a tour of the great Sydney Opera House. What a spectacular building. Its actually a masterpiece in there. The theatres were sublime and the details around the place
from the staircases to the handrails and the awesome shell structure. We were actually in awe and took tons of photos of every little thing. Half the people on the tour thought we were weirdos taking photos of screws and window frames and all that instead of looking at the view, phffff what do they know!!!
It was quite nice to actually get insid ethe building though and actually properly explore it, we wanted to run around everywhere but we werent allowed, what has health and safety got to do with wanting to climb out onto the roof of it. So after doing that we had  few more days around Sydney, staying out in Manly
with Damian, Diones cousin. Its a nice spot out there, its a beachy chilled out area just on the far side of the harbour and the only real way to get there is by the ferry. WOW! a ferry out into the harbour below the bridge and past the Opera House. Best boat trip we have been on by far. We did that at least 30
times just to get into the city and everytime it was as amazing as the last and how could that view every get old! Then we decided to head to Melbourne instead of settling in Sydney, just because people had told us Sydney was like London and Melbourne was the cool city like Dublin or Edinburgh so we took a chance on it.
We decided to catch the train, only 12 hours, still doesnt compare to 31 hours on a bus in asia so this was just a nice comfortable trip. The train was quite nice and went through crazy landscapes of rolling hills and parts that looked like the desert. But soon enough we arrived in another new city with not much
of a plan, well the plan was to make a plan in teh next few days, but right then we were standing in a chilled out place with trams everywhere with out back to Southern Cross Station.