Engagement Party

You can always tell its been a good night, when this is the before:

And this is the After................................

It was a great night and I want to thank everyone for coming, given how much alcohol was drank I'm confident everyone woke up a little dehydrated. Although everyone has our gratitude equally, a few people deserve a special mention:

Natacha - For the World's best Home made card
John, Aine and Mark - For wonderful speeches
Orla - For saying yes

I thought the restaurant worked out well the food was really good (starters were like Mains) and service was excellent. Then after the Restaurant for a few more in the East Sydney (None were needed !!!) and after that nothing out of the ordinary happened at all......................

All other photos on Orla's Facebook page.

Easter 2010 - Adelaide Surrounds

The first post in a very long time................. We went to the wine regions around Adelaide for the Easter long weekend, McClaren Vale and Barossa are two of the best known in Australia (with the world's oldest Shiraz vines). We flew to Adelaide on Thurs evening and then just a short drive to McClaren Vale and once we found the right turn we stayed in this lovely cottage just off the main street which was a great location, we'd highly recommend it (its called wine and roses).

With a lovely fire going and the knowledge that this may be our only sober time of the holiday I decided to propose, I had planned to over the weekend but seemed like a really good moment and once Orla realised I was serious I'm delighted to write she said yes almost immediately.

After the surprise and excitement of Thursday evening, we got an even bigger shock on Good Friday, that most of the vineyards were closed, doesn't make much sense in Oz as they're not holy joe's. So First off why headed to a beautifl beach, you never think of beaches around a wine region but it was really lovely.

Given our limited choice we only managed to visit 3 vineyards but two of them were really good so no harm done. We had lunch in Leconfield Wines (Richard Hamilton) which was so good we ditched the car and decided we'd walk the remaining 5k back to our cottage. After that we went to the vineyard of the 'black sheep' of the family Hugh Hamilton and even though the wine wasn't as good the setting was excellent, so we sat out and had a bottle overlooking the vines.

On the way to Barossa we visited D'arenberg & Wirra Wirra, both excellent vineyards. We chose to go via the Adelaide Hills which was a pretty scenic but journey full of windy roads. By chance we stopped a vineyard on the side of the road called Kersebrook Hill, which turned out to be a great find (I'd highly recommend it for anyone else). We stopped in a few other places along the way and eventually found our B&B called "Barossa House B&B" (which was central with lovely hosts but nowhere near as comfortable as our McClaren Vale accommodation). Alot of restaurants were booked out for Easter Saturday so we had to settle for faulty towers, that said the food was ok and a very nice member of staff offered us a lift home (after the lock-in), every other staff member was borderline insane.

Next morning we got up and early and cycled round the vines, we probably got to 7-8 cellar doors. Cycling is a great way to get round and the weather was beautiful, we started in Penfolds which is world famous and always produces the best rated Australian wines. After a few tastes we became very amused by random signs!!I tried some meade (fermented honey) which is quiet nice but I wouldn't be able to drink to much of it and Orla even managed to find an engagement ring for $6, which looks real to me. We managed to stay relatively sober and headed for a lovely meal in a fancy restaurant in town (after paying for the world's most overpriced taxi!!).

Our trip back to Adelaide was painless and we would have gone to the Zoo if we could find parking anywhere but after about 30 mins of looking we gave up. We ended up sitting in a lovely pub for the day enjoying the nice weather. Adelaide feels about the same size as Galway although its supposed to have a larger population than Dublin.

New Apartment

After living in 68 Crown Street for about 4 months we really liked the area but there were a few things about the old place that were bothering us, so the best solution was to move about 5 doors down to 63!! The new place has a bit more room and is more modern with better facilities (it even has a spare room for any visitors !!)The only problem was it came completely unfurnished so we had to pretty much buy everything but the kitche sink. We've gradually been picking up furniture here and there for all the rooms and thankfully we are now pretty much done, so here are some pics ...

Our First Aussie Holiday!

We took a few days off work (well Ro is changing job so has a nice break in between), rented a jeep and headed north. We stopped at a Koala Sanctuary in Port Macquarie and then drove onto Byron Bay which is absolutely beautiful with some great restaurants and lovely beaches (even if it is a bit windy). On our way home we stopped off in Hunter Valley for 2 nights and did lots of wine tasting! We also purchased our biggest holiday souvenir ever...a wine barrell for the balcony!!

Melbourne June 2008

A savage time was had by all in Melbourne, despite the fact that we lost the rubgy (but had front row seats and lots of green stripes on our faces)! It was great to see Deirdre and Danny again before they head off on their travels back to Ireland. There was an awful, awful lot of alcohol consumed (the bono debate being a sure sign of too much drink!)! The slight problem of Ro and Danny carrying the massive "for lease sign" (for their apartment) inside and up two flights of stairs into Dee and Danny's apartment (it was funny though!) and hilarious that Dee, despite being cross, praised Danny "for all his effort in the lifting"!!!!! Thankfully Ro was sober enough to drag Orla, Duff and Aine out of the bar and to the airport in time!

Thanks for the lend of the jersey Dee!

Pictures of Sydney Apartment

Here are some pics our apartment in Sydney our new address is :

2/68 Crown Street,
Woolloomooloo,
NSW 2011
Australia

What really attracted us to this place was the numeber of o's in the name!!

Unfortunately its only 1 bed but there is 2 comfortable couches if anyone is planning a visit, I also have the added benefit of being able to see where I work from the balcony.

Dublin - The Return

Well to everyones great surprise we arrived home early as a little Valentines Day treat for all our family and friends. With Ro being home for only 10 days before heading back to Sydney there were some busy busy days (filled with job and apartment hunting) and even busier nights - far too much school night drinking went on. Orlas back for a few more weeks to study so hopefully now that Ro's headed off a lot more studying and a lot less drinking will be the result (haha!!). Thanks to everyone for reading the blog, we hope it didn't depress you all and instead made you want to do some travelling and come visit us in Sydney, there will always be a bed, couch or floor for any of you!xxx p.s. if anyone knows of a cheap way to get some 4000 photos developed do let us know!!!!