My brother the famous boxer

So we were sitting watching the boxing on Sunday and I realise...wow - I've seen Manny Pacquiao before somewhere....

(Manny Pacquiao - pound for pound the greatest boxer on the planet right now)

(Paul Tully - pound for pound the greatest sessioner on the planet right now)

I'm telling you - separated at birth...

Sydney doesn’t do weekends but if it did...

9.15am. Monday morning. With an 11 hour working day ahead of me all I can do is look back on the weekend and ask, was it worth it?

Simply put...HELL YES!!

Those of you who work full time know and dread the feeling of a weekend wasted, when you get to Sunday evening with another week of work looming and you ask yourself – did I really make the most of my time off or did i just sit around the apartment scratching (note – everyone needs a weekend like that every now and again)? So with that in mind, coming towards the end of last week we started putting the wheels in motion for a weekend fuelled by testosterone/beer/sport and an all round general disregard for personal health and/or hygiene.

First on the cards was our inaugural trip to the races out in Rosehill Race course – a chance for us to put the flipflops and boardies away and dust off the tailor made thai suits, double cuffed shirts, heels and hats that make a day at the races that more legitimate. The day kicked off with pre drinks and food out in the wild west of Toongabbie with The Firm (still brimming after our breakout win last Tuesday) and then off to Rosehill to try our hand at a touch of gambling. Of course as soon as we got there, with the sun blazing and the beers cold we soon forgot about trying to figure out how the hell the odds work and instead did what we do best – banter off randomers! Gareth got engaged, Paul got judgemental and I came out of the closet to give you a flavour of the fun! Over the course of the day we probably only saw about 3 horses, as opposed to many, many Toohies. The only problem with starting drinking that early is it throws your scheduled drinking behaviour timeline way out of whack – come 6.30pm we were getting our late night kekab thirst and so made the pilgrimage to our local kebab dealer for a greasy feast. Post kebab the familiar stupor of sleep washed over us..what rockstars....

Sunday’s sport and beer schedule had a more ambitious look to it...

0630 – Tea Gardens for a microcosm of home – big screen, drunken Irish and a long shot hope of producing a decent result in a football game (pints optional)

0900 – Home cooked Irish breakfast of sausages, eggs, beans, toast and tea to wash down the bitter but inevitable defeat to the French (Leon Best? Really??)

1200 – Two-on-two touch football to try and sweat some of the toxins out of our bodies

1400 – Back to the Tea Gardens for the Cotto – Pacquiao fight (pints less optional)

1600 – Steaks in the Eastern (pints mandatory)

2100 – Off licence and left over sausages from breakfast...the warm up to the rugby begins (power naps for the weak)

0200 – Ireland vs Australia rugby game...important for bragging rights around Sydney (a draw helps NO-ONE!)

0400 – Pass out in any corner comfortable enough with dreams of Paddy Wallace getting struck down by some foul disease which will prevent him from ever playing international rugby again

0830 – Work....

So while I sit here figuring out how best to maximise stealth naps in the bathroom/storage room I’m delighted to have squeezed every possible minute out of a sunny weekend in Sydney.

(sidenote...medically whats the most amount of redbull you can drink in 11 hours? I’ve had a rather worrying twitch for two hours now post third can...)

7 reasons to be happy this week

1. 40^th Anniversary of Sesame street this week – 40 years of unadulterated joy in the form of big yellow birds and cookie chomping monsters...who can honestly say a bad word about Sesame Street?? As some of you might know I have amassed quite the collection of Sesame streets teeshirts (aswell as a bad ass pair of Bert & Ernie cufflinks), of which I was only able to bring a few travelling with me much to my dismay. But if 40 years of Bert & Ernie’s suspect relationship and Count Dracula’s thirst (wah wah) for learning doesn’t bring a smile to your face then don’t even bother going to the doctor...you’re dead inside.

2. On a more personal level during a encounter of the slightly tipsy and reminiscent kind Nora and I took a walk down memory lane to our first encounter as “top qualified Samba Soccer coaches” – and we realised that we’ve known each other over 8 years...longer than the other 7 people living with me right now put together!! Granted that may not seem like too big a deal to many of you but I think its awesome that even though we’ve drifted in and out of each other’s intertwined lived through the venn diagram of mutual friends, after 8 years we’re still really close and are having a great time living together (but NO mam we’re not going out again sorry!)

3. Sydney weather this week....Monday 28 degrees and sunny, Tuesday 29 degrees and sunny, Wednesday 26 degrees and sunny, Thursday....ok well you get the point...and its not even summer yet!!

4. My tag rugby team The Firm recorded our first win this week with a resounding 16-1 triumph over the Boozehounds...made all the more sweet by the fact that we lost the previous two weeks by an accumulated score of 26-4! Well done to our girls for notching up their first scores too!

5. Concert fever - Going to Razhel the Human Beat Box...the God Father of Noise...tonight which will be awesome fun – never seen a good beatboxer live, I can imagine it should be a pretty good atmosphere. Also found out there are tickets on sale for Girltalk and DJ Yoda playing in January. After Eoin and I have been thwarted numerous times previously to see DJ Yoda nothing will stand in my way this time...NOTHING I TELLS YA! Also on the horizon is field day on new years eve (head lining are 2ManyDjs, Presets, LCD soundsystem) and Future sounds (http://futuresounds.blogspot.com/) with the Prodigy throwing down...amazing. Just found out today that I now have a Big Day Out ticket...amazing (god bless you Beno!)

6. A recent article in the Irish Times outlined the figures for unemployment in Ireland at the moment....27% among young male graduates aged 20-24....holy fruitbasket batman thats not right! Granted while I’m not setting the marketing world alight here with my current job it’s a hell of a lot better than some poor souls at home! And then how many of you in jobs are currently hating it...I hate to point fingers but Jimbo, come on – a little kitten dies of sadness everytime we get one of your updates on KPMGay – get out – become a beard consultant or something.

7. An awesome weekend of sports coming up - we're going to the Rosehill races on Saturday with a big crowd of people, a chance to throw on some nice dresses for the girls and for the boys...some serious midday drinking in the sun with random horse betting! Then on Sunday, due to horrible time differences we have to get up at 6.30am to watch Ireland play France in the World Cup Qualifier and then stay up until 4am that night with watch Ireland play Australia in rugby...huge bragging rights on the line there. I'm gonna be wrecked on Monday morning but I don't care...not missing the games!

What a great mood....polyphonic spree sum it up pretty well!

When you live with 9 people every night is a party

Currently in our humble, cosy, 2.5 bedroom (the half counts for the mattress in our living room/extra bedroom) apartment in Bondi we have 9 people...

Gareth, Paul, Ais, Nora and myself....along with guest appearances from the Irish contingent – Ruth and Becky, and from Sweden we have Denize and Kim. While Ruth and Becky are only over here for a holiday the Swedes are on the one year visa like ourselves and are apartment hunting – as Gareth and I found out when we first landed, the benefit of having someone to stay with initially is massive – Dee and Sinead helped us out by sheltering us for a week so we are paying it forward with Team Sweden. So you basically need to be a Tetris champion to fit everyone in, and have the stealth of a ninja to get out in the morning without waking someone/everyone.

There are Pros and Cons to running such a halfway house...

Pros
· Every pre boozing session already feels like a party with so many people there

· With the gender swinging heavily in the favour of the ladies the musky man smell has been replaced with the sweeter smelling scents of 6 perfumed up women (NOTE* - this is also going in the Cons section)

· With 9 people sitting around talking rubbish in the evenings at least ONE person is bound to say something stupid to keep us laughing all night (it just so happens Aisling is usually the culprit here)

· With an official total of 8 tea drinkers (Gar still refuses to drink the delicious nectar of the gods) someone is always putting the kettle on (NOTE* - please feel free to send Irish teabags to 2/2 Hollywood Avenue, Bondi Junction, NSW 2022)


Cons
· The aforementioned increase in oestrogen is directly correlated to the amount of hair straighteners/curlers/dryers/twisters/frizzers/poppers left around the apartment. As well as enough make up to put Brown Thomas to shame. Say what you will about smelly boys...at least we come without accessories.

o Boys Shelf in bathroom – razor, hair gel, after shave, soap, half a beer left from getting ready the night before

o Girls Shelf in bathroom – razor, soft gel razor handle, soft gel razor heads, hand cream, face cream, wrist cream, ear cream, I-can’t-believe-its-not-cream....ok so you get my point, now just multiply that by 6 and you’ll get an idea

· When planning to go out on a Friday night, to accommodate everyone showers must begin at midday

· Hide-and-seek – so our landlord thinks theres only 4 of us living in the apartment which is fine until he comes around to pick up the rent on a Saturday...cue a mad dash to hide all said accessories, clothes and people – a delightful activity when, as we are most Saturdays, frightfully hungover

· We go through more toilet paper than the Teepee Olympics


All being said I think its great having everyone around – especially good to see familiar faces from home, even if for just a short time. After next week the population of Hollywood Ave will be cut to a manageable 5 people, how lonely we will be!

(Another Pro is that theres always someone on hand to offer a welcome pat on the arse!)

An old harry enfield clip i just came across....magic

Racist...or just stupid?

A girl I know here in Australia recently updated her Facebook status to.... “...was told by some Australian lebo guy last night that i was being racist towards him and his friends. I pointed out to him that he is Australian and you can’t be racist towards your own nationality”

Apartheid in South Africa???

KKK in Southern US?????
Naaaaah.....that wasn’t racism – they just didn’t “get along"

It almost tops what I overheard in the queue at the fruit salad stall (yes I’m getting rid of the “Sydney stone” MOTHER!) a few weeks ago – the woman in front of me, while enquiring about the fruit salad being dished out to her...

Power suit wearing woman - “what are those orangey looking things there?”
Bemused Asian worker – “eeemmm.....oranges”
Unfazed woman – “oh no, I don’t want any of those”

Really Australia...come on – you’re not doing yourself any favours there.

6 inches

Back to the world of blogging it is then. Since settling in Sydney 6 months ago I have admittedly been quite poor in keeping in touch with everyone and also, my previous blog (http://strangestoriesrandompeople.blogspot.com/) fell to the wayside...gutting for the thousands of loyal fan waiting with baited breath for my updates....hmmm maybe not.

I don’t intend these posts to be lengthy hyperbole filled waffle (read: “intentionally”) – more so a snap shot look at the life lived 6 inches in front of your face – fuelled by the spontaneous impromptu events that shape our day-to-day adventures...big, small, random or just downright silly. I am fortunate enough to be in a position of uncertainty, and yes I do mean fortunate, where I don’t know what lies ahead for me. My current situation is:

Living: Bondi – Sydney, Australia
Job: Facilities Officer – Infosys Technologies, 6 month contract ending in Jan (mind numbingly boring job in a quiet IT office where my main challenge everyday is to stay awake...on the plus side I have now read 70% of the internet and get paid full time!)
Accompanied by: Gareth is hanging in there with me (although he returns to Dublin for 7 weeks over Christmas), Paul, Aisling and Nora
Banter Levels: An unshakeable 8.5/10

and the idea that, in three months time, I have no idea where I will be or what I will be doing excites me to my very core – another year in Oz anyone? Try my hand at coconut selling in Fiji? Teach English with the bald eagle himself Eoin Monaghan in South America? Or, much to my mother’s delight, a return to Dublin’s fair (if not dreary) city. Who knows....who cares?? Right now I’ve more important things on my mind...should I take a nap in the supply room or the bathroom (a.k.a the Laura Tully nap) in order to burn another twenty minutes closer to home time.

Friday Night Lights Series two box set tonight...is there any better way to spend an evening...Texas forever