Employment

This is a big city, and things tend to happen very quickly, but I wasn't expecting this.

Had a job interview with the Insolvency service at 4pm today. Whilst on the train home they called and offered me the job, which I accepted. Whats even better is that it doesn't start until 18 September, giving me plenty of time to travel a bit more and sort stuff out. Everything has managed to work itself out very well!

Its not the job I wanted, it doesn't pay quite as much, but its still pretty reasonable by Ipswich standards and sounds quite interesting. Plan now is to head to Scotland soon, before coming back and sorting out a place to live.

This is so cool!

Brighton and Liverpool

Hey guys,

well, just returned from a whistle stop tour of brighton and liverpool.

Brighton is a largish city on the south coast of England, famous for Brighton rock and the pier, which is a tacky tourist attraction. The pier houses the erroniously named 'Palace of Fun', which could probably be renamed 'Palace of shite'. The city itself was very nice, and it did have a pebble beach, which looked quite bizzare. Had a couple of lovely nights there with friends. Did also have my first curry on English soil, which lived up to its reputation.

Liverpool though was something else. We landed right in the middle of a big free musical festival. We missed the proclaimers by about half an hour, which was a great shame, but we did see Hermans Hermits of all people. Who are they you ask? Well, only the people who wrote 'Theres a kind of hush, all over the world...'. Mum and dad will no doubt remember who they are. It was strange, the average age of people who go to the festivals I do is about 20, the audience here averaged about 50. Many of them wouldn't have been out of place in a mosh pit such was their dancing style.

Of course, we were also in the middle of beatles week, meaning that beatles tribute bands had arrived from all over the world to perform at various landmark venues. On Sunday we went to the cavern, where the beatles first made an impression. there were beatles bands from Spain, Brazil, Japan, Liverpool itself, France, Holland and even a Russian quartet who played beatles songs with 2 accordians and some bongos. and they were all brilliant, except perhaps for the russians.

On at least 3 occasions I found myself in the position of not understanding a single word a local had said to me. I can only assume that they were speaking English, we were in England after all. I think the girl in the 80s bar was simply too drunk to talk properly, but the other locals had no such excuse, so thick and strange are their accents. The 80s bar deserves a mention, being in the position to buy plastic madonna boobies and a tinsel wig listening to 80s music was was like being in a very special place indeed.

A very satisfying weekend. Have a job interview tomorrow, which should bring things back down to earth a touch. hope you are all well.

London

Well, here we are, my home for the next little while. London, big, cold, wet but generally very pleasant.

Had an interview with an agency yesterday morning. Seems they're crying out for Australian lawyers at the moment, they've put my name forward for 4 jobs already, all this in the space of 36 hours. The money is unbelievable, the job I really want pays £18.50 per hour. This equates to about £35 000 per annum, or $80 000 Australian. Whatsmore, the cost of living is not that much more expensive that what I'm used to. All in all, sitting back from the comfort of my uncle and aunt's house, the decision to come here seems like a very good one.

If I get offered any of these jobs, the plan is to delay starting for about 2 weeks, during which time I'll head up to Scotland for a look around. Never been there, it looks awesome and summer is about to disappear.

The weekend starts tomorrow, heading to Brighton to catch up with an old friend of mine, Rachael Smith. Then catching a lift with her to Liverpool to see Natasha Goss and a Beatles festival, before heading back to London on Monday in time for a job interview on Tuesday. Everything is happening very quickly, but its all a lot of fun at the moment. You should all make plans to get yourselves out here as quickly as possible!

Goodbye Ireland

Its a sad farewell to Ireland today. The last 2 weeks have been wonderful, but the truth is that I can't stay. My law degree is recognised, but my qualifications as a barrister are not. For that to happen I would have to go through the usual post-degree route along with everyone else, which is basically a series of exams. This is complicated by the fact by the fact that 2 of the exams test your knowledge of Gaelic, the ancient Irish language. The only thing I know how to say in Gaelic is kiss my arse. Given that the language itself is spoken by so few people here, this would be virtually impossible, so back to England we go.

This isn't too upsetting, Ireland itself is a very short and very cheap flight from England. And I think that the last week has taught me that its not so much where you are, but who you are there with that makes the difference between having a good time and having a great time. I do miss the company of friends, and have many friends in London.

One tip for anyone that does come to Ireland in the future. Dublin is a lovely city, but the Ireland you see in the postcards is away from Dublin. Galway was an easy place to be. Buy a pint and chat to the closest person, they will respond. Had a couple of great nights there with people whose names I don't remember.

So, back to England tomorrow morning without any hand luggage. Have an interview on Tuesday morning with a recruitment agency, hoping that something excellent comes from that.

Cheers to all.

Photos

Alrighty, theres some photos at this site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsnotalogitsablog

Connemara

Its difficult to know what to write without sounding repetitive. Have just spent 3 glorious days in Connemara, a part of Co Galway famed for rugged countryside. It was spectacular and wonderful, just as everything on this holiday has been so far.

Stayed at a hostel on the shore of Killary fjord, which advertises itself as being the only fjord in Ireland. I was kinda expecting a glacier, but apparently fjord simply means deep narrow channel. There ya go, who said that logs weren't educational?

The first day was spent walking 20 kms with my trusty French companion Sebastian. We walked along the fjord to the Atlantic ocean. Unbelievably, we found white sandy beaches and a scuba diving centre. Even more unbelievable was that there were pasty white Irish families swimming in, a move which I described as close to child abuse.

We were joined by our American friend Christy (sorry if the spelling is wrong) on the second day, which was another 20 km adventure into the small town of Leenane and beyond. No walking trip would be complete without a pint, which I think made the spectacular scenery on the way back all the more exciting. Quote of the day belongs to Christy, who expressed surprise when a sheep baaed, saying 'they really do baa!'. Thats right Chris, although you know that they bark after sunset when they are on the hunt for human blood.....

On the third day myself and a the lovely Mireille from Quebec hitchhiked to and from a little town. This was another first, hitchhiking for me conjures up images of Ivan Milat style men carrying shotguns and driving massive black utes, however it is a testament to just how friendly this place is that everything went very very well. It was nice to be picked up by natives. Its been very difficult to find Irish people here, someone may well think that French is Ireland's first language. I asked one French couple why so many came to Ireland to holiday. They answered that the Irish and the French had one big thing in common, they both hate the English. This seemed a perfectly reasonable answer.

Back in Galway city now. Going to spend a couple of days on guided tours before heading back to Dublin to spread some charm at employment agencies. Miss you all.

Galway

Up until now I've been travelling with Paul Alsbury, crown prosecutor from up Rockhampton way. We parted company this morning, he had to head back to Australia to work, which is very sad for him. We had a lovely night last night, in a pub with session musicians in the corner playing traditional Irish music. Its a great arrangement, they turn up with their instruments and play in exchange for free beer all night. Kinda wish I'd brought my recorder.

Paul's company has been a highlight of the trip so far. He tripped an old lady on the bus this morning. The best day we spent together was the 45 odd km bike ride through the Gap of Dunloe. I will try to post some pictures at a later date, although I doubt that they will do the place justice. The gap is a 10 km road which runs between two mountains. The scenery was absoutely stunning, green fields, steep mountains and glorious lakes. It wasn't hard to see why the Irish have so many tales featuring fairys and leprachauns, it was just the sort of countryside where you could imagine a little green fella talking about his pot of gold.

Having said all that, the experience would have been much better if Paul hadn't have been complaining about bruising to his perianal area. :-)

killarney

have about 7 minutes left to write something meaningful.

has been quite a few days. Thinking about it, have quite literally travelled to the other side of the planet in the space of about 3 days. Am currently sitting in an internet cafe in the aforementioned Killarney, which is just gorgeous. Dublin was great. In the absence of anything to tie me down at the moment, may well stay there rather than London. made it to Dalkey which was a real highlight.

Flight was uneventful and long. Choice of 2 highlights really, the chinese fellow sitting next to me who farted all the way from Brisbane to Taipai, or the Irish fellow I met in Frankfurt airport at 7 in the morning who had bought duty free Jack Daniels from Sydney and insisted that we drink a bottle between us. London looked great after that!

Better run. Miss you all, keep in touch.

What to call it

It seems that blogging is a worldwide craze. Up until last Saturday I had no idea that such a thing existed. My lovely sister Louise probably made the best comment, she thought a blog was something one left in the toilet after a boozy night out. I'm in full agreement, the title therefore serves as a constant reminder to both me and anyone who could be bothered to read the drivel that will no doubt appear in the next few months and perhaps years.

Its funny, I feel as though I should be more excited about the upcoming trip, but I'm not. Its not easy at age 31 to consider completely uprooting oneself from the place I've been settled in for 22 odd years. Christ, 6 months ago I was going follow in Nigel's footsteps and put myself into masses of debt. Now i'm heading off with a finite amount of money, no income and no real plan of attack. It feels like a very odd situation. Isn't this supposed to be liberating?

Mind you, I'm sure that 2 weeks in Ireland will sooth the worry in no time. I've always loved Ireland, theres a real spirit to the place. Its hard to put into words, but every time I've gone back I've always felt settled and happy.

Anyways, that ought to do for a first post. Will be in Ireland on Sunday, and drinking in my home town of Dalkey on Sunday night. This will be a first, and I can't wait. Paul and I are off to the lovely town of Killarney the following day. Killarney is in county Kerry. Last time I was there it was the middle of winter. It was still great, but I'd like to see it in summer. Am pretty sure that the pubs will be packed to overflowing with American tourists drinking half pints of Guinness, but hopefully there'll be one or 2 cute ones amongst them :-)

See ya.