So the sharks seemed to have moved on but that didn’t stop us enjoying an action packed, full-blooded and entertaining March. The month began with me managing to acquire a job! This time a proper job! I started on the 9th of March at Nielsen, a market research company with offices in over 100 countries and a HQ in New York. Basically, Nielsen is responsible for providing statistics, research, insights and information to its clients (Woolworths, Nestle, Cadburys, etc…) about their various markets. Nielsen collects point of sale data for all major retailers in Australia, compiles this data and than delivers relevant, accurate and insightful data to its clients upon their request. For example, Nestle may want to know the influence of its latest promotion for X product on its sales. Nielsen receives all sales data from the major supermarkets on a weekly basis so can provide the relevant information to its clients. I work for the Reference Data dept. which is responsible for the compiling of the sales data, categorising and storing of data. I’m on a 6 month contract and so far it’s going well. The job is fairly easy and basic at the moment (a lot of database work) but as the weeks go on and I get more experience and training, I can expect more responsibility and tasks. My manager is spot on and the offices are really nice. 300 staff are employed at our Sydney office. The early mornings have taken a bit of getting used to; I’m up at 6.30am to get to work for 8.30 (just over an hour to get to the office by train) and I finish at 4.30. So far it’s been a good experience, nice to be earning a bit of cash and I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead.
March 09 was also a great month for the Irish. Even though I’m thousands of miles away I enjoyed and took great pleasure in watching the boys in green win the Grand Slam in style. Cheers on George Street was the destination for all the matches and I had some great nights in there. There was always an electric atmosphere in the pub and it was always packed with Irish. For the Wales game I was queuing for 45 mins to get in! The matches were also on at crazy hours here, any hour from 3am to 5am kick-off! It was worth every second of it though. I watched the Wales game with Joe, Charlie and Ronan. It was brilliant craic and the place went mental when Steve Jones kick dropped short. After the game, 100’s of Irish flooded out onto George Street singing Ole Ole, Irelands Call and many more for about an hour after in a big huddle/scrum! (While Gary, Conor and Mike were fast asleep bach home) The Ozzies never seen anything like it! You’ll never beat the Irish!!!
Tom
We met Daire O’Rourke, once again as he has currently left Ireland to have a year in sunny Australia. We were very hungover and Daire called here very early so we all hit the beach and gave Daire an insight into our weekend routine of sun bathing, showboating, playing racket ball and running like mad idiots into the sea (which was freezing on this particular day)! Mike and myself had a game of keep yuppies with a Brazilian fella who put our handsome looks to shame!!! We discussed the graduation with Daire whilst enjoying our medium cooked steaks!! We then watched the St Paddys day Simpsons before Daire headed off into the sunset. We will probably pop up to Daire as he is moving up beyond Newcastle ( no not Alan Shearer’s lot) and Daire will no doubt have a few nights out in Sydney’s unbelievable nightlife (not to mention UNBELIEVABLE women J ).
We are still playing soccer, sometimes twice weekly and one day we played against a man from Mexico who loved Irish people. His wife was Mexican and funnily enough her parents were Irish. They were from Kerry and (Dad will love this) her second name is Daly. His son is now called Gutierrez Daly and if he is any good hopefully Trappatoni will snap him up.
Tom and I were invited to the New South Wales Manchester United Supporters club (what a mouthful) monthly meeting in Scruffy Murphy’s (Sydney’s most infamous Irish pub) where we got a free meal and free drinks as we discussed United with all their members. Prior to this we were walking past the cinema only to see Eric Bana at the launch of his latest film “love the beast” (not that we will ever go to see it!!!!!). Mark also took us out to Sutherland to see the Australian Premier League game between Sutherland Sharks and Blacktown. It was 1-1 and it was very poor to say the least!!!!
Gary
One fine St. Patricks day in Sydney we got a phone call from Dani asking did me and Conor want to go to Palm Beach(Summer Bay).We jumped at the chance and packed our bags with the rackets, books, a football and cameras and headed off on the train to Wollstonecraft. We had to make a quick stop in Woolworths for supplies before setting off on our hour adventure to Palm Beach. Along the way we stopped off at Avalon Beach, a famous surfing beach about 15 minutes before Palm Beach. We admired the sights and took some quick snaps before heading off again to Summer Bay. When we first arrived on the beach there was not a sole in sight. The last time we were here the Surf Club Kiosk was open for business and there was loads of windsurfers on show. We were relaxing on the beach when a group of Irish ran up to us claiming to see a scene being shot on the beach! There were two people walking on the beach and a big group of people watching from the hill. Everyone got overly excited and dreamed of meeting their heroes! It turned out just to be a tour bus of people admiring the beach and not the two people walking on it.
After hours of playing racket-ball, football and kicking/throwing a rugby ball to each other on the beach we decided it was time for an ice cream in the diner. Before we headed inside I spotted the “Home and Away” legend Alf Stewart walking towards me. We quickly grabbed our cameras and went up for a chat to him. He was really sound and I even talked about the recession back home to him! We got our photo with the legend and headed back to Sydney stopping off at every beach known to man after a great day in Summer Bay! We kept our secret from the lads and when we told them they were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO jealous!!
I even made a video of our day with “Home and Away” music and all. Check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKuvyKIE0vI
Charlie Corcoran scored us tickets to the Kings of Leon in the Acer Arena in Olympic Park at the last minute so Charlie, Ro, Dee (Ronan’s girlfriend), Joe, Dani and myself headed out to see one of the biggest bands in the world play in a jam packed arena of 25,000 screaming fans. It is a great venue, way bigger than I expected! The band tore the house down and it was great value at only $90(45euro) and was well worth it. Afterwards we headed into town for the United/rugby matches and a great night was head by all!.....all the rugby fans because United lost
Another surprise this month was when Conor and I were walking down to get our 30cent soft serves cones and we noticed a massive crowd at the Bondi Skating Bowl beside the beach. Down there skating was none other than the world famous Tony Hawk the most famous skateboarder there is. He was putting on a little show for all his fans and was amazing compared to the other skaters! It was cool to see him.
Conor has just got a job in “The Chemist Warehouse” (surprisingly Gary works in the same Pharmacy!!) and he can fill you in how he gets on in next month’s blog.
Mike!!!
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