When you say the word Sydney one thing springs straight into your head! You got it in one. Yes it’s the “The Opera House”. It was time for us to visit the iconic structure.
There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent.
The moment we decided to pack our bags and venture through the unknown, one image appeared in our minds and that was of this legendary structure. We had previously seen it from a distance but had yet to enter inside. The closer you get to the Opera House its size is really put into perspective. It’s deceptively big from distance. We decided that instead of touring the Opera House that we would go to see a play. It was a Saturday so there wasn’t a lot on selection. The one exciting option was a Stand up Comic but all her shows were sold out for the whole month.
We decided on a play called “Pericles”. The lady in charge of the bookings convinced us to go and said it was about a Prince in search of love that included drama, fighting, drums and acrobatics. We were sold on that. We decided to bring Dani along aswell. It was time for Kiloughter crew (Conor, Gary, Dani, Mike and Kieran) to mix with the high society of Sydney.
Up went the curtain.
“I am no viper, yet I feed on mother's flesh which did me breed.”
We all glanced at each other in disgust we had ended up in a Shakespearean drama. Not to be ignorant we decided to give it a chance. 5 minutes passed….10 minutes passed….. 15 minutes passed yet we all still look dissatisfied. Not very impressed with our choice we all waited for the curtain to fall. Once it fell we sprung up like a bad mattress. We were walking out of the Opera House. A magical building of course but just no a magical choice of show!
Poor show,
Conor
One weekend Kieran, Tom and I decided to head to the AFL game between the Sydney Swans and St. Kilda. St. Kilda are the best team in the league and from seventeen games they had seventeen wins! No easy feat. The game was taking place at the Sydney Cricket Ground so it was only a short ten minute taxi ride from our gaff. We were skeptical of Sydney’s chance but we got behind the team. Our seats were right behind one of the goals and we had a great view of what was going on down our end but the opposite end seemed like a million miles away! There was no Tadhg Kennelly on show and based on the first two quarters Sydney looked like they needed him back! The first quarter had us questioning what was so good about this game, we didn’t even see any fights although we did see a St. Kilda player dislocate his shoulder. As the 30 minute quarters went by we got more and more into it as Sydney came from behind to attempt the upset. Jess White was Sydney’s best chance of winning the game and he became our favourite player on the pitch and although he missed one or two easy free kick’s we were right behind him! With five minutes remaining during the last quarter “Jessy-boy” kicked a goal that put the Swans ahead by one point and with plenty of momentum. We were going nuts! This was going to be the biggest upset of the year! But then disaster struck!St. Kilda leveled with an over in the last minute and then St. Kilda's Leigh Montagna drove a stake through the heart of the inspired Swans with a 20m kick that dribbled through for a point with 20 seconds to go! It was an unbelievable finish and at the end the supporters gave the Swans a standing ovation for their efforts!We walked away from the game thinking we had gotten great value for money at only $22 (14euro) per ticket.
Mike
Kieran and I decided to do a sky dive one Sunday morning. We are the type of guys who take these things in our stride. We were so confident about our adventure that we even went out in Kings Cross for a few the previous night. It took us an hour to get to Penrith and we weren’t overly impressed by it. Let’s just say it wasn’t the classiest train station we were ever in!! Our pickup arrived and we met the Men that would be in control of our lives for the skydive. They were laughing and joking and to our amazement one of them was Irish. This Man would be accompanying Kieran on his dive….accompanying paints a pretty picture but basically it was two Irish guys strapped together with a rope (and were done with our dinners!!)! Anyway, another girl would also be with us so 3 of us were jumping along with our instructors!! The journey up into the sky was brilliant and actually enjoyable. I was waiting for the fear and panic to hit me but instead it was a calm, chilled and relaxed journey which took about twenty minutes. We could see the Blue Mountains and a lake which looked amazing from our very high viewpoint. The lads got us strapped up and Kieran would be first to go. Looking at one of your mates falling out of a plane is pretty weird, for all I knew that was the last I had seen of him. I was up next and literally one minute later I was gone!! 14,0000 feet in the air and I was falling down like a ton of bricks! It was awesome!! I was screaming…but not for my life but for the sheer adrenaline rush. It makes you feel alive!!! Once the parachute went off it was plain sailing and once again enjoyable! I was waving over at Kieran and sure we were as happy as pigs in shite! The landing was bumpy enough but worth it. I ran straight over to Kieran and shook his hand. The two Kiloughter lads had jumped out of a plane 14,000 up in the sky….it was far from this that we were reared!!
The Manchester United Supporter’s Club of NSW headed over to Manly Vale for a fun day of football in the blistering heat!! It actually reached something like 27 degrees!! There were ten clubs who turned up on the day- Man Utd, Man City, Celtic, Everton, Spurs, Ireland, Aston Villa, Cardiff, Liverpool and Scotland. I was extremely privileged to be given the Captains armband of Manchester United joining the likes of Robson, Bruce, Cantona, Keane, Neville and Giggs…..I wish. Unfortunately our players weren’t as talented as that but they might get there one day….probably in their dreams but leave them off!! We had a squad of about 12 and with it being a 6 a side tournament lasting 20 minutes we had to swap things around after 10 minutes to give everyone a run out. Our first game was against Cardiff and we managed to win 2-1 (scorers Tom and Frank). Frank is an Irish man who joined our team and came on as a sub upfront. He is actually way better than Didier Drogba but drinks at half time so no Premier League team will snap him up…all the better for us. Oh ya and Kieran missed a penalty!! Playing Ireland was hard for us but it had to be done. Funnily enough they had an Englishman on their team thanks to the “Granny rule”!!! We won this one 3-1 ( Kieran got 2 and Franky boy scored again…Didier who!!). We blamed the sun for our 2-1 defeat to Everton, Frank did get on the score sheet though. Spurs was a must win game. I tweaked the team and low and behold we won 3-1. I personally loved this game because I got to head the ball a lot and felt like Nemanja Vidic for a brief moment. Frank, Kieran and an Irish lad called “Hurley” scored. We had reached the semi finals but we couldn’t get to grips with Aston Villa and eneded up loosing 3-1. Conor kept the score line down and Frank grabbed us a fine goal but it wasn’t good enough. Everton then beat Villa on penalties. Overall it was a great day out and we shared a lot of laughs and for those few hours we felt like superstars!!
It was also an emotional day because it was Kieran’s last full day in Sydney….awwwwww. Don’t feel sorry for him though because he has had a ball!! Hugs were exchanged and no doubt we will see him very soon. It’s hard to believe that September will be our last blog from Sydney.
I did a skydive wohoooooo,
Gary
There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent.
The moment we decided to pack our bags and venture through the unknown, one image appeared in our minds and that was of this legendary structure. We had previously seen it from a distance but had yet to enter inside. The closer you get to the Opera House its size is really put into perspective. It’s deceptively big from distance. We decided that instead of touring the Opera House that we would go to see a play. It was a Saturday so there wasn’t a lot on selection. The one exciting option was a Stand up Comic but all her shows were sold out for the whole month.
We decided on a play called “Pericles”. The lady in charge of the bookings convinced us to go and said it was about a Prince in search of love that included drama, fighting, drums and acrobatics. We were sold on that. We decided to bring Dani along aswell. It was time for Kiloughter crew (Conor, Gary, Dani, Mike and Kieran) to mix with the high society of Sydney.
Up went the curtain.
“I am no viper, yet I feed on mother's flesh which did me breed.”
We all glanced at each other in disgust we had ended up in a Shakespearean drama. Not to be ignorant we decided to give it a chance. 5 minutes passed….10 minutes passed….. 15 minutes passed yet we all still look dissatisfied. Not very impressed with our choice we all waited for the curtain to fall. Once it fell we sprung up like a bad mattress. We were walking out of the Opera House. A magical building of course but just no a magical choice of show!
Poor show,
Conor
One weekend Kieran, Tom and I decided to head to the AFL game between the Sydney Swans and St. Kilda. St. Kilda are the best team in the league and from seventeen games they had seventeen wins! No easy feat. The game was taking place at the Sydney Cricket Ground so it was only a short ten minute taxi ride from our gaff. We were skeptical of Sydney’s chance but we got behind the team. Our seats were right behind one of the goals and we had a great view of what was going on down our end but the opposite end seemed like a million miles away! There was no Tadhg Kennelly on show and based on the first two quarters Sydney looked like they needed him back! The first quarter had us questioning what was so good about this game, we didn’t even see any fights although we did see a St. Kilda player dislocate his shoulder. As the 30 minute quarters went by we got more and more into it as Sydney came from behind to attempt the upset. Jess White was Sydney’s best chance of winning the game and he became our favourite player on the pitch and although he missed one or two easy free kick’s we were right behind him! With five minutes remaining during the last quarter “Jessy-boy” kicked a goal that put the Swans ahead by one point and with plenty of momentum. We were going nuts! This was going to be the biggest upset of the year! But then disaster struck!St. Kilda leveled with an over in the last minute and then St. Kilda's Leigh Montagna drove a stake through the heart of the inspired Swans with a 20m kick that dribbled through for a point with 20 seconds to go! It was an unbelievable finish and at the end the supporters gave the Swans a standing ovation for their efforts!We walked away from the game thinking we had gotten great value for money at only $22 (14euro) per ticket.
Mike
Kieran and I decided to do a sky dive one Sunday morning. We are the type of guys who take these things in our stride. We were so confident about our adventure that we even went out in Kings Cross for a few the previous night. It took us an hour to get to Penrith and we weren’t overly impressed by it. Let’s just say it wasn’t the classiest train station we were ever in!! Our pickup arrived and we met the Men that would be in control of our lives for the skydive. They were laughing and joking and to our amazement one of them was Irish. This Man would be accompanying Kieran on his dive….accompanying paints a pretty picture but basically it was two Irish guys strapped together with a rope (and were done with our dinners!!)! Anyway, another girl would also be with us so 3 of us were jumping along with our instructors!! The journey up into the sky was brilliant and actually enjoyable. I was waiting for the fear and panic to hit me but instead it was a calm, chilled and relaxed journey which took about twenty minutes. We could see the Blue Mountains and a lake which looked amazing from our very high viewpoint. The lads got us strapped up and Kieran would be first to go. Looking at one of your mates falling out of a plane is pretty weird, for all I knew that was the last I had seen of him. I was up next and literally one minute later I was gone!! 14,0000 feet in the air and I was falling down like a ton of bricks! It was awesome!! I was screaming…but not for my life but for the sheer adrenaline rush. It makes you feel alive!!! Once the parachute went off it was plain sailing and once again enjoyable! I was waving over at Kieran and sure we were as happy as pigs in shite! The landing was bumpy enough but worth it. I ran straight over to Kieran and shook his hand. The two Kiloughter lads had jumped out of a plane 14,000 up in the sky….it was far from this that we were reared!!
The Manchester United Supporter’s Club of NSW headed over to Manly Vale for a fun day of football in the blistering heat!! It actually reached something like 27 degrees!! There were ten clubs who turned up on the day- Man Utd, Man City, Celtic, Everton, Spurs, Ireland, Aston Villa, Cardiff, Liverpool and Scotland. I was extremely privileged to be given the Captains armband of Manchester United joining the likes of Robson, Bruce, Cantona, Keane, Neville and Giggs…..I wish. Unfortunately our players weren’t as talented as that but they might get there one day….probably in their dreams but leave them off!! We had a squad of about 12 and with it being a 6 a side tournament lasting 20 minutes we had to swap things around after 10 minutes to give everyone a run out. Our first game was against Cardiff and we managed to win 2-1 (scorers Tom and Frank). Frank is an Irish man who joined our team and came on as a sub upfront. He is actually way better than Didier Drogba but drinks at half time so no Premier League team will snap him up…all the better for us. Oh ya and Kieran missed a penalty!! Playing Ireland was hard for us but it had to be done. Funnily enough they had an Englishman on their team thanks to the “Granny rule”!!! We won this one 3-1 ( Kieran got 2 and Franky boy scored again…Didier who!!). We blamed the sun for our 2-1 defeat to Everton, Frank did get on the score sheet though. Spurs was a must win game. I tweaked the team and low and behold we won 3-1. I personally loved this game because I got to head the ball a lot and felt like Nemanja Vidic for a brief moment. Frank, Kieran and an Irish lad called “Hurley” scored. We had reached the semi finals but we couldn’t get to grips with Aston Villa and eneded up loosing 3-1. Conor kept the score line down and Frank grabbed us a fine goal but it wasn’t good enough. Everton then beat Villa on penalties. Overall it was a great day out and we shared a lot of laughs and for those few hours we felt like superstars!!
It was also an emotional day because it was Kieran’s last full day in Sydney….awwwwww. Don’t feel sorry for him though because he has had a ball!! Hugs were exchanged and no doubt we will see him very soon. It’s hard to believe that September will be our last blog from Sydney.
I did a skydive wohoooooo,
Gary
1 comment:
Sounds unreal. Fairplay on the skydive Gary. Mega props.
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