It's class, so class in fact fact that i havent had a chance to write up a blog about it. I will though, in time, that is if i can remember any of it!

Another month or so has passed so now that ive finally got back online to this thing i thought i'd lash together another hotch-potch of happenings since i last updated this!

Well first things first, Happy Christmas & New Years to those of you i havent spoken to for a while, I hope you all had a great festive season and your new year has started off well.

I did get to Phillip Island and managed to get out on track too! Myself and Johnny drove down on thursday and got itchy feet watching the lads go around the stunning world class grand prix circuit so on the friday we booked ourselves a couple of slots. Now we still had no bikes or gear but that proved to be incidental. Johnny got to ride Cerbys R1 and Jeebz let me use his zx6r. We rented gear and had to out in a slow group as there were no other slots. It was quite comical as Johnny and myself quickly learned the track and chopped our way through the crowds. After every session when i came in i expected to be told i had to change groups cos i was too quick for the one i was in but the other groups were too heavily subscribed so i couldnt move! The icing on the cake was getting the use of Harrys fireblade for the last two sessions. It was a rocket, 280+km/h down the home straight yeeah!!!

That weekend was a blast from start to finish. We stayed down friday night on Phillip Island and got to know the group of lads much better. A huge group of us stayed in the Koala Resort. Beer-bongs and much madness ensued. We even ended up getting a job out of it from our friend Spud who manages a scooter advertising firm here in Melbourne... Yes thats right, we now work as advertising vehicle operations specialists! Its a laugh and a few other of the bikers we know over here do it too. So thats how ive been earning a living over here since i last posted. Its a tough life!

When we returned from Phillip Island there was no time to rest. Noelles birthday was on the saturday night. A big house party was held for that. But it didnt end there, sunday was the 12 pubs of christmas!! It took me a while to recover from the weekend, which i did whilst riding a scooter for the following week!

Christmas was a very different experience this year. Myself, Johnny, Noelle, Rachel, Ciara, Kira, Karen & Aoife all spent it together along with some of Rachels, Aoifes and Ciaras families who had flown over for it. It was an epic event. We all got mass and an early dinner as some of the girls had to work later in the day. Sinead was phenominal, she did so much trojan work in the kitchen and the end result was we had a fantastic spread for dinner. Definitely something for her future husband to look forward to

Next big event was New Years which we spent up in Sydney. We drove the Beast back up the 1000kms to NSW and lived in an apartment with the girls and Conor, Rob, Stapo & Niall came down from Canberra & Brisbane. It was another class weekend. Many many shenanigans, too many to mention. Got a loan of a motorbike off Jeebz again when i was up there--feckin legend.
We went to McMahons Point near the Harbour Bridge for the fireworks and i dont think we could have been in a better location. The display was fantactic as was the cacophony of sound and the huge crowd all had a ball as we took in the visual spectacle. New Years night only ended at about 6am the next morning for us, epic night!

Our adventure didnt end there though as when we were leaving Sydney (about 80kms out in fact) the Beast started to sound very sick. As we left a petrol station where we did our main fill for the journey down, an ungodly noise came from the engine bay!
I had notice a smokey smell when we were driving around Sydney so my first suspicion was it was exhaust related. It was indeed, the maifold had cracked near the engine. We limped to the nearest big town and were fortunate enough to find an exhaust repairer who did a good cheap job on it for us. The job took a few hours but there was a definite

Well its been a month now so its about time i put something else on here... Basically by now ive spent 3 weeks in Sydney and have done the roadtrip down to Melbourne.

Sydney was all about getting a bank account/partying, getting a debit card b(feckin hard!!)/partying, buying a car/partying, doing the RSA course/partying... you get the jist. Only problem was Sydney is not as cheap as i'd hoped to go out partying in, although i cannot lay all the blame for this on the proprieters of sydneys pubs/bars & restaurants... the fact that i found it hard to go home at a reasonable hour didnt help

The most trying aspect of the above tasks we had was finding the car, followed closely by the debit card. It took 2 solid weeks of research and calling out to dealers to find any cars we were remotely interested in that were within our budget... We decided to buy a wagon/estate car privately seen as we know more than a little about mechanics (thanks dad!). But even that was proving tiresome being led on wild goose chases to the capital of bumpkinland only to find a heap of dirt where there shoudl be a car!!
... After that a complete spur-of-the-moment rethink made me search again and by chance some 4X4s came up within budget... of which the mighty Toyota Hilux stood out like a shining beacon...this truck is indestructable and a diesel at that--search youtube for topgear/hilux and you'll know what it schwas ... Terrorists use these against american tanks! Needless to say we bought the mighty beast and it has got us to melbourne... albeit a little bit slower than we initially wanted!

To summarise Sydney we stayed with Jeebz the whole time. Met heaps of the other bikers. Went on rideouts with them, barbies and nights out either watching basketball/eating or of course drinking!! Great bunch of guys/girls and i had a great laugh. Didnt have enough time really with them cos we moved on but most of them will be down here over the next week or so.

When we the Beast we could make the trip to Melbourne, without a radio cos we blew a fuse installing it! That made the trip em entertaining
The ipods came in useful, we put the ipod speakers in the glovebox and we were sorted! The trip itself took 10 hours, we had two driving stints each. The diesel was slow and not so steady but it was reliable. It reminded me of our hols in france we used to have when we'd have to floor the car going downhill to try and keep going up the other side of the hill great fun actually! No dramas at all on the way down and we even found "the girls" house no probs too...all in a days work!

"The girls" (Noelle, Sinead, Karen, Rachel, Kira, Ciara & Aoife) are a group of dynamic doctors from ireland. I knew 4 of the 7 before i came over and the other 3 are just as lovely. Their house is everything they described to me in emails and more... A 4 bedroomed house/bachelor pad with everything you'd want from a massive barbeque to a hot tub! Its a bit big-brother like actually, just without the annoying people and the cameras

We've been here a week and its been great. Been out a few times hitting the tiles and sampling the local delights already and ive not been disappointed, only annoying thing is sydneys smoking ban (like home)isnt here...WTF?! so you stink (even more than usual) after a night out! Melbourne is ultra ultra cool, maybe too cool for its own good as every day people go so far out of their ways to be cool that they invariably cross the line into uncooldom. people dress as they want and dont car a jot... sure only the other day johnny was toying with the idea of buying a singlet, which was very swiftly shot down by all the girls here

I havent met any of the bikers here yet but thats planned for this weekend... Then its Phillip Island next weekend and here's hoping i'll get out on the track!! I'll get some melbourne pics up soon too...

Till next time... take it ham and cheesy!

G