Hey, welcome to my first blog of 2013!!! Said I’d better get cracking on this now or it would never be done! So this blog will cover my trip back to Ireland over Xmas, New Years celebrations and my return back to the sweat box that is Perth these days!My visit back to Ireland was AMAZING! I had such a good time, soooo good to
see my family and all my friends after so long, and I can definitely say I will never stay away for that long again!But before I arrived home I stopped off for a quick visit with Mark in Dubai! I was only there for 2 full days really so it was very short but it was great to see Mark and I had already been in Dubai so had all the touristy things done anyways! My highlight of the trip (besides seeing Mark’s smiling face!) was Ferrari World. We spent a day there and went on the biggest rollercoaster in the world (no big deal) and my god, was it fast. It actually rained while I was there which poor Mark was very embarrassed about- who knew it rained in the desert!! Mark is living in a new apartment since I last visited and it is fab- the view from the balcony is amazing! So after my few days in Dubai I was homeward bound 🙂
I must mention here that on my flight I was seated at the emergency escape,
which you would think is great because you get extra leg room, yeah, you would think. Unfortunately, this is not the case and warning to all- it’s where they seat people who have kids, REALLY SMALL KIDS!!!! So I had to endure the screaming, crying and general annoyingness of about 4 kids all under the age of 3 for my flight- it was torture, even turning the volume to the max on my tv didn’t drown out their high-pitched screams. So if by any chance anyone who works with an airline is reading this, here’s an idea- HAVE A SEPERATE AREA OF THE PLANE FOR PEOPLE WITH KIDS!!!! I can’t understand how this hasn’t been done yet. Ok rant over (phew).
So as most of you know I surprised my ma by arriving home a few days early- this was hilarious! My dad and sister (and pretty much everyone else in Portlaoise) knew I was arriving home early, but poor mammy was left in the
dark! My dad brought me and Rebecca home from Dublin and I rang the doorbell while Rebec and dad hid behind the wall. Mammy opened the door and I was all “hiiiiiiiiiiii” and really excited and mammy was just like “oh, hello”- she looked really confused and I’m not messing it took her a full 2 minutes to realise it was me!!! She then shouted “Rachel??” and took a few steps back in shock haha! It was priceless! In surprising her, I dodged a massive bullet- she had made a welcome home banner for me which she had planned to bring to the train station when she collected me. Now this was no ordinary small banner, this was a gigantic banner that she had made in the shopping centre. If that was waiting for me at the train station when I arrived back in Portlaoise for the first time in 2 and a half years, I would have got back on the train!!! Poor mammy, it was a lovely thought. For those of you who haven’t seen the banner yet, I have posted a pic here for you!
So I only had just over 2 weeks at home and had sooooo much to fit into those 2 weeks, so many people to meet up with, family members to catch up with and places to visit!. I was flat-out for the 2 weeks and I don’t think there was a single night I wasn’t out boozing. I won’t lie, by the end of the trip, I was exhausted and excited about heading back to Perth to relax without fear of someone calling me and asking me to go out!! I had a night out in Dublin, I had a weekend in Galway with all the college gang, I had lunches here there and everywhere, I had a wedding on New Year’s Eve, I had a night away in a hotel for a spa treatment with ma and Rebec and I had many nights out in Portlaoise! As tiring as it was, it was brilliant and I wouldn’t have changed it- I enjoyed every minute of it! My brother and his wife were home from India too so it was a full house and it was great! Rebecca got engaged on Xmas eve so I was SO happy to be home for that event as I think I may have felt homesick if I had have been in Oz when she got engaged. Cannot wait for the wedding and my first time to be bridesmaid!!! I wasn’t too sad leaving Ireland this time as I know I’ll be back again either towards the end of 2013 or early 2014!Needless to say Phil had a great Xmas too over here in Perth what with the old ball and chain being away! He had a lot of nights out and did a lot of drinking and didn’t miss Ireland at all!
Xmas and New Years and Ireland all seems like it was ages ago now! When I came back to Perth I just got straight back into the swing of things here, although I did find the heat a bit overpowering for my first few days back! It has been so hot here for the past couple of weeks, it’s uncomfortable.We don’t have any aircon in our bedroom so we might as well be trying to sleep in an oven for the past while! It’s a case for celebration when the temperature drops low enough to actually use our duvet these days!!!
We’ve booked flights to Sydney and are heading there on March 14th-24th, so I can’t wait for that! Needless to say we will be visiting Palm Beach aka Summer Bay and I am very excited about that! As most of you know a life long dream of mine has been to appear on Home and Away, and this could be my chance! I have a plan to ensure I get a role- I feel Home and Away doesn’t really reflect current-day Australia, as there are Irish backpackers EVERYWHERE in Australia, yet, are there any on Home and Away?? I think you’ll find the answer is no! So I will approach the directors of Home and Away and point this out to them, then being the kind and generous person I am, I will volunteer to be that Irish backpacker who arrives in the Bay- I’m sure Irene will take me in! My aim for 2013 is to have Alf Stewart say “Well lads, what’s the craic?” on one episode of H&A- then, I will have completed my mission for Oz and can leave a happy woman!!!
We’ve mainly been saving money for Sydney so haven’t been up to a whole
lot, it was Australia Day at the end of January and that was a lot of fun. We went to King’s Park to watch the fireworks display and enjoyed a few beers!
Well I think that’s all for now, I will update again after our Sydney trip, seen as we’ll be there for Paddy’s weekend- I’m sure we will have some stories!
Until next time 🙂
