Seaworld

We met up with Tim's best friend (and best man) Gus, his wife Cathy, daughter Ali, his brother Ben and wife Romy and their two kids Zoe and Sunny last weekend down in the Gold Coast.

As is usual I either bring four cameras - or none - or worse, one camera with little or no battery. So here are some pictures scrambled from a camera phone and a camera with a flat battery...

We caught up with the guys in Seaworld on Saturday morning. The weather and the company was fabulous and we had a lovely day...

Nara and Triona enjoying the show at Seaworld.

The dolphins where amazing! Shame about the tripe coming out of the mouth of the announcer (she'd make greenpeace cringe!).

After a great day at Seaworld we retreated to Surfer's Paradise for the night where we enjoyed some chat, a few beers and a lot of indian food! Of course the lads where given the job of purveying the food so after walking several yards in search of a take away we required liquid refreshment and as it turns out we managed to get to watch the last twenty minutes of the Rugby League World Cup final (the most exciting part) in a local pub.

On Sunday morning we went off into the Gold Coast Hinterland (the bush by another name). We headed to Springbrook National Park first and then made our way onto Natural Bridge with a couple of stops in between. It was a lovely treat getting to see some of the beautiful ancient rain forest - a big thanks to Ben and Gus for planning an excellent adventure.

Purlingbrook Falls, Springbrook National Park - we also went to see Natural Bridge but the blasted battery was gone on my camera. I will have to go back there again with a proper camera as it was a slight to be seen!

All the gang at Springbrook

Gus, Cathy, and Ali enjoying some lunch.

Ali feeding one of the beautiful and rather tame Rainbow Lorikeets and hung around the little place we had lunch in (don't you love those places where the owner gets grumpy because they're busy?).

Big thanks to Gus for arranging everything. We had a fantastic time. The guys made us feel so welcome and they were very easy company. We're already looking forward to meeting up with them again!

Emmy Award for IT Crowd

It was great to read in this morning's Irish Times that the IT Crowd (the show that Chris is one of the main characters in) won an International Emmy Award last night in New York. Chris gets a mention in the article as well. Read more here.

The Storm

Over the past few weeks we've had a couple of storms. We've been told this is normal for the time of year. These storms are nothing like what we get at home - nothing! Well the storms went up in intensity this week in a big way and we got our share of it last night. Our corner of Redcliffe got 'pumped' (to use the vernacular).

Here are a couple of photos from just before the storm up to this morning - the shot that is practically all white is when the storm was directly over us - the lightening was so strong and frequent you just couldn't see anything - all of our windows moved in and our ears popped - we've never experienced anything like it.

Some of my camera gear will take a while to get over it.
















The real violence of the storm (when it was overhead) lasted just a few short minutes but it wreaked absolute havoc out on our street (Landsborough Avenue). It was like a bomb hit when we went out last night. Debris everywhere. What I found even more amazing that the storm was the response from the local council and emergency services. They were on site literally minutes after the storm passed and it appears that they worked all through the night - we got power back at about 2am and when I went down to survey the damage this morning at 6am there was people everywhere dragging, cutting, and generally cleaning and fixing stuff up.

There's another storm due this evening.

I'm 6 months old today!

Yeah for me ...sitting on the monkey tree!

At the park

I went to the park yesterday and had my first go on a swing and it was great fun!


I like the park - I think I'll come back - daily :)

What I want for Christmas

Thanks Seamus for sending this along to me... I want one!


Introducing the New Nail Gun, made by Dewalt. It can drive a 16-D nail through a 2 X 4 at 200 yards. This makes construction a breeze; you can sit in your lawn chair and build a fence. Just get the wife to hold the fence boards in place while you sit back, relax with a cold one, and when she has the board in the right place just fire away. With the hundred round magazine, you can build the fence with minimum effort and reloading. After a day of fence building with the new Dewalt Rapid fire nail gun, the wife will not ask you fix or build anything ever again.

New Baby Jessop

Congratulations to Jenny & Tim on the birth of their second child this morning. Miss Baby Jessop was born at 4.45am (Irish time) today. No pictures or name! available yet.

Mammy, baby, big sister Sadie and Daddy are all said to be doing great. We can't wait to see the recently enlarged family in a couple of weeks!

UPDATE: Miss Baby Jessop is now Lillian Jessop. We're pretty sure that 'Lily' will love her new name.

I'm sick...

Poor wee Nara got her first cold this week. Poor diviling had a very blocked nose and even started growling with a sore throat (she sounded like a pirate!). Thankfully she's over the worst of it now - just a bit of (aka a lot of) snot is the only remnant.

Ireland vs Fiji

Diarmuid and myself went down to the Gold Coast on Monday last to watch Ireland play Fiji in the Rugby League World Cup play-off. Two of Diarmuid's friends came along (yes - I was basically an under appreciated chauffeur for the evening).

We had a grand old time. Smallish crowd. Poor game really between teams that should probably consider playing something else (like cards). The only downside to the evening was having to have to listen to the bogans Australian supporters at the game (especially those ones sitting directly behind us).


Rugby League is a errrr... not quite Rugby, more like Rugby lite for cave dwellers who can run fast and hit things. This was the first such game I've ever been to and I'm fairly certain it will be the last (unless Diarmuid starts playing it - which could happen because the locals are mad about it here).

Sunshine Coast

We took a spin up to Sunshine Coast on Sunday last just to have a look see. Diarmuid isn't fully recovered yet and didn't fancy walking about too much (who could blame him - it was about 35c with 70 odd percent humidity - apparently it's going to get a lot worse) so we did't do too much . We stopped off in Maroochydore for a bit of lunch - and Nara had her first meal out (above). Maroochydore looks like a lovely spot and we'll certainly be back there soon.

Spider Legs

Reading the papers

Nara likes nothing more than spending some time on the couch reading (and tasting) the papers

Spot the paddy!

Diarmuid might have over done the sun a little bit while recuperating :) It's actually quite a bit pinker in real life that the photos suggest.

Sadie May's Birthday

Thanks Sean for sending on this photo of Sadie May enjoying her birthday party last week. She's has certainly got the hang of those candles :)

New York New York

We went for a walk around the neighbour hood a while back and discovered that the road that runs alongside Diarmuid's school is called Sunnyside - just like the neighbour hood that Diarmuid and Nara's aunt and uncle Doirbhle & John live in in Queens New York. (We've also spotted a Roscommon Road while driving out of Brisbane but we didn't get a chance to stop and photograph that, maybe later).


Nara is also big enough now to wear the fab New York Yankies gear that her aunt and uncle sent her earlier...

Feed Me!

Just put the food on or near my face and I'll take care of the rest :)

...oh and my second tooth came up today!