Al & Helena's Big trip

Finally - a job for Al!

2006-11-11T04:21:00.001-08:00

Hey!

Just a quick post to let anybody left looking that I have now finally got a job after 3 months in the unemployed wilderness!

I started on Monday at a company called Gambro in Lund and will be working there for the next 8/9 months covering for a guy of on paternity leave... a big relief!

Anyone who may want email will get me at alan.mckevitt@gambro.com.

Yipee!

Still alive!

2006-08-31T04:36:00.000-07:00

Hello to for all those who may still happen to tune in every now and again...

The plan had really been just to finish after our trip but I guess now that I am in Sweden it may be a good way to keep people posted as to what the heck I'm up to these days.

I'm currently in Malmö City Library - a big glass building in the middle of a big park in central Malmö, south east Sweden. Helena started Lund University yesterday with a 2 day introductory course and then has her first classes of her Human Resources course tomorrow - so far, so good anyway!

I'm currently looking for a job in the Malmö area and have registered my CV with a most of the local recruitment agenecies to hopefully something will turn up sooner or later. One of them wanted me in for an interview next Wednesday so at least that's a start - eh? I might not be totally useless after all ??? Fingers crossed anyway...

At the moment we are living with Helena's aunt Solveig in Malmö but are looking for an apartment in either Malmö or Lund... It's really hard to find something though - even mentioned it on the news the other night saying it was a crisis at the moment with the lack of housing available - at least we're not homeless...yet!

Anyway hope all is well with everyone,
Al

Back to Oz again!

2006-06-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Continuing on from our last post then, we firstly headed towards Dunedin - a pretty big city in the south east of New Zealand. We arrived pretty late here so didn't have much time to look about but the next day we were up early and it was off to the Otago Penninsula - somewhere that you could apparently see penguins, seals and albatrosses. But after a few hours of looking all we were able to tick off our list was the albatrosses - they were impressive though with their 3 metre wing span!

Next stop for us on our nature trail was Oamaru - here we managed to see 2 types of penguins in the wild (which meant it didn't even cost us anything - even better!). First off was the yellow eyed penguins that were funny to watch as they waddled up from the sea after a days fish hunting - cute as anything! Then it was off to see the Blue Penguins, just 25cms tall so a bit harder to spot! 2 types of penguin in 1 day...not bad going!

Not too much to report until we got to Methven, the base for our chance to start our snow boarding careers...or not! : ) We almost couldn't get there due to the unpredicted 80cms snowfall in just over a day - it caused havoc in the area and many roads were closed and people left with no electricity for up to 2 weeks. Thankfully we got through though and the next day the Mount Hutt Ski Resort was open again for us to try our hands at snowbaording.

Our coach left early on Wednesday morning for the 25kms trip up to where all the action was - after 1 hr 30 mins on slippery, winding, snow-covered mountain roads with not too many safety barriers we arrived at the mountain. We then got kitted up with snowboard, boots and ski pass before a 3 hour lesson. It was a good day and we both enjoyed it but its fair to say that our professional careers are on hold for the immediate future anyway! :)

After snowboarding at Methven, we left for our final NZ city Christchurch. Here we spent a few days just chilling out and relaxing - well deserved after a hectic couple of weeks driving round the NZ tourist trail! On Sunday morning it was up early again for a 6.30 flight back to Australia, this time to Sydney...

We arrived 08:00 on Sunday morning and after more than an hour in crazy customs queues we finally got to leave the airport. Our first night was spent in a dodgy, dirty, cold hostel but thankfully since that we have moved to a nice budget hotel - $5 more /night for a clean place with our 4 beds, our own TV, fridge, heating and even an en-suite bathroom! Not bad...

Have seen Sydney Opera House (complete with over 1million tiles (kakel-plattor) made in Sweden!), The Harbour Bridge and all the normal tourist spots since we got here. The highlight though was the big (early) birthday surprise for Al - a whale-watching trip! Had wanted to do this in NZ but it was a 3 hour drive out of the way so didn't manage it - thought we had lost our chance!

Al was woken up on Tuesday morning with Happy Birthday being sung to him and really though Helena had lost the plot.

Al: "My birthday isn't until Sunday?!".
Helena: "I know that but do you know what we are doing today???"
"No"
"Whale watching!"
"No!"
"Yes!" :)

What a surprise to wake up to! Brilliant. So off we set and after a 30min walk we got to the boat. Started off with a scenic cruise through Sydney harbour for 45mins before getting out to the open sea and all the whales! These were Humpback whales on their northwards winter migration which only happens in June and July so we timed it brilliantly! Within minutes of getting to the open sea we had our first sighting of a whale - which is 14-18metres long and can weigh up to 50 tonnes! Impressive animals... First you would see a a blow of water and then next their massive back would come up before a tail splashes out! Best of all though was the jump out of the water that we saw - amazing to see a 50 tonne animal jumping out of the water just like that! Great birthday present... thank-you Helena!

We're in Sydney now until Saturday before we head off to Hong Kong for 5 days - our last stop before home! Hard to believe our trip is nearly over and we've been away for 7.5 months... time flies!

See www.alanmckevitt.com for some more pics!

Glad midsommar! Grattis på födelsdagen Angelica! Och lycka till Sverige i matchen mot Tyskland!
Helena & Al

New Zealand - 4 million people...40 million sheep!

2006-06-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

So we've now been touring around New Zealand in a hire car and although the guide book says that there are 40 million sheep here, we are sure we've seen more than that already ourselves! To sum up what we see each day - sheep, deers, cows, roads, water (lakes, sea, rivers), mountains (with / without snow) and land (generally green)... and a kiwi here and there! : ) A beautiful country though.

Left Auckland last Saturday and headed for Rotorua - a town that sits on the edge of a big lake that bubbles away with thermal activity, has steam coming out of loads of random places around it and stinks of rotten eggs as a result! Here we pampered ourselves a bit and went for a Polynesian Spa which consisted of heated outdoor pools overlooking Lake Rotorua. The pools all had different temperatures starting at 38 degrees and getting up to an almost unbearable 42 - oohhhh!

Also while driving round in Rotorua we noticed a little park with lots of holes in the ground, all with steam coming out of them - some with boiling water, some with mud pools and some with just steaming ground. Then read that this park had just been formed 5 years ago by explosion that shot some of the ground 100m into the air... crazy!

We also visited the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland nearby which had a series of pools and lakes again all caused by this thermal activity - this time though the water in the pools were strangely coloured - yellow, turquoise and lime green! We also say the Lady Knox geyser - that erupts 10m-20m daily at 10am (with a little bit of help from the staff putting some soap down the spout!).

We also had a look at The Huka Falls - NZ's most visited Scenic Reserve(whatever that means!) - an impressive waterfall with a massive volume of water running over it. Spent a couple of nights touring about then visiting Wanganui and Wellington before taking the ferry from the North Island to the South Island on Thursday morning...

After arriving at Picton on the South Island we headed straight for Greymouth and the beautiful West Coast. Here we vistited the Pancake Rocks - stones that look like pancakes all stacked high (see www.alanmckevitt.com!) before continuing down the coast towards the glacier region. Here we firstly had a look at the Franz Josef Glacier and then drove on for a closer look at the Fox Glacier 25kms away. Unfortunately due to the fact that they are a bit unstable at the moment we only got to 10m away but were impressed anyway!

After the glaciers the next stop was Queenstown - the home of extreme sports, such as bungy jumping, sky diving and jet boating! We were much to sensible for bungy jumping (or scared!) but went out on a jet boat to the Shotover River. The 360 degree turns and driving at 80-90km/hr in water sometimes only 10cms deep were crazy enough for us!

Milford Sound fjord was next up on our quick-stop tourist trail. Here we took a boat cruise out on the water that has sheer rock faces that climb up 1200m on each side - unfortunately we couldn't see the tops of these mountains due to the extreme rain but that did make lots of waterfalls to look at as us and 2 others cruised round on a boat designed for up to 60 passengers - didn't have to fight for a seat anyway. We were lucky enough to see seals and dolphins while out on the water too!

We leave NZ in another week and are now heading to Dunedin before driving north along the east coast towards Oamaru, Methven & Christchurch... it's all action here!

Kom igen Sverige i VM!
Al & Helena

A new country - New Zealand!

2006-06-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

Following a good week visiting Al's relatives in Adelaide, we were off again - this time to Cairns, up north on Australia's east coast. Cairns' main attraction is the Great Barrier Reef - which is about 50 kms off its coast. Like all good tourists in Cairns, including the thousands off Japanese who were there, we too took a day trip out to the Reef and went snorkelling. Didn't have any luck with the weather but still had a great day and really enjoyed our first taste of snorkelling! Only stayed in Cairns for 2 nights so it was soon time to move on - down to Townsville.

Townsville was a 5.5 hours bus trip south of Cairns and although it was a smaller city we both preferred it - especially the nice, huge & cheap dinners on offer at the Irish bar across the street from our hostel. While in Townsville we took a 2 day trip out to Magnetic Island - a wonderful place with lots of nice beaches and forest walks! Luckily we got lovely weather here and were able to just chill out for a couple of days - as well as doing some more snorkelling and even some sea kayaking...great! After our 2 days here it was back to Townsville again (and our Irish Pub :) ) and then a flight (rather than an 18 hour bus trip!) down south to Brisbane, Australia's 3rd biggest city.

Only spent a night (in a dorm room with 12 other people - tough life, we know!) in Brisbane and had a look around the city before taking another bus to Surfers Paradise the main city on the Gold Coast - Australia's busiest tourist area. Found ourselves a pretty nice hostel which even had it's very own sauna, jacuzzi and swimming pool (not bad!) as well as being just a 2 min walk from the beach and all the night life!

Surfers Paradise has 4 theme parks nearby - Dreamworld, MovieWorld, Wet'n'Wild and SeaWorld - so while here we had to visit at least one of them and following many recommendations for Dreamworld (www.dreamworld.com.au), that's where we went. Because it's winter here now (although it was still 24 degrees) there were no queues and we were able to go on our favourite rides 3/4 times - brilliant! The scariest one was The Giant Drop - the tallest freefall ride in the world which let us go from 120m (39 storeys) high. It let us wait for about 30 seconds with our feet just hanging there before a click and away we went - aaaagggghhhhh!

Also had a couple of good nights out in Surfers Paradise with some of the room mates from the hostel - Ladies night at one of the bars on Tuesday meant free drinks for Helena - very dangerous! That was about it for Surfers Paradise so by Thursday it was time to get on the bus again and come back up to Brisbane. From there we caught our flight to Auckland arriving at midnight - not a good time to arrive! First plan was to sit all night in the airport rather than pay for a room at 2.30 in the morning but because we were both getting a bit of a cold coming on, we scrapped that idea and checked into a hostel. That was last night so you are now updated with what's going on with us.

Unfortunately our Australian Sim cards don't work here in New Zealand so were back to our Swedish / Northern Irish numbers :

Helena +46 701 751 871
Al +44 777 587 6482

Talk soon,
Helena & Al

Adelaide, South Australia

2006-05-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

To fill in any non-Swedish speakers, since the last time we wrote in English…We’ve gone sailing on the river in Perth… Both left our jobs… Had a few big nights in Perth... visited the casino & a few Irish pubs... That’s it in a nutshell!

We've now moved on from what we called "home" for 5 months - 134 Washington St, Victoria Park, Perth. We felt sorry to be leaving but also pretty excited at the prospect of travelling onwards and seeing more of Australia and New Zealand. Not looking forward to living out of a rucksack again for 2 months though!

We enjoyed the last few days in Perth and did plenty of eating and drinking to say goodbye to the people we had met there. Went out with Al's workmate and the boys from the house on Saturday night to a Vietnamese restaurant, then went to a party at one of the guys' houses, Elvis -yep, like "The King"- and even got a ride there in a fancy big Porsche...exciting stuff! We spent the rest of our time in Perth just chilling out, packing and just trying to get organised for the rest of the trip which started with a trip to Adelaide.

Will just fill you in on Al's family out here in Australia... Basically Al's mum has 2 sisters here - Anne (remarried to Graham & mother of Robbie, 26 (who we lived with in Perth) & Kate, 28) and Angela (married to Jim, with children Stephen, 21 & Michelle, 18). Simple...

Arrived in Adelaide on what the Australians call the "red-eye flight", which left Perth at 6am and arrived at 10.35. We were met at the airport by Kate & Angela who Al hadn't seen for a few years and a got quick tour of the city on the way to Anne's house which is pretty close to the city centre and is also where we would be staying for our 9 days in Adelaide...

That night we headed out to the City centre with Kate & Anne for a bite to eat and a little drink and just a general nosey round the city. On Saturday after a bit of a lie-in we went for a 25 mins walk into the city, had a look around the shops and had a hot chocolate in one of the many cafes in Adelaide - lovely! Saturday night was Kate's last night with us in Adelaide before heading back to Wyalla, about 5 hrs drive / 45 mins flight away, where she lives and works at the local hospital so we went out and had a big pub crawl night out before she left...all got a bit blurry but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves anyway!

Sunday was spent at Angela's house catching up with her and the family who Al hadn't seen for 9 years - crazy how much Stephen and Michelle had changed since the last time Al met them although they were only 12 & 9 then! After dinner, we just spent the rest of the evening chatting and relaxing. A couple of days later Angela brough us for a drive up into the Adelaide Hills. The highlight was the visit to the Gorge Wildlife Reserve at Cudlee Creek for some hands-on expreriences with some Australian animals - Koalas & Kangaroos... brilliant!(http://alanmckevitt.com/ for the photos!)

We'll be in Adelaide until Sunday 21st May now and then it's off on the next leg of out adventure - to Cairns on the Red-eye flight again... can't wait!

That's it for now,
Al & Helena

Nu narmar det sig...

2006-05-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hej!

Ja nu ar det snart dags att aka vidare igen! Bara 4 dagar kvar i Perth! Jag jobbade min sista dag pa Aroma Cafe i onsdags, och Al slutar nu pa tisdag. Tror inte riktigt vi forstatt att det faktiskt ar dags att lamna Perth, kanns ju liksom nastan lite som hemma har nu. (nej mamma, du behover inte bli orolig nar jag sager det, hemma HEMMA ar ju anda Sverige och langasjo :)

Haft en hektisk, men rolig helg! I fredags var vi ute med Robbie i Northbridge. Borjade kvallen pa vart favorit stalle "The Deen", och gick sen vidare till ett par andra utestallen. Det ar ju det som ar sa bra nar man bor i en stor-stad, har man inte roligt pa ett stalle ar det bara att ga vidare till nasta! Detta kan ju dock aven medfora att man inte kommer i sang som man borde.. utan istallet runt en si sadar halv fem pa morgon-kvisten... hihi :)
I lordags hade vi bestamt att vi skulle ata lunch med Janelle och hennes bror, och aven Robbie och Mark foljde med. Gick till "Sebastians" - en mysig italiensk restaurang med god mat i narheten dar vi bor. Portionerna var ganska sma, vilket passade oss bra eftersom vi skulle ut och ata kina-mat med Als jobbar-kompisar pa kvallen! Mycket mat blir det :)

Aven detta blev en lyckad kvall, men vi far val erkanna att vi var lite oroliga till att borja med. Graham hade namligen bestamt restaurang, och vi vet ju alla hur det gick forra gangen.. haha.. (las tidigare blogg) Det var jag, Al, Robbie, Mark och 5 av Als jobbar-kompisar som gick ut och at, och efter det blev det Northbridge igen. Trevligt trevligt :)

Igar borjade vi packa lite, puh! ja det tar langre an man tror...
Ser fram emot att fortsatta resan, men inte att bo i en ryggsack igen! Av nagon anledning verkar man ju alltid behova det som ligger langst ner, och nar man forsoker fa upp det kommer ju resten av grejerna ocksa... Men.. jag ska inte klaga. Varre kan man ju ha det ;)

Ikvall ar vi bjudna till Colleen pa middag. Hon har precis flyttat in i ett nytt hus sa nu ska jag ut pa stan och se om jag kan hitta nagon liten inflyttnings-present at henne!

Ha det bra! Vi tanker pa er. Kram

Segelbåtar och irlandska pubar

2006-04-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hej!

Ledig idag och har inte sa mycket for mig, sa tankte jag kunde skriva ett par rader!
Pa svenska dessutom! :)

Nu ar det inte lange kvar tills vi aker harifran, 3 veckor i morgon faktiskt. Kanns allt lite konstigt! Forsta stoppet efter Perth blir ju Adelaide for att besoka 2 av Als mostrar, sa det ser vi fram emot. Ar aven tankt att vi ska halsa pa Darren, en kille vi traffade i Nice, Frankrike 2004 - dar Al och jag traffades forsta gangen. Det trodde vi aldrig skulle handa! Al fran Irland, jag fran Sverige och Darren fran Australien - som traffades i Frankrike for cirka 1,5 ar sedan, och nu igen - i Australien!

Har kikat lite pa hur vi ska ta oss fram pa Nya Zealand nar vi kommer dit, och for tillfallet ar vi lite inne pa att hyra en husbil for 2 personer. Vore smidigt att kunna aka vart man vill, nar man vill och inte behova anpassa sig efter tag och busstider. Att dessutom ha sitt egna lilla kok, och sovplats vore ju inte heller sa tokigt! :) Men inget bestamt an! Maste kolla upp och jamfora priser m.m.

Nar vi kommer hem i sommar var det tankt att jag skulle jobba pa Flygt, och om allt gar enligt planerna foljer nog Al med till Sverige. Sen har jag ju ansokt till hogskolan ocksa! Blev "Personal och arbetsliv" i Lund som forsta val. Spannande!

Maste ju beratta om helgen ocksa!
Fint vader nar vi vaknade i fredags, sa bestamde oss for att aka till Kings Park. Tog med oss lite fika, och satte oss pa graset i solen och kikade ut over Perth. Harligt! Sen ringer Robbie och fragar om vi vill ut och segla pa floden, vilket vi forstas inte kunde saga nej till! Sa vi hyrde 2 batar for 1 timme, jag Al och Mweemba i en och Robbie, Colleen (robbies ex) och Mark i den andra och gav oss ivag. Gick val bra till en borjan - men sen slutade det helt att blasa- vilket kan skapa lite problem i en segelbat... Sa efter cirka 1,5 timme fick raddningsbaten komma och dra in oss till land igen! oops.. haha.. :)

I sondags kvall hade Als chef bjudit ut oss pa middag, sa vi gjorde oss i ordning och kladde upp oss - jag i en lite finare kjol och Al i skjorta - och gav oss ivag. Efter ca 25 min bilfard kom vi till restaurangen Graham (chefen) bokat, och det sag val kanske inte direkt ut som vi tankt oss... utan mer som ett skjul. Inte direkt ett stalle man skulle bjuda ut nagon till! (hade inte vantat oss nagot lyxigt, men kanske.. kanske lite finare an detta!) Sa jag drog pa mig ett par jeans som lag i baksatet, och fleecen istallet for kavajen - vilket visade sig vara ett bra drag! haha...
Blev dock en lyckad kvall, med hyffsad god mat och trevligt sallskap!
Nar vi kom tillbaka hem fragade Colleen och Robbie om vi inte ville folja med ut, och det kunde vi forstas inte tacka nej till! Sa gick till den Irlandska puben vid Casinot, och dansade tills fram pa morgonkvisten... :)

Hoppas allt ar bra med er dar hemma! hors och ses snart. Kramar helena och al

Hello - everybody still with us?!?

2006-04-10T03:36:00.000-07:00

G'day mate! Thought it was about timewe finally wrote a little more in the diary - sorry for the dselay. So here's what we've been up to...

We had been talking about going to Adventure World (http://www.adventureworld.net.au/) since we got here and finally got round to it a few weeks ago. It's a theme park / water park just on the outskirts of Perth. They have 7 different types of water slides and 5 themepark rides (karuseller) so was nothing too impressive but a good way to spend a Sunday and we were both glad that we went anyway.

We also celebrated St Patrick's Day since the last time we wrote anything - it almost seemed bigger here than in Ireland with plenty of people taking the day off work and lots of things on the TV about it. We headed to Paddy's Paddock at Burswood Casino with Robbie. It was an outdoor pub especially set up for St Patrick's day complete with stage, a band playing Irish music the whole day and night - and of course Guinness (Helena's favorite?!)...

For Christmas Robbie had given us a return ticket to Rottnest Island (www.rottnestisland.com), an island 12 kms off the coast of Perth that measures 11km wide x 5km high, and we eventually got round to going there last weekend. We left Perth at 2pm on Friday afternoon and after a leong, slow journey on the boat out we arrived at about 4.30pm. Got off the boat, then went and hired a couple of bikes to help us get around the island - turned out to be very handy.

Stayed at a old Army barracks which has now been converted into a youth hostel - and had 6 beds in the room to ourselves because no-one else was brave enough to stay with us... ;) The island is famous for Sits quokkas (small 40cms kangaroos) - and that's where it got it's name from as the first people to discover it thought they were giant rats! They really were everywhere - on the roads (where there are no cars allowed), outside your room and even in the pub and restaurants! Gave Helena a bit of a shock when we were eating dinner and one just hopped up and sat down right beside her!

Spent the Saturday cycling round from beach to beach and bay to bay stopping where we wanted and taking a little swim in the lovely clear (if a little cold) waters - not bad at all! Took the ferry back on Saturday night after just one night - but it was a good stay and we saw most of what the island had to offer in a day.

Al also played football for the Kelmscott Roos (www.kelmscottroos.com) - the team Robbie plays for - in their first match of the season against Morley Utd - a classic encounter!?! They won 5-1 and Al even managed to score 3 goals so that wasn't a bad start - these Australians must not be too good at football!

We've also now booked the rest of our flights for the trips...

12 May Perth - Adelaide
21 May Adelaide - Cairns
27 May Townsville - Brisbane
1 June Brisbane - Auckland
18 June Christchurch - Sydney
24 June Sydney - Hong Kong
30 June Hong Kong - London
Then ... London - ???

We're looking forward to it and hopefully we'll have plenty more nice things to tell you all about!

We'll be putting up more photos on www.alanmckevitt.com shortly.

Take care,
Helena & Al

Gimme, gimme, gimme...

2006-03-13T02:09:00.000-08:00

Hey!

Last weekend we celebrated our 1 year anniversary (awww) by sampling of our respective cultures. First a little bit or Ireland, as we went out for something to eat in an Irish pub called Paddy Maguires, and then for the Swedish part we went to see Björn Again - an ABBA tribute band... They were pretty impressive, did all the big hits and had everybody singing along and dancing where the were supposed to be sitting! One strange thing though was that in the middle of all the ABBA songs they played Bon Jovi, Livin' on a Prayer - seemed to be "Björn & Benny" wanting to show that they could actually play their instruments well and do more than ABBA songs - not that we cared though!

Next morning it was an early start for a wine tasting tour of the Swan Valley region - just outside Perth. This was organised to celebrate Jannelle's 21st birthday, and a bus took about 40 of us around 4 wineries, 1 brewery (bryggeri) , to a riverside barbeque and even a chocolate factory! We finished off a good day by heading out in Perth to a nightclub for a few more drinks and some dancing. All in all, a busy but good weekend.

We didn't do too much during the week (except work!) but headed to the casino on Friday night and then to Adventure World (http://www.adventureworld.net.au/) on Sunday. It's a waterpark / theme park just south of Perth. We had a good time although the place was a little small and not enough there to tempt us back in a hurry.

We have to start to think now about the rest of our journey. All we know so far is that we fly from Sydney to Hong Kong on the 24th June and fly back to London on the 30th June. Before that we still want to see Sydney, Adelaide, New Zealand and much more though so we will have to plan how to fit it all in...guess there could be worse problems!

Kramar Al & Helena

Oh - and we've put a few more photos up on www.alanmckevitt.com...

Just chilling out

2006-02-25T21:57:00.000-08:00

Hi again,

As always - it's been a while... so what is happening?

We can start by telling you that Helena has got a job - yipee! No more looking through the newspaper job sections, phoning strange people or boring interviews... The job is with Aroma Cafe (www.aromacafe.com.au) based in Perth city centre - about 4 kms away and easy to get to by bus. She's working 11-3 Monday to Friday so still gets her weekends free and some time for the beach. :)

We've had a couple of calm and relaxing weekends not doing too much at all really - just chilled out, headed to the beach and then last Saturday night went to one of our friend, Joe's parents house for a barbeque. They live about 30 kms from Perth with kangaroos in their garden! But that's not all - his parents grow a lot of fruit and vegetables themselves - tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, garlic, onions, grapes, lemons, potatoes, peaches and they even make their own wine and tomato sauce - pretty impressive! Best of all though - they have a nice swimming pool - perfect for a cool dip on a warm day...

Next weekend we've got tickets for Björn Again - an ABBA tribute band who are playing in Perth - looking forward to that! We are also invited to a wine tour around the Swan Valley region to celebrate our housemate's girlfriend Janelle's 21st Birthday which should be nice too.

We'll put a few more photos up on www.alanmckevitt.com.

Take care,
Helena & Al

A trip down south and to the zoo!

2006-02-06T02:36:00.000-08:00

Back again...

We'll start by filling you in on last weekend - a trip with Robbie down the coast to the Margaret River wine region. Left early on Friday afternoon and started making our way on the 250 km journey south. Arrived in one of the main towns in the area, Busselton, and had a look around. We were impressed by the local jetty - 2.5 km making it the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere - but decided to keep going in search of accomodation.

We arrived then in a small village right by the sea called Dunsborough and found a pretty cheap backpackers place to spend the night - even nicer because it was was just metres from the sea! Went out that night for something to eat and a few drinks but we were all pretty tired so it was an early night in preparation for a busy next day.

Did all the "tourist things" on Saturday - visted a lighthouse, a couple of nice beaches & vineyards, even a chocolate factory (heaven!) and finished it all off with a stop at an ice-cream cafe! Mmmm... Also managed to fit in some snorkelling, sand-boarding, mini-golf and Rob and Al had a game of Gladiators Pugel Sticks! All in all a very good weekend.

What else have we been up to? (us youngsters, Phyllis!) Well a few more trips to the beach and on Sunday a visit to Perth zoo! Spent 4 hours walking round with our housemate Mweemba (his first zoo visit) looking at all wierd and wonderful animals we didn't even know existed! Saw plenty of snakes and were a bit concerned by the descriptions that went along with them.... "Common in Perth"..."Likes to come in to houses to look for food"... Nice... or not! the kangaroos that we got to stroke were a bit more cuddly and not so poisonous.

Helena has now been for a couple of inteviews in search of a job so fingeres crossed something will happen soon.

That's all from us for now and we'll post up a few more photos on www.alanmckevitt.com for you all to look at.

Take care,Helena & Al

Finally some more pictures!!!

2006-01-29T05:54:00.000-08:00

For a few more of our pictures please visit http://www.alanmckevitt.com/ and click on the Al & Helena's Trip section, at the bottom. Enlarge them and you will see a little comment - enjoy! ; )

The start of more photos...

2006-01-23T01:19:00.000-08:00

Ah - this is the life! Cocktails by our
sides and feet in the water...

Railay beach, Thailand

Sun, sea and some scary sharks!

2006-01-17T01:45:00.000-08:00

Well - there's been a bit of progress since the last time we wrote... the proper Australian summer has come and the sun tans are getting a bit better! We didn’t think it was too cold before this, with temperatures of 25-30 degrees, but last week it reached up as far as 39 degrees – or the technical term…“really hot”! Perfect for a dip in the Indian Ocean though…

So what has happened on the job front? Well – Al has started working in the city with Western Power – the local electricity provider – on a 2-3 month contract. It was all pretty quick – gave CV to recruitment agency on the 4th January, got an interview on the Thursday 5th and started the following Tuesday – probably a bit sooner than we had expected and hoped for! No more weekdays at the beach now or big lie-ins – but there’s bills to be paid! No luck for Helena yet but the search continues! Applied for a few jobs – cafes, kindergartens & pharmacy – but it’s too early to have heard anything yet. She wants something soon though – it’s not too much fun being at home all alone everyday…

Our new house mate moved in as well – Mweemba from Zambia. Nice guy but never before had we heard of anyone managing to burn a boiled egg - interesting!

Helena and I also celebrated our 10 month anniversary with a visit to the cinema and a meal in a little Italian restaurant in Northbridge –central Perth where all the bars and cafes are. Very nice indeed! We went back there this weekend with Robbie and a few other friends for a night out at a big pub / club called The Deen. A nice place with good music – more than you can say for a lot of other places here. The pub music tends to be very “Hard Rock” – not good for dancing!

On Sunday we headed to beach and almost chose the wrong one. We thought about going to City Beach instead of the normal choice, Cottesloe, but thankfully didn’t – when we got home that night we heard on the news that a man had been attacked by a shark there (even though he was diving 8 km out to sea). And tonight we just heard of a spotting of a 6m Great White Shark a few kilometres up the coast. Scary stuff!

No broadband yet - still waiting. Pictures will be up as soon as we get it!

Tack för alla födelsedagspresenter och julklappar - lite i efterskott!

Al & Helena

Happy New Year!!!

2006-01-02T04:13:00.000-08:00

Can we just start by wishing you all a happy new year and all the very best for 2006!

Last time we wrote we were a bit worried about being homeless for Christmas but the next day we found out that we had been successful with the house application we mentioned - yipee!!! Moved in on Thursday 22nd December, just in time for Christmas and for Santa's visit!

The house is a large 4 bedroom family house with plenty of space inside and a nice big garden for relaxing and barbequing; that oh so Australian hobby - we're getting right into it now too! We're sharing with Al's cousin Robbie and his friend Mark and in mid January another of Robbie's friends, Mweemba, will be moving in to. So that'll be someone from Sweden, Ireland, Australia (but born in Wales), Australia (with Ukranian parents) and Namibia when we're all moved in - a pretty international mix!

Since we'd just had just moved in we thought we'd go out and get something for our Christmas dinner instead of trying to cook ourselves so it was off to Miss Mauds (www.missmaud.com.au),
a traditional Swedish restaurant in Perth, for their Swedish Christmas Julbord. Although it was good food and we both really enjoyed it, it wasn't really too Swedish - no Swedish meatballs or janssons frestelse but it did have a beef tikka (?? - not very Swedish) !

We had a pretty unusual Christmas day - not quite like the conventional days we would both be used to at home! Started off with the opening of our presents, which would have been pretty normal, except that we were sitting out on our balcony with sun shining down on us - good start! We then headed off the beach (http://www.westaust.net/cottesloe_beach.html) and spent a couple of hours there relaxing, swimming and listening to the waves hitting the sand - very nice! Then it was onto find some food for our Christmas dinner - this is where it all started to go a bit wrong...the best we could find open was a local kebab shop... at least we now know that a kebab is not good for a Christmas dinner!

For the New Year we had a barbeque and party at the house with the guys from the house, some of their friends and the neighbours coming round too. After some food and a few drinks we headed off to our local bar to bring in the New Year with a bang. A good night was enjoyed by all and there a were a few sore heads the next morning!

The plan for this week is to start the process of job hunting - oh dear! We've now got a house, applied for a tax number and have sorted out an Australian bank account so guess there's nothing left as an excuse not to work now?! Hopefully we'll get something soon - the money will come in pretty handy!

We'll have broadband installed in the house sometime in the next week or so and we'll get some pictures up then - takes a bit long on this bad internet connection!

In case anybody wants to contact us our address here is

134 Washington Street
Victoria Park
Perth
Western Australia
6100

And the phone number is 0061 89 472 1154.

Take care and we'll try not to leave it so long until our next diary entry,
Al & Helena

Perth, Australia

2005-12-20T03:51:00.000-08:00

Took us about 5 hours to get from Singapore to Perth and we made it through customs - but not before the sniffer dog at the airport had been alerted to the fruit in Helena's bag and they stopped us for a couple of minutes. Even though you know you have nothing bad it still make you nervous when they ask you to "please step aside and open up your bag"!

Al's cousin, Robbie, came and picked us up from the airport and brought us back to the house he lived in with another guy- "Big Mark". After freshening up we went to meet Al's aunt Anne who he hadn't seen for 10 years & her husband Graham, who had both come over from Adelaide for a holiday. Spent most of the week relaxing and unwinding with them - and of course celebrating Helena's 20th birthday!

That day started with breakfast out in the warm Australian sun - not every Lucia (swedish public holiday) you can do that! In the afternoon we took a trip into Freemantle (pretty fishing port 15km from Perth) and met up with Anne for a nosy round the shops and some birthday cake - mmm!

It was just when Helena was finishing of her Chocolate Mud Pie that Al decided it was time to tell her about the surpise that was happening that night - a 1 hour scenic flight over Perth in a 4 seater plane! It was a nice trip with great views over the city & beaches at sunset and the 3 passengers - us 2 & Robbie - all enjoyed it! ("Not a bad surprise, thank-you baby!"- Helena)

We tried to go out the following night to celebrate Helena's 20th birthday in a club in Freemantle but were denied entry because Helena didn't have her ID with her! Tried again on Friday (with ID) and had a really good night out - hopefully the first of many to come in Oz!

So what's happeing now then??? We're currently house hunting for somewhere to live for a few months but it is proving a little more difficult than we had expected and hoped. Have an application in for a house at the moment so fingers crossed we'll not be homeless over Christmas!

Also got new Australian phone numbers if anyone needs to call or wants to get in contact:

Helena 0061 416 766 416
Al 0061 416 766 010

Gotta go but we'll write again soon - promise!

Merry Christmas! / God Jul!
Al & Helena

A quick weekend in Singapore!

2005-12-12T03:21:00.000-08:00

Arrived in Singapore after a short Friday evening flight from Krabi, Thailand. Caught the subway to our hostel - Sleepy Sams - where we had booked a double room - hmm... don't really think you could have called it a double room. Walk in and reverse out but at least it was clean and a bed for the night!

Headed out on Friday night for something to eat and then took the train to Raffles Place. Had a walk amongst the skyscraper and a nice ice-cream looking over the river just watching the people go by - busy, busy!

Spent most of our Saturday on Orchard Road - the centre of Singapore's shopping district - and Helena loved it! (Al too of course...) Got some Christmas presents for each other and were really impressed by all the Christmas lights and decorations - wow! Strange to be able to walk around in shorts and T-shirt while listening to Jingle Bells, etc in the shops!

Also paid visits to both the Little India and Chinatown districts in the city - really felt like you were in on of those countries while you walked around looking at the market stalls & smelling the food from the restaurants. :)

Enjoyed our time in Singapore but weren't too sad to leave for Perth on Monday morning after being woken up by the 5.00am alarm call from the nearby mosque every other day as well... so after a short train journey it was back onto another plane and we were on our way to Perth, Western Australia! G'day mate...

More pics / mer bilder

2005-12-10T05:32:00.000-08:00

Al's new best friend?!

Brave or stupid to be trying Thai food?

What an adventurer!

Eating...again... :)

Home sweet home! (Railay Beach)

Paradise at Railay beach

Bilder / pics

2005-12-10T04:54:00.000-08:00

Party at Helena's Grandparents house.

Cafe Småland in London!

Spot our sleepy friend at Saturday Night Fever in London!

Voici - Leicester Square!

Koh Lanta - home for a few more days!

2005-12-07T03:01:00.000-08:00

After spending 5 days at Railay beach we decided it was time for us 2 little travellers / gypsies to move on and find a new home once again. So this time it was to an island 2 hours away by boat called Koh Lanta, where we had been told the beaches were long & sandy and the waters were blue - again!

Arrived at the pier of Ban Saladan, the main (and only!) town, on the island to an army of hotel reps trying to get us to come with them. We chose one guy's hotel and when we had a look we were happy enough with the room and the price so decided to stay (http://www.lantavillaresort.com/). It was good enough for us anyway!

The island was what we had expected and a bit more too! Clear blue water, long, peaceful golden beaches and beautiful sunsets! Plenty of nice cheap restaurants to keep us happy too... we soon got into the lazy island "way of life"! Not too difficult for us I'm sure you can imagine : )

Having walked pass a hairdressers a few days in a row Al finally got brave (or stupid) enough and decided to get his hair cut. "Now not too short please?", we told the hairdresser. "Ok, Ok", he replied and looked as if he had understood. But 15 minutes later and with 100 baht (20 kr, 1.40 pounds) less in our pockets, we realised he didn't speak any English at all - seemed he missed the "not too" and only understood the "short" bit! Oh dear...

The next event worth writing about was our elephant trek in the jungle - what a way to celebrate our 9 month anniversary! After a shaky and pretty scary start the rest of the hour sitting on our elephant Bo's back was spent laughing at the guide's vain attempts to control an animal 25 times bigger than himself! This was mostly done by grunting ("uuuuuuughhh" = go) and nudge with his feet in behind Bo's big ears...What a romantic adventure!

The plan now is to fly to Singapore on Friday, spend the weekend there, and then fly to Perth on Monday morning - exciting stuff!

Thinking about you all,
Helena & Al

Railay Beach - and a taste of paradise

2005-11-29T01:44:00.000-08:00

Took an early morning longtail boat for the 10 minute trip from Ao Nang to Railay Beach (which was the only way to get to this group of beaches) and arrived on its beautiful golden sands homeless - again. Started to look for somewhere to stay and the fact that unlike everywhere else where the Thai people approached us asking us to stay at their hotels this time it seemed like we were the ones chasing after them!

After a few "All fulls" and places that were just out of our budget we found a perfect little bungalow for the 2 of us (http://www.diamondcave-railay.com/) - not bad, eh? Stayed here for 5 nights where all we did was relax - spent our days either at the beach, the swimming pool, eating(at our favourite little restuarants where we became regulars and got friendly with the funny staff!), drinking or sleeping. Just what we needed after the hustle and bustle of London and Bangkok...

The only thing that spoiled it was the fact that we only got one really good day out of 5. Al still managed to get sunburnt then of course... Dessa irländare :)

And so One Night In Ao Nang : )

2005-11-25T23:26:00.000-08:00

After a 2 hour boat journey from Phuket, which nearly drove Helena insane with boredom, we arrived in Ao Nang only to find it was raining cats and dogs - not a good start; soaked through to the skin and sand everywhere! We still had it a lot easier than the parents who had to carry prams , children and everything else from the the longtail boat (http://www.westernaspect.com/images/KoLanta_beach_1_lrg.jpg) to the beach - crazy!

Found a hotel on the recommendation of the Lonely Planet Guide - not too impressive but still OK. With the weight of the bags on our backs we just wanted to get them put down somewhere and go & get something to eat. (As all her friends and family can testify Helena needs food and sleep on a regular basis - like a wee baby...this was one of those emergencies! :) ) As soon as we checked in we noticed that pretty much everyone sitting in the foyer who wasn't Thai was actually Swedish - and that is no exagguaration!

After lunch we took a little stroll along the beach and decided that with the bad weather today was the day to get a Thai massage. 200 baht / person (40 SEK / 2.85 GBP ) for one hour - not too bad! Couldn't make out the name of Al's masseuse but on the third or forth time of asking we discover it was what we had initially suspected - "PORN" - poor lady! 200 baht for a Porn massage, any takers?!

Went out that night and got our best meal so far and also noticed that most menus were in Thai, English and SWEDISH too. We even found a restaurant serving köttbullar med lingonsylt (traditional Swedish food) this far from home - crazy! After all this we still decided to move on to somewhere which was supposed to be even nicer - Railay Beach - the next morning.

One Night In Phuket...

2005-11-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

After landing in Phuket & getting our luggage then the reality of the fact that we actually had no place to stay for the first time hit us and in truth we got a bit worried! Foreign land, no language, no home, no friends, no clue - no hope?! Spotted 2 other equally lost people and asked if they wanted to share a taxi to Phuket Town where we could look for some accomodation. They looked a bit scared of us to start with but took the risk anyway and 10 minutes later we were all in a taxi speeding towards Phuket!

Turned out they were from Denmark and seemed to be pretty experienced backpackers, just like us - haha! The taxi dropped us off in the centre of the town and then we set off looking for somewhere to rest our heads for the night. Took a look at a place that seemed OK for the money - 450 baht / 90 kronor / 6.50 pounds for both of us - we were happy enough but the Danish couple had to really think long and hard about spending so much on a room; for them this was luxury and they still tried hard to bargain the price down! 400 baht, OK??

Didn't want to stay on Phuket Island to long so escaped early the next morning... came out of the hotel and bumped into a random little man - our maybe he "bumped into" us? - who offered us a taxi to the pier. "How much to Rassada Pier?". "200 baht". "No, no, 100 baht". "OK!" Not too hard to bargain him down? : ) Turned out he didn't even have a taxi but he still got us there in time for the boat to Ao Nang.

Bangkok - the city of tuk-tuks...

2005-11-23T06:22:00.000-08:00

Bonjour! After about 14 hours on a plane sat next to a loud French guy we finally touched down in Bangkok. The flight wasn't as bad as it sounds and we slept most of the way - the ear plugs and eye masks came in handy! Got attacked by hundreds of taxi drivers offering their services - "Where you go? Where you go? Taxi? Taxi?" Managed to get through them though, took a bus into the city and found the hotel - The Asia Hotel , Bangkok .

Checked in and were impressed by the look it - much better than our choice in London (could it have got any worse?!). We took a little walk around where the hotel was but after being attacked by loads of tuk-tuk drivers ( tuk-tuk pic) we decided to play it safe and opted for the western luxury of our hotel...wimps! Tråkmånsar!

Woke up at 13.00 on Monday - seems our body clocks were a bit messed up by the flights! - went for a swim in the hotel pool, then headed out for a look around Bangkok's shops and markets. It was at this point when we really realised how far from home we actually were - no turning back now! My god...

One thing we noticed from the very start was the crazy number of old, overweight white guys with young, pretty Thai girls - they really are everywhere! Wonder what the girls see in them? $$$$

Next day we decided to get up and try to take in some Thai culture - headed for the Grand Palace and a big Buddist Temple - like proper tourists now! When we got there we were told that we had arrived on one of the only days of the year that tourists were not allowed into either the palace or the temple - some big Thai national celebration was on... typical!

That night, on our way out to get something to eat we bumped into a friendly little Thai lady on the street and taking her recommendation that we "can't eat western food, when in Bangkok", popped into a noodle house - mmm, we thought... We had a a bit of hastle ordering the food that Helena wanted, when it finally came it wasn't really worth the wait - it brought a tear to her eye and nearly made her throw up - off to McDonalds, again...

Checked out on Wednesday morning and while waiting for a taxi to the airport we asked another guy if he wanted to share the fare with us. He agreed and when we got into the taxi it turned out he was from Banbridge (15 km from Lurgan, where Al lives) - small world!! After nearly getting killed a dozen times we finally made it to the airport safe and well, if a little shaken, and boarded our flight to Phuket... to be continued : )

London - our first stop on our own!

2005-11-19T08:36:00.000-08:00

After a bumpy landing at Standstead we passed our first test of the big trip - both our bags came and both in one piece! We then caught a train into London - 33 pounds for 2 tickets; the rumours about London being expensive were right!

Managed to find our way to the hostel but couldn't check in until 14.00 so we headed off for some Fish'n'Chips at Harry Ramsdens - how English?! On the way back to the hostel we stopped off and did some shopping on Oxford Street - all we managed to buy though was some hats & gloves to protect us from the extreme weather! We hadn't planned for that in our rucksacks...

Then we went back to check in and get our room - "Just like home", said the French girl at the reception... but after one night in that room we were both glad our homes weren't like that! It seemed OK to start with but as the night went on the room just got colder and colder and when we woke up we were both frezzing and the temperature in the room was probably about 14 degrees. There wasn't even any hot water to help warm us up!

After a first night from hell we decided to go and do something about it, and when we complained it seemed a "big shock" to our French friend (?) at reception. She gave us a key to another room which we went to, checked out, were happy with, and moved our stuff into only to be asked to move to another room which ended up being how we would have liked it from the beginning - eventually...

Now that we had the room sorted out, we got down to some proper touristy sightseeing - went to The London Eye, Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Trafalgar Square & the British Museum from a little bit of culture, tro det eller ej. Even found a little coffee shop called Småland Coffee - named after the area in Sweden were Helena is from - London really has everything! :)

Went to see a West End show on Friday night - Saturday Night Fever at the Apollo. We both enjoyed it and learnt a few good dance moves! That was our opinion but the Japanese guy sitting beside us didn't seem to like it as much as we did and managed to sleep almost the whole way through only wakening when the performers hit a high note! haha...

Headed off to Bangkok on Saturday night...

First stop - Tånebro with Helena's Grandparents

2005-11-19T08:14:00.000-08:00

We left Helena's house in Långasjö on Tuesday morning after a brave farewell to Per, Ingela & Martin who all came to see us off on our first leg of the trip - the train from Emmaboda to Malmö.

Spent 2 days relaxing and enjoying being spoilt by Stig and especially Berit's fine home Swedish cooking. Pannbiff with Lingonsylt (meatballs with special jam) is now one of Al's favourites! On the Wednesday night we had a little early Christmas party and dinner, Swedish style. Helena's aunts, Siv & Solweig, her cousin Shoan & Siv's husband Kjell came and joined us for another wonderful Berit meal. And Helena even got a few early birthday presents!

We got an early night and both slept surprisingly well considering what we had in front of us. Left early the next morning, with Stig & Berit bringing us to Malmö Sturup Airport for a 10.05 flight to London Stanstead. Oh dear - now we're all alone!

Helena och Al