Orlando, Dingle & Other Stories

It's time for a bit of blogging. There is much to tell...
I went across to Orlando at the beginning of October for the shortest ever, carbon burning, crazy miles for crazy cheap prices trip to my favourite ever Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. And if you want to ask me about the Dublin-Gatwick-Detroit-Orlando-Atlanta-Gatwick-Dublin flights, I'll tell you it was all worth it, even though the outbound journey took me almost 24 hours. From Thursday to Tuesday, not only did I fit in 2 nights at Halloween Horror Nights #18, but also a great night at "Howl-O-Scream" at Busch Gardens Tampa, an airboat trip in the Everglades, some factory outlet shoe shopping, and some lie-in time at the Doubletree Hotel Universal Studios, where they present you with a warm chocolate cookie at check-in time. My "economy" car rental was upgraded to a thumping red Ford Mustang, as per usual. That's what you get when they're asleep on the Hertz counter at 1am, on a typically steamy Orlando night (a taste of Brisbane in summer!) The scares were as good as ever, and so was Orlando, although they're hurting of course. For just 25 cents more you can supersize everything at Burger King, and for just a dollar more, they'll throw in a lakefront repo-home 5 miles from Disneyworld. There are bus tours daily - bring the cheque book (or the credit card!) I got 3 seats back on Delta from Atlanta to Gatwick, although I was sure the trolley dollies with the "Designing Women" southern drawl seemed determined to lock up the screaming kid in front of me as we crossed the coast of Canada :) Anyway, might not get back to Orlando for a few years now...
We're leaving Ireland quite soon. Nothing to do with the world financial disaster, but just an overall assessment that although there's a lot to love about Ireland, life in Australia is better. As well as the attraction of family & friends of course. We will miss Ireland, especially on those occasional horrible days when Brisbane peaks at 40c. We'll really miss the music, and our wonderful Viking Festival too. But it's time to go back now - to sort out our real estate and see if we can find ourselves a house and do some more fun things. We've both resigned, and are in our final weeks of work here.
What this also means is that by the end of this year, ohdundalk will come to an end too. I think blogging needs to have a specific purpose - and ohdundalk doesn't really work in the suburbs of Brisbane. Perhaps we'll eventually have another blog with a new purpose, but until then, this blog will end (after we tidy up all the loose ends and put up ALL the photos) - and will serve as a record of our experiences from 2006 until the end of 2008. We have loads and loads of media to sort out from this time, both word (written & yet unwritten) and photos. I have a book to finish, and I hope a couple of shots might even end up on our walls next year!
So we leave Ireland in late November - one last big bang party at The Glyde Inn (last drinks please), then over to Switzerland for 6 nights including Interlaken & Zermatt. A little nostalgia from my 1989 travel agent days! Then across to Porto and down to Steve & Meg in the hills of Portugal, then up to San Sebastian, Bilbao, Northern Spain & Galicia. Eventually back to London, then Qantas back to OZ on the pre-Christmas frequent flyer special - oxygen masks frequently dropping via Singapore & Melbourne. We have some plans - just a few, and we'll take things as they come in this mad world.
Finally, but by no means last - we just got back from a weekend in Dingle with Dave, Libby & Zach. I suppose there was a touch of melancholy as with Dingle, we felt like we'd left the best of Ireland till last. Absolutely spectacular, especially the end of the peninsula overlooking Great Blasket. Of course it rained for a whole day. Not just rain but movie special effects rain, blasting in all directions driven by the turbine of Atlantic winds. Dingle was rugged, amazing and geared up for tourism - good food, scenery, music, Guinness (in no particular order). However, we will say, directly from the mouths of our Australian visitors that prices in Ireland are now officially "horrifying" with the drop of the Aussie Dollar and the amazing strength of the Euro (what does the world see in the Euro?) This has made an average B&B room over A$120, a tank of fuel well over A$100, a simple meal over A$80. Currencies will fluctuate of course, and the Aussie will come back, but right now, all we can do is to issue a pretty big warning to all imminent & potential visitors. Get ready to open your wallet, and if you choose to convert, please don't be of a nervous disposition! Yikes...
Loads of photos will be posted soon, and we might even expand on these stories a little more.

Work Tales, Part II

Clare has been jetsetting, as usual... San Francisco one week, Limerick the next! Tonight she's called me from Gatwick Airport, where her Ryanair plane seems to be blocked from the runway by an Aer Lingus plane (the Ryanair pilot would take delight in telling you that, I'm sure!) Such is life in the world of seafood training, etc, etc. So here's a little trip report that Clare sent to me from San Francisco (and I found rather amusing)...
"Had some problems getting onto the net, user issues as you would say! The weather was pouring rain last night - I thought I was in Dublin. Both flights (to San Fran) were empty and I had 3 seats all the way. I did MBA work, read magazines and didn’t get toxins at Newark (this refers to Joe's little food poisoning incident at Newark Airport last October, please don't ask!) The conference oragnisers had sent emails warning about not to walk around here at night and I thought they were being paranoid Americans but they were right. I'm sure I saw 2 homeless people in the lobby at 9pm and a woman straight out of ‘Pretty Woman’ in the lobby and again later in the hall near my room. Hispanic, large, high heels, loads of makeup and very short skirt. Almost laughable really. The hotel is very ‘LA Confidential’. I thought its best days were probably around 1951 or so but I read the hotel blurb and its heyday was around the 1890’s. One of the few buildings to survive the earthquake intact and became the City Hall for a few years after 1906 or whenever the big earthquake was. Whilst eating ‘breakfast’ at Starbucks, in the hotel lobby, I watched the homeless go thru the bins at 10am this morning. The hotel blurb in the rooms has 2 pages on security, 1 page on fire safety and 2 pages on earthquake safety - during and after...
I caught the BART to Sunita’s place (ex flat mate from Brisbane). It was the train to ‘Dublin’, would you believe? Sunita lives in a ‘transition’ neighbourhood in Oakland - loads of Central American families going to Mass, artists taking over factories and making real loft apartments - not a developers version of loft apartments... mosaics where graffiti used to be. Her husband was the architect on the apartment block where they live, so they got it cheaper. But the mortage on one wage is still tough, so Sunita was back at work 3 weeks ago and her Aussie mother-in-law is here for 9 months looking after their baby son. But they'll make a fortune in a few years when the neighbourhood turns white and professional. That said, M-I-L, Chris, says the drug deals regularly go down at the train station. We had breakfast - all healthy and no eggs benedict. Chris says I have a hint of an Irish accent. Hmmm, I doubt it! Chris lived in Cork for a while 4 years ago. So we swapped Irish stories...
Sunita says that San Fran & Manhattan are the only 2 places in the USA that don’t expect a recession and house prices are not collapsing. But her husbands company (architects) sacked a bunch of people last Friday and he's working Sunday and regularly doing 90 hour weeks. The TV here has ads for 1000 houses being auctioned next week in Modesto/Fresno, etc. (well outside San Fran), and all those places behind LA that are repo houses...
Reading the papers - there is more support here for Obama than Hillary. No one cares about the Republicans, but this is San Fran! It's Tet today, the Vietnamese New Year. So I'm off to find some Pho in a few minutes. I could go to a Superbowl party with the fish types, but I can’t miss Tet when it's about 2 blocks from the hotel. Bugger the homeless. etc...

And later...

I found the Law & Order channel on TV. This area is definitely the homeless epicenter. They're everywhere - lying on all the streets, sitting everywhere and there is diversity there as well. Men, women, black, white & Asian. Can you believe homeless Asian women? I don’t think I've ever seen that before. And I can now see why people thought I was homeless in 1999 - the homeless here have backpacks and sleeping bags and when you see them from a distance they do look like a group of backpackers. Some are quite young...
Tet was very interesting - very few food stalls. Only those weird jelly things, a few red bean buns and one Hawaiian kebab stall. Mostly stalls selling: dodgy Viet DVDs, plastic & glass things from a plastics factory in the Mekong delta, Viet charities, Uni scholarship programs, newspapers, nail places and florists. There was a big concert of some Viet band that was fairly huge. But the weirdest thing was the audience was 99 % Viet. A few hispanics and a few white men with their Viet girlfriends/wives. Only saw 2 other white women. And around the corner was a big YHA hostel. But it would seem no one from the YHA went to Tet ????? Found the Pho shops. Little Saigon is about as big as Darra - that’s all. I popped into a couple of shops - one selling loads of weird jellies and other meat products - not in refrigeration! Gave them a miss. Then to the little supermarket on the corner. Found a rack of Kettle Chips. Loads of different flavours. Bought 3 types of chilli chips - Spicy Thai, Island Jerk & Buffalo Bleu. Found a farmers market on the way back...
On Monday night we saw the Deadheads For Obama - the Grateful Dead got back together for a concert for Obama and all their supporters were walking around with signs, etc. No stickers for sale though :( Bill was down at the seafront in a building doing a live telecast to Hillary - in another state - for supporters to have a chat. We went to a fish factory for drinks & crab, then off in a cable car to Chinatown with the conference organiser, who grew up there. Nice enough dinner of Cantonese & Szechuan cuisine. Most others thought it was exotic...
Tuesday arvo I escaped and did tourist stuff - seals, aquarium and Fisherman's Wharf. That night was the conference dinner - okay food, terrible speaker. A few of us went to the bar and told our own after dinner auditor stories. Up again at 4am to go to the ‘seafood markets’ that didn’t exist. I did see some trawlers, seals, giant seagulls & rats. Then did my talk and dashed for the airport...
(Sorry, no photos from San Fran, didn't take the camera)

New York, New York...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>

Under construction...

New York, New York

Your friendly Wyoming law enforcement...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
Under construction...
Lander, Wyoming Highway Cops, Vail & Denver

The world of Yellowstone...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>

Under construction...

Yellowstone National Park

It's raining in Rapid City

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>

It's raining in Rapid City, South Dakota. We stopped for dinner this evening at Red Lobster on the I-90, where dinner comes in 3 sizes - big, bigger & biggest, much like the eager patrons. Clare ran across the wet carpark to Target (none in Ireland!) to buy some clothes, while I waited in the restaurant lobby with the buzzer that vibrates when your table is ready. About 25 minutes later it went off, and we chose our delicious seafood meals & cocktails, which came in the same gigantic sizes as the meals (my strawberry Lobsterita was exceptional!) We had a friendly table visit from the manager, Kent French, who wanted to talk to the only Australians in town that night and told us he was a world "clapping" champion, video here. Nice guy! I finished up my Lobsterita as the people on the next table were offered another plate of endless shrimp... We drove back across the hills to our lovely hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Keystone (about US $58/nt) and hit the sack.

We'd started the previous day collecting our Hertz Rental Car at Denver Airport. Flicked on the Sat Nav and headed north on the I-25 past Loveland & Fort Collins, Colorado - with huge RV sales yards and shopping malls on the highway. Traffic thinned out as we entered Wyoming. We stopped for food nr. Cheyenne - BIG food & huge trucks in the parking lot with gun racks & "hunter" bumper stickers. This was the real American homeland - wide open spaces and about as far away from Washington DC or Seattle as you can get! It was getting dark as we kept going north, eventually climbing in elevation as we left Wyoming and entered the far southwest corner of South Dakota (our forth state for the day!) We got to Keystone late that night.

When it comes to blurbs about tourist towns, sometimes the local tourist authorities put it best, so here you go: Keystone... The “Home of Mount Rushmore” and truly a “City of Gold”. Rich in gold mining history the quaint town of Keystone is just two miles from Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Once a gold mining boomtown and later the location of the monumental carving of Mount Rushmore, Keystone was also the adult home of Carrie Ingalls of “Little House on the Prairie” fame. With all this to offer who needs more? But there is a lot more. There are historic and Presidential museums where you can learn about the history of Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum – Sculptor of Mount Rushmore, United States Presidents, Keystone and Carrie Ingalls. An alpine slide and Tramway with great views of Mount Rushmore and the surrounding area; an actual gold mine that you can tour and then learn to pan for gold; a Historic 1880 Train ride that takes you through some of the most beautiful Black Hills scenery around; beautiful caves that boast some of the largest formations around, and a Historic Walking tour that takes you on a trip back in time!

It was well & truly off season in Keystone and things were really quiet. We waited a while for service in the local diner to get some breakfast. Then straight up to Mount Rushmore (annual parking pass US $8). An attractive family of rocky mountain goats were munching on the plants in the multi-storey carpark (this place was really built for summer crowds). We took lots of photos of course. Mount Rushmore is suitably impressive like all the pictures you see, but we were told the nearby Crazy Horse Monument was better, although it has decades of blasting and chiselling to go before any sign of completion. Anyway, we did the little walking circuit under the Presidents' faces and admired this patriotic salute to all things American. Time to move on.

We headed down from the Black Hills towards Badlands National Park and made stops on the way, firstly to talk to a rancher, Ken Wilson, who had 5,000 head of cattle on 40,000 acres. We'd stopped at the end of his driveway to take some pics of the fall foliage. Like so many other friendly people we came across, I guess they were happy to chat with anyone that stopped, especially Australians! At the next settlement (ghost town!) of Scenic, Clare was given a little history by a first nation guy sitting outside the local store. The glory days of Scenic had long since passed, and this was literally a tumbleweed town where we expected to see Wylie Coyote chasing the roadrunner down the street with some Acme TNT. We gave the guy a few bucks and carried on.

The weather was doing weird things as we drive across the amazingly flat South Dakota landscape towards Badlands. The towns out here along the I-90 started to resemble what you might imagine of the American "outback" - dusty, trailer park homes, quite rundown, etc. We established pretty quickly we definitely wouldn't want to live out here. This is the area where America once kept it's "Minuteman" longrange nuclear missiles, but the vistor centre was closed so we moved on. The open air Prairie Homestead along the road was also closed for the season (it looked abandoned), so we scaled the fences to take a look around. Lots of cute prairie dogs popping their heads out of their burrows. We tore off into Badlands and made a few scenic stops along the way. Thick cloud had moved across now, and any hint of the fabulous colours that this area is famous for were well and truly washed out. But the views were still amazing and it was worth the drive. Rain & darkness were falling as we took the I-90 back into Rapid City, past Ellsworth Air Force Base, more trailer park homes and finally to our table at the Red Lobster... God Bless America!

Elvis does his stuff

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
After a couple of days in Las Vegas, we'd settled in. Well, as much as having Bloody Mary's for breakfast is settling in to anywhere. Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Our hotel room facing the strip had a wonderful view, but absorbed the full cacophony of wailing sirens 24 hours a day and sightseeing helicopters returning to the nearby Airport in a constant stream like the evacuation of Saigon. Nice. We soon met Mahia & Trent (and various friends & family members) and started planning some little activities, all leading up to their afternoon wedding at "A Little White Chapel" at the other end of the strip. We all hit the factory outlet stores (outstanding value for clothes & shoes) and a bunch of us had a very entertaining time at the Madame Tussauds Las Vegas. We poked some good fun at George Bush and got a great pic with Elvis (the first of our Elvis experiences). This was located at The Venetian, which, while spectacular in it's own right (along with other Vegas casinos), does not replicate Italy. As much as I can be a philistine of fine arts, even I can see the value in visiting the real historical places in our world (like Italy), versus the Las Vegas or theme park version. In the mean time, Clare was enjoying the poolside cocktails and catching up on yet more work. We had a brilliant 2nd Anniversay dinner at Sushi Roku Las Vegas at Caesars Palace. After missing sushi in Ireland this was truly superb - sashimi, soft-shell crab, lobster, yet more cocktails, etc... in a "Blade Runner" Meets Ginza interior design... A bit dark for reading the menu but all very good with friendly service.
The afternoon of the wedding rolled around, and we all made our way to "A Little White Chapel" for the ultimate Las Vegas wedding. I knew this place had old movie star folklore, but it was far smaller and pokier than one might have expected - but all part of the experience. We eventually filed into the small chapel (would fit maybe 20 people max.) and an Elvis impersonator opened the proceedings with "Viva Las Vegas", followed by another quick number while the webcam was activated... Australia, you're live! Mahia wore a red Chinese dress with Trent in a black suit. The wedding celebrant was a funny little lady - not sure if there was much scripting to it all. Vows were exchanged, another famous number from Elvis, a few photos, and things were wrapped up. As the next wedding started inside, we all congregrated outside watching the girls on the swings over the road under the giant NUDE sign. We took the a stretch limo ride back to the Excalibur, with the driver telling us about his most famous customers. That night we ventured out through more smoky casino floors to "Gonzalez Y Gonzalez" at New York New York for plastic souvenir yardglasses filled with frozen margaritas (I still have mine!) and obscenely large plates of Mexican food. Very Las Vegas...
The next morning we braved our way through the TSA security processing and had breakfast at the Airport. I had my final win on the slots (Star Wars), and we flew off to Denver with United Airlines. That's enough of Vegas for another few years!

Viva Las Vegas!

USA blogs, October 2007:
1. Viva Las Vegas!
2. Elvis does his stuff
3. It's raining in Rapid City
4. South Dakota to Wyoming
5. Devils Tower Wyoming
6. The world of Yellowstone...
7. Your friendly Wyoming law enforcement...
8. New York, New York...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
15 Oct 07 CO127 DUB/EWR 1045/1305
15 Oct 07 CO1468 EWR/LAS 1615/1847
19 Oct 07 UA1610 LAS/DEN 1100/1356
26 Oct 07 CO629 DEN/EWR 1225/1810
27 Oct 07 CO126 EWR/DUB 2155/0825+1
Well here we are at the centre of decadence in the western world, and Las Vegas is still well and truly living up to the hype! From the astonishingly huge themed casinos to the endless magic & Cirque Du Soleil shows, Vegas is still pulling them in thanks to slick marketing and a genuine wow factor. We're staying at Excalibur (around US $100/nt but varies massively), and with 4,008 rooms this is the 7th largest hotel in the world. Thankfully, we don't think it's quite full right now! Punters play in the smoky air-conditioned comfort of the casino floor (more than 100,000 square feet) and feed money into the slot machines, then retreat to the myriad of food options including 24 hour McDonald's & Krispy Kreme Donuts, etc, etc. Clare and I have successfully avoided the junk however, and had some some of the best sushi we've ever had at Suski Roku, where everything is flown in daily (more in the next update). So each casino is a slight variation of the next - the outside might be Caesar's or Venetian or Paris, etc. and the rooms might be more plush, but the same smoky darkness and bling-bling machines dominate every design.
I find Vegas very interesting as I first came here in my travel industry days (early 90's). Many of the older casinos have been demolished, leaving huge dusty sites along the strip, and the city is well and truly in the grips of another casino building boom. Everything being built seems to appeal to a hip new demographic, which seems strange as the average age of visitor this week seems like 50+. Certainly the "family" pitch which existed a few years back seems to have disappeared, with less fun park rides now, replaced by more designer shops and casino floor space. Gambling revenues are still the key to the existence of this city. People stroll along the strip each night with their souvenir cups filled to the brim with frozen margaritas, while hordes of marketing canvassers flog time share with "free" shows and cards for call girls. But sorry, no such thing as free round here. And of course once you get away from the strip you quickly see a more real side to Vegas, cookie-cutter apartment blocks sprawled across the desert floor to support the 100's of 1000's of low income service workers here.
Now we're in Vegas as my friends Mahia & Trent are getting married here. So more on that in the next blog update. Bye for now!

Planning, planning...

Colorado, Wyoming... Too many miles? I just can't help planning, and Google Maps makes it too easy. Got to see Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, etc, etc... Clare says one day she's going to book a trip for us that will be truly spontaneous and unplanned... What the?

flickr photo updates

Just a few more flickr photo updates. We now have 2,309 photos online with thousands of individual picture views. This was really pushed along by our Rolling Stones pics. I've also joined the nearby Drogheda Photographic Club in the hope of enhancing my skills!
So these photo folders all had major updates in the last week or so:
Photo Link: <2007... A year in Annagassan>
Photo Link: <Aviation at DUB Airport 07>
Photo Link: <Clare's USA Trip 99> (getting lots of comments on these)
Photo Link: <New York, Oct 03>
Photo Link: <Our Top 20 Most Interesting Pics>
Bye.

Photography Nut (and Movie Nut)...

Making hay while the sun shines in Annagassan, 02 Sep 07

(please click on this photo for a larger version)

While Clare is slaving away on her MBA, Joe is doing a bit of a personal project (instead of watching 200 channels of nothing on Sky TV)... to get ALL of our digital photos into flickr (they go back to 2001, with some scanned from earlier too)... My first digital camera was a little 1 Megapixel Kodak (please don't ask how much it cost back then). That camera has gone to Phoebe now (my niece), but I'm sure it ended up in a dusty box somewhere. Of course it could be used as a good paperweight. Anyway, flickr is probably about the best online community I've found yet (with the possible exception of the Sydney planespotters!) You receive (and give) feedback on photos, and they have meet-ups too. You start to learn a lot about what makes a good photograph (or maybe what everyone thinks is good photography!)

So we have another album online now:
Photo Link: <New York, October 2003 photos>
This was part of a bigger trip we took back then, and I'll put the rest up soon.
Also putting some movie reviews onto the SBS Movie Show website (at their invitation), so look out for me - it's a good website to visit too if you want to know what's on at the movies.
Bye from Joe & Clare.

Boston Common

Clare in work mode at the Boston Seafood Show

Photo Link: <Boston photos>
I'm finally getting around to doing some more blog updates. Not that I'm too busy or anything, you just have to find the time to sit at the laptop and get it done. The first update is from Clare's trip to Boston in March...
Clare says... I took a work trip to Boston (for the SEAFOOD SHOW) and I saw the Pogues. Best corporate function I have been to. Yeah, and some drinking sessions with Newfies till the wee hours. God they can drink those Newfies (Newfoundlanders). I need to get ready to do it all again at Brussels (Seafood show). Flew to Boston on Virgin Atlantic. The river, sea, lakes, etc. were frozen in Boston at the start of the week but mostly thawed by the time we left. I took the pics whilst on the trolley tour on the last afternoon. Still the whole place is rather bleak as there is absolutely no green anywhere at all - all dead under the ice and snow piles. We (Peter, my boss and I) went to a drinks party (for Bantry Bay Mussels) in South Boston (Irish town) and it was like Belfast - full of IRA murals on the walls. Nothing like it in Australia.
The Pogues concert was the third in a row for Boston which was then being followed by New York for St Patricks night. We got tickets for the 10th row from the front at the Orpheum Theater a couple of hours before the start. We then popped off to the California Pizza Kitchen. For those people who went to my parties at Auchenflower in the 1990’s with the infamous pizzas - a lot of the recipes came from this establishment. The Pogues, for those that haven’t seen them, are an Irish punk band formed in London in the mid 1980’s when Ireland was a very different place from now. They play traditional Irish songs with a punk beat and sing their own songs as well. Some of their own songs are absolute classics for the Irish especially those who came of age in the 1980's and had to move overseas for jobs ie. London & New York, even when they didn’t want to leave. There is one in particular called “New York Fairy Tale’ which I'd never heard in Australia and they didn’t play in Boston, as they needed a female singer. But it's probably the only song of theirs they didn’t play, as they came back for 3 encores. The band consisted of Shane McGowan, the infamous lead singer, 1 drummer who also sang a solo, 2 guitarists, one who also sang a solo, 1 tin whistleplayer who also played a lot of other bits and pieces including a biscuit tray at the end, 1 banjo player and a sax player. They played all the songs I know from the CD "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" with the exception of "And the band played Waltzing Matilida", wrong target audience for that one. They played "Dirty Old Town" and "Irish Rover".
And yes, for those that are familar with Shane McGowan (he played the Byron Bay Blues Fest a few years ago), he did stand up for the whole show and no, did not appear to be drunk/stoned throughout the concert. But he was drinking something that looked a lot like whiskey straight all night, but could have been ginger ale (Shane has been trying to dry out for years). But he did smoke non stop all night despite all the signs saying it was a smoke free building. By the encore Shane couldn’t walk or stand up by himself. He needed a roadie to basically walk him to the stool they had put out for him and hand him a smoke and drink. Maybe it wasn’t ginger ale after all. And they had a Mary statue up on the sound equipment. Okay they are Irish but the last song on the CD "Thirteen Thongs" by the Lonesome Cow Girls did come to mind. Those of you who went to Woodford in 2005/6 would have heard this song and know what the Mary statue probably contained.
We couldn’t get a taxi back to the hotel so walked quite a way past the still frozen Boston common and were meant to meet up with the Newfies again for another get-together but these sessions tended to finish at 4am, so I piked and went to bed. The next night we had dinner at a place called Cotton Wood - well worth it for the cocktails alone, but the steak was wonderful. Ran into some of our Irish clients there as well. Very small world. I expect to meet up with a lot more familar (Aussie) faces at the Brussels seafood show in April. (The Boston photos are linked right here).

Clare in San Antonio, Texas...

Clare is in San Antonio, Texas this week with her boss Peter from Ireland, adding to the Clare & Joe World Tour, which has taken in Wellington, Dublin, Belfast, Poland, London, Orlando & Los Angeles over recent months! More cities & dates to be added soon! ...

I'm in Texas. Ye Ha! I've finally got the internet on in the hotel room. I was having problems as you have to use your own name as a password and the hotel computer kept rejecting me. So they gave me another name - Winkler! My trip started on Friday night, and on my way to Crumlin (Belfast), I got stopped by the police at Newry and asked where I was going and why. Every car in and out was being stopped. Belfast cars were allowed on. Peter said they were looking for someone in particular as it would normally just be a road block and re-direction signs. The B&Q store in Newry seemed to be intact and not in flames when I went past! (see note) Belfast (MI5) airport was a breeze compared to Dublin but no special clearance zone with Americans in the basement. So at Newark we had to get our bags and clear customs and check in again. Stress and a half. We were both quite buggered and it was warm in Newark. Peter got detained for a bit to discuss why he still had his green slip in his passport from his last USA trip!

Newark is a completely new airport since I was last there. Owned by Westfield actually. All food groups and lots of other shopping. I went to a mall in San Antonio this afternoon, and frankly the Westfield at Newark was better! Not one supermarket, book store, music store, etc. at this mall, but Macys, Saks, bath shops ie. body shops with artificial colouring & flavouring, and kids shops like I've never seen. I bought nothing. And of course you can’t walk across the 6 lane highway to the mall across the road. I tried. At least its warm. And no RAIN. Actually they are in long term drought. All parts of the USA had flood rain this week except here.

Funny kind of place but still it’s a big American city with shopping malls and a wide range of ethnic food available - loads of Tex Mex and BBQ shops. Not BBQ as in Bunnings but as in meat that has been Texas BBQ’ed - not like an Aussie BBQ. Traditionally buried in a pit and cooked for 12 hrs on coals but does not taste or look anything like a hangi. So much better! I did tourist stuff yesterday and went to The Alamo, San Fernando Cathedral, the historic "artist village" (all stuff made in Nicaragua, etc.) and I went to the art museum for a photo show. Walked for miles, caught buses with locals for 85 cents, talked to homeless black folk, etc. and ate Tex Mex for lunch. I stuck to some meal based on corn chips, avocado, salsa & sour cream (of course). And a margarita (of course). But alas no plastic cocktail cups yet.

That's it for now. I'm presenting a 15 min session on Wednesday. Lots of networking happening!

(note) - B&Q is a British hardware superstore chain (much like Bunnings) which has been targeted by firebugs in Northern Ireland recently. Nobody has been caught yet. So you're always on the lookout when you drive past B&Q!

Joe's Orlando Theme Park Madness #2

The PT Cruiser - Thrifty rental car in Orlando...

So before I start, there are picture links all through this update... Joe is back in Brisbane, and back at work :( after flying around the world on 11 flights in just over 2 weeks. Rather sleep deprived, especially after Orlando, where I made the most out of the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal (night 1 & night 2), which was rather great. On the way over to Ireland, I had a quick stop in London for the day - refer to previous updates for my thoughts! I met up with one of my DHL work colleagues. There was supposed to be a 3rd person too, but they didn't show. Then on to Ireland, which was great - a nice balance of cool, gloomy days and others with the sun trying valiantly to burn through the fog! I'm really glad Clare "undersold" Dundalk, as it really wasn't as bad as I 'd expected. I thought Dundalk was more of a "nondescript" town than a troubled one now, and will experience a lot of change for the better over the next few years. We will certainly have no problem living there - it has all the services and supermarkets you could wish for, and while it's different, that's the spice of life, and you gotta love the taters! The countryside around Dundalk is quite nice, lots of places for walks in the country and old pubs with Guinness on tap. So yes, I fixed a bunch of stuff in the apartment (Tain Court) and got the tv working (yes, now we can watch Spooks on BBC1), then we went to Cork for a weekend on Ryanair which was lovely. And I took myself off to Dublin for a day (no photos). I also met with DHL and talked jobs and career options, and the job market seems pretty buoyant just like Australia.
After about a week and a half, I left Dublin for Orlando, via Newark Airport (New York) on Continental Airlines. The security for this flight was extreme, with about 5 levels of questioning, searches and double checks. Dublin and Shannon (on the west coast of Ireland) are the only two European airports with U.S. border preclearance facilities (fully staffed by U.S. Customs), which save you a lot of time upon arrival into the U.S. All flights were smooth, and whilst Continental were very good, I would still rate Qantas as the best of the 6 airlines travelled on this trip (Qantas/British Airways/Aer Lingus/Ryanair/Continental/United).
Had a fantastic time in Orlando (refer to Joe's Orlando Theme Park Madness #1), and went to see The Pet Shop Boys on the first night at Hard Rock Live. There is no rest for the time challenged in Orlando, and the days and nights were filled with: Disney-MGM Studios the next day (if I hear "Have a Magical Day" one more time...), followed by the 1st night at Halloween Horror Nights (HHN), then up again for Universal Islands Of Adventure the next day, followed by a tour called "Unmasking The Horror" which looked behind the scenes at HHN (this was a real highlight for me), followed by my 2nd night at HHN. Got back to my hotel room well after midnight, to get up again at 4am, to fly to Los Angeles on United, to spend the day there, to leave LAX that night, to fly to Auckland, and connect to Brisbane. Mmm, very little sleep. I think I could spend a week in Orlando, but Clare certainly isn't the worlds biggest theme park fan (I could tell you about the time I convinced Clare to go on the Corkscrew at Seaworld, but I'll leave that for another day!) Anyway, a good time was had by me, and the tens of thousands of others in Orlando that week, although the rental car girls complained about how quiet things were. Now I have just over 5 weeks left at work, before I head back to Ireland again.
Just a quick summary of all the NEW picture links:
- London, 07 Oct 2006
- Dundalk, Oct 2006
- Tain Court Dundalk, Oct 2006
- Cork, Ireland, Oct 2006
- Cork Airport, Oct 2006
- Newark Airport, 18 Oct 2006
- Pet Shop Boys, 18 Oct 2006
- Disney-MGM Studios, 19 Oct 2006
- HHN#16, 19 Oct 2006
- HHN#16, 20 Oct 2006
- UA273 MCO-LAX In Flight, 21 Oct 2006

Joe's Orlando Theme Park Madness #1

So here is Joe blogging from Orlando, taking a quick break at my computer between 2 theme parks on the 2nd day... My trip here will pretty much consist of this:
Day 1 - arrived late afternoon from Dublin, via Newark on Continental. Collected a Thrifty car and went to my hotel, Fairfield Inn nr. International Drive. Had a quick break then I went to Universal, with every intention of going to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville to get some cocktail cups. HOWEVER, that was not to be! Whilst parking in the huge Universal parking lot, I met some crazy Americans, Glen & Walter, who were looking at the differences between their PT Cruiser (car) and mine, and they pointed out that The Pet Shop Boys were playing at 8pm at Hard Rock Live (in Universal). Of course I had my Belfast HHH t-shirt on, so it took some convincing (actually to several people last night) that I WASN'T actually Irish. Mental note - I will wear this t-shirt often, as it's a good talking point. So, I bought a ticket to the Pet Shop Boys, met Glen & Walter inside, and watched the concert, while downing a few American beers. Walter got pretty hammered. He "welcomed" me to America with some straight JD (Jack Daniels)... Mmm... I didn't drink the whole cup :( The Pet Shop Boys were absolutely brilliant :) and a fantastic night was had by me and others in the crowd. Ended off at Denny's for a quick snack as I hadn't eaten anything, and retired, eventually, back at the Fairfield Inn... zzz... Glen took quite a few photos of the night, and emailed them to me, as promised, within hours... Great guys, and YES, they were straight, and made it quite clear to me that we were probably the only straight guys in the crowd... Pity Clare wasn't here, as she too would have had a great night, especially in the current balmy temperatures in Orlando, pretty much like Cairns.
Day 2 - quick breakfast, then spent the day at Disney-MGM Studios in Disneyworld, then off to Halloween Horror Nights 16 at Universal Studios tonight (about to leave very soon)...
Day 3 - quick breakfast again, then the day at Islands Of Adventure, Universal Orlando, then my 2nd night at Halloween Horror Nights 16, to see everything I don't see tonight... I'm also doing a behind the scenes tour as well "Unmasking The Horror", which should reveal a few things about the running of the whole operation. I can't wait for that...
So, I will post some more photos and tell more on my next update. Now, to head out again, there is no time for sleep here, this is party town...
... Continued in Part 2...