Mums visit to Port Macquarie

Mums PMQ Trip

Mother came to Port Macquarie over Queens birthday weekend and what a weekend it was!

Allen and Mum arrived at my apartment in Port Macquarie, they had a wee bit of trouble getting here apparently. I received a text message from Mum advising that they were out the back. So out I went, they could have just pushed the buzzer but Mum told me NZ'ers didn't know about them... something I highly doubt. Anyway out I went to see them and low and behold they were nowhere to been seen, so I went out the front and I still couldn't see them. I figured they must have turned up at the wrong complex, so I texted back advising of the street address and building name. Mum replied with "we're at the front" I was a little distressed at this so out I popped, only to see Allen driving away in a rental car. I jumped up and down a little but to no avail they were happily driving away, eventually they turned up at the back of the apartment. All in all it was a little extra exercise for me and I'm sure you all know what was going on inside the car :)



They stayed for 3 days and I kinda moved to Mel's so they had the run of the house, double bed and all. I showed them the bats and boy ain't they cool, Mum got me a new zoom lens from Canon, so the bats look better in the photo's. Allen really loved the bats as well, however Mum made a mad dash through the bat zone. They piss and poo and smell a little bit as you walk through them, all good though. Fruit bats are rather interesting, they're referred to as flying foxes in Port Macquarie.



Later that day we went out for Lunch with Mel to the River Mart cafe, it was a great lunch and we followed it up with a cruise on the Port Venture. The Port Venture is always a great trip only 25 bucks each and you get to see Oyster farms and Dolphins and the local houses, I'm sure you've seen alot of my photo's up the river so I tried to keep it to a minimum.



That night Mel and Mum had a body shop party, it's something girls do at houses. I should have never left them alone! My mother told Mel she had to take two years off when she has babies amongst other things, I'm lucky the girl is still around, shocking :) I wonder how long I'm meant to take off? If I father a few babies.



So anyway it was a great success and we followed it up with the Pirates of the Caribbean: To Deaths End, that was really cool. The next day we went for a board walk around the rain forest, the guy taking the tour knew all about the rain forest and we learnt tons about rain forests which I've conveniently forgotten :) Also check out the bush Turkey those guys are crazy!



The following day we went to Laurieton, it was a great view from the top as it always is. We stopped off at lighthouse bay and checked out the Whales. At night we all went to the corner bar and had a fabulous dinner.

It was a huge weekend and eventually Mum and Allen drove back to Sydney and flew out to Auckland. Mum e-mailed me and said she was safe and sound, so she must be.

Love Jamie

Jamie and John Howard

Well today I had lunch with John Howard, it was a big lunch and we obviously had some very important issues to talk about. Overall he was impressed and glad that Kiwi's were working in Australia and why not, he gave me a handshake and offered a photo opportunity. Good on you Johnny you can come stop by Auckland any day.

p.s. have been way busy to post on my site lately though check out my zoo photo's and my work do one's in my web album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.nicholson

PMQ Australian PM John Howard

Cam and Leon rip up Port Macquarie

By my calculations the boyz were arriving in the late afternoon, but I hadn't a clue when as they're phones were off. They came in from Sydney and grabbed a hire car, it was four hours drive to Port Macquarie.

Apparently they didn't use a map and just "arrived at Port Macquarie", yeah right! They came unstuck when they didn't have my apartment number, there was only about 20 apartments to go through and boy did they go through them. A couple of young girls at the gate giggled at them as they went through all the numbers and the people said "No Jamie isn't here".

Eventually I got a buzz and came down, needless to say they were very happy to see me. I was happy to see them to, it's been quiet at Port and work has been real busy so I was super glad to see the lads. They relaxed a little we grabbed some dinner and attacked the Duty Free - Jack Daniels. They purchased 6 bottles of 'Jack' these guys have real class. Even as I write there's a bottle sitting on the bench looking straight at me!

It was a reasonably quiet night but Cam was approached by a certain old lady at 'Down Under' or sometimes referred to as 'Grab a Granny', she wanted to have a dance and more I bet. Although Cam was very shy on this occasion and declined to dance. Later we met these 3 'emo girls' on the street they were filming us. Can you believe it, we harassed them for abit and they really didn't say much but we had a good laugh at them all the same and took a few photo's for you're pleasure.

The next morning the boys were very tired and a little worse for wear but me and Leon managed to go for a long walk along the local break wall, it was a stunning day and we relaxed and enjoyed the weather. Cam woke up, jezz he is the sleeper! We went on the Port Venture and that was pretty cool, the boyz enjoyed it. You've already seen he Port Venture so I won't go on about it again.

It was Friday night and the boyz were looking for some local talent. Or perhaps the local talent was looking for them I don't know. My new camera (Canon EOS-400D) took many pictures and I'm sure you'll all be happy with all the pics. Dinner was at the Town Green Inn and it was very scrumptious, if you're ever in Port Macquarie make sure you go. Rach/Barry/Debbie and Debbies new man were also dining at the Town Green Inn, I had to take the opportunity to get Rach's number and catch up with them later. Rachs a babe from the office, we didn't end up catching up though unfortunately.

Cam and Leon were both in full form that night dancing hard! We started at the Beach House and then quickly moved onto the Macquarie Inn, Leon seemed to be a hit with the ladies and there's even some evidence in the album. I couldn't help but take a few shots, me and Cam were impressed and started clapping Leon on literally. I think the ladies were just taking advantage of Leon because they had several other boyfriends as well :)

Then we went onto Altitudes which really sucked so we went to the dodgy Down Under again. It was real funny because we were dancing and the guys were all just staring at the dance floor. The ladies were all on the dance floor and at some late stage a few did what I refer to as the Indian dance around me! I've never had this move pulled on me yet but it was pretty cool. They just circle you and dance around you.

So after all the clubbing the next morning we went for a walk and had a look at the fruit bats, Port Macquarie has a huge population of them and they're abit scary, but very cool. At lunchtime we decided to head for the hills and take off to the Gold Coast and as we speak I'm blogging from Raymond's apartment. The property manager came in just now and went real crazy, she's nuts! She accused us of doing drugs setting off fire crackers and throwing out ciggies off the side of the building and ontop of that we go out at night as well!

We've done no drugs, no smokes, no firecrackers then she physically abused Raymond's Mum and we told her to get out and sober up. What a new year's greeting! Perhaps my pterodactyl's impersonation or Leon's monkey call were the fire crackers. Anyway it was all abit silly!

Happy New years everyone and take care.
Love Jamie

Port Macquarie - New Years

Port Arrival Cam_Leon

Port Macquarie Christmas

Hi guys well Christmas has been and gone hope you all enjoyed the festivities and Santa treated you well. As usual a few kg's have hit the waist line though luckily I'm keeping up my running so hopefully it will all slide off.

I'm so glad work has finished, it was manic there for awhile, now it's just time to relax. You'll see in my photo's my end of year work lunch @ Finnagin's it's a local Irish bar.

It was a really sunny day, I got a bit too much sun and stumbled off home early. Then slept for a record 12 and a half hours straight. A couple of the other's suffered the same fate, strange really not all of us had that much to drink.

Christmas eve came and I went out with Ken and Robbie, Ken is from Country Energy and has been in Port for 5 years and Robbie is a local councillor and press secretary for the deputy prime minister. Went to the beach house and boy there was some talent there, everyone must of come back to see their friends and families in Port.

Saw Tania (Blair's cousin) and her crew there to and had a chat with them, turned out one of the girls Carol previously worked with Jo (my boss) and we had a big old chat. Everyone that has worked with Peace is usually from NZ so it was nice to catchup with a true blue kiwi. Tania invited me and the boys around for a BBQ on Thursday, Cam and Leon arrive here then so that will fit in nicely.

The girls and Robbie left around midnight and me and Ken thought we'd check out the local bar Macquarie, after being there ten minutes I decided the crowd was just to young. The medium age was 18 and so we called it a night and got to bed before Santa came...

Well I'm still waiting for Santa, he's on a late schedule this year, guess that's what you get when you live overseas :) Melissa (sis) hasn't had to many presents from me lately so I got her a big one this year thanks to Matt's (Mel's man to be) great idea. Anyway so yeah I got a towel for Christmas from Jo (boss), thanks Jo. She made a lovely lunch and dinner for Christmas, Ken came over to and we all wore those cheesy hats you get in cracker. The weather turned a little funky and I got some lovely shots of the clouds.

It's boxing day today and people from Sydney are meant to arrive and fill up every piece of spare accommodation in Port Macquarie. That's at least an extra 30,000 people and that's double the population here, so yeah wozzers, traffic galore apparently.

Hope you are all doing well, Merry Christmas and a Happy new years.

Love Jamie

Christmas Eve_Day 2006

Final Year Work Lunch 2006

Tommies FDU End of Year Christmas Party

Work Christmas do, was very cool. It was a really really really yummy dinner and everyone had a good time. There was a show, some drag and dance at the end of the night. Very cool.

Short post.
Love Jamie

Tommies

Port Venture Weekend

Hey guys, this week was really good, work wasn't to bad this week and there was a little bit less pressure on which is all good. I'm getting used to it all now.
Came third Wednesday night @ poker and unfortunately it was the last poker night :( and an early night on Wednesday.

I've read six books since I've been in Australia, about one a week. It's been great to spend so much time reading however I think I'll give it a rest for awhile. It's starting to heat up abit as well up to 31 degrees. At lunchtime I walk back to my apartment and go for a swim in the lap pool. It's good to have a pool in my apartment complex, it's very refreshing and will be great in summertime when Leon and Cam visit.

Went to the movies on Friday with Ken, Debbie, Barry (Californian millionaire) and Rachael (office hottie) we saw Borat, Borat, Borat, a flithy, dirty, raw and hilarious movie. It's not everyday you see something so crass but it has it's place under 'comedy reality movie'. Everyone really enjoyed it, but I'm very glad it was only an hour and a half. I can only handle so much rubbish.

Saturday for lunch, I met up with Blair's cousins finally (thanks Bex). It was like a meeting of the xpat Kiwi's, there was

• Tania - Blairs cousin from NZ come migrated Port local.


• Jason - Tania's boyfriend Jason(bouncer/kick boxer).


• 'H' and Ashley, 'H' was from NZ and was a local bouncer(kick boxer).

Jason has his own martial arts studio, once I get my car I'll go check it out. Now that I know half the bouncers in port going out should be very safe :)

Saturday night was cool another night of clubbing with Ken and Shoiab(Pakistan) another guy from work. There was lots of dancing and we met up with some guys from poker, they were dancing HARD OUT. One of the guys had sweet pouring off him, it was a little gross. FYI Mum - Met a few girls but nothing to serious :p.

Sunday I woke up late and spent most of the day doing chores, however I went and got a ticket on Port Venture for 25 bucks. Port Venture is a 2 hour cruise around the Hasting river and the Port area. It was good fun, I saw the dolphins, car ferries, big houses and had swim in the boom net. The day was sunny and it was very relaxing.

Tonight I've ironed all my shirts and am real keen to see everyone from home again, it's only been 7 weeks but I'll be going back this Thursday for Bex's 21st on Friday. If you've got any good idea's as what she wants for her birthday let me know :) It's going to be one huge party and it will be great to catch up with my family and crew.

Port Venture N Wasps

Take care, be good, but not to good :)
Love Jamie

Stains 24th - six or sex

Another week has passed and I'm finally getting settled into Port, met so many good people and I'm having a great time. Though I'm missing all my kiwi friends and hope you all are good.

At poker I've met many good friends and Josh aka DJ Stains is just one of them, he invited me to his 24th party down at the local trailer park. Stains had booked out a cabin/house(it was upmarket) and threw the party there.

I didn't know anyone at the but I met Ash(he business partner & friend of Stains) introduced me to everyone and made sure they knew I was a kiwi. Then the jokes started something about sex and six, I responded saying sex(actually six Aussie version) and they couldn't quite pick it, so I had to let out a six(Kiwi version), a few giggles followed.

It helped break the ice and break the nerves abit, then I met Rod, Adam, Dylan, Curby, Emily, Slim, Brian and many others. We all went nightclubbing and I had a great time, although I got abit drunk and tired and bailed early. All and all though it was very cool :-)

Thanks Stains for such an awesome night and everyone for being so kool to the token kiwi. Next week I'm off to Rachel's 21st in Inverell yeaaaaaaaaha :)

You can see my album here, decided not to paste the pictures in my blog now.

24thStains

Here's my new apartment as well all moved in, cable next week fingers crossed :)

Port Macquarie Apartment

First Day At First Data

Hey everyone!

Sunday I took the greyhound bus to Port Macquarie from Gold Coast Airport.
And it was a long 9 hour journey with a few stops....



Anyway arrived at Port, went to my Motel - which incidently is crap. Had some room service which was good. Then had some sleep 8:30pm - 6:00am, 9 and half hours mmmmmmmmmm




Had breakfast and shower steamed my shirt followed by a quick iron. All dressed up like a gangsta I rocked off to work. Should have taken a picture but I had more on my mind.

So went off to work - County Energy; and met my contact and boss Jo. She's awesome though openly can be abit of a micro manager! Yikes, anyway I can deal with that my first boss Paula was like that and more.

They even had a keycard with my picture on it, complements of friends at TelstraClear. I logged in setup my T42 IBM laptop and tried to get everything working, everything worked apart from my e-mail. Perhaps the firewall is blocking it, dam firewalls.




I'm working with an Indian Rishi and have another project manager boss Lee and someone else that's away. I'll be staying at Ben's apartment until I choose my abode and I can take time off work to find it! Mum will be happy :)

The accomadation is expensive here! Well prolly more scarce than expensive, but I'm deciding what to do, pay 350/week for 3bdroom(furnished) or flat with someone 110/week. I can write the 350 off against exps and reduce my tax and have some ppl to stay or go flatting meet some more ppl but no write off and no ppl staying. I'm guessing not many ppl will want to stay anyway it's a big call. Updated - looks like I've found a place for $230 / week yay!



So tomorrow I'll be looking @ houses in my work time :) (chuckle chuckle)

The work seems really easy, and the place really cool but small. I'm happy but will need to get a cheap car, fast internet connection and meet a few ppl in this small town.

For those interested yes theres fishing in Port Macquarie - not that I'll probably do that much.



Went for a walk the other morning and everyone is surfing before work, pretty cool huh.



Hope you are all happy and well.

Love Jamie