An Aussie Christmas

It just wouldn’t be Christmas in AUstralia without a swim at the beach, even if that beach is on Bass Strait and the water near freezing.  Christmas this year is in Hellyer, Tasmania. Absolutely beautiful place, it doesn’t get any better than this in life I reckon, family, girl, sunshine, food, beach, baby on the way and a cold beer by my side.

Merry Christmas World…

The rest of 2009….

 

Wow, it’s been a while since I last blogged.

2009! what a year! At first it didn’t look very promising for us with the GFC at the start of the year and us having to come back home early, ending

our trip abruptly in London. But the second half of the year has been very very good. We (in a nutshell) during the last 6 months have;

- Moved north to Brisvegas;

- Found great jobs;

- Found a great place to live in;

- See some of the local tourist spots in and around Brisbane  (when talking to the locals about Brisbane, they say the best part  about Brisbane is everything around it!)

- Got back on our feet, and integrate our way back into the rat race.

last but not least, the best thing about 2009 is that,

- We’re having a baby!!!

 

 

It’s been a massive year for us. And next year it’s going to be even bigger with two becoming three :)

This time last year we where in Henley, England spending Christmas in an old English cottage, with Bernadette’s Family in London. This year we are at the opposite end of the world, Hellyer, Australia. The weather is beautiful, the food is great and the company even better.

I had my 30th birthday this year,  Berna couldn’t make it beccause of the pregnancy, but my mum managed to put on an amazing party with family and close friends. It was amazing, seeing people I grew up with as kids all grown up with there kids. Time really does fly. The best part of the party was seeing some of my closest friends there, having a laugh about old times, speaking in our parents the Filo accents and laughing about it. Amazing, how all those memories from when we where young kids still burn strongly in our hearts. The last time this group of people got together was when I had my 21st birthday, which was 9 years ago! Time goes by quick. It was a great night, and was topped of by one of the funniest card opening sessions, probably in card opening recorded history! (it’s one of those, you had to be there moments)

The biggest thing for Bernadette and I next year will be our little one, our little LeoBee (it’s what we have called our baby for now) or LeoBee whan kenobee… I like it! LeoBee is our little jedi warrior! lol. This I think will be the best adventure of all.

It will be great, all those sleepless nights, all those loud crying sessions, all those temper tantrums, and that’s just me, imagine what LeoBee has installed for us.

You can only really take it one step at a time, which is what we plan to do in the new year.

Hopefully, 2010 will be even bigger than 2009!
Peace

RIP Michael Jackson

With Michael Jackson’s memorial tribute concert airing world wide last night. I thought

it would be fitting that I upload our Michael Jackson effort from a couple of years back. Inspired

by the Cebuano Prisoner’s of the Philippines, we put on our orange overalls and danced

Thriller for my little cousin’s 21st birthday party… We only had one night to learn the

Thriller dance. It’s not the most synchronised Thriller rendition you will ever see but, it was

synchronised enough for our little cousin’s 21st…

 

check out the bust out performance from the Stevie Jnr…..

 

RIP Michael Jackson  1958-2009

THRILLER – Deanna’s 21st Birthday Party……

 

 

Technorati Tags: Thriller,Michael Jackson,Dance,Birthday Party,Prisoners

The trip North….

After travelling over 90,000 km’s and visiting over 15 countries, we have one more road trip to look
forward too.

View Heading North of the Border in a larger map
We are moving to Brisbane for work and we have mapped out our route. Over 1000 km’s a 13 hour road
trip the Mexican’s are a coming. It is gonna be pretty awesome, moving up North, I bought Bernadette
the Lonely Planet for Queesland, to get us both excited about the move. Living in Brisbane will be
different but exciting at the same time.
All we need now is a place to live!

Leover and Bernadette’s South America

When we where travelling through South America we visited so many amazing and wonderful places. Some of our favourite places are shown on our South American map. The technique to create the map was inspired by our good Norwegian friend Paul Olai- Olssen.
Peace

On the road again….

After 93 straight days in London, it’s time for us to get on the road again. We have been living in

Wandsworth Common for the past 93 days, with Bernadette’s brother Steve and his wife Mags.

It has been an amazing stay here in London. Some highlights for us here in London over the past

3 months are as follows:

- Christmas with Bernadette’s family in the English countryside of Henley.

- Bernadette’s Birthday present to Northern Norway to see the Northern Lights.

- Being published in a Norwegian Novel by our CouchSurfing friend Paul (you will see us on page

number 65).

- The days London shut down because of the Snow.

- Australia day festivities at the Covent Garden Walkabout.

- the 2009 ‘Clapham Run’ with our friends Paul, and Janice from Australia and our Norwegian friends

Cecile and Simen. Awesome nightout in Clapham.

- Taking pictures around London’s landmarks at night

The stay here has been such a great break from us travelling for 8 straight months, it’s given us time

to look over our pictures from all over the world, process them and share. When I look back on the

pictures, I realise that we had such an amazing trip last year, from Europe to the USA and then to

South America, it was a great year. Now, it’s time to get on the road again and see more of the world.

We’re of to Singapore tomorrow to catch up with my sister. It should be good. I will be sad to leave

London, it’s been fun.

The taxi booked, bags packed, laptops ipod and cameras charged it’s time to leave good old London

town and head over to the hot and humid conditions of South East Asia.

 

Peace…

 

 

Technorati Tags: London,Asia,Norway,Couch Surfing

When travelling on the HURTIGRUTEN Travellers BEWARE…

 
Courtesy of the Norwegian Cruise liner the Hurtigruten……

Thank you, thank you very much, i’ll be here all week :-)

Peace

Technorati Tags: Hurtigruten,Norway,Travel

124 on the Wii Fit Balance Game - PENGUIN SLIDE new WORLD RECORD!!!

Just spent about 3 hours playing the Wii Fit at Anne’s house in Earlsfield…

Awesome!!

The Wii Fit is the funnest thing out since slice bread man..
Tonight was up and down, Anne started the night of by scoring 112 on the Penguin game,

a score which looked unbeatable at the start of the night. Then Bernadette trumped that

score by scoring an unbelievable 117, this score was the score to beat, and it was tough.

Bernadette’s score prompted us to look on line what the highest recorded score was for

this game. We saw someone posted 118 and we where like OMG Bernadette has the second

highest score on the planet… Unbelievable. Bernadette’s record stood the test of time

(2 hours) fighting fatigue and constant heckling from Bernadette and Anne, I rose to the occasion

late in the evening when all hope looked lost… Out of nowhere Leover scores 124 out of a possible 134!!!!

NEW WORLD RECORD 124 LEOVER POLESTICO

ON THE Wii PENGUIN SLIDE

Come at me!!

Awesome night!

Wii Fit rules…

I want my Wii from Oz…

 



 

Technorati Tags: Wii Fit,Penguins

BERNA TO THE RESCUE - RICA HOTEL, HONNINGSVAG

After we went to the Nordkapp we came back to Honningsvag dreading the thought of having to find somewhere to sleep without having booked anything. None the less we got back on the Hurtigruten to pick our bags up in storage and for the last time bid farewell to the boat. We felt a little sad because the boat was just awesome… he he he..
Honningsvag isn’t a very big town in winter, there are about 3000 or so permanent residents here but in summer the population quadruples with seasonal workers and thousands of tourist coming here. Talking to the locals, the place sounds like one big party in summer, with the endless sun, warmer weather and thousands of tourist, it sounds like Dubrovnik of the north. There can be over 200,000 people coming to Honningsvag in summer and all visitors come here to visit the Nordkapp and arctic surrounding countryside.
There is a micro brewery in town with it’s own local brew (our tour guide to the Nordkapp was funny when she said, ‘the people in Honningsvag don’t drink much, they only like to drink when the sun sets.’ very amusing). The northern most brewery in continental Europe is back down in Tromso (the Mack brewery) but Honningsvag like to claim that they have the northern most ‘micro’ brewery, go Honningsvag.
The people here are friendly and very helpful, I guess they are use to tourist coming in and out of there town during the year, but I’m not sure many come here in winter time, like us :-)
So, from the boat we headed out to find a place to stay, we end up visiting the brewery for food and something to drink, we saw a sign outside saying Internet so we thought we could log on and find some where to sleep for the night. The internet wasn’t working so we couldn’t log on, luckily for us the locals came to our rescue. The Rica Hotel, which is a hotel chain in Norway, Sweden and Denmark has three hotels here in Honningsvag but in winter only one of them is open.  We called up to find out about room availabilities and prices, the conversation didn’t last very long as the price for a hotel room was way too much…
After having some dinner, I had pizza and B had a chicken taco (yup, pizza and chicken taco’s in the arctic, GOLD!) and having no other options with accommodation, we thought we would try again at the Rica. Success, B worked her magic and got us a discount with the hotel room for the night, thanks to  Steina our soon to become Honningsvagian friend. We had a place to stay in Honningsvag.. Yay!
We arrive at the hotel and we see that the lady B had spoken to on the phone Steina, was the same girl we had met earlier in the day up at the Nordkapp working in the souvenir shop. We where like, ‘man, your everywhere’ and had a laugh. Steina, was really nice she helped us out with accommodation, there was actually only 3 people in the hotel, 5 including us two.
It was all good, we settled into our room which was AWESOME…It was huge, better than the hotel room we stayed in at Tromso, which was in the Thorn Polar Hotel. The thing you gotta love about staying in the north and arctic is that the bathroom floors are heated. It’s awesome, even on the Hurtigruten the bathroom floor in our cabin was heated. Love it!
We had planned a big night out in the town, but the room was so cosy, B passed out on the bed after 5 minutes, and I mad videos… Great day, so glad we found somewhere to sleep, cause it’s freezing outside.
Peace

Technorati Tags: Honningsvag,Rica Hotel,Thorn Polar Hotel,Norway,Nordkapp

The Nordkapp (North Cape) and back again….

Today was a truly an awesome day, one that you can look back on and say, ‘bloody hell it was windy’. My sisters  birthday today so I was thinking of her when we made our trip up towards the Nordkapp  here in Norway. We made our way up from Tromso last night on the Hurtigruten boat named the MS Midnatsol (Midnight Sun), awesome boat ride. We we’re originally only going from Tromso to Hammerfest (the northern most city on continental the Europe) but getting off the boat at 5:15 am in the morning wasn’t very fun. Bernadette haggled us a ride on the boat to Honningsvag from Hammerfest. The plan was to catch a bus from Hammerfest to Honningsvag (cheaper) but Berna got the boat ride price down to the same price as the bus ride, so it was back on the  boat we go, which was awesome cause the boat is so comfy and brilliant.
We signed up for the excursion Hurtigruten offer to the Nordkapp (not the cheapest thing on the planet, but then again, when you come to Norway, expect to pay) and off we went to 71 degrees, 10 minutes and 21 seconds…
The boat cruise was brilliant, the boat was immaculate and the services we’re of the highest standard, we both loved it. The Hurtigruten is highly recommended for seeing the the beautiful coastline and islands of Norway.
Check out our trip from Honningsvag to the Nordkapp below:

Peace

Technorati Tags: Norway,Hammerfest,Honningsvag,Tromso,Nordkapp,Hurtigruten

Tromso Lights

No northern lights for us in Tromso, but we did take a shot of this car driving past us with our new tripod.

Sweet :-)

Peace

HAPPY BIRTHBAY B :-)

This is for you Bernadette Marie Kennedy :-)

 

Bring on

NORWAY – Tromso, Hammerfest, Alta, Oslo

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS,

SNOWMOBILES,

A BIG A$$ BOAT,

REINDEERS,

ICE HOTELS,

COUCH SURFING,

THE NORDKAPP,

SKIING,

and anything else anyone wants to throw our way :-)

As long as I’m with you i’ll always be smiling :-)

Happy Birthday Silly Girl

Love you always

Silly Boy

 

Technorati Tags: NORWAY,Tromso,Hammerfest,Alta,Oslo,THE NORTHERN LIGHTS,SNOWMOBILES,A BIG A$$ BOAT,REINDEERS,ICE HOTELS,COUCH SURFING,THE NORDKAPP,SKIING

A very MARY Christmas.. A late but worthy Christmas Poem

In my family we have dance off’s to communicate our Christmas wishes to each other across the planet. We video tape the dance an then upload the video onto Youtube and whoever gets the most views wins our Christmas Dance off competition.

In the Kennedy household on the other hand, it’s a little different. They have an annual Kris Kindle Christmas Poem competition. Not being the greatest poet, I thought I would add my own Carlos Garcia flavour to the competition this year :-)

Below is my Christmas Poem to Mary…

MARY KENNEDY CHRISTMAS POEM ‘THE REMIX’

Peace

Technorati Tags: Mary Kennedy,Christmas,Poems,Shakespeare In Love,CC's,Michael Jackson,Jam,Henley In Arden,Suzuki Jimmy,Steve Waugh,SCG,Century,Croker Island,Green Day,John Farhnam,Your the Voice

BOXING DAY FUN WITH STACK ‘EM’

It’s boxing day here in Henley-in-Arden and we had a massive feast once again. Left over turkey from yesterday also came into play but the Gammon was the centre piece of our feast this evening.

In the morning we had a visit from B’s relative’s the Bentleys.. Awesome, time, the kids had a Nintendo DS so I was having a go, I want one now…

The girls went for a late afternoon stroll through the countryside while I stayed home and slept. The afternoon was very nice but freezing, it think it was about 1 degree outside. The sunset was quite nice too, with clear skies all round.

The Christmas weekend here in Henley has been the best time. I think everyone ate enough to get them through to next Christmas, with plenty more left. We didn’t really do much else but eat sleep and drink while being out here in the countryside, which was great. I was in my PJ's all day today, just to be in the spirit of Christmas.

We played Cluedo tonight before and after we ate dinner. We all found out how much of a gun Janice is at Cluedo winning all the games.

It will be sad to leave the country side tomorrow, but it was a successful and great Christmas.

So I thought I would sign out from the country with some classical Mozart with my own little twist..

Here it is enjoy…

Now, where’s the nearest Gym!!

 

Peace

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Boxing Day,Mozart,Stack Em,Jenga,Helen in Arden

MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY……SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE CHRISTMAS DANCE OFF!! – ENGLAND ENTRY!!

Hi Family,

I hope that everyone is safe and well for Christmas…

we are safely tucked away in the English country side, we are in a cottage in Henley-in-arden..the place is beautiful, very english I have to say..

But I do miss all of you… Bernadette’s clan is taking good care of me, Stephen has just prepared a turkey for tommorow and

we spent a fortune on groceries today so there is plenty to eat… hehehehehe

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL…

Below is our entry to the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE CHRISTMAS DANCE OFF!!!!! hehheehe

ENJOY!!

 

The video was filmed at 730 am on the 24th of December (today) at Sainsbury’s Solihull, England during our Christmas shopping effort…

AWESOME!!!

Peace

Technorati Tags: England,So you think you can dance,Sainsbury,Christmas,Solihull