I was really surprised by Disneyland. I thought it would have been aimed at young kids, and that jaded old men like myself wouldn’t be able to get as much out of it. How wrong I was! It was great, the rides were awesome, the food wasn’t ridiculously overpriced like it is at the theme parks on the Gold Coast.

Unfortunately, we had to cut the day short, because I came down with some crazy tonsillitis thing. I ended up missing a couple days of work that week. Jeannette took really good care of me and, as a reward, she got whatever I had. Sowwy!

I’ll have some photos soon.

During the days, I was pretty much at the office all the time, so that shouldn’t be very interesting to you. On the weekend of the 28th of April, I went for a wee road trip around Ireland. I started off in Dublin and drove to:

• Galway

Here I lunched and walked around. There were thousands upon thousands of people crammed into the small centre of the city.

• Doolin

Doolin is a teeny village about 40km south of Galway. I stayed overnight, but it must be the most popular tourist destination in the world: every B&B and hotel within a mile of the village “centre” was booked out (I tried them all!). I finally found a nice B&B about two miles away, and got a good night’s sleep.

Doolin is not far at all from the Cliffs of Moher (aka. the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride), so I went there the next morning. It was raining and foggy, but the cliffs were pretty darn amazing. They’re very tall, and you get the impression that they go on forever, if only the moody fog didn’t cloak them.

• Cashel

I have to say, I think Cashel was my favourite place. It’s home to the Rock of Cashel, an old castle built on top of a hill. I loved walking around and taking photos. It was so peaceful and green.

• Kilkenny

I just had to have a Kilkenny or two in Kilkenny. I went to a pub in the middle of town and watched County Kilkenny’s hurling team lose to County Waterford (Kilkenny is apparently the best hurling team in the country). The locals weren’t too happy about that.

After this, I walked down the road to Kilkenny Castle, which was really nice. The lawn out the back was about the size of a Canberran golf course: it seemed to extend to the horizon.

I had a long layover in LA for some reason, but that allowed me time to catch up with Ravi, whom I haven’t seen in a few months.

Here are a few highlights from Hollywood and Dublin!

I wish you could be here Jeannette, I’m missing you already!

Also a big “hello” to everybody back in Australia! I’m missing you too, I promise…

Work will probably be sending me to Dublin, Ireland (as opposed to Dublin, California) for a couple of weeks at the end of this month. Much Guinness to be had!

Other than that, I spent the Easter weekend with Jeannette and her family. I’ve put a couple of photos up for your perusal!

I miss the family very much. I look forward to my first trip back to Australia (whenever that may be

• carrot crepe florentine
• pumpkin and spinach stew
• pefectly-cooked ribeye with a huckleberry sauce
• whole steamed carrot
• double-baked potatoes

And for dessert was a couple of chocolate brownies with whipped cream… The stupid thing about all this is I’ve actually lost 5kg since I got here.389

We stayed at the Seascape Resort at Aptos, and there’s a nice little shopping centre just across the road with a good deli and café. Great for breakfast and picnic lunches!
Here are some photos!

Sorry I haven’t posted in so long. Life has been very busy and interesting!
Some highlights of the last month or so:

• Dad and Elizabeth came to visit
• we went to a football game (San Francisco 49ers versus the Arizona Cardinals, which the Cardnials won). That was an awesome time
• went to Monterey and Carmel, including the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium
• went to San Diego and the Zoo
• went to San Francisco, including Alcatraz
• went to Sacramento and saw the sweet railroad museum in Old Sacramento… also went for a wander inside the Capitol building, which was surprisingly interesting
• Dad and Elizabeth went home, replaced a week later by Mum and Cathy
• went to San Jose, mostly for shopping
• went to Monterey (again) and drove for some distance down Highway 1… watched the sun set from the gorgeous cliffs of Big Sur
• toured the Stanford (again) and UC Berkeley campuses
• heaps of other stuff that I can’t remember

Here are a few highlight photos:

Our trip continues to Phoenix, Arizona!