To be sure, to be sure !

Dia Dhuit

Welcome back !

I got some pretty exciting news last night, we are going to Dublin from the 29th to the 31st of July ! The awesome team at The Central Hotel have welcomed Maxi, Gonzo & myself with open arms. 

We are really looking forward to getting into some Irish culture by having a cold pint and some delicious tucker at their award winning bar called The Exchequer. If you're in the area please pop by and say hello. Maxi could definitely use some help with his Irish slang and we'd love to meet as many locals as possible.

While in Dublin were also gonna check out Dundrum Shopping Centre, I hear its only a wee little place !?! We are also hoping to check out the Irish illusionist Keith Barry's show. I've heard he is a bit of a brain hacker ? I hope he doesn't try and hack into Troy's brain. It might take him a while to find it !!!


The packing has begun and from all reports I'm gonna need sun screen, hoodie and raincoat. Sounds like the British weather is throwing out a little from column A and a little from column B ! Is there anything else you think we might need? Do you guys make size large ear mittens over there? Wouldn't want the 2 satellite dishes hanging off the sides of Maxi's head to freeze off !


A few of thank you's as this may be my last post before it all begins Sunday !


Owl Marketing



Virgin Atlantic

Travel Sim


I also wanna thank my Irish friend, Aislinn for the helpful information about Ireland. She just arrived down under, living & working in Sydney & a certainty to end up in back packers rip or doing a nudie run on the NYD episode of Bondi Rescue !


Last but not least, I wanted to thank every one of you for taking the time to give us advice on places to go, people to see or things to be careful of (ie: Spanish pick pocketer's). I really do read all your comments and wish I could reply to everyone.


Still some more planning for the UK leg but I'll be keeping you up to date from the road !


Slán go fóill!

7 Days and counting !

Hola everyone,


Things are starting to get real. This time next week ill be at 36,000ft on our Virgin Atlantic airbus, somewhere between here and Honkers. I still cant believe I'm going to Europe ! It's somewhere I have always wanted to go but never thought I would get to.


Our first week of the journey is in Spain and to be honest, I'm nervous. Heard the saying "Taking the Bull by the Horns" ? Well that's exactly what I'm going to avoid when we hire a car in Barcelona and drive up to Pamplona on the 6th & 7th of July for the festival of Sanfermines. We are meeting up with fellow lifeguard and carrier of black cloud, Michael "Mouse" Jenkinson. Mouse is on his own little adventure around Europe in a decked out 15 seater bus. If you see him and his black cloud hovering, just wave and move on quickly. It could get ugly !

We are only staying in Pamplona for one night then heading back to Barcelona to kick back and enjoy everything the second largest city in Spain has to offer. If anyone has any ideas of cool stuff to do in Barcelona please feel free to let us know in the comments section :)

Things are coming along nicely in regards to the UK leg. The lovely ladies at Owl Marketing are sweating away in Manchester's scorching heat (!!!) trying to confirm dates and locations so we can post them up. I can say from 29th July to the 2nd August we are trying to get up to Ireland, it's a country I've wanted to see since I was knee high to a grasshopper. How could you not: IRELAND.   

From there we'd shoot across to Anglesey to find Prince Willy. I'd love to shout him a congratulations beer. Watching him tie the knot on the telly gave me goose bumps and I want to pat him on the back and say "Nice one big fella" !


Today I asked Maxi how he was going to handle the language barrier:

So we've been doing our best to work on our English slang? but as you can see we are pretty bad. 

Feel free to throw some in the comments section below and we will do our best to practice as much as possible during our 24hrs of flying time !


Anyways I only have 7 days to pack my bags so I better wrap up this blog and get cracking.
He He, (Am I the only one that packs way too early when they're excited about a trip?)


Till next time,


Hasta Luego

Buckingham Palace for Pops

Well, well welcome again,


Thanks to the help of good friend & amazing photographer Rob Palmer, we had a fun photo shoot the other day and well, lets just say we are all very much looking forward to some Swedish sun and maybe even British if we are lucky ! Hoppo reckons I'm looking so white he needs to wear sunglasses just to look at me. Thanks Hop ! Not even the saturation bevel in photoshop could tan our skin a little. On the up side, at least we should blend right in once we arrive in London on the 4th of July :)

One thing I'm looking forward to when sight seeing in the UK is Buckingham Palace. Why you ask? Well there's a couple of reasons. One is because I'm named after Prince Andrew. My mother is quite a fan of the royal family and thought I was destined to be a prince. (yeah right mum) The other is a little more special, and it has a lot to do with the photo below.

This photo is the only real memory i have of my grandfather Thomas Kenneth Morrison. He was Rear Admiral of the Royal Australian Navy and received the CBE (Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth when she came to Australia in 1963. He was given the CBE in recognition of his long and distinguished service.

I was only 4 years old when he passed away so unfortunately I never really got to know him as well as I'd liked, but my mum has told me some pretty cool stories and I'm very honoured to be in his bloodline.

In other news, we are stoked to have teamed up with the crew from Travelsim. These guys offer great call rates and an excellent service. which is awesome news for Maxi ! This means his mum can call him any time she thinks her pride and joy is getting up to mischief. It also means we will be able to stay in close contact with the gang at Owl Marketing as we start to lock in more dates for the UK leg.

Thanks for coming back and I hope to see you all soon :)

Cheers

Reidy

Pieces of the puzzle

This is my first time blogging, please be gentle :)

Organising this trip has been like putting together a 10 000 piece jigsaw, but no doubt when the final piece is in place it’ll be worth it.  Originally the idea was for me, Bruce "Hoppo" Hopkins, Troy "Gonzo" Quinlan and last but certainly the Goofiest, Trent "Maxi" Maxwell to head to the UK to help spread the word about surf safety awareness.  

After "short talks" (excuse the pun) with our most vertically challenged lifeguard, Corey "Froddo" Oliver - who had been organizing some voluntary work with the awesome Swedish Lifeguards on both Gotland island and on the west coast of Sweden at Tylosand- we couldn’t not get involved too – extending our trip from 3 to 6 weeks. Yew!

Once we'd found all the corner pieces, no sooner did the wonderful crew at Virgin Atlantic come along and put them in place by telling us they would be happy to help out, now all we needed was a marketing team over in the UK to help out with all hard stuff in the middle! …Let me introduce you to the fantastic Deb and Liz from Owl Marketing:  they have been instrumental in setting up places to go, people to see and without them the UK leg probably wouldn't be happening (Round of applause!).

There’s still 2 weeks to go before we set off on the European leg of this adventure and planning for the UK trip is still going. There are many areas we'd love to visit, including Ireland, Scotland and the North West and we will be doing our very best to get to all those places. This what we have for you so far but stay tuned as the team at Owl Marketing are working around the clock to finalise locations and dates !

Europe Leg:
Reidy & Maxi
3rd July Flying Sydney to London.
5th July Flying London to Barcelona.
6th July Driving to Pamplona.
7th July Driving back to Barcelona.
Seeing the sights of Barcelona for a few days.
11th July Flying Barcelona to Stockholm.
Teaming up with Gonzo and Corey.
Seeing the sights of Stockholm for a few days.
13th July Ferry over to Gotland Island.
14th July The Boss Hoppo joins the Team on Gotland Island.
Training and hanging out with the Lifeguard Team on Gotland Island for a few days.
20th July Flying Gotland to Goteborg.
Short stay in Goteborg seeing the sights.
21st July Train Goteborg to Halmstad to Tylosand.
Training and hanging out with the Lifeguard Team at Tylosand for a few days.
26th July Train Halmstad to Copenhagen then fly Copenhagen to London.


UK Leg:
26th July  Drive to North Devon.
27th - 28th July Hanging out at North Devon for The Atlantic water sports games. Good times


7th August Rocking out to Good Charlotte concert at O2 shepherds Bush Empire.