I just posted a video that I recorded 15 March in Sydney of a Saint Patrick's Day celebration and you can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBxLedpdPjc&feature=channel_page

My Birthday!  Several people emailed me their birthday wishes and I thank all of them for that.
I decided to walk around the harbour area and take a few more pictures before heading to the airport at about 3pm.  After a while I decided to grab some lunch and walked into the Orient hotel pub and was surprised to see nothing but green!  Everyone was Irish today and there was a lot of genuine Irishmen there enjoying more than a few beers.  They all welcomed me and after a few pints I had to go before I decided to just stay here.  I made it back to the hotel and picked up my bag before the shuttle driver arrived to pick me up for the trip to the airport.

When I arrived at the airport all the trouble began.  I had booked this flight with JetStar, a discount airline.  They said the bags I carried were a couple kilos heavy and that the fee was $80!  What a scam!  These are the same bags I have taken on each flight so far with out problems and I was not the only one they did this way.  The workers were rude and would not cut me a break at all even though the fee if I had know about it when I booked the flight would only have been $10.  I had already booked my flight from Melbourne to Christchurch, NZ with this same airlines and since it is an international flight if I add the fee at least 24 hours before the flight the fee will be $80 and if I wait until the day of the flight and hope to meet someone nicer who isn't so strict will be $160!  Such a rip-off!  Avoid this airlines if you can at all.

The flight was ok but everything on the plane involves an inflated cost.  When I arrived in Hobart I then found out that the rental car place could not find my reservation so I hopped on the hotel shuttle and got to my room.  There internet was $5 an hour or $20 a day and there was no free continental breakfast like in Sydney, the hotel rate was nearly twice as much and everything that was free in Sydney had a price here (by the way, they did offer a "buffet" that had the same things as my free breakfast in Sydney for $15).  I just hope things get better.

 Sydney Bridge Reflection

 Captured by Natives

 Saint Paddy's Day Party