Spot the difference: One is a notorious criminal from Melbourne, made famous in the Underbelly TV series, the other is a digital media and technology specialist living in Sydney, yet to be made famous.
This is the photo I used on my visa application and didn’t realise quite how much it made me look like Mark Moran the gangster.
When I googled my name (sad I know!) the first thing that came up was this mugshot of him. I couldn’t believe it. My task to get myself know is Sydney suddenly got a lot harder. From the day I arrived in Sydney I decided to call myself Mark David Moran wherever possible. I figured I would be able to make a name for myself a lot quicker than competing directly with a household name.
At some point I hope to be above him in Google but I don’t think it will happen any time soon - unless I start shooting people 
Well I can truly say I have never made such an arse of myself as I did last night.
We arrived at a “parents nights out” in a Lane Cove Vietnamese restaurant. We are new in town and looking to make the right impression. We were 10 minutes late and everyone was already at the tables and drinking from various bottles of wine. In order to get the night going, Jacqueline and I got stuck into the wine straight away. Things were going well and a good time was had by all. I asked about settling the bill and they said “$35 a head for the food”.
“And what about the drinks”, I replied.
“That was just BYOB - everyone just drinks their own wine here”, came the response.
“Oh shit.”
So we had been sitting there taking everyone else’s wine (probably having the majority of it) and giving people the impression that people from Scotland are tight as a knat’s chuff. In the UK, BYOB restaurants just don’t exist. It never even occurred to us.
We just apologised, ran (and giggled like school kids).
Oh well, we can always move to the Inner West and start afresh.
So as a casual tourist I now find myself on the Gold Coast in the middle of Schoolies week - doh! If you are not 17 then you are officially a toolie and not a schoolie. I’m 19 years to late for all this malarky.
Hopefully avoiding the beaches for the next few days and hitting the “Worlds” (Movie World, Sea World etc).
I’m loving everything I see in Queensland, but can’t wait to get back to Sydney - I’m ready to start home building and networking. Oz is already feeling like home (can’t believe how quick that happened) - but I’m eager to put down some roots soon.
Cheers, M
OK - so we have arrived in Oz and all has been a bit mad for the last two weeks (buying cars, getting phones, registering with schools, discovering spiders that kill you, etc). We are now on holiday on the Sunshine coast for a few days and the weather is not exactly playing ball. There have been massive storms and we are now just at the tail end of it. I don;t think there is anything to do here when the weather is crap so we will just hang out, eat, drink, go for a run and generally chill out.
My amazing wife earned us an upgrade after our first hotel was looking onto a construction site - she shouted loudly for around 3 hours and finally got us moved to the Element in Coolum Beach - without doubt THE coolest apartment I have ever been in. I want to live in it. At least when the weather is crap we can enjoy the inside of the apartment. I have also discovered low carb beer that tastes great so I’ll work my way through that as well.
Cheers for now, Mark
I am sitting here in an empty house, with no furniture, no cooking facilities, no clothes (don’t worry I’m not writing this butt naked) - I’m just about to emigrate from Scotland to Sydney, Australia. I’m planning a new life out there with my wife (Jacqueline) and 4 children (Lisa, Michael, Jamie and Beth).
Emotions are running high - the rollercoaster of excitement, trepidation, sadness and pure panic. We are leaving family behind (which is incredibly difficult). But that is the nature of emigration - we have to do what is right for us. There are definitely winners and losers in the whole process. I guess you sometimes ahve to give up a lot to gain a lot.
This blog is just a personal account of everything I’m doing from now on. I have a blog about fitness (learntorun.com) and a site devoted to emigrating with children (emigratingwithkids.com). These are two sites which I just run as a personal hobby. One day I may start to monetise them but at the moment they are just for fun.
I have just read the Problogger book and it has inspired me to do this whole thing properly, including learning about technorati, feedburner and lots of other blog tools. It is a great book and has certainly lit a fire under me.
So bear with me for a few posts while I get my act together (vision, mission statement, design, blah blah blah)….
Cheers, Mark
