crikey!

Sound familiar? Yes, I went to Australia Zoo on Sunday! The home of the late Steve Irwin... Australia Zoo is HUGE! And home to heaps of animals, crocodiles (of course), koalas, kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, snakes, lizards, heaps of birds, otters, dingoes foxes, camels, cheetahs, elephants, tigers, tasmanian devils, turtles, tortoises and lots lots more. It was amazing just how big this place is. I opened up the map when we walked in, and wondered how the heck we were going to get around the whole place before it closed! It required serious planning... And we managed to see it all. I was mainly interested in the exotic animals, like the elephants and the tigers, much more interesting than the Australian ones. Haha, that sounds bad, but its just normal to see kangaroos and everything, and its really NOT normal to see a tiger here.

So, my favourite exhibits were the tigers, and the elephants. And actually, the tasmanian devils and the wombats were pretty cute too. Hah, yeah, the tasmanian devils were cute. Mainly because there was one guy who was running around doing crazy laps of his enclosure.. haha. Provided much amusement for us all. And the wombats, we nicknamed athletic koalas... They are similar to koalas, because they sleep a lot, but they actually do get up and walk around... rather than the hundreds of koalas we saw sleeping.

Anyway, on to the elephants... They were so majestic. So gentle, which is surprising given their size. The keepers did say though, that they get really cheeky and try and break the electric fences and knock down other fences at night time. ;) Made me laugh... you can even feed them! Guess what they eat... sweet potato! haha.. so cute... Very slimey though, your hands are covered in slobber afterwards! Hehe... was hilarious, all these people walking around trying not to touch themselves because their hands are all wet with elephant spit! Hahaha!

The tigers were my absolute favourite. Did you know they are the biggest cats in the world? I always thought lions were, but it turns out that the tiger is the king of the cats. And, yes, they are HUGE! When we first went to the Tiger Temple, as it was called, they were all sleeping behind the bamboo. Bit disappointing. But we went back in the afternoon after the elephant feeding, and they were awake and jumping around and eating bones... The tiger enclosure is all glassed off, so you can stand right next to one, if it chooses to come up to the glass. Actually, I noticed quite a few scratch marks on the other side of those windows... *gulp* They were amazing, just amazing. Really really really big. And when they ran... far out, they were fast! Glad I wasn't what they were chasing! They had really beautiful eyes too... Yeah, you actually get to see them that close... it was amazing!

The Wildlife Warriors 101 show was really cool too... They actually have all these amazing birds flying around the stadium. Subsequently amazed that the birds didn't fly away... Brightly coloured macaws, and black cockatoos, doves, lorikeets, and other birds too. The black cockatoos were limelight stealers, they wanted the whole show to themselves. They were the last birds to come out, and they flew around the stadium landing on various little landing spots, and then at the end, when they were supposed to fly back to their keepers, they completely ignored them and kept flying around the stadium. So while the crocodile was doing his demonstration, there were two black cockatoos flying around trying to get everyone to look at them instead... hahah. Very funny!

Terri, Bindi and Robert are planning so much... The bus driver of the courtesy bus was saying that in five years they plan to be 500 hectares! (I think thats a lot...but I actually have no idea...) They will also have a Safari, where you can drive through, which makes me think that they will get lions eventually as well... (wow!) And, they will also have a train station, when the new Queensland Rail Sunshine Coast line is built. They are certainly putting a lot of effort into it! Very impressed also with the amount of conservation they promote. Everything... even in the fact that they have signs up advising against the consumption of native animals such as kangaroos and emus. Much to the dismay of Marcel... who practically spent the whole day walking around saying how he could really go with a kangaroo steak right now... hahaha... ;)

Anyway, I was very impressed with the whole place... Only problem was, the park closes at 4:30pm, and the train connection to Brisbane doesn't leave until 5:30pm, so you have to wait for an hour at Beerwah for the train. But again, Australia Zoo deliver, the bus driver points out the local RSL, local pub and local pizza place when you pull into the station. So, off we went to have a nice cold beer in Beerwah! ;)

Oh, in other news, my secret fairy society package was delivered... and its even been posted onto the main SOSF site. I'm a little embarrassed... heh... *blush* But very glad it got there safe and sound! Am checking the mailbox in anticipation for mine... :)

sushi, sashimi, tempura

Just a random photo that Marcel took the other day... Me eating sushi in the Myer Centre Foodcourt. Hehe. Actually, it shows the ring that I got for my birthday... ;) This ring had me completely mystified for a week! I looked at it the first time, and saw all these amazing colours, and when I wore it, I noticed different colours. But, I wasn't paying that much attention, so I figured it must have been the different lights... sunlight, work lighting, daytime, nighttime etc. But I kept noticing all these different colours and patterns, ones that I hadn't seen before. Finally, i did an experiment. I made a note of one particular pattern and checked it during the day. AHA! It changes colour!!! Major discovery... The coolest thing is when I use those hand dryers in the bathrooms.. they make the ring change all these pretty colours. I can spend a while just watching it change colour. Very mystical... ;)

got milk?

Ah, the trials and tribulations of office life.
That would be the staff kitchen, or more specifically the staff fridge. Yes, the place to store your sustenance for the day ahead, although, be warned, you place something in there, and it becomes the property of the entire staff room.
Here at work, we have an issue with milk. Yes, milk. The school provides staff with long life milk, you know the stuff you buy in cartons? Yeah, that milk. Now, some people prefer to drink fresh milk. I can understand that, fresh milk is ahm.. fresher! Anyway, so, these people buy little cartons of fresh milk on their way to work and put them in the fridge here for their cereal, porridge, coffee etc. Only thing is, you put milk in this fridge, and inevitably other people will drink it. Now this has caused major arguments between staff, which has ended in malicious fights and overall evilness. For example, this morning, a staff member went to the kitchen this morning, to pour some delicious fresh milk over her cereal, and she discovered that her milk, which she had bought yesterday and left in the fridge unopened, had been opened, drunk and there was barely a drop left. She became incredibly irate and got more than a little angry at the other staff members. I walked through the staff room as she was giving the other staff a piece of her mind... Yikes, I'm glad I don't drink any of the milk (supplied or individually bought) or use that fridge. Came back to my desk, and thought, perhaps its because they don't realise that people buy that milk out of their own pocket, perhaps they don't realise which milk the school provides the staff, and thought, I should construct a sign to clearly state exactly which milk is for their use... Hehe. It follows:

The milk that the school provides staff is the long life full cream milk. If there is fresh milk, skim milk, specially imported yak milk, soy milk or anything else other than long life full cream milk in this fridge, someone has specifically bought it for their own personal use with their own money. If there is no long life full cream milk in this fridge, it may be found in the storeroom, in the grey cabinet. If there is no long life full cream milk in the grey cabinet, we have run out and it will be purchased shortly.

In the meantime, please do not drink the other milk in this fridge unless you wish to start WWIII. Thank you!

My creative outlet.. can you tell? It makes me laugh. I mean, its just milk.. but it really does create wars here. And I do understand it. The point is, you shouldn't touch anything in that fridge unless you put it in there yourself, or you know that the company provides it... And its the little things... :) Chuckle chuckle. The yak's milk reference comes from another incident. Individually bought milk was drunk, and so a sign was created for that particular carton. It went along the lines of: This milk was specially imported from Tibet. It is yak's milk that has travelled over the mountains, over oceans, deserts to get to Brisbane. If you drink it, you will die.

Hahaha. This is my amusement for the day... hahaha

uneaten tofu

So, after 11 cartons of beer, 3 casks of wine, 20 kilos of meat, 10 kilos of chicken, and one packet of tofu, the BBQ was finished... Okay, so the tofu wasn't all eaten, but the rest of it was! ;)
Had about 50 people that paid and arrived, and must have been quite a few more that arrived throughout the day. Marcel is quite the BBQ organiser! He even found out that most of the language schools in Brisbane knew of it!! Word gets around, especially when your dealing with students!
They had music, and dancing.. ah yes. There is always dancing, which inevitably means that I end up trying to dance like the rest of them, and failing miserably. Haha, ok, maybe not miserably. Give me an easy step, and I got it, throw in a spin or a turn, and I loose it... haha. Anyway, its fun. Maybe one day I will be able to dance like the rest of them.
We ended up sneaking away at 8pm... Leaving the rest of them to party on. I didn't take any photos, sorry. But some of the other students took some, so maybe I will get some later.
Anyway, it was a good day. They enjoyed it a lot!

I have some other news. The Australian GV schools have compiled a DVD about studying at the various schools, Brisbane, Noosa and Sydney. And, they have uploaded it to youtube! So, you can check it out.. see the school, my friends, and workmates, and yes, there is a couple of brief shots of me in there.. ;) There are quite a few sections, Brisbane, Work & Play, Accommodation and Study Options... Check it out:
GV Brisbane on Youtube

birthday roundup

Happy Birthday to me!

I spent the day getting a LOT of birthday wishes and congratulations and "How old are you?" followed by "Your so young!" Hahah...

Fi bought me this bright and sparkly balloon and tied it to my chair at work, so that everyone knew. Including the rest of the people in the building when one of the 5 lifts infront of my desk opened... Yes, it was delightful. Strangely enough, people still asked who's birthday it was... Hmm, that would be me!

We also had cake, of course. It was a banana cake... but not your standard tasting banana cake with nuts and spices and things. No it was a banana lolly cake! Bright yellow, with bright yellow icing and tasted like banana lollies... I was wondering how they made it, I think they must have melted them down and mixed them into the batter or something. Seriously, it tasted just like banana lollies... intriguing!

Got a sweet little card from K! Thanks! It made me smile a lot... I did get another sweet little card from Marcel, but I believe it may have been waylaid last night somewhere. Possibly at the DownUnder Bar.. ;) hahah!

Oh, my gifts.. so, I got a tim tam from one of the Korean girls at school, and a coffee caramel from a Colombian boy, an orange gerbera from Robyn, but that was kindly donated to the Victory... along with my balloon. ;) I also got some strawberry body lotion which smells like Strawberry Shortcake Dolls. AND I bought myself a new watch!! I love it... Digital, and leather! A first for me.. but its really nice... The only thing is, I will have to remember to take it off when I have a shower etc... But anyway, its perrrrrrrty!

Went out for dinner, excuse the strange expression on my face here.. I really hate photos like this... anyway, had dinner with Marcel at a little cafe... and then we went to the chocolate shop and bought a couple of sweets! Yummy... Then we continued on, first to the Victory, then to the DownUnder Bar, as all of the planters that Marcel worked with up north are back in Brisbane for the night and day. Tomorrow most of them will fly over to Perth... so we had a bit of a celebration. Hehe...

Today is the day... BBQ!!
Have to go and get ready... E has very kindly donated her services as carrier.. haha. Will be helping us shop and take all the beer and food to Southbank. We have recruited a Colombian friend to go to Southbank and find a table to guard! We've got a list of 45 people, possibly more.. and we are expecting a lot more to come... so should be fun! I'll take my phone (which is so much better than carrying a camera around) so that I can take some pictures and post them tomorrow.
In the meantime, thank you for all your well wishes etc. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*HUG*

wombo lombo

Just back from another NIA class... And guess what the music was this time?
Angelique Kidjo!

Now thats fun to dance to... ;)
Feeling really comfortable going to those classes now. Its fun... Haha, we were all laughing today because we were doing a chicken NIA dance. Now that is the best way to forget all the worries from your day! Hahaha!

Seriously, whatever problems you may have, if you start dancing around to Angelique Kidjo like a chicken, everything thats bothering you remarkably disappears!