The house is slowly turning into some where livable. We no longer have to frequent Siberia as the fridge and things are upstairs in the warm part. The dehumidifier is going 24-7 to dry this cave out, the dryer arrives tomorrow and the stove is working now. It is becoming more and more livable each day. There is still the issue of the space, it is fairly small, but I can deal with that for the most part. I had a super stellar weekend too and most of my weekends will be spent away ticking things off my must do before I leave list. I believe that next weekend I will be doing the bridge climb! I didn’t think that I would be able to do this even tho I really had wanted to. I got caught up doing lots of things and in the end I really can’t afford it. However Charli and Peter have offered to pay for this experience so that will super awesome!
So my weekend! What a weekend, it was just awesome! On Saturday I went to the zoo with a friend of mine from here, Shane. Thanks to Shane I had a great weekend and ticked off a few things on my ‘must-do-before-I-leave list.’ The Taronga Zoo in Sydney is very much like any other big zoo around the 
world. They basically have the same animals to show off. One of the major differences however is the location of this zoo. It is perched atop a hill on the water facing the Sydney skyline. The view is absolutely beautiful from the zoo and it is very cool to take a ferry to the zoo. You catch the ferry from Circular Quay and it takes about 12 minutes or so to get to the bottom entrance of the zoo. We took a few modes of transportation to get there seeing as we took a train to Circular Quay. Upon our arrival at the zoo we rode a skyrail over top the zoo to the top entrance. This skyrail was much less frightening than the one in Kuranda and very short. It was a piece of cake and I got a good look at the elephant enclosure from above on the way up. After getting a map of the zoo I made the executive decision to skip the wild Australia part of the zoo for the simple fact that I have seen enough kangaroos, koalas and all things Aussie to choke a horse and I wanted to spend more time on the more exotic animals like giraffes. So off we went to have a look at all animals big and small. The zoo was really great and I got to see a lot of animals that were pretty active. Most times you go to the zoo mid-day and all the animals are sleeping. Not this day, it was great! I saw the hugest python I have ever seen and it was super active and slithering around. The only animals that were sleeping were the lions, everything else was pretty active. The only thing remotely Canadian in the zoo was a Grizzly bear. After lunch and close to the end of our journey at the zoo we headed down to the seals to see the big leopard seals. These guys are huge! There was a group of people that had paid to go into the enclosure to pet these seals, and these animals were so huge that the kids were not allowed in because in the wild they eat penguins the size of like a 6 year old kid and it was too dangerous. Going to the seals was the most exciting part of the zoo trip for sure and I will tell you why.
world. They basically have the same animals to show off. One of the major differences however is the location of this zoo. It is perched atop a hill on the water facing the Sydney skyline. The view is absolutely beautiful from the zoo and it is very cool to take a ferry to the zoo. You catch the ferry from Circular Quay and it takes about 12 minutes or so to get to the bottom entrance of the zoo. We took a few modes of transportation to get there seeing as we took a train to Circular Quay. Upon our arrival at the zoo we rode a skyrail over top the zoo to the top entrance. This skyrail was much less frightening than the one in Kuranda and very short. It was a piece of cake and I got a good look at the elephant enclosure from above on the way up. After getting a map of the zoo I made the executive decision to skip the wild Australia part of the zoo for the simple fact that I have seen enough kangaroos, koalas and all things Aussie to choke a horse and I wanted to spend more time on the more exotic animals like giraffes. So off we went to have a look at all animals big and small. The zoo was really great and I got to see a lot of animals that were pretty active. Most times you go to the zoo mid-day and all the animals are sleeping. Not this day, it was great! I saw the hugest python I have ever seen and it was super active and slithering around. The only animals that were sleeping were the lions, everything else was pretty active. The only thing remotely Canadian in the zoo was a Grizzly bear. After lunch and close to the end of our journey at the zoo we headed down to the seals to see the big leopard seals. These guys are huge! There was a group of people that had paid to go into the enclosure to pet these seals, and these animals were so huge that the kids were not allowed in because in the wild they eat penguins the size of like a 6 year old kid and it was too dangerous. Going to the seals was the most exciting part of the zoo trip for sure and I will tell you why.Here is the story. We went down to the leopard seal or fur seals I can’t really remember what they were exactly. There were two of these huge beasts in the water in a high walled enclosure. We were standing on the end of the cage and there was a group of people standing around and a few trainers. Throughout our trip we saw several things like this were these people had paid extra money to have an encounter with a specific animal. So this group outside the enclosure had paid to
touch these giant boy eating seals. The trainers told the kids they could only watch from a caged area and the adults were readying themselves to go into the enclosure. I was mostly oblivious to the people around me and didn’t notice anyone. I saw the trainers and I was more interested in the seals. I overheard a woman say to the trainer “Our driver dropped us off at the top, should I tell him to bring the car around to the bottom?” However I didn’t think anything of this, Aussies seem to like to drop money around if they have it so I didn’t even take a double take. Anyways I was amidst the group that was going in but as they went in I stayed outside. I was standing up against the glass viewing window looking into the seal cage. The group of adults was lined up against that wall and this tall man was standing directly in front of me. The trainer got the seal up on the land and had it lie down. Then it was time for the first person to go and pat the seal. The man that was directly in front of me, and blocking my good view of the huge seal, had his turn first. It was great when he moved to pet the seal because he left a big open spot where I had a perfect view of the seal. He went to pet the seal and I got a great picture of the seal. At first I thought that it was too bad that some guy I didn’t know was in the picture but it was a good shot of the seal. After taking the picture we headed up the stairs to another level of the zoo. It was at this point, and not before, that Shane turns to me and say, “Do you know who that was?” To which I replied “Who? What are you talking about?” I had no idea what the hell he was talking about I was thinking, ‘no I don’t know who that was, who what was? I am from Canada I don’t know any people down here to bump into at the zoo.’ He was making the inquiry about the guy I took the picture of petting the seal . I just simply said no I just wanted a picture of the seal out of the water. Then as I said, at this point, he says, “That was Slash, the guitarist.” Obviously to which I replied, “WHAT!!?” He told me that some girl beside him said that that was Slash from Guns and Roses with that group petting the seal. I immediately went back on my camera and looked at the picture. He is not facing the camera but it is indeed Slash from Guns and Roses! I was so excited and couldn’t believe that I had brushed shoulders with such a celebrity. I went back to the seal enclosure to see if I could get a better picture but he was already gone. The one and only time I ignore the people around me and there is a major world renown celebrity standing less than a foot away from me! I was disappointed in myself because I am usually SO aware of the people around me and take notice of details that normal people don’t. I guess I was too engulfed with the seals to notice the people around me. However I did get a decent picture of Slash petting a giant seal. If I had of known it was him I would have taken a better picture, damnit! So if people ask me what the best thing I saw at the Sydney zoo was it will have to be Slash!
touch these giant boy eating seals. The trainers told the kids they could only watch from a caged area and the adults were readying themselves to go into the enclosure. I was mostly oblivious to the people around me and didn’t notice anyone. I saw the trainers and I was more interested in the seals. I overheard a woman say to the trainer “Our driver dropped us off at the top, should I tell him to bring the car around to the bottom?” However I didn’t think anything of this, Aussies seem to like to drop money around if they have it so I didn’t even take a double take. Anyways I was amidst the group that was going in but as they went in I stayed outside. I was standing up against the glass viewing window looking into the seal cage. The group of adults was lined up against that wall and this tall man was standing directly in front of me. The trainer got the seal up on the land and had it lie down. Then it was time for the first person to go and pat the seal. The man that was directly in front of me, and blocking my good view of the huge seal, had his turn first. It was great when he moved to pet the seal because he left a big open spot where I had a perfect view of the seal. He went to pet the seal and I got a great picture of the seal. At first I thought that it was too bad that some guy I didn’t know was in the picture but it was a good shot of the seal. After taking the picture we headed up the stairs to another level of the zoo. It was at this point, and not before, that Shane turns to me and say, “Do you know who that was?” To which I replied “Who? What are you talking about?” I had no idea what the hell he was talking about I was thinking, ‘no I don’t know who that was, who what was? I am from Canada I don’t know any people down here to bump into at the zoo.’ He was making the inquiry about the guy I took the picture of petting the seal . I just simply said no I just wanted a picture of the seal out of the water. Then as I said, at this point, he says, “That was Slash, the guitarist.” Obviously to which I replied, “WHAT!!?” He told me that some girl beside him said that that was Slash from Guns and Roses with that group petting the seal. I immediately went back on my camera and looked at the picture. He is not facing the camera but it is indeed Slash from Guns and Roses! I was so excited and couldn’t believe that I had brushed shoulders with such a celebrity. I went back to the seal enclosure to see if I could get a better picture but he was already gone. The one and only time I ignore the people around me and there is a major world renown celebrity standing less than a foot away from me! I was disappointed in myself because I am usually SO aware of the people around me and take notice of details that normal people don’t. I guess I was too engulfed with the seals to notice the people around me. However I did get a decent picture of Slash petting a giant seal. If I had of known it was him I would have taken a better picture, damnit! So if people ask me what the best thing I saw at the Sydney zoo was it will have to be Slash!Saturday night was whooping good fun. We went to Shane’s sister’s girlfriend’s birthday party. It was great fun, good food, good drinks, and lots of good times. I didn’t drink too much because Sunday I would be attending my first ever NRL game!
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