That's a Wrap! My Last Weekend in Oz!

You will have to excuse me if some of this entry and the next don't make sense. You see, for whatever reason I decided that I should write my blog at 4:15am while I couldn't sleep in JFK airport. My brain is a bit fuzzy and I am running on a lack of sleep. I will tell you all about my journey home, but first I will tell you about my last weekend in Oz.

My last weekend was pretty slow compared to some of the adventures I have had. I was basically tapped out, so that left little fundage for me to 'make big party' for my last weekend. The past couple weekend I had left in Oz were mostly spent with Sha

ne. Shane is the fellow I met on the bushwalk gone wrong and he has been a great friend to me ever since. So usually I go to Shane's house, as a weekend base camp away from Gosford, on Saturday and we do something and then I crash there for the night. Since this was my last weekend in Oz I decided I would head down Friday evening after work. I had worked out the train schedule so I caught the two fastest trains there, and it would take a mere 2 hours to get there compared to the regular 3. First train from Gosford was good, and I got to Central as planned. I got the train from Central that I had planned and it would only be another hour before I would meet Shane and we most were going out for drinks with friends. Well my express 3 hour travel turned into a 4 hour nightmare! About halfway thought the trip the conductor came on the speakers, and in the annoying voice said, "Attention passengers. I have just received notice that there is a freight train broken down on the track ahead and we will be waiting here unit it is clear." Her voice reminded me of the woman on Seinfeld that George dated, the daughter of the unemployment worker dealing with his case when Vandelay industries didn't pan out. If any of you watch Seinfeld you know now the sound of the woman's voice. Anyway, I digress. So abo

ut 10 minutes later she came on again, I thought to myself 'Oh that wasn't too long of a wait.' This time she said, " Attention passengers, we will not be going anywhere for a while, so if you would like to get off on the platform and stretch your legs we will make an announcement when it is time to re-board." Crap! Crap diddly ding dong Crap! So we sat and we waited and we waited and we sat. Eventually we got going again but it was slow going the rest of the way. I finally arrived to McArthur station at about 9 or 9:30ish. Needless to say I was looking forward to the drinks we set out to have. Not only that but they put the Habs

vs Fliers game on so like any good Canadian beer+hockey is bonafide to cheer you up!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty low key and we took our time going to different markets. Saturday was raining and cold so we didn't do much else and then Shane took me out for an awesome farewell dinner. We got a little dressed up and went down to the Wests Club for diner and drinks. It was a lovely meal and just a nice realizing way to say god bye to Oz. Shane ordered a steak on a stone grill. it was the first time I had seen this. The steak comes out raw

and you cook it yourself on a hot stone grill. It was pretty cool!

Sunday we spent in the city at markets as well and spent the evening drinking a few liters of beer at the Lowenbrau restaurant and watching the lights of the city before I had to head back to Gosford. I guess I didn't go out with a bang, but that just means I will have to come ;). I really enjoyed the pace of it and I got presents for everyone!

Nature’s Beauty Strikes Again

Some of you may remember that when I wrote about going to the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne I got a little emotional. Well for those of you who think I am made of steel the awe inspiring views and breath taking waterfalls that I took in on Sunday proved you wrong.

Sunday was bush walk day! I had crashed at Shane’s house because we wanted to get an earlyish start to the day. My plan was to cook berry pancakes for breakfast to kick off our day of adventure but thanks to Shane and Darran’s shitacular cookware they sucked the hind tit. Ah well, no worries we ate them anyway and got out the door around 9:30, which was about ½ an hour behind schedule. We drove up to the Blue Mountains and our first stop was the Three Sisters. Here is a tid bit of information for you. Did you know that the Blue Mountains get their name because on a clear day there appears to be a blue haze over the mountains? This haze is caused by the excess of eucalyptus oil in the air from the trees that grow on the mountains. There is your something new that you learned today! Anyhow, the Three Sisters is a rock formation that can be seen from one of the lookouts on the mountain. The rocks are really gorgeous and it was something that I wanted to see since I got here. Of course the place was crowded with tourists but I was able to get some awesome pictures of the three sisters and the Jamieson Valley. The views from this look out are just breath taking and beautiful. It is amazing to see the panoramic views over the valley and all the mountains in the distance. I was so grateful to see that!

After some pictures of the sisters and surrounds we took off to do a bush walk in the Valley of the Waters. What a great day we had for a bush walk too! It was sunny and cool, but not cold. It was the perfect day. However I made Shane take a short detour to the Blue Mountains chocolate making facility. I had wanted to go there since I got here too. We walked in and there was so much chocolate all around. Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head! Behind a large glass bay window was where the magic happened. This place doesn’t mass produce chocolates so it wasn’t a huge factory. We looked/drooled around the place for a while trying to decide what to buy. There was so much to choose from it was next to impossible to make actual decisions about what to get. I wish I could have it all! Not to mention they had free chocolate tastings! So after a acute bout of indecisiveness I bought some chocolate and we continued on our journey to the Valley of the Waters.

The Valley of the Waters has its name because it is peppered with waterfalls. There are many different walking tracks and bush walks to go on it just depends on how many waterfalls you want to see and what you want the difficulty level to be. I think you all know me; I go big or go home. I wanted to see the most waterfalls as possible. We had a look at the map and decided to do the Wentworth Pass walk. Shane later informed me that there is only one other trail up there that is harder then what we did. The rating of this circuit was ‘hard’ and the approximate time to complete was 5 hours. To that I say “Poppycock!” It was a moderate trail (with a lot of stairs) in my opinion, and Shane and I did it in 3.5 hours including stopping for a picnic lunch! We really are awesome bush walkers!

To start this walk you start on the tip top of a mountain, and before we could even start the Wentworth Pass we had to walk all the way down the mountain into the valley. It was nice to see the views from the top. It too looked over the Jamieson Valley, and there were just spectacular views over the ridges. Now I am going to tell you about the walk, but I would like it to be noted that no amount of words, pictures, videos, or any other media would be able to accurately describe the experience I had on Sunday. Again, I know I have said this about a few things since I have been here and this one holds true yet again. I am so lucky to have experienced these things while I am here, and I love to share them with you, but I know there is no way you could ever understand until you have done and seen it yourself.

Going down the mountain was multiple sets of stairs. I thought that these stairs were pretty steep until we got to the other side. As we started our decent into the valley I tried to take it all in. The rock formations, the views over the valley, everything! It wasn’t long before I heard water rushing, and I knew that soon we would be seeing our first waterfall. This waterfall was so nice, and we actually had to cross it on stones sticking up from the water. I thought it was so beautiful, and had no idea of what was about to come. We carried on all the way down the valley on the trail of stone stairs and downhill, knowing full well that at some point we would have to come back up from the valley. We came to waterfall after waterfall and the next one seemed more impressive then the last. The rushing water and fine mist that sprinkled your body as we wound our way down and around all these beautiful sights. My camera was clicking nonstop, and I was glad that Shane didn’t mind taking pictures of me along the way. I can’t remember all the names of the waterfalls I saw but I like to call them all amazing falls! The walk was great too. A real hike! We stopped for lunch by a small little waterfall just off the trail. It was nice and quiet and a beautiful spot to eat lunch. We also heard a rescue chopper come flying over head and then we listened and watched as we walked for the next 1.5-2hours as they tried to rescue whoever it was they were looking for. Shane said that this area often gets stupid tourists trapped somewhere they wouldn’t be and have to get choppered out. Very similar to say, Cape Split at home. It was cool to see the chopper that low, and close too. Shortly after lunch we came around a corner to one of the most beautiful sights I have ever had the pleasure of seeing in my whole life. It was this magnificent and enormously tall waterfall streaming from the top of the mountain down to where we were and into a huge pool at the bottom. The falls were so tall that I was unable to get into a single picture even turning my camera sideways and standing back as far as I could. I was awe struck! It was amazing and just beautiful in every way. It was at these falls that I did get a little emotional because, like in Melbourne, I was overwhelmed with the fact that I was fortunate enough to be able to come to a place like this and see such a thing. I tried to take as many photos as I could, and even took a video but like I said before, no amount of media could ever capture that sight.

It was slightly intimidating to look up and see the cliff faces surrounding you and know that in a few short moments you will have to start making your way up there. After taking it all in and taking heaps of pictures we started our ascend back up the mountain to where we started. It was awesome going back up because we actually crossed that huge waterfall in two places. We crossed half way up the fall and at the top. There was however more stairs then I think were on the bridge, and there were 1400 on the bridge. It may have been less (I really think it was more) but these stairs were steep! At a few places there were steep metal stairs on the side of a cliff. They were so steep and so much on the side of a cliff that there was a cage over the stairs in case you fell backwards you wouldn’t fall to your imminent death. It was great though! Adventure city! I loved every minute of it, even if I did seriously slow down about ¾ of the way up the mountain. In fact the way out was so intense that on the sign marker it says “For experienced walker’s only, steep stairs blah blah blah” Then beside it someone wrote “Chuck Norris Only!” The waterfalls, the views over the valley, the rock faces, the everything made it one of the most wonderful experiences I have had here in Oz. I know my list is getting long, but this one is near the top for sure. As I stood atop the final waterfall with outstretched arms Shane took a picture and then my camera said “Battery Empty” I knew it had been an amazing day!

I dragged my weary self onto a train and came all the way back up here to effing Gosford. Lucky for me, as I write this I only have 5 working days left and 1 weekend before I commence my journey to the homeland.

Friends are Optional Because People Suck

My second to last Saturday in Oz was a mixed bag of a shit load of traveling, last minute planning and dealing with hillbillies at the internet café in Gosford. I had plans all set out but those were dashed when Richard decided to fuck off and leave me in a lurch. So I had to quickly revaluate the day and decided that just because he wanted to be a wanker didn’t mean that I couldn’t go do what we planned on my own.

My first stop was at the internet café here in Gosford. Now, there are two that I have seen since we moved here. The first one that I went to on Friday night was so dodgy and the computers were mega slow and they charged double what anyone else does. So I thought the one by the train station would be better. Wrong! I should have guessed that it would be slightly awful when I called to find out their hours of operation and the woman said, “We are open 24 hours on Fridays and we open at 10am on Saturdays.” Reread that quote and see if YOU can make sense of that. Anyways my intention of Saturday morning was to upload my blog and pictures to the web as well as Skype with Andrea. The only thing I was successfully able to do at this particular internet café was Skype with Andrea. That was great but it still left the dilemma of the pictures and blog to upload. I was pissed that I couldn’t do this because the place was run by a bunch of red necked hillbillies and I am pretty sure the only reason they had the stupid café was so their friends and derelict family members could play WOW with each other. So after a great Skype date with Andrea I headed out on the train, making my way to the city.

I decided to make a quick stop in Hornsby to the very large shopping centre that I had taken the kids to the other day. I had a quick look around and couldn’t find what I was looking for and was going to head out to the city; however I noticed an internet café right before the train station. I popped in there to upload all my photos and blog and stuff. I thought I could do it in 30mins but ended up spending an hour there uploading and junk. This slightly set me back a bit because I was meeting Shane in the late afternoon to hang out, and I still wanted to go into the city. After uploading both my picture and my blog I hurried out of the café and hopped on a train. Well I just sat down on the train and I reached in my pocket. It was at that moment that I had left the key to my life at the internet café. I forgot my USB in the computer at the café!! Can you imagine what my reaction was? I mean anyone that knows me knows how much pictures mean to me, so knowing that almost all the pictures I have taken in Oz are on that stick sitting in the back of that computer was almost enough to send me into cardiac arrest. I flew off the train and ran as fast as I could, up the stairs and to the gates where I frantically shouted something at the commissionaire attending the disabled gate, which caused him to open it for me. I ran down the ramp and to the internet café. I barged in like I was running from the po-lice and scared the shit out the ol feller that had since been assigned the computer I was using. Thank ah-la that it was still there, so I snatched it out of the computer and ran just as fast back toward that train. I reached the locked gate again, and unwilling to buy two tickets to the city I simply snuck through the disabled gate behind, quite possibly the fattest women I have ever seen in real life. Would you believe that I made it back to the train that I was originally sitting on when I realized my err?

After being thrown into mild cardiac arrest then sprinting, like an Olympian going for gold, to and from the train station I sat back and let my transit narcolepsy kick in as I headed into the city. Originally Richard and I were going to meet in the city, walk to The Rocks (an old historic and lovely part of Sydney), and then use the passes Charli and I got at the bridge climb to go to the top of one of the bridge pylons. We had arranged this because Richard is moving up North to do farm work on Wednesday and I am moving home the following Wednesday. Anyhow, after plans being set out, Richard gave me ½ an hour’s notice that he got too drunk the night before and wasn’t coming. I was better off without him and after my stop in Hornsby I got the train into the CBD and was going to go to the pylon myself. On the train I turned on my radio on my mp3 player, and it was all a buzz with the arrival of Jessica Watson to Sydney Harbour. I don’t know if you guys heard about her in Canada but she is the 16 yr old Aussie girl who sailed around the world on her own. This day was her home coming after her 7 month journey. I was lucky to miss the majority of the crowds but when my train went across the bridge it was lined with people shoulder to shoulder. By the time I got to the bridge after working my way through the markets the crowds were virtually nonexistent.

I went to the pylon to do the lookout for one reason. Originally I wasn’t going to use the pass they gave us because I had already been to the tippy top of the bridge, and it is not like the top of the pylon was going to offer a better view of the harbor. Then I remembered that you were allowed to take your camera up to the top of the pylon, where was you are not allowed to take it to the top of the bridge, and I came home an amputee after paying for the photos they took. I figured the 200 stairs to the top of the pylon would be worth the shot of the Opera House I would get on this beautiful day. It was. I went and walked across the bridge to the pylon, and then climbed the 200 stairs to the top. The view of the Opera House was pretty good (obviously not the same as from the top of the bridge, but still nice) and I took a bunch of pictures. I didn’t stay very long because I had to meet Shane and my venture to the top of the pylon was utilitarian, I was there to take pictures. So after a few snaps I walked back across the bridge and had to catch the train to meet Shane in a place called Lidcome.

Lidcome wouldn’t normally be that far of a train ride from Circular Quay, but not on this day. This day they were doing tons and tons of track works on the train tracks. When they do this they replace the trains with buses that go to each station. So I had to get off the train at Strathfield, which is two stops before Lidcome on the train, and catch a track works bus. Track works buses are the bane of my friggin existence! A trip that would have taken a maximum of 10 minutes on the train took an eternity on this stupid bus. With trains there is no traffic or red lights, just track. Not the case with these stupid buses. I ended up sitting in bumper to bumper, curb to curb traffic for way to long behind a ghetto/hillbilly couple whom, if I were on the bus any longer, would have been coming off the bus in a double wide body bag. I don’t think that I need to tell you that when I finally met up with Shane, he may have wished he hadn’t made plans to hang out on the weekend. However after I had some me time and got some food into me I was in a much better mood. Shane and I just hung out at his house and called it an early night because we were going to the mountains the next day and doing an awesome bush walk.

The Climb of my Life!

The title of this entry is the slogan for Bridge Climb Sydney. I title this entry that because on Sunday May 9th, 2010 I had the climb of my life thanks to Bridge Climb Sydney. When I first came here to Australia I made said that I someday would be doing the bridge climb. It was something that I had heard of and dreamed of doing. However as time went on and the more trips I took and things I did it was becoming evident that I would have to throw this dream to the wayside because of the cost of the climb. It is expensive to do the climb but I knew it would be worth the money, I just couldn’t see myself paying ¾ of my pay for one activity in the last month I was here. Luckily for me, now is that a sentence you have regularly hear a Moreeny say? Lady luck really has been on my side down here, and it continued right on through. Charli and Peter approached me the weekend before and asked if I had plans for the weekends until I left. I do have a whack of stuff I want to do before I leave but nothing nailed to the wall. They said they would like to pay for a bridge climb for me. They knew it was something that I had wanted to do and offered to give me the opportunity to do that. That is the second thing they have allowed me to tick off my list of Oz activities since I have been here. The first being the camel ride for Christmas. Of course I accepted the gracious gift and was so thankful that I would be able to do this before I left. After accepting that I probably wouldn’t be able to and then given an opportunity out of the blue it was quite exciting.

So Sunday came and I met Charli in the Rocks, which is where the bridge climb headquarters are, and we got ready for the climb of our lives. When we got there it was all very James Bondish and I think they played up on this for the effect. We had to go into a little room and sign our lives away, almost literally, we had to sign saying that if we die they aren’t at fault. Then we had to take a breathalyzer test. I was a little paranoid that I might blow over because of the shenanigans the night before. However I was very careful to stop drinking at a reasonable hour and drink plenty of water, plus it was in the afternoon, but still that little voice made me a little worried. No worries though I passed no questions asked. After the breathalyzer we were taken to another room where we were given a special suit to wear and we had to remove our earrings, bobby pins, jewelry etc. After donning our ridiculous looking jumpsuits were taken to yet another area where we were outfitted with more gear then you can shake a stick at. We were given a belt and cable that kept us attached to the bridge at all times, straps for our sunglasses that were then clipped to our backs, hats clipped to our backs with a long attachment strap, a hanky tied to our wrists, a fleece jacket attached to our belts, a radio attached to our belts with headphones, head lamps around our necks, and ties for our hair. Once we were outfitted in all the gear it was time to go!

We were attached to a cable, in a line, that ran a course around the bridge. The attachment to the cable had a working weight of 800kg so I was confident that if I fell that it would hold my weight but I was not confident that I would remain in control of my bowels if I fell. We started walking along and at first I was okay with it. Ya know it was high but no biggie. The guide was great, and had a great sense of humor. I think we lucked in big time getting him as a guide because I heard one of the other guides and it made me more thankful that we had our guy. We climbed, ducked and squeezed our way through the belly of the bridge to come out on the right side of the bridge, the opera house side. We started along the bridge and then there was an area that was railed in by two railings about an inch thick and about as high as just above my waist. The walkway was a grate that you could, of course, see right through down into the harbor below you. It was these stairs and the same thing on the other side going down that put the fear of god in me. It is was slightly unnerving being able to see below my feet and knowing that if I fell I would plunge to my death in the Sydney Harbour. Now I would like to say that I don’t actually have a fear of heights but I do have a healthy respect for gravity. Funny enough these parts with the stairs weren’t even half way up the bridge and I would classify that as the scariest part of the whole climb. Even when we were on the tip top of the bridge next to the flags and the airplane beacon I wasn’t as frightened as I was when we climbed those gawd awful stairs above the water. The only other time I didn’t really love looking down was when we crossed from one side of the bridge to the other, crossing 49 meters 134 meters up in the air on wooden planks bolted to the thin metal railings. It was purely the wood that made my respect kick in because we all know that wood is not stronger then metal. Although I had a few moments of respectful thoughts on gravity on the climb I was not as bad as one of the women on our tour. She was afraid of heights in a big way. Before we started we stood in a group and told everyone our name and why we were there. She said that she was there because her daughter gave it to her as a mother’s day present. I soon realized that, that ladies daughter doesn’t like her very much. In our group photo she looks petrified and she cried for a good chunk of the tour. I don’t think that I would try to conquer my fear of heights by climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

The views up there were amazing and you could see for days, and we had a wonderful panoramic view of the CBD. We were even lucky enough to get to watch the sun set over the harbor from about half way down the bridge. That is lucky because people pay a lot more to go on a sunset climb and we got it for the regular price, boo-ya, love a good deal! This, for sure, will be on the list of one of the most amazing things I have done in my life. Funny enough most of the things on this list are things that I have done while I have been here in Australia.

My time here in Oz is ticking away, and for all those who have been friggin asking and wondering and such, I will be back in Nova Scotia on May 27th, 2010. I will not divulge any information about what I will be doing when I return or how long I will be there but I will be back in the country in just two weeks!

Wandering Saturday

can’t believe that it was only a week since the NRL game! It seems like it was an eon! Anyhow my Saturday wasn’t very exciting, edge of your seat thrilling with adventure. I met up with Richard and we went to Paddy’s Market in the city and walked for miles and miles around the city trying to find things that ended up not being where Google said they would be. Paddy’s Market is cool, and anyone that loves a good market would be in heaven in market city. It is very similar to Parklea Market that I used to go to at home only bigger. Then as I said, we wandered for a while looking for a Max Brenner that we couldn’t find and then a nonexistent Hard Rock Café. So after a bit of wandering and a Subway cookie we parted ways early afternoon.

From there I met up with Shane and we too wandered around the city for a while. We found ourselves down in Darling Harbour and along Cockle Bay. It was really nice because it was a hot day and the sun was starting to go down. We walked into some sort of Asian culture celebration down by the Chinese Gardens where I saw a busker which I had already seen at the busker festival in Halifax. This strangely enough is the second time this has happened to me here in Sydney. My first trip to Circular Quay I saw a busker that I had seen in August for the time just before I came here. The guy I saw on Saturday was one of the guys from a trio that often come to Halifax. Their name eludes me, but I know Andrea knows what it is. They are three young guys, from the Bronx New York, one of them is very young (well he was a kid when they first started coming to Halifax) and they always have a really really fat guy with them that does the emceeing for them. They are break dancers and are very good and entertaining. If you are reading this and you know who I am talking about message me on facebook and tell me the name of the group. Anyway one of the guys from this group was in Darling Harbour with two other random guys I had never seen before. I just caught the last trick of the show so we didn’t stick around. We sat in a nice little bar on the water and drank beer as the sun dropped lower to the horizon.

Shane invited me out with his friends, so I joined them for an evening of beer drinking and shenanigans. We went to a local pub where they all live, about an hour out of the city. It was good fun, but I was sure not to knock too many back on account of I had to climb one of the world’s most iconic bridges the next day. I am quite sure that is something you definitely don’t want to do hung over! Yep Sunday was my day to do the bridge climb that I had vowed I would do before I left Sydney, but that’s another story for another time!

Tigers vs. Roosters NRL Action

Sunday I had the opportunity to attend my first ever NRL game. For those of you in Canada NRL stands for National Rugby League. However don’t just call it rugby because people around here frown upon that. See there is AFL which is Australian Football League, the NRL and then there is Rugby Union. If you just say rugby then they assume that you mean the Rugby Union. They all have different rules and such and so down here are considered different sports. However I come from a nation and Can-a-da is its name. To me it is all just rugby. Anyhow I digress, the game was awesome!

It is still the beginning of the season so the games haven’t really begun to heat up like they would in a final or semi final match, but I reckon that this was a pretty hyped crowd and probably the best game to go to before I left. The match was the West Tigers against the Roosters on the Tigers home turf. I mean common, what kind of name is Roosters anyway? So the stadium was packed to the gills with Tigers fans dressed in all their Tigers gear. One thing I have learned down here is that rugby is taken very seriously, much like hockey fans at home. The crowd was all a buzz for kick off and I was just over the top for just being there. I of course wore orange and black to support the team. Gotta support the team man. It was just good times, beer, sun, a field full of men manhandling each other, what more could you really want? Although I don’t 100% understand the rules and such of rugby it was awesome to be there and see all that action live. I cheered them on and had a friggin great time. I was somewhat disappointed with the effort of cheers. It was mostly “TIGERS, clap clap. TIGERS clap clap” I could have done with some more exciting cheers to be honest. At one point some guys started a small one of “I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight (you know like the old commercial)” The guy sitting behind us was hilarious! He had brought a giant tigger doll and had a little Tigers cape around his neck. It was funny listing to the shouts and comments from this fellow. At one point he told us to feel free to holler shit out because “we are at the footy now, anything goes.” The game was 80 mins of awesomeness, cheering, beer drinking, flag waving and all the greatness that is a NRL game! In the end the Tigers lost which was disappointing but did not ruin my NRL experience. They lost by a very dodgy try by the roosters with 5 minutes left in the game so that was a bit upsetting, but like I said it sure didn’t ruin my experience. I was able to get the only try scored by the Tigers on video, so that was awesome too! After the game I headed to the greatly over crowed train station (lucky for me I bought my ticket before the game even started) to make my nearly 3 hour journey back to Gosford.

Now it is the end of Monday and I am already looking forward to ticking off some more things on my list. I am psyched for the bridge climb and whatever else I tick off the list. I am accepting the fact that I have to live here for the few weeks and trying to make the best of it. I am figuring out some cool stuff to do with the boys and just take er day by day. I hope your eyes don’t ache too much for all the reading you just did, but thanks for tuning in. And that folks is how the cookie crumbles, goodnight

I Went to The Zoo to Club Seals But They Had Already Been Slashed!

G’Day all, I know you have had a lot to catch up on and have been bombarded with entries but I have very limited access to internet so I have just been saving up all the entries until I could have more time on the net.

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.

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!

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!