Chronicles of Oz (Part 2)

Brisbane
(The writer apologises for not regaling you with tales of adventure and misadventure from Brisbane earlier. But it's been two months since those events took place, so she figures it's too late now anyway. So here you go... more pictures, with some brief descriptions. Hope you don't mind.)

The highlights of Brisbane were:
* Staying with Uncle Bill and Aunty Joni—Wern's aunt's sister—and their household of two Taiwanese and one Japanese exchange students
* Waking up REALLY early...like 7am every day
* Riding the Superman Escape in Movie World, which goes from 0-100km in 2 seconds
* Walking, walking, walking
* More walking in national parks, kangaroo reserves, forest reserves, weekend markets
* Having a kookaburra steal a barbecued sausage from out of my hand
* Petting koalas and feeding kangaroos at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
* Trying out kayaking, at the lake at the back of Aunty Joni's house
* Seeing a singer-songwriter do a really cool cover of Big Yellow Taxi at the Eumundi weekend market
* Spotting koalas, dolphins, hares, wild birds in the wild
* Uncle Bill's crazy, bounding Labrador, 'Hamish'
* Visiting the Brisbane Powerhouse (nothing much but interesting 'feel') and Brisbane Museum
* Lots of sunshine and balmy weather

Brisbane was so much fun. It really was.

Lazy koala at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Awww...this wallaby has his tail between his legs

Aunty Joni gets grossed out by a greedy, slobbering kangaroo. Notice its bigger feet and um, clawed hands?

Sheep are pretty stupid. Luckily they're cute

Feeding a wallaby, which slobbers less compared to a kangaroo

Uncle Bill at Noosa Heads National Park. Being a 6+-footer, he left us wayyyyy behind

Some bird poised on a tree on a bright winter's day

Some hive stuck on a tree. I don't wanna know what's inside

Standing on the edge of this cliff was freaky. A mis-step, and I'd be gull-feed. My knees actually felt wobbly

Somewhere, E.T. is listening in to all the crappy radio music

Can you spot the moon in this pic?

The Brisbane sun's superb when you need self-portraits

(Lame description here)

All Brisbane's electricity boxes are painted by different artists

This one here's in Chinatown... a rather seedy part of town

The Great Superman Escape. Super fun. Rode it twice. Guaranteed to make you feel years younger. :)

Girls' Day

The girls reigned supreme today. The guys had futsal in the morning. Period. The girls had a muscle toning session (while polishing the floor with their butts--how multitaskingly efficient!), a manicure lesson (buff or colour?), and a juicy juicing session with celery and green apples. Grrrrls rule! Grrrr!

So here are some of my favourite pictures from the event. My camera's getting a bit screwed though (Grrr!). Looks like something's wrong with the optical unit--the same problem happened before and I had to change the whole thing. Cost me over a hundred bucks, and the camera was *just* over a year old. If it doesn't deteriorate any further, I guess I can still live with it... If you notice, there's a faint dark line on the top/left side of the pictures. Hope it doesn't get worse.

I forget whose nails these are. Any takers?

Hey! You missed a spot!

I know whose feet these are... smelly smelly

Bonding

So. I've been jobless since... I don't remember since when. Life has taken on an other-worldly appearance, mainly illuminated by fluorescent lights and a flickering computer monitor. My days begin at 3pm and end at 6am, when the azan five houses down my road starts blasting. Plus or minus an hour, depending on whether I'm having a cool, weird dream or can't sleep because the noisy neighbours are waking up.

One of the main benefits of staying at home is that I've been 'bonding' with my parents. Not a lot, but at least it's a positive start. My family's the traditional kind and we don't talk about stuff. Especially, stuff. You know what I mean. So the little that we share in the open is appreciated. Those from close-knit families might not understand, but those who can't remember their father ever hugging them probably would.

That's all I'll say for now. Maybe being tight-lipped runs in the family.

Poor Lump

My pet went to the vet today. He didn't have a very good experience. Here's what I want to say to him, but I can't speak in Rabbit language.

I'm so sorry, Lump, I couldn't afford to bring you to that posh Yeoh Vet in Taman Megah even though I wanted to. You already get quite a shitty deal being my pet. I'm sorry that I did not listen to my intuition when we approached this Sea Park vet, where you had that enema pushed up your private parts the first time. I did not like the vet, who didn't seem to know what to do or how to handle rabbits. But I know the previous treatment kinda worked and you pulled through, so against my better judgment, that's why you were there again today.

I'm angry at myself for not saying anything when that stupid young vet pulled you out of the carrier by your ears. It must have hurt helluva lot. I've read that humans are never, ever supposed to carry rabbits by their ears because ears are sensitive. Maybe this bugger learnt something else in vet school, but to fault him publicly might have meant more abuse and rough treatment for you behind closed doors. I only hoped you'd prove yourself one tough rabbit.

Ten minutes back home, and still you don't want to leave your carrier. I guess in whatever rabbit understanding you have, you think you can't trust us. Us, your owners, and us, humans. I'm sorry all this happened.

I hope you don't have a long memory and this traumatising experience will be forgotten soon. Today just wasn't a good day on your rabbit calendar. Now please, please poo properly, try not to get it stuck onto your fur, and stop eating the paint off the walls. I love you, but you really need to change your diet.

Take care, Lump. I'll try to get you a garden to run in soon.

xoxo,
Me... you know, the owner of the legs you like to run around