WE'RE GOING TO THE ZOO ZOO ZOO....

28/12-07

Happy New Year everyone!!! I'm happy to say that today is my last day at work... woohoo!!! So I thought I'd take advantage of the free internet at my fingertips and do a little update...

New Years Eve was good, but pretty tame really, it was over 41 degrees and I was at work during the day (thanks the lord for a/c). We drank quite a bit at home while we were getting ready to go out then went to the Espy as we'd bought tickets, but when we got there it wasn't that great. We had a few drinks and then at 11:50 randomly decided to head into the city to watch the big fireworks display. We timed it just right with the trams and got there just in time... although when I saw the Sydney ones on tv the next day it made them look pretty shabby. A lot of our friends had headed to Sydney for NYE and after watching the display on the tv I can really see why. Plus apparently the street parties there were awesome.

New years day was about the same temperature (over 41 degrees) so it was far too hot for me and my milky white complexion to go outside so i spent the day chilling out (and melting) around the house. The news really amused me as it was all about how well behaved people had been this new years... as apparently over the past few years there have always been crazy riots and stuff around here. This year was apparently a vast improvement as they only had to close the beaches for half a day to clean up and get rid of all the disgarded glass bottles etc... absolute craziness!!!

Last weekend our friend Kelsey (who we met at work) took us and her sister to Weribee open range zoo, which is about 30mins away from the city and meant we got to drive over the West Gate Bridge. The bridge is basically a massive bridge (obviously!) but from it you get a really good view of the city and it really is MASSIVE!!! so was quite exciting for someone like me who loves the bridge over the Ouze on the way to Leeds! ... but enough of the bridge... they don't let you drive your own car around the zoo... instead you get in a big safari bus and they drive you around whilst explaining each of the animals and a bit about their habitat or history etc. There were lions (no li-gers), monkeys, camels, hippos, rhino's, zebras, giraffes, cheetah's and lots more I can't remember. Oh... and there were emu's (I'm scared of them - very suspiscious what happened to Rod Hull!). I didn't really enjoy the bus as it was too big, so if you were in the middle you couldn't see the animals as well... and it was full of horrid screaming kids... or as Mel and I call them... contraception. But once we got off the bus we decided to do the longer of the walking routes around the park, where you get to see all of the animals again and often more close up. We got home from the zoo just as Mark was starting up the bar-b so we had a bit of a house BBQ / drinking session that evening which finished the day off pretty nicely.

Other than that things have been pretty quiet for me as I've been trying to save up for the next leg of the trip while I've been working. Checked out The Grapevine in St Kilda near Luna Park one night which was pretty good, although we did end up drinking by candlelight when there was a powercut.... which incidentally resulted in a bar down the way being burnt down (power surge when the power returned I think) and some people getting stuck at the top of one of the rides at Luna Park... luckily not upside down!

Went to the Limerick Arms (The first Toohey Brothers Pub - valuable information can be gained from the underside of a Toohey twist top) for their happy hour last week, but didn't stick around long enough for the live music. Learned that fish and chip shops in Oz really just arent the same... I don't want fries with my fish! Oh yeah and we finally went to our local "The Albert Park Hotel' and discovered that they only employ hot barmen... wise move!

As I said... this is my last day at work and (after a few drinks to celebrate this evening!) I plan to spend the next couple of weeks sight-seeing in Melbourne, lazing on the beach and hopefully driving along the great ocean road. Booked my flight to Tassie the other day, so we leave on the 30th Jan, then fly from tassie to Perth on 12th Feb. So hopefully I'll have something more interesting to write next time, until then take care!!

P.S. Forgot to say my brother got engaged to his girlfriend just before christmas (awww!) so... congratulations to Adam & Katy! x x x