Animals, dead and alive..

Hello!

It's been a bit longer this time, so now I've got plenty to talk about! My knee took a few days to get better from the bumping in the bus of Wollongong, but now it's all good :)

I have finished observing the second group of cockatoos and I got a chance to celebrate that with my colleagues. We were going out because another project was done, which was about testing a platypus-friendly trap for yabbies (crayfish, rivierkreeft). Apparently it wasn't very fun to watch and catch the yabbies, so we got a reason to enjoy that it was over. It was a hilarious evening with bubbly wine and pizza, which lasted a bit longer than it should, since I had to work the next morning. So Saturday was a bit slow with only 5 hours of sleep ;)

That Saturday the new housemate arrived, a 24 years old girl from Japan: Momoka (which means 'a hundred flowers'). She is a bit shy, because her English is not very good yet, but she seems very sweet. I try to make her comfortable, I remember very well how awkward the first days are in this whole new situation. She is studying English at the university in North Sydney and she's going to help with teaching English to Japanese toddlers. A few minutes walking from our house is a tiny Japanese community with 4 restaurants, 2 supermarkets and a book store, so that should help her feel at home :)

The day after we all went to an art deco fair with furniture, jewelry, clothes and art in art deco style. It's not really my style, but it was very interesting to see. There was one stand that had all sorts of taxidermy stuff, which included a real elephants' foot.. Hmm, that's off-limit to me. Other than that it was good fun. Afterwards we went to the fish market, where the others ate an oyster (bleh!) and then we drove a touristic route home to show Momoka the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. All in all a nice day out.

So last week I have been doing data analysis, which has the advantage that I'm not standing outside all day (which is a bit chilly in the morning), but it also means staring at a PC screen for the entire day. With the lovely weather we've been having here Monday and Tuesday, about 5-10 degrees warmer than usual and sunny, it was a bit frustrating sometimes. It seems that there are some useful results in my research, so at least it wasn't all for nothing ;) I've also been working on writing my report, because I want to have as much done as possible before I leave here. There's not much time left at home to finish things to graduate before September.

Yesterday I went to Newcastle, about 160 km north of Sydney. The train trip was quite long, about 2.5 hours, but very scenic. We passed through national parks with lakes, eucalyptus forests and mountains. I didn't manage to make many pictures of it, because I have a talent for clicking right when there's a lantern/electrical box/bush in front of me.. First stop was Blackbutt Reserve (blackbutt is a tree, don't take it too literally), just outside of Newcastle. It is a mix of a zoo, bushland and picnic area all in one. I fed the emus, looked at the animals in the cages and went for a walk. They had a free colony of flying foxes, which were really awesome to see squabbling up in the tree! Then I took a bus to Newcastle and did the heritage walk. It takes you to all historic buildings (3rd oldest city in Australia), beaches, churches and the fort. The views were amazing and the fort was quite impressive. I had about 40 minutes left to see the Newcastle Museum before it closed and fortunately it had just three rooms. A nice modern and interactive museum with the special exhibit at the moment: the Colosseum made of LEGO :) A nice grilled barramundi with prawns, curly fries and veggies finished the day.

Today the weather was bad, so we all watched some DVDs about the Australian nature and went to the pet shop to buy some fishes for our pond. Next few days I'm going on a harbour cruise to watch the vivid light festival and I go see a movie from the film festival, so that should be fun!

Bye,
Anne