Chapter 29 - Return of the Skinny Black Chicken

In which our hero makes a new friend .... sort of ...

If you'll recall, dear reader, a while back I mentioned seeing a sort of skinny black chicken thing near the marsh area by the train station/shopping centre.  I attempted to take it's picture, but it scarpered pretty quick, so it's just an indecipherable black shape near a fence.

In recent weeks there had been a couple of developments to that story.  One is that I was in the Uni Bookshop last week and I noticed a book called 'Wildlife of the Greater Brisbane Area' or something to that effect.  So I flipped to the birds bit, and looked through the pictures, and found the skinny black chicken thing, and it turns out it's called a Purple Swamp Hen.  So I was fairly happy with finally having cracked that mystery.

Then, yesterday, I was walking past the library, and on the patch of grass nearby was a skinny black chicken thing.  Bit random.  I wasn't aware of there being nearby wetlands, but OK. Whatever.  Maybe it had just gone for a wander.

Then on my way back, like ten minutes later, it was still there.  So I took some pictures, and as I was taking them it came right up to me.  It was awfully friendly for a wild creature, or perhaps just very trusting.  I've heard that was the problem with the Dodo.  It didn't know enough so be afraid of people, so they all got killed because they were too trusting.  Hopefully this chicken thing meets a happier fate.  It was also still there as I was walking to the bus stop from my Skeptics Club meeting, which was at like 7 p.m.

So here's some pictures.  You can see the bit of purplish/bluish that gives it it's name.  Also, its toes are like twice the length of a normal chicken.

Chapter 28 - Dirk Gently's Holistic Bush of Rice Bubbles

In which our hero seems to be running out of clever titles, and starts wondering if she can keep up this 'our hero' sub-heading bit for a full two years, and also some things that were seen at the shops and elsewhere ... also not-chocolate not-bunnies ...

OK, friends.  This is kind of a conglomeration of randoms that I felt needed sharing. 

To begin with, on Wednesday when we got home from Movie World there was a postcard in the mail for me.  From Nepal! (Thanks Christine!)(Not me, obviously.  Another Christine.) 

Here are some interesting things I saw at the shops. 

Doctor Pepper in the foreign food section.

Ya, in Australia.  Where the Jaffa Cakes come in pudding cups.

Snap! Crackle! Pop! Kellog's Rice Bubbles!  (I would really love to know why these cereals are differently named.  I need to talk to a Kellog's marketing person, methinks.)

Here's a different sort of make of vehicle I saw in a car park.

On Saturday I went to Harbour Town (the outlet shopping centre, if you'll remember) on a gum boot finding mission.  I'd seen some there for $10, but when I got to that shop they were closed for renovations, so I went back to the first shop I'd come to as I arrived, and acquired these ...

... which conveniently match my over-arcing theme of blue and red things.  They're actually a size too big, but they didn't have any in my size that I liked the look of.  They also had solid yellow and solid red, and if they'd been in my size I would have got one of them, so as to be like Paddington, but they didn't.  So I figured if I'm going to get a pair not my size, they better be an absolutely awesome colour.  So there you have it.

I also found another koala statue.  This one could be called a Kamo-ala too, because it's called 'Adapting to the Jungle', and it's about humans infringing on critters habitats and how the critters adapt to their new 'jungle'.  Since it was in a more high-traffic area, and also had some additional sculpture work added on, there was protective rope around it.  Also, a 'no climbing on the koala' sign, which is pictured at the end.

What's this amazing sight I happened upon while walking home today?  It's just a bush full of cockatoos, that's all.  

They're kind of hard to spot with white sky behind, but maybe if you download the pic and zoom in ...

You can see two here milling about on the lawn.  You may notice the the vaguely triangular white blob on the left is the wrong way up.  That's because it was rolling on it's back, like a horse.

Here are the chickens milling about.  Apparently we're getting eight more soon, from some friends who are moving and can no longer accommodate them.  These ones have really started to earn their keep with the egg laying, though.

Here's a lovely picture of the view from the back deck around sunset.  I think probably on Wednesday evening.

Now this is very exciting.  This morning as I was tossing and turning and waiting for my alarm to go I could hear it raining outside.  I was prepared to walk down to the station, but just as I was about to leave Sarah offered me a ride, because she was going out anyway to take #3 to kindy.  (Maybe it's kindie.  I don't know.)  So I got to the station half an hour earlier than usual, and only waited about a minute before this turned up!

It's a double-decker bus! I didn't think they had them here!

 This was, I believe, a serendipitous event, because although it's the correct route number, it's not at a scheduled time that I would normally be taking it.  But it happened to be raining, and Sarah happened to offer me a ride, and so it was my fate to ride a double-decker bus to uni today.  As soon as it pulled up I seriously said 'Oh, cool!' out loud, then I got on and went straight upstairs, and sat in the very front, which was nearly fully windows, as you can see.  It was kind of like those trains in Copenhagen.

At the very next stop two boys and their grandma got on, and they did the same thing -- straight upstairs and to the front.  It was so fun.  And it was fun seeing everyone at the stops smiling as the bus pulled up.

Now this is something else I saw on the way home, and it's very exciting.  I was looking for The Princess Bride in a movie shop, and I came across this:

Look Annie look!  (If you knew about this and didn't share then I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.) (I don't know why you wouldn't share, though.  So here I am sharing.  How much excitement is this?)

 Very much excitement, that's what.

Lastly, we have some new house guests/residents.  More accurately yard guests.  They're guinea pigs, from the same friends who can no longer accommodate the chickens.  There's two, but one scampered off into it's little house when I approached, so there's only one in the picture.  The not-pictured one is black.

Not-chocolate not-bunnies.

 They do sort of resemble bunnies, but without the ears.

That's it, my friends.  It's way past my bedtime.  Good night.

Chapter 27 - Movie World!

In which our hero has a go at convincing her intrepid companions to join her on the very awesome upside-downy rides, and is unsuccessful ... also chocolate bunnies....

Hello again, dear friends.  I know, I know.  It's been ages and ages.  I had a whole week of holidays and didn't post anything.  You've been lost without me.  Well, not to worry.  Because here's some more adventures through which you can live vicariously.

I think Monday and Tuesday I just did more reading.  Sarah was off to Bluesfest again on Monday, where she got to see Paul Simon (so totally jealous), so the house was basically mine.  By basically I mean totally.  I locked the chickens up again in the evening, and watched the repeat of Doctor Who which was on ABC2 at 8:30.  Then I had a go at dyeing my eggs using food like 20 drops of food colouring, a teaspoon of vinegar, and boiling water.  I used Pillar Box Red, Blue, Green, and Mauve.  The result is below.  Some turned out better than others.  The green ones were a bit weird looking.  The blue and red were the best, although they didn't all turn out the same -- some were in longer and turned out lighter.  I don't know what's up with that.  Did I mention they were brown eggs, too?  So it was a poorly designed experiment, as far as scientific method goes, what with having two unknowns (being the base egg colour and the type of dye used) but it turned out OK.  I should mention as well that normally I use the powdered dyes that Mom buys from the Polish bakery, so that's why the food colouring was an unknown.  I also dyed them raw, which may or may not be wise.  The hot water didn't seem to have cooked them at all though, which is good, and I've eaten all but one and not gotten sick, so I don't think I inadvertently introduced bacteria to them or anything.  All the eggs here are not sold refrigerated, which I think means they haven't been washed, right?  It seems to be OK, though, as nothing has gone wrong yet.  My dyed eggs got re-refrigerated after their transformations, and of course cooked before being eaten.

I guess I'd already eaten a few by the time I took the pic.  I dyed ten.  The two very light ones are mauve.  I think the best two are the back left and back second-left.

Tuesday the kids were home from their Dad's, so we kind of hung out and played a bit, then we all went to Nana & Granddad's for an Easter Egg Hunt, which was fun, and it meant I got more Easter eggs, which were gone by Wednesday noon, I'm pretty sure.  Then the kids stayed there for dinner and Sarah and I went home.  I probably read a bit about mass spectrometers, then watched some telly, and ate some chocolate eggs.

Now we get to the exciting bit with the pictures.  Movie World!  It's actually called Warner Brothers Movie World.  It was pretty cool.  They have this deal on for locals to get a VIP pass, which is basically unlimited visits to Movie World, Sea World, and Wet 'n' Wild, which is a water slide park right beside Movie World.  Now, if I'd waited till April 12th to buy my pass, it would only have cost $40.  But that's the last day of the school holidays (for all the kids around here), and I'd already be back in school.  So I waited to see if we'd actually go to one of the parks, because it was discussed as a holiday activity option, but not for certain.  I ended up ordering it online the morning of.  It looks like this:

It's got my picture on the back and everything.

Before I got that actual shiny pass, which involved printing the receipt at home then taking it to the ticket counter, I got my first ever close-up impression of Movie World.  It was a pedestrian crossing sign.

Tee hee hee.  It's Bugs Bunny feet, see?  It's like those ones with people feet, but different.  (See the 'Campus Tour' post.  I'm sure there's one there.)

Once inside, the first thing we did was go into the Roxy Theatre to see the Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs 4D Experience, which was only about 20 minutes, not the whole movie.  I'm a bit behind on my Ice Ages.  I think I've only seen the first one.  Anyway, the 4th dimension in this case was moving seats and water spraying in our faces when the characters sneezed.  It was fun.  I feel like I should know what the Roxy Theatre is from, but I don't.  Oh well.

Of course now I have the song from 'Chicago' stuck in my head. Nuts.

We then carried on to the Scooby Doo Haunted House/Castle Thing Ride, which was an approximately 45 minute wait. At least, that's what the sign said it would be, but I didn't actually time it.  Needless to say #2 was getting a bit fidgety and impatient by the end of the wait.  (#3 had been dropped off at kindy, which is like daycare, so she wasn't with us.)  #2 also decided that he didn't actually want to go on, but it was too late because we were practically loading at that point.  We should have figured out a way for him to skip it, though, because he got quite scared and didn't want to go on any other rides except the carousel.  Poor kid.  I don't think it was the "scary" stuff that scared him, like the mummies and whatnot, but there was a bit where the carriage went backward, and I think that was the moment of freak-out-ness.

Approach to the Scooby Doo ride.  It was entirely enclosed, too, so mostly quite dark.

Then we went to the Wild West Falls for the log ride, which #2 waited patiently outside of, and waved happily as we went careening down the hill into the water.

You have to walk through the old timey western town to get to the ride.  I think they do some kind of cowboy show in the street here a couple times a day.

At this point we split up, and #1 and I were going to go on the Batman ride, which is basically like Drop Zone, except it shoots you up real fast before it drops you.  The closer we got, the more reluctant #1 got because she realized how actually high it was.  So we turned back to the kiddie zone and went on the roller coaster and the carousel there, then we headed back to Batman and #1 waited patiently by the fountain while I went on.  Then it was time to go.  It was super fun.  Like, really, really, very much fun. 

Since the kids are fairly little, and Sarah's not a big fan of the heights, I'm going to have to go back either by myself or convince some of my new friends to join me.  Definitely going back though.  It's actually not that big.  Not compared to how I remember Canada's Wonderland being.  There's only about six rides rides for the big kids, plus the kiddie zone, plus shows and shops and food places with very long queueueues.

Here's quickly some other things I saw there.

Look Annie look! (It's a Harry Potter Shop!)

A car having been shot up by gangsters! (It's a bit hard to see the bullet holes, but they're there.)(Might be supposed to be Bonnie & Clyde's car?)

Look Dad look!

Mmmm... candy shop ....

This is on the carousel.  It says 'WB Movie World', then underneath 'Hollywood on the Gold Coast'.

Just the Green Lantern and the Flash walking around.  No big deal.  There was a Wonder Woman as well, and a Super Girl.  I don't know why they're not in the picture.

And lastly, the chocolate bunnies.  On Thursday we went for a grocery shop, and ALDI had chocolate bunnies on clearance for 49 cents.  Naturally I bought one.  I also got a litre of sunscreen at Coles for $9. 

Chapter 26 - Easter Hols

In which our hero has a nice lie-in .... and also another most welcome discovery ... and chocolate bunnies ...

Greetings, dear reader.  It's been about a week, methinks.  Not too much exciting has happened.

On Wednesday, which is a one hour day every other week (when there's no lab), we finished our lecture early.  My "one hour day" was only 35 mins.  I hung around for a bit, doing some homeworks, etc.  There was a meeting for the Vegetarian Club at 4, which I joined in hopes of improving my veggie skills/knowledge.  Afterwards I'd arranged to meet my friend from Denmark (you remember her, right, from O-Week?)  to go to the night market in Surfer's Paradise.  Turns out we'd slightly miscommunicated and she meant for me not to meet her till after like 7 or something.  So I ended up going 'round her place, in an area called Main Beach, and having some dinner before we went.  It was a very nice area.  Very quiet.  Also apparently very expensive.  There's three of them in the apartment though, so it comes out to something reasonable.  Anyway.  It was nice.  Had a good dinner.  Watched some Arrested Development.  Apparently there's going to be another season soon that will be released all at once on Netflix, because it doesn't matter what order you watch them in.  That'll be fun.  It replaces the movie that's been in the works for like five years though.

So after dinner we headed down to Surfer's Paradise to browse the night market.  It was basically like the stalls at Sunfest, except not as many.  Interesting, though.  There was also several places with foodstuffs, like beef jerky or chocolate thingies, that were doing free samples, so we tried several of those.  There was one with macadamia nut products, and there was some fresh ones that you could crack open and eat.  They were very good.  The nut part was sort of soft, and it tasted kind of like fresh coconut.  Normally I don't like macadamia nuts, I don't think, but this one was good.  Or rather, not so much "don't like" as "can take or leave".  There was one of the chocolate thingies that was dark chocolate and cherry.  That was the best one.  There was also a flavoured popcorn vendor, from which I sampled the Sweet & Salty popcorn, which reminded me of Grandma, because she used to love microwave kettlecorn.

I saw these interesting candles, which I think you should do, Dad.  They'd be far classier than being made in beer cans.  You could get some 99c tea cups from Goodwill.

I also found another of the koala statues.  There was no artist's statement that I could see, as there was with the other one.

Now really, I haven't been in too much of a hurry to see Surfer's Paradise.  It's kind of party central.  Night clubs and tourists and crowds and madness.  This was OK, though.  I think I should go back in the day time to get the full effect.  The only reason I wanted to go was to say I'd been, and also cuz it has a cool name.  After wandering around the market for a bit, we got a 30c ice cream cone at Macca's (that's McDonalds, to those not in the know) and headed home. I got home at like 11:15, I think.  That was Wednesday night.  Thursday is an early day for me -- up at 6.  Needless to say I was quite sleepy.  Thursday night the kids had some friends over, so they occupied each other and I was able to just sit and relax.  Then they wanted to watch a movie, and I don't know if they watched one or two, but I was asleep before it was over.  I was just listening a bit from my room.  The first one was Harry Potter, but after a while it didn't sound like Harry Potter anymore, but it doesn't really matter.

The two friends that were over stayed over night, so there was a big crowd in the morning to discover that THE EASTER BUNNY HAD COME EARLY!  It was very exciting.  I was naturally woken up by the excited loud voices, but by the time I got up and got dressed all the eggs had been found.  Before 7 a.m.  I was still pretty sleepy.  I didn't do too much that day.  Bit of reading and maths review.  Painted my finger and toe nails all different colours.

Tried to do a few on #3, at her request, but most of them got smeared, and some got on her sweater, and a bit on my leg, because she wouldn't sit still to let them dry.  She's only 2, after all.

Anyway.  I'm pretty sure all my chocolate eggs were gone by noon.  Which is OK, because the Easter Bunny came again on Sunday morning, just for me...

On Friday afternoon the munchkins left to be with their dad for the weekend, so it's been very quiet.  I haven't done nearly as much work as I should have, but I have by no means done nothing either.  I think I've organized all the notes on ordinary differential equations, and should be totally on top of it, I just need to do lots of practice.  And I've read a lot about mass spectrometers.

Now, for a brief interval, here's some things I saw at the shops.  Probably K-Mart again.

I don't know what this magical land is that I've stumbled in to.  Must be Narnia, where everything is made of Turkish Delight.

Mmmmm.... Easter eggs ....

A "Where's Wally" Easter Egg Hunt kit.

Now, on Saturday Sarah was off to Bluesfest in Byron Bay, so the house was all mine.  If you'll remember, I was still quite sleepy on Friday, having not rested properly or long enough.  On Saturday I slept till 12.  It was great.  By the time I got up and made some brekkie and whatnot, it was 2:30.  I had a sort of plan to go out to the Easter Vigil in Southport (near my uni) for 6, which meant I had to leave here at 4:30, to get a bus at 4:45, to get to the church at 5:30.  It all went swimmingly.  I walked from Griffith to the church, and it was only 20 mins.  It started with everyone gathering outside, and then after the lighting of the big fire everyone moved inside.  While waiting outside I ran into one of my classmate (the one from O-Week who lives in Southport), and he offered me a lift home afterward, so at the moment my bike is still at the station.  When I got home I watched "Tomorrow, When The War Began", which had started at 8:30, then "Mr. & Mrs. Murder", which is fun, then I was too tired to even read a whole chapter of A Dance With Dragons.

Sunday I was up early-ish.  8:30 I think.  Got some reading done.  Went down to Nana and Grandpa's for a cup of tea with Sarah.  Came back.  More reading.  This was my first time inside their house.  The first thing I saw was the doorstop holding open the front door.  You'll never guess what it was.  So I'll tell you.  It was a cast-iron cricket thing.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it. I was to much in shock, I suppose.  Maybe next time.  They also had some of those brass medallion thingies on leather straps, that I think are part of a horse's harness.  They have about three times as many as Gran and Grandpa did, though.  Made it feel like a proper grandparents house, although they're actually not much older than my parents.

Later on Sarah and her friend and I went out to the Tavern for a drink, and to listen to the band that was playing.  The music part was good, but the singing wasn't so hot.  Bit flat, I think.  Anyway.  Then we got some Vietnamese take away to bring home, which was lovely as always.  Then it was time for Doctor Who! So exciting! I'm so glad it's on here! And on ABC 1, as well, which has no commercials during the show! Don't read the next sentence if you're as sensitive as I am about spoilers.  It was awesome.  After I watched a thing called 'Underground: The Julian Assange Story', about his early life and first arrest for hacking the US Military.  It was very interesting.  You could definitely see where the whole Wikileaks thing came from.  Apparently he knew about Desert Storm before hand, and tried to tell some reporters, but they didn't do anything.  He was only a 17 year old kid at the time.  Like I said, very interesting.

Then there was a thing where David Tennant was talking about Hamlet, and how it seems to speak to every generation, and how it's such a major thing for an actor, and so involving, and he loved it but he'd never do it again.  So naturally I watched it, because it was David Tennant.  Then I was very tired and went to bed.  Well.  Read two chapters then went to bed.

Lastly, there's a classic car show on at the Parklands (across from uni).  I didn't go, but here's some pics of cars I saw while waiting for the bus over the past few days.

Also, here's the broken cricket bat from the other week.  I finally found it.

Also, actually lastly, on Saturday night I locked up the chooks (chickens in Australia speak) because Sarah was away.  I wore some gumboots, and brought a flashlight, and approached very slowly, but there was no snakes.  Which was awesome.

Also, 'hols' means holidays.  I've got a week off school.  It's great.