Friday, April 29, 2011

Easter in Melbourne

I'm currently sitting at home, still in my PJ's at 3pm, sick from work with my most annoying souvenir from Melbourne - a cold :( Despite the sneezing it was an otherwise awesome holiday jam packed with things I'll never forget.

Tutankhamun Exhibit and Melbourne Museum
Our first adventure was seeing the amazing Tutankhamun exhibit at the Melbourne Museum. After a 4h red eye flight from Perth we managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep at Adam's house before heading out. Even with the Berocca and Nodoze we were still having a bit of trouble staying awake, but the exhibit was wonderful. My favourite thing was one of the treasures pulled from Tutankhamun's tomb - a beaded bracelet with a scarab beetle closing mechanism. I was really hoping they'd have a replica in the gift shop, and they did! However it was $500 so I gave it a miss :(
Garden of Eden

After lunch we hung around the Melbourne Museum for a bit and saw their fabulous collection of taxidermed animals, rocks and minerals, and bugs. I wasn't expecting it, but to my pleasant surprise it was more of a natural history museum. We even found a bug similar to the one we'd found on our driveway!
Our Beetle?

To finish off a busy first day, we ended the night with some amateur live comedy for the Melbourne Comedy festival. We entered the "comedy club" (which was actually the 2nd floor living of the first floor bar's owner) dead tired, but Josh Makinda woke us right up with a super funny and intimate show.

Melbourne Zoo
This was the highlight of my trip. The zoo itself was fairly ordinary, but Pooja had organised for us to have a giraffe encounter, which involved getting up close to the elegant animals with a group of 6 friends. We were allowed to feed the giraffes carrots, but we weren't allowed to touch them. They're quite timid animals, and they pull their heads away if you make any sudden movements or try and touch their faces.
Best thing I've ever fed

I managed to sneak in a quick pat while one of them was trying to pry a carrot piece from my hand with it's long grey tongue. I never thought I'd be so close to such a large and gentle animal!
And some for you too

The Great Ocean Road
We hired a car and spend a couple of days on the road driving to Port Campbell and the 12 Apostles. On the way we saw some awesome sights, like the lighthouse from Around the Twist, and we even had a midnight stroll in the forrest to see some glow worms, which were almost impossible to photograph. I was actually a bit scared about seeing the glow worms - trekking through a forrest in the day is scary enough, but at night surely I would never make it out alive! However it was tourist season so we were accompanied by gaggles of torch wielding forrest explorers, so I felt a little more at ease. The glow worms were very pretty, like little blue fairy lights hung randomly on rocks and ferns.
Chillin in Port Campbell

The 12 Apostles were lovely, but extremely packed with tourists, so we didn't stay too long.
Some of the Apostles

On the way back we stopped to do a tree top walk which made me realise that I have a slight fear of heights! At this point in the trip a few of us had started coming down with a cold so the tree top walk was spotted with bouts of tree top sitting down. My favourite part was looking down on the fields of ferns which looked like big green fireworks.
Frond Fireworks

Melbourne
Back in Melbourne we spent our last day shopping and hanging out at restaurants and cafes. The food in Melbourne was lovely! My food highlight was Dalmatino's, a Croatian restuarant. I ordered the chicken soup with polenta (soothed my cold right down) and a shot of slivovita (plum brandy, also good for my cold). My dessert highlight was the Lindt factory where I had a beautiful hot chocolate and a couple of delicious macrons.
Lindt Cafe

This break was one of those holidays you need a holiday from, but I really enjoyed it. It was lovely to travel with my uni friends, with whom I'd never travelled for some reason, and we packed in a lot of sights so I feel like we definitely got the most out of our trip.
Hot Chocolate and Macarons

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

George has been a Busy Bunny

With Easter coming up, George has had a lot to do!

Charlie Meets George
Easter CharlieA couple of days ago, Amy and I executed project Charlie Meets George. Charlie is Amy's King Charles terrier, and George is my pet dwarf lop bunny. We were sure they'd be best of friends!

We let them have a sniff of each other while we each held on to them. George didn't seem too fussed, but Charlie was a little too interested, and was going a bit wide eyed, so we could see that it wasn't going to be the match made in heaven we had hoped for. We let George down, and he hopped away, but didn't seem frightened at all, probably just not too keen on the idea. None the less they both had a good time being fussed over by everyone. I love it when friendship crosses inter-species boundaries!

Mr. Puffington Goes to Work
Rodent Problem in my CubicleAt my workplace we have a yearly Easter Lunch Celebration where everyone gathers to have lunch and eat way too much chocolate. This year George was the special guest star! I brought George's cage into work with me and he hung out in my cubicle until his big moment. At lunch time I brought him to the meeting room... everyone loved him! George had a very good time, but was very tired from all the treats and pats he was getting.

Belinda, George and I

Happy Easter everyone!
Imposter!