Kookaburra Rescue

On a dramatic Wednesday night of which Rolf Harris would have given an approving moustache stroke, a friend and I discovered a trapped kookaburra. The bird, in a moment of supreme stupidity, had fallen between two fences - one wooden and one wire. It then couldn’t get enough wingspan to escape and was looking pitifully out at us as we stared back in at it. After a failed attempt to cut through the wire with a pair of blunt pliers and a pair of weak girl hands (i.e mine), Ranae, my rescue partner, pulled the fence out of the ground in a super human effort. With a little friendly stick poking, we managed to get the kookaburra to walk under the fence and it glared at us the whole way through before flying off without so much as a thanks. Good deed done for the week!

I am destined for sunny Cairns this Thursday to meet up with the delectable Aoife for lots of tropical shenanigans. I will finally see the legendary Great Barrier Reef and hopefully the Daintree rainforest area. A cyclone apparently wiped out a lot of it. Speaking of cyclonic wipeouts, just before I arrived in Oz, the same cyclone wiped out most of Queenland’s banana crops and as a result, bananas are approximately $16.00 a kilo. Banana fritters have been taken off all menus. And most importantly, if you ever see someone eating a banana, you can count on them being rich. Solid gold back scratcher rich.

I had a lovely day at Bridie Island with my friends Josh and Cherissa and we cavorted happily on the beach. It was made even more hilarious by the fact that Cherissa, a sun-shy Vancouverian, insisted on wearing her pyjamas. On the beach. And they were pink. It was possibly even funnier than Koreans diving into the water fully clothed.

Nipples and Talking Elephants

Allo all!

I was having a conversation with Ryan last night, a fellow Irish-ite living it up in Oz and we both came to the same conclusion - we have never eaten so many kebabs in our lives until we came here.

Let me elaborate - kebabs back home are a ‘eat when desperately drunk’ kind of food. They usually rank below the ubiquitous gravy and chip or even the dirty big curry. But here is Australia, they are a beloved, dare I even say an average everyday food. You can find yourself eating them sober. SOBER! Some people even go out drinking simply to justify the eating of a kebab at the end of the night, such is their power. They will soon be vying with dolphins and David Hasslehoff for world domination.

I was watching the news this morning and right after the Canadian ‘Angel Of Death’ story (in which we were treated to a series of pictures of Kimveer Gill posing with various weapons) there was a touching story about a South Korean zoo keeper who believes that he has taught his elephant to speak. In Korean. If you are lucky enough to see the clip of the elephant doing this, then you will see the sheer trunk strain which talking obviously does to the poor animal. Also, it will probably never be able to pronounce the tough Korean double ‘ss’ sound.

I saw Nacho Libre a few nights ago and am still distressed by Jack Black’s nipples. They’re on display for about 78% of the movie and if it isn’t his nipples then it’s his butt. Just pray that it doesn’t start a trend.

Still Mourning

I just wanted to post up this link for an interview with Steve Irwin by local Australian interviewer Andrew Denton. Articulate he may not be but it just makes me miss him even more.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s960998.htm

Steve! Nooooooo!

I was in the middle of writing a witty, bog standard blog about my escapades in Brisbane when I heard the most tragic news I think I have heard in a long time on local radio - the death of wildlife legend, Steve Irwin. For those of you who haven’t heard, he was tragically killed by a stingray barb to the heart whilst diving in tropical north Queensland. Ironically, he was killed by an animal which is reticent by nature and hardly ever aggressive yet his day to day life involved taunting estuarine crocodiles for entertainment.

My friend Aoife and I used to have hours of fun in biology class with our Steve impressions - they usually consisted of the word ‘Crikey’ repeated ad nauseum. To be honest, he was just a caricature, an entertainer, a vision in skimpy khaki. I didn’t realise how much good he has done for conservation in both Australia and the rest of the world until I got here. He has set up ‘Wildlife Warriors’, a wildlife charity that is actively involved in many conservation activities, such as preventing land clearing and actually buying up land to preserve as wildlife habitats. In short, he was fantastic. As an intrepid Channel 9 reporter said in closing - ‘He would never have blamed the stingray’.