Stuff and Things

Just saw a group of goths outside. It must be hard to be a goth in Australia, very hot in the sun what with all that black and it must be a nightmare trying to keep that pasty complexion. It is a really warm day here in Sydney, much warmer than the last couple of weeks travelling down the coast. I only need one blanket on my bed and the room has a HEATER- first one that I have seen over here. The only downside with the hostel is that I am in a long term dorm. Now, it occurs to me that some of you don't even know what a dorm looks like so here is a photo of a common or garden variety holiday dorm



and here is the nightmare that is a long term dorm

You can see the immediate difference. Long termers live in the hostel and so treat it like home, like a student home anyway. I know because I used to live in one in Dublin. We had our own posters on the walls, people had hung curtains on their beds and we had made a chair out of beer cans. The cleaner never visited it and I don't blame them. Weirdly, out of all the dorms, we were the only one that didn't get robbed. I think that this was due to the construction workers' shoes that they used to leave outside the door- guard shoes, if you like, that snarled and growled everytime anyone came near.

This is the corridor in Coffs Harbour that I used to fly up with the hoover every day back in June of 1999. I think that I did more vacuuming in that ten days than I have done in the subsequent 6 years (we sweep in Korea before you start to pass judgement!).



This is Coffs Harbour. I used to go down there a lot as there were so many dolphins around the harbour back then. A few weeks after I left I read a story about someone leaning over the side of a boat and stabbing a baby dolphin to death. I will never understand these people.

If anyone knows the name of this flower then please tell me. It just caught my eye in the Botanic Gardens at Coffs for the colours against the sky.



This is Sydney Tower through the trees in Hyde Park.

A view out of the tower but mainly a reflection of my camera- sorry about that!

The monorail at Darling Harbour. It also goes around the city. And that is pretty much all I know about the monorail.



Darling Harbour, playground of those with boats.

A platypus in Sydney Aquarium. Platypus and echidnas belong to a very exclusive family called the monotremes. Which means that they have one hole for excretion and reproduction. They both lay eggs and breath air. Monotremes are unique to Australasia. In common with most of Australia's wildlife they are nocturnal. Now some people will tell you that this is because it is so hot during the day but I think that it is all a ploy to not have to really have any animals in the Australian part of the zoo

'Oh, you see they are nocturnal which means they are in the burrows now so you can't see them. But they do exist. Honest. We really have some, we aren't just taking your money and showing you an empty enclosure...what's that? Prove it? Can't, you see, they are nocturnal..'

This is one of the tunnels at the Sydney Aquarium. It is the best aquarium that I have ever been to. It has three large floating bits in the harbour itself which are filled with seals, sharks and a bunch of other stuff. This is the seal tunnel. The shark one was filled with shrieking kids so I didn't hang around to get a photo.



OK, I did get a photo of the shark. There are loads of sharks in the place. This one is a nurse shark, I believe, though feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

This was my favourite statue of Queen Victoria. I liked it because I was told that it used to stand in Dublin but after Ireland became a Republic it was simply 're-gifted' to the Australians. I like to think of the Australians' faces falling on Christmas morning when this fell out of the wrapping paper, realising that they would have to hold onto it for a decent amount of time before passing it off to another Commonwealth country. But I read the plaque on the back this time and it said that it was acquired by some guy involved in the restoration of the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) in front of which it stands. It still came from Ireland and I still prefer the original story.



This is the very famous indeed Sydney Harbour Bridge. And a ferry in front of it. Those little green and cream boats zoom all over the harbour.

This is the Opera House with some goon in front of it. Shame really, would have been a nice photo if that lady hadn't got in the way. And I use the term 'lady' advisedly.

This is the inside of a double decker train that takes commuters all over Sydney. I guess that is the benefit of having an underground rail network that wasn't carved out of stone by small children with mucky faces in Victorian times.

This is a giraffe doing a passable impression of the Sydney Tower in Taronga Zoo- the tower is just behind it for comparison



and this is a less convincing effort from a meercat

The kind of beast that doesn't lower itself with cheap impressions of tall buildings though it is rumoured that it does a mean Barry White after a couple of whiskies.



Me feeding the giraffes. Giraffes are just cool.

This is for those of you asking about the colour of a giraffe's tongue. They come snaking out of their mouths to wrap around the food. Most of the people doing the feeding were a bit scared and got the longest carrots they could find. I wasn't scared- or at least, was too far back in the queue to get a choice of carrots.

And a wombat that is no doubt occasionally shoved out of the burrow to prove to us punters that they actually exist. They look as solid as a tank and are bigger than you might think. I wouldn't pick a fight with one anyway.

There were koalas and kangaroos there too but I got closer to them at the last place so didn't take any photos this time.

(all educational content is for the benefit of Les's daughter, everyone else please feel free to just look at the photos)