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Sunday 1 May 2011

Oz round-up - Part 1

I'm back. Still mildly jet-lagged, and frankly, posting this as a way of delaying finishing my finance assignment. Mildly tanned, and madly in love with Australia. By the way, never mind the unique wildlife and gorgeous scenery. The food alone is worth the trip out there. And oh, man, that place is clean. I've lived in London for 8 years. It's exciting, frantic - and filthy. In Melbourne, the closest I came to seeing litter in the roads was at around 11:30 at night in the city centre, when the crowds thronging the streets were treated to the sight of my friend throwing half his kebab over my arm by accident.

I had a week galloping around Melbourne, which seems to have non-stop festivals and events happening. I honestly think I could spend 6 months in that city and not see everything.

Best moment in Melbourne : the birthday braai (and massive steaks) at my brother's house.


Scariest moment in Melbourne : discovering that there are genuinely large freshwater sharks in parts of the planet (Northern Australia and New Guinea). Not bull sharks, which I knew about. Spear tooth sharks are incredibly rare - and bloody big. The smallest one I saw at the Melbourne aquarium was bigger than me. These are apparently juveniles. And while they are not known to pose a threat to humans (unlike bulls which have a serious attitude problem), guess who had no inclination to swim in Australian waterways after that? Unlike my brother, who gave me heart failure by jumping off a boat into a canal on the Gold Coast. The image here is from Wikipedia, taken at the Melbourne aquarium, since I had my usual effect on electronics & couldn't get my camera to work.

Happiest purchase: finally getting my paws on some liquid graphite. For some reason they don't import it to the UK, & I've been wanting to try it for a while. If the sketches work I'll post them in the Shadowkatz blog, which has been sadly neglected for a while.

Happiest moment : Catching up with old friends, and making new ones.

Next round-up will be Noosa & the Australian zoo. In the meantime, a couple of pics of the Melbourne skyline, and the possum that decided to hang out with us one night in the backyard.























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