If I'm binturong, I don't wanna be right

After the first guest marathon was over, we took a tiny holiday to the Sunshine Coast.  Before you start asking me where that is, that’s the name of a town, not a geographical location.  So besides sunshine and….uh…coast, what’s there you ask?

Oh…just this:

Yup.  You can’t live in Australia and love animals so so much unless you go to Australia  Zoo, aka, the Steve Irwin Zoo.  Shawn and I decided we’d pretty much just build our whole trip around visiting the zoo, but we were still going to take a few days up there just to decompress.  (Seriously I was so fully of crazy at this point, and our next visitors were looming on the horizon).

The first thing we checked out when booking our trip was what animals can we pat that we can’t pat anywhere else.  First we decided to check another animal off of Australian Native Animal Bingo and snuggle some Tassie devils.  We also booked Binturongs because who the heck doesn’t want to get close to an animal that LIGITMATELY SMELLS LIKEBUTTERED POPCORN.  And then, there was some option to pet Red Pandas and since I am not at all obsessed with them one bit, we reluctantly decided to book that.

So cute  Completely reluctant to hold this.

I am SQUEALING  TWISTING my arm to book this encounter.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SO GOD AWFUL.

Anyway.  The real purpose of our trip was not just to see the Australia Zoo but to pat that stupidly cute red panda and live some dreams.  Clearly.  

The first day we flew in, I just wanted to enjoy a bit of beach time.  But even though we were significantly further north than still blustery Melbourne, it was so windy and chilly on the beach that after getting sandblasted, we just ended up heading back to the hotel.  Our ‘hotel’ featured a Sizzler next door, which Shawn was insanely excited about.  Many meals were consumed at this Sizzler during our stay.  What can I say, I’m married to a man who loves a buffet.

Our next two days were planned for the Zoo.  

The first day we wanted to get a feel for the zoo, which really is not that big. So we booked our animal encounters on day two.  (I call this devon's most idiot move ever....more on that later.)  The zoo included the incredible SALT WATER CROC SHOW!  What is weird about going to a zoo that you watch on tv is that…well you start to recognize things.  Like.  The animals.  For instance, I knew several of the crocs housed at the zoo.  Because I had seen them on TV. Animal celebs.  Ridiculous.  (but oh yes, was i so excited to see lawn mower destroying Agro)

The croc show was really impressive.  Seeing crocs jump out of the water several feet in the air is just really crazy.  (and drives home the fact of not going near the waters edge in Northern Australia).

You want that to eat you?  No?

We also got a few bonus pats in.   They have animals everywhere so we were able to pat a hairy nosed wombat (cute cute!) an American Alligator (hello friend.) and a KOALA.  This is especially cool because the state of Victoria does not allow you to touch koalas.  It’s the only state in the country that doesn’t, which makes it hard to check it off your bingo card.  They just hang out in this area and you can go up and give them a little pat.  We ALSO got our picture taken with one in my arms.  Side note: they smell like eucalyptus which I sort of equated to Christmas type smell.  Delicious.

Camera shy?

Loves it more than me.

First up bright and early on Day 2 at 10am was red panda time!  I spent some time picking out my outfit and doing my hair that day.  After all it’s very important to look good when meeting a red panda.  We were with two other people and headed to the exhibit.  I was pretty much trying to play it cool at this point, but with adorable little pandas staring at me from the trees, it was hard to keep in my excitement.  

Most of you know what a big deal this is to me.  I mean, I love the red panda.  I talk about them pretty much always.  And I wanted to find out if they really smelled like dryer sheets which is what I imagine all fluffy things smell like. (or should)

So then most of you will also understand that when I tell you this is the day that my soul was crushed, I am not exaggerating.

Our keeper first off was an awful person.  Due to the weather (or extreme hatred of this keeper) the panda boys would not come out of the tree.  We stood patiently waiting while the keeper gave somewhat futile attempts to get them to come down.  She called their names, clacked her ring on the food bowl, but after what was probably 2 minutes of trying, started laughing (please note, I’m trying not to cry at this moment) and said “oh well!”

Our alternative was that we could come back at 2pm and try again.  This is all well and good for someone who was NOT patting binturongs then.  I explained this to her (and also note, these experiences are not exactly cheap) and she said, well then you’re going to have to choose.

With a sob (completely heartbroken, i would have crumpled on the ground if i wasn't going to make a bigger scene) I made my way back to the information desk with Shawn.  Our choices were bleak because i am a complete idiot and booked our encounters on DAY 2, we had to do this today. So....Take a chance on pandas who probably would not come out of the tree, OR try binturongs, which Shawn was really looking forward to.  What do you do?  Shawn was very insistent I live my dream (and angry at the woman on my behalf), but it’s such a hard decision.  Back at the desk, I explained the situation to the woman and asked what she would do.  She said to me “Oh my, you just look so disappointed!”  (you can’t hide soul crushing defeat) and then became an angel.  Since we didn’t want to take the chance on pandas (I decided binturongs were probably more of a sure thing), she said "well before we make the decision, let's see what I can do for you" and called up the binturong keeper.  Shawn and I were the only ones in on that session, so they moved it to 1pm so that we could make both that encounter and try for pandas again!   This was the nicest thing in the world.  I didn’t have to take a chance on missing out on two animals and could give pandas another go.  I had decided that even if they didn’t come down, I’d still been able to make the effort and not think ‘what if’.

Binturongs were great.  The first thing the keeper did was say “do you know they smell like…” and shawn and I both finished “BUTTERED POPCORN!”  I think she was impressed with our animal skills.  A fun fact, the males smell more strongly of popcorn than the females.  The two in the enclosure were a brother and sister.  And they were extremely food motivated.  We were feeding them bits of melon and they were crawling all over us.  The girl binturong was using her claws to pull us closer and scratching up our arms, but we didn’t care.   I mean look at our joy:

Nom nom.  

Work for it, Binturong.

After that we ran to red pandas.  And I told Shawn Y’know that thing with the binturongs was such a great experience that it would almost be okay if the pandas didn’t come down.

Which was good.

Because they didn’t.

This time I managed not to sob, because I was still riding high on the binturong encounter.  And I had the Tassies to look forward to.  She did offer to let us pet elephants or get a refund.  I went for the refund.  i've already gotten my VIP elephant experience, thank you.

Featuring weird winter hat hair!

  

We headed over to Tassies and had quite a crowd.  We had lots of rules for the Tassies, like FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T LOOK THEM IN THE FACE OR THEY WILL BITE YOUR FACE OFF.

Fact: "The Tasmanian devil has an exceptionally strong bite for its size, generating a force of over 553 N (124 lbf).The jaw can open to 75–80 degrees, allowing the devil to generate the large amount of power to tear meat and crush bones sufficient force to allow it to bite through thick metal wire”. For those of you who enjoyed my Tasmania post, you saw them take down 1/2 a wallaby, fur, meat, bones in all.  

We did not want to that be our faces.

The cool part was the keepers were great, and were really fascinated about our choice to be in with devils.  They raised these girls and it really came across how much they loved them.  They even let us use our own camera in the enclosure.  (note, the zoo is kinda crap becasue even if you spend a ridiculous amount of money, they still charge you for your photos.  BY ENCOUNTER.  $50 per encounter.  You'll note, we didn't get their photos).  Amazingly in this encounter, we got to hold and play with the devils, and give them cuddles (not too many cuddles).  While we were holding them, they licked our arms and had really rough tongues.  So that was pretty cool.

Faces intact, all around!

Playing "fetch"

OoooooOOOO

Our last day there we just relaxed.  Saw a movie, drove around.  It was nice just to spend time chilling out instead of playing host to guests.  Which, of course, is exactly what we did the day after we arrived home.  I also made the decision, whenever my mom visited, we were going back to the zoo.  by hook or by crook i'd be patting these pandas!  

To recap.
Heartbreak.  (tick)
Popcorn Animals make up for it. (sort of)
Tassies don’t bite my face off (score)
CROCS. (Yikes)
Koala. (christmas)
Some stuff in the Sunshine Coast. (sizzler)
The end (?)

 

Before you leave, friends......

Are you keeping up with Devon’s Australian Animal Pat Bingo Card?

So Far:

·        Kangaroo
·        Emu
·        Koala
·        Tassie Devil
·        Enkidna
·        Southern Wombat
·        Hairy Nosed Wombat
·        Dingo
·        Wallaby
·        So.  Many.  Birds

BONUS:

·        Binturong (south east Asia)

Still missing for completion bonus:

·        Northern Wombat
·        Quokka
·        Quoll
·        Platypus
·        Bilby
·        Possum
·        Salty

The 5 stages of...oh good grief, we're moving again?

Every two years, for the past 10 years or so, I move.  This was somewhat acceptable in my nomad/college life, but as I've gotten older and acquired more stuff, it's become sort of a pain.  And we're to the point where paying off our family and friends to help us move with pizza and beer is becoming more of a taboo.

So when we ditched most of our worldly possessions to move to Australia, we thought, oh joy, we won't have to do this for the next few years!  And even though this fit our typical pattern, we knew that firstly, when we moved back to the states, we'd only have like 7 suitcases in tow, and secondly, we KNEW we'd be going back.

For those of you who've been keeping track, we've had some issues with our apt in croydon.  you may remember the Great Toilet String Incident of April 2012.  we've also had a leaking ceiling water feature in the guest bedroom since we've moved in.  and a few weeks ago, finally fed up that we could no longer use either of our balconies and all the construction going on, we filed paperwork to go to court and amend the situation. 

Ammending the situation turned out to be an email from the real estate agent letting us know the landlord was releasing us from our lease without any penalties.  It was a time saver, because then we didn't have to go to court.  Which was nice, but still, instead of things getting fixed, we were now looking for a new apartment.

Now don't get me wrong, the apartment in croydon is nice in its' own way and it's practically a sprawling mansion.  it's got two floors and two bathrooms, and that's pretty sweet.  so we knew if we'd be heading in closer to the city that we'd have to make some compromises.  We looked at a few kinda skanky places (one with a resident huntsman) and finally Shawn found a nice (tiny) two bedroom with a bath and air conditioning and a dishwasher in the city in a fancy, new apartment tower.  It also has an awesome SKY GARDEN, where I will be spending relaxing weekends and evenings in the sunshine.  (and a gym and a sauna and a media room!)

If you've been paying attention you'll also know that from September 20th until November 11th, Shawn and i have visitors.  three different sets.  So now we were juggling school, work, visitors, AND moving.  we like a challenge.

Of course now that I've literally got one day to pack, I'm sort of having some issues with it.

I bring you Devon's 5 Stages of Packing Grief.

Stage 1: Denial.  We got the apartment quite some time ago.  Have I even considered packing anything before today?  No.  Y'know why?  Packing is so easy!  We don't have any stuff.  it'll all fit in like...a suitcase.  Boxes?  heh.  We don't need no stinkin' boxes.  Besides, the move is soooooo far away.

Stage 2: Anger.  WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WE'RE MOVING TOMORROW?

Stage 3: Bargaining.  I would be willing to shell out cash money for someone to do this for me.  Also, if someone could just fix the stuff wrong with our current apartment (and magically move it closer to the city) I wouldn't have to move at all!

Stage 4: Depression.  (<---my current stage)  Moving is horrid.  Moving quickly is even more horrid.  I don't even want to be doing this right now.  I just want to take a nap.  My body is shutting down.  I'm having serious thoughts of just crawling into bed and pulling the covers over my head in hopes this will all magically pack itself...or like just writing a blog instead about moving. (whoops, did i just jump back to denial?)

Stage 5: Acceptance.....yeah.  I'm not sure I'm going to get there.  But I have packed some suitcases, and that's a start.


That being said, since Australia is the 1950's, our internets might be down for bit.  When I get back (in an approximated 14 day waiting period), I'll tell you all about my exciting Sydney adventures, my new best friend the owl and the ice cream of my native land!

Fairly obsessed

For practically my entire life, I have been going to the Big E.  I’ve never been so far away from New England that I haven’t been able to indulge in all its’ delicious fried delights.  I spend an entire year planning out what I’m going to eat. 

A sample standby menu from years past:

·        Pork Chop Sandwich

·        Apple Cider Slushie (they got rid of the place that did hot cider with a cinnamon candy stick, so I have moved on)

·        Maple Cotton Candy

·        A Maine Baked Potato.  Only from the Maine building.  I’m ashamed of everyone who buys it from elsewhere.

·        Samples of the dips from the state buildings on pretzels

·        Several bites of Shawn’s Steak and Cheese

·        A Red Candy Apple to take home

·        Cheese Curds.  (Thanks Steff.)

·        Mini donuts only from the Donut Family.  You can get a bucket for 10$ but that just seems sort of obscene*

In addition to eating all of this (and for realz, my stomach is groooowwwling) I usually get something special.  Last year we tried fried sheppards pie (gravy on the side) and fried cookie dough.  It’s really one whole day where I completely pig out...besides all those...um...other days i do that.  (weekdays.)

So needless to say, I have been trying my darndest to ignore my heartbreak for missing it this year.  (and trying to ignore shawn’s pure unadulterated joy) When whining relaying my dismay about how sad I was to miss it, one of my co-workers pointed out that from Sept 22 until October 7^th there was the ROYAL MELBOURNE FAIR!  She said magical things like "you want to pat a chook?  you can pat a chook.  You can pat everything." And naturally that was the first weekend Shawn’s parents were going to be here, and THEY were missing the Big E too, so I decided we should all go.  (See how that works?)

In the morning, I didn’t want to eat a lot so I just stuck with an apple and some cheese before we left the house.  Who knew what delicious things would be in store?

The fair is sort of like the Big E, but a little smaller.  There’s vendors hawking stuff, and all sorts of agricultural who-ha going on.  We watched a bit of the horses prancing around, and I decided we should all “EAT AUSTRALIAN!”  By this I meant I was looking for meat pies, but could not find them.  So Ron and I both had some sausages, sue had an egg and bacon, and shawn…yeah, he still had a steak and cheese.  I also ordered some HJD’s (Hot Jam Donuts) because they are scrumptious.  It turned out these ones weren’t the best I’ve had but really, can you ever have a BAD HJD?  No.  You cannot.

I don't think he knew he was in the picture

Excited for HJD's.

In one of the buildings there were some free samples from Woolworths (the grocery store) so I had some snacks.  I ALSO got a Tasmanian devil cookie cutter.  Epic.

I am clearly disappointed in my stomach.  I wanted to eat ‘somuchfairfood’, but they really didn’t have too much that I wanted to eat and after the free samples, I was feeling full (so lame of my stomach).  But what they did have that was new were showbags.

<enter choir of angels singing>

Showbags are an interesting idea.  They have trailers full of these selections of bags.  And in the bags are different things, like a bag full of candy, or wigs, or magazines.  And then you buy tons of them apparently.  To be fair, they stuff inside is pretty cheap for Aussie prices.  I got a Cadbury bag full of Freddo chocolate frogs, a coffee mug, a pen and some Freddo playing cards all for $10.  Retail it would be like…$150,000.  I’m sure I did the math there correctly.

Ninentdo Showbag has: Instant Noodles and Energy drinks.

The Best the USA has to offer:
Pringles, Reeces, Hersheys, Dr Pepper & AW

In the tradition of the Big E, Shawn and I had a ride on the Giant Slide.  To get up to the top, it didn’t have stairs, it had a really horrible steep ramp at an odd angle.  Awful.  BUT!  Exciting news of the day, I WON the race!  Shawn says the man at the top was stepping on his rug but clearly it was my giant slide skills.  And maybe the different material on the mats.  Perhaps burlap just isn’t my thing.

Prepare to lose, Shawn.

Much like any US fair, they also had craft buildings, or as I call them, those cakes I can't make and weird artwork.

I'll get practicing....

Newest Pinterest Idea.

Also there were typical fair activities like horse shows!

I seriously want one of these.  I am willing to ship it back to the states.  (Tiny horse included)

  And of course, for your viewing pleasure, I present a selection of  glamour shots for fair animals.

Shawn also won me a Keroppi stuffed animal from a darts game.  I will only be winning/getting frog type animals at any fair here ever.  It’s my decree.

 
Though I can’t say it was the same type of gastronomic journey that the Big E is, I had a very nice time enjoying an Australian Fair. 

*You know I mean amazing there, right?

We Be Ballin'

One of the very good things about working for a corporation, is that they throw Really.  Good. Parties.   Recently, Shawn and I had the opportunity to head to the Annual Mid-Year Ball.  And honestly any excuse to go to a ball for pretty much next to nothing is a good thing.

Since right now we live so far away from the city, and the ball was on a Friday, I had to bring all my stuff to work.  Because I am high class, I shoved folded neatly my “I-wear-this-to-everything” purple Anthropologie dress into a plastic shopping bag with some touch-up makeup and a hairbrush.  (High class ladies brush their hair more than once per day, I’m told.)  I was pretty nervous about how I was dressed though, because the invitation said “Black Tie.”  Clearly, I didn’t bring any gowns with me to Australia, and Shawn doesn’t own a tux.  My co-workers repeatedly tried to calm me down, but you know how I get when 1) I think I’m breaking an etiquette rule and 2) I get myself into a frenzy about something. 

Thankfully, some other ladies were getting ready at work, and were wearing similar cocktail style dresses so after an entire day in an utter panic, I relaxed a little bit.  Plus these things are always dark.  I did last minute try and find some fancier shoes (I only brought a scant few of my shoe collection to AUS, it’s been horrible), and while at Myer (it’s like a Neiman Marcus) I picked out an awesome pair of shoes, for the very reasonable price of $800.  Needless to say, my black target heels it was!  (who is buying $800 shoes?  Also, if you are, you can afford to buy me some too.  I have them all picked out)

Shawn showed up looking all dapper and very hipster in his new suit.  Off to the ball we went!

It was held in the Docklands in what I’m assuming was a converted ship building warehouse.  So it was pretty epic.  We found out table, and realized that we were right in the center of the room, in front of the dance floor.  I was completely baffled how we scored such a good table, until Shawn pointed out to me that I do work with the event manager.  Dur.

Fancy centerpiece

 The food was amazing and we were pretty depressed that since we liked it so much, and we weren’t at a restaurant, we couldn’t ever have it again.  I literally wanted to lick the bowl after my entrée (that’s an appetizer here).  I easily would have stuck my face in the bowl, if not for meeting people for the first time.  Though honestly, that gives a pretty good picture of who I am as a person, so I probably should have. 

Since this event was pretty epic, there were fire dancers.  This made me slightly nervous because they were very close to our table.  Thankfully, no need to remember my training from elementary school and I did not have to stop, drop and roll. (Fire prevention, everyone, everyday….ugh, how badly did I want them to pick MY drawing for the calendar.)

 Then band then came on.  They did a version of Funky Town.

It went a little something like this:
 

Dear Australian Band,

It is not “A funky town”.  There is just one town, called Funky Town.  Proper Noun Style.  Get it right.

The band did also help me realize my new ambition was to be a backup dancer in a band that plays corporate events.  These girls had some sick costume changes, like fur vests, shiny leggings and tear stained faces because they are backup dancers in a band that plays corporate events.

There were three very important things that made this evening epic for me and for Shawn: 

1) It was our anniversary weekend.

2) They had two photo booths and wacky props.     

3) They had a candy bar.  With pennants. 

Wedding reenactment what, what?

Clearly since there was candy, and it was free, we were going to shove as much of it as we could into the little bags.  Except several times we were tricked with weird Australian candies.  Like MUSK sticks which look like sticks of bubble gum. 

Let’s take a moment to address how I feel about the humble musk stick.

1. Musk is for perfume.
2. Musk is for animals signalling that they are going to mate.
3. Musk is not a flavour for candy (obligatory "u" added)
4. Musk candy is super gross (aka not made for the American palate)
5. Seriously, they have other ingredients here, how did you even think to make musk a candy?

Of course, you can’t be too surprised, because they also use ingredients like rose water in candy here.  Who wants candy tasting like flowers? 

How i love thee candy apple and popcorn

Churros, Shawn-styles.

 











There were candy apples and popcorn bags, and sour worms.  We thought there were gobstoppers, but it turned out to be gum that tasted like the Gatorade gum they used to sell.  (do they still sell that?)  There is nothing so disappointing as thinking you are getting a gobstopper and you get a gumball.  Well, nothing so disappointing except for tricksy musk sticks.  

We ended the night by taking the train home in our finery.  And it was a wonderful start to our anniversary weekend