Bird Invasion on Hamilton Island

It started with one little cockatoo.  I was eating my sandwich on the balcony of the lovely apartment we were staying at on Hamilton Island when it flew onto the edge of the balcony in front of me.  This cockatoo (who I would end up calling Bungy because of his mangled foot) looked at me expectantly and I thought 'Ah what the hell' and gave him some of my bread.  He took it very carefully and ate in a very dapper fashion.

Next thing I know Bungy jumps on the table, scaring the crap out of me and just when I think he's crossed boundaries he jumps right on my knee and gives me a long hard look with his head tilted towards me.  We would soon find out Bungy wasn't the only overly friendly bird on the island!

This is Justin's dad feeding Bungy nuts.  He would always take food very gently and get very very close, but he wouldn't let you touch him.

This is a kookaburra I found outside our door.  He was literally about 30cm away from me and the camera was about 10cm away from him when I took the photo.  Amazing how tame these birds have become.

And this is what happens when chips get left out on the balcony!  There are about 6-8 lorikeets you CAN'T see in this picture!  Boy were they loud!  

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It's been 6 years since I boarded a plane, the last time was to get on a very long flight back to Australia from Germany when I was 16.  Today I boarded my first Jetstar flight to Hamilton Island!  The actual flight was pretty non-eventful (No TV and no food will do that) but once we got near the island we got some sweet views of the islands around.

Once we landed on the island, I was thrilled to find out that we go our own sweet little golf buggy to drive around the island on - hell yeah!  Courtesy of our 5km an hour buggy somehow making it to the highest point by road on the island here is a shot of the Hamilton Island waters.

                                        

Final Assignment!

So I handed in my last assignment for the semester today!  I'm okay with the fact that it was probably the biggest piece of fail I've written so far - BUT I will pass which.. is sometimes all you can ask for ><.

Good timing for the assignment actually since tomorrow morning I'll be bothering a plane to Hamilton Island - ahhhh assignment stress free on holiday - WOOT!

Passing Time - Pictionary

When I met Justin I was thrilled to find someone that loves playing board games.  I'd been dying to play quite a few games for a while and over time we've collected a couple of different games.  Unfortunately most games aren't friendly for under four people, which for now is a bit of a hard task.  For example, Pictionary.  It's a game played in pairs, where one player has to guess what the other player is drawing (it's written on a card the drawer picks up) and they have three minutes to convey their message through drawings.  Our solution to not having anyone else to play with is to have 'practice runs' where we pick a card and draw something for the other to guess.  Today I'm presenting you with two of our masterpieces:

Now I know what you're thinking... 

What the hell is that?  Why is it's mouth so big?  Is it an animal?  But wait, it's only got either two legs and a tail or three legs?  Why does it appear to be floating.. wait is it a ghost?

These are all valid guesses.. It may surprise you to learn that this is my Justin's interpretation of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.  Furthermore it may surprise you that I somehow managed to see that and guess the answer which was Alice in Wonderland.  It's not the first miracle I've performed, I managed to get Little Red Riding Hood out of two lines and a mini-tunnel.  Or at least that's what it probably looked like to everyone else!

I wish I could boast that my other half was as skilled as I am at the art of reading min-  I mean deciphering pictographs.  Despite my best efforts to be an artist, sometimes we're just not on the same page.  Take the above picture - the category is Action and the answer is Ouch.  You're thinking holy crap, that's pretty hard to draw, but I do see where you were going with this Silvia.. why.. it's a man holding his sore knee!  Thanks, I know you were totally thinking that.  My darling partner?  Somehow he was fixated on thinking that this was a pregnant woman (A one-legged woman at that).  A pregnant woman with a leg sticking out of her non-existent belly.. wait.. it must be labour! LABOUR! LABOUR! I think I died of laughter afterwards.. 

My Rattikins: Creamy

We bought Miss Creamy with Coco, they are sisters from the same litter.  Justin named her, it's quite cute I asked him to say the first thing he thought of when he looked at her and he said 'Creamy'.  She's my little butterball, the biggest and roundest of the three!  She will always be on the scene at feeding time.

This is my first picture of Creamy and Coco.  She instantly became the alpha of the pair and maintained this position when we introduced Muffin.  Despite her dominance on the inside of a cage, she is painfully shy and will often squeeze herself into tiny corners, while Coco will explore freely and uninhibited.  

Creamy is a tough cookie.  She is the hardest to get out of her cage and the hardest to wash or nail trim.  However, her weakness for food guarantees that she can be persuaded by some kind of currency!

Here she is sitting on Auntie Sian's shoulder :)  She might prefer small spaces, but she is also happy to sit on your shoulder and press into your neck for security.

Here she is playing with her sister Coco, in my make-shift felt bowl.  It's a really easy little playground for anyone who has rats, they like being able to hide in it and move around in the soft materials.  Despite being sisters it's cute how different the two of them are, and how well they compliment each other's interests and objectives.  Coco likes to be challenged and Creamy likes to eat, so any food we leave in the gaps gets pulled out by Coco for all the rats.  Coco likes to rip up things and Creamy enjoys making nests, so sometimes you will see Coco creating the materials for Creamy to work with - they are quite the pair of workers!

Sea World

My last hurrah at Sea World today for the year I guess.  I love Sea World for the same reasons I love Underwater World - it's brilliant to see animals up close, I find fish and the mammals of the sea very interesting.

The polar bears are sooo cool!  I never knew that they weren't white, they are actually clear which is why it's really weird when you go there and see a brown bear!  They get reasonably white once they jump in the water though, and it's nice watching them play with a barrel or traffic cone.

There's an amazing aquarium section, where you can see fish, sharks and stingrays underwater.  My family all agreed that they could spend a long time just watching all the fish go about their day.  Also on the note of stingrays, there's an area where you can touch them and the baby stingray's are very cute.

These guys are the fairy penguins, unfortunately few of them were swimming.  I have gone there before and watched them all do formation laps up and down the pool.  I love these guys!  I seem to have an obsession with birds I think haha.

Finally the dolphin show is definitely worth watching, they've choreographed some amazing routines for the dolphins and it's a real thrill to watch.  Didn't see it this time, but we went a few months back and it was amazing.  Back when we went one the mothers was pregnant and didn't do tricks.  It's great, because I was watching the news a couple months ago and the baby had been born, so I felt really connected to the news story because I had seen the mother pregnant.  Story here.

Miss Un-Photogenic

If I ever entered the Miss World contest pretty sure they'd have to make up that prize title for me.  I seriously have issues featuring in photos.  Mostly because when I DO feature in them, I always always look terrible.  Here's a few of me avoiding the camera and looking terrible all at the same time :P

This is one is proudly brought to you by Coca Cola - real taste ... fake photo op.

This photo is one of the first taken in my (almost) two year relationship.. I couldn't even be photogenic in a romantic context!  (To be fair I'm pretty sure I was highly highly hungover at the time).