Aussie term of the day...
“Astraya” – Sometimes simply “Straya,” is how they pronounce Australia. Like I
said, they shorten EVERYTHING. Afternoon; arvo, biscuit: bickie, mosquito; mossie,
Tasmania: Tassie, football; footy... You get the idea.
So yeah, just so you know, we partied hard on
Friday. And by that I mean we did a
bucket load of awesome. Let’s see, to start it off us gals decided that while
the three boys were gone for the evening we would get our workout on with some
Zumba. We pulled the blinds on all the
windows, shoved all the furniture aside and proceeded to try desperately to follow
the insanely fast and rehearsed movements of the instructors on the screen. There was so much laughing that went along with
it. It was so ridiculous! It eventually ended in us just throwing out the choreographed
moves all together and making up our own moves on the spot. This might now be a
weekly Friday night occurrence…
Next, Shane dropped in and he, Michelle, and I proceeded
to bake the biggest batch of Apple Cinnamon muffins known to mankind. We deduced then that assuming a double batch
right off the bat may not always the best idea in the world… We used all the
regular sized muffin tins we had, then all the tiny “muffin vitamin” tins and
finally had to reduce to using the bread pan and making an Apple Cinnamon
loaf. Apple Cinnamon things for days!
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| Just a sampling of all we baked. Some of them were already consumed and there was still that loaf of it in the oven! |
Oooh! Oooh! AND I got to get a photo opp with a gecko!
That was fun… for me at least. I’m not
quite sure what the little guy thought but he certainly seemed excitable enough,
sailing off my hand, running up the length of my torso, up and over my shoulder,
and down my back before running back up where I once more acquired him in my
hands. That was awesome!
I got to do a bit more exploring of Townsville on
Saturday, getting together with the other Julia and going for a bit of a trek. We
didn’t really have a plan, just got in the car and said “Let’s go somewhere!” First,
we went out towards Pallarenda and found our way to the Cape Pallarenda
Conservation Park. We did a little hiking around there for a bit before heading
back to the car for some heat and mossie relief. It was gorgeous there I must
say! They had a number of beaches scattered around but they are nothing like
you would stereotypically think of an Aussie beach; red sand and rocks.
The scenery there was simply to die for!
There were a number of run down military outpost ruins up
the mountain from back during WWII when there was fear of the war coming to
Australia. Though it didn’t get that far
in, they were still gearing up for it! We talked about going back there
sometime before I head out but we will certainly be more dressed for the occasion
and take mossie repellent next time!
We found a conservation park down the way, the Townsville
Town Common Conservation Park, which will be an awesome place to go back to for
some exploration some time later on.
Again, we weren’t super keen on hiking in the heat that the day was displaying,
and did a quick tour before deciding “Yep, that’s nature!” and heading in
towards town.
At one point while driving through town past the Anzac
Memorial Park, I pointed off towards the big fountain and commented “Is that…?
Is the water orange??” In case you were wondering, yes. It was. Very. The reason? Not a clue. My off the wall guess was that maybe they
dyed it green for St. Patrick’s day and the exposure to the sun in the following
days caused it to go incredibly orange...? That or someone’s soapy fountain trick turned terribly wrong…
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| The Queensland Centenary Fountain in all it's orange dyed glory. |
After a short stop for some ice cream, we took a short stroll around town...
... and made our way over to the Museum of Tropical Queensland for some cultural and historical education!
It is super cool in there and they have a wide variety of exhibits
to look through. They’ve got a big one
on the HMS Pandora, a ship sent out in search of another ship taken by mutineers only
to run aground on the Great Barrier Reef and sink on the return voyage.
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| A big partially built HMS Pandora |
They had another exhibit on the Australian Fashion week, and
another on different cyclones that have hit Queensland in the past years and the steps in preparing for and recovering from a cyclone. I got to go into a cyclone simulation room
which basically consisted of a flickering light and the horrendous noises of
crashing, banging, rain and howling wind.
Definitely made me want to experience a real cyclone… for sure.
Over in the Archeology and more natural history section I
got to hug a dinosaur and play with the skull of a Muttaburrasaurus. That was a definite highlight!
There was also a
more flora and fauna section where we got to see shelves and shelves of
different coral, giant displays of nature scenes, cases of preserved
butterflies and insects, taxidermied animals, and a full blown rain forest set
up complete with a stuffed cassowary! Definitely worth it!
We then finished off the afternoon with lunch at a sushi
bar which had one of those little conveyor belt things that brings the sushi
around. Never seen that before!
I spent a bit of the late afternoon / evening back at the
lodge with the housemates and we decided on spontaneity again, heading out for
take-out dinner at an Indian restaurant. Those ladies were lovely, I must
say. It was all topped off by a viewing
of the French film, the Intouchables, in the evening. I was a truly well done and incredibly hilarious
film! I would highly recommend it.
I have now been well cultured. I'm living in Australia and had a nice rundown of
some Aussie history, ate Japanese for lunch, Indian for dinner, and finished it
off with French entertainment. Way to immerse in cultural diversity!
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