Day 44 - November 5

I wanted to get up early today to check out the Melbourne Zoo as I had to work at 3:00pm later on. Being lazy and addicted to the snooze button, I got up at 10:00am instead. Jenn and Paul were to meet me at the zoo. I texted Jenn when I was on the #19 tram. She responded that she was on the same tram but the on the earlier one. Then I texted back if the zoo was on stop 16. She responded 'crap'. I got off on stop 16 and Jenn was just waking up to it. She got off on the wrong stop and by the time she walked her way back to the correct stop, I had just gotten off. That was pretty funny.

We walked up to meet Paul at the entrance to the zoo. Luckily my sister mailed me my UofC student card. I used it to pay for the student price. There are a lot of things in Melbourne that have student pricing so it is a very good idea to bring one. Instead of paying $25, I paid $19.

We started off in the Australian animals section. On the way there were dirty zebras. Instead of the traditional black and white, they were brown and black. Weird.

In the Australian section there was nothing in that area that I haven't seen. The kangaroos were behind fences where we weren't able to pet them. Though it seemed like they were posing for kangaroo porn. Then one of them started licking another kangaroos butt. Definitely kangaroo porn.

That is one sexy looking Kangaroo

Didn't know that they know how to toss salad

At the Steve Irwin zoo, where I went about 2 years ago, they were in a section where they run free and you could buy food to feed them up close and pet them.  

There was 1 Koala bear, but it was sleeping with its back to us, so that sucked. The zoo keeper was telling us about how the baby koalas have to eat the mothers poo to survive. I didn't know that. Wish I didn't know that, it was kinda gross.

Saw some birds. One of them actually looked like an angry bird. It's called the Blue-Winged Kookaburra.

We passed by some lions that roared when it heard the zoo intercom when an anouncement was made. Now I hear why they call them the king of the jungle. It was pretty intense.

Natalie Portman?!

Sleeping Wombat

 yee-haw! 

Paul having a moment

Examining the Elephant tooth

Some tooth on tooth action, with the zoo keeper clearly not impressed

There were some turtles that were hanging out at a pond. They hung out in large groups. There were also some unnatural ones too: Eastern Snake-Necked Turtles. The description was also pretty funny. 'An exceptionally long neck allows this freshwater turtle to suddenly strike out to catch its food of shrimps, snails, tadpoles and small fish'. I never thought the words 'suddenly' and 'strike' would ever be in the description for turtles.

More unnatural animals: The Australian pelican. I saw them last time in Sydney. Kinda creepy looking.

 Definitely unnatural 

Look at those fake, unnatural eyes

 Got pretty dirty, had to get clean.

My yearly bath

Had some fun with some Meercats aka Timon. Made some noise and the meercats looked around for that noise. It was entertaining.

Huh?

Wha??

Ehhhhh?

Meow??

The zoo wasn't as good as I was hoping it to be. There weren't any new animals that I haven't seen before. If you ever get a chance to see the Australia Zoo by Steve Irwin, you'll be amazed and won't ever have to see any other zoo in the country. It's by far one of the best I've been to.

We left the zoo around 2:00pm as I had to work at 3:00pm. I got to work and we set up for a baby christening party. The baby's name is Erika. The parents bought cool balloon plant decor.

The cake looked pretty cool too.

Day 43 - November 4

Worked 10:30am - 9:30pm. The cafe switches to a mini pub after 4:00pm. Happy hour is from 4:00pm-7:00pm where beers, cheap basic spirits (vodka, rum, bourbon, scotch) and house wines are all $6. There is also a local band that plays music in the outside pavillion part of the cafe.

The pavillion from the harbour side

The pavillion from the cafe side

Day 42 - November 3

Made breakfast again. This time I bought bacon. The bacon here is not bacon. It's a huge slice of ham. It barely even fit in the frying pan! There was hardly any fat on it too. How can you call that bacon?

It was another dangerous journey to work. They have Rhinos on skateboards that roam the streets. You have to be careful when crossing tram tracks, that's where they mostly skate on.

Worked a short shift from 10:30am-2:30pm. Why do I even bother? Since I was off early, I went shopping. Saw a shirt that my friend Dexter Deus would like.

After work, I had dodgeball. We played against last seasons champions. It was team of asians. I was the only asian on my team. It looked like I was playing on the wrong side. We lost to them. The score was 4-7. The real games didn't start till next week, we were still playing friendly games.

Day 41 - November 2

Came to work and Burn, the barista, was already commanding and annoying. Grace, the cafe owner, left to run some errands. Burn decided that since Grace wasn't here, she would boss around Meg, Cal and myself. I ignored most of what she was saying and just did what I had to do. She has a boyfriend that lives about 3 hours out of Melbourne and she only sees him a couple of times a month. Smart man.

For dinner I cooked up steak with fried garlic chips and steamed broccoli and a tasty latte.

Scrumptious dinner

Called one of my best friends Melissa and talked for awhile. It was awesome to hear from her. It almost felt like I was back home again. I mentioned to her that it felt like a lifetime ago since I've seen everyone. Even though it's only been a month, it feels like forever. She says that everyone in Calgary is missing 1 person in their lives while I am missing everyone, so that's why it feels like a lifetime. I hate it when she's right. Get out of my head!!

I wonder what it'll feel like when I finally go home. If I ever come home.... My sister says I have to return within a year. She actually wants me back sooner. She says I have to come home and grow up and that I can't be Peter Pang... or can I???

Day 40 - November 1

Melbourne Cup Day! Dubbed 'the celebration that stops a nation'. They actually made this into a public holiday! Almost all of Melbourne shuts down for this event.

This is what the jockey's are riding for.

I Arrived at Jenn's house at 8:30am for breakfast. Paul cooked up a delicious breakfast for us. After we were done eating, they finished getting ready and then we headed out.

The gangsters of Melbourne and their asian bodyguard.

When we arrived at the Flemington racecourse, Regan, Amber (from Ontario) and Seth had already saved a spot for us. She actually cordoned off a section of the grass with ribbon and tent pegs. It was awesome. 

Enjoying the picnic that Jenn prepped

Wishing we brought chairs too

Amber, Jenn, me!!

A proper picnic

Hoping it's the winner #2 - Karuta Queen

Come on #2!!!

#2 lost. Oh the disappointment

Best seats in the house!!

Scott Roberts had told me some insider tips. Race 5 - #2 Karuta Queen (is a certainty, according to him), then for Race 7 (this was the main Melbourne cup race) he told me to bet on #9, #17, #18, and for Race 8 - #6 Extra Zero. None of them won.  Booooooo. I want a refund!!

Race 7 is the main event because $6 million is paid out to the top 10 of the 24 racing horses. The horses parade out in front of everyone before they start race 7. We really did have the best seats in the house, right up to the fence and a couple of feet from the finish line. People were going crazy as the horses galloped by. Lots of cheering!

Lucas Cranach

At First Sight

Moyenne Corniche

Full House

It took the judges a good 5 minutes to decide who won as it was neck and neck with Dunaden and Red Cadeaux. Dunaden won by a horses beard. Good thing the horse didn't shave. It just won $3.6 million with bonuses of $200000. The bonus is split to the owner, the trainer, the jockey, the strapper, the breeder, and the guy who picks up the horses poo. He gets $1.

The winner #3 Dunaden. That's one cocky hobbit.

There was a statue of Makybe Diva (it probably could've been any horse, they all look the same, not that I'm being racist or anything). This was one badass horse. She won the Melbourne Cup 3 times in a row from 2003-2005. She has raked in $14 million in winnings. She was the Wayne Gretzky of all horses, only better looking.

Jenn said that of the 5 sandwiches that she packed, there was 1 upside-down sandwich. Meaning the cheese was at the bottom of the bun as opposed to the top. The first sandwich I took out randomly was the upside-down one. Where was my luck on betting the horses?!

I think it tasted better upside-down

Regan and myself hiding from the rain

After the 7th race, we went to meet up with Hailee and her 3 friends. One of the guys looked really old. Even Paul thought so. He even asked him if he was an old Irish comedian. Not sure where that came from, but it was funny. The guy looked so offended when Paul said he looked 40 years old.

The Melbourne Cup was also about the ladies fashion, specifically their hats. I guess this is like Halloween in some ways for them.

I swear I was taking a picture for their hats.....

The losing jockeys looking to make some money

We left the racecourse and headed to Bar Etiquette for a drink (this was Jenn's and Paul's watering hole). They had $5 pints. It looked like a grungy and homey type of place. There was a back yard with chairs, tables and couches. Apparently there was also an upstairs that looked like a house party.

After the bar I decided to head home. I asked about the bike in front of their house and Paul told me to take it. That was super nice of him. I wonder if he'll think it's stolen when he leaves the house tomorrow. He seemed pretty tipsy at the time.