Off to the zoo today, Aishling’s surprise holiday treat. First a stop off for fuel at the MATILDA gas station.
En route we pulled in off the main highway as I was intrigued by an elderly couple driving a horse and trap who had stopped to allow their horse to munch. He does more eating than trotting, the woman said. It seems like they often go out together this way. When I asked about the many horses in the area, they became very chatty and we could have talked horses all morning It seems that they were used mainly for Camp Draught and Polo Cross, neither of which I had heard of.
I will include a few pictures here taken at the zoo. My most memorable moments were probably nearly having my thumb bitten off by an Ostrich and being spat at by a Llama. These creatures were clearly indignant at being constant exhibits to the general public! Personally I would rather view them from a distance in their wild habitat, although one of the lion keepers kept assuring us that the white lions would not last long in the wild. They had an easy life here at the zoo where their food was handed to them on a plate (on a stick from up high to be precise to show their size and their teeth) and they had no predators. I always thought the lion was the king of the jungle and what is the point in life if you can’t hunt! The lioness, had clearly lost interest in this circus and was having none of it.
I was interested to see some of Australia’s killer creatures here however, at close quarters, i.e. the Taipan snake and baby crocodiles (not the lion of course). Oh and lunch needs a mention “snag in a swag”. I think I’ve got that right- it is actually a hot dog.
This afternoon we were invited to Jera’s cocktail evening. I must explain that Jera (Kylie’s son) has been doing a hospitality course at TAFE. College of Technology and Further Education. Part of this course involved mixing and serving cocktails! Well, who are we to argue….. in fact what a great evening we had! When we arrived at the college, we were welcomed and shown to our table where orders were taken from a very nicely designed menu. We thought we might have couple …different ones so we could try eachothers. Kylie had a Marguerita, while I chose a Japanese Slipper after consultation with our student waiter. While we were waiting a tiered server arrived laden with nibbles. This was good as we were beginning to get a bit peckish.
It was a while since our snag in a swag. Our waiter was quite nervous and unfortunately this contributed to him spilling just a small amount of my pale green concoction on the cloth (I heard him swear under his breath). No worries mate. We paced ourselves and very much enjoyed our choices. Another? Yes why not, let’s try the Aqua Thunder and the Fruit Daiquiris They looked so pretty served up in their special glasses with umbrella and slice of orange.
Then a large plate of hot food arrived. Ooh yes! deep fried breaded prawns and calamari with delicious sweet dip and he left the plate on our table so it wasn’t long before we emptied it feeling rather guilty, as they were being passed from table to table. But we needn’t have worried as more were on their way from the kitchen. Jera by now had stopped mixing and become waiter for a while. He took our third order, we just wanted to try the B52 and the Brain Haemorage to finish! We didn’t realise until they arrived that these were shots but we still wanted to pace ourselves and tasted them tentatively…. Mmm so good, but such small glasses and they were soon finished. Altough plenty more food came around… not need to get dinner tonight but we ought to think about going.
OK Jera said have one more B52 each to finish and this time you have to knock it back in one, that’s the way to do it! Of course by this time we were not tentative about anything!! One of the student waiters had obviously been keeping an eye on us and came over at the appropriate time to ask if we would like a taxi ordered. What a great evening, thank you Jera.
……needless to say, the blog didn’t get updated that night!
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