A Zoo Encounter and More

After the horrific day with the uncle, I wasn't really expecting much from this day. I would still be sitting in his car for the drive up to the zoo and I was praying that I wouldn't have to do much topo-ing. I stayed over at the guys's place and was woken up at an unimaginable hour of 6.50 am!! Worse still, I was tricked into getting up so early, being told that we were catching the 7 am bus when we were catching the 7.15 am bus. Damn, all that panic for nothing! We made our way to Chinatown to the car rental place and found out that the place was close!! Ok...imagine my anger when I saw the closed doors. We could have known that it was closed if WS had called them up in the first place. I was upset but I didn't say anything. They might have seen it on my face but I didn't want to go "I told you so!" since I hate it when people say that to me. We had to walk back to seach for another car rental place and found one a few blocks away. This one was charging $55 per day so it wasn't too bad. My mood hadn't improve since we were late and traffic was slow as we tried to get down to the car park where we were meeting the uncle. Then at the car park, there was a long discussion about the route to take to Sunshine Coast. I was thinking all the while that this was just a waste of time because I knew the way and I had told the guys and it was pretty straight-forward. This guy was just so luo suo and would ask 3-4 times to confirm a single point. Fortunately I didn't have to give directions as our car would be following the guys'.

(In case you were wondering, this is going to be quite a long post as I have 2 days' worth of stuff to write about)

We got to the zoo without getting lost at all and then, went to explore the zoo separately. This was good because I think my mood would be ruined if I had to walk with him. Being with the guys' was much more fun and less stressful. The 6 of us went down to catch the live shows first, then explored the different animal areas and took lots of photos. We also got to feed the farm animals and the kangaroos although I got "attacked" by a stupid goat. This idiot snatched the packet of feed from my hands while I was not paying attention. So violent!!! We saw the 7 m python and a few other snakes. The wombats were really cute and we got to touch a baby croc. The sun was so hot though and we got a little sunburnt. Actually this zoo was nothing compared to Singapore zoo. They didn't have as much variety as S'pore but the experience was still a good one. As I have mentioned many times, the company matters the most! We were about to visit the otter enclosure when the uncle called and said that they had finished walking around the whole zoo. They wanted to go up to a beach now. So we had to forgo the otter feeding and drive up with them. Even when we reached the beach, it was raining so we stayed there for about 15 minutes to take some pictures before we had to leave. I was not satisfied!!! I wanted to linger, to enjoy the breeze and watch the waves and the clouds.

At the entrance of the zoo with Alvin and Kit. Taken while waiting for the rest to come back from their toilet break.

The huge tortoise...I think the keeper said he was about 20+ years old.

The bird trainer with a macaw during the bird show.

Just the 6 of us in this picture....how nice! From the left, Darren, Kit, Alvin, Wenshen, Chris and I.

Feeding the little goat. This is not the violent one though. It was much gentler.

My cute little beast!!! Hahahaha....

A group photo with the Croc mascot...isn't the mascot cute? There was even a mascot of Steve Irwin.

Yes yes another group pic...it was real nice that all our group pics turned out really well.

At the beach along Sunshine Coast after the rain. I wanted to stay longer... =(

Look at the beautiful clouds after the rain!

Investigating this interesting shower. Nobody wanted to try it out so I volunteered and got sprayed with water in the process.

Now, we headed back to the city and decided to go down to Pancakes Manor for dinner. A few of us hadn't eaten there before. The uncle didn't join us; they had a prior engagement so they dropped us at Charlotte Street and left. Dinner was good although we were all really stuffed. I only ordered the Bananarama and the rest had the dinner sets which consisted of crepes and a single pancake. There was too much food but somehow, everyone managed to finish everything. Now that there was 6 of us, we had to squeeze in the car and hope that we would not get caught for having 6 people in a 5-seat car. But we were so unlucky. Just as we were around Raven Street, there was a roadblock and we had to stop immediately to let one guy out before fastening our seatbelts and driving on. They were conducting breath tests and WS (the driver) was quite happy about it. I think it was because he had never done this test before.

We went back to their place for a while. It was pretty early though. But we were all tired and so WS sent us back and I washed my laundry since I was running out of clothes to wear. Cromwell was having its usual bash and it was quite noisy. I wasn't too affected by the noise since my room doesn't face that college. Even though I was tired, I slept around 1.30 am. I was busy chatting to my sister and lost track of the time.

I awoke at 8 am to go down and take out my laundry from the dryer. Then I packed my bag, dressed and waited for WS to come. We were going down to the Brisbane Market at 9.30 am to buy fruits and veggies. There was some delay at their house and they only got here around 9.50 am and A didn't join us. Apparently he had some things to do. Besides, he had been there before. The market was busy and crowded. The sun was shining down on us once more. I'm getting more tanned by the day. There was a lot of things to buy and food was cheaper here as compared to the shops outside. I got my chillies, ginger, onions and nectarines. Chris and Kit bought much more than me though. I think Kit went a little crazy when she saw how cheap some stuff were...hahaha... I had my fresh orange juice with loads of pulp again... yummy!!!

We went down to Sunnybank to have dim sum for lunch. The place was packed and we had to wait for 25 minutes before we could get a table. Surprisingly, WS had never been to Sunnybank even though he had been in Brisbane for 1 year now. What a sua ku!!! The dim sum was disappointing. Yes the egg tarts were still superb but the usual food like sio mai and chee cheong fun were lousy. Maybe the kitchen was churning out food too fast to meet demands and not bothering about the quality. Maybe it was just WS and Kit's bad luck...

Once more, we went into Yuen's after getting some bubble tea and bought some more groceries. The shopping never ends! Then it was time to go home. Of course the first stop was at their house and they had to put away the perishables into the fridge since the weather was so hot. Chris and I were so lazy to move and go home to pack our own food. So we put our stuff in their fridge as well and then began to play cards. This time, we played a new game taught by Kit where the loser had to be punished by having clothes pegs pegged onto our faces. That was quite funny but rather painful. We each had a photo taken and it was hilarious. Once everyone had a chance of being punished, we changed the game to Bridge which we played until 6.30 pm. We had meant to go out for an early dinner around 5.30 pm but WS got a call from his girlfriend so we had to wait for him to come down.

Punishment for losing....!!!

Chris got the most pegs on her face...hahah...serves her right for losing last...

Dinner was in the suburb of Darra, at a small Vietnamese-Chinese shop just opposite the train station. We ordered a whole seafood meal with crabs, prawns, squids and shellfish. I'm not a seafood person but I have to say that the food was really good. I even enjoyed the prawns although I didn't touch the shellfish and I took 1 piece of crab. But I did love the crab roe *drool*.... As usual, dinner was filled with laughter and lame jokes. I'm glad A joined us for this dinner even though we had to do the illegal people squeezing again.

An example of the yummy food you can find at the shop.

We went up to Mt Cootha after dinner to relax. It was cooling up there although the temperature was nothing compared to winter. WS was playing this "Bang Bang" game with us. It was something like Black Magic where you had to figure out how the game worked. I think most of us got it in the end.

A view of the city from Mt Cootha...well taken by Darren.

We left Mt Cootha around 11 pm and decided to go to Three Monkeys. WS and Kit had not been there before either. We shared some cake and drinks and sat around chatting. This time, we did play some word games but then the conversation led to WS asking me and A about the kind of BF/GF we wanted. I couldn't answer him. How can you put a definition on a person or on feelings? I believe that love is blind and it could happen to anyone. What is the point of saying that you want him to be this, this, this and this? This isn't like Practical Magic where you can cast a spell to get the perfect partner. I guess I could have just blabbed out some points to make them happy but I didn't think it was necessary. The only thing I could say was that I liked a guy with nice teeth. I can't help it! I do appreciate nice teeth whether it is natural or man-made. If it were natural then I would be envious. If it were man-made then I would be able to relate. After all I didn't enjoy my braces experience although I loved the end results. Maybe this is why one of my worst fears is to have any problems with my teeth. I would freak out if one day I had a loose tooth or cavities. This is something I sometimes dream about and will wake up shivering.... scary...

The car had to be returned by 9 am the next morning and nobody wanted to go down with the driver to return it. I don't blame them because I don't exactly look forward to waking up so early and then having to take the bus home. Still, I felt sorry for WS and said that I would go with him. So I went home to grab some stuff, took a bath and then stayed over at his place. At least he wouldn't have to wake up so early to pick me up and then drive down from there.

We managed to find the place and WS actually left his wallet in the car. Luckily the staff there was honest and ran after us to return it. Phew!!! How careless was that? Since we were in the vicinity, we bought some roast duck, roast pork and char siew for dinner. I also got some minced pork and chicken bones. Then it was time to go home and catch up on my sleep. I only woke up about 5 plus and made some french toast before it was time for me to go down to their place for dinner.

Dinner was pretty good. Very filling as usual and I think we need to cut down on these sessions or we'll all be putting on weight together. I managed to call home and we squeezed in a few card games once more. These 3 days have been so hectic, yes, but still, I wouldn't exchange the memories I've got for another. It's yet another wonderful chapter to be stored away for future reminiscing. At least, 10 years down the road, if we ever do meet up, we will something to talk about.