NDBT

(If you don’t recognize the title, go re-watch some mouse movies. Particularly ones featuring Frank: the Green Hyper Frilled-Neck Lizard. Yes, that’s the full character name).

Okay – so I got going early this morning. I went to Scruffy Murphy’s first which was recommended in my guidebook as having a really good full Irish brekkie. Yeah, it came with a steak. Who eats steak for breakfast? Anyways, the place was pretty funny. There was lots of Dubliners type music on and a GAA show on tv.

Then I wandered over to Darling harbor. I should mention at this point that the weather here is really warm. I went out yesterday in my winter coat and everyone else was in shorts and t-shirts. Today was cooler because there was a hurricane on. My hair is still standing out at all angles. Darling harbor was really lovely. There was a special outdoor exhibit of photos from Earth from Above, which were very cool.

I walked by the Chinese garden, but it was pretty expensive to go in for a fairly small area. So I went to the Aquarium first. Now, the problem was that it is currently school holidays, and every screaming child in Sydney demanded to be taken to the aquarium today. Brats aside, the aquarium was pretty good. There was a really good platypus exhibit. Apparently they only use their front feet to swim. They were very cute. The other good exhibits were a seal tank that you could walk under, an oceanarium (with black- and white-tipped reef sharks, lemon sharks, rays, bamboo sharks, wobbegons, and a couple of nurse sharks that had to be 15 feet at least), and what is apparently the largest great barrier reef exhibit in the world (dominated by “can you find Nemo and his friends?” signs, but it had some cool guitar fish and a giant shark ray). And a couple giant sea turtles (aye, sea turtles).
Next I walked over to the National Maritime Museum. They had a battleship, submarine, and replica of the Endeavor (Cook’s ship) in the harbor, but they were charging exorbitant rates to go on them. So I just wandered around the (free) museum. They had the world’s fastest boat (the only one to beat 300mph, I think), exhibits on Aussie’s journeys to the continent, some of the wood and ballast from the Endeavor, exhibits on famous shipwrecks, and historical stuff on surf culture, swimming, regattas, yacht racing, the navy, etc. etc. Ooh – and they had a celestial globe from 1602 that was the first to ever show the Southern Cross.
Finally I went to Sydney Wildlife world, which was a bit overpriced, but they support the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. They had an invertebrate exhibit (lots of stick insects), reptiles (Oz has more reptiles than any other continent) including! Frilled Necked Lizards, which are much larger than I thought. Then an aviary, nocturnal animals (bilbys are fairly ugly, quolls are cute, as are sugar gliders), koalas, wallabies, echidnas, and a cassowary. So – the frilled necked lizards were exciting. Also – every few feet were giant signs: World’s Deadliest Spider! World’s Deadliest Snake! World’s Deadliest Bird! Aussies take a lot of pride in their dangerous critters. All the little kids around me could point out the Taipan.

At that point I had an attack of nausea (probably from eating steak at 10am), so I went off to find a salad, which ended up being inside the queen Victoria building which has lots of nice shops and stuff.

I’m going whale watching tomorrow. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for a sighting! And hopefully getting a new ISIC card…

Fun news stuff:

Dracula’s castle for sale (and by Dracula, read Vlad the impaler stayed there one night. Maybe.): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070702/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_dracula_s_castle

Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works.

awww: Knut bb y u so sad?
From Cleolinda:

“Man attacks unlucky peacock at Burger King. “A peacock that roamed into a fast-food restaurant parking lot was attacked by man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said. […] Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city’s Center for Animal Care and Control. […] The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Staten Island Burger King parking lot and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees had been feeding him bread when the man appeared. He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19. […] Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, ‘I’m killing a vampire!’ ”

Okay, there are several thoughts that may occur to you the way they occurred to me:

1. That poor bird, that’s awful.

2. Damn, he crazy.

3. Vampire… peacock?”

A South Africa level of journalistic headline: One-eyed gator pulls golfer into pond.

Amusing: http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily_chuck/07_03_2007.html

Hiya Helena:

http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2007/07/a-fug-with-a-vi.html

Watchmen casting speculation:

US, June 27, 2007 – Director Zack Snyder must really have loved last year’s film Little Children because three of its stars are rumored to be up for key roles in the helmer’s next movie, Watchmen.

In addition to the previously reported contenders (Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach), FilmIck.co.uk claims that Oscar nominee Kate Winslet is up for the role of the Silk Spectre. The site, however, isn’t so sure about its scoop so they advise readers to take it with a grain of salt for now.

They also claim that the Watchmen cast will include Oscar winner Jeremy Irons (Eragon) as Moloch, Virginia Madsen (Sideways) as Sally Jupiter, Noah Emmerich (Cellular) as Captain Metropolis, Jonah Hill (Knocked Up) as Seymour, William Fichtner (The Dark Knight, Prison Break) as Detective Fine, Gretchen Mol (Rounders) as Janey Slater, and Henry Gibson (Wedding Crashers) as Mr. Figure.

Jason Patric has been rumored to play Dr. Manhattan, while Jude Law and Thomas Jane are reportedly up for the roles of Ozymandias and The Comedian, respectively.

Current music: Ac/Dc – Joan Jett, slow down baby – Christina Aguilera, straight lines – silverchair (hey, I’m in Oz), words – Kate Miller-heidke, tell me where it hurts – garbage

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 at 12:09 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.