Anyone Want a Hug???

Went to the Daisy Hill Koala Center (you know I love me some koala's) and check this out...

There was a koala that was awake and I thought awww, he's so cute and when I went to take his picture he put his arms out to HUG ME....(ok, ok, this is not true, but I'm going to tell myself that to make me feel better.  He was actually getting ready to scratch his back).  I still am impressed I caught him in this position.

As you know I work out quite a bit during the week with my trainer Florian and if you wonder if I really work up a sweat or not, here is the answer. If you look at the screen behind us you will see that the entire bar under my name is red which means my heart rate was at 90% or higher for a long time (as long as it took the bar to be all red).  I also burned 400+ calories (the number in the upper right hand corner which I can't quite read) during my workout.  Florian posted this picture on the gym's FB page and challenged everyone to do what I did--he showed me the post the next day since I don't have FB and I thought it was pretty cool that he did that.  

I got home the other day and looked out my balcony at the bridge and thought it was pretty cool that it was green and red, but I'm thinking they forgot that Christmas is in December, ha.  The light up the bridge different colors every couple of days so I always look forward to see what colors will be next. Sometimes they are solid and sometimes they are moving lights which is fun to watch.  

Went to check out some rooftop bars over on Southbank (across the river from me, just a short little walk) and I thought this one had a really cool ceiling and atmosphere.  Those are bird cages hanging from the ceiling above the bar with Christmas lights hanging around them.  

I got Inked!!!

You're in a foreign country, you have some down time before going out for the night...what do you do--GET A TATTOO!!!!!

Ok, ok....I'll tell you the real story.  I wanted to get a meaningful tattoo while I was here so I looked up stuff on-line and I settled on a kangaroo which I thought totally summed up this place.  I did have some time to kill on Saturday so I thought it would be the perfect time.  I pass a tattoo shop everyday on my way to work, so I stopped in and they had time to get me in.  For any of you that have a tattoo you know that the word painful isn't how to describe the experience of getting a tattoo but more so annoying--am I right?!  It's a small needle going in and out of your skin at an extremely fast rate.  The only problem with the tattoo that I chose is that it only took an hour--there goes wasting a few hours-ugh!  If you can't tell where this is on my body, it's on my right side at my pant line.  No worries, it can totally be covered up with clothes;) 

A group of us went out for Debbie's birthday Saturday night.  Had dinner in Chinatown which was quite tasty.  There were some folks there that I haven't seen in a while so it was nice to catch up.  Fun day I must say!

I signed up with the social club to get a guided tour of the Gallery of Modern Art which was a short walk across the river for me.  One of the directors' at work is on the board there and she volunteers there and gives tours so she gave us one.  I'm not an artsy person and most art I don't get so it was wonderful to get the story behind the artwork and what it meant.  Afterwards some of us went to eat at a pizza joint close by.  It was really nice out today so it was nice to get outside and walk around and do something that I normally wouldn't do.  

I keep thinking of random things that I want to tell you guys.  When you are sick you say you are crook.  Isn't that funny?  Someone missed work and I asked them the next day if they were ok and they said, yeah--I was crook.  I'm sure you can imagine the look I gave them, ha.  

I went to Subway the other day and I got a fountain soda and when I went over to the machine there wasn't an ice dispenser.  I turned and said to the worker, where do I get the ice at and he said, oh it's cold, we don't have ice.  WTF?!?!  I was NOT a happy camper about this, I did survive--barely, ugh!

Not sure if I've already told you this, but you can't buy alcohol in the grocery store.  They have separate stores for alcohol.  Talk about not being able to minimize your errands when you're out.  

A new gyro place opened across from work called yiros, so I set up a group lunch so we could go check it out.  They put french fries on their gyro's--talk about taking a healthy sandwich and totally making it unhealthy.  Yes....I ate every bit of it and it was delicious, it was just pretty weird to eat a gyro with french fries on it.  

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

Of all people to tell me where to go to get hot chocolate, it's Florian!  It's quite fun, they give you a beaker of the chocolate of your choosing, I got the highest % of dark chocolate you could get, a glass of milk and a marshmallow.  They made my milk into a heart...awwwww:)  It was quite delicious I must say!   

Set up a b-day dinner for my buddy Dave.  It's nice to break up the week with an evening out.

Brad, Debbie, Dave and me

Received a text from Brad asking if I could help take his son and some of his friends paint balling on Sunday.  Apparently none of the boys' parents were able to help out.  I said of course I'll help.  I'm a nervous driver over here as it is, but then add in 3 15 year old boys and I was nervous nelly.  I told  myself it was good practice and that we'd all survive, ha!  Dropped the boys off for their day of paint balling and then Debbie and I went out for a girls day out which I was really excited about.  We went to some local markets and then headed to Mt. Glorious for a little hike and then had lunch at this restaurant which had this breathtaking view.  It was just lovely.  Then we received a call from the boys saying they were ready to be picked up.  As we were leaving the paint balling place a wallaby hopped across the road (I'm sure you can imagine my excitement).  The boys in the back didn't have the same reaction as I did, and I said sorry boys--I know it's not exciting for an Australian but it sure is for an American.  They all laughed.