I'm sorry to disappoint you all but there will not longer be any more post on this blog due to the unfortunate event mentioned above.
TWO, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT! What currency depreciates?! US DOLLAR! US DOLLAR! US DOLLAR! Luckily for me the Australian dollar is about equal to what we have in the states so I can't complain too much and have it be a legit complain. *snaps fingers* I do love a good ole legit complain! Helps even the best of friends have a reason to throw water on you.
This is the post of a new adventure because I started a new zone and I went to church for the first time, so let the tales be told!!! *takes the superman pose and flies to the story time lounge chair*
So I escaped from the turtle, luckily, but that's a tale for another time. I ended my time with the crabs (hallelujah!!!) last Friday. Which is good because I don't know how much more I could stand being bosed around by that zone leader *narrows eyes* but it's over being under her thumb all the time so it's all good now :)
Saturday I went to the Gold Coast. I didn't do much worth telling. I walked around a mall, which was boring and hung out at the beach the rest of the time. It was windy and kind a chilly. I wanted to go hiking but alas I had no way to the mountains so a hiking I did not go. I did however learn the valuable lesson of rising off after a swim in the ocean. Well, I didn't really swim in the ocean it was more like bouncing with the waves if that makes sense. When I was finished doing that I decided it would be fun to ride a big wave in to shore. Bad idea. I closed my eyes and was thinking 'weeee!!' just as I was slammed into the shore and tossed about. That wee quickly became an 'ouch!' and I realized I had made a terrible mistake ;) I laughed it off and dried off while reading a book. As it started to get cold I realized that the itch around my waistline of my swim shorts was because I had a good handful of sand in my swim shorts. Being nearly dry, I didn't want to re-wet myself and clean up so I did the next best thing and brushed as much of it off of me as I could and did my best to remove it from my shorts. What a fun three hour ride back home that was. Almost as nice as riding home on trax commando. Before we headed home they stopped at Andrew's friends house where I was dragged into this man's life and learned his wife and him had separated They had two boys, the oldest being thirteen. The friend told us that the wife said she hadn't loved him for the last twelve years. So that was a nice comfortable visit for me. Oz man I'll never see again, I hope the best for you.
Sunday was Merlin. YAY MERLIN!!!! I love MERLIN!!! Morgana sucks!!! >:( She needs to die!!!! Why Merlin doesn't just sneak up on her and kill her I'll never know. It would save him so much grief from always protecting Arthur!! I also went to church and met some nice people. They all sing loudly and some sing loudly and off key so that's different from the whisper singing you usually hear at church. They also had a ysa (young single adult) sunday school class which was weird because it was a family ward. We'll see how it turns out. That was only the first visit so I'm just waiting to see how everything is.
Monday was my first day in my new zone but tragedy struck and I spend most of the day bare foot and in water. In the downstairs part of the freshwater zone the pump that pumps the water out and away from the systems broke because somehow a scrub brush ended up in it. So while all the water was being pumped into the system there was nothing taking it out and away so the system flooded. Because the floor slants, at parts the water was up to my knees. It was pretty bad. So I spent all but three hours of the day bucketing water out. Oh so much fun!! It really was fun to run around without shoes all day tho :)
Tuesday my real first day in freshwater started. There are some cool animals in this area. Fresh water croc and swordfish, frogs, turtles, and monitor lizards. Really cool :) One of the tanks is low and open and one of the guys in the zone was showing me what to watch and what did what when water suddenly hit me. I had been the victim of an archer fish. It had liked the metal on the clipboard I was holding and had shot water at it. Apparently they can shoot water at bugs that are 33 feet away and that's how they hunt. I got to feed the lizards today and that was cool. It's going to be a fun zone to work in :) To clarify for those of you who are confused at what I do I maintain tanks and the health of the fish in the tanks. So I'm learning about water quality and all the fun aspects of that. I'm learning how to manage aquarium systems, feed fish, treat for disease and parasites, and other marine biology things. It's pretty good :)
Wednesday was a crazy nuts day. Just as I was starting my first day of doing freshwater start up, checking all the animals and systems to make sure everything was alright, my manager and the dive manager come booking it up from down in the tunnel practically stripping. They said that our gray nurse shark, Joker, was down and so they were suiting up to see what could be done to help him. The last six months have been tough on this shark. Some idiot let him bit off and swallow the end of a feeding stick, he got a skin infection, there's been a disease outbreak in the tunnel, and he was transported into the tunnel with the broken stick in his gut. All that stress or something must have gotten to him because he just stopped breathing and had laid down and wouldn't respond to anything so the divers brought him to the locke where they could try and help him. Eventually nothing they did helped and he died. After measuring him and weighing him they did a necropsy on him. That was interesting to see what the inside of a shark looks like. It wasn't quite as interesting to discover what they smell like inside but I will say they smell better than a dead horse. and not quite as appetizing as a dead cat.
Gray nurse sharks look ferocious because their teeth are nuts and point everywhere but they are really very nice sharks. They are also endangered and so since we lost ours we won't be able to get another one. It's sad to have such a cool animal die like that but realistically they shouldn't be stuck in little tanks . The wide open ocean is where they belong. It's where they will be the happiest.
Friday, happy day!! And it was a happy day :) So to end my week of adventure and my first week doing freshwater, the two guys in my zone were both gone. I've never really gone thru all of the zone because of how crazy this week has been. It was a little sketchy getting thru it all today but I think I did alright :) In the middle of start-up this morning I got told I'd be working with the seals today because they were short some people. I ended up being the volunteer that get's pushed into the water by the seals. I'd be picked from the audience and then bending down a bit posing for a picture with a seal and it would come up behind me and push me into the water. Where I would grab onto the floating island and a different seal would swim around me like a shark with one flipper up in the air, the whole time I was wriggling my shorts off under water. After circling me twice it dove under the island where I would throw my short down and at the seal and push myself under water as if the seal had grabbed my pants off. The trainer would then have the seal give me back my shorts. It was a lot of fun and ended up doing it twice :) If I wasn't going to be pushed in for whatever reason I had to pretend to trip in, luckily I was able to practice both a few times before the show. I say luckily because my first time getting pantsed I went under the wanter before the seal dove to grab my shorts. Bad craic :( The first time I practiced tripping into the water was the worst tho. I was told to pretend to slip my toes off a step and into the water. Easy enough right? Nope not for this little idiot. When I went to trip, instead of tripping I just pushed off of it and pretty much jumped into the water. What did I win, oh yes, that's right the babbling idiot award. Ah yes!! For a moment there I thought I was undeserving of such prize, but I can confidently tell those second placers to back off because I will always, unfortunately prove I am the first place winner. All in all it was a fun day. I swam with seals twice, using the cover name of Sam, and feed the fish in freshwater. That's pretty much all I did Friday :)
And so ends my tales for this week. What Saturday and Sunday hold for me I know not but wait to find out. Enjoy all your snow and cold weather, I think I'm going to go to the beach :)
You swam with seals?! Bah! I have always wanted to do that job, it looks like so much fun. You lucky punk you! That really is awesome though, and I am glad you were able to do it. How many people can say they have been pushed into the water and then pantsed by seals. My sister is a star. :D Sounds like a pretty good week you had there sister, even with the sand in your pants. ;) Hope the weekend is good for you and that some fun stuff happens.
ReplyDeleteDid you see the Fresh Prince?
ReplyDeleteI wish!! Yo, homes to Bel Air!! :)
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