#i skedaddled but i live nearby and i could see that he followed through on his threat bc a cop car materialized in the park lmfao

[woundedearth]

CW gay american vent hour. i think i'll have the money and motivation to actually go to pride events in portland this year but Pride(tm) is such a corporate circus and honestly increasingly frightened someone is going to bring weapons to the parade lolol. i had a really unsettling encounter the other day where a guy in downtown pdx was walking past talking loudly on the phone about all the public sex and raping of children going on at pride. and when i shouted at him he immediately threatened to called the fucking cops on me!! and then he did! so!

[threnodygrimblood]

The Family that Shouldn’t Be

Summary: With Muriel and Eustace dead, Courage finds himself all alone at the farmhouse. Fortunately or unfortunately for Courage, the villains he faced in the past begins to make themselves at home at the farmhouse, bringing with them much fun and mayhem the small pink dog can handle.

Rated T for just in case

The Fox Who Stayed for Dinner

֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍

Courage can say that living with Katz is undoubtedly different than living with the Bagges. Katz had made some minor changes to the house. He had brought a few of his things over, and Courage was thankful the cat didn't bring his spiders. The next thing the feline had replaced was the mattress and when Courage inquired as to why blushed at Katz's answered and wished he hadn't asked. Courage also wasn't sure how to feel when Katz looked over the many recipe books Muriel owned.

Especially when he criticized, "Does that woman put vinegar in everything she makes? Does she add some into her tea as well?"

Courage bit his tongue because yes, he knew that Muriel practically put vinegar in everything she made. Adding a hint of vinegar did enhance some of her creation. Like the caramel apples that always won her first place at the Nowhere Sweet Stuff Contest. And her homemade dog food. But there also been times when the vinegar added into her meals made them disgusting. Like when she made Courage a peanut butter and jelly with a hint of vinegar sandwich. That was probably the only time it made Courage vomit. Even now, remembering that day and that sandwich had him swallowing back the meal threatening to come back up.

Most days, Katz barely spoke to Courage unless it was to tell him what to do involving chores. Other times Katz would be away and only returned before dinner or sometimes after dinner was done and put away. During the times when Katz would be away for a day or more, Courage would feel a terrible ache or worry for the feline until he came back safe and sound. Courage never told Katz about those feelings, unsure how Katz would react if Courage told him, so the dog buried it all inside him. Katz would allow Courage to accompany him if he had a business or scheme going on in the city. and each of those times, the feline would drop Courage off at some location and repeat the same three words each time, "No dogs allowed."

But he would always return for Courage when he finished up whatever the feline was doing. Today, Katz left Courage at the park with a promise he would come to get him in an hour. So the dog, not wanting to wait on a bench bored out of his mind and not wanting the birds to make fun of him, wandered through the park at his leisure. Courage soon found himself in a vast forest that he didn't know what part of the park.

"How do I get out of here?" he wondered aloud.

As Courage pondered on how to get back to his meeting spot with Katz, he froze up when he heard bushes rustle nearby. He stood rooted to his place, with his eyes growing more prominent as whatever it is coming closer. The pink dog began shaking, and his teeth chattered as he envisioned something like a giant bear or something just as equally frightening came closer and closer. The shaking and chattering came to a stop when Cajun Fox collapsed right in front of him. Courage didn't anticipate running into the fox again, and right now, the dog could see Caju was exhausted with his tongue lolling out his mouth, his chest heaving as he panted and gasped as if he had run a marathon. Cajun pushed himself up, and Courage froze up when the fox looked up at him. His thoughts raced through his head on what Cajun Fox will do to him.

"Pooch!" Cajun cried out.

Courage flinched as the fox darted over to him. "You gotta help me! There's one of those fox huntin' party after me."

"There are fox hunts here in Nowhere?" Courage asked, surprised.

"They sure' are, and this ain't the kind that let us go when caught. It's the old school killin' kind." Cajun explained. "I'm beggin' ya to help me! I ... I don't wanna die."

Both dog and fox's ears picked up the sound of other dogs barking the thundering of hooves hitting the ground with each stride the horses took.

"Please." pleaded Cajun Fox.

Courage would never forget how Cajun planned to use Muriel for his Granny Stew, but despite that and answering Eustace's call to take the dog out, Courage couldn't bring himself to let the fox die. Not like this.

"I know I'm not going to like this," grumbled Courage.

Ten barking foxhounds burst through the bushes and into the clearing Courage stood in. He watched them nervously as a group of humans on horses came into view. The horses stopped except for the master of foxhounds stopped near Courage.

"I say, dear boy. Have a fox come through here?" the man asked. Courage shook his head.

"Hmm. I wonder where the fox could have gone." The man inquired.

The master went to speak to the rest of the hunters on what is to be their next course of action while the foxhounds sniffed around the clearing attempting to pick up Cajun's scent. One of the hounds came over to Courage and began sniffing at him. Courage smacked the dog in response to the unwanted sniffing. The hound yipped and growled at Courage, and the pink smiled nervously as the other hounds began growling as well.

Courage produced a small ball with a faux fox tail attached to it and waved it before the hounds. The growling stopped, and with wagging tails, the hounds jumped and barked happily at the sight of the ball. Courage, with all his might, threw the ball in a random direction, and the dogs went off after it.

"Ah! The hounds must've picked up the fox's scent again. Tally ho!" the master of the foxhound stated. Courage was amazed by how humans can be quite dense sometimes.

The pink dog watched as the humans urged their horses to follow the hounds, he waited to make sure they were far enough away before turning, and with a great big "Bleh!" spat Cajun out his mouth.

Courage stuck his tongue out and ran his hands over the appendage as he attempted to get the taste of fox off it.

"Whoo!" Cajun Fox exclaimed as he got to his feet. "Thanks, pup. I owe ya one. Now I should skedaddle before those hounds pick my scent up again. Na wè!"

Courage watched as Cajun Fox head off away from the hunting party and leaving the dog to return to figure out how to get out of there on his own. Courage did manage to find his way out, but he ended up being a little late perturbing Katz and wouldn't let Courage explain the reason why. Katz drove Eustace's old truck back home in silence, which Courage didn't like. He wanted to apologize to Katz but kept his mouth shut out of fear.

They returned home and had just walked into the farmhouse when Katz stopped in his track. Courage stopped walking as well and wondered why when he heard clattering coming from the kitchen. The dog bit at his claws as his imagination conjured up a burglar or some famished creature. With narrowed eyes, Katz steely sauntered towards the kitchen with Courage following close behind. Katz was ready to kill whatever or whoever was in the kitchen and stopped when he set foot in the kitchen, an eye twitching at what he saw. Courage looked around the feline's legs and was shocked to see who it was.

Cajun clutched a variety of food his hands as he kicked the refrigerator door closed and turned towards the new arrivals.

"Hey there!" he greeted cheerfully.

Katz's eyes wandered over the mess Cajun seemed to have created in his clean kitchen and asked solemnly, "What are you doing here?"

"Makin' dinner as my way of sayin' thanks to the pup for savin' my tail," Cajun answered as he began dropping vegetables and other items Katz and Courage didn't get at the store into the bubbling concoction on the stove. The dog also noticed how Katz stiffened at Cajun's answer.

"Saving your tail?" he articulated.

"Yup! Saved me from a fox hunt." Cajun summed up as he stirred the contents in the pot.

Whatever it was the fox was making made Courage eyes water.

"If you think I'm getting food poisoning eating that, you're mad." Katz voiced.

"Food poisonin'?!" Cajun Fox screeched.

Cajun took a spoonful of the soupy meal and said full of pride, "This here is good stuff!"

Cajun held the spoon up to Courage, who shook and took a step back. "You didn't put a person in there, did you?" he asked cautiously.

"Nah, just meat from yer fridge."

Courage didn't have time to react as Cajun forced the spoon into his mouth. He didn't appreciate that and waited for his throat to clench or some reaction to how terrible it was, but it was surprisingly. . . Tasty. Courage swallowed and made a small happy noise.

"See? The pup likes it." Cajun said, beaming with pride at his culinary skill.

Katz said nothing. The feline still refused to eat what Cajun Fox cooked, "More for us!" was the fox's answer and hoped to spend dinner in silence, except the fox wouldn't stop chatting away whether anyone was listening or not. After dinner ended, Katz got up from his chair and left the house. Courage became concerned for Katz and puzzled over why Katz didn't like Cajun being there. The dog picked up Katz's dishes from the table and started washing them with Cajun's help but would occasionally glance out the window for the cat. Finally, giving in to his worry, Courage left Cajun to finish the cleaning, and he exits the house. Courage didn't have to go far, Katz stared at the garden, his tail flicking in agitation. Courage carefully walked over to the cat.

"Katz?" Courage called out.

"Why did you save the fox?" Katz questioned.

Courage paused at Katz's question, and a tremble ran through him when the feline looked over his shoulder at the dog. There was anger in his eyes.

Courage answered truthfully. "Because fox hunts are cruel and no foxes deserve to be chase down until they can't run anymore and ripped to shreds by other dogs or shot by the hunters. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

Katz turned and gazed down at Courage, then chuckled. "Your kindness knows no bound. Forgive me for being so aloof today. My meeting in the city didn't go the way I hoped."

"It's okay." Courage said with a smile and relieved Katz understood.

Both cat and dog walked back into the house and found the kitchen clean, and the fox nowhere in sight. Their first thought was that he had gone home, but it was made apparent it wasn't the case when Katz opened the door to their room and found the fox lounging in their bed.

"This is a mighty comfy bed." Cajun Fox said as he stretched. "Where you two sleepin'?"

Courage glanced up at Katz as he shook, and his claws dug into the door frame. He stayed in his spot as Katz stalked into the room, and the dog's ears perked up when, with a loud yelp, Cajun flew out the room. He hit the wall with a thud, and Courage was amazed that Cajun didn't dent the wall. Katz appeared in the doorway, and Courage blinked when the feline picked him up by his neck and grabbed the door handle.

"No. Foxes. Allowed!" he punctuated each word and slammed the door shut.

Cajun Fox flopped on his back and stared at the door.

"What? You gonna do the forbidden with the dog?" he meant it as a joke, but the door opened again and with a startled cry, ducked down as a knife embedded into the wall where his head was and a second pair lodged itself between his legs. The door slammed shut again.

"I was only kiddin' ya! I'm gonna find another place to bed down." Cajun said and went off to find a room.

֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍֍

I thought it would be interesting for Cajun Fox to speak a bit of Creole Na wè means see ya.

[tgon]

The Nightmare Room #6, They Call Me Creature | Review

Title: The Nightmare Room #6 – They Call Me Creature

Author: R.L. Stine

Cover Artist: Vince Natale

Introduction

From my previous review:

Speaking of bittersweet, my fondness for this book deprives me of an excuse to postpone reviews for the series.

That was about six months ago. The saddest part is, I don't even have a good excuse for leaving. Maybe I lost morale after blowing the deadline on a (now dead) holiday-special. Maybe I tried to write a couple of reviews, but ended up shelving them. Maybe I was simply disappointed with the quality of my own writing and wanted to take a break.

Or maybe I took a six month break in honor of this being the sixth book in the series! Totally intentional.

I don't know how many more reviews I have in me. All I know is that I got my wisdom teeth pulled a few days ago, and the unending pain has put me in a susceptible-enough headspace to warrant returning to this series.

Story review

Laura's dad lives in a dream, and—even though she think he's the best—he seems so far from everything. One day, Laura is tending to an injured crow. Her father, much like Mike Love, is unconcerned with the crow cries. This is especially odd because he's supposed to be a veterinarian. After helping the crow, Laura and her friend Ellen prepare to head out into The Woods.

Ellen reminds me of a delicate, graceful doe. If she’s a doe, I’m a fox.

The Fox.

And her own pond she was headed to quick. You see, Laura is working on a science project involving the fLaura and the fauna around Luker Pond, a small body of water within the local woods. Sadly, the duo's escapade is interrupted by a typhoon of birds erupting from the woods. Laura's dad sprints out to his secret shed/laboratory, and the birds fly away, nothing suspicious here. The girls leave, this time accompanied by Laura's pet dog. While walking, the canine quickly uncovers a beastly finger in a pile of leaves.

Ellen, remembering a tennis game she promised to play in, decides to skedaddle. Soon thereafter, Laura bumps into her crush, Joe. Laura want's to invite the boy to a party for Ellen's birthday, but the two children are swarmed by an armada of bats. After having his face bloodied by the creatures, Joe gets skittish and slinks off. Laura—far too unfazed by the severed finger that her dog found in the woods—goes home and starts making dinner. The book spends multiple lines describing the process of gutting a chicken, but it doesn't bother to mention Laura washing her hands after holding a severed finger that her dog found in the woods.

Noticing her father still hasn't returned, Finger Girl ventures out to his inconspicuous lab/shack. (Lab Shack, baby!) She opens the door and witnesses her father sticking a small, pink, squealing creature with a hypodermic needle. Laura's father yells at her. The girl leaves in total shock, wondering, "Why did he yell at me like that?" (This child has a very strange barometer for what is and is not weird.)

After a painfully awkward dinner, Finger Girl and Needle Man bond over a game of familial Scrabble. When Laura tries to pry for answers, her father threatens to send her away to live with her mother. Laura is only allowed to stay once she promises to stop asking questions about her father's research, never go near the shed, and alternate the dinner music because her father is tired of Lawrence Welk.

"Promise," I said. But there was no way I was keeping that promise!

Laura will make an excellent politician, someday.

The book spends a tedious amount of time setting up threads and having the protagonist go in circles. I'll do us both a favor and just bullet-point the strange phenomena:

Ghostly lights in woods.

Laura visits the animal hospital and learns her father was let go.

Laura is almost attacked by her own dog, but Joe saves her.

Men in woods with rifles, hinting they caught something.

Punctual blues.

Things really hit the fan when our protagonist finds a piglet-like creature in the woods, and it glomps onto her throat and starts leaching her blood. Laura's father saves her and takes her to a doctor, but he keeps trying to convince the girl that it was merely a chipmunk or maybe just a malicious gust of wind. Next, Laura's father announces that he'll be sending her away soon. While lamenting this decision, Laura hears a wail outside. Her dog is being attacked! The following text is the actual wording used to describe the dog's leg:

The fur had been ripped away. Chunks of flesh had been torn off. Blood flowed onto the grass. I could see veins pulsing in the chewed-up mess, and a white bone poked out.

I'm sure that when Stine wrote this dialogue, he thought to himself, "Man, this is totally different from the Goosebumps books... The teens are gonna love this!" In actuality, no.

The dog is taken to a hospital, and Laura goes home. Joe stops by, and Laura finally invites him to the party for Ellen. Joe agrees to attend but leaves hurriedly. Laura decides she'll secretly follow Joe to find out where he lives (and maybe root through his closet or something if she has extra time). Instead, she ends up lost in the woods. Laura sees strange lights—which turn out to be headlights. Her father is driving around in a truck, and he demands that Laura ride back with him. More strange phenomena ensues:

Laura finds dead deer in woods, suspects her father was involved. (Elon Musk laughs.)

Ellen's party happens. Joe shows up for, like, a minute. Laura doesn't get to see him because she's busy looking at a dead deer.

The former employer of Laura's father, a woman named Dr. Carpenter, says he had been experimenting with genetics and fired for suspicious activity.

Loud howls from woods. Laura explores.

Finds large truck in woods. Sees pig-like monster trapped in trailer. Possibly man-pig hybrid. (Al Gore laughs.)

Sadly, the men with rifles from earlier see Laura and give chase. In order to escape, our protagonist hides inside of a dead deer. Our protagonist hides inside of a dead deer. Is this a fever dream?

I grabbed a flap of the deer’s skin. I tugged it up. It felt heavy and wet in my hands. [...] I pulled the skin flap up as far as it would go. And I climbed inside the deer.

Laura overhears the goons talking to her father and figures they're in cahoots. She makes a slick getaway, pun intended. I half expected our protagonist to immediately go home and make some more chicken, but she doesn't get the chance. She bumps into Joe. Apparently, he doesn't care that she's (presumably) covered in deer remains. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's a man-pig-monster in a wig!

Yup, that's the big twist. The love interest was secretly a pig-man. Joe Bob Piggs. Cattle in the Woods. Boy is a pig-man. / Girl in a carcass. / Goo goo g'joob. This book has broken me.

Joe begins expositing. He was the one scaring all the animals. He's a monster that needs to feed. Laura seeks out Dr. Carpenter at the animal hospital where her father used to work. There, our protagonist discovers a plethora of animal hybrids in cages. Dr. Carpenter returns and says she wants to experiment on Laura. Joe appears and helps detain the girl. Turns out, Dr. Carpenter had been the one trying to create hybrids, and Laura's father had been trying to stop the program, looking for cures. Thankfully, Laura's dad bursts in and starts destroying stuff. Dr. Carpenter gets electrocuted by her own equipment before, ultimately, running off with Joe.

Despite the fact that there might be a wild pig-man terrorizing the nearby woods, it's decided that Laura doesn't have to move away. Everything seems totally normal... Up until, one night, Laura sees something fluttering by her window. The creature is a hybrid... A mix between a bat and Dr. Carpenter...

The Verdict

This book is almost the polar opposite of the first five books in the series. Rather than having a book filled with rinse-and-repeat storytelling, this one bombards the reader with an endless stream of weird occurrences that make very little sense—until the end. If I had to compliment They Call Me Creature, I'd say it's ambitious. But the story just seemed to drag on forever. Plus, the multiple descriptions of animal gore were tasteless and largely unnecessary. Worst of all, we never get to find out if Laura's dog heals up.

Speaking of abandoned threads, this blog's update schedule. I don't plan on ditching this blog any time soon, but I'm officially abandoning my schedule. I'll post whenever I muster up the energy to make something that I can be satisfied with.

Best Quote

The phone rang. I jerked my hand out of the chicken and tried to wipe the guts off on a dish towel. Then I picked up the phone.

Take me down to the salmonella city.

[decandnicoletraveladventure-blog]

Weeks 5 – 7

(Around 23rd October to 6th November)

 Okay, here comes blog post number three. I’ve got to be honest; I’m finding the prospect of writing this one a little bit daunting, as we have had quite possibly the busiest two weeks of our lives. As per usual though, I’ll start where I last left off. ..

When I last wrote, we were staying at Danbulla national park. What I forgot to mention was that on the way to there, we made an impromptu stop off to go and explore a waterfall and gorge that was signposted. This tuned out to be a brilliant decision, as it was here that we saw a tree kangaroo! Yep, turns out they’re thing, I was shocked too – who knew?!

Anyways, on the second day of staying at Danbulla, we were just packing up to leave when a wonderful older woman named Sue came toddling over through the rain to our van, offering us the use of her kayak to explore the lake on. We had been quite keen to move on, but her incessant generosity soon changed our minds and, after dragging us over to her van and FORCING us to eat some delicious, freshly caught Yabi, it didn’t take long before I found myself sitting on a kayak in the middle of the lake feeling very at peace with the world.

 The originally gloomy day only proceeded to get better and better for us, as we heard a knock on the van later that evening and opened the door to reveal the most welcome sight I ever did see. There stood Sue – wonderful, brilliant Sue – with an entire freshly baked loaf of Banana Bread in her hands, iced and adorned with big chunks of walnut, which she had cooked especially for us. I still don’t know what we did to deserve such wondrous generosity. All I know is that Sue was a blessing which we could never have anticipated, but very readily accepted. 

All good things must come to an end, and in the morning we waved goodbye to Sue and carried on with our exploration of the Tablelands. Or at least, we attempted to. Nature had another plan, though.

 It was only a few minutes into our wet, rainy journey that we were quite literally ‘stumped’ by a huge tree that must have fallen during the night’s storms. After a lot of heaving from Dec and myself (I’ll be honest, I mostly overseeing and directing the procedure), we earnt ourselves a couple of leeches for our efforts (ew) and a clear passage for Sherman. Hoorah!

Onwards we went to our next planned outing: Undara Lava tubes. After a very long, desolate drive, we finally arrived. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, we hadn’t done so well at planning ahead and researching our destinations, for it was here that we discovered the lava tubes were only accessible through an extortionately priced tour. Unprepared as we were to dish out the funds, we decided to make the most of the location and instead explore some of the free trails surrounding the area. This turned out to be yet another great choice, as it was here that we had some of out greatest wildlife experiences. We encountered Cows, Parrots, and Lizards but, most importantly, we saw heaps of Kangaroos and Wallabies – many with their baby Joeys! I was lucky enough (i.e pushed the limit enough) to stand literally a foot away from a Joey and its Mumma. It was an insane experience and a real highlight for us both.

 After Undara, we made a pit-stop to experience some natural hot springs in Innisfail. It’s definitely true that the sulphur creates rather a potent aroma of eggy farts, but it was the closest thing that we’ve had to a bath since being here, so we weren’t fazed.

And shortly after Innisfail, we made another little pit-stop to experience Millaa Millaa Waterfalls, where the view was as breath-taking as the freezing cold water. Nonetheless, with a total disregard for our core body temperatures, we plunged in and experienced the full force of the waterfall from directly below. Another crazy, awesome experience – it really takes your breath away to be pelted so hard with such cold water like that!

Unfortunately that night, we were less lucky with our camp-site choice than we had been thus far. We were blessed with the company of a very loud lunatic, who spent the night drinking and shouting at anyone who dared walk past him to get to the toilets. Needless to say, we didn’t hang around; once the sun was up, so were we, and we skedaddled out of there pretty pronto.

Our next drive was a long one, which saw us covering quite a stretch of long empty roads. Luckily, there were a couple of little fillers to help break up the day for us. One was a long, two and a half hour hike through thick, dense rainforest, which made us both acutely aware of how thoroughly we both dislike hiking through thick dense rainforest – it feels awfully claustrophobic when the trees are so dense all around and overhead that your barely reached by sunlight. The other was a much more successful ice cream stop at a very quant road-side shop which had lots of interesting fruity flavours, as well as Declan’s all-time favourite; Ginger. Needless to say, he was a very happy bunny.

We finally made it to our next free camp spot, and what a spot it was. Named Balgal Beach, the location allowed you to park up practically on the seafront, and permitted campers to stay for 2 nights per week. We relished our time there, enjoying yoga practices each evening and morning, and cooking up some great food on the free BBQs provided. We also met another far too generous individual, Steve, who was a welcome face to bump into again at our next camp stop, Saunders Beach. There, his kindness even excelled his humour, as he charitably helped us restore poor Sherman, whose sink and lights had stopped working, to his former glory. Once again, the considerate act was done simply out of the kindness of his heart – he wouldn’t even accept a pineapple as thanks for his hard work! Asking only for the two of us to ‘pay it forward’, which we promised and endeavour to do.

Once again though, we sadly waved goodbye to our newfound friends, and continued on our journey South. We zipped through Townsville, where I picked up a hammock, a bike rack, and a ‘pop-up ensuite’ from individuals on Gumtree – forever a bargain hunter -  and carried on down to Airlee Beach. Here, we FINALLY met up with Ian and Jordy. It was great to see some faces from home, and having their company made all of our shared experiences so much more fun. It was from Airlee beach that we went on a day trip to the Whitsunday Islands, a series of beautiful white sand islands surrounded by clear turquoise blue waters that are filled with amazing wildlife. We snorkelled with insanely huge fish, spotted turtles from the boat, and found the most picturesque lookout point to date.

The drive from Airlee beach to our next location, Hervey Bay, was a long one. 12 hours long, in fact. We broke it up with an overnight pit-stop, and attempted to take a lunch break in a mountainous national park. Unfortunately, Sherman was having none of it. The old man had worked far too hard, driving for 6 hours at motorway speeds, and simply refused the vertical inclines we were now attempting to have him do. So, whilst Jordy and Ian enjoyed a lovely lunch break with a bush turkey atop the mountain, we took poor old Shermy to a nearby mechanic. Luckily, all was deemed well, and so we continued on to Hervey Bay, successfully arriving without further issues. Fortunately, Shermy got a couple nights’ rest at a nice caravan park here, whilst we went gallivanting off on a tour of Fraser Island with Jordy and Ian.

 The tour was conducted in a HUGE four wheel drive coach (google it, they do exist and they are insane) and consisted of lots of lake visits, forest walks and sand-driving. What really made the trip for Dec and me was the Dugong sighting we caught, the baby Dingo which we stopped the coach to watch as it ran in front of the vehicle, the private plane tour of the island that we splashed out on that took off from and landed on the crazy gorgeous white sand beaches, the brilliant people that we met, and the hilarious evening that we shared with them playing a (classic) game of Ring of Fire. It was an awesome couple of days which totally wiped Dec and me out, so we left it a day before ploughing on to the next stop: Australia Zoo.

 I think Jordy, Ian, Dec and I all spent the entire day there crying (on the inside, gotta keep that game face) at the constant reminders of Steve Irwin filling the Zoo. It was as heart-breaking as it was inspiring to see the impact such an incredible man has made, and the memory and legacy he has left. The zoo itself was enormous, and took the entire day 9am-5pm to explore. The animal shows/demonstrations they held were fantastic, and we all had an exceptional day experiencing the wildlife close-up and learning about the Irwin family, and the zoos many conservation quests. Dec and I enjoyed ourselves so much, in fact, that we returned the following day to visit the adjoining Australia Zoo Animal Hospital, where we saw a poor little koala with his arm in a cast, and learnt a little more about the work they do to help animals far and wide.

 And that, my friends, was weeks 5-7. If you’ve stayed with me and read through it all, kudos to you – you’re probably as exhausted now from reading as I am from writing.  

We’re a little further on from where I am leaving off now, but I will leave writing about our latest adventures for the next post.

Until then, stay tuned.

 Nicole and Dec

 14.11.2017  Evens Head Library