It’s me and an elephant. They’ve got several out at the zoo, including a couple from Taronga here in Sydney. (They’ve even got the anxious one that sways back and forth; I think they’re keeping them while they finish the new elephant area over here.)

And now it’s Snookums’s turn…

This one’s for my little brother Joey, who loves koalas. This fella was the only one awake in the middle of the day. The rest were all passed out in the trees!

After the zoo, we headed up the road to the Big M, which – to my disappointment – not only did not have a big “M”, but was actually the crappiest tourist attraction I’ve ever seen. We were the only people there. We’d already made the mistake of getting out of the car though, so we felt obligated to play a game of putt-putt…

… only to discover on hole 4, AFTER I’d already pulled my ball out, that the cups were actually full of spiders. Seriously. Friggin’ FUNNEL WEBS. (The suckers are fatal. The one in this cup was dead, thank God, but STILL.) The Snook used the clubs to fetch his ball out while I did a whole body shudder.

After the Snook finished kicking my butt at Putt-Putt of Death, we hit the road pretty quickly. I paused only to snap this picture of the Shittest Stegosaurus in the World.

Sunday was Christmas Day, and we were booked in for lunch in Mudgee. We got there early so we spent some time in a local park reading and enjoying the sunshine. Families were appearing for their Christmas picnics and everyone was cheerful and friendly.

Graffiti from the park. It really seemed to sum up the whole weekend for us…

Our lunch was festive and fun, though we did get lost in the shuffle a little bit. (I think every family in Mudgee that wasn’t picnicking was at the restaurant.) Of course, the only way to finish Christmas dinner is with real Christmas pudding. (Again, for the Yanks: this is basically a really moist fruitcake, served warm with brandy butter and ice cream or custard.) YUM!

We took our time getting home, driving the long way down the Golden Highway through the Hunter Valley (wine country). The final odometer reading was well over 1000 kilometers (620+ miles), and I even managed to conquer my fear of roundabouts. I also drove across the Harbour Bridge for the first time and successfully navigated myself across Sydney. Unfortunately I do have one animal fatality to report: a pigeon committed suicide by flying straight into my window at one point. I hadn’t swerved or anything; it just came out of nowhere! The Snook can back me up on this. But it appears that for every successful car journey I make, fate will exact a price on the animal kingdom.

I still want a car.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pages: <- previous