On Deck

So I tried something new ... I videoed outside. 

Also I tried to multitask ... see how I fail.

Also really liked this failed thumbnail.

Ok so I didn't really get to the blogging at this point but there is some in the next part.

Old Facebook post about my Hoya.

So here are the photos promised to come

Wallaby welcoming us

Pack I brought to climb

Group Selfie on top

Trunk Seat

And to finish off the failed conclusion to my re-potting if you can be bothered watching.

In the Jungle

Finally it was zoo time. Last time I came it was 2014 so decently recent. Once again organizing the trip was difficult. Almost ended up being just three people even though so quite a few people were invited but couldn't come. Picking a public holiday is a good choice because people have the day off. However this also means that people probably have their own things on. Also if the public holiday is on a Monday or Friday it means long weekend. That means possible trips away. So many people had to turn down coming. And this is why I usually just ask one person and only ask another if that person can't turn up. Easier to work out. Anyhow by some situation in the end there were six people who ended up coming. However they came at very differing times ...

Original plan was to meet at 11:00, having had an early lunch, at the front gate of Melbourne Zoo, four of us. This was not the case. Me and another friend wanted to go earlier so we planned on meeting up earlier at my house. However late the previous night we got a message from the other two that they were going to meet at 12:00 instead. Because the message was sent late and the other friend I was going with was an early sleeper I thought we would work it out the in the morning. In the morning we worked out that we would go just slightly earlier so we can see more. Because of the later meeting time we instead turned up at 11:15. A tad later than initially planned because of ANZAC day parade and time grabbing lunch. So we drifted around waiting for the other. We then get the message that they would arrive closer to 1:00 ... With just two of us we got to move through many of the animals quite quickly so wasn't too bad. We went through the smaller enclosures first just in case we didn't have time to go through later. Skipped some gimmicky stuff just in case we came back so would be funnier, however we didn't. I'll try find the turtle shell photo. It will be posted below if otherwise.

1:00 came and still they weren't here. It was only round 1:35 when the other two arrived. We backtracked a bit through some things we saw bit it was still fun. A maybe was coming ended up coming at 2:25 dragging another friend so we ended up in a group of 6. Because during grouping up times some of us saw different things the choice of what to see next was just what everyone hadn't seen yet. Because there was 6 people now, often the group ended up detached. Wasn't as bad as last time where we were completely split up but we had to wait for stragglers. Problem was 4:30 coming up fast. 4:30 was when they started closing the enclosure areas. The last area we were going to was just about to close. Me and early comer were just in as they closed the front entrance. The middle comers had really wanted to come in however had been shut out. We had no idea where they were so we planned on taking photos for them. We found out once in they came in from the exit side ... so in the end it worked out.

What I looked forward to seeing was the lions and lemurs. When I last came the lion exhibit was still in construction and the lemurs had not arrived even though their pen had been completed. It was good to see both these two were finally set up. However the big cats and bears enclosures were in construction ... for another trip I guess. I finally used my SLR that I've had around for like years. I've lent it out a couple of times but never really used it myself. We were talking about how you can never capture a picture as high quality as the one they put on advertising for the Melbourne Zoo. I don't really mess around with my camera so I wasn't planning on capturing anything like that. However in the bird cage I managed to get the camera to focus really well ... but as I was pressing the button the bird flew away. Here is the failed photo that I will always cherish ...
 

It was a fun time looking at the animals and taking photos, maybe next time we do the other zoos or even go interstate. But that wasn't the end of the day ... but I'll post the rest in the next blog post. 

Not knowing

Didn't think about it but was crossing a thin overpass and thought I was less scared than I usually had been. In the past I would have said I was scared of heights.

Me scared of heights? Yes I was scared of heights, or should it be am scared of heights? Well put it this way, I'm less scared. In the past I've had a hard time standing up at heights.  A few months back went to the Gold Coast. Knowing I was scared of heights I was still up to going on the roller coasters and cliff diving at rock pools. 

When I was younger my dad pretty much forced me to ride a roller coaster. I guess the thing is you get on the ride on the ground. Once you get up there you have no choice. Same again at Gold Coast. However that doesn't mean I can't scream. Put this way, the day we first went to Movie World I lost my voice. Still I kept going on the rides even though each time it still freaked me out. Here's a video of me scream a bit on a giant swing. I've been on a giant swing a few times and I'm still freaking out here. And yes I added a video. Was considering adding other medias for the blog so see how far I'll go starting with this.

Cliff jumping was pretty much the same. Most of the time I was hugging the wall trying to convince myself to jump. Actually the first place we went to was probably the worst. The area where we were jumping was actually only a few metres from where the rocks were only waist high. Each time I checked when I was in the water to remind myself where NOT to jump. This was proven to not easy for everyone to do. It wasn't anyone in our group. As we were leaving a girl was pulled out of the water who managed to hurt her ankle jumping. We helped get her out. We couldn't do much else while her friends waited for an ambulance. Surprising enough we were headed to another cliff diving spot even though after witnessing this event. Over the trip we dived from four different places. Each time was scary, but it was exhilarating. Glad I didn't opt out. However jumping I did lose spare pair of glasses and my camera ... oh wells things happen.

Some people hear me talk about these things and say that they don't believe I'm scared because I can do these things like ride on roller coasters and cliff dive. So then what is being scared/fear? I think when most people hear about fear it's the type when you end up frozen on the spot and can't do anything. I think that's usually irrational fear. I agree I don't have that type of fear. I always say fear can be overcome by knowing. Knowing why things might be scary, and finding out why you shouldn't be afraid of it. So stuff like spiders and snakes don't scare me. They often just are protecting themselves when they bite so just as long as you respect that it should be fine. There are only two things I'm scared of. Heights and public speaking. 

Heights was said. Most of the time I'm scared of high places because of feeling the uneasy shifting and uncertainty of the stability of the structure. True many people have probably been on it and not being the first, but I could be the first that it fails for. I'll add to this that I'm not scared of dying. However you don't always die from such accidents. Could always end up crippled or something just as bad. Rather not get myself in those situations. 

And public speaking ... I just always keeping looking out into the crowd and think how each person is listening and formulating a thought, a opinion about what I've said and about me. I don't really know why I care because usually I don't mind angering one or two people with what I do. I guess it's more so the reason I'm speaking. When I'm hosting games and such, whatever it results in doesn't really matter because its just games, for fun. However when I'm talking about something important to me, I don't want to stuff it up. With so many different people I fear I can't be able to get them all to understand me. I just don't want to be only reaching a fraction of the people. I know its probably impossible to say one thing that they can all agree on but because thoughts are subjective, it might just be possible. And when I don't know how to convey that one thing I'm afraid I'm stuffing it up for those I haven't explained it correctly to. In the end it's something I need to come to terms with. Just like any rational fears, its possible to work them out ... eventually.

Under the Sea

After a two year break it was off to the aquarium again on Easter Monday. Seeing as in the past years I had only ever asked one person to go with, it was the same plan for this trip. However the person I asked me to invite others and make it a proper event ... which I was not so keen as I am never good at it. Weeks before the event I'd invited one person here and later there. By the Sunday it was two yes (me and original ask), one maybe, one last minute pike, and two unconfirmed. See terrible at organizing events ... So to not totally fail with just the original two I asked someone else so at least it would be three people. Before the night ends the maybe and both unconfirmed jump on board so now it's six people going. 


Morning of the day the original ask ends up sick so is out so interesting enough the one that wanted to meet others couldn't go. The meeting time ended up having everyone in different part of the city so an undecided lunch location was suppose to be decided ... by me. This is the sort of thing I stress about. Choosing things that make everyone happy. I'd rather have group consensus but everyone was everywhere else. With my limited experience of eating in the city I was able to remember Merrywell which was right near the aquarium. Success. Unsuccessful was it wasn't opened for another hour. So we went round the corner to Galactic Circus to kill some time. Shot some hoops, played some air hockey and was about to go but there was a dollar to burn. One of the others tried out a random game and without knowing it won 100 tickets. However the tickets got stuck so had to get it fixed. So lunch at Merryland was great. The red-eye is great with so many chilli :D. Yum. Finally it was time for the aquarium.

Seeing as I had been to the aquarium so many times I knew where to go to see the cool stuff however they had removed a lot of the things that I had enjoyed. We still had fun taking photos, playing in the crawling spaces, and stamping our maps. Two of us got separated when we spent time in the kids corner. Met back up at the croc. The others thought the croc was fake because it didn't move but eventually we saw it had closed it mouth Something different this time was the 4D cinema they had. 15 minute video with 3d glasses, fans, sprays, and vibrating chairs was predictable but still fun. Backtracked to see a few more things. Back to the kids corner and lost another person. Kids corner was fun because you get to color in pictures which are scanned with QR codes. These are then projected on the wall and move around. Pushing the things to do I scanned my iPhone onto a fish ... iFish. Finally we met up at the gift store to finish up.

After we hung out at Emporium and Melbourne Central playing some games I brought with me. Good day overall. Just through talking it sounds like I need to organize a Melbourne Zoo trip ... but I'm looking forward to it.