We have our first new Australian friend. She’s a lovely young girl from Queensland who’s half English. We first met her last month on a night out with one of The Girl’s old Brisbane friends. The old Brisbane friend is the mutual acquaintance. Since that night out we’ve had the new friend over for a home made fish curry and I’ve been out looking at sculptures in Bondi with her.

On Sunday all three of us went to Taronga Zoo for a grand day out looking at animals. We saw all the usual suspects; elephants, giraffes, lions, chimpanzees and tigers. Even ten week old tiger cubs. We broke up out days of meandering with a seal show and a bird show. The seal show was all fairly standard – seals barking, seals splashing, seals balancing balls on their noses. The bird show, though entertaining, wasn’t as fun as I anticipated. Although there was a funny moment when a duck quickly changed it’s mind about flying towards us once it noticed a falcon was “on stage”. We ended our day looking at Australia’s native species; kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils, Koalas, cassowaries and the ever fascinating reptiles. One woman was so excited in the Reptile House that I heard her scream “Oh shit! Look at the size of that snake”. Quickly followed by “Oh double shit! Look at the size of THAT snake”.

The weather report said that it was going to be one of the hottest days of the year so far, and it certainly felt like it. Probably one of the hottest days of my life. But you’ll be surprised to read that I didn’t wilt. Didn’t even really sweat that much either. The girls however were wilting. Probably because they both decided to wear black. We only had to suffer the heat until 5pm – a thunderstorm descended and cleared the air. Not before The Girl and I burnt a little

I’m still not sure if I’m 100% happy with zoos. While I acknowledge that they all do a great job with conservation and education, for example the plight of the Tasmanian Devils, part of me still thinks that locking up an animal is really sad. Especially when you see primates – you can’t help but empathise with them. I guess in an ideal world all these animals would be able to live their lives out in the world. But sadly we don’t live in an ideal world.

What I am 100% about is our new friend. The Girl and I are already looking forward to having dinner at her house on Wednesday.

P.S. Please don’t get jealous. I still love you all.