As much as we tried, we still managed to have a pretty uneventful week. I am trying hard to find other things to write about than my job but that is the hot topic of the moment. I am actually pretty lucky to still have a job because apparently I read the schedule wrong and was totally supposed to be at work today. Luckily they felt sorry for the silly American and just laughed it off. Enjoy the small bit of adventures that we had this week.
I am learning a lot of new things at work so I am staying plenty busy. Last week was very rainy and freaking cold so every morning I had to force myself to get on the bike and head to work. There was even a chance of hail on Thursday but Liz let me take the car so I didn’t have to worry about that. I got to sleep in a whole hour later and it was like heaven to actually wake up when the sun was out instead of the pitch dark. Things are starting to fall into a routine so when that routine changes I get all distracted and start to make mistakes. I made a few mistakes at work so you might get a good laugh out of picturing me trying to fix these situations.
One morning when I fed the roos, I forgot to close the gate that separates half of the enclosure. You see when I walk through the enclosure they all follow me (we are talking 70 something kangaroos) and I throw them bread. Once the bread is thrown I am supposed to close the gate so that they stay near the front of the enclosure for the morning tour groups to see. Instead of closing it I went about the rest of my duties in the roo enclosure and about ten minutes into it I noticed the kangaroos hopping to the back. I freaked out and my initial reaction was to take off running well guess what scared the crap out of the kangaroos so a whole bunch more took off towards the back. I finally get to the gate after half of the roos have escaped to the back and close it. It was completely obvious that things were a little out of the ordinary when the tour groups came through but no one ever said anything so I hope they aren’t keeping a secret tally of my screw ups because I am for sure racking up.
On the morning that I drove, I must have been half asleep because after getting the roos breakfast together I headed to the enclosure. The bread wasn’t where it was supposed to be so things took a bit longer to get situated that morning. Keep in mind I am already running behind because I only have about fifteen minutes to get everything done before I am called up for the morning tour groups. I get there five minutes later than usual and start throwing them bread and carrots. Once that was done, I started raking and then I went to grab the bag of hay to feed them. Guess what I forgot? That’s right the fricking bag of hay. Just to paint a picture for you, it is the biggest thing in my wheel barrow so how I forgot it, I have no clue. So I had to radio to my supervisor to let him know that I have to get hay which means everyone who could hear their radio knew what a dufous I was that morning and then I had to hurry down the back so I could get the hay and be back in time to give the morning tour. Slightly embarrassing but again no one really mentioned it so I think they are definitely taking it easy on the slightly challenged American.
Later that same day, I was shown how to change the greenery in our quarantine section which is huge (the section itself, not me getting to change the greenery). I paid close attention to Liz, the girl showing me, and then we split up to change out the bird section. There is the huge row of cages with about 15 to 20 birds in it. The birds are in separate cages but you have to walk through one to get to the other. These birds are in quarantine for a reason, either not enough space for them in the park or because they just aren’t all that friendly (keep the second in mind.) Liz informed me that everyone at the park calls the row of cages Alcatraz…if that gives you an idea of what I was dealing with. I make my way through the first few cages with ease and the occasional head duck from a crazed bird trying to gouge my eyes out. I reached the white tailed black cockatoo that is absolutely nutty! I opened the gate into the cage next to her and while I was pulling the greenery through the freaking bird flew through the gate. Now I have a crazy black cockatoo in with the temperamental sulphur crested cockatoos that make the most obnoxious noise EVER! It was complete nuttiness for the next few minutes while I tried to get the black cockatoo to fly back to its cage. I gave a quick look over my shoulder hoping Liz wouldn’t be staring at me and luckily she was too preoccupied to notice what I had done. Things calmed down and the damn bird made her way back to her cage and I carried on.
I entered in through the other side to remove the greenery and I noticed a lock on one of the cages. I unlocked it with my key and took out the greenery. I asked Liz why it was locked and she said that the bird in there was really expensive so they had to be extra careful. I grabbed the new greenery and headed back through those cages. Well the same damn thing happened except this time it was of course the freaking expensive bird flying out of its cage. I about crapped my pants! This one was a little more stubborn like it knew it was expensive and could get away with anything. Again Liz was off doing her own thing so I escaped embarrassment once more. I coaxed the bird back into the enclosure and threw its greenery down and ran through those cages like no bodies business. I am cringing for the next time I have to do greenery in quarantine.
I am sure you are surprised that I am still working and to be honest I am too! None the less I am pretty sure they love me at the park and it is easy to blame everything on being an American. I am making friends with everyone and we went to that party I was telling you about. It was really cold outside and we weren’t drinking so we didn’t stay very long. I promised them an out of control American at our next get together. Apparently things got crazy shortly after we left but unlike some of them I had to work the next day…not cool! It was pretty funny because the host of the party had tents set up in the back yard for anyone that couldn’t drive home…I thought that was pretty clever. This job is definitely one I never want to be hung over for. Liz and I called it a night pretty early since she had her trial run at the winery the next day and I had to be at the park for eight am.
I drove to work Sunday morning since Liz had to work too and I planned on picking her up when I got off. I told her it was best that I have the car because she would probably be drinking all day. GOOD GUESS on my part! After the day was over, I was smelly as all get up and my feet were looking raunchy from my shoes so I headed in Liz’s direction. She didn’t exactly tell me where to pick her up so I stopped at a gas station to fill up and grab a snack. After missing my first two phone calls she finally sends me a text telling me where to go. I head to Jane Brooke and sit in the car because I smell and look like wombat ass. This guy comes up to the window shortly after I pull up so I tell him who I am looking for and he informs me that they are drinking out back and to just follow him. Sure enough I walk up to a drunken Liz in her cute little winery outfit enjoying her new friends from work while I am covered in dirt and sweat. My appearance didn’t keep me from pulling up a chair and accepting their offer to drink some wine so no worries there. It is going to be a pretty sweet deal to have her working there because after my long day wine was just what I needed.
We had a good time chatting with her new pals and before we knew it, we kind of got yelled at by the owner for being there so late. Liz thought she was already getting fired so I had to laugh at her. It was a pretty good end to (or what I thought was the end) of my week. With Bama’s victory over the tigers it pretty much made for a perfect day. I fell sound asleep from my exhausting day at work and had a crazy dream about spiders. I jolted out of bed and flicked the lights on only to find that there were no spiders around and that I could fall back asleep safe and sound. This morning, I woke up and had my coffee before my phone started ringing shortly after eight am. I was amazed because no one ever calls my Australia phone and the number wasn’t in my phone book so I assumed it was a new friend from work calling to hang out on their day off. It was someone from work but no one calling to hang out. It was my supervisor Debbie on the other end informing me that I was supposed to be at work so I am sure I will get a lesson tomorrow on how to read the schedule! I for sure thought that I had Monday through Wednesday off and worked Thursday through Saturday but indeed I work Monday through Wednesday and was supposed to have Thursday through Saturday off. Just a little confusion on my end but like I said she had a good laugh about it and now I am working on Friday instead.
I got to spend my accidental day off shopping and by shopping I mean grocery shopping. I chatted with a few people from back home and that always makes my day! I also found out that Ebee had a little boy so I am absolutely ecstatic but missing home more than ever. I talked to my mom today and heard Martini barking uncontrollably in the background and despite how obnoxious she sounded I still wanted to be right there with her. I miss hot dogs so much I could cry and I tried really hard to find some at the grocery store but none of the links were red enough for me (because my favorite hot dog is the little red wieners…classy, I know!) Good thing this place is so amazing that I am willing to get past a life without hot dogs and the people I love most!
*Funny Story of the Week: I was asked to come up to the display area for one of the shows and also to bring the gang gang cockatoos with me. I knew they might put up a fight but I grabbed one and Jess grabbed the other. I had Gangus who is generally nice and as he perched innocently on my shoulder I took off for the display area. I felt him nibbling on my hat so I turned my head towards him to get him to stop. That put him directly in front of my ear which he did not hesitate to bite. It was freaking painful and he did it twice more before I got to the show. I sat him on the perch as quickly as possibly and joined everyone else that was waiting for the show to start. I complained about my throbbing ear and how mean the gang gangs were only to look down and find a huge stream of bird shit on my polo! Its not over…Chad gave me the job of bringing BOTH of them back to their cage after the show and he said just keep them on your arms and they won’t bite your ear. I am not sure how you do that because as soon as I put them on my arms they crawled up to my shoulder. They were pretty well behaved until I got to their cage and found that a pigeon had flown inside. Tash was nice enough to stop what she was doing to help me get it out so once we had accomplished that the two gang gangs were fired up on my shoulder. I turned to thank her and put my mouth in a danger zone because Junior grabbed hold of my lip and had a good hard nibble and my reaction was to turn my head away only to be facing Gangus who chose to bite my ear one last time. I am pretty sure that had I not stopped to think about it I would have thrown them in their cage but instead I was nice enough to let them in gently…I guess it is safe to say that I am not really a bird person!
G’Day
Lindsay Ezell
LC
Snook
Ez-E
Another exciting but exhausting week at work has flown by. It is our 7th week in Australia and I still wake up every morning with a huge smile on my face and a bit of disbelief! Liz and I have had a few small adventures this week and the added excitement from the Red Bull Air Races that practically took place in our front yard so happy reading.
Last weekend Liz and I scheduled a tasting with the winery that she had an interview with so we made a day out of it. The people at Jane Brooke were so much fun and we really enjoyed hanging out over there. The wine was fantastic and we learned so much more in that one day than we did over our entire weekend in Margaret River. Our sommelier, Sheldon, was definitely trying to get us drunk because he made us feel bad every time we used the spit cup to pour out our wine. We drove there so we couldn’t be too careless. A few 20 tastings later left us feeling pretty tipsy so we decided to get some coffee and a desert in their café. Our waitress, Jenna, was extremely nice and struck up a convo about our plans for the evening. She offered some great suggestions and after all that talking Liz and I decided we were going to hang out at the grocery store for the evening! Exciting right? We stocked up on all of our favorite snacks and planned dinner for the week and called it a night. We are wild and crazy.
The laid back weekend was gone before I knew it and thanks to day light savings, it was pitch black outside when I woke up for work on Monday. Not only was it dark but also freezing cold. It was a painful bike ride but getting to work made it all worth it. I managed to escape the week without a single animal bite. I think I am getting better at this wildlife thing. I met a lot of Americans this week because we had a huge cruise ship stop off and tour the park. It always makes me laugh when I ask Americans where they are from and they reply the United States. I want to say no shit but instead I say what part? After that question, I chime in with “I’m from Louisiana.” Then I get the “Really?” As if it isn’t obvious that I sound completely different from the millions of Aussies they have encountered. The craziest thing is that I met this couple that has actually been to a basketball game in the Gold Dome. I was freaking amazed…such a small world. They attended the Centenary game where we unveiled Skeeter as the new mascot so that led to some fun conversations. Everyone is so intrigued with how I ended up in Australia and how I got the job at the wildlife park so I usually end up talking more about myself than the animals. Probably not the best situation but at least I am pretty good at talking about myself.
On one of my morning tours, I had a volunteer assisting me in the kangaroo enclosure and she was handing out food for me. She is super animated and extremely intense when she is doing her job. It made me laugh and when I walked into the enclosure I giggled a bit and told my group to follow Maureen and to listen to her instructions because she knows just how the kangaroos like it. I paused for a second and ran that line again through my head and realized how perverted it sounded. A few of the guys in my group had already caught on and were laughing so I retracted that statement and tried to hide the embarrassment. It provided a good laugh for the morning and I assured them that there was no bestiality going on in the park. I did have a bit of a wrestle with Big Bubs this week. I was holding her for our morning show and she was extremely agitated so she kept squirming in my arms. She is so freaking strong it is ridiculous. I think I won the wrestling match because she finally gave up and fell asleep in my arms. It’s funny because you have to act like things are normal because there are small children and all sorts of visitors right by you so I just kept smiling even though I thought Big Bubs was about to make her escape from the park right out of my arms.
The rest of the week was a piece of cake and on my day off on Thursday I got a new camera! I am going to glue this one to my side so I can’t lose it because it is a real downer not to have a camera around here. I am planning on getting some pictures at work so you guys should all look forward to that. I also had Saturday through Monday off so Liz and I stocked up on some Australian rum and enjoyed the Red Bull Air Race. Our quaint little South Perth has been turned upside down with all of the traffic from the air races. During the practice runs, the house shook and car alarms went off so we are kind of glad that everything is over. We were hoping to have friends by now so we could invite them over to enjoy our front row seats but that didn’t work out so Liz and I enjoyed our balcony all by ourselves. We started drinking a little too early in the morning because by 3 o’clock we were napping. I even got in my swim suit top and soaked up some sun! I kid you not...after ten minutes in the sun I was burned so that didn't really last long. We did the same thing on Sunday and decided to get crazy and head to the Windsor for dinner and a few drinks. We enjoyed ourselves a little too much and I am sure the Windsor knows us by name now. We have to find a new pub to hang out at because the drunken American act is getting old at the Windsor. The place was packed with people and it was a pretty wild crowd. We were filling the pain this morning when we woke up.
This has been a pretty uneventful week for the most part and if things don’t pick up soon I might have to start making stuff up for an entertaining read. I have been invited to a work gathering next weekend so it will be our first party in Aussie! I am pretty excited and since everyone at work is awesome I think we are going to have a good time but the downer is that I work the next day so I won’t be getting too out of control. I guess it’s a good thing because it is a little too soon to end up in the bushes and have to call my mom to come and get me because my Australian friends don’t know what to do with me. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying life!
*Funny story of the week: So on the morning that it was freezing cold on my way to work my hands went numb from the frigid bike ride. I got to work pretty early so I just kept trying to warm them up. It was hopeless because nothing was working and my hands were pretty much useless. I went into the bathroom and changed into my uniform. All was going well until I had to button my pants. I tried my hardest but my fingers couldn’t grasp the button. I snuck into the staff room and cornered my friend Tracy. I told her not to be alarmed but I needed her to button my pants. She found it quite amusing but was nice enough to button them for me. It was a pretty awkward situation and I was really glad that I was wearing underwear that day!
Skype Instructions: Go to www.skype.com. Download the software and create a user account. You can search for me, lcezell. There is no phone number just a user name. Once you have added me, we can video call! Just make sure your sound and video are on the right settings. You can find the settings under tools and then options.
G’Day,
Lindsay Ezell
LC
Snook
Ez-E
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