Koala Kronicles

(EDIT: If you're new to this blog you may think that I just returned from Australia. The trip was 5 years ago and I was reliving some good times.)

I know that one should never have regrets about things that have happened in the past. We all have our "I should have done..." lists.

Well, one of the things I should have done was print out or save to a diskette my Koala Kronicles. You see, everyday I would send an e-mail to family and friends and tell them what I had done the day before which according to their calendar was actually the same day of me writing my column. So if on Friday I was writing about what I did on Thursday, they were actually reading it on Thursday. Confusing isn't it?

From what I recall, my columns were quite funny. I even had a contest one day and offered prizes to the first three people to answer the question.

And since I promised my blog readers I wouldn't spend all week boring you with my trip Down Under I thought I'd do a recap at the end of the week. So here ya go with some highlights...not Nina Garcia Fashion Editor of Elle Magazine highlights...just highlights from the trip.

I went to the zoo and I wanted to see a dingo. Well the dingo wouldn't come out to see me. So for a day I kept saying to myself, "The dingo ate my baby." Can you name the movie that the line came from? Cute David from SFO was the first to reply followed by runnerOne and then JKaye.

One of the weirdest things that happened was when I was in the hotel and was getting ready to head out for one of my field trips and I had the telly on in the background. They interrupted the broadcast to bring live coverage from the States of Winona Ryder in the court room getting ready to hear her verdict in the shoplifting trial(?). My column for the next day was titled Koala Interrupted (get it? Girl Interrupted...her movie.)

The people in SYD were awesome. However, they were still reeling from the bombing in Bali that killed a bunch of Aussie nationals who were on holiday. It was the equivalent of our 9/11 and it was like they were our brothers in arms. Sydney Mark who is a friend of a friend kept me entertained part of the time I was there. The perfect host.

I do think I spent too much time thinking about koalas and hanging out at Starbucks. I had a dream one night and I kept saying, "No more koalas. No more koalas."

The beaches in SYD are beautiful. I didn't make it to the famous Bondi Beach. There was one too many bus transfers to make and I was afraid I'd end up in the outback rather than on the beach. So instead I went to Manly Beach. It sounded like the butch thing to do.

I ran a 1/2 marathon while I was there. I'm glad I didn't plan on doing the whole marathon because it was hotter than Georgia asphalt that day.

The chocolate macadamia nuts were yummy. I forgot how many boxes I brought back with me. I did give some away but I ate most of them.

I first saw Mamma Mia! in SYD. So every time I see Mamma Mia! I think of SYD.

One of my favorite quotes is this:

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine

Sydney Opera House

Manly Beach

You pay $2AUS to visit with the koalas. However, they're only awake a couple of hours a day so there's no guarantee they'll be awake when you're there. So there's a mad rush off of the ferry to get in the koala line. Well it's only a mad rush if you're hellbent like me to have you're photo taken with the critters.

Those claws look like they would hurt.

This is a tasmanian devil.

OK. Maybe, just maybe I was in Oz a bit too long and spent too much time visting Starbucks.

And the name of the movie was A Cry In The Dark starring Meryl Streep.