Rain, and Rain, and Rain

So, here is my continuation.


Thusday was a national bank holiday! Hooray! Happy Australia Day!
I'm not even kidding, that's what it's called. How crazy is that? I know we have St George's Day, but that's not the same as having something like an England Day. Can you imagine the intense outcry that would happen if someone proposed a day so celebrate being English? Forget poppies being burnt - whole cities would go up in smoke.


Well anyway, Underworld Awakening came out in the cinema that day. And guess who bought tickets online to see it? WE DID! BOOYAH! We went into the biggest cinema screen I have ever been in, which was awesome. It had seats layered up so high, and it was just huge. It even had little silver lights twinkling on the ceiling above the screen which was cool. I had the cool idea that the lights should spell out the name of the film, because wouldn't that be cool? To see UNDERWORLD or HARRY POTTER or whatever in twinkling lights before the film begins? If I ever have my own cinema, I shall definitely do that. And it'll also be really cheap, not like the stupid £10 a film they do at the moment.
An adult ticket was $13, which is around £6.50, which is very reasonable. Long live the Australian film industry!


The film was awesome. It wasn't very long, but the effects were brilliant, as of course was Kate Beckinsdale. I did spend the majority of the film either with my head facing Nix and admiring her pretty face, or my hands covering my eyes and peeking through my fingers, or hugging Nic's arm. But what I did see of it, I enjoyed :) Phwoar, that Beckinsdale...


*Ahem* Before the cinema though, we were in Southbank, and literally, the Australian flag was everywhere. On fake tattoos, on real tattoos, tank tops, shorts, shirts, dresses, hats, sandals and sunglasses, little proper flags and huge big flags that people were using as capes. Seriously, you have not seen so much love for a flag in all your life.
Despite the looming rain clouds, there were so many people out. Because pretty much everyone apart from retail staff got a bank holiday, they had plans to go out and enjoy it. The pubs were seriously crowded, we couldn't even get a look in at Max Brenner's, and spent ages cueing for Cold Rock.
Oh. Oho! Cold Rock, do you remember me mentioning that before? Well, if you don't I don't blame you as I write a tonne of ramblings on here, but let me remind you. Cold Rock is like Shake Away and Shakey Jakeys in the way that you choose your own ingredients to make a delicious dessert. Except with Cold Rock, it's ice cream.
My personal concoction was that of two ice creams - Caramel Mud Cake, and Cake Batter Mix. Sounds awesome, right? WELL THAT'S NOT ALL! I also had the girl mash a chocolate brownie into it. Ch'yeah.
The name 'Cold rock' comes into it when they mash everything together on an ice-cold slab of metal, and use wooden spoons to roll it into a ball and smash my brownie to little pieces to mix into the ice cream. Cool, huh? :) (And also, cake batter in an ice cream? OHMYDAYS!) It was quite possibly one of the best things I have ever tasted. That's gonna be my regular from now on.
That night, we watched Madagascar 2, and then Percy Jackson. PJ is an old favourite of mine, and whilst the film is so-so, the books are fabulous. Read them!


Friday was a very slow day. Everypony was at work or school, so it was just myself in the house. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so gathering inspiration from the night before, I found PJ online and spent all day (literally) reading the first book. I did take a break to look at Equestria Daily, and make an omelette though. I discovered that in Australia, Aldi the superstore had started selling My Little Pony cookies! How awesome is that? I love this country :')
Pete came home at around four thirty, and found he needed to go to the post office to pick up the family's new hoover. I went with him, and took another wander through Samford. There's a lovely little gift shop there, but I didn't need to buy any gifts so I left them there. What control, eh?
We went to Brumby's and I bought a bacon and cheese pie, and Pete bought a sausage roll. But the woman didn't tell me that it had beef in it too. As a result, I ate Pete's sausage roll and he ate my pie. Fair trade, eh?
That night we watched an Australian film called Tomorrow - The Day the War Began. It was actually rather awesome :) I really enjoyed it. It's about a group of teenagers who are camping in a remote part of New South Wales when Australia gets invaded by an asian army, and return to find the streets empty, cities ruined and people killed, and how they start to fight back. If you ever get a chance to watch it or read it, I really would recommend it :)


Okay! So! Saturday! We went to Australia Zoo! :D Fun fun times. It is, of course, home of Steve Irwin (may he rest in peace) the crocodile hunter. He was in a program shown in the UK called the Crocodile Hunter Diaries, if anypony remembers. His wife Terri and daughter Bindi were also shown quite often. Well, as much as Oz Zoo is a zoo, it's also a major push to make Bindi a celebrity. Steve's silhouette is everywhere, but you've got Bindi's Pony Trail, Bindi's boot camp, Bindi Books and Bindi DVDs, and she's even got her own clothing range called Bindi Wear. Music was playing as we walked around the zoo, and sounded like a young girl so I'm suspicious there are Bindi CDs as well.
All of this Bindi stuff is a bit frustrating because it's a ZOO for heavens sake! *Raaaaaage*


Well, other than the Bindi-Nonsense, the zoo was quite impressive. A fair few animals that Colchester lacks - namely 14foot crocodiles. There was a Croc display, and when that thing propels itself out of the water to get the fish, those jaws look mighty frightening. You would not want to be on the receiving end of a croc's anger. Also, when it swims it hardly makes a ripple in the water, so if you were swimming in croc territory you would never know it was there... until it was too late. DUN DUN DUUNNNNN.
I also saw my first koalas, which are the laziest things ever, and kangaroos which are so awesome when you have food for them to nibble on :) Yeah, I have hand-fed kangaroos! How awesome is that? I was very impressed that we were allowed to do it.
Also saw Tasmanian Devils and Dingos, which are pretty darn awesome too. We saw keepers taking the dingos on a walk which was trippy, but what a cool job to have :) The tigers were just as friendly as any house cat if you could believe it - nuzzling up to their keepers for affection, liking being stroked and having their fur ruffled. It was awesome to watch. The tigers are so tame that you can pay a fee to go on a morning walk with them, and have your photo taken with one too. How cool is that?! Will consider doing that...
Also fed some elephants which was cool because their trunk is like a hoover, and WHOOSH the fruit is gone out of your hand. Very cool. I never really wanted to do it in Colchester, but seeing as this trip is all about doing new things I thought I really should. Turns out it's an awesome thing to do :) 
It was raining for a fair bit of the day. The family shared umbrellas, but me? I bought a plastic Australia Zoo rain mac! for $4, it offers complete protection from nasty weather, and comes complete with a hood! Buy it now before they run out due to their sheer sexy attraction! (In truth I looked like a complete moron, but then again so did half of the people visiting so it wasn't so bad.)


That was a good day :) Kirsty went off to a party in the evening, and the rest of us watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was pretty cool. Tom Felton <3


Sunday was a particularly rainy day. Well, as was everyday really. Sharon Pete and I drove to Sandgate again, then up through Brighton and reached Redcliffe where their boat is docked. Didn't stay too long because it was chucking it down, so to make up for the crappy weather we stopped at an Aldi's on the way home. I
Aldi's? How does that make up for crappy weather? I hear you cry. Well my friends, the answer lies in the biscuit aisle... Remember those pony biscuits I mentioned? WELL GUESS WHO BOUGHT TWO HUGE PACKETS?!? OH YEAH! IT WAS ME! You even get a 3D sticker in the packet, and there are 30 to collect :) The fun of never knowing what sticker will be in your packet is just immense :) I got an Applejack in the first one, but haven't opened the other one yet. Still pretty excited about it :) You even get pony-shaped cookies which is very cool. Nic had a Twilight Sparkle which I was quite jealous about, so I'm looking forward to discovering them all :D
Nic and I booked our flights to Melbourne that day - we leave on the fourth of February at 5:40  in the evening, and arrive at 9:05. Not a long flight, and a one-way ticket cost me $99 which isn't too bad at all. My cousin Wendy will be picking us up from the airport and taking us to our hostel which we'll stay in for a week. Then Nic will fly back to Brisbane and I'll go stay with Wendy and Geoff :) Really looking forward to it; Brisbane has been conquered, time to take on a new city ;)
We also purchased an unlimited pass to Dreamworld and Whitewater World, two entertainment parks next to each other on the Gold Coast. Normal one-day entry is $80, but we bought this pass for $110, and we can go as many times as we like until December. We also get 10% off of all purchases in the park, 50% off entry for 4 friends on the month of my birthday, 10% off entry for 4 friends on any normal day, and of course we don't have to pay ourselves to get in any more. Score :D
I also had a nice chat with my parents and Maddy that night :) Had a good old catch up, and it was good to hear how things in the UK are. I laugh at their coldness and they get jealous at my warmness, which is greatly amusing for me :D HAHAHA COLD WEATHERRRR! These calls meant I didn't get to bed till rather late, but it was totally worth it to see my English thorns (my parents) and my English rose (Maddy).
Just kidding, mum and dad... or am I?


So yesterday was Monday, and Nic and I decided to put our passes to good use, and got ourselves down to Dreamworld. Eventually, anyway; Nic's satnav got us lost about five times in the city on the way there, but eventually we turned up safe and sound :) 
We went on pretty much everything; BuzzSaw is a new ride there, and is an unofficial Saw ride. That was pretty scary - when you're upside down at the top, the only thing keeping you from falling our is a thick bar across your stomach. We went on that twice, which I was pretty proud of. My tank top had stretched in the wash, and when we sped past the camera you can see half of my bra because the G-force pulled my top down. The best part of this story is that because the ride is in two carts, everyone who was in our cart stopped to take a look at the photo and saw half of my bra. Whoo! No wonder the guys who were sitting behind us were snickering. Just thank God that I was wearing a bra; there were girls going on these rides just wearing bikinis. They're more stupid than brave if you ask me :P
One of the biggest rides is the Tower of Terror II. This thing carts you backwards out of a tunnel at 161kph, or 100mph in British speeds. Now, let me tell you, that is fast. The thing is, if you watch the video, that is exactly where Nic and I were sitting, so that is exactly the scariest flipping view we got. The tunnel is 207metres long, and let me tell you - it's such an adrenaline rush, like you've never had before. Good times :) We wanted to go on it again at the end of the day but then it was a 45minute wait so we didn't. But that doesn't matter because we have unlimited entry! :D 
The Claw was the first ride we went on, mega fun. Each time we got higher I was like "Nic! Nic! I DON'T LIKE THIS! NIC! NIIIIIIIIC!" but she didn't hear any of it. Then, when we went on it again at the end of the day, I was over that. I just did that maniacal laughter which sort of sounds like a scream? You know? Like, Ha ha ha ha HAAAAAAAAAA! Which is very amusing even to just type out.
Does anyone remember the Wiggles? They are majorly big out here - like, when the old yellow Wiggle decided to rejoin the group, it made headlines on the news. They're that big. Well, because they're so huge, they have their own section in Dreamworld! Yup, you get to ride in the Big Red Car, and get taken through a series of rooms. Each room has a tele in it, with a Wiggle telling you to sing a song with them. If you image someone so insanely high on drugs and decided to make a TV show, you get the idea that this is what the result would be. The music is quite catchy; I had Choo choo chugga chugga big red car! going around my head for ages afterwards.
Cyclone was good fun too - it was the longest ride we went on, and had rather a big drop. It was the first 'big' ride that we did, and all the way up I was like 'I don't like this, I really really don't like this.'
Nic told me to 'Calm your farm!', but that didn't have much of an effect, so instead she started singing the My Little Pony theme tune :) What a star.


So from this, I have discovered that I swear quite a lot when on rollercoasters. 


I also got a temporary tattoo of a pony! :D That was awesome. Didn't expect to find ponies on the tattoo list, but I'm glad I did :)
Dreamworld has animals too - kangaroos, crocodiles, wombats, emus, bilby's, squirrel gliders, a barn owl (why?), a cane toad, snakes aaaaand.... koalas! And guess who got a professional photo holding a little koala? :) It was meeeee! She was so cute it was unreal! Her name was Jesspar and she was 10-11 months old, and so incredibly warm and fluffy. Definitely the highlight of a very good day.


Tuesday I had a chat in the morning with Bestie on Skype :) Told her everything that had happened since my last blog, so all this is old news to her ;) Twas lovely to have a catch up, and talk a little bit about our holiday plans for when I get back from my current holiday, if I'm not completely broke. Just need to decide - Tenerife or Italy? Some research needs to be done for this.


Well Nic and I went back to DreamWorld :) Except this time we actually went to WhiteWater World next door. Slapped some sunny on, got my new bikini on and we headed for the big pool with a wave generator :) The ground was burning, and it was such a relief to get in the water. We swam to the back and I saw this very fit Chinese guy and he smiled and said hello to me, which was lovely :)


We then went on a really fun water slide called the Super Tubes Hydro Coaster, which was my personal favourite of them all. Super steep drops and then highs where you're propelled up the hill by bursts of water. Really fast twists and turns Went on that four times today, and It took us four attempts to get a photo that I liked :P But we did it! 
Right next to that is a ride called the Green room, which has a super great big drop and then you're in this big fish bowl going up and down the sides which is terrifying if you're going backwards (which I did on the third go) but super fun too.


I saw my guy again, and I'm convinced that he was there alone, because I saw him when we walked to queue for the Green Room the first time, and we smiled at each other. He was sitting on a bench at the time, and when we came out the bottom of the slide twenty minutes later he will still there, by himself. That was the last time I saw my guy. Fate is cruel.


We went on this long slide called the Bro - the Big Ringed Octopus, in which you have a mat to lay down on, not sit in a ring like the others. The top is 16metres high, and you can get up to speeds of 50kph, or 30mph. Which is pretty impressive! The thing is, it sends you down head first which is very different to any other ride I've been on. There can be up to eight people going down at a time, so it's kind of like a race. Unfortunately, I came last.


On one of the rides, my rubber ring kept pressing against my shoulder. By the time I noticed what had happened, there were lots of ponies transferred onto the rubber ring. I exclaimed 'Oh no I've left ponies everywhere!' and the girl behind me laughed. I tried to wash it off best I could, but it didn't do much good. Oops.


We had such a good time, it was unreal :) A brilliant way to spend a day. WATER PARKS ARE AWESOMMMMMEEEEEE!!!!

This concludes the other half of my blog :) I hope you've all enjoyed travelling with Merlin Airways. We hope to see you sooooon!