At Last a kangaroo

We've been here seven months (my, how time flies when you're having fun, and we definitely are) and I hadn't seen a single kangaroo. I realise that this is because there are no kangaroos in either our apartment or at my workplace, and those are the only two places I go. That has now been rectified.

For my birthday Leslie booked us on a daytrip to an Australian animal sanctuary. It was a very touristy thing to do - we were the only ones on the bus who lived in Melbourne. But without a car, it seemed the best way to get around. In the morning we drove to a nearby mountain range. Melbourne is in a fantastic location - an hour's drive brings you to the heart of wine country and beautiful vineyards or to an awesome mountain range.

In the mountains we stopped for morning tea at a nature reserve where wild cockatoos, gala birds and brightly coloured red-and-blue birds (I don't know what they're called) are everywhere. Tourists feed them every day from tours such as ours (the bus drivers all bring birdseed along), so they're quite tame. I'm not a big fan of birds, but these were beautiful, it must be said, and it was pretty cool to be surrounded by them. I doubt the birds ever have to forage for themselves, as tour buses just show up all day long with birdseed for them.

We then went on a steam train ride through the mountains. The train is an early 20th-century train that a group of volunteers has restored. I rode sitting in the window with my legs dangling out of the carriage, as did many passengers. It was a neat, old-fashioned thing to do. Apparently all Melbourne children have been on this train at some point or other, as it's a popular thing for families and school trips.

We stopped at a winery for lunch. The vines weren't green yet, but the food was excellent and the wine was as well. We tasted some excellent ones.

In the afternoon we went to the animal sanctuary, and there I finally saw a kangaroo. Quite a few kangaroos, actually. Kangaroos are funny looking animals - they have such a strange construction. They are not a new design, though, some dinosaurs were constructed in the same sort of way, though I don't know if they used their tails as third legs. The sanctuary had lots of them, smaller grey kangaroos and big red ones.

We also saw koalas, which were asleep when we arrived but perked up later to get fed, an echidna, a platypus, Tasmanian devils (which are ugly little beasts) and all manner of Australian birds.

They did a birds of prey show where the raptors were free-flying, but most of them didn't behave and wouldn't fly where they were supposed to. They recovered them all eventually, though, and it was a fun show.

Leslie has a new job. He's working as a photographer working for a group of event photographers. His first day was today, and he says it went really well.