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TurtleFest Journal| | Aaron and I went for a short break... volunteering at the TurtleFest at MBRS (Moreton Bay Research Centre) at North Stradbroke. It was fantastic!
Friday 24th November 2006
Arranged for car pool with Charlotte earlier. We got ready and waited for her at about 8am. Amy & Jasper were in the car. Drove to Cleveland... and missed the Stradbroke Flyer by a couple of minutes... thanks to the cricket game at the Gabba... oh well!... at least we didn't get lost like Leila did when she knew there was a game and she took the next turn to 'getting lost'. We had 1 1/2 hrs to spend... needing cash, Charlotte, Aaron & I went ATM hunting. Turned around a couple of times and finally got to a mall where we thought an ATM would be easy to spot. nope, so we headed to the chemist and got ourselves sunscreen with cash-outs. Aaron found the ATM close by later on.
Drove back to the jetty, and our gorgeous car-spot was waiting for us patiently. We thought we would have lost it the minute we drove off. =) Had a get-to-know-each-other thang over coffee before the boat arrived at 10.30am. Hopped on, and arrived at One Mile Jetty at about 11am. Walked for about 5 minutes to MBRS with Aaron leading the way.
Reported to KathyTownsend, had an induction, dropped our bags in our rooms, head off to work with our teams. I was with the turtle-nest fellows, Aaron, Amy & Jasper wanted so badly to join the Collection Team.... because they'll get to snorkel and collect specimens for the open day. Me, without the confidence, and much of an ability to swim in the ocean, declined.
As usual, there were some rude, arrogant snobs among the nice, sweet and pleasant people in a group. I particularly disliked this one Brazillian girl and her two couple friends. She was so rude. Since we arrived late at the station, everyone else who arrived at 9.30am started work and knew what to do in their teams. She was loud and bossy when I arrived, so I assumed that she's the leader. I greeted everyone, approached her and asked if there is anything I can do. She looked at me like I'm an alien, and replied a stern 'NO'. I was taken a back. Ignored her and helped the rest prepare the turtle nest using ping pong balls. Holly came along later, and that's when I realised she was the leader. Okie, I was also quite terrified of her, because she was the go-go-go person... rushing here and there each time. But she turned out to be a very sweet and friendly person with cool dreadlocks and such fit & tan body. We weren't too busy actually, there were many volunteers, many teams getting alot done by about 4pm.
Kathy was impressed with the number of volunteers this year and how quick things were done. We had free meals and free accommodation for the night. It was great! I love the sea and there was the sea all the time. My team went to the mud-flats to collect for specimens at 3.30pm. I didn't really enjoy it in the beginning... we were to look for specimens children can touch e.g. sea cucumbers, starfish, sea hair, sea anenome, shells but all I could see around me were oyster shells and ALOT of polychaetes... green squirmy thin polychaetes. Taryn being a B.MarineSc(Hons) managed to collect hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, shrimps, cockles... i only managed to find ONE cockle... these are large cockles though, not the tiny weeny ones we eat. Others found blue blubber jelly fish, egg mass, anenome etc... Shona, Taryn2, Andrew and I got hooked on finding worms... all for the sake of Shona =) she's doing a PhD on polychaetes... yes, the same green one I winced at. We were going after the peanut worm and tube worm... we were on our knees, digging at the mud while someone held onto the peanut worm's pharynx or the tube worm's tube. We were like 4 inquisitive kids... side-tracked from finding specimens for the aquarium to specimens for under the microscope. We probably killed quite a handful of peanut worms when they struggle against us holding onto their pharynx till it snapped. The tubes of tube worms we were holding onto while digging around it broke too.. so we never got our worms... oh well! Back to the station for work and food, showered, watched a movie and slept.
 Hermit Crab  Wobbygongs  Sea anenome & snail egg mass I want to have a sea anenome as a pet... i love their suction pads.. they stick to you when you touch them... how sweet right? it's their way of expressing their love.  Amy, Jasper & Aaron at the touch tank.
Saturday 25th November 2006
Started early with breakfast at 7am. Open day starts at 10am, so we had about 2 hours to pick up the last minute pieces here and there. I was helping with the Marine Quiz marking... and Aaron was at the Touch Tank happily. Our shifts were from 10 to 12.30pm. Then we rushed to the Video Conferencing link with the station at Townsville at 1pm... hung around the exhibits, went to the Reptile show and helped out here and there. It was great! We had chalk drawing, art & crafts for kids, Touch Tank, Reptile show, Lectures, merchandise etc... it was huge... apparently, about 1000 people came during those 6 hours of open day. Amazing, huh?
At 3.30pm, it was time to disassemble, pack and move things back to the way they were. I wasn't of too much here in the latter because I didn't know how things were arranged before I arrived the day before. So I went downstairs and helped wash the aquariums, while other return the animals to the sea. Aaron helped return the sand to the shore. We were done by 4pm. Had a meeting to thank everyone... and to annouce raffle winners... extra showbags were raffled too... Aaron got a mug and I got a showbag. Many rushed off to catch the ferry back to mainland... but Aaron & I were staying the night to explore the island and joint eh OysterFest on Sunday.. so we paid at the office, Andrea was a great help! Walked around Dunwich... found out where the bakery and sports club are, visited the cemetery... took some photos at the jetty, went back to the station, grabbed a jumper and headed back to the jetty... and the Little Ships Club for dinner. John, Edith Gardiner and Ian were there. So we joined them. It turned out that Edith knows David Hume... she works in PA researching on osteoblasts. John works in QUT as research administrator/developer? Ian does something... I couldn't hear him. Conversations were helpful... lots of advices from them about job searching etc. =)
Went back to the station... it was weird, because it was so quiet compared to the night before. We filled in the answers for the 'Activities Book' kids get from the showbags.. laughed like crazy kids (ok, this is aaron & me now)... showered and went to bed.
 The Quiz station  Quiz station.. i like those helium filled green turtles.  Shark pups in the jar... and a croc doing his quiz... his mum said it was part of a croc suit for pirate day. Reminds me of my brother's kangaroo suit mum made for his open day.  The touch tank... one of the crowd-iest place where kids & even the adults were fascinated.  Hugo the turtle... we were too busy at our own stations to bother... therefore, this is the best photo we have of him. He's quite adorable, really.  Chalk drawing for the kids & the adults.. Taryn2's one of our volunteers  At the end of the day  Room-13 mates... with Amy & Jasper   naturale  close to the jetty  one of my many favourite trees... the Flame of the Forest... or Api-api, which gave KK its name during the Jesselton time.   That's our room up there...  At One Mile Jetty
Sunday 26th November 2006
Got up early today... the sun rises at about 4am... so by the time it's 8am, I feel so guilty for sleeping so long as if it's already mid-day. So we got ready, and headed to the jetty to catch the bus to Point Lookout. It was gorgeous! Totally different from the other side of the island. At Dunwich, I thought MBRS was the hand-somest building on the island. But no... at Point Lookout, it was an established tourist area. Aaron & I explored it a little... Walked the Gorge Walk, went to the Main beach, sun tanned, had a splashing dip from tiger-waves.. before heading back to one mile jetty at 2pm. Point Lookout was spectacular. It reminded me so much of our trip in south WA, the Gorge, London Bridge, Blowholes etc... just that Point Lookout was little like Bondi too! with the surfers, tourists, backpackers, apartments etc.
We went straight to the Oyster Fest at Little Ships Club when we arrived at the jetty... bought 18 half shells for a whooping $13! Ain't that cheap??? A man (Stan?) came along and asked to sit at our table... and we talked. He's from Tassie, owns a yacht and sailed all the way to Sunshine Coast and Straddie. He brought his friend from Sunshine Coast who then came and talked to us... he used to own a backpackers at Point Lookout about 15 years ago, then he moved to Sunshine? he wants to buy a 34 or so foot yacht... amazing stuffs!
 Sat on the ants trail... stupid stupid 
We had to rush back to the station to grab our bags... so glad we packed up before we left in the morning. Rushed back to the jetty. We didn't miss the 3.30pm ferry, but it was packed... with crowds from Brisbane coming for the Oyster Fest. I really don't like Asians who push their way through! This couple did just that. It humiliates me because I'm a * asian too! I have black hair and olive skin just like those idiots! Oh well... the next ferry was due in 10 mins anyway, special timetable for today... usually, it comes every hour. But I was prepared to wait when we were rushing because we're taking a break.... i hate rushing when we're on holiday... reminds me alot about our north WA trip. torturous. missed out on so many things there... we'll have to go back someday and take it in slowly.
God's hands were obvious!
1) the boat trip Aaron & Jasper so badly wanted to go on the first day, came back at 9pm! The team leader misread the tide. Amy and I were so glad we were late and so these boys didn't get to go on the boat, or we'd be worried sick.
2) Dinner with John & Edith... Aaron & I were going to have dinner at 5pm the first time we got to the jetty on Saturday... but decided, that we'll walk around to the bakery while it's still bright and come back later. If we had dinner at 5pm, we wouldn't have spoken to John & Edith and I wouldn't have got my job-searching advices. Although those advices have me on edge since then... i'm worried now and I need to decide if i am going on a holiday with dad to sydney and melbourne plus head home... or stay and search for a job.
3) The ferry was packed at 3.30pm... it wouldn't have been comfortable if we got in... and met Martin, who does research on melanin-like compounds in MBRS. He was waiting for the next ferry as well. We met him at his lab during the open day... so we chatted etc etc...
Supposed to have a sleep-over with the girls tonight and go to Movieworld tomorrow before Sarah heads off to Canada for a year on Friday. It didn't work out for a number of reasons:
1) Optus has bad reception on the island, so we coudln't keep in touch till I got back...
2) Although we had it planned out on Thursday, things happen... Erin broke her wrist during soccer & will be having x-rays tomorrow, so no sleep-over & movieworld for her. Bec is leaving for Melbourne with her mum on Tuesday, so she needs to pack although she was coming tonight initially. Sarah missed the last bus from Toowoomba, so home she'll be.
Shopping it is tomorrow... without $$$... sad case
In conclusion, the 3 day break was great until we got back to Taringa. back to reality. back to messed up, smelly house. I was planning to clean it when we get back before the girls come over. But now, I don't think so... maybe another day
. It's frustrating. How can one person use 5 plates, 7 bowls, 5 glasses, 1 mug in 3 days. By taking clean, dry plates from the cupboard, that is. Since we don't towel-dry our dishes, why not just take what's needed from the dish-drainer instead of accumulating more each day? I don't really care about using items from the cupboard, as long as the dishdrainer and the area beside it is cleared occasionally! I feel like a maid. 'feel'... is bad! shall not have a heart..
| | | Posted 11/26/2006 10:55 PM - 20 Views - 2 eProps - 2 comments
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