Short and Sweet

...That's what this blog will be.

Looking at the date of my last blog it has been some time since I last posted. Since my last post both my own footy career with Trinity college, and the professional AFL league season have come to a close (or will be shortly), and with it my work at the Melbourne Cricket Ground's has also come to an end.

As students back home once again return to the books, we are just now going on mid-semester break. Four friends and I will be heading north to Carins on Thursday (the 18th) in a rented station wagon with two tents and a hope for lots of free beach to camp on. As the weather is just now hitting 23 degrees in Melbourne, we all anxiously await the 2800 km drive up to thirty degree plus weather in Cairns.

Now...the possum. Well before I had arrived here I had naively expected - or rather hoped - that the Australian racoon would be the Tasmanian Devil. As it turns out the Australian Racoon is the Ringtailed Possum pictured above. They look like huge furry rats, and are usually about a foot to a foot and a half in body length, and another foot in tail length. They hop from branch to branch and run across the footpaths in front of you twenty-four hours always as if they're late for an important date.

Although it seems that there are at least twenty of them just on the college grounds I hadn't really encountered one until a few nights ago. While walking back to my room late one night with a friend I suddenly realized that something had just crawled up me and jumped onto a tree. Indeed it all happened so fast that I didn't let out a yelp until two seconds after it had jumped from my face. As my heart stopped I realized that I had just stepped on what had appeared to be a black shadow, and the shadow in shock had then climped up to my knee, jumped up on to my arm, and then climbed over my face to the safety of a nearby branch leaving a wet sensation on my arm and face.

I don't think it qualifies as Australian Experience Number 4, but it was certainly an experience!