Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts

Saturday, 18 August 2012

Souvenirs - Bet

When the Musher got to Australia, she called home and asked me what I wanted her to bring back from her trip.

Now that I know that "Blooming Onions" are a myth (I really wanted to plant one just to watch it bloom... I hear they are already pre-battered), I was trying to figure out something cool the Musher could bring me, when she posted this on the Facebooks and asked how I'd like my own "roo".


I really had to think hard about that, because we all know just how well that whole herdy bunny thing worked out.  By the way, last I heard the herdy bunnies were working on oil rigs in Wyoming.

Anyhoo, I looked on the wikipedias first before answering her.  I just wanted to make sure they weren't dangerous, high maintenance, or annoying, and that's when I found out about their handy little pouches!  They also hop really really fast and stuffs and things, and you know... the Cramplings and Whos are getting pretty fast, so it's a bit hard to keep up with them...

So, I contacted the nearest dealer and gave one of them a test drive.


I gotta say, it's pretty roomy, and I LOVE the heated seat!  The ride is a bit bouncy, wouldn't recommend driving one after a large meal or if you have to pee, but overall it was a rather pleasant experience.  They are 3-toed drive, so there may be some traction issues in the snow, but I'm pretty sure they can just leap over the snow as opposed to plowing through it. 

The only real downside that I could see was that they are really big!  I'm pretty sure they require a LOT of fuel, and the garage is already pretty cramped, so I thought I'd try the sport version.


So here is the 2012 Wallaby!  A much smaller, sportier version of the Roo 2012.  Does 0 - 10 mph at break neck speed (no seriously, it really hurt my neck), and is able to make tighter corners, but the leg room is lacking, even with the heated seat, I could see having some serious crampy toe issues if I was driving any real distance in the 2012 Wallaby.

Just to make sure I didn't make any spur of the moment decisions and have souvenir remorse, I looked at a few more presents the Musher could bring back to me.

The first is the Cuscus.


A marsupial with opposable thumbs, it mainly lives in trees when not served with meat or vegetable stew over it in Indian restaurants.   Meh, I have no idea what good could come of having one of these.

Then there's the Dingo (genus: wildogus atemybabyus)


They sorta look like the Pretty Curly Tails, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too keen on the cold Perryvale temperatures during winter.

I think we could probably use one of these Numbats


They eat termites, and frankly I think we could make a good living going from town to town doing some exterminator work with a whole crew of these things.

I did consider the Kookaburra


No beady eyes, no pointy pointy sharp beak, they actually prey on small icky things like snakes, lizards, hummingbirds... practically everything that weirds me out.  An added bonus is that their "call" sounds like people laughing!  How cool is that!

The one thing that totally turned me off on getting one is that they apparently sit in an old gum tree.  Ok, really?  We gotta put chewed gum in a tree to make this thing happy?  That's pretty nasty, seriously.

I'm still looking through the interwebs to see what else might be over there that I would want.  Frankly just having the Musher back home would be fine with me... it's boring here without her.

- Bet

Saturday, 4 August 2012

The Musher Travels - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!  It's time for me to put on my non-roving Border Collie reporting hat back on and tell you all about the Musher's travels!

Yes, yes, I know, I've been busy with the Cramplings and Whos and not posting a whole lot, but trust me... they need a lot of supervision!  I'll be blogging about the new game they started playing on me and the Musher later, but first.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

The Musher will be traveling to the wonderful country of Australia, also known as Oz, also known as the place where that Blooming Onion thing came from (that dogs can't eat because onions are toxic), but actually they probably had nothing to do with the Blooming Onion thing, I don't know I should probably look that up, but one thing I do know... it's not where the American NBC channel says it is:



What I didn't realize is that Australia has snow!  Yeah, seriously!  I thought it was all desert with cute little Koala Bears, and stompy kangaroos and stuff, but no, apparently it gets cold there, and it snows, and if there's snow, there's really cool Sled Dog Races!!!!

The Musher is going over the pond to do some speaking engagements and stuffs and things, and maybe take in some sights along the way.  I won't be going, I have to stay home and care for the puppies and help Musher Mark around the house... plus I'm not too crazy about the list of dangerous and deadly things in Australia... seriously who thought the duck-billed platypus was the Chuck Norris of silly looking animals.

The first visit will be at the Dinner Plain Sled Dog Challenge in Dinner Plain in Victoria, Australia August 11 and 12, 2012!



Then the Musher travels to Canberra for the Canberra Sled Dog Club Sled Dog Classic August 18 and 19, 2012!
Then she'll be with the Siberian Husky Club of Victoria Club Weekend August 25 and 26, 2012!



When she's not doing the racing stuff, she'll be doing some talks and stuffs and things, so reach out and contact the various and sundry organizations to find out when she will be available and giving her really cool presentation stuffs and things.  Who know, since she's still at the pizza checkpoint blog post, maybe you'll get to find out what happened on the Iditarod this year before she writes about it... just sayin... not nagging or anything, nope, not at all.

She'll also be doing some sightseeing in Melbourne and places around there, so if you are in the really cool Australia place, keep checking in and finding out where the Musher is traveling and maybe you can run into her.  We may even have a contest to see if fans can figure out where she is.  I highly suggest you set up perimeters around coffee shops for the best chance of a sighting.

- Bet