Place: Our friends place, Sydney, Australia
Time:7.30
date: 23.12.09
I woke up, took a shower and ate my breakfast (LCMBars). Later we all piled into the car (except Aunty Giana) and drove away into nothingness. The nothingness turned out to be Uncle Steffs friends apartment. Up the elevator we went. I didn’t know what to expect. Every thing was soo… so… CLASSY. Gold. All the railings and other things where gold and floor of the elevator was touched up with a red carpet. We finally got to their apparent door and did a small knock. I walked inside. Their apartment was fit for a king. Red black and white was the theme. I walked out into the balcony. The view was breath-taking. Not only was the fact that Channel 7 was right in front but it had the whole view of the Darling harbor.
Later on we went back down. We took a long walk to only god knows where. No matter how many times I asked it’s either no reply or “wait will you. You will like it” . After a long walk we stopped. I did not like the look of the bright blue board with yellow writing. You probably don’t want to know but I shall tell you any way.The board said …. SYDNEY FISH MARKET. Now I don’t eat any meat other than chicken or cuttle fish. That pretty much means that I don’t eat fish. So now I have to make my way through a pile of disgusting and putrid smelling fish and to tell you not a pile but stores and stores of my fellow marine friends. By saying they are my friends I do not even want to look at their poor dried (not necessarily dried but covered in a pool of their own blood and guts) carcasses.
Now I hesitantly held my nose and braved my way into a smelly battlefield my scaly and scalopy friends all over the place limp, tortured and most already dead. After two stores of torture we headed off to the Grand Central fish market? Ha Ha. I got you there. It’s just the big and main fish market of all. You find many stalls that not only sell half the worlds marine life but other colours and colours of flowers, berries and alcohol.
My family, Uncle Steff and our friends and I managed to find a table and ran and “plonked” ourselves down before any one else could. After getting ourselves settled Uncle Steff , my sister and I made our way through the dense crowd of humans, crustaceans and fins, and also feather (sea gulls would stand next to people looking very innocent and strike. No worries I shall come to a more detailed description later). I came across a beautiful shelled creature called the New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel. It was a gray shell with a very prominent dull green on the edge of the shell otherwise known as the lip. Many things happened whilst we went to get our food which was fried cuttle fish rings, or calamari rings as the Aussies call it and vegetable fried rice. We also grabbed a few more things such as sea weed salad and a few of those disgusting OYSTERS I would have appreciated the one that was alive and to make my statement more accurate alive in its natural habitat.
We made our way through the wide entrance built that way for good reason.Leaving a wake of havoc and pungent smells of the dead soldiers on a battle field of pure evilness and sat down with the rest of our crowd. I immediately took the vegetable fried rice and ate it to make it clear that this was what I was going to eat now and nothing else, and when I mean nothing I mean nothing else!. I peered over the fence and into the translucent waters of the Darling Harbor. A few wiggles and jiggles in the water informed me that at least some form of life lived here. I almost thought that all the fish here were dished out on plates ready to be served, batter fried, deviled or extinction which is your pick?
Amidst my thought a seagull landed in front of me and looked at me in such an innocent way, but one of those incidents inside the Grand Central Fish Market recalled and I quickly chased it away with a quick wave of my hand. In the GCFM a man was sitting down with two bags which consisted of fish and in his hand was another small zip lock bag with bit of dried fish which he threw to the sea gulls who ate it contentedly. Unfortunately for the man one seagull wasn’t content enough and went towards other two larger bags and pulled out a fish. The man turned around to find the seagull was pulling in his fish. The seagull in its haste tripped on the second bag thus emptying it of its contents which was a lot oysters which fell over and created a huge spill of mashed up guts!
My sister gingerly picked up one of those horrible oysters and looked at it hesitantly “Eat it Akki” said my father in a mocking tone, but still trying to be encouraging. “MMMHHHH…” Said my sister who then opened her mouth and tipped the oyster whose guts then fell into her mouth like snot from someone who had a very very bad cold. ” aaaaaaaachk” she squealed with disgust. “What did it taste like?’ I asked looking disgusted. “Ssnottt!” She answered. I slowly ate my meal in silence fearing that my parents would persuade me to eat one of the oysters.
Finally the battle was over and we headed back to the apartment and took a small break . After this break my mother went shopping for cake utensils with Uncle Steff as a guide, whilst my father, my sister and I went to the Darling harbor aquarium. It was quite entertaining. There was a really big salty (Salt water crocodile(Crocodylus porosus)) who just stayed in one place and stared at every one and looked as if to be saying no, no too much fat! Nah too bony, yuck! too hairy. At one point he looked at a little boy and probably had the same thought as I did. Eeeewww! that’s too gross to eat. The little boy stuck his finger up his nose and wiggled it a bit. Then he took it out and looked at it. He then frowned and stuck his finger up his nose and continued to wiggle it then took it out. I guess he had hit his jackpot because of the self-satisfied look on his face and stuck his finger into his mouth.
We also saw quite a strange platypus. The enclosure which was up to the brim with water and exotic plants of Australia planted here and there, had a giant log with a hole in it. This hole faced those faces of young and old exited and just so very bored . The platypuses brown face hung out of the hole and it just stared at us. then with one slight jerk it swam with a wake of foamy white bubbles. Was it just me or did it fart? Maybe id did. Well now that’s quite a story to tell when I get back! 
So then we journeyed off back home tired, Sweaty and relieved to get through this day without eating an oyster (well that’s what I was thinking). After a dinner which was eaten with a lot of gratefulness I headed off to bed. Eager to get a good nights sleep, I immediately fell asleep with my mind in a wonder of what was to come the next day.
Place:” “
Time: 7.30
Date:24.12.2009
“Nanga wake up Thathi said the rainbow birds have come” My mother said trying to wake me up but failing to do so. I slowly mumbled to myself “Rainbow birds?” Hmmm… It rang a bell. Rainbow what? Rainbow bus! nope not that, Rainbow tractors? No way that just sounds weird. Maybe rainbow lorries. Huh! That sounds close. What if you add a ‘keets’ to it? RAINBOW LORIKEETS!(Trichoglossus haematodus)
I sprang up from my water-bed with excitement an ran to the balcony as fast as my feet could carry me. At the balcony there was a small railing made of wood to stop people from falling off. Onto this wooden railing was a small metal pot that had been nailed into it by Uncle Steff. The purpose of this is to put bird seed in it so any one who happens to be there gets to enjoy Aussies beautiful bird splendor.
Uncle Steff and my father where already there waiting for me with bird seed in their hand. I silently poured the bird seed in my hand. There they where. On the pot where two squat parrot like creatures. Their small crimson (but very very sharp) beak (as I got to know during the later part of the day),their head was a blue violet like colour, their breast was lit up by shades of yellow-red and orange much like fire and their wings were painted a beautiful bright green.
I walked towards the birds slowly and cautiously not wanting to look like some thing that was about to gobble them up in an instant. As I took one last step forward they started screaming shrilly at the top of their voices, but after crooning some nice words I knew they wouldn’t understand, they grew accustomed to me. I still hadn’t taken a wash or eaten breakfast, and I wasn’t in a rush to do so either. by now they where eating from my hand and I was very pleased about that. Unfortunately this was too good to be true and tragedy struck. The first blow came I tried to hold it back, Honestly I tried but it came. “haah…haah…hachoo!” The poor birds reeled backwards not knowing what hit them. At least it didn’t scare them away. Behind me Uncle Steff was laughing away. Oh noo here comes the second one. I tried and tried. I could feel the pressure in my nose and… HACHOOO!!!! The birds screeched shrilly and took off in seconds.
I turned around with a sad and glum look of defeat on my face 
. I disappointingly lugged myself upstairs and took a bath. At breakfast I had to sit through Uncle Steff recalling this incident to every one at the table. Laughter bored into my head, but as it did I realized the humor in it and laughed with them too. “crept up to them like Sherlock Holmes and sneezed like Uncle whene when he’s snoring” said Uncle Steff pointing at my father.
Today for breakfast I decided that without eating the usual LCMbars I would eat some thing interesting. Wooly’s ( the nick name we gave to the big supermarket called Woolworth) has a lot of cool food that I have never set my eyes on before, because of this Aunty Giana and Uncle Steff went shopping before our arrival and brought back the whole store for us!. So I got up from my chair and went over to the cupboard and started my search. After a few minutes of rummaging in there some thing caught my eye. A blue can of spaghetti. At the pack of the can where the serving suggestions which I always tend to look at on almost all food items like my fathers oats. Spaghetti on toast. Interesting.
It took the can out and got a piece of toast and a can opener and popped it open. Then took the can and poured its contents onto the toast.By now the toast was soggy and heavy after absorbing all the tomato sauce and carrying all that spaghetti. Even though it was messy I was very much content with my brand new find. Not only was I happy with my breakfast, but so was Uncle Steff (“Nanga that is a great idea”). After eating my very own innovation I quickly washed the tomato sauce that surrounded my mouth like a bright red beard.
I went down stairs to sit in the room right in front of the balcony. I switched don the TV and watched The Bee Movie. After a little Leasha( Uncle Steff and Aunty G’s daughter) came and sat with me. Leasha can be great fun she knows everything about Aussie where to shop for clothes(Not that it interests me), all the fast food joints, what to get from McDonald’s and what to buy from the super market. The whole day I spent on the balcony and on the couch watching MTV and trying to name songs and artists that were played on TV before Leasha could. Quite interesting and great fun.
Much to the relief of my most guilt nose the lorikeets came back. I managed to get them accustomed to me. They ate from my hand and by the end of the day I could manage to rub their bellies for a few seconds, but victory is not achieved after no practice. Through out the day I would go and pester the poor birds to eat out of my hand, but I couldn’t just get away with pestering them. I got nipped very hard by their fiery little beaks. I must admit that I did deserve it. So by the end of the day my finger was a rosy red colour with bite marks that stung like a thousand bullets ants behind stuck in them!
And so after dinner I went to the toilet and brushed my teeth and said good night to the lovely leopard like slug who inhabits out bath room. Good night every one! I can’t wait for tomorrow, and so Merry…!Zzzz 
Place: ” “
Time:7.00
Date: You Bet! Merry Christmas Everyone!! 25.12.2009
I woke up as early as possible and took a wash and got ready to shred that wrapping paper. Once everyone was ready we all gathered under the red Christmas tree and started tearing, unwrapping and in my case shredding. This Christmas I got a pair of head phones which you can change the colour of and to my sheer delight I got the fifth book of Artemis Fowl ( Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony, By Eoin (pronounced Owen Colfer). As I came to Aussie the fourth and sixth book of Artemis Fowl was waiting for me I had managed to finish the fourth one and was onto sixth book without reading the fifth. By now I was in the middle of the book not understanding a word. I realized that I very dearly needed to read the fifth book and now I can!
After a little while I got ready to go. Today we where going to another one Uncle Steffs and Aunty G’s friends houses for Christmas. The adults where to go with Uncle Steffs other car and my sister, Scotty, Leasha and I would be in the other car and Leasha would be our driver. She had burned a CD with her favorite songs and played it in the car . The whole trip we heard “All I want for Christmas is you” by Mariah Carey. I’m very sorry but there’s no point in talking about the rest of the because we didn’t do anything. Every one was in Leasha’s age group (20 odd years old) I didn’t know what to do, so once we calculated the time difference of Sri Lanka and Aussie we called our grand mothers house and talked to all our cousins and others. At the end of the year on Christmas we have an annual party at my grand mothers. All our cousins and relatives gather and play. We have Christmas lunch and the highly anticipated Christmas log for desert, and at the end of the day we open our presents! I very dearly wished I was there because I was bored to death here, and badly needed company At least at the end of the day before we left we got a lot of presents! Merry Christmas Everyone!!
- Flit!
