Does this sound like me? :) hehe


You are Kermit the Frog.
You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you
have a habit of waving your arms about
maniacally.

FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and
"Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"

LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the
Internet"

HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.

QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."


What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Weekend already? Going to see "Troy" tomorrownight with the girlies, should be fun! Have a great weekend everybody :)

Yesterday there was a show on tellie on Iceland, I got excited and thought they would perhaps talk about volcanoes, DeCode or Alcoa-Karahnjukavirkjun but no the whole show was on DWARFS !!!!! Interview with Magnus Skarphedinsson (UFO) who wishes he could see them and a crazy lady who sees dwarfs and gnomes in her backyard. And then they posed garden gnomes in the lava, yes the ones with the red hats, and glowing eyes and it just looked ridiculus :) And the funny thing is that I saw a similar show, not the same one but very similar, when I was here last time... so now there are TWO icelandic gnome shows out there and the Australians think that all Icelanders see hidden gnomes in our back yards. But dont get me wrong I love the stories about Huldufolk (translated Hidden people...) elves and our trolls, I guess I just feel these shows are mocking our old beliefs and stories... hmmm...

DRAMA DRAMA !! My building was cought on fire, everyone had to run out, or we were pushed out really because the noise made everyone curious but nobody moved. Three fire fighters went into the building but we were let in again within 15 minutes so it probably was not much... We saw no smoke or anything, probably chemistry students spilling something :) Ellen is coming home tomorrow after a week in tropical Queensland, ahhhh... it would have been sooo nice to go with her, get some tan and swim with turtles... My weekend will be spent marking and marking but on Sunday I will go on a choir rehersal. Yes I found a choir and they will be singing Handel, Mozart and Palestrina... very interested in hearing if they are good or not :) Have a great weekend everyone :)

More fieldwork this week with Kate and tomorrow we will pick up 90 traps... We got 3 animals today, one Agile Antechinus (gorgeous) and two Bush rats, very cute but stinkie rats :) Nothing much exciting happening this week except that I had to take the bus to work monday and tuesday since neither Kylie or Ellen were home. I will never, I repeat NEVER complain about Icelandic busses again... My suburb has busses running very infrequently, approx once an hour during the day and there is no public transport after 6:00 pm !! So basically I am stuck if I want to go somewhere without the girls who have cars. Well... thats just how life is, I have it all but not quite all :) I have to have something to complain about hehe. On monday evening it was raining when I went to bed and it was still raining when I woke up the morning after... Completely pouring so I put my raingear on, boots and everything because I had to take the bus and I was not going to get soaked. When I finally got outside the rain just stopped and few minutes later it was sunny... So Victoria and Iceland definately have something in common... four seasons on the same day :)

We have a special numerical system Cedric, so we give them numbers by clipping in their ears. So for example a whole notch in the front right ear is number 1, whole notch in middle right ear is nr. 2, and 10 is a whole notch in the front left year, also half notches and double half notches so it is possible to mark few hundred animals differently... I will be looking at dispersal, the theory is that female young stay near mother while male young disperse to prevent inbreeding. Thats why I will be doing toeclipping because at the time the pouch young are still with their mother their ears are too small to clip, but when I trap them few months later I will look at their toes and I can see who their mother is and will give them their own number by earmarking. By trapping regularly I will monitor the population in the area and see which animals disperse and which stay in the area. I will also look at the vegetation in detail because they are very fussed about their vege, dont want too much nor too little and also prefer being around sertain species of plants.
I heard that you guys had a Eurovison party... it was on tellie here last night and I just had to watch it, I aggree, the Icelandic song was nothing special... The australian guy who was describing it had to remind the australians that they COULD NOT VOTE !!! Thought that was a bit funny hehe...

I just had a brilliant weekend with Meg, my co-Xavier Rudd fan and co-trapper. Xaviers concert was absolutely brilliant and when we were collecting our tickets an hour before HE WALKED PASSED US, stupid me was looking down at the ticket but Meg caught his eye lucky girl. We started giggling like 15 year olds and almost ran after him... He is sooooo cute and adorable :) His music is so catchy and it is totally impossible to stay still when he is playing so everybody started to move when he started to play. Then people started standing up from their seets and dancing... Then a big Hitler type of a guy stopped the consert and ordered everyone to sit down because of fire regulations... everyone started boooing at the guy but Xavier was cool the whole time. Then everyone sat down and he started playing again... then people started to move and the same thing happend again, people dancing everywhere. Then the big guy spoke to Xavier which had to ask people to sit down. I cannot beleave how cool he was and he just made jokes about it. Still there were people who refused to sit down and in the end the police came and took them... Quite interesting but not once did Xavier hesitate or become awkward, he just laughed and said that this was one of his most memoriable and special concerts. He is going on a tour to USA and wont be back untill August but me and Meg will definately go and see him again then. Those of you who have not looked at his page have to look now :) www.xavierrudd.com

I am so tired, have been doing fieldwork every day since thirsday last week, the weekend included. First my trapping with the students in my site Urquharts Bluff and then I have been helping Kylie trapping her site. The students were just great, really cool bunch of people, very interested and I really enjoyed that. Kylies trapping site is very beautiful and we have been very lucky with weather, sunny and nice. The only thing is that we have to walk for ages from the track to get into her grid, so we are getting very fit hehe. Tomorrow we will check her traps for the last time and pack them up and will have to walk up a long hill with 50 traps each... phewww I cannot say I am looking forward to that but hey its free exercise :) Then there is no rest for the wicket, tomorrow I will get a ride with Kylie to Melbourne and I will meet up with Meg who is also doing a project on A.minimus. We share affection on Xavier Rudd and we have got tickets to see him on Saturday. We are very very very excited !!!! Unfortunately Kylie has to work and Ellen is going on a week holiday to Queensland so they wont be there but me and Meg might paint the town red (icelandic expression meaning: go clubbing and have loads of fun).
My favourite animal at the moment is my little missie number 44 in Urquharts Bluff. She is sooo cute and adorable, second year so she had pouch young last year, healtly but is addicted to peanut butter. She was trapped heavily last year and now she comes in the traps every day, sometimes twice a day, very trap-happy. I cannot wait to see her little babies in August, I am hoping she will breed. I will chop a toe digit of all her babies though... part of my job... By chopping the toes off I will be able to identify them when they leave their mothers. More about that later :)

Just popped into school today to pick up the uni digital camera... I am trapping my site at Urquhart's Bluff with 10 students this weekend. It is a part of their studies (and mine) and we are doing some vege (vegetation) work as well. We had some really good moments with the animals today, mostly my minnies (A. minimus)... gorgeous :) specially one girl (female) who was very calm and just sat on one of the students hand for quite a while. Usually they hop off as soon as you take your hands off them. But no she just sat there and let them take pictures and of course I did not have a camera with me... I have been doing fieldwork since thirsday and will be completely out in the bush untill end of next week so lots of fresh air :) I am sooo happy with my trapping site (U.Bluff), right on the Great Ocean Road, gorgeous ocean view and it is also pretty flat so its easy to walk through. I look forward to show it to you guy who are coming to visit me :) Better go home now, we are having Mexican food tonight and a girlie pyjamas party with red wine and gossip :)

I am reading the fantastic travel book "Down Under" by Bill Bryson. He writes about many places that I have been to and it is a must read for all Australia travellers. I find myself laughing out loud reading descriptions of a cricket match, people on a small boat in crocodile infested waters, swimming experiencese etc. I know, it doesnt sound that funny perhaps but he somehow manages to tell these stories in a hysterical way :o) Quote from the book:

"I am able to report that the following are all real places: Wee Waa, Poowong, Burrumbuttoc, Boomahnoomoonah, Waaia, Mullumbimby, Ewlyamartup, Jiggalong and the supremely satisfying Tittybong."