Elsja Down Under

Africa Week- Life and Death of a Kudu April 11, 2010

Here is a sweet little kudu drinking from the watering hole by our lodge. She’s just living her life, going about her day. She’s probably cautious of her surroundings to ensure that a lion won’t jump out of the bushes and attack her. Sweet, innocent little kudu.

 Here is another kudu, more specifically-  his leg, dead and braised and slathered in sauce and sitting on Mitchell’s plate.

Here Mr. kudu is entering  Mitchell’s belly.

The kudu is famous! EVERYONE wants a neanderthal photo op with the poor butchered animal.

What did I think about the most ginormous leg of meat EVER? Well, take a guess.

 Seriously… GROSSEST THING EVER!

Africa Week- Soggy Safari April 8, 2010

While in Africa, Andrew and I spent two days on our own up in Namibia near Etosha National Park. Our lodge that we stayed at was BEAUTIFUL. The bathroom was amazing and there was even an outdoor shower on the deck that overlooked the Ongava game park. We were so excited for our safari adventure, we could not wait to see animals.

Our rooms were right on the reserve and animals (lions) sometimes wander around between the rooms and the restaurant so we actually had to have an armed escort back to our room to keep us safe at night. Andrew loved it!

In our bathroom there was a bucket near the shower. The guy who took us to the room let us know that we should use that bucket to save water while we’re waiting for the shower to heat up. There was also a little card near the sink letting us know that Namibia is one of the driest countries in the world, so please conserve water. We got the point… dry country, need to save water.

Then it rained for two days.

Then the animals went into hiding.

Our safari sucked. We arrived on a Wednesday hoping to get in an evening game drive but we were too late. That’s ok, we had all day Thursday and Friday morning to see animals too. But then we woke up Thursday and it was wet. We still tried to go on a drive and we did see a few rhino, but for the most part we just were cold and miserable as the wind and rain pelted our bodies in the open top Safari vehicle. Our guide ended up turning back after an hour. Luckily it dried up that day and we were able to go out again in the afternoon to try to find more animals. We did see a few- but not many. Of the big 5 (lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo and rhino) we only saw a few rhino and 1 lion. Andrew thinks the lion didn’t even count since we saw it in the glow of floodlights drinking from the the man-made watering hole near the lodge. Friday morning was hopeless as well. It had rained even more Thursday night and so there was no point in even bothering with a drive. Instead of driving for animals we drove back to Windhoek to meet up with the rest of the group.

We’ve vowed to go back to Africa in the next 3-4 years to do a proper safari. Here are a just few of the best pictures we took:

Join the Club July 28, 2009

We’ve started up this awesome new club… a social club.

It takes place on our balcony all day every day and you must be a bird to join. Here are the membership rules and benefits:

1. Fly over whenever you feel like it and enjoy free grapes

2. Sit around squacking and making copious amounts of noise  for hours on end when the club leaders run out of grapes

3. Crap all over the place 

4. Feel free to invite the non-regulars, even though they are a bit retarded and try to fly INTO windows (twice).

Don’t you wish you could join?

Wine Snobs? July 23, 2009

You’ve all heard the term “wine snobs” before right? You know… the people who are SUPER picky about their wine and will only drink from a particular year, brand or region? Well I am definitely NOT a wine snob. I like most any type of wine and of course have my favorites as well as a few that I’ll stay away from simply because I do not like the taste. I’m more likely to choose a wine based on how cool the label looks as opposed to the description on the back of the bottle.  Clearly I’m not picky.

Well I learned a lesson the other day… animals in nature can be pretty snobby too.

Like our birds.

Our birds came back to us even after we deserted them for 3 weeks while we were away. I was so happy to see them but I wasn’t prepared for their return. I thought for sure they would never be back after we were gone for so long. Since I had no food for them I just had to ignore them and sadly, they flew away hungry. That day I went to the store and bought some grapes- their cuisine of choice. They LOVE grapes! Red grapes were way cheaper than the green ones on this particular day so I bought the red variety. Grapes are grapes. I paid for my little bunch of grapes and was very happy that I could now feed the birdies the next time they returned.

So they came back and I was all excited and I grabbed 4 or 5 grapes and went out and placed them on their plate (yes they have their own plate that sits on our balcony).

Well they just looked at the plate  like it was displaying poison and wouldn’t go near it!! WTF?

I was so confused… they LOVE grapes! So I tried hand feeding them. They did make a minor attempt to act interested but as soon as their little beaks simply touched the outer skin they backed off. I thought hmm… maybe they don’t like the skin. SO i actually bit one in half and tried to feed them the inside of the grape.

Nah… they weren’t having it. They refused to eat the red grapes.

The birds are TOTALLY grape snobs! Spoiled spoiled snobby birds. Today they feasted on green grapes and they were happy.

Swine Flu April 28, 2009

I’d like to share with you my feelings on infected ham snot.

I am not afraid of the swine flu. It’s the flu. I haven’t gotten any sort of flu in over 6 years and I don’t plan on getting this pig  disease either.

Yet another reason I don’t care to eat swine.

Seriously though, why do people freak out so much? People die of the REGULAR flu every year. Mexican hospitals are clearly not up to par with health standards since they are the only country to report any deaths (for now). But seriously… people get flus every year. No more reason to worry about this particular one, right?

I’ll tell you what I AM afraid of…

This porky virus causing people to freak out like they did with SARS which would therefore cause flights to cancel which would therefore cause problems for Amanda and Stephen when they fly here next week!

Sleepwalking Dogs April 27, 2009

I FINALLY upgraded to the newest version of wordpress and that means I can FINALLY upload videos again. YAY. Thanks so much to my techy savior Emanuel for helping me get my blog back into the 21st century.

So in honor of my ability to post videos again after oh so long, I thought I’d post this one that I found on another American Expat’s blog. She had this video listed under a post with a collection of videos that make her laugh out loud. Well, I’m always skeptical of those kinds of claims. Andrew always thinks something is wrong with me because I don’t laugh at jokes on The Simpsons. I told him “just because something is funny, doesn’t mean I have to laugh OUT LOUD.” Sometimes I simply just smile, or laugh in my head.

Anyways… this one DID make me laugh. And I think if it doesn’t make you laugh, there’s something wrong with you.

Bird Wars April 11, 2009

As a rule, our birdies typically don’t like other birds. But lately, they’ve been living in peace with a few Myna birds that have been frequenting the balcony. They used to chase the Mynas away and scream at them in their squaky squak voice, but lately… not so much. I’m really happy they have put their differences aside and decided to live in harmony because they’ve got a good system going. Our birdies will come and devour the grapes I feed them but they leave a huge mess of their unwanted scraps. Well, now the Mynas swoop in and clean up these scraps. Win win for everyone (if only they cleaned up the bird crap that’s all over the balcony as well)!!

Well the other day, there were some VERY unwelcome visitors. A couple of other lorikeets stopped by. It was actually pretty exciting. I heard a bit of a commotion outside and went to the door to see not 2, but 4 beautiful lorikeets. Well, I may have liked it- but our birdies sure didn’t and they told those new ones off big time! They chased them onto another balcony, screamed at them, and pretty much tried to swoop attack them! Well, the 2 new birds weren’t happy with being chased away so they came back. And the fighting started all over again. This went on for about 5 minutes. To top it all off, new birdy #1 flew to the nearby tree that you can see in this picture to escape the wrath of our little feathered friends. Well, even that wasn’t good enough and the boy birdy flew down and chased the other out of the tree!

Seriously… how mean are they? I mean it’s great that they are getting along after their past lovers’ quarrels and I’m glad they are now getting along with the Mynas… but they’ve still got some serious anger management to deal with!

A Little Concerned February 22, 2009

Our birdies haven’t been around today. This has happened before- sometimes they don’t come all day and they are back the next day- no biggy. The only reason I’m a bit sad is because yesterday the boy bird (still haven’t named them) came to our balcony and started screaming for food. But he was all alone. No girlfriend with him. Where was she? They ALWAYS come together! Did he kill her? Seriously… he’s kind of mean to her and gets pissed if she comes to try to get food off the plate. She basically has to just eat the stuff he drops. Sometimes I try to feed her off on the side- just so he can’t steal it and then he gets all pissed and squawks at us both. Jerk. She really should find a new boyfriend- but regardless, where was she? Why was he alone? AND, why did he come screaming for food and then NOT eat the fruit that I put out there?? WTF? Too good for my grapes? They’ve always been happy with grapes in the past. I hope they are ok, I hope they come back to visit so my parents can see them next week.

NEXT WEEK!  yay parents are coming soon

I’ll tell you what I’m NOT concerned about… our neighbors. No, our neighbors are doing JUST fine. I know this because I can hear them having sex all the time. It usually starts with the rhythmic banging of their headboard against the wall, but then proceeds to other “more verbal” noises and sounds. They have this amazing ability to do it at 3am and other awful times of the night, but lately they’ve been sticking to the 10pm-12am time frame which means we hear them much more frequently. Yes, I think they are doing just fine.

*Edit*

The birdies were back. All is well again.

Love Birds February 14, 2009

You know how when you’re a kid your parents tell you not to feed the stray cat in the neighborhood because it will just keep coming back over and over and over again expecting food? Well, the same thing goes for birds evidently. I’m pretty sure Andrew and I have just adopted pets… 2 birds to be exact. I’m not quite sure if these are the same two that visited us once before (Lucy and Leo) so I will be giving these two different names… when I get around to thinking of some…because I can…because I’ve decided they are our pets. They’ve been visiting every day for the last 4 days or so. Yesterday they came 3 times and today they’ve already been twice.

So these are our new dear friends…

I’ve already determined that it definitely is the same two birds that keep coming back. I know they all kind of look alike- but when I examine their chests, they just look the same. Check out these two pics taken on different days -definitely the same right? They are totally in love and go everywhere together! Sweet little lovebirds. Ok… maybe I made that up…because I can.

I’ve been informed by Marie (thanks) that these Rainbow Lorikeets like to eat fruit- so I’ve been cutting up bits of melon, mango and pears for them to eat. I’ve already discovered that they don’t like the peel of the pear (because they left a disgusting mess of it all over the balcony)- so now I peel the pear before I cut it up. This isn’t because I feel like being overly nice to these birds, I know they live in the wild and are perfectly capable of picking apart their own fruit. I just don’t want to clean up that mess again! Even Wikipedia agrees that these are messy birds “Their diet makes them particularly messy; they are well-known in aviculture for their liquid droppings and energetic and playful nature.” Liquid droppings? Great… well I guess if I had to choose- I would choose liquid over solid!

To minimize the mess, I’ve put a towel out on the balcony and the plate of fruit sits on the towel. However, they don’t really like the towel so they carry everything to the ledge of the balcony where they just make more of a mess.

Some more info on Wikipedia says that “Rainbow Lorikeets travel together as pairs mostly and often pick up calls to fly as a flock, then dispersing again in to pairs. Rainbow Lorikeets pairs dominate their feeding areas against other pairs. They chase off not only smaller birds such as the stealthful Australian Miner, they also chase off larger and powerful birds such as Magpies.”

Well let me just tell you… this is totally correct! A magpie came and landed on the railing today and these two did NOT like that. They cursed, swore and told that bird off in unison in their cute little birdy language! That magpie was gone in about 2 seconds!

So I guess that means our balcony is their “feeding area” that they will dominate. Well… that’s ok I suppose- as long as they dont start crapping on the patio table.

And check out how tame they are… You can see where the boy bird (I decided the red chest was the boy… because I can) was sitting on the chair, and I was able to fully open the door to take a picture without it freaking out and flying away. I think it secretly wanted to fly into our apartment to see what other kinds of yummy snacks it could find- so I didn’t leave the door open too long.

Caring for Animals August 4, 2008

My boyfriend is so caring… Free range eggs are one thing that he actually spends a bit more money on at the grocery store, even though caged eggs are cheaper. Ok maybe he thinks they taste better but I like to think he actually cares about the chickens. Here’s a conversation we had today…

 Andrew says:

i think these are cage eggs

they taste different

ew really?

they taste abused

Oh PS… I’m back in California. Enjoying the sun and warm weather. Andrew will be here next Tuesday! I bet you are all SO excited

I’ll Miss Her July 9, 2008

Today my sweet poochie Emmi had to be put to sleep.

She got cancer a few months ago and while they did remove a lot of it, it grew back and then some. She started having problems breathing due to tumors developing in her throat and chest so the doctor felt it would be best to put her to sleep so she wasn’t suffering anymore. Pain of cancer can be controlled, but if you can’t breath- there’s not much to help with that discomfort. My mom though it would be better to be with her there as she passed, rather than having her possibly suffocate all alone at the house one day while my parents were at work.

I thought I may get to see her one more time when I go home in a few weeks, but now I won’t be able to. I remember the day I picked her out at the pet shop and I put towels down ALL over my bedroom floor so she could sleep in there without getting pee on the carpet.

I’ll miss my little dog. She had a long good life and was a sweet little friend.

Animal Instincts April 29, 2008

So this is 3 blogs for the price of one. The last piece is by far the most interesting but we’ll get to that topic in a few moments (warning, graphic pictures ahead)! But first- an update on my 101 in 1001 list.

The following items have now been accomplished:

#4. Get a massage with Andrew. On the 17th, my back was killing and Andrew’s shoulder was hurting… so we said screw it- let’s go get massages. I think his guy was a lot better than my girl. It was the full on Chinese massage in a little hole in the wall shop. It was pretty good- but nothing fantastic if you ask me… so we’ll probably try somewhere cheaper and closer next time we go. It was a nice thing to do together though

#73. Buy new pillows for the bed. Thank GOD this one is completed. I finally got rid of the nasty poor excuses for pillows that we brought from Andrew’s old place. In addition to tossing out the orange stained pillows (yeah, gross right?), I also washed the curtains in the spare room to try to get rid of some of the dust, mold and pet hair (and God knows what else) that were on those dirty things. Hopefully there will be less sneezing for our guests (and myself) from now on.

Now onto the #1 topic for the day… Animal instincts.

Yesterday, Andrew and I decided to go to the zoo. It was the first day we BOTH had off in a long time. Not only could we use our discount coupon, but it would also fulfill my “go on one date with andrew each month” task on my 101 list. Woohoo.

So our favorite animals by far were the monkeys. The chimps and gorillas were SO amazing. They just were loving and cuddling each other and one mama gorilla held her baby up to this window in her little cave for everyone to see. It was like she wanted to show the baby off. They are just SO much like humans, it’s creepy. We stayed and watched them for so long. The chimps were hilarious. There were some just relaxing in the sun, sprawled out on their backs with their forearms covering their eyes… just like what I like to do at the beach Another small chimp came swinging from the trees, went over to the bigger looking chimp and gave it a hug. Really… it was so cute.

Here’s picture of a chimp mama cuddling her baby:

Then there were the cool zebras, lions, birds, koalas and kangaroos…

But the most fascinating of all was the rape of a poor innocent elephant. By rape, I mean just that…non-consensual sex! This female elephant wanted NOTHING to do with the male. She kept trying to get away from him, she would swat him with her trunk and nudge him away… but he wouldn’t give up. He followed her from the top of a hill to the bottom, where we were able to capture evidence of this horrible crime. GRAPHIC evidence. The male elephant got what he wanted. All 5 seconds of what he wanted.

My favorite quote was the mum next to us who said (amongst 4 giggling girls) “I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do in the car.”

Doesnt the female just look SO sad while the male is up there smiling in all his glory?? Oh and take a closer look…closer….closer.

Yes… that IS what you think it is! Luckily you guys don’t have to witness the “aftermath” of this event like we did!  

If anyone is interested… the rest of the pictures are here (and they are less graphic- except for a few other mild elephant porn shots). When you go to the link, just click “view slideshow.”

Emmi April 25, 2008

So, here’s an update on my sweet dog.

Emmi went in for Surgery on Tuesday to remove the tumor in her mouth. It had grown so big, that they actually had to cut out part of her jaw right below her bottom front teeth (the teeth were taken out as well). So, literally the two sides of her jaw on the left and right are no longer attached in the middle.

She wouldn’t eat at first, (I wouldn’t either if part of my jaw was cut out!) but once my mom finally could get her to take the pain meds, then she ate and drank.

My mom said Emmi has now been happier and perkier than before she had her mouth cut open. The tumor must have been causing a lot of pain. I was so happy to hear that Emmi has been doing really well, eating and drinking and just being happy!

But today we got the diagnosis from the biopsy. She does in fact have cancer They don’t know if they got it all out when they removed it on Tuesday, so there is a high probability that it will come back. It’s very aggressive so it could come back quickly and it also attacks the bones.

I just hope and pray that even if it does come back, it won’t come back too quickly so I can see her again before it gets bad and we have to put her down. I hope she can just remain happy, perky and pain free for a little bit longer

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Feathered and Furry Friends April 22, 2008

So we had some more visitors. This time it was Lucy and Leo and they stopped by for a quick bite. They’re a little more shy than Percy and Petunia, so they didn’t stay long- but I did get a few quick pictures of them to share with you all.

 

Â

On a sadder note, my poor sweet puppy is not well. She had a growth removed from her mouth today that they think may be cancer. They also had to remove some of her front teeth and her little jaw was broken. She must be so scared and in so much pain. I just wish I could be there to give her cuddles. She’s always been such a sweet dog and we really bonded before I moved. She would just come and chill in my room with me while I packed. She’d come hang out in the bathroom with me while I took a bath. She is just such a loveable little pet. While she is old, I never imagined she would get cancer. I thought she would just die peacefully in her sleep one night. We won’t know the biopsy results for a few days, but I guess it doesn’t look good. Plus the doctor said there’s a risk she may just not eat because of her jaw being broken. While she could afford to lose a few pounds, it wouldn’t be good if she stopped eating. I just miss and love my poochie and it makes me really sad to know that we may have to put her to sleep.

Here’s my Emmi just chillin… poor Emmi. Just please keep her in your thoughts because she means a lot to me.

Hello Friend April 9, 2008

Andrew and I had a couple of visitors today. Their names are Percy and Petunia. They just stopped by this afternoon to say hello. Percy came first, and then Petunia showed up. They just wanted to grab a quick bite to eat and say hello before they took off. Let me introduce you all to our new friends:

This was the first shot I took from inside looking out the blinds. I didn’t want to scare dear Percy away so I didn’t want him to see me… but look, you can just see the cute birdie smile on his face. He wasn’t shy at all, he loved us.

 

I hope they come back soon for more snacks. But this time I hope Petunia doesnt crap on our patio… and maybe they can eat up some of the damn caterpillars that are infesting my Basil. That would be great!

 

 

Â