Hello Sydney, hello Mardi Gras

Sorry to have been pretty rubbish at updating blog entries for the past few weeks. Lack of Internet connection in the rain forest made things slightly difficult as you can well imagine. Will need to fill you on a few more jungle stories but will first fill you in on where in the world I am right now.

Left Matang wildlife centre in Borneo last Tuesday after a totally amazing 4 week stint there. Couldn't believe how emotional it was saying goodbye to the other volunteers I met, the keepers at the centre and of course all the animals - has been such a fascinating, fun, and educational time. I hope that at some point in the future I can return. I would highly recommend the project to anyone who has a love for animals and those beautiful orange apes.

So from Kuching flew back to Singapore where met up with Mandy and George for the evening and then a super early rise at 5am to get my flight to Sydney. Now if you've been tracking my blog you'll remember my disastrous arrival into Mumbai with the loss of my baggage....now my morning at Singapore airport was almost on par. Arrived at duty free planning to stock up on goodies and discovered that both my debit card and credit card were declined. Not too much of a panic really at this point as blocking of cards has been pretty regular occurrence. What was bizarre though was that my phone which had previously been working fine wouldn't let me call out. Weird. Decided to log onto Internet banking but the system wasn't recognising me either. Starting to panic now - felt like there was a conspiracy against me - was like I didn't exist!! I think I was still half asleep too so my ability to deal with the situation was pretty poor. Thankfully had a few coins in my purse which was 'just' enough money to speak to my saviour at Barclay's who helped me out. Was extremely happy to board my flight in the nick of time and get out.

Arrive in Sydney later that day and meet a smiling Katherine at a hotel on Wentworth St. Katherine has been travelling round Oz for past 6 weeks so had plenty to catch up on and do so until the early hours of the morning over a drink or ten. Meet a lovely guy called Jason from NZ over for the Mardi Gras weekend who becomes part of our drinking party for the next couple of days....

So obviously quite excited at prospect of Mardi Gras, have heard lots of rave reviews over the years. Head down to Liverpool St at about 5pm to get a good position at the start of the parade and end up standing on the same spot for the next 5 hours (my feet and back have never hurt so much....). Parade kicks off with about 300 scary looking dyke's on bikes before the main procession starts - lots of beautiful oiled up gay men in tiny swimming trunks dancing to disco tunes....not really a bad sight to watch. Sadly this is kind of about the extent of the parade so after a couple of hours need to get out to rest feet and back....this is where the fun really started. After heavy drinking the previous night decided not to booze, however every other soul in the crowd had been and while waiting for Jason to finish watching the parade me & Katharine witnessed some hilarious drunken activity. Mostly young kids and mainly girls brawling! Several times somehow almost ended up in the line of fire....these guys take no prisoners. Found it interesting that Mardi Gras is meant to encapsulate peace and love and equality but didn't really end up seeing much of that after the parade.....and I thought booze Britain was bad....heh!