Big hairy animals

Yesterday was another exciting day for us. One of the highlights was the fact that Dan's had his first travelling haircut. We have gathered from others' experience that the men who are off travelling tend to either grow their hair until they get back and have a normal haircut, or they choose to experiment with the local hairdressers. That's what Dan decided to do yesterday, and because we're still safe and sound on Australian soil, this should have been a safe option. In theory that is the case, but what actually happened is that we managed to choose a hairdressers that was run by Japanese people, and the whole thing was quite hilarious. I was sat there with Dan waiting for him and this may have lead his hairdresser to think that he may not have spoken a great deal of English, and that I was there to interpret on his behalf. When he was about to start cutting his hair he called me over (not having said anything to Dan), and asked me how he should cut his hair. He then had a discussion with me about how we think his hair should be cut and how it should look like, ignoring poor Dan altogether. It was a bit of a shame, because Dan would have been good at telling the man to leave his sides a bit longer, and cut a bit more off the top. Well, because he didn't have a chance to do that, he's not got this ultra hip and trendy hair that's hyper short on the sides and really quite long up top, making him look really tall! I'll put up some photos soon for you to see (we've bought an adaptor so we're back taking photos).

Another exciting thing yesterday was that we went to Taronga Zoo, and saw lots of kangaroos and wallabys and koalas and a Tasmanian devil, and all sorts of great Australian special creatures. The best thing was that we managed to stroll through this area where kangaroos were just hopping about amongst visitors, and there was a zoo keeper there who picked up one of the smaller kangaroos, it was only 9 months old, and we were able to stroke it! Its fur was incredibly soft, and they're such cool animals, totally ridiculous to look at as you all know, but spectacularly muscular and cute. To my excitement there was also one kangaroo mum with its baby looking out of its pouch - so sweet!

On Sunday evening we went for a couple of pints (or schooners as they're known here) in this karaoke bar next to Chinatown. It was such a cool place, it felt like we were in a wedding because it was a complete mix of these cool young things in sparkly tops, and also people their parents age, and the oldest person was a 82 year old man who did a brilliant karaoke song. The atmosphere was brilliant, everyone knew each other and it seemed they all went to the karaoke night every week (we had seen them all there the previous Sunday night as well) and everyone was just having amazing time and drinking and singing and dancing along to this mix of good songs and some just dreadful ones which I guess is the norm with karaoke. Anyway if you are in Sydney on a karaoke night (Thurs - Sun) and want to have a weird evening, go to the Covent Garden Hotel for a sing along. You'll be amazed to see this lady in her seventies who did a couple of songs, and she had created a dance routine for each number to go with her singing - everyone thought she was hilarious and great. Apparently she auditioned for the Australian pop idol but didn't get through, what a shame, she was brilliant!

Today we went to the Blue Mountains and had a great time doing walks and enjoying the views of the mountains, which by the way do look really blue!

We'll fly off to Bangkok tomorrow, and we'll be there about 2am. We don't yet have anywhere to stay for the night and neither of us have ever been there before, so keep your fingers crossed we'll find a bed for the night.

Lots of love and hauskaa vappua to all the Finnish ones!
Jenni and Dan