Kev's walkabout: My 27th Birthday cum Taronga zoo walkabout

Wednesday, 18 April 2007

My 27th Birthday cum Taronga zoo walkabout

27 years ago, on this faithful day (18th Apr), I was born!! Wow, 27 years on this earth, that will be like slightly more than a quarter of a century old, and approaching 3-tenth of a century soon. Damn. It's always a mixed emotion when it comes to my birthday. I mean, yeah, it's a time to celebrate, an excuse to have fun, gluttony etc.. but hey, I'm one step closer into my grave as well! And come to think of it, what has this 27 years been for me?? Seriously, no money, no career, a miserable student in debt. But who to blame?? I chose this route for myself. I mean, after my university or even polytechnic education, I can venture into the work force, and like what the then EDB director Phillip Yeo guy said: wash test tube! Yeah right!

So, I don't want to wash test tubes all my life, borrowed some money, and got a god-sent scholarship to go overseas to pursue my dream to be a scientist, starting off with being a PhD student first. Sometimes I feel like I'm like an artist. Artist draws but might not be recognised, ending up generally being poor in their lifetime. Well, their only consolation is that they are able to do what they like during their lifetime - drawing! For me to pursue my dream, I have to give up having a stable income early in life, forming a family with my beloved, bread and butter issue, and rely on aids eg. financial etc be it from those that cared about me, or institution. I can only hope that my future wouldn't be like an artist. An artist's value only increases tremendously when he pass away. He can never see his true worthiness.

Ok, enough of this pessimistic talk on my bday.. I can't just help it sometimes.. Anyway, I took the day off from my lab, and went to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. It's really nice. I took a bus from my place to Circular Quay, where the ferries are. Took a ferry from circular quay to the Taronga zoo wharf. As the wharf is located at the bottom entrance of the zoo and that the bottom entrance is only for those with skyride access, I took the free connecting bus all the way to the top entrance of the zoo. Well, something really nice happened to me while I was queuing up for the ticket.

Foremost, since today is my birthday, and in conjunction with the 90th anniversay for the zoo, I can get into the zoo for a mere 90cents! Ok, but guess what, I gotta into the zoo for free!! haha.. Well, the connecting bus let us alight at this gate 2 & 3 at the top entrance. So the whole load of people just crowd themselves at these two gates to purchase tickets etc. Then I spot that a couple of people went to another direction, heading towards gate 4. Apparently the crowd is so engrossed in what's in front of them at gate 2 & 3, that they didn't realised that there are other gates as well! So, I quickly headed to gate 4 and started queuing up. Then, a surprise came!!

The man in front of me turned and asked me, and a mother and her kid behind me if we had bought our tickets. So we said no. Then, when it was his turn, he just flashed out this 'gold pass' and told the ticket seller that we are together, and wolah! We got in for free!! Somehow, his 'gold pass' allow him and accompanying people to enter for free!! hahaa.. It's really a godsend! I expected to pay 90 cents, and ended up nothing at all. But, the mother and her kid behind me got the best deal. Cos, an adult ticket would cost like $32 and a child $17.50! So, they really saved up a big deal of money. Thank you kind Samaritan! =)

I took like 100 over pictures as well as videos, and so can't possible include all of them here.. so here are just the teasers to what is to come. I will be putting up the link later on... so meanwhile, enjoy the pictures below!!

Me, getting ready to go to the zoo! I'm gog to the zoo zoo zoo, lets all go to the zoo zoo zoo.... lalala

People boarding the ferry, to go to the Taronga zoo.