C'est bon ça!!

Afternoon everyone! I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post. The week has been quite busy, but nothing too eventful (yet...) so I think we'll try to keep this one short and sweet.

Somehow I was chosen to go on another release with SANCCOB, which was nice. Unfortunately the weather is unbelievably fickle in Cape Town; if you only experience four seasons in one day, you're doing well. The release was cancelled twice because the sea was mental, so we went to Boulder's Beach in Simon's Town for a land release instead. The poor penguins literally had no idea what to do with the sea when they saw it, it was so funny! I'll upload the video when I get home.

Natalie has introduced our room to French dance music. It's irritatingly catchy... we danced all the way home from the Bayside shopping centre and got some very strange looks indeed! And now we greet each other by shouting "Mitraillette a Natalie!!" and pretending to shoot each other. Standard.

I've started my Advanced Open Water scuba diving course now too, so on Monday I went diving in a kelp forest. I'm really happy because it's something I've always wanted to do (well... since the aquarium trip anyway....) and I can't wait to go again! Antony, the instuctor, got stung in the face by a jellyfish (again)... I probably shouldn't laugh. We also went diving near a golf course so we were told to keep an eye out for the rare, lesser-spotted golfballfish, which can only be found in certain areas around the world.

Reagan and I went on a bit of a pub-crawl last night, we started off in the "Purple Turtle" which, other than the five-legged, half dead cockroach in the bathroom, appeared to be a very respectable establishment. We drank some Savannah and made some friends at the bar. Unfortunately, all of the partying had taken place the previous night and it was a bit dull, so we moved on to "The Dubliner", an Irish pub (what gave it away?).

What a difference! A live band, a cocktail balcony, and hundreds of drunk students made for an interesting night. And alcohol is cheap here, so you have to watch you don't get carried away. For example, I vaguely remember getting up and playing the piano at some point last night...

And tonight we're planning to go to Adderley Street and see the switching on of the Christmas lights! I'll try to take some pictures. Wow... this post turned out a lot longer than first anticipated. Sorry about that! Talk soon guys x

Noel’s Are You Smarter Than a... Penguin?

Hey Everyone! It’s been such an eventful week that I couldn't possibly wait until Monday to post again, so here I am.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I went on a boat release on Tuesday. It was basically a day off work with a free boat tour of Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned). Awesome stuff. We were releasing five penguins and a Petrel, a very prehistoric-looking bird with a temper to match. They were packed into carrying boxes and put in the back of the pick up truck. Laurie was quick off the mark and called “shotgun”, so the other four volunteers (myself included) climbed into the back of the truck.

On the way down to the waterfront, the Petrel must have decided that the decor of his box was not to his liking, so he attempted to work his way out of the handle hole to freedom – at one point his whole neck was out of the box. We were all so scared that nobody thought to tell Anna (who had been looking out of the window) that an angry Petrel was mere inches away from her face.

The boat trip itself was great. We saw the World Cup 2010 stadium from the water and we got an amazing seascape view of Table Mountain. The water outside of the harbour was quite choppy. I frequently sat down on the back rail of the boat so I could enjoy the whole “sea-breeze-in-my-face” thing, but me being me I got a bit cocky and started swinging on the rails. My reward? I nearly fell in. So that put an end to that.

The penguins were released just off the coast of Robben Island. They will hopefully go to join the penguin colony resident on the island. They seemed quite bewildered when they first splashed into the sea, but if you’re used to the small pool in SANCCOB, I guess the endless sea was always going to be a bit scary. 

On the way back we were lucky enough to see seals and seabirds diving into the ocean for fish.

Wednesday was my day off, so Reagan (one of my roommates, from the US) and I went to sort out some touristy things and go to the shopping centre. I introduced her to Mugg and Bean *dramatic music* and then showed her how the buses work. We had a lot of fun shouting “Scandalous!” whenever a mildly attractive man got on. Maturity is taking its own sweet time getting here, but we can wait.

Now Thursday was interesting. I was on Pen 2, so I got to p-p-p-pick up a penguin for the first time. I also got bitten for the first time. Some of the penguins have been at SANCCOB for a while and so they’ve worked out how we pick them up. They know that we distract them with our gloved hand, and then catch them with our ungloved hand. So one of the adults turned around as I was reaching to catch him and bit my finger. Well played, you sneaky creature.

SANCCOB apparently gets a lot of visiting television crews, they do a lot of groundbreaking stuff so the media often show up to make documentaries and so on. But on thursday, we were told that some people from BBC were coming. A little boy had done an amazing amount of fundraising for charity and his dream was to meet some of the penguins, so he was taken to SANCCOB and they were filming him. Can you tell what it is yet?

So we were in the general area, when Noel Edmonds walks past. My first reaction was, “OH MY GOD! IT’S RICHARD BRANSON!!” Then I realised that wasn’t right. Afterwards I ran into the kitchen going “Guys! Noel Edmonds is here at SANCCOB!” but in a room full of people from the US and Denmark, nobody had any idea why that was a big deal. It was a nice surprise though. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work, but a couple of the other vollies got their photo taken with him. So yeah, expect an episode of Noel’s Christmas Presents to feature a penguin sanctuary in South Africa.

I hope you’re all well at home, and I’d love to hear what’s shaking back in the UK so send me a message if someone eggs Clegg or something. Talk soon guys x

A Slow and Delicious Death

Are you sitting comfortably? This is going to be a long one...

On Tuesday I had my first day at SANCCOB, and either because I was nervous or because I had 5 other volunteers to fight over one bathroom with, I got up at 6.30am. Cheryl and her mother had laid out all the breakfast things and we are supposed to just help ourselves. Needless to say, unhealthy amounts of peanut butter were consumed. I think most of my baggage allowance on the way home is going to be assigned to South African peanut butter, regardless of my two siblings with severe nut allergies. But when stuff tastes this good, you have to take some risks.

We arrived at SANCCOB at 7.45am, for a staff meeting at 8am. I was put on “General” with Laura, who is from New Zealand and very fun. But before we started work, we were given a tour of the sanctuary and met Rocky, their resident Rockhopper Penguin. She loves to me cuddled and I have been told on numerous occasions that she is the REAL owner of SANCCOB. Rocky followed us around for the whole tour and took great pleasure in being both cute and distracting.

Tour over, and it was time to get to work! If you’re on General, you spend most of your time in the General Area (go figure) and are in charge of laundry, cleaning, getting fish out of the freezer and making up formula/darrows. Darrows are electrolyte solutions for keeping the birds hydrated; it’s basically Powerade for penguins. Formula is usually fed to the babies and is made of a mixture of cat food, vitamin supplements and liquidised fish. Delia Smith, eat your heart out.

Also, I was lucky enough to be on kitchen duty, so I got to clean two bathrooms and a kitchen. Mum, if you’re reading this, don’t get any ideas.

We went home shortly after 5pm. I was much too tired for anything other than a much needed shower, dinner and bed.

Wednesday was a bit more relaxed. I was put on Pen 1 and the Aviary with Laila, who is from very northern Norway. We finished our duties quite early, so we were sent to storage to find some nice towels for use in the new Hatchery. A lot of towels had large holes in, so before throwing them away we decided to have some fun. A few clothes pegs later and we both have very fetching towel vests, and we spent a large amount of time asking each other to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring. That’s right people, the most remote part of Norway hasn’t seen the sun for years, but they really know their Monty Python.

And we cut up fish for penguins with scissors here. None of that fancy filleting nonsense.

Thursday I was on Mats and Crates, and got a bit too liberal with the pressure washer. “That mat needs pressure washing. That crate needs pressure washing. That penguin over there? Definitely needs pressure washing.” And in the evening, my housemates and I went to Cubanas and got experimental with cocktails. We crawled home about 2am and, apparently, nearly got shot by one of the neighbours because we were making so much noise. Seems a bit extreme, but what’s life without a little unnecessary aggression?

I was supposed to be working Friday as well but with so many volunteers and not that many penguins (before the huge baby penguin influx on Saturday) I was given the day off. I went to the aquarium with the Plymouth girls. South African buses are great! And their aquariums make ours look rubbish. Their Predator Exhibit was absolutely amazing. We hurried on down to watch scuba divers in the exhibit, hand-feeding the rays and turtles - I think I may have discovered the coolest job ever.

For dinner we found a steakhouse that served all kinds of African meats, so Kudu and Springbok made an appearance at the table. We didn’t bother with dessert, but we were on our way back when we saw Mugg and Bean, the Krispy Kreme/Millie’s Cookies of South Africa. You know that thought that always crosses your mind? “I guess I have room for some pudding...” Not if you go to Mugg and Bean, you don’t. We were so naive. I have never seen bigger portions of lemon meringue pie or cheesecake in my life! They were literally about the size of your head. I won’t be going there again for a long time, no matter how delicious the cake in the window looks. I’m honestly not sure my heart could take another onslaught like that. Enter the “Slow and Delicious Death”.

On Saturday my mum’s schoolfriend Ann and her family picked me up from Cheryl’s and took me on a road trip around the Cape. We went to Rhodes memorial, and showed up at a beach just as the Shark Alarm was being sounded (exciting stuff), they lowered the danger rating after we saw aforementioned shark devour a seal. I guess they figured the shark would be full and not have room for a swimmer dessert... definitely not if it was swimmer from Mugg and Bean.

Lunch was in a hillside rose garden cafe overlooking the mountains. I love Ann.

Yesterday I sorted myself out with a South African mobile number, so if anyone wants it I can message them via Facebook. I also watched Happy Feet with Natalie in the evening... we felt it was an appropriate film choice.

And tomorrow I will be going on a boat release! I’ll take lots of pictures. Talk soon guys x

The Long-haul Experience

Airports are not my friends. Period. Admittedly, the overall experience wouldn't have been nearly as stressful if I wasn't such a moron. For example, a "normal" person probably wouldn't lose their passport and boarding pass within the amount of time it takes to walk through a metal detector. Yes, you should always put your passport and boarding pass in a safe, easily accessible place. But here's the completely mind-blowing part, make an effort to remember where the safe place is. Idiot.

And no Boots, I will not pay 25 quid for sunglasses.

But I did have the pleasure of looking out over London and seeing firework displays from the sky! Very nice pre-dinner entertainment. And airline food has gotten a lot better, I had coq-au-vin (so they said, I have no idea if it actually was or not...) with the cutest tiny onions! I think the cabin pressure may have been a bit iffy - I don't normally find small vegetables cute, or indeed any more notable than regular vegetables.

I watched Green Lantern and The Hangover: Part 2 on the plane and tried desperately not to wake everyone else up by laughing, and then attempted to fall asleep. When we landed, I got scared by an angry customs lady (airports again!? grrr) and then got picked up and taken to where I will be staying for the next 6 weeks.

Cheryl's house is also an animal sanctuary so they have about 70 cats, 6 kittens, 4 dogs and 5 penguins in residence. One cat, "squirrel", keeps climbing up my back when I get too close to the table. I don't imagine I will get used to that. I share my room with 3 other volunteers, who I have yet to meet, and I can't wait!

It's really nice here! The people are lovely, the weather is amazing and I'm allowed to eat peanut butter at all hours. 'Tis a good life.

I start work at 8am at SANCCOB tomorrow, so I hope to have some pictures up very soon. Inevitably they will just be of me covered with penguin mess, but at least you guys at home will have something to laugh at. Talk soon guys x

The Adventure Begins

That's right, soon I will be off to Tesco (for the things I typically forgot to get yesterday) and then to the airport! So far the adventure has started like all the others... furiously packing every item of clothing I own, stealing all the shower gel from the bathrooms and cursing loudly at whatever poor, unsuspecting suitcase wasn't big enough to house all of my rubbish.

Packing should have been a lot easier, but my mum wants me to take some presents to her friends in South Africa. She hasn't seen them since her school days and we both agreed it would be a nice gesture. Luckily, these gifts are very well-suited to airline baggage travel as they are both quite large and very fragile - two properties that any baggage-handler will do their very best to ignore. Handle with care? Sure! We'll put it safely under that shipment of anvils and bricks. 

I have handed over my paper round to my younger sister for the duration of my trip. She loves this idea as she gets to earn money, but I think she may have overlooked the fact that she actually has to get up every morning and work for it. I will be interested to hear how well she gets on with that; I'd like to come back and not find myself penniless AND jobless. Merry Christmas indeed.

But at the risk of jinxing it, everything else has gone pretty well. My dad even made a lovely roast dinner for the family with my favourite dessert, apple crumble and custard, which I ate far too much of. I only hope that the added "crumble weight" isn't going to affect the overall performance of the plane.

Time to go I think! Hopefully the next update will be from sunny South Africa, with a vuvuzela in one hand and a penguin on my lap. Talk soon guys x

An Introduction

Hi everyone! Welcome to the blog.

So as some of you know, I am going to South Africa to do penguin conservation (for 6 weeks - shockerrr) this Sunday. I was asked to set up a blog so I could let my family and friends know what I was doing over there.

I'm feeling pretty excited about leaving, but with only three days to go the "Ahh-what-if-I-don't-have-enough-stuff??" instinct has made its presence known. That said, the problem I truly face is the "I-wonder-if-I-can-fit-anything-other-than-the-109432-bottles-of-sun-cream-that-my-mother-would-like-me-to-take-in-my-suitcase" conundrum. I sometimes think she loves me too much.

Right now, I'm attempting to clear up my room so I can leave it nice and tidy for 6 weeks. Against my will, of course. I've never understood why people tidy up before they go away. Personally I think that it's good to come home to a good obstacle course of clutter and general mess, it makes sure you didn't get lazy and careless while you were away.

So yeah, updates to follow! I'd like to think I can write another post on Sunday about how much my family is going to miss me, but I think that's a bit optimistic. The more likely scenario is that I stumble across the guest list for their "She's Gone!" celebration. Talk soon guys x