Mushrooms

 A few months ago I had an extremely unsuccessful attempt at growing mushrooms. It was quite disappointing as mushrooms are one of my favourite foods, and you all know that I love growing things. I had decided not to try the same kind of mushroom growing system again because it was quite expensive for an unsuccessful attempt. While I was shopping at a nursery in Hobart with a friend, however, I came across an entirely different sort of mushroom growing kit and after talking to the man that works there who guaranteed that mushrooms would grow, I decided to give it another go.

The kit came in a box like this:

 And inside the growing medium was covered in mushroom rhizome

 So I followed the instructions and after (im)patiently waiting the first baby mushroom finally appeared.

 Which grew into a full-sized portobello mushroom.

Which I then picked, cooked, and ate. I have to say, it was delicious! There are plenty of other baby mushrooms popping their heads up now, so I think that this experiment is going to prove quite successful.

Emma Employed

 I have successfully survived the training at Mole Creek Caves, and am now a fully fledged cave guide. I worked my first full solo shift today. I started taking tours jointly with the other newbie last week, did a couple of solo tours yesterday, and from today onwards I'm on the roster as just another member of the team and expected to be able to fulfill my job. So far, so good.

The team I'm working with all seem really lovely, and you honestly couldn't ask for a much better office. I mean, check out these photos (apologies for the extremely shoddy phone photos, but I can't play tourist when I'm the tour leader).

I think I'm going to enjoy working here for the next few months. My contract goes through until early May, so I've got a few months of work and steady income ahead of me which will be nice for a change. Its pretty exhausting working full time at the moment, but I think its starting to get easier now that I've got my head around most of the info that I'm supposed to know so that I can tell the tourists. It sure is nice not to be unemployed anymore, though :)

Platypus

Platypus' good side

One afternoon a few months ago I was lucky enough to spot a glimpse of a platypus in the river at Perth. Since then I have had many excursions to Perth hoping to see it again and hopefully get a photograph of it. Every time we've been there with our cameras armed and ready we haven't seen so much as a platypus shaped ripple. That is until the other day. I spent about an hour sitting beside the river, watching and waiting before I finally saw the platypus just before sunset. At first I was overjoyed to see it, but then I saw that the poor little thing had a huge skin lesion on one side of its face. Platypus in Tasmania have a fungal disease called mycormycosis spread by introduced frogs. I've read about the disease, but I didn't think it was as  widespread as it is, and I certainly didn't expect my platypus pal to have it. Its a horribly disfiguring disease and it is eventually fatal. I've decided not to upload the photos that actually show the lesion because they are quite depressing.

So I'm afraid that my story doesn't have a happy ending. I will have to continue to search for a healthy platypus to photograph.

Emma Underground

Almost two months ago, I applied for a position at the Mole Creek Karst National Park as a Cave Guide. I spoke to the recruiter on the phone the next day and later heard from my referee that they had also been contacted by the recruiter, but after that I heard nothing more about it. As over a month had passed, I thought that I must have missed out on the position and I was feeling more than a little downhearted. It turns out that I was right, I had missed out on the position, but last week another position came up and that one was offered to me. So, I start work on Monday.

Currently, I don't know all that much about caves, but I'm going to try to work on that over the next couple of days so that I feel a bit more prepared to start informing tourists about them. I have very little information on exactly what my duties are, which days I'll be working, or pretty much anything else about the job, but hopefully the blanks will be filled in for me on Monday. What I do know is that its a 4 month contract, so I'll hopefully be gainfully employed through the entire summer which takes a bit of the pressure off finding a more permanent source of income.

The other piece of information I have been given is that its a constant 9 degrees in the caves, despite whatever the weather is doing above ground. That seems like a pretty decent place to be spending the hot summer days to me :)

My new office

It intrigues me how people's attitudes towards jobs differs depending on their circumstances. When one of us unemployed bums that have been putting all our effort into trying to find work finally manages to land a job, we are over-the-moon extatic, but it usually only takes a month or two for the shinyness to wear off and we are just like everybody else, wishing we didn't have to go to work and longing for the weekend.  To an employement seeker, a job is like the Holy Grail - it is longed for and considered something to be fought for and prized if won. To most employed people, a job is just a necessary evil. Only a very select and lucky few people seem to have jobs that they enjoy after the novelty of being employed has worn off.

A long birthday...

I've had another birthday. I quite enjoy birthdays, but I'm not sure I like getting older.
I had, and am sort of still having, a very nice birthday. We celebrated my birthday on the weekend when we were all together and had a birthday pavlova. Then on my actual birthday, Mum and I took off to Stanley for a couple of nights. We had a great time (well, I did and I think Mum enjoyed herself too) wondering around all Stanley's picteresque sights. It was horrendously windy, but other than that the weather was quite nice. I got some nice photos around the township and at Highfield House historic site.

Then, Mum and I got back from Stanley (via a rather nice breakfast in Winyard) just in time to head off to the Tasman Peninsula for a long weekend camping on the beach. We had a really nice long weekend, despite a little bit of rain, and were even able to catch up with some of the family. I got home a few hours ago, and am now in the process of unpacking and settling back in. I'll only be here for a day before I head back to Hobart to celebrate a bit more with my friends and go to Bill Bailey's standup show. Not having a fulltime job is sometimes useful in that I have lots of spare time to do all this travelling around the countryside and enjoying myself :)

Stanley!

I'm unreasonably looking forward to spending some time at Stanley, "the Port Wenn of Tasmania", next week with Mum. I've been wanting to spend some time playing tourist there since I visited it very briefly on a work trip  a year or so ago. I'm hoping for some gorgeous sunny weather, but given the weather we've had recently, overcast and showers is perhaps more likely. Either way, unless its completely stormy, I'm sure I'll have a great time.

Can't wait to find the best coffee in Stanley with you, Mum :)

Don't I sound sophisticated...

I was out and about being cultured two nights in a row last week. Well going to opening night at the theatre and a fundraising Ball sounds cultured, doesn't it? It really isn't, but it was a lot of fun anyhow.

I organised a girl's night group to come with me to The Vicar of Dibley play, being put on by Encore Theatre at the Earl. Due to our various commitments, the night that worked best for all of us was opening night, and due to there being hardly any seats available where all four of us could sit together, we ended up in the very front row. So there we were, at the theatre, in the front row, on opening night. Thankfully, the Earl is one of those places that sitting in the front row is actually a good thing, not like some theatres where you really can't see anything from the front row.

The play was quite good, which I was very pleased about given that I was the only one from our little group that usually goes to the theatre and I had convinced the others to come with me. The local cast were really good, especially Alice, Owen, and Mr Horton - you could be forgiven for forgetting that you weren't watching the original actors. Unfortunately, Sue Hodge's performance as the Vicar was less than stellar. Overall, the play was quite good and kept us all entertained. The girls said that they wouldn't mind going to another one, so I may have converted them into theatre goers.

 The next night was the local Hospital Ball, a fundraising event that I was attending as Mum's date. I like to think that I was a good date for the evening. The band, 24/7, did classic pub rock covers from the 70s to the 90s and were actually very good. We even danced to quite a few of the songs. And I got a balloon! Unfortunately, that balloon has now died, but it was fun while it lasted.