Heidi: 15 Minutes of Opossum Fame...

The internet and social networking media is a powerful tool and a revealing insight into what makes us tick as human beings. Heidi the cross-eyed opossum is an excellent example of both this power and insight.

Heidi is an opossum. She is 2.5 years old. Her claim to fame is that she is cross-eyed and incredibly cute and cuddly.

She also has a Facebook page with 80,000 fans, a YouTube song, and soon a plush toy replica of herself. Heidi and her sister Naira came from a zoo in Denmark and are soon to be the resident attractions at the Leipzig zoo in Germany.

Heidi is to be the main draw in a tropical exhibit that the Leipzig zoo is opening in July. In essence, Heidi's fame is peaking way before the exhibit actually opens and people, or is that "fans", get to see her in the flesh.

So, if one can harness the power of the internet and social media for an opossum, I wonder what you could do for the promotion of an out-of-left-field political candidate, say in the 2014 Indonesian presidential election (after all, it worked for now President Obama in the US, right?)

You have to admit, she is really cute...

A Stiff-Trunked Elephant...

In the inappropriate children's pop-up book category...we have a winner!

I guess this means that I will be paying a little bit more attention the next time that I buy a pop-up book for Will. The question though "how did the editorial and publishing process not pick up on this image?"

By the way, why is the elephant pink? I cannot ever recall seeing a pink elephant. The fact that it is pink...nah!

These were the words that were with The Huffington Post article: Children's Book Fail, Fail, Inappropriate Kids Book, Inappropriate Pop Up Book, Phallic Pop Up Book, Poll, Pop Up Book Fail, WTF, WTF Pop Up Book, Comedy News. I wonder whether anyone will end up here searching those terms?

Ho hum...

Welsh Cows (and Women)...

Disclaimer: If you cannot enjoy a good little chuckle at yourself or your heritage do not read on...

This is something that came into my email inbox over the past 24 hours. Some explanation may be required, then again may be not. I carry a British Passport courtesy of my Welsh heritage.

So, to all my Welsh family and friends, I hope you get a chuckle out of this like I did.


The only cow in a small town in Scotland stopped giving milk.
The town folk found they could buy a cow in Wales quite cheaply.

They brought the cow from Wales and it was wonderful, produced
lots of milk every day and everyone was happy.

They bought a bull to mate with the cow to get more cows, so
they'd never have to worry about their milk supply again.

They put the bull in the pasture with the cow but whenever the
bull tried to mount the cow, the cow would move away.

No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away
from the bull and he was never able to do the deed..

The people were very upset and decided to go the Vet, who was
very wise, tell him what was happening and ask his advice.

"Whenever the bull tries to mount our cow, she moves away.
If he approaches from the back, she moves forward, they said
When he approaches her from the front, she backs off.
If he attempts from the one side, she walks away to the other side.

"The Vet rubbed his chin thoughtfully and pondered this before asking,

"Did you by chance, buy this cow in Wales ?"

The people were dumbfounded, since no one had ever mentioned that they
had brought the cow over from Wales .

"You are truly a wise Vet," they said.

"How did you know we got the cow from Wales ?

"The Vet replied with a distant look in his eye.


"My wife is from Wales "

Eating Your National Animals

Just a short musing on eating your national animals or more specifically those animals that make an appearance on your coat of arms. This musing comes about as a result of a grocery shopping trip during the week.

One of the things that I have noticed since being back is the myriad of products available on supermarket shelves that once were the exclusive domain of specialty shops or health food stores. I am not sure that this is indicative of a more health conscious community or just a community that prefers to get all their shopping done in one spot and at the same time.

Anyway, I have noticed that my local Frankins and Woolworths supermarkets stock a wide range of kangaroo meat products from sausages to steaks. I have eaten kangaroo meat on many previous occasions. However, I was pretty certain that Dyah had not eaten kangaroo before, so I thought why not, and bought some sausages.

We ate them for lunch with some steamed veggies.

They were an excellent meal. The meat was gamey but then you would expect such when eating kangaroo meat. We have this running joke in our house at the moment about what things taste like. Will has some floaty toys that he enjoys munching on during his bath. His personal favourite is the turtle. Long story short, it has always been, and continues to be, amusing to me that when people eat some strange meat that the question is; what does it taste like? If the answer is that it tastes like chicken, then why not just eat chicken?

I have also eaten emu meat (and ostrich meat). This means I have eaten both of the animals on the coat of arms of Australia.

So, my question is this; Is there anything inherently wrong in eating the animals that take pride of place on your national coat of arms?

I could never eat the Indonesian national emblem as the Garuda remains a mythical animal as far as I can tell.

Durex -- Get It On!

Get it on indeed!

This is very funny (and no apologies if any of you, "my readers", are offended). In this day and age where abstinence is clearly not working, then a very funny condom ad is worth posting. There are a whole series of outtakes to the commercial which you can also find on You Tube.

I wonder if this would breach the provisions of the Indonesian Pornography Law?



Enjoy!