Sunday whingefest (with New Improved Koalas!)

I planned to watch a TV documentary this afternoon about Karen Blixen. I've always imagined I would have liked the woman, based on:
(a) the way she writes;
(b) Meryl Streep's portrayal in Out of Africa; and
(c) that hat**
And even though I didn't make it through to the end of the Paris Review article (disillusioned by the way she was talking), still I expected to like her anyway, and wanted to see this documentary.

First I got caught up here on the computer and lost track of time. Missed the first bit. Turned the TV on, and watched about five minutes (Denys the True Love was about to arrive) but then the dogs started barking frantically and I could hear a weird noise over in the koala area - a different sort of call (see the previous post), maybe the female variety, and in broad daylight, early afternoon: weird.

So I had to go over and investigate. And yes, I should have started taping the documentary before I left, but did I think of that?

First there was this:


A koala, high in the tree and not holding on to anything, just sitting there, its arms practically folded across its chest.


Very impressive, as far as senseless bravado goes, and I was amazed at its mighty powers of balance (it's quite breezy here today, and that branch would have been moving around a lot).

Then I turned to go - back to the TV, yes. But in turning I spied the base of the tree, which suddenly looked like this:


!!! Bloody hell! That's one close koala! (More photos in my Flickr account, starting with Koala1 and proceeding to Koala4)

I went closer. It didn't move. I went closer still. It still didn't move. I was about 3 metres away and talking out loud (saying really intelligent things, like "Hellooo!" and "Oh! Hello!!") Soon the poor animal climbed the tree, probably trying to get away from such fascinating conversation.

So I went back to the TV. But by this time Denys had already died, damn it, and anyway I was distracted, trying to transfer the koala photos from camera to computer, and blah blah de blah blah. Roll credits.

Bloody weekends. I also planned to do some gardening. Yeah, it's still not too late, but where's the torch?

**Yes, the hat I now can't find an image for. It was in the film - so wasn't actually Ms Blixen's hat at all - the scene where Meryl is striding through the coffee, wearing all white, I think, and this huge beautiful hat. Every time I stride through the coffee here, I imagine myself looking exactly the same way...