Ask a New Yorker: How is your day going?
Kristy: Oh, I’m great. We’ve just finished a three hour walking tour with Photo Trek Tours. It’s been excellent. We’ve seen more of the city this morning then the whole time we’ve been in New York.
Ask a New Yorker: Walking tour, pray tell?
Kristy: We walked. We talked. We had our photos taken had some iconic spots. It’s been really great.
Ask a New Yorker: What was your favorite destination?
Kristy: I loved the Brooklyn Bridge, beautiful.
Ask a New Yorker: Where are you from?
Kristy: We’re from Brisbane, Australia. We’ve left the sunny part of the world to come to the freezing cold. First time I’ve been to New York and first time we’ve been in snow. Love it.
Ask a New Yorker: Long flight?
Kristy: Dreadfully long. It was fourteen hours from Brisbane to LA with a two night layover. Then we made our 6hr journey to New York City.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s the vibe, the allure? Could you ever live here?
Kristy: I would move here in a second absolutely. You really know how to celebrate Christmas. Everywhere you look there are fairy lights and Christmas trees. It’s just beautiful.
Ask a New Yorker: Are you vegemiters?
Kristy: Vegemite is an Australian invention. We have it on our toast for breakfast. You have to spread it very thinly. I think people have the perception that it has to go on thick. If it’s too thick you’ll be sick.
Ask a New Yorker: I like that phrase. ‘If it’s too thick you’ll be sick’, you have another slogan that’s very sunny?
Kristy: Slip, slop, slap. Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat. I believe the Australian government came up with this for sun protection, UV rays are pretty strong. When you go out in the sun the burn time in the summer is about ten minutes, twenty minutes in the winter.
Ask a New Yorker: Good to be a dermatologist in Australia.
Kristy: Yes, they are money makers, cash cows for sure.
Ask a New Yorker: What do you do?
Kristy: I work at the Royal Brisbane hospital. I’m an administrator for women with breast cancer and gynecological cancer. So I coordinate their treatment plans.
Ask a New Yorker: Random question: What’s the largest ethnic group in Australia?
Kristy: I would say the Greeks, especially in Melbourne. We also have a lot of Indians and Muslims. We are very multi-cultural.
Ask a New Yorker: How is Skippy doing these days?
Kristy: Skippy is our Kangaroo. It used to be a TV show. Kangaroos are our national emblem. We will eat kangaroo. It’s very lean meat, quite tasty, really its dog food as well, obviously prepared differently.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you see them regularly?
Kristy: Bizarre as it is, we have a family of Kangaroos that live down the back of our estate. We have a lake from across the road from our house and they come down to drink the water. So we often see the little family of three. It’s not common. It’s not on every street.
Ask a New Yorker: A family of Kangaroos in you back yard, lovely. What other wildlife is there?
Kristy: We have Koalas. There not called Koala bears just Koalas.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you eat them?
Kristy: No, we don’t eat the Koala’s, they’re quite cute. But, they can be quite vicious if they come up to you. They have long claws for climbing the trees. But they are quite common in the urban areas.
Ask a New Yorker: They’re vegetarian. They eat eucalyptus leaves, right? I wonder if they would like vegemite?
Kristy: The male mating call is quite loud. It will keep you up at night.
Ask a New Yorker: Kangaroos and koalas.
Kristy: We also have spiders and snakes. The awful thing is, is that we have the world’s most deadly spiders and snakes. And you can get them in your back yard. The Funnel Web spider is very deadly. The Red Back spider will hurt you and hospitalize you. Snakes are my biggest fear.
Ask a New Yorker: Who is this next to you?
Kristy: This is my husband Paul. We’ve been married for five years in a couple of weeks. We are actually off to Tiffany’s to by an eternity ring. Yay for me!
Ask a New Yorker: Big spender.
Paul: Well she’s been asking for a while, so I thought what better place to buy a ring than in New York?
Ask a New Yorker: Beautiful, Paul, home run.
Paul: Yea, a few brownie points (laughter)
Ask a New Yorker: Great meeting you two and happy, healthy 2011!
