Itchy, tired but enjoying da monkeys

Well we've done about a week worth of animal park work now. It's going well. In fact i will keep this quick cos i am tired and its now 10.20pm and i want to go to bed. I get up at 7am every day, eat brekky at 7.30am and am working by 8am. Work finishes at 6.30pm and then usually its a shower to wash the monkey off the body, down to a local restaurant where we drink a couple of beers, eat a large meal and sometimes the three of us sharing a room at the hostel are all in our beds by 10pm. We are so tired by the end of the day. We have decided to pay to rent at a hostel nearby rather than living in either of the two hostels that the park provides as part of the 'cover charge'. Apparently the standard of the two places is pretty bad. A guy today was telling me how his feet are itchy due to bug bites while at work but its ok because the bed he's sleeping in probably hasnt had the sheets changed for two or three of its last occupants so he can just rub his feet on the sand on the sheets and that makes them feel better. Gross. So many people get sick too. Yet for the equivalent of about $3 australian a night we are in a hostel that mostly has hot water and is mostly clean and the sheets do get changed. Yet some people are still so tight about it! Its worth the extra money to stay healthy i reckon.

We are basically healthy apart from my hands. The sandflies and mozzies seem to hang around the spider monkeys and since using bug repellant isnt good for the monkeys, we cant wear any so i wear long sleeves even on the warmest days and just get bitten on my hands. My hands look like i've got smallpox or something. A dude told me that today actually. I have got to get to the tourist centre where apparently they have something that is 'natural' and that i can wear around the monkeys. Otherwise i will just have to put up with it. Its not a big deal, just a bit annoying. And itchy. At least no monkeys have bitten me yet. Two girls in the group of 5 people who look after the spider monkeys today copped a bite. One from a capuchin monkey when a girl tried to scare it away from the spider monkeys food (three stitches to the back of the head for her trouble) and one from a slightly nervous new male spider monkey who just got a fright from another monkey and decided to turn on the poor girl sitting next to him. It was just a couple of quick bites before he calmed down. He almost seemed to realise he had done wrong too cos he was going up to the girl afterwards and making cooing noises like he felt bad or something. She just needed a bandage to the arm. It reinforced for me that even though most of the time they are really gentle animals, they can go a bit nuts at a moments notice. But generally they are fine and fun to be around. :)

Ok, dead tired so gotta go.
Cannot believe the Pies are still winning! I should definitely go away more often...
And yeah, tasmanian tiger, tasmanian devil, whatever!