What — bush food-type places? Or just good eating? Anything in the Good Food Guide [the NSW/Sydney version, available online] is definitely worth a shot. Tell me what you're after and I'll whittle you down an okay list, if you'd like. :-)

Crows? Ooh. For me it was always the cockatoos fighting for air time with the bloody Indian mynas [sniffs! Imports!]. And the currawongs. Good mimics as it happens. But we have a lot of good mimics. The lyre bird, for example. Check this out:

I will never look at beet salad and yogurt in the same way again. *Shudder*

*Sings* Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he, Laugh Kookaburra, Laugh Kookaburra, Gay your life must be!

Lordy. I'd wiped Elle from my brainbox ages ago. Oops.

There's your movie!

*Applauds wildly*

I don't think Ms Scarlett I-Ooze-Sex Johansson would be quite the most appropriate person to play Young Hils.

Don't remind me. I've had my share of 'dingo'* situations, also mostly shot-related. ;-)

Of one of these! Lots of fun, I'm sure.

I think I just vomited in my mouth a little.

Oh my heavens. They look positively crusty. I used to be a bit more permissive in the olden days, but I still drew the line at sleeping with people who looked riddled. Ugh. That guy's hair! It's got things living in it.

No worries. Enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Oh classic. No, I'm not [promise]. I just grew up with these things [among others!] and have acquired a smattering of knowledge about them along the way. I believe we even dissected them in biology at one stage ... Anyway, cheers for the mistaken identity thing; made my day.

Your vegies/fruits/etc will be fine. Cicadas don't eat that sort of stuff [they're not like locusts, destroying everything in their path]; they hang out in trees and suck the sap from those; deciduous trees [from memory]. They can damage trees from their egg-laying activities, but that's about it.

I've been a few times and you're right; it's not particularly secular. PDAs were almost non-existent [not that I was looking for them, mind].

*Confesses* I've never partaken myself. But a little teppanyaki place I used to frequent in Sydney was all about cooking up the prawn [sorry, SHRIMP] heads/shells/tails for crunchy consumption, and I gobbled those up. Tasted like seafood corn chips. :-)

Yes, they ARE loud! They're something — as I said — of a soundtrack to an Aussie summer [and you do get used to them]. I used to love it when the days got warmer and the cicadas started getting noisy. There are lots of noisy creatures in Oz though; kookaburras, cockatoos [my GOD those are loud little feckers!] ...…

Oh poor things. I guess dogs shouldn't eat a gazillion of them though ... but it's never harmed mine. The fact that 'city' and 'farm' cicadas do come into contact with all manner of poisons/pesticides though, is worth remembering though. :-(

They're pretty cute actually. And if I — notoriously edgy around bugs'n'things — could get into contests as to 'who could find the most' from the age of five onwards, then they obviously have their merits. :-)