MELBOURNE Zoo’s seal keeper Mark Keenan is used to being the envy of his friends and family.
It’s not hard to see why — he has one of the most interesting jobs on the planet.
On a rain-swept Friday during the school holidays he casually tosses a fish to one of the zoo’s oldest members, Silva, a 22-year old seal that he’s been training for the past month.
Silva gratefully accepts the food as smiling children look on.
‘‘Every trained animal in a zoo will always play up in front of an audience,’’ Mr Keenan says.
He has been a zoo keeper for the past four years. He has worked with butterflies, Australian native animals, elephants and orang-utans.
It’s a far cry from managing a skate shop, which he did for many years before deciding to bite the bullet and return to his first love; animals.
‘‘I got to a point in my career where I said, ‘What am I doing’?’’ he recalls. ‘‘Zoo keeping is one of those things that everybody wants to do. The golden bucket at the end of the rainbow.’’
Mr Keenan had a degree in environmental management so volunteered at the Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park in Pearcedale.
He then worked at the Melbourne Aquarium for more than a year before landing a job at Melbourne Zoo.
Mr Keenan is one of about 150 keepers at the Zoo.
He says he enjoys working with seals, except for some minor drawbacks such as having to squeeze into a wetsuit each day and dive underwater to scrub algae off the cages.
‘‘I enjoy being in the water, but it’s more that psychological hurdle to get over. I’m not even feeling warm now and I have to go for a swim.’’
Those downsides are overshadowed by the “perks” that come with the job, such as filming the birth of the zoo’s newest baby elephant, Mali.
‘‘There’s no doubt I feel very lucky,’’ he says.
‘‘Most people are generally quite interested [when I tell them what I do]. They think it’s probably the best job in the world.’’
Terri McNaughton’s voice quivers ever so slightly as the seconds drag on and the crowd waits with bated breath and bright red ears.
A bingo caller down at Windy Hill, Ms McNaughton can feel the tension filling the room.
‘‘You just wonder where it’s gonna come [the lucky winner],’’ she says.
‘‘They [the players] get a bit excited and it just builds up.’’
Ms McNaughton stumbled into bingo calling when a friend told her she might have the right sort of voice for the caper.
‘‘I had been playing bingo for a lot of years. That was my relaxation,’’ she says.
‘‘[My friend] was the manager at Windy Hill. She said, ‘you’ve got a good voice and a big mouth’.
‘‘I thought I’ll give it a try and I’ve been there ever since.’’
Ms McNaughton calls the numbers from a machine that spits them out at random.
Unlike some callers, she doesn’t bother with bingo lingo for certain numbers — with one exception, her favourite number 11, or in bingo speak, Legs Eleven.
Ms McNaughton has a special connection to number 11 — her house number is 11 and her sister and son are born on the 11th of the 11th.
She says she relishes her role as a bingo caller and still finds time to play a game or two herself at a nearby RSL.
The secret to a good call, she says, is not to get too flustered.
‘‘You have to have a momentum. You need to keep an even pace. If you get too jerky it tends to put people off.’’
It’s a job many people dream of and one that has almost everyone drooling.
Flemington resident Kath Lockett has to pinch herself now and then because her job tasting chocolate is a sweet reality.
Ms Lockett became a chocolate taster five years ago after reading a chocolate blog online and writing about her ‘‘lust’’ for the Cadbury Creme Egg back in high school.
The site’s owners liked her blog so much they paid Ms Lockett to taste chocolate and write reviews.
She did that for about four years before branching out on her own and setting up her own site — GoneChocco.
Since then, she’s received more than 145,000 page views and written about 150 chocolate reviews.
Asked about people’s reaction to her job, Ms Lockett says most people are envious.
‘‘Then again, they can also see that I’m not exactly a string bean or have the best skin in the world. Try having zits in your forties,’’ she says.
Ms Lockett says most aspects of the job are positive, apart from a few health concerns.
‘‘I’ve managed to keep most of the choc-relate flab at bay by running eight kilometres three days a week and power walking the same distance twice a week, but my cholesterol level is not so good, 7.4.’’
Ms Lockett’s other interests include writing and photography, and she has written a “Dummies” book about work/life balance.
But when it comes to chocolate, more specifically choosing her favourite, she finds the question difficult.
‘‘It’s an impossible one to answer,’’ she sighs.
‘‘Sometimes it’s a daggy old classic that I crave and there’s nothing to be ashamed of in that.
‘‘Or something hand-made, like fresh truffles, or a posher-style block that’s not available everywhere or whatever’s on special at the local supermarket.’’
Whathathat sort of person gets someone else to walk
their dog?
According to dog walker Julie Fisher, it’s got little to do with people who can’t be bothered doing it themselves and more to do with pet owners being conscientious.
‘‘It’s people that are busy at work,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s conscientious good owners that are thinking of their animals.’’
Ms Fisher, of Moonee Ponds, took over a Lonely Pets Club franchise last year, a business that involves pet sitting and dog walking.
A former IT trainer, she says the career switch has been a blessing.
‘‘I got to a point in my life where I decided I wanted to do something for me,’’ Ms Fisher says.
‘‘It just all fitted. It ticked all the boxes for me. A change of lifestyle, being my own boss. It wasn’t necessarily about the money.’’
Ms Fisher walks about 60 dogs a week, no matter what the weather is. Each walk goes for about 30 minutes.
Ms Fisher says most people are intrigued when they hear what she does for a profession.
‘‘They think ‘Oh how lucky you are’. A lot of my friends are animal lovers. They think it’s fantastic,’’ she says.
‘‘[The best part] is meeting the animals and seeing their faces when I get there everyday because they know what I’m there for.’’
Ms Fisher has two dogs of her own, a chocolate toy poodle and a pomeranian cross.
She says being a dog walker has meant she can spend more time with her own pets.
‘‘I probably find more time than I used to. When I worked in a normal job I got home at different times, but with this job I see them during the day.’’
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