Failed Sunday

We usually have good Sundays but today, things just didn't go right. In fact, things started to go wrong at about 12.30am. Thats when Adrian woke up and instead of going straight back to sleep after a short cuddle, he decided to stay up. This isn't an unusual occurrence in our house but the rest of Sunday seemed to be just as unsatisfying.

We planned to go to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary because they're having a special entry price of only $5 for all Sundays in May. The normal price for adults is around $30 so it was a good deal. About a zillion other people thought so too. Finding a carpark was crazy and took forever. This was on top of the fact that Adrian screamed for half of the 90min journey there.

So, we're there, we're parked and the slight drizzle that was around had cleared up. The muddy ground wasn't all that bad. Unfortunately, the million people I mentioned earlier....well, they were all inside too. $5 sounds like a great deal but surely the animals no longer thought of that place as a Sanctuary.

Aaron wanted to watch the reptile show so we squashed in with about 50,000 of the other people. It was crazy! They had people sitting in the aisle ways and on the steps. What if there was an emergency? I was not having a good time.

Then, it started drizzling again. No problem, lets just make a beeline for the crocodile, walk through the Kangaroo area and then go home. I think there were about 20 humans for every kangaroo in the enclosure. No wonder there were so many of them trying to hop away.

The light rain then got heavier. We stopped to go to the bathrooms before the long ride home and when we got out, it was pouring! The exit from the park was through their gift show, their very medium sized gift shop. Oh my...people, umbrellas, wet ponchos, huge prams, screaming babies, kids...

*sigh* And that was my day. The main reason for going was the lorikeet feeding that I wanted to show the boys and guess what?! It was raining too hard. I remember saying to Aaron in the morning that I was feeling a bit tired and that maybe we wouldn't go today. I should have listened to myself!

Replica of HMB Endeavour

As mentioned in my last post, the HMB Endeavour was in town and we took Aaron. We actually went with Aaron's friend, Toby, and his father. Aaron and Toby are of course, dinosaur crazy. But, on the sidelines, they also want to be pirates. So, what we got on Sunday were two pirate dinosaur boys going crazy.

I don't know what causes it because I believe that both of these boys are quite well behaved individually. Its a whole different story when they get together. The energy level, craziness, 'rude' word competitions (y'know, things like wee and poo), EVERYTHING, is multiplied ten times. They run everywhere, roar at each other, switch from dinosaur characters over to pirate characters without stopping by at being boys. Its a little unfair to say that they misbehaved or were being naughty but that kind of excitement level was really tiring for us parents to keep reigned in. Ironically, the only time that these two get together (apart from the occasional outing like this) is during Sunday mass and for a short time afterwards.

Anyhow, I didn't get to go on the ship but I thought I'd still share some of the photos they shared with me. I do wish I could have gone on as well.

I always thought these types of ships were all 'HMS' but now I know that in the 18th Century, ships were classified according to the shape of their hull. So, the 'B' here is for Bark - a ship with a flat bow and square stern. This isn't the REAL HMB Endeavour that Captain Cook used on his discovery voyage to Terra Australia of course, just a very good replica.


I guessed that it would have been low below deck but I never knew that at some parts, Aaron was the only one that could stay standing upright. And look at this photo with the little door.


Now, one of the interesting little tidbits that they relayed to me was that the toilet was right at the front of the ship. St the pointy part of the bow was a platform with a hole in it, of course. There is more to the trivia but I don't think I'd like to share that on my blog.

The Workshops Rail Museum

We went to a very very cool museum yesterday, The Workshops Rail Museum. The museum is in Ipswich, a city about 40 minutes from Brisbane. The site was originally the Queensland Rail's workshops and has been there since the 1880s. Now, a portion of the place is part of the Queensland Museum and houses all the different trains that have been in Queensland. The remaining areas are still used by Queensland Rail to overhaul the old steam trains. They also still manufacture some of the tools that are used by the railways today.

This school holidays, the museum setup some activities based on "The Great Train Robbery". During one of the shows, Aaron stuck his hand up when volunteers were asked for and he ended up being the robber.



They were both very ineffective and dazed looking robbers!



I liked this display a lot. Maybe its because it has the old sign from 'our' station here.


For me, the most interesting part of the day was the tour of the blacksmith's shop.


The shop has been there since the 1880s but I'm sure they didn't have women working there back then. The person holding on to the red hot steel is a very tough looking woman.


For those of you familiar with the Thomas and Friends characters, here are a few photos of the trains I think they were modeled after.

Thomas himself. Unfortunately, we couldn't step over the yellow line to take a photo from the other side.


Skarloey...


These two aren't trains, but here are Trevor and George. Aren't they cute?


The visit to this museum was so enjoyable because it was catered to children yet still had plenty to keep the parents interested. Its a perfect place for families to spend the day. We enjoyed it so much that by the end of our visit, we upgraded our tickets to an annual membership. They have Thomas and his friends coming during the Christmas so we'll definitely be back.