It is fashionable, amongst us Mothers, to detest the school holidays; however, I love them. School holidays represent, to me, a slight sleep-in, no school lunches and less requirement for me to be a taxi-driver. By comparison I find the whole palaver of making school lunches, dropping the kids at school, picking them up, delivering them to various activities and homework all a complete bore.
So when Padawan Learner said he didn't enjoy tennis camp I said, stay home with Blossom and I tomorrow - we're going to check out the Great Southern Oceans exhibit at Taronga Zoo. However, this morning he chose to return to tennis camp (what does that say about our company I wonder?) and Blossom and I headed off to the zoo.
The new exhibit is great. Fabulous swim tanks for the seals and penguins and a variety of keeper talks and shows to go to. Did you know all 17 species of penguin live in the southern hemisphere? So if you want to check out these guys nearby their natural habitat go to Antarctica, or make your way to Sydney's Taronga Zoo.
The Leopard seal, Brooke, was so fast and graceful in the water but I couldn't help giggling when she struggled on the land during the keeper demonstration. I kept thinking of the scene in "Happy Feet" when the Adelie Penguin was taunting the leopard seal who was so tough and vicious in the water but a lumbering beast on land.
The Leopard seal, Brooke, was so fast and graceful in the water but I couldn't help giggling when she struggled on the land during the keeper demonstration. I kept thinking of the scene in "Happy Feet" when the Adelie Penguin was taunting the leopard seal who was so tough and vicious in the water but a lumbering beast on land.
Leopard Seal: Come here, sausage. I take you with ketchup!Ramón: Yeah, but first you gotta catch up! [laughing]*
And in other news, not at all related to seals or penguins: if you liked the look of the choc chip cookies Blossom cooked yesterday here is the recipe:
Barbara's Chocolate Chip Cookies
125g butter
1/2 cup
caster (superfine) sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
extract/essence
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 3/4 cups Self-Raising Flour
155g choc chips
1. Cream butter and sugar
2. add egg and vanilla
3. sift flour and fold in
4. add choc chips and stir
5. roll into small balls
6. bake at 180 degrees C for 10-12 mins
Enjoy.
10 comments:
We went to the zoo in early January. THe exhibit was very close to opening. Those seals can see the real ocean from their tanks - it must be enticing!
I too love not having to find clean uniform at 11.00pm the night before, thinking up nutritious and interesting lunches, etc.
The chocolate bikkies look lovely. They could be my weekend baking project me thinks.
Yum.
Well thanks for helping my diet plan out! That zoo visit looks grand. We were hoping to take the kids to Sea World this winter, but our plans fell through because of Mama's illness. I hope we can go next year!
I love school holidays too. For the same reasons as you, and also I don;t have to go to work, an added bonus. Do you get 2 weeks Autumn break? QLDrs only get 1.
Your first paragraph could have been written by me.
thank you for that excellent sounding recipe.
I love school holidays too for exactly the same reasons, to start with...but then, around about day 12 or so...the bickering and the mess and the non-stop meal and snack making wears me down. At that point I'm quite happy for holidays to be over.
Summer holidays are, of course, an entirely different matter. Them, I love whole-heartedly.
Did you realise - if you home-schooled, you could have 'holidays' all year round?
fairlie:
Do you realise, if I home schooled, I would go insane and they would lock me away?
Alice: we get two weeks. One week is simply not enough!
Fairlie: you jest about the home schooling. I can barely get my children to brush their teeth let alone organise them to do their school work.
Thanks for the recipe, we'll give it a try. Ditto for me about the holidays too. The routine gets very tiresome after a while, having said that I am enjoying a bit of quiet today.
I'm with you! I used to LOVE the school holidays when my kids were at home. All those school-related chores were such a hassle. And so boring. We used to have a great time without that schoolday structure.
I miss having young'uns about the place (though teenagers can be fun too)!
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