We went to the park...and down the coast

Now that I've finally posted about the trip to the zoo (btw, I probably should mention that the zoo in question was Taronga), I feel free to mention a more recent trip out.

A few weeks ago, Luke, Imogen and I ventured on another small outing, this time accompanied by their younger brother Fergus and also by B2. Yes, he made it. No PhD widowhood for me this time.

We had a great time. Fergus discovered the "Spoon of destiny" (I wouldn't let him play with the bottle opener, but he discovered the spoon made a great noise when rattled inside our stainless steel cups), Luke, Imogen and I practiced our photography, and so did B2 - playing with the camera tripod which was an early Christmas present. He did some great panoramic shots, which can be viewed through links on his page.

Also, last weekend, I was a non-widow again when we went down to Jervis Bay with some old uni friends. We had a great time, and indulged in some serious sandcastle building. I started off with a very simple sandcastle, and managed to convince Ray to join in:

Of course, I was surrounded by engineers. It wasn't long before they had decided to pitch in with their version of what should be done:
And very soon we had a magnificent sandcastle which contained no part of the original architecture. Such is the way of all great cities.


Images from the weekend are available here. It involved the boys spending a lot of time playing with a rubber chicken. I'm told that close contact is the way to be infected with bird flu, although Marc assures us that his chicken should be free of H5N1. Still, I should be safe - I didn't get too close, and it's still not transferable between humans.