Saturday

The grey crane (?) is shy and quite determined not to have its photograph taken. I tried to get it in the garden one day last weekend - and even though I snuck out through the screen door very quietly - as I was congratulating myself for getting out there with the camera without disturbing it, I turned away - not sure for what - and in that instant the crane disappeared. I think it flew away, but if it did so, it did so very quickly and very quietly. I'm not sure if it was the same one back this morning - tapping on the window (at roof level) in the living room. A camera wasn't far away - I'd been packing them in preparation of today's visit to the Dinosaur Island - but because of its placement, there was no way I could get a good shot of it, unless I went outside. And while it tapped at the window for the better part of half an hour, I was willing to bet money that as soon as I went out there, it would fly away!

It was obvious that Pearl thought she should be coming with us as we drove out of Latimers this morning. She gave us "the look" - and it really isn't very nice to be on the receiving end of it. As it turned out, she should have thanked us for leaving her at home - otherwise she would have spent as much time sitting in traffic as we did.

Most people think the main business of the Gold Coast is tourism. We can tell you that while that may have once been the case, now the principal business of the Gold Coast is ... roadworks and infrastructure! That, together with the part-closure of the Gold Coast Highway for the Gold Coast Marathon - meant there was lots of traffic - and none of it (including us) seemed to be going anywhere fast. At one point S quipped that the traffic was so bad because everyone was going to see the Dinosaurs. Wrong. They'd found a faster, less stressful way of getting there - I'm thinking they were bypassing the Highway altogether and going along the waterfront. In any case, by the time we arrived at SeaWorld, there were cars parked on the road almost all the way back to Versace, and the actual SeaWorld carpark had been "extended" with people parking in the paddock next door. Luckily we had talked about it on the way (it doesn't hurt to be prepared) ... and we called it - "no dinosaurs for us" ... so we turned around at the roundabout and headed back to down the highway.

But our hours sitting in traffic weren't wasted. Just before the Tedder Avenue turnoff (on the right as you're driving towards Southport) we saw a Plover parent and a chick on the median strip! We were worried they would stray onto the road, but they seemed more than content to stay where there were ... although, given how fast the traffic wasn't moving, they probably would have survived. S says she now has a new regard for Plovers - knowing how much they have to go through to get to adulthood and how vulnerable they are!

The usual crew on Ice Age 4 turned out to be fairly vulnerable too - but not as they have been in their earlier iterations. This time they were battling Gut, an evil pirate, and a world intent on change. There were some good messages in there though and hopefully they won't be overshadowed by the violence, comic though it is.

I pulled out the DVD recorder again today - I had a challenge for it. We had received a link to the interweb for the Russian television show Mouse was on. It was broadcast there on Friday and it was available for viewing on the web on Saturday morning - as long as you had the patience to wait for it to “stream” because there wasn't any way to download it as such. In the end, once I found out where the Mouse segment was, I had it lined up to play - into the DVD recorder ... so I was able to capture it, and can make a copy for Mouse (good work Mouse!) if she doesn't get one from the Russians. The web really is amazing - to think we were able to see the reunion within a couple of hours of it being televised.

Maggie didn't come in with us tonight - she camped down the back in her chair - and for a while it appeared that Pearl was going to sleep down there with her - but she was taking the bed!