Grooming

Former Danish actress and now older model Pia Gronning is inspiring. It's always useful to read of product recommendations albeit from overseas sources. She uses Cetaphil which thankfully can be found on local supermarket shelves.  I always need to check local availability - and pricing with our falling exchange rate - for fancy brands.  It's impossible to navigate your way through the vast range of items out there and test what will work. Most will be useless. Hear Ye, hear Ye! Dermatologists of the world unite!

Photo by me. Tower of London.

Mogo Zoo

 

 Daddy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow,

Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow

Daddy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow

And we can stay all day!

Chorus:

We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you?

You can come too, too, too

We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

See the elephant with the long trunk swingin’

Great big ears and a long trunk swingin’

Snuffin’ up peanuts with a long trunk swingin’

And we can stay all day!

See all the monkeys they’re scritch-scritch scratchin’

Jumpin’ around and scritch-scritch scratchin’

Hangin’ by the long-tail (huff huff huff)

And we can stay all day!

There’s a big black bear he’s a huff-puff-a-puffin’

His coat’s too heavy he’s  a huff-puff-a-puffin’
Don’t get too near the huff-puff-a-puffin’
Or you won’t stay all day!

Well the seals in the pool all honk-honk-honkin’ Catchin’ the fish and honk-honk-honkin’ Little tiny seals all honk-honk-honkin’ And we can stay all day! Well we stayed all day and I’m gettin’ sleepy Sittin’ in the car gettin’ sleep sleep sleepy Home already gettin’ sleep sleep sleepy ’cause we have stayed all day. We been to the zoo zoo zoo So have you you you You came too too too We been to the zoo zoo zoo. (Lyrics: Peter, Paul and Mary) *** What an unexpected surprise. Mogo Zoo on the south coast of New South Wales is quite a little gem. I reluctantly agreed to visit as one stop on our motoring itinerary mid-way along the Eurobodalla coast. I succumbed to the incessant and enthusiastic requests. Can we, can we, can we?   How could you not? It is larger than expected with an interesting and atypical selection of animals - the white lion, the cotton-top tamarin, the pygmy marmoset, the green iguana and the red panda to name a few.   All healthy, albeit slightly bored-looking, specimens. Perhaps wild animals also look somnolent in their native habitats, only we don't see the yawns, listless gazes and lolling about prone. Animals always look perkier in the wildlife programs on the telly. Mogo Zoo is pleasantly laid out with ample picnic places for the self-caterer (which we weren't on this occasion more's the pity). The grounds are well landscaped and beautifully maintained. They grow much of their own food in a sweet garden you can peer into from one of the walks at the rear of the grounds. The glass enclosures are spotless so you can see the animals without squinting through grime and cobwebs, or wishing you had a microfibre cloth in your pocket to give it a quick once-over, as I do. (Sad, but true.  I should be in tourism or hospitality.)      It took us two hours to meander through. We could have spent longer. Indeed, we could have left three members of the touring party there!

If you need a break from sun, surf and fishing while holidaying at Bateman's Bay, I would throughly recommend a half-day excursion to Mogo Zoo.  But take a picnic basket and stay for lunch.

xxx

Summer holidays

Summer time an' the livin' is easy, Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high. Oh, yo' daddy's rich, and yo' ma' is good-lookin', So hush, little baby, don' yo' cry.  ~ Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward

We're off shortly on our annual road trip.  This year to Melbourne, then Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road and home to Canberra following the Murray River and the locust plagues.  Last year we circumnavigated Tassie and we've previously driven to Brisbane and Rockhampton in Queensland.  I think we will have pretty much covered the south-east part of Australia after this trip, and what is achievable by road in a radius from our drive-way.  We have lots of stops planned and many visits to friends and family along the way. It will be loads of fun.  Except for the packing part, which I am about to tackle in earnest.  Right now. 

Swimming, swimming

Hi girls.  We're ba--ack!

Swimming in the Swimming Pool

Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool
When days are hot, when days are cold, in the swimming pool
Side stroke, breast stroke, fancy diving too
Now don't you wish you never had
Anything else to do, but ... (repeat)

Lyrics: Traditional song courtesy of Mr Mac at school.
Photos by me.  Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra.

Believe it or not

Look at what's happened to me,

I can't believe it myself.

Suddenly I'm up on top of the world,

It should've been somebody else.

Believe it or not,

I'm walking on air.

I never thought I could feel so free-.

Flying away on a wing and a prayer.

Who could it be?

Believe it or not it's just me.

It's like a light of a new day-,

It came from out of the blue.

Breaking me out of the spell I was in,

Making all of my wishes come true-.

Believe it or not,

I'm walking on air.

I never thought I could feel so free-.

Flying away on a wing and a prayer.

Who could it be?

Believe it or not it's just me.

Charly's Year 4 classes sang this at assembly last week and we have been humming and warbling it around the house ever since.  It's one of those catchy tunes that gets stuck in your head.  I hear it in a continuous loop in my mind at work, as I'm driving, in the shower, when I'm cooking and just wandering around.  Just as well it's a punchy, feel good mantra, otherwise it would drive me mad.  Nothing like belting it out with three kids in the kitchen and performing acompanying dance moves.  Especially when it's the first day of Spring.

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month.  Deadlock.  No returns. A punch and a kick for being so quick. 

 Believe it or not, I'm ....

Lyrics: Greatest American Hero (Believe it or Not) by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer

Photos by me.  Little birdie on my window sill and new buds in the garden.

Farewell Apple Isle

...and so we say farewell to Tasmania - the Apple Isle.

  

Location: Devonport, Bass Strait (Latitude: 28° 26' 60 S, Longitude: 136° 22' 60 E)

Transport: Spirit of Tasmania II by by Kvaerner Masa-Yards,Finland, 1998

Accommodation: Four person cabin and one unused Ocean View Recliner

Destination: Port Phillip Bay

Time: First minutes of an 11 hour overnight ferry journey

Stowaway: Tasmanian Devil. The largest living marsupial carnivore, synthetic, Made in China

Mood: Sad, reflective

Stomach: OK, so far.