Yesterday my eldest son and I attended Brisbane City Council’s “Kids Day Out” held at the Mount Coot-tha (pronounced Kuta) Botanical Gardens. I finally learned how to say it after we dropped into the Summit to quickly catch the view since we were in the vicinity.
As we turned off the highway we got an indication that the event was very popular, as a volley of cars were parking in a makeshift car park not far from the highway.
Despite I think it being the first time the event was held, the day was quite a success. It was also advertised for the attempted (and successfully completed!) World’s Largest Rain Dance. It was good to see the 234 people walking around in a large circle trying – unsuccessfully – to bring on some rain under the guidance of local Aboriginal dancers. The record is to be sent onto the Guinness Book people in the next week or so. The Murri guy on the microphone hinted that someone else will likely try to take the record at the first opportunity, so we’ll just come back to beat them again.
Big hits on the day were the fruit bat exhibit (I have no idea why); the brass band (they even played Bob the Builder and a Wiggles megamix); a clown called Smarty Pants; and making his own clay creation. Looking around at all clay sculptured bush animals and scenery – which was the day’s theme – I’m pretty confident my guy was the only one to make a police car, complete with gumnut wheels.
It was also good to see a few real native animals on display – although they seemed too docile. I felt they were probably dreaming of escaping into the rainforest away from all the patting hands. The display had various lizards, green tree frogs, a tawny frog mouth who must have had a few coffees, and amazingly a fresh water crocodile. I patted the croc, but the 4 year old wasn’t game – despite the security of a curl of sticky tape locking down his/her mouth of little sharp teeth.
I bumped into a colleague and his family there. Interestingly they have quite an outgoing daughter around the same age as my son. We thought they’d immediately hit it off. But nope, they nodded through our introductions, then happily went their own ways. This evening they met again at my touch footy game, where we got the reaction I had expected yesterday. They played very nicely, and even had some beautiful hugs. In fact, by the end of the night my son was saying how much he loved her. And the goodbyes were quite sad.