School holidays over here in Australia, which accounts for there being far too many young people about. You forget how much time children spend either crying or shrieking. A colleague from NZ was going to bring his whole family to the conference, until his wife figured out that if she was going to be left in charge of their three kids all day, she may as well just stay at home. He hasn’t been able to wipe the smile off his face the whole time.
The little girl at the table next to me at breakfast just catapulted out of her seat in fear at the appearance of a Willy Wagtail hoping for some tasty morsels. Her mother compounding the problem (as so often the case) by flapping her hands at the poor creature and saying “shoo shoo!” in a feeble way. And these birds would be serious contenders for the cutest bird in the world – I defy any rational person to see them do their little tail waggle and not be instantly smitten.
These people need to get their priorities straight. If they’d seen my post from a few days ago they’d know there are far worse things to fear over here than a little birdy. (Although have you seen a cassowary?? Those things are legit terrifying, definitely unsuitable at breakfast.)