August 22. Day 235. Having a real spray

Kids today have opportunities we could never have dreamed of.
Their worlds have few barriers. They travel more, the see more, they are exposed to so many new, exciting and wonderful things.
And of course as digital natives, the things they can know and experience in Virtual sense at the click of a mouse are also quite extraordinary.
But when we look at what they have gained, occasionally it is worthwhile considering what has been lost.
Simple things. Things like running under a sprinkler.
Remember those summer days before every second person had a pool in the back yard where we would run under the hose or the sprinkler? Remember how much fun that was?
They were serious sprinklers too, not like these water efficient ones doing the business at South Bank this morning. You would get a serious soaking not a gentle spray like these ones deliver.
Until they develop a laptop that can deliver you a real spray, happily there are still things the real world does far better than Virtual Reality.
Spray over.

May 4. Day 125. Pot of gold

Just about every child who grew up in is part of the world would have one - the childhood pic taken at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. In something that now feels a bit reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, we were flocked by birds. The family album has compulsory photos of children with plates of food weighed down the rainbow lorikeets in a feeding frenzy. There was often a slightly horrified child captured with a bird on his or her head. And the screeching - something not unlike outside the hotel where One Direction is staying or my house at homework time. Surprisingly, I don't recall the rainbow lorikeets as being common in the Brisbane suburbs as a child. Now they are everywhere but this has done nothing to lesson my fascination with them. Today I think I struck gold over this rainbow