'Strayaday

With Nicole having worked a night and needing a decent day's sleep - good luck with that, given the sultry Queensland airs that are floating around at the moment - the rest of us elected on Australia Day to take Claire up on an offer to meet up for fun and frolics with her little family unit.

Shorncliffe had been mooted but the activities weren't to happen there until the afternoon and so the venue was switched to Redcliffe.

I expected parking and traffic hell, but in the event it was reasonably easy to find a space not to far from the beach. A text message suggested meeting up at the "Mullet Throwing Arena" and not wishing to appear an idiot, but suspecting that this was actually a subtle joke, we set off in search from a place where wigs could be reliably tossed. We soon found a sign for the events of the day, one of which was indeed Mullet Throwing, and so we began our search again with renewed earnestness.

In the event after two or three minutes we met Claire, Richard and Georgia who were walking in the other direction, rendering the search for the MTA moot. We retired to an area of grass where a re-purposed tent-base was deployed as a picnic blanket and fetched coffee, while Eloise insinuated herself into a game of beach cricket.

Spending rather too long on eating and drinking - Eloise demanding chips after her batting efforts - we headed to a toddler fairground where some negotiation was done over trying to get toddlers to go on the modest rides, all of which they refused.

And so instead we went down to the beach for a paddle, with Lyra of course in her pretty dress which was soon discarded to avoid salt-water damage and general discomfort, wont as she is to ump in the surf and experience it up-close.

With time against us, toddlers tired, and further engagements ahead, we retired shortly thereafter to return home to awaken Nicole and go to Marion's for a barbecue.

Marion barbecued up a storm on her new back deck for us, though thankfully not a real one with thunder and lightning and all that. Lyra had mysteriously failed to sleep in the car and we were a little worried that it might all go pear shaped, but in the event all was well and the girls played on the trampoline ad nauseam, though thankfully not actual nauseam with carrots and stomach cramps.

Once again time was against us, and we had to extricate ourselves at what seemed like a very early hour, but - horror of horrors - it was a school night, with Eloise starting Year Five the next day, and an early morning in the offing.