Lazy Sunday afternoon ...

K had rugby prize giving this morning at 10.00am. “Rocks in the Head” award goes to the bright spark who thought that this was a good idea ... 10.00am on a Sunday is bad enough, but 10.00am on Father’s Day ... where exactly does the parental lie-in feature in that plan ?!?!?

However, unlike last year’s fiasco at his club up north, which was essentially a festival of self-congratulation for the coaches and the club, whereby they reminded us all how wonderful they were and appeared to have forgotten that the point of prize giving was actually the kids (remember them ?!?) ... this morning’s was short, sweet, and to the point ...

- Thank sponsors
- Introduce famous rugby player
- Give out prizes
- Adjourn outside for lolly scramble and sausage sizzle
- Go home

As we now had the whole afternoon free, we drove along the peninsula to the royal albatross colony. Last time we were there was when K was five months old, so he was somewhat less than appreciative. This time around he asked so many questions I felt sorry for our poor guide.

We took the extended tour, with the chance to go down into the tunnels dug into the headland and see the “disappearing gun”, installed when it was feared we were going to be over-run by either the Russians or the Japanese (neither of whom, surprisingly, were remotely interested in a small boring chain of islands in the deep south).

The rugrats were allowed to climb up and down the ladders and turn the big wheels to point it in right direction. Part of the underground cavern has been turned into a display area, with piped in 1940s music and nostalgic paraphenalia.

I was particularly intrigued with the following regulations in the Enlisted Soldier’s Manual of Acceptable Behaviour ...

Item 4 - Be most particular in regard to the cleanliness of your person, clothing, equipment and manner.

Item 8 - Keep yourself fit, avoid excess of stimulants, and above all remember the very serious dangers of illicit sexual intercourse, against which you are specially warned in the interests of your future health and happiness.

Now where’s the fun in that ?