Chapter 34 - Two Chickens to Paralise

In which our hero does a lot of climbing and jumping and has various chicken related adventures...

Yesterday, Friday, was my last day of classes.  Fridays are also my latest start day - on odd weeks I have a lab that starts at 12:00.  On even weeks I start at 3:00.  Seriously.  So yesterday we had a lab.  The family got up and left, and I heard them leave, at around 7:30. I think my alarm was set for 8:00.  I was very tired, so I turned it off and kept dozing.  At some point I heard a loud knocking noise from the direction of the kitchen, so I thought maybe Sarah had stayed home to do report cards or something - working from home, that is.

Then I dozed some more, and got up around 9:00.  The first thing I noticed was that the verandah door was wide open, which was a bit weird because Sarah usually locks things up before leaving.  Then I noticed that the light in the play room was on.  Then I heard a chicken noise.  The natural assumption was that it was coming from outside, but I couldn't see any outside.  I heard it a couple more times, but I couldn't quite place it location wise.  It occurred to me that one had wandered into the house and maybe gone upstairs or something, but I couldn't see it or specifically hear it anywhere.

I carried on with my morning things ...  organizing brekkie, chucking leftover toast crusts to the chickens in the back, etc.  On my way back in, though, I distinctly heard that chicken noise again, from very close on my left.  I looked over into the play room, and there was a chicken on the cabinet thingy. So naturally I took a picture before trying to get it out of the house.

Here's one from far away to show context.  That cabinet is full of puzzles and games and things.

And up close.  Yes, that's a real chicken. A really very silly chicken.

I had no idea how to get it from there to where it should be, which was out in the back.  I'd seen people pick up chickens before, but I'd never tried it.  I'd also seen, in movies mostly, where someone attempts to pick up a chicken and it turns into some kind of feathers and claws and flapping grandma's good china off the shelves situation, so naturally I didn't want that to happen either.  What happened in the end was I basically threatened to pick up the chicken, but she decided she's rather sort of jump/fly down to the floor and allow herself to be herded out the back door.  Interesting morning's adventure.

Later that day was an event hosted by the Skeptics Club that was a sort of open debate forum deal, where any topic was allowed, as long as it was discussed in a civilized manner.  There was also pizza included in the ticket price, and pop and Tim Tams and lolly snakes (gummy snakes) (not really bigger than gummy worms).  So it was interesting.  There was a sort of a plan to go to see The Great Gatsby afterward, but it didn't really work out because the event didn't end till about 9:00, and there was no showtimes after 9:15, so we wouldn't have made it.  We're going tomorrow night instead.  I spent the evening just hanging out with people and listening to interesting discussions.  Well, mostly interesting.  One was about politics, and although I know I should care about such things I really just don't.  I took a bathroom break during that one.

So today I woke up at a reasonable hour (again alarm set for 8:00, got up at like 9:30.)  Had my breakfast,  played a bit with the kids.   Drew a picture with large rectangular crayons.  Ate several mandarins and an orange with #2 and #3.  Helped catch an escaping guinea pig and return it to it's cage.  (They make really cute little squeaky noises.) (Rather like tribbles, actually .... )  Anyway.  At some point #3 and I were outside, and we decided the game was for me to hit little toy footballs with the cricket bat and then she'd go get them.  One of them went on the roof.  So after asking Sarah if it was OK, I climbed up there to get it.  On my way down #2 convinced me it was a good idea to jump off onto the trampoline rather than climb down, so I did.  I landed kind of strangely.  I think my knees didn't bend as much as they should have .. . or maybe they bent as if I'd been landing on a hard surface .. . anyway my right knee sort of smashed into my right elbow, and I felt this sort of jamming feeling all the way up my back and into my head, and my right shoulder blade kind of hurt.  So I went inside to sit down and have a glass of water and watch The Magnificent Seven, which is due back at the library shortly.

I think after that came the mandarin eating.  Not that it matters that much.  Then I think Sarah went for a nap, and #2 and I started doing some physics experiments.  There was some lenses and some reflecty things and a torch (flashlight), and some attempts at creating a sort of complicated system of lasers and mirrors, except that we didn't have any real mirrors, or a laser.  And I didn't really feel like trying to explain the difference between reflection and refraction, and nonsense like that, so needless to say we never really got to the stage of like "secret agent laser pizza" or anything, but it was fun.  Then we got tired and hungry, so we went for some snacko and watched the Princess Bride.  Or started it, anyway.  We got as far as escaping from the lightning sand when we were informed that we had a dinner reservation at a tasty Japanese place in Surfer's Paradise.  So off we went, after a quick bath/shower for the little ones, and after Sarah's Canadian friend turned up because half the point was to do something with her to celebrate Sarah's birthday which was yesterday.  Yes, I know that was a run-on sentence, and frankly I don't care.  I'm tired and I want to got to bed, but not before finishing the story.

If you'll remember a couple days ago I mentioned that we planned to go to the Outback Spectacular tonight.  Well, it turns out the ticket deals we were hoping to take advantage of don't apply  on weekends, so we're going to wait for a weekday night during the holidays, which are coming up shortly.  So obviously there's nothing to report on that front, because it didn't happen.

We did get to the restaurant eventually, though, and despite it being a Saturday night in Party Central we somehow managed to find a park (parking spot).  It was an interesting culinary adventure, in the best way.  People tried things they hadn't before.  I ate some eggplant and didn't gag.  The munchkins behaved for the most part.

After dinner we decided to walk to McDonalds to get a 30 cent ice cream cone, but on the way we encountered a place called Yoghurt City, which is basically Yo Yo's.  I decided to try nearly every flavour, and not add any toppings.  Of course the kids went slightly nuts on the toppings.  Anyway.  There was pomegranate, choco-coconut swirl, strawberry-mango swirl, banana-passion fruit swirl, and possibly something else.  They were all delicious.  Then we went home.  It was a good night.  But basically what happened, and also what the title is alluding to, is I spent another evening in Surfer's Paradise.  I think I still haven't seen the place in the day light.

Mmm... Yoghurt City .... It's the blurry arch of letters there in the centre, which you can't see clearly because my phone doesn't really do night pics.

The other thing the title is alluding to is the chickens.  We had ten.  One wandered off.  Then we got two more.  Then four wandered off.  Today, when I went to pack them away in their shed, there was only five.  I seriously don't know what's going on.  And three of the five decided they'd rather sleep on the bench outside my room then go back down to the chook shed, so Sarah and I carried them down.  I finally carried a chicken, and nothing disastrous happened.  I carried the black one, which, I'm pretty sure, doesn't lay black eggs.  They're probably just brown eggs like the brown chickens do.  I don't think black eggs are a thing, unless it's those Chinese "hundred year old eggs" or something.

Oh, and also, about the climbing.  There was the climbing onto the roof, and then there was climbing in and out of the back seat with #1 because my normal seat in the car was occupied by Sarah's friend, and the back seat can only be accessed by climbing through the trunk because the normal ease of access mechanism of moving one of the middle seats forward is blocked by the fact that there's two child car seats on the middle seats.  Again, don't care about the run-on sentence.  Also, if you read this within the next few hours then tough nuts to you because I'm not going to proof read it until tomorrow.