25 August, 2007

A day at the museum

And nothing came to life. Life is never like the movies , is it...

It was pretty cool though. Our local museum has a giant squid in an old elevator shaft, so you can see it from all 4 levels. There's even a perspex floor at the top to look down on it. For some reason though, no one wanted to stand on it!

J took Chickie to the museum months ago while I was at a friend's funeral and Chickie's been dying to go back ever since. So yesterday I suggested we go this weekend. Turned out to be good timing too, since they were having a science day thing there too - lots of extra displays and stuff to look at. We fluked that one quite nicely.

One giggle of the day... at one point, I sat on a handy chair to re-tie my shoelaces, then looked up at the wall to see a sign labelled 'Antiquities' just over me. I banned J from taking a picture hehe.

One moment I wasn't sure what to say was when I came out of the ladies. Chickie ran up to me excitedly and dragged me over to see something. He pointed to a boy with two artificial legs (not the real looking sort) and said "Look mum, robot legs!! Cool!!". I just said "yeah! Oooh look over here, a skeleton!". I hope the boy didn't hear us. Chickie wasn't mean about it (quite the opposite) but I daresay when you're in that position, you're probably sick of comments at all.

Then on the way back to the car, we checked out one of the bigger book shops and I ended up buying lots of books for myself. I feel a bit guilty since they were all for me - and I could have bought way more, quite easily!

Oh and thanks to everyone who voted for my friend. She didn't win (in fact I think she probably came last unfortunately) but at least she won $1000 and she's our state winner. Plus as J says "that's better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick" (that saying always makes me laugh). I was personally hoping that the QLD entrant would win, if my friend didn't. The other two looked too tarty in my opinion.

11 comments:

Melinda said...

J.T. wants to go to our museum (the good thing about having a University in town) to see the Dinosaur exhibits. He chose this as his reward for doing well in school. I have to admit, he makes me proud. I want to know how you have time to read? It seems I can only manage a few pages at a time since the kids were born.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like a lovely way to spend the day!

Stomper Girl said...

I remember the first time Climber saw a woman with dwarfism. He made no judgment about her looks but in honest fascination called out to me "Look how little that grown-up is."

meggie said...

Or, as our friend used to say "better than a kick in the @rse with a pointy toed shoe!"

I used to have as much fun as my kids when we went to the museum!

LBA said...

Robot Legs sound pretty cool to me too :)

But yes .. not so much for the afflicted child ...

velcro said...

I love going to museums I just hate the crowds. If i could persuade them to open it just to me and my family once a year that would make me very happy. Oh and give me free books from the shop too...

KindaBlue said...

Children can be wonderfully uninhibited sometimes. For instance, yestersay I was shopping in one of those ultra-discount shops, when a family entered. The daughter - who couldn't have been more than seven - decided to ask one of those burning questions:

"Mum, why is this called the cheap shop?"

In full earshot of the proprietors. Cue a chorus of "shhh!" from her parents...

The Phosgene Kid said...

Sometimes the most interesting things in the museum are the other visitors. Don't feel guilty about buying books. Just tell yourself your kids will grow into them...

caramaena said...

melinda - we saw some pretty cool dinosaur bones there. Even one that had opalised and was now listed as a national treasure.

As for reading, well some days I don't get as much sleep as I should! ;)

tracey - it was :)

stomper - I love that they pass no judgment.

meggie - lol - that's a good one!

h&b - I know if it were me, I'd be over comments about it - good or bad.

velcro - the crowds weren't too bad and I think the extra science exhibits helped to draw people away from what we wanted to see :)

kindablue - lol! I'll bet the owners would have been quite curious to hear the parents' answers too.

phos - as long as Chickie likes science fiction and humourous fantasy, he'll be set!

Unknown said...

Travis did that at a restaurant a few weeks ago....one of the workers was missing (from elbow down)his arm. Travis said not to look at him or smile because he didn't want the man to cry. Then he proceeded to put his bottom arm up into his shirt to see if he could pick anything up, the way the guy did. When I told him not to do that, it wasn't nice, he got so upset...."I didn't mean to be mean!" He's so sensitive to other people's feelings.

Mr Mans Wife said...

Oh bless him. Children are just so innocently curious. They learn their prejudices from others.

Mr Man would say "It's better than a kick in the knackers!"