We could also have gone to New Zealand in the same amount of time.

Two male cousins enjoying their weetbix

A three hour car trip with a toddler should be introduced as a test to every person who has ever considered becoming a parent.

A desperate desire to get away from the city for even just a few hours resulted in us making the decision to drive for three hours to Maryborough, home of Posie the Cow. Listening to the protestations of a toddler who's limbs have been rendered immoveable by the very tight carseat restraints for three hours is akin to having your head taped to a stereo speaker which is belting out a bad recording of Cindy Lauper's True Colours. Very distracting if you happen to be the driver.

The trip was worth it because I got to see my children covered in mud. That's when you know they've had fun.

My niece and nephew are competing this weekend in the Maryborough Technology Challenge. They'll be competing, as they did last year, in the Human Powered Vehicle Race. This is a challenge my brother in law, who is somewhat of a science nerd, happens to be very passionate about. So much so that he can't talk about anything else. That's him below in the blue shirt with the HPV he has spent months designing and building. This isn't the one he wanted to build though and was talked down on his plans by the parents of other competing students. His design was somewhat futuristic but did involve many carefully formulated equations on how to get the most speed with the least amount of effort. If I was more science oriented and knew about quantum physics and stuff I'd be able to tell you what it was he told me but I just drifted off as soon as he said the word velocity...



Henry's complaints were subdued for just a few moments on the return trip by this massive piece of machinery pictured below. Unfortunately we had to try to get him back into the car and no amount of chocolate coated bribery was going to help. We just had to use sheer force.