I got this email the other day and being my normal self, I didn’t read it properly at all. I was fixated on the Pelican bit. Pelicans in the park? Where? why would you go on a tour to see them? This might be a thing that people do, even in these weird and wonderful times. Not me though.
What do I have against pelicans I hear you ask? What could they have possibly done to you that you wouldn’t go see them frolic in the park? Well, now, that is an actual story.
So, I am Irish, and that almost defaults to mean that I was raised Catholic. Being raised Catholic; I say raised as I am not a practiser of any religion, I go more on the be nice approach; we made our (holy) communion as part of schooling, and when you make your communion, your first holy communion (oh how easily all the words come back, I can feel my self bowing my head with the holies!) it is the done thing to have a day out to celebrate with the family.
Back in Ireland, in the 80’s, where we lived, the thing to do was to go to the Zoo! Dublin Zoo with family for a picnic, ice-cream, etc.. Adventures and excitement! You can hear us sing in the back of the car ‘We’re all going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, you can come too, too, too’. Annoying if you were the driver or any adult, all four of us kids under seven were all singing with the excitement!
We went to the Zoo for my sisters communion. She was wearing her communion dress (white, full dress – like a miniature wedding dress, worn on multiple occasions as they were expensive and likely to be grown out of within months). We must have looked around the zoo, and then it was time for lunch, or at least refreshments, and we sat down in a green area for our picnic. Eating soggy sandwiches, warm diluted orange (orange cordial – back in the 80’s there were only two types, orange, and black current (aka Ribena)), snacking on crisps that were mushed, hoping that the chocolate had not melted; all the good things about picnics.
I remember my sister and I heading across the green area to the pond/lake?. Little did we realise that this took us through the area where the pelicans were snoozing. It goes almost without saying that we woke them up. I don’t know what it was about my sister, or her dress, but oh my, the pelicans loved her/it. I clearly remember my sister in tears crying, as the pelicans tried to put their beaks up her dress. And people laughing, and other tourists taking photos!
This is a pelican.
Isn’t that what people do when they see something happening?, if they think it is funny or something to be recorded, they take a photo. They don’t intervene. Imagine being a child being attached by a pelican, they are big – can be between 1- 2 meters in length. It would be enough to scare the actual bejesus out of you, and would be fodder for many a counselling session. My sister was fine, in case you are wondering, our parents must have bought ice-creams or something to calm us down.
All of this came to mind when I read the title. Little did I know that the Sarah in Queensland was intending to take her small person to an Early Learning Centre. My early learning was stay away from the big sleeping birds on the green. I do wonder what this young person will learn?
IJustHaventDoneItYet 