Nemo nightmares

Spent a frustrating few hours on the phone to a travel agent, trying to organise a trip to the Whitsundays. Sweet as she was, I almost lost it after the third time I realised we were being booked in on the wrong dates and had yet again shrunk from three to two people.

Popped into the city to run some errands, and, as I was in the vicinity, decided to dash back into the aquarium (annual pass triumphs again!) to recharge my batteries. Ah peace, tranquility. Erm, not so much.

 

Rookie mistake - its still the school holidays. People who know me know my slight aversion to children (there are, obviously, notable exceptions!). Unfortunately, they seem to interpret my fear as friendliness (the mind boggles...) and I often end up in uncomfortable situations. Such as the child who climbed onto my lap on the bus on the way back from the cricket and stayed there. The mother wasn't fussed. I was, but could hardly throw it off. That never goes down too well.

Today they were en masse and at their worst. Cries of "I can't find Nemo!" reverberated around. Well no dear, this is the shark tank, he might be a little out of place. Much as I love it, that film has a lot to answer for. "Oh look, a Nemo" - hmm, well its not a clown fish, its not even orange, wtf are you talking about you insane tiny human?!?

I found Nemo. He looked grumpy.

Then on to the ray exhibit - "that killed Steve Irwin" hiss, boo. Temptation to roundly abuse said 'national treasure' only just kept under wraps. This also ruined my revisiting of my favourite camp fish (I have christened him Desmond). Although he was still keen to perform.

Ended up finding a quiet (ish) corner and staring at the jellyfish for a long, long time while trying to relax.

 

Then walked round the corner into a 10ft crab (10 foot! seriously!) which put paid to my hard work. It was terrifying.

Ok, so there was no way the photo was going to do it justice...