We had a brilliant day today. Jemser, myself and son#2 set off for Gowran in Co Kilkenny to visit the reptile village there http://reptilevillage.net/. My men love snakes and lizards and scary things, I'm not as enamored but I must admit when the lovely keeper put a magnificent albino python around my neck I was impressed. I couldn't get over how soft and sensuous the skin was - and the weight of it!
Son #2 was in his element going from tank to tank and telling us all sorts of details about the creatures that he had picked up on the net or from the holy grail that is QI. He got to touch and hold snakes, lizards, tortoises and other yokes with four legs and scaly skin! There are even a few crocodiles - not for touching, natch!
An enormous Barn Owl (my personal favourite, ye all know my obsession with wise old Owls) surveys all from a viewing gallery where there there is an area where smaller children can colour in pictures of the animals they have seen. There is an small equipped indoor play area for smaller children and an indoor picnic area. Tea, coffee and snacks from machines are available. The staff are incredible, kind and patient with both hysterical adults and curious kids; they are very well informed on what they do.
So we saw all there was to see and son#2 took loads and loads of photos. As we had our picnic he was checking them out deciding which ones he could post to Facebook when he got home. We had a row (mock) when he deleted one I took (apparently it wasn't good enough). It was nice y'know. We rarely do things as a family now - I would have loved to have visited a place like the Reptile village during the holidays when both lads were small. It's a little over an hour from Dublin and it's a very reasonably priced day out. It's suitable for all ages. Great to see someone turning a hobby as a kid into a passion into a business. This place deserves all our support and encouragement, it is tiny businesses like it that bring life and commerce back into our towns and villages.
Anyway we got home and I asked son#2 to email me the photos.
'Sure' sez he, whipping out the iPod, thumbs moving in a blur as he slid, clicked, double clicked across the screen. Then his face fell - I mean it actually FELL and his eyes filled with tears of rage and disappointment.
'I don't believe it, I can't have....I effin' did!' . The poor bugger didn't R.T.F.M and accidentally deleted all his photos. He was devastated. That's what happens when a trigger happy kid tries to capture an electronic snake!
Sssh! Don't tell him, I'll bring him back to the village before the summer is out. Yeah, I know...I know...I'm a sap........
Son #2 was in his element going from tank to tank and telling us all sorts of details about the creatures that he had picked up on the net or from the holy grail that is QI. He got to touch and hold snakes, lizards, tortoises and other yokes with four legs and scaly skin! There are even a few crocodiles - not for touching, natch!
An enormous Barn Owl (my personal favourite, ye all know my obsession with wise old Owls) surveys all from a viewing gallery where there there is an area where smaller children can colour in pictures of the animals they have seen. There is an small equipped indoor play area for smaller children and an indoor picnic area. Tea, coffee and snacks from machines are available. The staff are incredible, kind and patient with both hysterical adults and curious kids; they are very well informed on what they do.
So we saw all there was to see and son#2 took loads and loads of photos. As we had our picnic he was checking them out deciding which ones he could post to Facebook when he got home. We had a row (mock) when he deleted one I took (apparently it wasn't good enough). It was nice y'know. We rarely do things as a family now - I would have loved to have visited a place like the Reptile village during the holidays when both lads were small. It's a little over an hour from Dublin and it's a very reasonably priced day out. It's suitable for all ages. Great to see someone turning a hobby as a kid into a passion into a business. This place deserves all our support and encouragement, it is tiny businesses like it that bring life and commerce back into our towns and villages.
Anyway we got home and I asked son#2 to email me the photos.
'Sure' sez he, whipping out the iPod, thumbs moving in a blur as he slid, clicked, double clicked across the screen. Then his face fell - I mean it actually FELL and his eyes filled with tears of rage and disappointment.
'I don't believe it, I can't have....I effin' did!' . The poor bugger didn't R.T.F.M and accidentally deleted all his photos. He was devastated. That's what happens when a trigger happy kid tries to capture an electronic snake!
Sssh! Don't tell him, I'll bring him back to the village before the summer is out. Yeah, I know...I know...I'm a sap........
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