The end of the holidays

So it's back to school tomorrow - number two son finished his theatre production on Friday after a full eight days of two shows a day! Dropped him off at 9.30 then picked him up at 5.00 and in between he'd done two full musical shows to proper paying audiences to an astonishingly high standard. I ushered the two shows on Wednesday and it was really good, with some seriously talented teenagers. It is hard to be objective about your own child (I thought he was AMAZING) but I can cross my heart and say he was focussed and professional all week ... although exhausted by the end. They had a party after the last show and he even made chocolate chip cookies and gluten-free raspberry cheesecake :)



So number one has been left slightly at a loose end but we tried to get out and about and do things he wanted to do. He nominated the arboretum so we went and walked through it for a couple of hours to see how much the trees and grown. Quite a bit, it turns out, but still you have to use your imagination for the full effect. We looked back over Canberra on a gorgeous late spring day.

This is the "wide brown land" sculpture from the back. It doesn't look like much from this angle, but we like it because you can sit on it and climb through it. We like an interactive piece of art.



And on Friday he nominated Parliament House as a place to visit, so we went up and popped in to say hi to my work mates, and I got to show him behind the scenes, as well as all the public areas that I never go to. There was nothing official on at all, so we could go into the Great Hall and both Houses of Parliament and wander round looking at the art and the building all quite undisturbed.



And we went up to the roof, which I've been meaning to go to since I started working there but never quite managed. A good idea to be a tourist in your own place sometimes.

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