Why "The spinifex Option"

It strikes me that someone might ask me this.

This is the spinifex hopping mouse of Australia. He can be found going about his noctural business across the outback (or Back of Bourke as the aussies call it), but can also be glimpsed in the night time habitat display at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, where he impresses visitors with his industrious nature and very cute ears.

On visiting Taronga in 2002, I was very taken with this mouse, and, keen to return to Sydney at the earliest opportunity, wondered loudly and frequently when I would get the opportunity to make his reacquaintance.

We concluded that we would be likely to meet the mouse again if we decided to take the option for Darren to spend a year of his consultant training in Australia. This became known as us "taking the spinifex option".

You see, ostensibly, we are going to Sydney to further Darren's career prospects and spend some much needed time as a family in a healthcare system that does not routinely flog it's trainees half to death (hello Patricia Hewitt). Things have been very difficult for us with the long hours and ridiculous number of weekends that Darren has worked since Ella was born, so here's our chance to take some time out for what we've put in.

But actually it's all about the mouse.

The spinifex option has been our dream for the last 10 years, but only in 2002 did it acquire its name. We nearly bottled out after we had Ella, when we realised it was going to be far to much hassle, but since then we've also realised the truth in the adage that "life is not a dress rehearsal", so the spinifex option is what we're taking, and whether it's fabulous or awful, we will have done it, and it's the mouse we must thank.