Zoo Friends

I'm beginning to think that the novelty of the harbour bridge might have worn off because, given the choice, I'm now more inclined to use tunnel as it's faster and more convenient. And now we have an "E tag" on the windscreen so I don't have to stop and faff about paying the man in the booth or throwing exact change into the coin basket at the toll point. I just drive through the toll without stopping and the E-tag beeps and they charge it to our credit card. By the time we come home, we'll finally have this city lifestyle licked.

So it was the harbour tunnel across to the north shore this morning, where we met the Hammond family for the great pommie welcome; that age-old Sydney tradition of taking visitors from home to Taronga Zoo to marvel at the platypus and the wombat and the spiny little echidna. Only the Hammonds came by water taxi and cable car because they're tourists and I came in the Honda with our sandwiches in a tupperware box because I can. This zoo tradition is a rite of passage and it's the main reason that the poms join up a zoo friends because it saves them a fortune in repeated entrance fees.

Adam and Ella remain inseperable, like Stan and Hilda. When Adam disappears from view, Ella asks "where's my Adam?" and for his part, Adam feeds her and kisses her hand and helps her climb over fences where neither of them ought to be heading. This has certain advantages for me (someone else has to entertain her) and for the Hammond family too (as the zoo map is rubbish and I know the fastest way to the restaurant) so everyone is happy. At the end of the day I snook off and bought them matching giraffe tee-shirts, though as you can see, Adam's is a better fit. She'll grow into it by next year, which is handy, as that's the next time love's young dream will be reunited.