Love, bubs and life on our little farm

So I was going to blog about the great day we had at Australia Zoo and the great work that they do** but then I got distracted watching Keeping up with the Kardashians episodes on the web and now I am feeling particularly brain dead.

I have a terrible shameful love of bad reality television shows. I do sometimes worry if they will seriously make me stupid or a vacuous person. But I love to watch them for the clothes/make-up/houses/cars etc and I do tend to stay pretty cynical and distant about the "storylines" (yes I am justifying watching them! Guilty much!?).

Funnily enough, when we were at Australian Zoo as we entered the Croceseum there were release sheets up everywhere stating that a reality show was being filmed and that by entering we were giving permission for ourselves to be filmed. Of course I was intrigued... but also quickly distracted by a hungry bub and a toddler that is super keen on Bindi. I did however notice a very tanned blonde enter the nearby VIP seating with a huge group of kids, who were then joined by Terri and Robert Irwin and not long after three cameras and a still photographer. I KNEW the face but it took me the whole hour long show to finally place the reality show. I don't know if it is played in Australia, perhaps on pay TV which I don't watch.. but it was Kate Gosselin and her sextuplets and twins from "Jon and Kate plus 8". I have never seen a single episode but being the gossip website tragic that I am, I have seen plenty of gossip posts and pics of her.

What I found fascinating was watching the reality tv filming - I mean Kate and Terri (and the kids) had cameras directly in their faces throughout the show and related people just milling everywhere around them. I guess you get used to it, but I couldnt imagine doing anything but embarrassed smiling and self concious hair flicking the whole time a camera is trained on my face!

You know the thing that stood out most to me when I was trying to place the blonde. I could see she was clearly the kids Mum, I mean she was handing out wipes and taking dirty ones and stashing them in her bag since there was no bin around just like any Mum does for her kids but she was so well groomed, tanned and toned and... for want of a better word shiny. Not a little grubby, tired and sweaty like the rest of us Mums hoiking around spewy bubs and Bindi-obsessed toddlers were. In particular, not how I imagine I would be looking like if I was travelling with my eight kids hehe. Mind you I did read that she brought no less then 3 nannies with her (who were nowhere in sight when the cameras were out I did note).



A whole different life really. Reality? Hmm not so much. We had the "real" day - packed lunch, rain, plastic $4 ponchos, cold wet feet and lots of quiet private jokes, laughs and memories :)

** and for the record, commercial as it may be these days. I have no end of admiration for the good that Australia Zoo does for wildlife. What a great place - their hospital is amazing. I have been lucky to be inside behind the scenes due partly to my Mum being a koala rehabilitator and also thanks to me supervising two Vet students who did collaborative research projects with the hospital vets. I am very inspired by their dedication and facilities.