The pelican ate my lunch

As parents of a busy toddler it's easy to allow distance to creep into your relationship, so on this glorious sunny day we took advantage of an afternoon to ourselves.  First on our agenda was a lunch with no interruptions.  On route to our favourite cafe we decided we would grab takeaway and sit along the river.

Our favourite meals in hand we strolled along the rivers edge and the found the perfect sunny position to sit. We had unwrapped our perfect foccacia's and made comment on how peaceful the surroundings were before we noticed a couple and their child hurrying to their car only to expose a pelican waddling towards us.  I'd grown up with pelicans in my backyard and dismissed the approach telling my husband 'don't worry it will just walk around us'.  However we could sense fear in two teenage girls sitting nearby as they screeched 'watch out for the bird'.

my interpretation of crazy eyed pelican

This wonderful winged creature that sails above us in majestic fashion had turned on the crazy eyes and was targeting our lunch.  At first we made a noise to scare it away but it had determination within those crazy eyes.  It was eyeballing us with intention, nothing was going to stop this pelican from having focaccia for lunch.

By now I was keen to clear the path and had grabbed my lunch and reversed 10 metres, my husband however was keen to defend his patch.  At this point I was in fits of laughter watching a pelican consume a turkey & cranberry focaccia whilst searching around for desert and my husband attempting some weird pelican dance of fear!!!  It was then I glanced down and noticed our car keys sitting in beaks reach and suddenly my laughter dissipated and become panic, 'My car keys I yelled' my hubby dived in towards the snapping beast and returned with all limbs attached with a sigh of relief from us all. 

It was time to retreat. So there we sat, four cars filled with sun loving couples with intentions of an enjoyable lunch outdoors, all too afraid to take on the Pelican Beast.