family: April 2004 Archives

When I was a child, my parents used to drive me and my brother to the local park (well, not the absolutely most local park, as that was just a walk away, but the nearest park of any size) and let us play around on the swings and roundabouts, paddle in the pool, pet the animals, roll down hills, feed the ducks on the lake and go for boat rides. It made for a very busy day out indeed.

I only mention this because today I went back to the same park with my dad. Of course it wasn't just the two of us, we took my son, niece and nephew with us. Comparing the day out we had today with the days out we had thirty-something years ago, there are several significant changes, some for better, some for worse.

The first change was that we had to pay for the car park. You don't seem to be able to breathe these days without having to dig into your pocket to do so. The second change was that we went to a brand new play area in the park, just opened last month. This play area is fan-tas-tic! In the middle is a huge pyramid, a death slide, a rather muddy water/sand play area, lots of things to keep little brains and little hands occupied, all surrounded by brand new landscaping, young sapling trees, blue skies and an ice cream van. Sheer perfection.

Sadly, the paddling pool, petting zoo and boating lake have all been deemed too dangerous for the future of our nation to play with. Every time I walk past the six-inch-deep hole in the ground decorated with blue tiles, which used to echo with the sounds of laughter and splashing, but now has a "keep out - broken glass" sign next to it I think "what a waste". Every time I see the empty and overgrown cage where once a ferocious tiger used to sleep just behind that log, always out of sight but definately there and ready to bite your hand off should he ever feel like it, I think "this all used to be much better than it is now". Every time I walk past the boating lake where the water used to be much more blue, the boats much newer, with their engines put-putting little puffs of exhaust smoke into the air just above the waterline, and again people laughing and splashing and trying to get on and off the boats without falling in, I think back to happier days, more innocent days, days when a parent would happily let a child ride a bike a few miles to the park without fear of them getting abducted or run over or worse.... and I look at the state of the park and the state of the world and wonder where it all went so wrong.

Then I look at the brand new play area and think "well, it's not all so bad, is it?"

Last weekend I walked into town and bought an Ordnance Survey map of the local area. I love maps and can study them for hours on end (heheh, you're beginning to get an idea of how boring I am now, aren't you?). Anyway, looking at the local map, I discovered a 30-mile footpath trail called the Irwell Sculpture Trail, which passes about 200 yards from my front door. "Got to be done", the adventurer in me said. "Not all at once though", the coward in me quickly replied...

So today I coerced my niece (aged eight), my son (aged four and a half) and my sister-in-law (age a secret) to come with me for a bit of fresh air and exercise. I've lived in built-up areas all my life, so to cross a road, walk up a gravel path for 20 yards, and find myself surrounded by fields full of sheep, trees and a canal was rather refreshing. Today's walk was dampened (literally) by the weather, but that cleared up, and even my son nagging for something to eat or to go home again after 20 minutes didn't put me off. I was going to have a walk, dammit, and nothing was going to stop me.

We walked for a couple of hours and got the tram back. Along the way we fed ducks and swans, petted a couple of horses that were ambling along the canal path (actually they weren't always ambling - once we got past them they turned around and started running after us.... "run away! run away!"), saw a swan nesting, and eventually got into town for a bite to eat. Well there goes all the good work we'd done in the morning, wrapped up in newspaper and covered in salt and vinegar. Still, we'd earned it :-)

No, we didn't walk back. We caught the tram.

Quotes of the day from my son (who pushed in his buggy for 95% of the way):
"This is boring. It's all walking walking walking and sitting sitting sitting!"
"I'm not allowed any fizzy drinks or crisps today because yesterday I had a whole tube of Pringles hidden in my room and I was sick all night. If I'm a good boy I might be able to have some crisps next week."
"Where have all the shops gone?" (after we'd been walking for an hour and a half and still not reached the town centre)
"I want some cake!"
(after lunch): "Let's go to the toy shop now Daddy. You can buy me two toys. Come on.......... hurry up!"

A joke from my niece: "There are two birds, one called 'ickle me' and one called 'tickle me'. 'Ickle me' flies away, which one is left?"
My son's answer, after a moment's thought and a little chuckle: "The other one"

Beats watching TV on a bank holiday, I can tell you.

Photos to follow after I've got them off the camera and worked out how to upload them.

I'd like to thank my brother Simon for
1) registering the domain name
2) hosting the site
3) providing me with a local mysql server so I don't have to pay his 50 quid reseller fee
4) letting me know the proper local path on the web server so this thing actually works

Cheers bro!