Sunday, September 25, 2005

Sunday outing - foiled

What a gorgeously sunny Sunday it was turning out to be. The boy suggested taking Baby out for a walk in the botanical gardens; the tulips would be out, and a stroll amongst the flowers would be heaps more interesting than yet another schlepp around the local shops.

Unfortunately we forgot that the Spring Festival is on this weekend, which meant that every man and his dog would be at the gardens. It's not that we hate crowds (although I do), but there was not a car park to be found anywhere. We decided to go somewhere else for our walk in the sun.

There's a city beach close by which has a great promenade; on sunny Sundays the place is always packed with families stretching their legs after a lazy cafe lunch. We headed there, only find that road access to the beach was completely blocked off - no doubt it was due to either construction work or some kind of athletics competition. The car was getting hotter and we were getting hungry.

The boy lost heart; all he wanted now was food and a chance for a smoke. So we picked up some greasies from McDonalds and headed home. I was determined to get my walk in somehow, so I planned to take Baby out in the stroller after her next feed.

The next feed came and went. There was a distinct sense of urgency in the air as I hurried to put her jacket on and buckle her up into the stroller. Hmmm...the stroller didn't seem to be moving very smoothly...we had a flat tyre. By the time the boy had managed to pump the tyre up to a usable level, Baby was already making those jerky movements that signal her need for sleep. It was already too late*.


* Sure, I could have put her straight into the stroller and she would still have gotten her sleep. But we're trying to encourage her to get to sleep on her own, so we decided to put her in her hammock instead.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

but then you blogged, and all was right with the world...

Amanda said...

We had an outing today to Te Papa. Parking is not a problem (though not free) and the bush walk is quite a pleasant wee stroll. We even got to sneak in a quick look around an exhibition. It's quite annoying to get around with a stroller though.

Violet said...

editter: well I wouldn't say all was right...but it was somewhat cathartic to post my frustration...

mtnw: I can imagine. Ours is designed to tackle rough surfaces rather than small spaces, so even getting it around the inside of shops is tough. I almost couldn't get into the Babystar shop.

glomgold said...

That is a shame. I had a somewhat similar experience once looking to get onto the beach in Long Island, NY. There was NO WHERE to park the car without getting a ticket (and cops were lurking).
Hey, my word verification includes 'bib' in it. The computer knows...

Violet said...

Glomgold: we even had trouble finding a park when I had an appointment at the hospital, just before Morgan was born. I thought that was the pits.

glomgold said...

Yes! I'm always shocked by the lack of adequate parking around hospitals. Of all the places right?