At the weekend

On Saturday we went to visit some of H's relatives and stopped off at a small park on the way, to have lunch and play. As you can see from the picture above, we were the only people there!

The park used to have an admission charge but it is now free to go in. However, there is still a sign announcing that it is closed on Tuesdays. Seeing as there was nobody working there on Saturday, closing the park seems to consist of putting a chain across the car park to stop anyone going in. Not quite sure why...

We had our lunch at some covered picnic tables at the end of the park, where it was shady and cool. K only ate half of his so I decided to save the rest for later. I put all the bits and pieces back in my bag, tied up all the rubbish in another bag and placed them both on the picnic table next to K's noodles, in their own container with a lid. Before I'd got more than about 5 metres away from the table, a crow swooped in and grabbed the noodles, pot and all, and was away again. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it!

Anyway, K still had enough energy for some parent-scaring climbing, and some more gentle swinging too. But the highlight of this park is their giant roller slide, visible in the background of the photo below. You used to have to pay for this too, but not anymore. In fact, the one time before now that I went on it I didn't pay for it either :-) When H and I were dating we drove to the park one night and snuck in, which simply involved stepping over that car park chain. It was rather unnerving going up all those steps and then down the slide in the dark, but great fun!

It's actually two slides, one after the other. The top one starts at the little yellow roof at the top left of this photo, and goes down to the clock. There, there is a little landing and then the second slide sets off, going out of the shot to the right and winding all the way down to the ground. At the foot of the steps were two blue baskets holding mats to protect your bum from the rollers - needless to say, they weren't there when we snuck in in the middle of the night!

Sadly, only the bottom half of the slide is in operation now. The top half is fenced off and is being reclaimed by the vegetation. I thought it looked like something that they might discover on the island in LOST...

Anyway, K loved it and went down three times, although he only climbed the steps once...

Sunday was cooler and overcast, and H had to work at the polling station all day. K and I went into town in the morning for a show put on by the city-run daycare centres. Children from the daycares performed little songs and dances and staff did a play based on a traditional Japanese tale. It was the first time for K to go to a proper theatre with fold-down seats and all, and he seemed to really enjoy it - watching transfixed, standing up and dancing around, smiling coyly at the woman next to him and playing repeatedly with those fold-down seats...

Next Sunday it'll be my turn to work again. That'll make 4 weeks in a row that either H or I have been working. The week after that though we have a 3 day weekend with no work, and then K and I head off to the UK for the whole of August. Yeah!

***Editor's Note***

Diane's got her weekends in a muddle. Next weekend is the 3 day weekend (although she will indeed be working on the Sunday) and the following, non-working, weekend is of the common-or-garden 2 day variety. We apologise for any confusion or inconvenience that this oversight may have caused.