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Another successful Herring family day out. I don't think we've become better parents (maybe slightly better rested) but the kids are just old enough that going and doing stuff becomes more of a pleasure than a test of patience and anxiety. We drove to London to go to the zoo (we have really been getting value from our annual membership this last few weeks though always at Whipsnade before). They have redesigned the layout so there are three loops of the zoo which take in different animals, but it wasn't massively crowded and we saw some very cool stuff. My favourite was some tiny frogs who swam up and down in their tank and who I could have sat and watched all day. They were comic and yet beautiful too and they looked like they were having fun. We got super close to a Komodo dragon, which we were surprised to learn can breed asexually if it comes to it, which is a pretty neat super power and also chows down on crocodiles and boars, so it's not to be messed with. I know some of you won't like zoos, but there are more positives than negatives for me and I know the people who work here really care about their animals.
We had to go across town for an appointment, but on the way we stopped off at Ravenscourt Park to show Phoebe where she used to play. She often talks about a playground that she played in as a kid and we were seeing if it was this one - I think it might actually have been the other one in the park that she remembers. But we went to the sandpit that I remember spending many bleary-eyed hours in when she was tiny. There was no one in it at all today, so I thought it had been closed, but it was open. Perhaps people felt it was too much of a virus risk or were just put off because the wind occasionally created a mini sand storm. In the arches under the railway line we'd used to shout out “Echo†and enjoy the echo and I looked through one and saw the bench where I'd been sitting when I found out that Caroline Aherne had died. Memories whipped up like dry sand in the swirling wind.
We had a brief visit to Chiswick, where we ate ice creams near on the park where Phoebe had once had her Little Kickers lessons. She has totally forgotten about this now. Which is a shame. The teachers (a brother and sister, I think) were excellent and fun and she enjoyed it. I suppose we have to hold some of the memories for her.
On the way home a man was begging at some traffic lights and Phoebe was curious as to what was going on and we had a discussion about why some people don't have money and who is to blame for that. She had her own ideas of how things could be made fair. It reminded me of talking to my dad when I was about 6 and asking why the government didn't just print up more money for the poor people. My parents had gently laughed at the sweetness of this idea, though in the end it was basically the response to recession.
Phoebe is becoming very observant and thoughtful and it is, as always, amazing to see these huge leaps in development happening before our eyes.
A couple of
new rewards to help tease our kickstarter over the line. If you don't like stone clearing, but like Ally Sloper there's a cool T shirt level (you can also get the T shirt by adding £20 to your bid at any level) and if you pay £150 you will get all the other stuff, the T shirt a and a personalised video message (of whatever you want) from me. That will also be added to the £250 level of course.
We're just over halfway with less than a week remaining. There's usually a surge at the end, so I am still hopeful we can do it. Remember none of these rewards will be available afterwards.
