My Friday day–off (27/10/2006)

Close-up of plate of fish and chips.

Amongst the usual chores, today had some very bright moments; a trip to the park with The Wife and The Girl brought much needed light relief. Not only that but The Wife thought it would be nice to have lunch/dinner in our favourite ‘Great British’ eatery: Queens Fish & Chip shop.

Good old–fashioned food

The Great British chip shop, surprisingly, doesn’t appear to be in decline in the UK. What with the amount of ‘foreign food’ that has become part of our staple diet. Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese not to mention the good ole U.S of A with a nod to Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds and Pizzahut to name but three.

I think the secret is not only tradition (which no doubt helps) but the value and convenience of it. I would happily argue with those that believe Maccy–Dees is faster food than a portion of chips from a good chip shop. It certainly beats a portion of ‘fries’ (sad strips of potato desperately hiding under a blanket of salt) in both value and taste.

However it most certainly isn’t fashionable. We were definitely the only people ‘eating in’ that were not due to push daisies up anytime soon. Chip shops just don’t have the style or panache of the less English eateries which, I’ve always thought, is a shame.

Hopefully The Girl will be indoctrinated into a love of real chip shops and keep the Large family lard–friendly for the next generation ;-)

Park perfection

After lunch we headed for the park (via the bakery for a Belgian Bun and a couple of cups of take–away coffee). For The Girl and her dolls this was the highlight of the day. Our local park consists of a large field marked for football (soccer) and two other main ‘play’ areas. One of these is a standard playground consisting of climbing frames, swings, agility courses etc etc. The other is a small skate park (recently built) that the cool kids use and/or hang around hoping some ‘cool’ will rub off.

There is a walking path that encloses the perimeter and some benches for those that feel in need of a little relaxation. These benches were just the ticket for consuming our ‘afters’. The coldness of the benches reminded us that they were metal made to look like old wooden benches to stay in keeping with those original wooden ones that had, so far, survived the vandals. Still they were better than the ground and you can’t expect much warmth in October.

Park life

A couple of girls exercising dogs caught my eye. Well the dogs caught my eye anyway. Even from a distance I could tell they were whippets. The wiry dogs were playfully bounding at each other and one had a pink jacket on. Once it came closer, much to my delight, I saw that the pink jacket also included a fur–lined hood. Only a whippet could be happy in that doggy fashion disaster and I hoped for it’s sake that it was at least a bitch.

The other moment of note was once we had made it to the playground. The main surface is grass and with the amount of rain we have had recently the gateway to the tots play area had become mud soup. Obviously the parents were hyper aware of this and their charges were forewarned about the calamity of walking through the gateway.

I was standing by the gate after carefully watching The Girl circumnavigate the offending mud when I was aware of something in the gateway. It was a very cute little girl of about two years wearing a pretty white dress and matching tights. Well they did match until about the ankle when they stopped being white and started to become bog. She was happily standing, very still in the middle of the mud staring at where her feet should’ve been. Both me and The Wife waited for the inevitable shouts of distress from the parent/guardian but they didn’t come!

Confused we scanned the adults around the park for the little ones owner and The Wife spotted two women about 200 meters away on the football field with empty buggies heading for us. By now The Wife had asked said little’en if she wanted to be lifted out. Apparently she didn’t but speedily toddled in the direction of the swings anyway.

Later both her and her little friend managed to escape the two women long enough to ecstatically career through the bog a couple more times much to the amusement of everyone except their carers.

Photo courtesy of Leigh Wolf (46137)

Posted on 30/10/06 06:27 PM by Jack Large

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