We were seeing our friends in Norfolk again today, including the tiny child
who I defeated in the medal hunt at the zoo. I would remind her of this triumph at one point in the day, and she then went upstairs and brought down the two medals she has won at the zoo. She thought that made her better than me, but all it meant was that she had been to the zoo more often than me.
In the morning we went to a little park around the corner which had a playground with swings and a roundabout and a couple of slides. I used to love a good slide as a kid and recalled an early memory of going to a playground where the slides were, it seemed to me, hundreds of feet high. My brother and sister (six and five years older than me respectively) were brave enough to climb the impossibly high ladders, but I was overawed and afraid and too small to make the ascent to these Himalayan gravity based rides. For the rest of my life I have looked out for slides of such height, but I have never seen them and I am almost beginning to wonder if they just seemed big to me because I was so small. But I hope somewhere there is one playground in Britain that has dared to install a slide where you have to climb through clouds to get to the top.
The slide at this playground was disappointingly low, though my tiny nemesis seemed to like it, haring around to the top once she'd got to the bottom screaming "Again!" I slightly envied her being able to go on the slide, as I still love them, but thought it might be a bit narrow for my 44 year old buttocks. But I decided to risk getting stuck in a slide and having the embarrassment of calling out the fire brigade to rescue me and I gave it a go. It wasn't as good as I remembered, but I managed to slide nearly unimpeded.
Then we went on the swings, allowing me to make a brilliant "I didn't think I'd be swinging so early in my marriage" joke. Everyone was so impressed that they forgot to laugh. I was always pretty rubbish on the swings it has to be said - my sister was always amazing and could propel herself so high that I thought she might go round the full 360 degrees. I could never master getting the momentum going. It's been at least 30 years since I've tried to swing (don't laugh, I wasn't making the joke that time) and I discovered I was only slightly better at it now than I was as a kid. It also really made my legs ache after about three minutes, which given I can run for 60 minutes without feeling too many effects is quite interesting.
It was fun to spend the day playing though and later whilst the proper grown ups tried to get on with some proper grown up business I kept the tiny medal-losing tyke busy by playing hide and seek. She wasn't very good at it, as she would talk and commentate when she was hiding and not hide properly and nearly always in the same place. But I didn't openly mock her even though I was best at it than her. Hide and seek needs guile, not physical strength or bravery, so I was always preferred it as a kid. And I proved myself good at it again. I hid in a wardrobe and draped a coat over my head and the child could not find me. She came into the room a few times, even looked directly at me, but didn't spot the legs coming out from under the coat. She left again and I would shout to her to give her a clue, but to no avail. I must have been there for about 20 minutes before she had to get her mum's help (again) to find me. Which I think makes me the winner. Yes, standing in a wardrobe with a coat on my head for 20 minutes makes me a winner. A winner I tell you.
