Is the suspense killing you?
Posted on | May 16, 2009 | No Comments
No, I haven’t posted for a while!
Brad was visiting over the last couple weeks. Since it’s term time, there was a lot of school, swimming, gymnastics, and friends, rather than lots of exciting outings.
On Mother’s Day we went ice skating at Docklands. This was my first time at Docklands ever, which is slightly embarrassing. We went to Wonderland Park, a tiny little patch of carnival rides at the base of the Southern Star Observation Wheel.
The Southern Star Observation Wheel has had a tough life – late to open, it finally got going in December, and had to shut down in January because of “structural defects”. (My theory is that structural defects were caused by having to design around the 7-pointed star on the Australian flag.) Now it just sits there and looks pretty, at least until they start taking it apart to send it to Japan to be fixed.
Wonderland Park has a little ice skating rink, which is really why we went there. I guess it will only be there in the winter – it’s in a tent, and I don’t think they could keep the ice frozen in mid-summer. There were big signs up for the National Ice Sports Centre that they plan to build there. I don’t know if this building will be more or less impressive than the sort of arena you’d find in, say, Strathmore, Alberta. Ice skating isn’t terrifically popular here.
I was quite concerned about how much I would embarrass myself on skates. When I was younger I used to skate a lot. It’s fun to tell people here that Canadians make ice rinks in their back yards, and that there are outdoor rinks in every park, and that when we lived in Point McKay the drainage was so bad that I could skate along the icy roads that went through the townhouses. However, it’s been a while. The last time I skated was in 1986 or so, when I borrowed my dad’s ill-fitting hockey skates to skate on the Rideau Canal. I believe that I was in pain and sulking for much of the day, and also it was probably freezing cold.
I started off a bit wobbly, but then was okay – not like I used to be, but I could move. (Sadly, there are no photos.) This was Tilda’s first time on skates, and she did very well. She held Brad’s hand and swung at the end of his arm quite a bit, until she figured out that it was easier to be autonomous. She didn’t really get the hang of pushing off to the side with her skates, but she was able to shuffle along. I was happy that she was as persistent as she was, and also very impressed by her balance – by the end she was hardly falling, but constantly about to fall and then catching herself.
I hadn’t thought to bring a change of clothes, so she had a cold, wet bum by the end, and we bought her another pair of pants so that she would be dry enough to go have something to eat. She was quite chilled (she wore 2 jackets!), and tired, so I was sure that she was coming down with something, but she was fine by Monday.
We had dinner at a seafood restaurant in Docklands. My goodness, that was good. Although I wish they would just put some canned crab meat on my pasta, rather than making me fish a tiny bit of meat out of a claw. I don’t like high-maintenance food.
The other excursion was on Tuesday, Brad’s last full day here. Tilda was asked whether she wanted to go somewhere instead of going to school, and she said yes, so we went to the Melbourne Museum. She put on the new shirt that Grandma sent, which was nice because initially she claimed that it was too scratchy. Now I have some pictures of it! It’s pretty.
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