While Grant did his thing on the promenade we went over the road to our new favourite place - Green Point Park.
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With both the girls riding so nicely now I thought I'd take my book and watch from a short distance as they ride around the many pathways. It was all going well till I heard the splash.
I had just looked up to check their whereabouts and confirmed to myself that they were both still pedalling and within sight - and then, the splash!
My back was turned to the place but I knew, it could only be Niave.
A kind dad at the closest table fished her out and I met her crying and shivering and drenched from chin to toe.
There's nothing like stripping down your dripping, screaming 5 year old in a public place and drying her off with a table cloth on loan from the family responsible for the rescue!! I had fortunately brought 2 extra warm tops but no bottoms so I wrapped my scarf around her legs and squeezed her feet into 2 pairs of socks (sometimes it pays to not unpack the rucksack from previous excursions!)
A few scrapes on her tummy and some pond weed on her bike are all there is to show for it! Oh, and a bruised ego!!
Only when we got home did she manage to explain to me how it happened: "I wasn't looking at that pond, I was looking at the one on the other side."!!
So a valuable lesson learnt: Always look in the direction in which you are travelling when on an object with wheels!!
Just when I thought my days of taking a spare set of clothes everywhere were over, it seems I was mistaken, one needs to be prepared for any and every eventuality - even "swimming" in midwinter fully clothed with a bike!
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This is Niave on a previous visit to the park at the exact spot where she fell in today. As you can see the pathway is very wide, she just rode straight over the edge!
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Swimming with the fishes!!
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