Swimming with the fishes!

It was not an idyllic setting. The wind was howling and freezing cold but the sun was shining after 2 days of rain so we set off to ride our bikes at Green Point Park. The girls had been desperate to do so but getting the bikes into the car is not an easy task so when Grant suggested he could make use of the "good" weather to do some chair training (for the "run" part of his upcoming triathlon) and with dad there to take wheels off and put them on again we were keen.

While Grant did his thing on the promenade we went over the road to our new favourite place - Green Point Park.

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!

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!

Swimming with the fishes!!