Are we there yet?
Being a father of boys 5 and 2 and being ‘anti-Wii’ and soft play centres in pubs, filling the weekends with a mixture of exercise and stimulation can often be a challenge. There’s only so many urban farms you can attend – trust me, I’ve done them all. Swimming is good, but only really kills an hour and what’s that? you can only use the diving boards at designated times. Boring!
As we enter into another half term (didn’t we just have one of those?) the race is on to fill the days and keep those little ‘uns happy. So I thought I’d steal a march on the competition. Nobody would think about doing stuff on the Sunday before half term would they? Er, well ‘yes’ actually they did. I’ve never seen so many families out in force.
After a spin around Golden Acre park, (that’s the exercise bit) coffee and cake, (the re-fuelling bit) then a tour around the gardens, (the cultured bit) it was off to, “Tropical World”.
Now I don’t know where the hell that suggestion came from, but it did – must’ve found some energy from somewhere.
I’ve been to Tropical World some years ago and I can’t remember being that impressed. But…hey, this was cool. Big hairy tarantulas, butterflies landing on your head, rain forests and waterfalls, snakes, lizards, bats and… (drum roll) The Meercat Enclosure!
With my marketing head on, immediately I thought it a missed sponsorship opportunity for you-know-who! But back to the action…
The boys were loving it, the parents were surprisingly civilised and after a quick spin around the gift shop we all set off for home feeling educated/stimulated/energised/freeked-out/other. The plastic snake will always act as a reminder of a truly memorable day. The boys and I even watched a repeat of Madagascar together, (not the animated film, the Attenborough thing) because now we’re experts on rain forests. How cultured are we?
Maybe we’ve peaked too early.
LG.
