2 August 2010

Sarah and Tom were going to a Teddy Bears' picnic so Emily and I spent the morning in Horsham. We had coffee then traipsed around a few shops. Emily was grumpy and sat slumped in the buggy refusing to walk. Eventually I realised with a guilty pang that she had dropped off. She stayed asleep for an hour, allowing me to finish what shopping I had planned and take her and a picnic lunch to the park on the south side of town. She woke just as I pulled up at at a bench and thankfully a train went past on the rail line over the field at that moment, staving off any upset. We had a nice lunch and a bit of a wander around the pleasant park area there.

Later, Sarah and I took the kids to Southwater Park, which is a very pleasant spot a couple of miles away from Horsham. Sarah and Tim are hoping to buy a house in the nearby village, and if they do they will be very lucky to have such a nice spot on their doorstep. It is an old clay pit, now a lake, and set in attractive surroundings with a cafe and a fantastic playground. There were many people in canoes and small sailing boats, and we sat and watched them while we had refreshments outside the cafe, before passing around the lake to the playground. Tom led the way confidently up the steps to the top of a very long slide, and they both went down a few times.

For some reason Emily was a bit wimpy about using some types of equipment that she had attempted with gusto at home. Afterwards she and Tom stripped off to have a dip in the lake, with Tom completely immersed and seemingly unpeturbed by the cold water.

After Tim returned from work the two of us went for a short run around Horsham; he has recently taken up jogging and I was overdue for a run. As we made a circuit of Horsham Park, something flew out of a hedge by the path and stung me on the hand. As far as I could tell it was a small wasp, and I let out a huge yell, being petrified of the blighters as I don't think I have ever been stung (in all my adult life at least). Although I do think it was a wasp, it only felt like a bad nettle sting, and by the time I got back to Sarah's it had a bit of a white centre but was actually quite tolerable. I conjectured that as I was running my increased bloodflow distributed the poison quickly. By next day it was only an itch so perhaps it wasn't a wasp after all.