Floriade again and some good news

Wednesday:

We took dad and his girlfriend to Floriade. A little cooler today, but still lovely. Another slow walk, at the speed of a elderly couple in a crowd (not breaking any records here), we did 4 km in 1 hr 40 min. But the map on RunKeeper shows a strange detour that we certainly didn't make. So it was probably more like 3 km. My pacer (steps per day app), on the other hand, is telling me I've only done 11 steps today. It's done that a couple of times lately, not that I bother to check it much, saying I haven't moved at all when I've had a fairly active day. So I deleted the silly thing.

The kids also had a short play at the "castle" - that is what we call it, I have no idea if it has an official name. A collection of stone crawl tunnels with ladders up to slides.

I think we're halfway through this 50 km walking challenge and I've done about 13.5, so I need to pick up the pace a bit (if you'll pardon the pun). Actually I need to increase the distance, not the pace. It only counts formal walks, not random meandering around the house during the day.

Our visitors left straight after the morning outing so we had a quiet afternoon. I had a nap on the lounge. All this unaccustomed sunlight really makes me sleepy! Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

I got some really good news tonight, the owner of the other car involved in my bingle yesterday texted me to say the scratch was minor and would buff out so the insurance company wasn't going to take any action. Yay! I'd hated to think of that money wasted. Very happy about that.

Bingle

Tuesday:

My dad and his girlfriend went off to visit dad's brother today (but saying he would definitely be back for dinner), so I took the kids to the awesome Pod Playground at the arboretum.

A lot of the instalments look like giant acorns.

And it is all set within the lovely rolling hills and baby trees of the arboretum, next to the café where I like to write.

I spent most of the time walking slowly around and around the playground. It was a bit of an obstacle course, with running kids, crying kids, squealing-with-excitement kids, parents with prams, parents chasing wind-blown hats, parents blocking the path chatting to other parents, fed-up parents juggling a sleeping baby and a screaming toddler while looking for their older child to tell them it was time to go home, abandoned toddler shoes, children falling over, parents chasing toddlers, parents taking photos of their kids (I was one of those) ... so I managed to walk 2 km in 45 minutes.

 

It was a lovely sunny day. The only fault I have with this playground is that there is no shade for parents at all (and not enough benches). The kids get shade inside all the acorns and little huts, but it is still a bit exposed. Scorching hot in summer and freezing in winter. But nice in spring! I certainly feel like I've got enough sun for the day.

 

Then as I was pulling out of my parking space, chatting to the children and not paying enough attention, I did this to the car next to me:

Long scrape. That is my gold paint on her dark blue. I didn't hear or feel it at all, but I saw the horrified face of the other owner who was still with her car!  It was her husband's work car. She got all my details. I have never gone through this process before, I assume my insurance pays for all or some of the repair. Our car got a mark too,

but I'm sure we won't bother doing anything about it. Of course I am not happy about having done this, but I really and truly am glad that if I had to have some kind of accident it was just a little scrape with no one hurt and no major damage or inconvenience. And a nice non-abusive woman to deal with.