time machine

Now that Arlo is properly speaking, he is properly asking for stuff and if his first word in the morning isn't 'cake' then it's pretty likely it's going to be 'park'.

So, off we trundled in search of a new park and I'd heard tell of a good one about 20 minutes walk away. I have a terrible-bordering-on-the-ridiculous sense of direction and after getting through the long tunnel to the park I realised I had absolutely NO idea where the hell I was in Edinburgh.

I looked at the buildings and figured it might have been sort of Stockbridgey/New Towney way but really, absolutely no idea whatsoever. My lovely friend Thom walked by and I told him I had no idea and he put me right by explaining street names and well, basically telling me EXACTLY where I was and I nodded and said 'ahaaa, yes, I know where I am now' and when he walked away I had to confess to myself that I still had no idea.

Not that it mattered as going back through the tunnel would take me back to Tesco at Cannonmills and boy, do I know that place well.

It was a great park, really chilled out and the mums were all very friendly. Most importantly, Arlo enjoyed it but it was most definitely different to the parks we normally go to (i.e I could leave my bag 20 inches away from where I was standing and expect it still to be there when I turned round). Mainly because this one was in the swankypants part of town whereas the ones I take him to are in the 'colourful' parts of town and as a result all of the children looked like they came from another era.

I'm going for Victorian times, or whever the hell it was that people dressed their well-to-do male offspring in scratchy looking pea coats and shiny leather girls shoes (something along the lines of this - so maybe Edwardian times). An era where little boys have bouffant blonde curly bobs and big blue eyes that have a 'I'm being raised by a strict nanny' look in them.

Anyway. Yes. Lots of little 'careful' boys skipping around and refusing to interact in any way with my little oik (truly, in his anorak and trainers, he really did look like a thug in comparison). In fact, one little boy recoiled in fear when Arlo went marching over to him to give him a piece of imaginary green cake he'd just made in the kitchen. Alas, there was no friend-making to be had for the boy at this park.

Still, it was nice to see a bit of Edinburgh (even if I didn't know where it was) and it was nice to wander through a tunnel and pop out in a different world.

Tomorrow I think we'll go back to our own park, where the kids run around with dog poo on sticks. Much more our scene.

Man.