A WALK IN THE PARK

Some vignettes and observations.

Its a glorious day here in Auckland.
I slept in making this one of the few dawn services that I've missed on ANZAC day.
After driving The Old Girl to work (she is catching up on a few things this morning) I went for a walk.

I went along my favourite track, down the back of the zoo to Western Springs.

Being old and invisible

Now I'm the first to admit that I'm no babe magnet but in my younger days young women would at least check me out before dismissing me as a prospect - you know, the eye contact and a quick scan. Nowadays I don't even rate that. A couple of groups of twenty/30 somethings walked past chatting amongst them selves and I don't think they even saw me.

Being old and less able

This is hard to admit. Walking briskly down the bush path my ankle turned and I tumbled. Fortunately the rocks and gravel on the downhill path broke my fall! I rolled slowly off the path and into the bushes thinking "Silly old bugger" and hoping that no-one saw.
I noticed that my hands were cut and scraped and were bleeding.
I sat on a tree stump massaging my ankle when a woman coming up the path stopped to chat. I think she must have been crazy because she didn't seem to notivce my hurt ankle or bleeding hands. But hey! At least she talked to me.

"Yes, and what do you think of this weather....its so peaceful here....oh, well, must dash..."

Courtesy

I am reminded that Auckland people are less courteous than those I meet on walks up North.
Very few acknowledge me so there aren't many nods and 'Hellos'. Admittedly I did get some odd glances. Perhaps the blood on my hands had something to do with that.

People in the park

Auckland is very cosmopolitan now. I sat on a bench and watched the family groups from many ethnicities walking around the lakes. A Chinese group caught my attention. They seemed to be made up of four generations. They were taking the obligatory photographs and watching the birds on the water. A little girl was feeding the swans and geese with bread. As she turned to talk to her mother she didn't notice a big goose come up to within inches of her face. When she turned around she screamed and jumped backwards. The family all laughed (in Chinese) as she hid behind her mother. The little girl handed the bread to her even younger sister. Everyone expected her to feed the geese but instead she ate the bread herself. More laughs.



This goose girl image may be a bit tame for TSB so here is another one. For his eyes only. Click:


HERE


Giving directions

Back at the top of the track and on the way home two young women stopped me to ask for directions. They wanted to know the way to the zoo. I could have directed them down the path I had come from but I decided to tell them the easy to find way. I said "go along this road here and down the steep hill. At the bottom the road levels out. The zoo entrance driveway is on the left. Go up there to the main gates"

One of them said " The gates are on the left of this road"
I said "The driveway is on the left from the level part of the road at the bottom of the steep hill. The gates are at the end of this driveway"
The other tourist said."So the gates are on the left halfway down the steep hill"
I stared at her. Hard. I said "Go down the steep hill. The road levels out at the bottom. Go along the level part for about 75 metres. The driveway to the zoo is on the left:
I left. I thought about telling them about the bush track that leads to the back of the zoo but decided that as they were so dumb they would probably get lost and be nether seen nor head from again. Not a good idea since so many witnesses had seen me with blood on my hands.