Sunday 31 August 2008

The Great British Duck Race

The plan was to go to the duck race with some mummy chummy's however at about 9am this morning they texted me asking if we should cancel due to the peeing rain. I called back and after a bit of debating and motherly worrying about babies in the rain we decided to call it off.

I then flumped about the flat grumpng and plotting as I've had this pencilled into my diary for months, so in the end I decided that rubbish lungs and the great British summer were no match for me and that Edward and I would go and see how far we got!

As we walked out the flat and I realised just how much it was actually raining, and how out of breath I was already I quailed, however determined I told myself it wasn't far to the bus stop, I had a nice full tank of oxygen and the rain would pass soon. Without too much incident and with lots of help from a variety of kind people Edward and I made it to Hampton Court and down to the river bank.

Edward didn't have a rain cover and stupidly I didn't take a hat either, however I think we coped quite well with a hood fashioned out of a hanky and his changing bag pouch. I used his actual changing mat as a seat, you can tell I'm a real mother now, utterly resourceful :o)

Given all my 'umming and ahhing' I really thought we would have missed the 'grand' launch, however luckly we made it in time and actually had a lovely ten minutes sat in the rain waiting for the ducks to be 'unleashed'.....I say 'unleashed' but I really feel that may be a rather melodramatic way of putting things.




There were some audio-speakers near by and some local radio DJ's were commentating and letting people know what was happening. They were rather rubbish, however did their best to try and gee up the soggy crowd of spectators.

Eventually the finally coutdown began and out came the ducks! For a while they didn't seem to move very fast at all, and then they seemed to pick up speed as they got to the bridge. I suspect it may have just been due to perspective as once they were closer it was easier to see that they were actually moving.




It was quite exciting when they got close enough to see properly. Edward and I had a good peer over the edge to see if we could spot our ducks but funnily enough we didn't. Despite that we cheered ours along anyway aswell as my freind Dan's as he'd asked me to. There were definately ducks out in the lead, then the bulk of them following behind herded along by a team of canoeists.

As the ducks went by the weather picked up a little and there was even a little sunshine which was lovely. I wanted to see the end of the race but it wasn't very easy to follow the riverbank and I wasn't confident about being able to get back given how much it had taken just to get to the waterside. I decided it was better to leave early while I still had energy and was still enjoying myself than to push it and end up exhausted and miserable.



We got back to central London safely, again helped by lots of kind people and now I'm chilled out on the sofa looking forward to cuddles and Trigun later with the gorgeous sexy Luke.



It's good to be me :o)

2 comments:

Post Pals said...

I was planning on going to the duck race but didnt make it- andseeing your pictures of the rain Im kind of glad I didnt! It looks amazing though seeing all those ducks float down the river.

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