Save the Maryon Wilson Animal Park - part the seconde

One lovely listener has sent me a link to the Friends of Maryon Wilson Park website.

http://www.friendsofmaryonparks.org/friends/what-we-do/save-the-animals

See what happened with us giving the Government a hard time about saving the woodlands? They got scared and saw sense (well, that's what I like to think). We can do it with MWP.

please save us

Click on the deer and sign the petition. What the hell, do it again and again with as many false names as you can think of. Turn it into a party game. Theresa Green? Aguerra Dos Latte?

Whatever you do, just don't sit on the fence and watch it disappear.

Save the Maryon Wilson Animal Park

I love the many green spaces around The Shire, and (as long as there's a Wi-Fi hotspot nearby¹), I love getting down with nature too.

The animal care centre in Maryon Wilson Park is under threat and it must be saved. I've taken Toddler Pangloss to meet and feed the animals many times and we loved it. We are really lucky to live in London and have the privilege of learning about animals. I know we also have Woodlands Farm on Shooters Hill, but that can be a drag to get to if you need to get on buses with a child and a perambulator and a bag of nappies et al.

If you've not been to the Maryon Wilson Animal Park, then go on a Wednesday at 1.30pm. You won't be disappointed.

There's an online petition for everyone to sign and make our virtual voices heard.

Don't make excuses like, I'll do it tomorrow, because you'll forget about it tomorrow. Sign the petition now!!!!

footnote
1- sort of joking

Swing in to action

There seems to be a children's playground refurbishment programme happening in the area. About time too.

New fencing around the Slade swing-park and I noticed that the refurb work on the Winn's Common playground is in full swing [phew just about managed to shoe-horn an lame pun in there - ed]. I see that the new equipment being installed is the utterly excellent Kompan range; I find them very inventive and superbly designed. The swing parks in Welling have had the Kompan equipment for quite some time, not that I'm saying Greenwich needs to pull their socks up, but I just prefer to let my children play on interesting rust-free equipment in an environment free of broken glass and dogs. Maybe I'm just picky?

Not sure if the Slade equipment will receive an upgrade or not but I would jolly well hope so.

Plumstead Live!

Apparently, there's a live event coming our way in the guise of Plumstead Live! Music Festival. I've held back from mentioning this so far as I'm seeking confirmation that this is a genuine event.

If it's kosher then we should all get really excited about it. There's mention of :-

Plumstead Sinfonia - never knew there was one

Plumstead Manor Musicians - these are real human beings and they definitely exist

The Bill Mudge Quintet - Google (and other well known search engines), confirm that BMQ are real, but I couldn't find Plumstead Live! on their tour schedule.

So, is this a red herring? Maybe Greenwich Council smoke and mirrors to 'bury bad news'?

Is such an event too good to be true? Gadzooks!!!! I hope not.

Who's right?

Being a nice afternoon, I went to Greenwich Park. I took Toddler Pangloss to play in the swing park there.

Whilst TP was walking up a ramp, a group of 3 older (maybe 8 or 9 years old), children came running around on the ramp. TP stopped at the top of the ramp to watch them/keep out of their way. They then thought it was great fun to climb onto the roof of the activity with their skateboards.

Uh oh........

Fortunately, my friend asked them to keep off of the roof and calm down as there were small children around. They didn't take much notice and my friend asked again.

Before you could say "Lorks a lordy I told you so", one of these boys ran into Toddler Pangloss and TP fell backwards and off the activity. A fall of about 2 feet - might not look that high to you & I but it's significant to a toddler.

I shouted at the top of my voice at the child whilst checking that TP hadn't fallen awkwardly and broken anything. I was pretty annoyed. I knew I'd broken the Summer atmosphere of the play park, but I just didn't care; it was instinctive. The boys had already been warned that they were being dangerous.

I spoke to the boy's father about this and he seemed unrepentant about what had happened, stating that it was an accident and that this is what happens in play parks. I accepted this, but then mentioned that we warned they were being dangerous and they chose to carry on being so. The father then put the blame in my court saying that if I want to avoid accidents then don't bring TP to play parks. I thought this was a little below the belt and said that I know children will get over-excited, but the parents need to monitor their little darlings, which he had not.

He clearly thought I was wrong and I clearly thought he was wrong.

What an unfortunate way to end Sunday.