Despatches from a mother who started late (and is running to catch up)

On safari

Husband Va-vay leaves tea in my favourite mug by my bedside, kisses me goodbye and heads out to work. He has even loaded the dishwasher and set it running before leaving. It's Monday morning and I am missing him after a weekend of dinners and fun. Some hours later, the girls and I finally manage to leave the flat. We're having a day out at the local zoo. We succeed in boarding a 26 bus, no mean feat given Edinburgh's draconian transport rules that stipulate drivers allow only one unfolded buggy on board their buses at any time. I have never known a driver agree to bend this rule, despite the most piteous pleading imaginable, so suspect they must enforce it on pain of the most terrible consequences. This unfolded buggy rule is one of those regulations that sounds meaningless. But it's more than a technicality. Please just believe me when I say that it can make a parent's life hell. Our side-by-side double buggy is too unwieldy to fold, so there have been many times when I've waited in the Edinburgh rain with the girls for a bus, then been turned away by the driver because there's already an unfolded buggy on board and have had to wait for the next bus to come along. Any Edinburgh parent could recount similar experiences. However, this morning I get lucky, we're the only buggy at the bus-stop and there are no buggies already on the bus, that's our green light to get on board and we head out through the city centre into the suburbs and Edinburgh Zoo, where we clamber aboard something called the Hilltop Safari (pictured). This bus does daily half-hour tours of the zoo. It's good for several reasons - Beanie loves the novelty and seeing all the animals, we find out more about what we're seeing from the guide, plus it spares Beanie from the climb and me from the effort of pushing the Panzer tank that doubles as their buggy. The guide makes no comment on the size of the tank, or its snowplough-shaped prow, but then I reflect that zoo workers must be used to transporting scary wild animals - this is small beer - and he stows it away in the back of the bus. I'm warming to this experience more by the minute. Edinburgh transport rules do not apply here - the bus is full of buggies, all in their full, unfolded glory, and their occupants. We pull away and the guide begins his spiel. "To your left you'll see the white-naped cranes, one of the several endangered species you'll find here at the zoo. High up in that tree you can see one of the females. She is what we call here a high-demand female." The adults on the bus laugh politely, though of course the children miss the joke. Unbidden, an image of Va-vay enters my mind. In it, he is looking at me with quizically raised eyebrows and an affectionate but distinctly wry smile. Quite suddenly, I no longer miss him as much as I did.

Posted 15 June 2009 18:34

Activities Buses Daughters Edinburgh Fun Home Husband Out and about Paradoxes

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