David Currie

941We had visitors last Saturday and made a trip out to what I shall always know as the Owl & Otter Center but which is now called the New Forest Wildlife Park. It’s actually the first time I’ve been (despite having used the car park for numerous RR10 events). The owls and otters are still present in force but there’s a good selection of other animals to see from ferrets and foxes to bison and, the most recent addition, wolves. (It’s based in the New Forest obviously rather than containing wildlife representative of the Forest!) The highlight had to be the over friendly deer which, having nibbled my shoelaces proceeded to give the edge of someone’s silk dress a good chew much to their distress! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves but I’m not sure I’d rush back.

The following day, Christine was off visiting a friend and I took the children off to Manor Farm. We topped up our buckets with bird seed as usual although there seemed to be few in evidence in the farmyard. Duncan seems particularly wary of the animals. At one point he let out a prolonged ‘oooooooo’ which transformed in to a scream as a hen approached him. After a picnic we headed down to the playground in the park which was advertising some new equipment. Some was a bit dubious. There was one triangular piece that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a dog agility course which Duncan seemed to love as it had carpet inside and mirrored walls! There is a fantastic new swing though which is a very thick rope suspended from something resembling a Newton’s cradle which seats/stands about 10 children. After about 10 minutes of watching, Emma eventually deigned to get on. She didn’t stay on for long though!

920I can’t claim that Royal Wedding fever was rife in the Currie household. Emma was mildly excited due to the whole ‘princess’ side of things but probably wouldn’t have noticed  if we’d just gone out for the day. As it was, we settled down in front of the TV just as the groom departed for the Abbey and watched until they were in the church. The photo is a bit misleading as Duncan wasn’t really glued to the screen. He was probably only standing there to try and get other people’s attention. Emma seemed to enjoy wathing all of the different hats going in to the church.
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863Emma’s birthday itself was a fairly quiet afair. Emma was up early but more due to sunlight than anything birthday related. Presents were opened over breakfast and then I went in to work.  The family then joined me there for lunch at the clubhouse where Emma’s early start was starting to show. Apparently she enjoyed visiting the fish after I’d gone back to my desk though. Then it was the first of many cakes in the evening. Emma’s attempts at blowing anything (and not just Rice Krispies out of her nose) are still pretty feeble so I was suitably impressed that she managed to extinguish the candles.

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