A day at the fair

On Sunday morning, I took Pearl and Fainjin to a local suburban fair.  This was a very satisfactory arrangement – I got to go to the fair, the Dad didn’t have to go to the fair and got some rare (almost-)alone time, and Babess got to stay home and have a nap.  I also didn’t have to negotiate the fair with a push-chair, which was good because it got quite crowded.

I found a very cute retro t-shirt for Babess, and a couple of beautiful arty screen-printed teatowels which will make good Christmas gifts.  Oh, and of course some fudge for the Dad – he doesn’t want to go to the fair, but he still wants the fudge!

Pearl’s pocket money burned a hole in her pocket until she spotted a stall selling “What-to-do kits”.  Quite a neat idea, some had chalk and instructions for pavement games, others had cookie cutters and recipes, there was a fairly wide variety.  She chose a “Spy Kit”, a bright pink bag containing “invisible ink”, a code wheel, a fake “credit card” and some envelopes stamped “Top Secret”.  As soon as we got home she wrote a letter to her cousin in code, and put it in one of the envelopes for me to post.  She says she also wrote a translation of the code since her cousin doesn’t have a code wheel.  Good thinking.

Fainjin got to touch a real tiger skin at the Zoo’s stall, where they also gave him a pinwheel.  He loved looking at the engines of the classic cars on display, and sat briefly on a merry-go-round – he got off before it started, and I got my money back!  We saw the fire engine arrive to start their display, but before it had even moved into position we saw the firemen all hop out, pull on their boots and fire-proof pants, and hop back in.  Then the fire engine went away again, with lights flashing and siren going.  That was even better than whatever display they’d had planned, as far as Fainjin was concerned!

When we were done with the fair, we ended up walking home because the bus routes were all diverted for the fair and by the time we found the new bus stop we were half-way home already.  It’s a long walk for little legs, but mostly downhill, and it was nice to have tired children at the end of the day.