Swinging and sliding

A couple of years ago, mummy and daddy bought me a swing. Daddy then got a couple of long chains, looped those over a bar in the forecourt of our old house and attached the swing's ropes to the chains. Hey presto, something for me to sit happily in while mummy and daddy did all the hard work of pushing me. I'm too big for the swing now and in any event, we moved house a couple of months ago. It was good while it lasted because that was my swing, my forecourt, and me getting all the pushes.

Earlier this week, mummy rigged the swing up in our study downstairs. There's a hook in the ceiling and she asked our driver to do all the chain-hanging and rope-attaching business and there, lo and behold was my swing, but this time with Mark sitting in it. I don't begrudge him his time in my swing. I like to think I've grown out of being pushed in a baby seat and besides, there have been a couple of times in the past when I've nearly toppled out of it. Mark doesn't get pushed very hard - just gentle little baby pushes really - and there are mattresses on the floor underneath just in case something should tumble. Sliding is more my cup of tea and I had such a good time when we went to England for our holidays, a case of so many skides, so little time. I remember daddy telling mummy that we should go to Arundel castle in Sussex and walk around lots of boring rooms looking at suits of armour and hearing the tour guides say things like, "and this chair dates from the year 1546. It's made from an oak tree which was growing on the estate and if you look at the back of one of the chair legs you can just make out the signature of the carpenter..." I mean, pl....ease! Thankfully daddy saw sense and scrapped the boring castle bit and we went to a theme park instead where I slid and jumped and jumped and slid to my heart's content. Mark was that much younger than and couldn't even keep his head from wobbling, let alone sit in a swing. But I had great fun and it's just such a pity that there aren't more slides where we are now.

The other day, as daddy was taking me out for a drive, I asked him, "are we in England?" "No darling," he laughed, "we're still in India." I don't know why he laughed because I can't see there's anything to laugh about. I want to do more sliding and England's the place for me. "I want to go to England" I said, and daddy said we would go again, one day. I hope it's soon.

In the meantime, Mark seems quite happy in my swing and just sits there stuffing his fingers into his mouth. Once he gets a bit older though, he'll also want more things to do and then the two of us can put more pressure on mummy and daddy to take us somewhere decent where we can play.