12 posts tagged “cargobike”

Well, I felt so bad about Sunday that today I had the chance to make amends.  So I booked tix online, and we headed on down (again).

I just told her that we were going for a ride, but within a few minutes of riding, she was saying "This is the same way as you go to Star Wars".  Can't keep anything from her eh?

The look on her face when she realised we'd be going in was priceless.  And, I think she enjoyed it even more than I did.  We weaved around and looked at each of the exhibits, and some of the interactive stuff as well.  We'd been in there for well over an hour, and I could see she was starting to look around her a bit more.  She hadn't seen her princess.

So, I had been leaving one corner of the exhibition to the end, and there she was.  Genevieve was RAPT!

No... that's not a mirror

We made good time back home, so I thought we'd skedaddle down to ScienceWorks to see the Star Wars exhibition there.  It's been on for months, but it's finishing in a few weeks, so I thought we'd make a go of it.

We rode the 6kms down there, with her not really knowing what it was.  We had her lovely brown coat on - a bit Jawa or a bit Jedi depending upon how you look at it.  But she also had her (well... my actually) Leia hair beanie.  We locked up the CargoBike and she could see the StarWars signage about the place.  She was SO excited.  Her little buddy Henry has seen it, and he must talk about it a lot.

We walk in, and I see this sign.

I find your lack of tickets disturbing

I explained it to her, but she didn't want to believe it.  She started to tear up, so we headed back out to the bike.  By then, she was having deep heaving sobs.  Not the whingey rubbish we normally get - she was really upset.  That's when I started to shed a few myself.  I'd never seen her so sad.  So I thought it's worth a try, and I headed back in.  She was still crying and I went up to the ticket booth.  The poor guy - he really wanted to help us, but he couldn't.

So, slowly stopping with the tears, we got back into the Cargobike and headed home.  I cheered her up by taking a few pix of her with 'the big gold lady'.

We didn't quite get onto this yesterday, so we had to do it today.  This time last year, VV and I did the 50km ride in Around the Bay in a Day.  This year, the weather was a bit flukey, so I decided against committing.  But, I did want to take her down to the bike expo.

We loaded up the CargoBike and headed down to Alexandra Gardens.  She loved riding her RunBike around, and answering everyone's questions.  In all seriousness, I could've sold 50 of the suckers today - she has a killer sales pitch ;)

She found a bike for me, and a bike for mummy (and interestingly, we would've LOVED to have had the ones she chose... hmm... taste may be rubbing off?)  We decided to get out of there before the ATBiaDers started arriving back in droves - but there was even things to be seen as we left, including a stilt-walking butterfly.

Ning ning ning ning....

I had been meaning to head to Thornbury to see a friends' new coffee shop they're setting up. In fact, they had a sorta grand opening a few weeks back, but we had to miss it.  Naomi had some work to do (requiring the computer, my main distraction other than the girls) so I thought I'd give her some time out from one of them, and hopefully the younger one would sleep.  So the stone was not only going to kill two, but now three birds as I could stop in a Paul's new bike shop on the way home, just for a looksee (Sat is Paul's only day off).

We caught the train to Croxton station, which meant swapping trains at Southern Cross.  As always, the CargoBike received a lot of positive reaction.  Swapping platforms is easy with the big elevators there. Genevieve was very excited to see the 'Wavy Roof One' again, and we even saw a choo-choo pass through (but then, it regularly passes our place too).

Boarded our second train and by that stage the novelty was over and she kept asking if this station was ours.  I made a crocodile action and told her to listen for 'Crocs-ton'.  So when she heard the announcement, she was rapt.  It's handy having the GPS in the phone although I probably didn't need it on this occasion with the coffee-shop being only two blocks away.

Next it was in to Steve for a coffee, and a hot chocolate for Genevieve.  (It seems that hot chocolate has surpassed the babycino when she's visiting a cafe).  Chris came out too.  She was doing some sanding out the back, and so was dressed accordingly, with boilersuit and breathing mask.

The place already looks great, but will certainly get better with time as they procure some more artworks and, I expect, actual old bikes etc. And Steve was a master at the espresso-machine.

Next, we made our way to the Capital City Trail for the trip home.  We stopped at a few of the playgrounds, and Genevieve also rode some of the distance herself. We also stopped into Paul's little shop.  They've got the perfect venue, (the old VideoEzy shop right on the CCT), but they can't start fitting that out just yet so they have a small store just near it. Genevieve spied some stickers, so of course, had to have a couple.

Then, it was back onto the path for more riding, and more playgrounds, and scaring a flock of pigeons.

Genevieve's runbike also garnered a bit of interest.  In particular, from a few parents whose own kid had to get off his bike to push it over the grass towards the playground.  Genevieve, of course, just ran/rode it straight to the gate.

Traffic

There were quite a few cyclists on the path today, with a disproportionately large number of old tubby blokes.  (He he... probably not much older than me, now I think about it, but they sure looked older). Initially I felt guilty, but they were really holding us back so we ended up passing quite a few - especially on hills.  Whoops.

The new bridge over Manningham Street makes the trip on the CCT much better, so it'll be even easier to get to the zoo now.  When we got home she asked if she could put a sticker on her bike, and we also put on a new honka-hooter.

Now that her proficiency has increased, Genevieve's preferred method of getting anywhere is via her own bicycle.  Most mornings she'll ride to and from childcare.  These pix show her riding to the toy library.  The day after, she rode all the way to the shops, and back again.

Up the alley

Off to the toy library

These are the girls playing footy.  I asked her if she wanted to play footy when she was older.  She said "Yeah... maybe..."

Watching the footy

Drawing

Trip home from the toy library

...on the CargoBike.

Pix by Genevieve.

Make a few SMSs, and jump in the CargoBike.  It'll fit seven bags of ice, and the girl, quite easily.  And our friends were most appreciative!

I decided to do some more creative/active holiday activities, instead of watching Shrek 2 again.

So, it was a quick google of gingerbread recipes, and then at it.  Genevieve had a ball, and really enjoyed helping out.