Thanks Alex!

I took BallFiend to his swimming lesson this morning and Thumper for a paddle in the toddlers' (cess) pool. Then after a quick sandwich for lunch, we continued on to do a (fool's) errand for DeepSpice - to get him some masonite pegboard, measuring 1220 x 915 mm, and also to exchange some wonky hooks for said pegboard.

After much cruising around the aisles of the local hardware mega-warehouse (which I have to admit, I quite like doing), I finally found the required items, tested 50 hooks in the pegboard in order to find 6 non-wonky ones. Then I took BallFiend and Thumper via the playground for a quick play as a reward for their patience (which was rather thin by this time as they were tired out after their swim).

Once the obligatory playground stop-off was complete, I headed straight for the checkout. Halfway there BallFiend announced at the top of his lungs: "I have a pooooooo!!!" then he turned and ran in the direction of the toilets. I hurried along behind him, pushing the trolley with an extra-wide load of pegboard on it.

After the toilet stop-off, we finally reached the check out, where I had to explain to BallFiend for the 1000th time that "No you cannot have a ball and just because they gave you a free one last time doesn't mean they will give you one this time!"

Finally back at the car with the pegboard, I carefully positioned the trolley so it won't roll out onto the road (with Thumper still on board) by placing it in the mouth of the trolley bay, which was right next to our car. (I always park next to trolley bays if I can - having learned that this is the best place to park when you have small kids in tow).


BallFiend started to use the railings of the trolley bay as monkey bars, while I carefully removed the board from the trolley and tried to put it into the back of the car. All good so far, except that DeepSpice forgot to mention that a 1220 x 915 mm piece of board will not fit in our car!! At this point Thumper threw her banana out of the trolley and wailed, and BallFiend fells over the bars and whacked his shin, then a man arrived wanting to get a trolley out from behind my Thumper-laden trolley.

Thankfully he recognised my look of despair and offered to help strap the pegboard to the roof rack. (By help, I mean do it for me.) This allowed me time to attend to Thumper and allowed BallFiend time to pester the man's daughter: "What's your name? What's your name? Mum, she won't tell me her name!!"

With the pegboard firmly secured on the roof rack, I loaded the kids into the car and we departed for home. But not before BallFiend had one last tantrum - he wanted to know the man's name, screaming after him as he walked away "What's your name? What's your name?!" I managed to appease BallFiend by telling him that the man's name was Alex and his daughter's name was Sarah.

So, if anyone asks...
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