Nothing but goodness on a day like today

Today is the spring solstice - a day when we wholeheartedly give up an hour in exchange for lighter, warmer and greener days.  A very fair swap indeed and a pleasure doing business with you, nature.  There is only one place to go in London on days as deliciously fresh and sunny as today.  The park. Any park.  And there are plenty to choose from here.  We chose Primrose Hill along with hundreds of other sun thirsty Londoners.  What a joy to see people literally drinking down gulps of sunshine and park life.  Smiling, relaxed attitudes everywhere.  Happy.  Content.  All it took was a little mild weather.

I don't usually do well on playground duty.  I find it duller than church.  Watching kids play is about as entertaining as watching the laundry go round and round in a washing machine.  Most parents feel the same way.  I would put money on it.  Show me a parent who lives for taking their kids to the playground and I'll show you a very unstable personality.  A delusional liar, in fact.  After years of spending Saturday afternoons standing around a steel and plastic obstacle course, you can't help feeling a little resentful.  It's inevitable.  It's human nature.  But not today.  Parents were kicking off their shoes, peeling their socks off and rubbing their toes in the soft sand of the sandpit.  This never happens.   I promise you.  The sandpit is usually as inviting as a cold bath.  But today, parents were building forts with working draw bridges and actual size moats. 

Open arms at the end of a slide replaced vacuous stares broken only by the most serious of playground injuries and only then to enable the rolling of eyes.    There were standing ovations in appreciation of rope climbing prowess and those lucky enough to get time on a swing were over-joyed to the point of rapture.  Not even the ridiculously dressed person selling balloons at equally ridiculous prices could elicit even a modest measure of cynicism.  Balloons for everyone!

This was codeine strength leisure; parents were wiping saliva off their own chins.  Two whole hours passed before I even thought about making a move.  And even then it took everything I had. 

Life was invented for days like today.  And all it took was a little bit of sunshine.