City swings

I've just recently visited Portland, Oregon, and it's such an enlightened city!
It's so livable that it bursts with opportunities for fun and frolicking. From the yarn store with a knitter's cafe attached, to swings in the very centre of the city. Imagine that! (If you're ever looking for them, they're on Davis and 8th).



They're not the best swings I've ever used in my life, but it was something new. I'd give them a 7 out of 10.

Verulamium Park

I'm in England at the moment and have had trouble finding any swings to go on, but I found some in sunny St Albans. I wasn't expecting much from these swings because the chain was so short, but I found them surprisingly good.

My swinging companions made it far more interesting. Four boys and a pretty blonde girl, all about 14 years old, sat on the swings next to me. I began listening into their conversation when I overheard the girl telling the boys that she had never kissed a girl. The boys all agreed that she was missing out and should try it sometime, trying to persuade her by telling her that they had all kissed girls and it was good. Then they started talking about a dirty movie they'd seen. It was all very charged and I felt uncomfortable.



Just then, a little girl on the slide next to the swings on the other side flew off the end, square into a big puddle at the bottom. She was wearing a little kilt, which was now sodden and her mum was pissing herself laughing, trying not to laugh in front of the little girl. Undetered, she kept going on the slide in just her nappies and gumboots.

A farewell swing

Last weekend we moved out of our place in Summer Hill and commenced the great migration north then westward to Canada.

I went on a walk around the neighbourhood and said goodbye to the resident cats, houses, trees, parks and piles of rubbish out on the kerb etc.


I'd never swung on this particular swing before, and I couldn't even tell you where it was exactly but it was in Leichhardt and it was a good one.

I look a bit uncomfortable but I assure you that's just because taking a photo of yourself with a camera whilst swinging is not an altogether easy task.

I wonder what kind of swings await me in the wide world out there?! Very exciting. I'll keep you posted.

Swinging as nature intended it

This is pure swinging joy - the sort of people that swings were created for!

I'm a big fan of my friend Jet, and he's a big fan of swinging, even at the tender age of 9 months.

Look at those dimples - they are working overtime to express the joy-beams emanating from his person.

I can't be so mad at those little swings anymore.

Night swinging

I've got a new camera, so I can finally do some night swing photography! I went to Ashfield to get my night swinging kicks. I felt torn - I wanted to take the photos AND be on the swing, but patience was required.

Swing lackey kindly offered both his swing modelling and photographing skills <---




And I swung my little heart out --->

You have to swing little swings when you're getting photographed though.





<--- This was an attempt to use a torch to make the swinger visible (this is the other swing set at the park), but instead it just gave a cool effect...

What other park would you go to at 9 o'clock at night to do some swinging, and find another couple (even older than us) doing the same (and also using the monkey bars!)?



Gotta love that Ashfield Park!!! So many unique new friends to meet. There's the couple who walk through there clapping their hands a-rhythmically, and the man who walks with the silver balls in his had circling them around in his palm. There's the tai chi groups (rival factions exist, with about 4 groups usually in the mornings), then there's the rebel tai chi people (usually a lone male), who's doing CRAZY tai chi-esque moves. One guy looked like he was doing a combination of break dancing and tai chi.

Then there's the guy who takes a whip down there every morning and has a good old crack of it. There's often a backwards walker/runner or two, and a group of three older Italian gentlemen who walk together conversing loudly and gesticulating wildly to one another. Lots of Chinese and Indian grandmas and grandpas come with their offspring's offspring to show them off to their friends - it's the coolest place to hang out for the oldies you see. There's a Mary Poppins statue and a commemorative plaque for International speak your mother tongue year, and a war memorial with lots of rosemary around it. I've often wondered whether it would be really bad to take a sprig of rosemary for cooking with, but feel like this might be a bit disrespectful.

I LOVE ASHFIELD PARK!

10 out of 10 (plus one)

Today we returned to the scene of the swing with friends (you've got to share this kind of joy).

It was a big hit! There I am in an anti-gravity state.

Luke was in his element.


Michelle (opposite) looks like she's in an ad for shampoo or female hygiene products (so young and free etc.)

A few people felt sick afterwards (myself included, but I think that was more to do with the hang-over I was suffering from). It seems like you've got to keep swinging every couple of months or so as to stave off its possible ill effects. I think this is a design so that all the people in the world can't be wanting to swing at once because there aren't enough of them, so only young kids will use them. But I will foil their efforts to stop me swinging! Join me in my quest to swing until my final days!

A Perfect 10!

I'm so glad that I didn't blow the ultimate 10 out of 10 score until now because this weekend I found it. Swing lackey and I were in the Blue Mountains for Caroline and Richard's wedding and woke up excited with time to kill so we went for a walk and discovered the Hinkler Memorial Park.

Mr Hinkler's Mum opened this park. Hinkler must have been a great bloke (and a massive fan of swinging) because these are the biggest swings I'd EVER seen. They're at least 15 feet tall!

The park was also a rest home for shopping trolleys (awh......sssh, they're sleeping!)


The swing seats were wet ... but I got over that.

And then it took a while to get any height because each swing of the swing is so damn big and slow - I felt so graceful. I think that whoever designed this swing must have designed the Harbour Bridge, or some great work of architecture.

Me and the swing were at one with the cool air and the dew and the blue sky. It was pure bliss. It was 10 out of 10 alright!


They ever-so-gently blew my mind.