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.

Swings for all occasions

Yesterday was my last day at work. I've been working at the same place in Artarmon for just over a year, and catching the train in most days. My work is in-between two stations, but I would always walk from the station that was a bit further away because you got to walk past a school and a park, and it was cool to watch the little kids doing calisthenics in the morning, or running up the side path with their P.E. teacher. This guy dressed like he'd just come from the gym and sounded like he was doing boot camp "Come on guys! Up that hill!" etc. And then you'd see these tiny kindy kids running as fast as they could behind him.


So yesterday I said goodbye to that walk. And as I was walking up and talking on the phone to a friend, I realised that there's been two swings there the whole time and I've never gone on them. I've always been in 'got to get to work' or 'got to get home' modes... Busy me! So last night I went and had a little swing, and took a photo with my phone - I look very happy! Now I'm free to move on to a new job and a new walk. I don't think there are any swings on the walk from Kings Cross station down William Street, but if there is I'll find them!

All roads lead to swings in Stanmore

That's not strictly true, but actually no, it probably is... I'm sure that every road would lead to another road and that road would lead to another one, and there would be a swing there somewhere!

Stanmore Road isn't a place a usually hang out in, but I was there for a backyard gig and noticed that there was a swing next door, so I went to check it out. Everything was going fine (notice how my skirt blends into the tree background perfectly), and then the whole swing frame started to lift out of the ground, making a really unsettling noise as it loosened further and further.

That swing-fest was cut short, I can tell you!

It was going to get an 8 out of 10 because it had a nice big swing arc, but it went down to a 2 real fast!

No swings for fun-times

On a recent trip up to the Central Coast, I had a yearning for a swing, but imagine my horror when the yearning could not be fulfilled.


Oh the inhumanity!

Avoid Dave Nunn Reserve (corner of Tuna Cresent and Farm Road, Fingal Bay) AT ALL COSTS - especially if you want a swing, cause there ain't none to be had!

A forgetful swinger

I've learnt an important lesson about this blog... until I have wireless internet with me everywhere I go, it's going to be hard to make this as immediate as I'd like. I scrawl notes down when I go swinging but they're on the back of bus tickets or a page of a newspaper, or the swing lackey's diary...and then I lose them. And that's sad. So I'm relying on my chancey memory.

So, these swings were in Bicentennial Park in Sydney - not a location I would necessarily associate with swings, but they were pretty good - nothing stand out. They are the kind that are short, so you get a more exhilarating pull back at the top. I gave them an 8.

I have learnt another lesson too. I was starting to rely too much on swing lackey's digital camera and when that fell of a television while it was taking a photo of us and broke most horribly (RIP little shutter-guy) we went back to using a camera that had mysteriously died and then come back to life. And just now, trying to get the photos of this swing off it IT'S DIED AGAIN (again in suspiciously mysterious circumstances!) So there's no photos with this review, and not even that a good a review either.

But I digress.... After we finished swinging and walked past the giant sandstone frog on the other side of the park, a lady in the Muslim veil had a turn at the swing too, and that was cool. She knew what time it was.

Hooray for swings! A cautious head tilt with squinted eyes for digital cameras! And a quiet shaking of the head for writing notes on pieces of paper and then forgetting them and chucking them out.

The big leap

I had never even thought about jumping off a swing before Tim asked me if I did....WHAT? Jump from a moving object onto my delicate little pins? Very scary prospect!

The swing lackey said he liked to jump off them too! Did everyone just swing for the bit at the end where they jumped off?!?! I felt like I'd let life pass me by! I should also mention here that I don't dive into water either...not even a safety step. NEVER.

I think the two fears are connected.

So I made a conscious effort next time I went swinging to try and jump off but my arms got caught up in the chain and my alabaster skin got damaged (see opposite). I'm still trying everytime I swing but only increasing the height that I jump from (at this stage it's more like a step than a jump) very s-l-o-w-ly.

So you may ask whether I'm the right person to be writing this blog seeing as I'm not partaking in one of the popular facets of the swinging experience...but to that I say "make your own 'I love to jump off swings after I swing on them' blog". Ha.

Yo from Yeo Park

I love this blog because it means I have an excuse for naff titles like the one above. There's no precedent set, no standard to aspire to! Hooray!

So, me and my noble photographer/swinging lackey went to Yeo Park last week and I had a swing. It was pretty forgettable really. the swings were right next to Trinity Grammar's infants school on Old Canterbury Road in Summer Hill and they were set up in a most utilitarian fashion - just there in a bog line with blue frames and fake grass under foot. I can't even be bothered to rate these guys.

On a more interesting note, Tim commented that I hadn't talked about whether I jump off swings after I'm done with them...that deserves a whole post of its own I think....

Learning from the pros

Today I went to have a swing in the park and work on a list of the best songs to swing to. I tried Pivot but that was too slow and then the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - the Nick Zimmer remix of 'Turn Into You' (which was awesome!) I was trying out some rad dance moves, moving my hands and legs in time with the music and swishing my hair, when three young boys come up beside me and started talking up at me with awe on their faces. I couldn't hear what they were saying through the music and thought they'd soon pass my, but they kept talking and running near my legs as I swung up above them. When I took off my headphones one of them (the eldest and a bit of spokesman for the group) exclaimed "Wow! You're such a good swinger!" I said thanks. He was especially impressed that I hadn't had anyone push me, and another one asked how I got up so high. I said that it was because I was big and strong and was then asked by the spokesman if I could pick up a daddy elephant. I had to admit that I couldn't.

One of them came and swung next to me and they all giggled in fits, sounding like they were going to come unstuck. We then had a chat about comics (do I read them - no, the spokesperson loves them and explained one in great detail to me) and I decided that it was probably time for me to head home. Swings are so cool! They bring people together!!

I put my ipod back on and danced a little jig all the way home. And I thought about that little moment... I had on the list of what makes the best swing times, not having children nearby, but this was a welcome exception. These little guys made my swinging much more fun, a more authentic swinging experience even. I hope I see them again sometime.

Swinging with the Dr.

Dr H.J. Foley Park is in Glebe on the corner of Glebe Point and Bridge Roads. At first when I went on these swings I was thinking there was nothing to really set them apart, an 8 perhaps, but they allow you to go so high without a squeek of complaint and as you come up you're greeted by the open sky - it was very magical.

There are 2 baby swings, three regular rigid seat swings and one flexible rubber swing (that's the one I swung on). There's also an old-style roundabout there, which is cool as they're disappearing from playgrounds, only to be replaced with sterile equipment that's way less fun and potentially even more dangerous. This swing won me over - it gets a 9!

A mathematical formula

Here's a little diagram I've done to display the complex relationship between a chain's length and it's swinging capabilities: x=y=z*3.47891010, or alternatively b=z*hah!/wahay
Discuss.

Swings I haven't swung on (until now!)

A wise man once said to me (it was my Dad actually), there's no such thing as a strange swing, just ones you haven't swung on yet. What wisdom!

Today I went to Lambert Park in Leichhardt and tried out a couple of new swings. There is one with really long chains, which lets you swing up into a nearby tree (you can touch your head and your feet to the foliage). The seats are too damn narrow though! I hate that! It's next to two big roads so the ambience is a bit ruined... an 8 I think.


Then there's the other swings there, which are quite odd. They look like they've been designed by an Italian minimalist sporting a simple aluminium frame. The seats are even tighter on the old hips than the other ones, forcing you to sit right back on the seat, which makes for a bit of a perilous ride. The ground underneath them has been worn away so that it gets filled with water easily which is a bit yucky. The odd thing about them is that the chains on them are really short so you feel like you're swinging on more of a vertical plain - every swing feels cut short. It's a cool feeling. But the pain of the hips and the wetness underfoot makes these only a 6.5. See how fearless I am in my marking?! I'll not do any swing any favours unless they really do it for me!