When daddy fell into the pond..

Well, to be honest he didn't so much fall in the pond as waded into the pond. I just like to say that, having been a fan of this poem since I was wee.

After much debating Craig decided to spend his birthday money on a remote control boat. He scoured Ebay for a few evenings until he had found the exact one. I suspect at the time he was looking he had in mind sunny weekend afternoons with the boat and the children, all playing merrily and having great fun. Well, on a grey afternoon we set out for the maiden voyage.

The children and I had to assist in carrying out technical tests of range on dry land so as we would know how far out into the (large) lake it could go. We figured it had about a forty foot range. Quite impressive I thought. All was looking good - that is until we put it into the water. Having gone about ten feet it stalled and refused to start again. It began to drift and was soon marooned amongst some reeds and it became apparent that any attempts with the controller would be futile.

There was nothing else for it, Craig tucked his socks in his boots and rolled up his jeans to go and retrieve the boat.

It wasn't long till he was out of the lake. Apparently the water was deeper than he had thought and he needed to take off his coat, tuck his shirt into his jeans and roll the trousers yet further.

Sadly they weren't rolled high enough.

After about twenty minutes, during which time dozens of people passed making all sorts of interesting comments (my favourite was, 'take care, things drop off at those temperatures'), he staggered triumphantly out of the lake.

Wet. Very wet and very smelly.

'It's my turn! My turn now!' shouted Miles, who seemingly couldn't appreciate daddy's predicament. So, here they are, one very wet smelly father and one dry toasty son, sailing their boat on a much smaller enclosed wet area. Bless his wet, stinky socks - I guess he's one of the few who would have done. It was so cold.

As we wandered back to the car I suggested that he email the seller and ask for a refund. 'No, it just takes practice' he said.