19-03-17 Al Barsha Pond Park

Sunday 19th March 2017

For the last day of Winter, Dubai put on a sterling effort to keep it mild and breezy, and for us this signals a day’s adventure out. Al Barsha Pond Park was where we trekked to – a decent walk from the Mall of the Emirates too, past the Red Mosque and via the tennis school. Here we played on the monkey bars and climbed on the equipment, even meeting mate Sunny for a lap of the park in an attempt to power walk (didn’t happen; we found a patch of grass and plonked down on it). At some point Kingsley chucked away his second pair of sunglasses (yesterday at the Westin he hurled his purple pair deep into the Arabian Gulf while I admittedly sat on the shore attempting to cultivate a tan; stupid me), I got mad, looked for them among the bushes, gave up and resolved to never ever leave him alone while wearing sunnies should I ever buy him another pair.

Our efforts in the pursuit of an outdoor park life paid dividends when we met along our walks a mother duck and her three duckings. She was quacking and the mother in me decided that she sounded hungry. Out came the organic petit beurre butter biscuits we’d bought only yesterday at Carrefour (made in France no less; fortunate bird). She gobbled them up, those duckings being forgotten it seemed as she ate up the treats.

Kingsley was in nature heaven and with a big smile followed them till Mother Duck quacked hard and the ducklings cheeped louder and the mother in me thought ‘get this giant child away from these poor creatures!!’