Rained Out!

For the first 5 weeks after we arrived in New York I put into my diary "Aussie Mums & Bubs playdate Central Park". And 5 weeks in a row it rained on a Wednesday - and I thought we were arriving in New York in Summer?

After 5 weeks of rain, I was determined to make it to Central Park. I was decked out with NYC-appropriate baby-transport gear - we now had a lightweight stroller so tackling the subway on my own was difficult but manageable (give or take a few bruises acquired going up and down the stairs). Or I could go via taxi and strap the car seat into the stroller. Noah's morning sleep meant there was hope that his afternoon sleep would be conducive to getting to the park for the 3:30pm start. It was a sunny morning in Chelsea. Tick, Tick Tick.

But of course all these ducks lined up in a row were just too good to be true. By lunch time it was sprinkling intermittantly. Noah went down for a much later sleep than usual. All looked doomed.

Or was it? Noah woke up early. I could make it if we left immediately in a cab. Changed the babies diaper, threw the baby in the car seat, grabbed the diaper bag, decided my hair and outfit were passable, put on a smidge of eyeshadow and blush, grabbed a rain jacket and ran out
the door.

I hailed a cab - buckled the baby into back seat, collapsed the stroller and threw it in the boot, jumedp into back seat beside the baby and said, "To Central Park please at West 81st Street".

"I am going to make it!" I thought proudly to myself. I was excited and so I texted Nathan to show him what an adventurous wife he has - getting out and about in New York. Meeting new people.

Traffic was bad - school had just come out. That's ok though. "I don't want to be the first to arrive anyway" I thought to myself reassuringly.

Then after about 20 minutes, around 60th street, the heavens opened.
At first just teasing me with a few sprinkles and I started to weigh up my options.

"It's raining" said the cab driver in a thick Polish accent (at this point in time I did not know that it was a Polish accent, but still it was a thick accent).

"Yes I can see that" I thought to myself.

Then it poured. Big fat soaking drops of rain. Noah's eyes widen as his view out the back window was obscured by rain and the noise in the taxi was drowned out.

"It's really raining now" said the taxi driver. "What you doing in Central Park? Going for a walk?"

"Mmmm not good." I weighed up my chances that the rain would stop or not even be falling in another 20 blocks. But the black sky ahead of me warned of impending doom to my adventurous outing.

"Would you mind taking us back to 21st Street?" I reluctantly asked.

And so Noah and I spent an hour and $30 going nowhere. When we arrived home I swear Noah looked at me like I was crazy. "So Mummy, you threw me in my car seat, stuffed me in a taxi, and an hour later, all we did was drive around the block? That was no fun at all!"