Branching Out

Today, we hung out with people other than those in our immediate family!!

There is a row of taxis conveniently lined up outside of our hotel, so it feels like you have a personal driver at your disposal, except you don’t know him and his car smells like hummus.  We hopped in and headed to Woollahra in search of children and moms.  

Reading from the brochure online I imagined it was going to be this big community center chocked full of indoor and outdoor kiddy activities.  In reality, it was a small building, and the Playgroup was basically a small outdoor play yard with some basic playground equipment and tables and chairs for the parents and kids.  One of the tables had play dough set up.  As I expected, most of the children were just learning to walk and drooling – not too interesting to my kids.  One girl was almost three and kept chasing Julia around to hug her, and Julia kept running away from her.  There were maybe eight or nine kids spread out across the yard.  I went up to one of the moms with a name tag, who turned out to be the mom who had answered my email inquiry about the group.  She was friendly and offered a lot of child-related tips and recommendations.  Later at the play dough table there was an attractive 30ish mom and dad sitting on either side of a little girl.  They were also very friendly and helpful.  I got a lot of info on how the school year works, where to look for kids’ activities and babysitters, and the woman even gave me her contact info in case I wanted to get in touch with any questions.  My sense is that Australians think New York City is kind of cool.  I’ve often been asked where I’m from by salesclerks and other strangers, and they draw me out with questions about New York.   Or maybe they just like Americans.  Or maybe they’re just friendly!  Can’t tell for sure yet.

Lunch at Buzy Bakehouse in Woollahra. 

Guess whose is whose.