oh my flaring nostrils

We all went on an adventure last weekend, to 'Leisure World' where there are 3 long water slides, a mini golf course with life-size dinosaurs standing about, a mini race track and cars, a games room with a few air hockey tables and a hot pool. It was a bit sad and dilapidated if the truth be told. Ben figured he's been there about 18 years ago. I myself reminisced about the water slides I remember somewhere in Durban, next to the beach...about 20 odd years ago. So it's been around a while. You could tell as you walked up the rusty steps to the top of the slides, this place had seen better days. It needed a lick of paint, at the very least, to make it seem like it was trying to be presentable. Anyway, before I rip it to shreds, I must comment on the fact that the water down the slide, and in the pool at the bottom, was lovely and warm. I didn't stand there shivering with cold (and excitement) and nor did my little children. Helped, no doubt, by the fact that Rotorua is, well, geyser-land...dig down deep enough and you're bound to find some lovely warm stuff. Smelly stuff, yes. Sulphur...hmm, stinky. So stinky in this particular place (the parking lot had me gagging) that we had to make jokes about it to Mia when she enquired "what's that smell?" while wrinkling up her nose in the cutest way..."It must be the dinosaur poos" we told her. It wasn't so bad once you're whizzing down the slides with great whoops of delight as you try to convince Mia that it's not in the least bit scary, au contraire - fun fun fun!! Even if you went down the BLACK slide instead of the red one...FWOAR!! Whoops. You don't even think about the smell then - honest. It's only when you leave to get back in the car which is parked by the mini golf, with the collection of wonderful dinosaur models. They're realistic and I'm sure Josh would LOVE them, but it'll have to be with someone else. I even had Ben worried that I may be pregnant again (the only time I can really smell things really well). I had myself worried. Thankfully, I'm definitely not.

I don't think I'll go back there for a while. I felt too much of a snob. I couldn't just enjoy it from a child's perspective, although it was lovely to see Mia racing up the stairs with Ben, and even nicer to be begged to go up with her myself (although I had to make sure we didn't go down the wrong slide again!). It was just too drab, too faded, too rusty and a bit desperate.

It's raining for the first time in a long time...I wake up in the morning and I can smell it's been raining -no, not that lovely 'rain' smell, rather, a wet sulfurous smell. It seems to hang down low to the ground when it rains and permeates the corners of the room. It's not that bad, but it does loiter about! You walk into wafts of it. Or, if you drive through a smelly bit, it hangs around in the car - although you can't smell it anymore, it'll be there the next time you open the car to get in.

Any fart-loving person should live here! It's awesome.

One person springs to mind...