Locked in the Park

A funny thing happened yesterday.

Anne, Ben & I went to Manchester to visit family. While there we went for a walk in Heaton Park, better known to corrie fans as the Red Reck. We had my cousins little one, Sam, with us. When we entered the park there was a sign on the gate which stated the park closed at six pm and that the gate would be locked.

So we went in as the time was about 4.15 pm, had a walk round, the kids had a play in the kids park. Well time was getting on so we decided to head back to gate and back to my cousins, Sam's Mam's house.

We arrived at the gate at 5.25 pm only to find the gate padlocked. So we decided to head for one of the main gates to see if that was still open, after all the sign had said 6.00 pm. Anyway we arrived at the gate to find that that was also padlocked. This gate however had a sign on saying it would be locked at 4.45 pm.

Ben is 4 years old, Sam has just turned 9. It was dark and getting very cold. I had no option but to dial 999 and ask for the Police. I explained our situation and they said they would have to find a number for park security and a key holder. After about 10 minutes on the phone they took my name and number and said they would ring me back in about 5 minutes. True to their word they rang back in 5 minutes explaining they had rang park security and someone should be at the gate within the next 5 - 10 minutes.

Well about 20 minutes later the security eventually arrived at the gate. They where none too helpful and made it sound like they had done us a favour by coming to open the gate. I explained we had come in the side gate and the sign said 6.00 pm. They stated we were quite lucky that they were in the area or we could have been locked in the park for a couple of hours. They explained that the park closed at 4.45 pm and that all the signs should have been changed last week. We advised that they should arrange for the sign to be changed as soon as possible as they may be getting more phone calls for them to come and rescue other park visitors. They didn't look to happy about our sugestion and we got the impression they were not going to do much about it.

We had to walk about half a mile back to the car and then drive back to my cousins house. We had rang her to explain what was going on and we all had nice hot cups of hot chocolate waiting for us when we got there. We then had a lovely chinese and a few jokes about being locked in the park. I then realised I had been visiting the park for the last 40 years without incident. Talk about strange.

Anne, Ben and I then drove home back to Northumberland. Anne & Ben were alseep for most of the journey. Anyway as we approached Cramlington, where we live, the road suddenly turned white, it had been snowing, no sign that the gritters had been out either.

Well that's about that.