Level 7 'Mullberry Street'

Having sailed through level 6 "getting the kids to kindergarten" I raced into town to buy some groceries, have a coffee with a lovely friend (oh life is so hard) and even squeezed in a quick hello to those who had been in France. This meant that level 7 "picking the kids up at the right time" was going to be tightly timed. 'Never fear' thought I, 'my trusty bike and I can do it'.

The first obstacle was an old lady who pushed to the front of the traffic line at the traffic light. I don't normally scoff out loud but she was really old and I thought it a little presumuous to wait at the very front. From then on my sole aim was to overtake her. The lights changed, she got the jump on me but I thought it would be easy to catch up. I was a few bikes behind so I had some work to do. The lady directly in front of me had her shopping basket from the market teetering behind her, as it started to fall I hit the brakes, swerved and saw the old lady round the corner up ahead. A quick polite smile of solidarity with the shopping basket lady who managed to save the basket from falling and I put my head down and pedaled hard. Still two people between me and my now arch nemesis when the number 11 bus pulled in causing me again to slow down to avoid any disembarking passengers. Throwing care to the wind and trusting the give way to cyclist rule I flew across a side street and with just 20 metres (or so) between us I had to decide victory over the elderly or picking up the Mouse on time. Slowing down, I saluted the victor who pedaled on oblivious and signaled my left hand turn into the international house to pick up Mouse who had been having a lovely time playing in the sand pit in the warmer weather. Then I went up the hill to pick up the Bear and Monkey who had been working industriously in the kindergarten ice cream factory (Das Eis Fabrik)

And to think the trip from town to the international house is around two kilometres and takes all of 7 minutes at top speed.