Ride the Big Red Car

Yesterday (oh it seems like years ago now) I took Henry to the Wiggles concert. I had my doubts as Henry always says "don't like the Wiggles" whenever I suggest we watch them on TV. That's only because they don't know the Fireman Sam theme song. Yet. I also find it rather amusing that that it's called a "concert" because that conjures up images of drunken teenagers sweating profusely while screaming and gyrating with their arms in the air to a screaming gyrating performer on stage. I guess a Wiggles concert is a little like that only the audience are not drunk and most of them are under five.

I hadn't really followed too closely the rise of the Wiggles since Maya ditched them for the Spice Girls about 10 years ago so I wasn't really prepared for the traffic jam as cars full of screaming toddlers lined up waiting to get to the carpark of the Boondall Entertainment Centre. I sat in traffic long enough during that jam to watch a mother get out of her car and take her daughter behind a tree to water the grass and casually stroll back to the car which hadn't moved more than an inch or two.

Last time I saw the Wiggles was in 1995 when I took Maya to one of their "concerts" in a church hall at Oxley for the grand price of $5. Now they're big enough to play to a packed out audience at a major entertainment complex to which tickets had been sold twelve months in advance and were accompanied by a personal loan application. They even have security guards at each corner of the stage to stop those sweating, gyrating toddlers from getting too close and possibly throwing a grenade and ruining it for everyone.

Henry, to my surprise, loved it and stayed still for at least three quarters of it, then he just got a tiny bit feral as opposed to the loose cannon type of feral he usually is. He did try a few of his usual bossy techniques on little Owen, a beautiful blogger baby we met for the first time at the concert. Owen was really getting down and grooving in the seat directly behind Henry but Henry didn't like it and demanded Owen "get off there". (Don't worry Owen, I punished him later by not letting him listen to Fireman Sam on the way home).

We also got to meet up with Charlotte and Carla who we hadn't seen for some time. Charlotte was doing pretty well at the grooving too on her heavily pregnant mother's lap.

Ah, it's a joy for parents to see their offspring enjoying themselves while they're still young enough to have a good time without the help of illicit drugs.