My Afternoon At Kensington Gardens

Some time back, I went to London. During the approach into Heathrow, I managed to take the above picture of Kensington Gardens, which was originally part of Hyde Park. That's the (obvious) Round Pond with Kensington Palace to its left, across The Boardwalk.

As usual, I headed straight for the lovely park with my camera and (then-new) Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR lens. A guy and his new toy, no obstacles to deter them. Straight to shooting around Kensington Gardens, en-route to Nahar Cafeteria at Mara House. Needed my fix of nasi campur and teh tarik. 10 Sterling Pounds for the meal, aiyo! A man and his hungry stomach, no obstacles to deter them, too.

Some of the hundreds of shots I took that day:






Then this little girl caught my eye. Cute little 'un this one. She was with two ladies, the older one presumably her mom and the younger one pictured below in the green jumper.

A short moment after this snapshot, they were all having snacks back on their picnic mat. I then continued to enjoy my zoom lens with shots like this:

That same cute girl from earlier on was back at the edge of the pond. I took this shot below of her and I began to focus on the swans and ducks, when there was a splash and some screams.

I turned to look, with my viewfinder of course. And my finger instinctively pressed the shutter and caught this piture.....

The poor little toddler was about 10 meters from where I was so I had to dash towards her. Her mom got there first and she promptly jumped in. It was slippery beneath. Thus, they were both slipping and sliding. The mom was gasping for help. When I got near them, I had a momentary doubt. Around my neck was a few thousand bucks' worth of equipment and should they have a swim in the murky waters of The Round Pond, I will face a murky situation indeed.

Proudly, I overcame the selfish thoughts to reach out for the lady's hand. But I still found myself in a tricky situation. The lady was just too heavy for me to pull out. I was myself slowly slipping into the water. Timely assistance came in the form of a middle-aged man. He took my other hand and together, we managed to haul mother and daughter out of the pond.

Mom thanked us and got straight to cleaning themselves up. I thanked the good 'uncle' and he just went 'Jolly good show, ta!' and off he went. Relieved that my photographic equipment was intact as was my pride (could've had to call for help had I slipped in), I decided to escape to somewhere safer:

... where this Pakcik (uncle) dishes out the best comfort food for me this side of The Round Pond,

NAHAR CAFETERIA!