Fast reaction prevents tragedy

Lucky escape on Annesbrook roundabout
By Nelson Mail writer: BILL MOORE

A Richmond woman is counting her lucky stars after a large digger tumbled off a truck and landed right where she and her small daughter had been moments before in their little commuter car.

Adrienne Ford said “everything just went into slow motion” as a truck came around the Annesbrook roundabout where she had stopped “right on the white line” on her way to Nelson yesterday afternoon.

“I could see that huge big yellow thing coming directly at me. It was absolutely heart-stopping. My instincts kicked in. I quickly glanced back – there wasn’t a car behind me. I slammed my gear shift into reverse. It definitely would have hit me.”

Ms Ford snapped a photo of the scene before being waved on by the truck driver, who she said looked “absolutely furious” when he got out of his cab. In her view, however, he should be facing charges. “It was incredibly dangerous.”

She said she was very lucky that there were no other vehicles behind her Toyota Echo at the usually busy time on Whakatu Dr. If there had been, she would have had no option but to reverse into them to avoid the falling digger.

The accident happened about 3.10pm, and the truck and digger’s owner, Duane Whiting, said he had the road cleared before 4.45pm. The truck had been on its way to the Duane Whiting Contractors yard in nearby Beatty St, and he organised a crane to retrieve the digger.

It was too soon to tell how badly the digger was damaged, or what caused the accident, Mr Whiting said. “We don’t know whether it was a mechanical fault or driver error.”

He said police attended the accident but it was too early to say whether any charges would be faced.

The driver was “a wee bit” shaken up, but pleased that no-one had been harmed.

 

 

 

Snow White the Pantomime

Poppy’s first theatre performance at the Theatre Royal was a fabulous success with three sold out shows and three others almost full! Poppy loved every second of every rehearsal and totally blended in with the wonderful theatre people we met. I made several awesome new friends in the process too.

A little note about the Heidi dress Poppy wore in the production – I bought that dress off Trade Me for one dollar when Poppy was little.  Here is a photo of her wearing it as Little Red Riding Hood for a book character day at preschool when she had just turned 2 years old…. with an inset of her wearing the same dress on stage at five years old!

wave rave glow party

Poppy has really loved going to our local Aquatic Centre’s Wave Raves on Friday nights.  It’s a riot of colour & music along with splashing and swimming fun with hundreds of other kids.  The lifeguards are amazing and run ‘holiday-programme’ style games and competitions – often with prizes and sweets.

Occasionally they will have a theme night and this week was a GLOW PARTY.  They ran a facebook competition beforehand to give away a VIP party and Poppy won!  She wrote a song (with lots of help from Yogi) to the tune of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab.  The competition asked to provide the reason she wanted to win a VIP party at the Glow Night…..

My Mummy said what kind of party
and I said “Glow, Glow, Glow”
Don’t you want to go to Mackers?
And I said “NO, NO … GLOW!”
I want to be a VIP
Come on Mummy, come on PLEASE!
I wanna win a Wave Rave party
So we can **GLOW**GLOW**GLOW**

The Edge radio station (88.8) did a crossover on the radio and Poppy sang her song on air.

The prize consisted of the winner and three friends being picked up in the Edge Roadrunner (radio station SUV) and delivered to the pool; bypassing the long queues of kids and being escorted straight into the VIP party area roped off in the cafe.  It was decorated with balloons and glow stuff and the kids were presented with a party dinner from the cafe along with lots of glowsticks to wear.  Then they had lots of fun in the pools with no waiting in line at the inflatable…. and heaps of sweets!

Glow Party VIPs - Jesse, Ella, Poppy & Alice
Glow Party VIPs - Jesse, Ella, Poppy & Alice

Poppy invited her friends Ella, Jesse and Alice and they all had a blast.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPn6gjmeb28