A pome wot I like

Having completely got out of the habit of blogging, I couldn't resist Viv's challenge to dig up favourite childhood poems. I was part of a choral speaking group in my junior school and this poem by Hillaire Belloc was definitely our favourite to recite as a group. (Especially the long title)



George:
Who played with a Dangerous Toy, and suffered a Catastrophe of considerable Dimensions

WHEN George's Grandmamma was told
That George had been as good as gold,
She promised in the afternoon
To buy him an Immense BALLOON.
And so she did; but when it came,
It got into the candle flame,
And being of a dangerous sort
Exploded with a loud report!

The lights went out! The windows broke!
The room was filled with reeking smoke.
And in the darkness shrieks and yells
Were mingled with electric bells,
And falling masonry and groans,
And crunching, as of broken bones,
And dreadful shrieks, when, worst of all,
The house itself began to fall!

It tottered, shuddering to and fro,
Then crashed into the street below-
Which happened to be Savile Row.

When help arrived, among the dead
Were Cousin Mary, Little Fred,
The Footmen (both of them), the Groom,
The man that cleaned the Billiard-Room,
The Chaplain, and the Still-Room Maid.
And I am dreadfully afraid
That Monsieur Champignon, the Chef,
Will now be permanently deaf-
And both his aides are much the same;
While George, who was in part to blame,
Received, you will regret to hear,
A nasty lump behind the ear.

The moral is that little boys
Should not be given dangerous toys.

Another excellent birthday prezzie

I have always been lucky. But now even more so since receiving a Barbie Lucky Bag for my birthday which contained, amongst many wonderful pink things, a desk tidy. And hey - my desk is often untidy so how lucky is that, to get something that magically mAkes my desk nice & neat, And as you will see from the pic below, it worked!! Now all I need is a Barbie house tidy.....................................

An excellent birthday present

I was very lucky/blessed/fortunate (delete as applicable depending on how spiritual you are!) to receive some really lovely and thoughtful birthday gifts on Friday.
Given the option by my good friend Amy & Amiability to choose between a sensible and a silly present guess which one I chose.......... and I'm so glad I did.






It's difficult to describe but it's highly addictive and great fun.
If any of you fellow bloggers would like to come round this evening after church for birthday cake & coffee you can have a go - there's a setting to play in pairs or everyone can join in!

London Calling

Apparently, according to Davie's blog, I will give a 'full account' of our time in London! So I'd better live up to this expectation (although I shall try not to bore you with the detail, and just stick to the more interesting bits). Our hotel was rather lovely, and being on the 12th floor, had fantastic views over the city. It was just on the edge of Mayfair/Piccadilly (hope we haven't unwittingly become radioactive!) and at the back of Fortnum & Mason's (mmmmm......) which had some beautiful window displays themed around Alison in Wonderland. This was my favourite:

I have been reprimanded (and rightly so) for omitting to mention my celebrity encounter and so this is 'The Blog re-edited' to rectify the situation. On the way to the theatre we stopped off at the Virgin Megastore at Piccadilly having been tipped off by a certain Green Wing fan & fellow blogger, Amy & Amiability, that the cast of the aforementioned Channel 4 Fly on the Wall Documentary (well it could be - things like that happen in my hospital everyday) were in attendance for a 'DVD signing' By the time we arrived the queue was snaking around the aisles in the basement and hundreds were awaiting the arrival of the cast. People were hanging off staircases and peeping over displays poised to take photos when they arrived. I found a spot right next to the glass elevator where no one at all was waiting with a good view of the spot where they would be sitting & couldn't understand why I wasn't being moved on as the security were shoving people out of the way if they weren't in the 'official' queue. Just before they were due to appear I noticed the glass elevator appear out of the corner of my eye and felt mildly cross that the people inside would step out in front & block my view. Too late I realised that it was indeed the cast inside the lift and that (the lovely) Steven Mangan was about 6 inches away on the other side of the glass. After that unexpected encounter it took me a while to get my brain into gear enough to take some photos and a bit of video.

On Monday night we went to see the Blue Man Group Show. Difficult to describe but highly entertaining. Davie had his photo taken with one of the three stars of the show. (Davie is the one with the less blue face)





When we visit places, we tend to wander around a lot, concentrating on finding good places to eat rather than going to the traditional tourist attractions, but I thought we ought to make an effort to do something constructive this time. Davie had suggested the Tower of London; he'd been on a school trip over 30 years ago (yes you read that right, that's thirty years ago). I'd never been, so off we went. It was absolutely fascinating - and the atmosphere was enhanced by the black clouds hovering overhead and the wind whistling through the courtyards. Our guide was an ex-army guy who brought the stories of murder, betrayal & beheading to life. Did you know that one guy was beheaded before his portrait was finished, so they took his body back a couple of days later & rearranged it in chair, & stitched his head back on so it could be finished?

On a lighter note, a certain Pixie chellnged the orbs to have their photo taken with a Beefeater. As you can seen, the first attempt made Davie little nervous - see the slightly anxious look on his face...........

However we managed to find a less scary looking beefeater who was more amenable to being photographed.............

By the evening our feet were throbbing and we decided not to walk too far... and then proceeded to walk from Mayfair down to Trafalgar Square, the Strand, along the riverside to embankment, down to Westminster,,,,, and then back again. By this time it was 10.30 & very difficult to find a bar that wasn't full of MPs with prices to match, but we managed to find a cosy little old fashioned pub just round the corner from the hotel and rounded off the day with a wee dram before walking back to our hotel in Duke Street which you may be interested to know was where the actual 'Duchess of Duke Street' was originally in charge on the site where our hotel had been built.

A visit to Covent Garden this morning rounded off our trip; there used to be a four-storey Dr Martens shop just opposite the main Covent Garden Piazza but sadly it has been replaced with some boring designer clothes shop. However we managed to find a teeny shop round the corner that specialises in docs and we both bought a pair; I think Davie could have a blog gallery of his docs as he has quite a collection now, plus a new pair from today to add to it! I could have done with my new comfy boots at the beginning of the trip as my feet are killing me!

It's been a while.............

as the last month has been rather hectic; but I thought it was about time to get back with the 'in-crowd' and post again!
We bloggers love lists, and I wondered if anyone had a top 3 highlights of the festive season that they wanted to share?
I'll start the ball rolling:

1) Having a new camera as a Christmas present from Davie which was a complete surprise; it was particularly welcome as my old camera had started to go haywire in Brazil, which was very upsetting after having gone all that way & not able to us the camera properly, and then it completely packed up in Malta (perhaps I shouldn't have taken it 30m under the water??!)haven't had much chance to use it yet, except on the cats (see below)!
But we're going to London for a few days next week so I shall be like a real tourist, snapping everything in site.

2) Having a wonderful roast venison Christmas dinner - absolutely delicious & all
pink in the middle.

3) Hearing the wonderful story in the Christmas morning service which included my new hero, Chamberlin the camel. Thsi was the only picture I could find; I really wanted the one of him cupping his hooves behind his ear to listen.