Sunday, December 25, 2011

Good Elf to all!

Chess protecting his Christmas Pudding chew toy

Hop it!

It's as easy as GHD to make a girl smile!

Kittens enjoy Christmas treats
We had an unusually late morning for a Christmas morning, the advantage of having an almost teenager rather than a small child living with us! 

Although  - even though teens are approaching, it was good to see simple toys being enjoyed. The space hopper, a retro classic. The dog hates it, and is taking comfort from his new Christmas Pudding chew toy. The kittens are excited by all the wrapping paper and various Christmas treats.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A short photo story involving kittens

"Tia, is the coast clear?"

"Don't worry Weka - I've got your back!"

"Looks like there's some good climbing in there"

"Come see this - it's fantastic, there's branches and shiny stuff -
what great humans we have, so kind to put a giant climbing tree in the lounge
for our entertainment!"

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Warwick Wonders


A wonderous outing to Warwick Castle was had. There was a deal in t’internet, so off we drove. 
After a 2hr drive and a 6 mile trek form the car park, which incidentally would cost us a mere £6 to exit, quite a lot for us peasants, we arrived. Maisie decided the highlight was the Ben & Jerry's vending machines dotted about - presumably a necessity in the Summer to prevent overheating whilst trekking to the attraction. On closer inspection, they appeared to be empty, at least that would save us £5.
When we got to the castle, there was some watery sunshine filtering through the turrets, and a very majestical air about the place. A quick go in the stocks, and it was time for our dungeon experience. We queued with a small amount of trepidation, none of us having experienced live dungeon action before. I wasn’t encouraged by the screams emanating from the said dungeons.
In actuality, the most scary bit was navigating narrow stairs in the dark. We experienced several well acted out scenarios about the plague, torture, corrupt courts and a beheading. We were squirted with blood (water), and humiliated a few times, freaked out by an executioner and a fake dog, Maisie was only slightly traumatised and was easily cheered up with a trip to the restaurant. Fizzy pop and a sandwich do have a tendency to cure all fake blood splattering traumas, note to self: must remember to put that in my parenting guide book I haven't written yet.
The Merlin experience was less exciting, basically a video of a dragon with fire effects at the end. All hot air with no substance. There was a nice wax model of Merlin on the way out.



Came home, and it started snowing! Very wet snow, no chance of a day off school/work, but a nice end to the day all the same.



Saturday, December 3, 2011

It’s a Cracker


Christmas in the library world is one of extremes. People either love it or hate it. I actually love it, and I’m delighted there are other lovers in our office. The office has been decked out with festive stuff, carefully avoiding the desks of the people not so keen. The only glitch was a small communication breakdown between Leanne and myself. She volunteered to get some decorations for our office from that purveyor of quality Christmas trimmings - poundland. Unfortunately, she believed we had a tree in the office - we do not. This left the lead decorator thinking - what on earth do we do with 40 baubles? A quick creative tying them to some tinsel and a tinsel garland was fashioned which looks great.

All in a festive mood, it was onwards to the Christmas Party. Last year I managed to out myself to the entire library, so what could be worse this year? Let the cracker pulling begin.  Along with the bad (very) jokes and customary hats were bits of plastic fashioned into various toy shapes. I was lucky enough to receive a plastic mustache. Unluckily it transformed me into a Mario from Mario Bros look a like! Just needed a pair of blue dungarees to finish off the look - thank goodness I’d left the dungarees on the hanger in the wardrobe and chosen a black shirt.
On looking around the room, it was rather reassuring and unsettling at the same time to see 1 in 5 librarians transformed in a similar fashion - was the library Christmas do sponsored by Nintendo? Sadly not. However the National Fairground archive did provide entertainment in the form of a magician and ‘Danger Steve’ -a unicycling juggler who requested only minimal audience participation. Phew.



There was food, wine, laughter and dancing and I expect a few sore heads this morning.