How to please one's friends...
Kindness, of course, goes a long way. As do gestures that show the other person has thought about what would amuse or interest or be useful. One of these gestures happened when SHE was 'across the river' in Barnes. someone gave HER a Christmas present and it was for me! This meant that the present giver had recognised the importance of myself in HER life.
It is a hanging Bird food holder, very cunning it is too. It consists of a long metal rod, at one end is a hook and at the other a bird's foot, in between is a metal bird. The foot unscrews, you push the spike through the food, it could be a Fat Ball or a piece of fruit, then you hang it up.
The only trouble was... I had never seen such an item before so it was a bit scary... SHE loaded it with a piece of Papaya and hung it on my triangular perch in the kitchen and then took a picture of it... Shamefully, in the picture you can also see me.. cowering on Goosehead.
I hope SWSBO doesn't post THAT picture!
BUT.. That was yesterday and as Scarlet herself said "Tomorrow is another day", so today I flew into the kitchen, got hold of that piece of Papaya and gave it a good breaking... haha, that'll teach it to frighten me.
Whilst it is grey skied and dismal here in London, at least our home is snug. We heard that Debi, Yowie & Little Miss are having a dreadful time in Sheffield. The weather in Yorkshire is cold and windy, their boiler went out yesterday morning and the pilot light won't light. There is NOTHING worse than being far away and hearing sad news like this. There is nothing one can do... And the gas engineer can't make it to their house until this afternoon.
Today is December 30th.. and in another 2 days it will 2012. Two thousand and twelve, it sounds strange, doesn't it. Mind you, Parrots are older, much older than than two thousand years. We are the direct descendants of Dinosaurs. Did you see the film Jurassic Park? There was a scene when one of the scientists was in a car with one of my little relations, the man did something stupid so my (many) great, great grandfathers showed his displeasure.
Well, I can do that and very frightening it is too! In fact, all animals have this ability, we raise our feathers or fur and puff out our cheeks and growl / hiss. And I, although I say it myself, can make the most spine chilling growl if I am displeased.
SHE, of course, is not alarmed at all by any of this... apparently Dagga-the-Parrot introduced her to all of these Parrot tricks, so when I came into her life she wasn't scared. One night when I was a baby, I thought that I could intimidate her into letting me stay up late, oh boy, was I wrong.. she ignored the nip I gave her and the next thing I knew, I was in my cage, the door clanged shut and blackness descended over me...
And that, dear reader, is what happens every night, I get put to bed. So you see why the act of NOT being put to bed, when SHE stayed the night with a friend was most alarming. My bedtime was upset, this was very disturbing to a small grey avian person.
SHE has had some very nice news..
Remember I wrote about Patsy, the weekend Californian Fruit Seller? Well, she wants to come and stay with us next year.. Won't that be fun? Sadly, she cannot come laden with fruit, those wretched Officers of HM Customs & Revenue will have it off her in a flash - they know a GOOD Apple when they see one, you see, (they mostly have to deal with BAD Apples), so when a good one comes trundling towards them, they say to themselves.. "hello, what do we have here?" and nick ii.
And Barbara, human mother of DOG, is coming too... It will be a full house next year, that's the great thing about living in a great city, we get to see our friends. If you live in the Boondocks, nobody wants to come and stay with you.. Why would you? If you want peace-and-quiet you go on a Retreat. We get to see our friends and the nice thing about real friends is that they stay in touch, we don't just hear from them when they want a bed in London...
Not like the subject of the next part of this Blog.. And I bet you've got or hopefully had, so they are ex friends, your equivalent of Beverley.
My HER and Beverley used to work in the same profession, but different companies, in the same building in the 70's, Beverly went to live in Australia, Melbourne to be precise. Over the years, chatty letters were exchanged and she sent a photo and card announcing the birth of her daughter, Sophie. They called each other on Christmas Day and each other's birthdays.
Email came into being and this was fun, then my SHE realised it was becoming very one sided... As it was she who wrote and seldom got a reply, or it was short and very dull..
Then an email came asking if Sophie and a friend could spend 3 nights upon their arrival in the UK, they came, they stayed, they left for Europe having asked if they could stay for 3 nights before they left to go back to Australia. SHE gave them a set of keys so that they could let themselves in.
This all happened. They went back to Australia and nothing more was heard.... NOTHING. Neither of those young women bothered to send any form of "thank you".
SHE realised that Sophie had absolutely NO manners. So SHE wrote a small email asking about the well-being of the daughter to her mother, "had Sophie AND her friend got back safely, as no word had been received", this filtered through and a meagre "thank you" email was received.
Fast forward to 2010, an email was received from Beverley, a cousin was dying and she would be in the UK for a few days and it would be " just WONDERFUL to catch up on my HER'S news and could she spend the night"?
Well.... You see, my HER is a softie... And,sometimes,NOT so bright.
Beverley arrived in the UK, she didn't call, but sent a text saying that she would arrive at our home on such and such a day at x time.
She duly arrived, recounted the tale about her cousin dying, told MY HER that she had not brought her a pot of her NEW, FANTASTIC FACE CREAM - she is an Aromatherapist of some renown - and generally was quite 'unpleasant', she moaned about: Sophie, her lack of money, that she and her husband, Geoff, were finding it so hard saving to come to the UK in 2012 to celebrate a sister's 60th birthday, how strictly the Australian Board of School Governors was treating her... gosh, such dreary stuff, I couldn't take it and went off to sit and do my dry cleaning on the bedroom door.
SHE decided she was b......ed if SHE was going to cook for this monster, so suggested a pizza, up the road they went, and SHE GOT STUCK with the bill... Upon returning home, the monster said "I am SO tired, I am going to bed" and did, thank goodness. She left before SHE got up in the morning, leaving a note that she had left early as she wanted to go to Harrods to do some shopping.
She didn't write a "thank you note" either and the 'promised' vegetable seeds never arrived.. Strange that, as I am pretty sure the Australian Customs only stop INCOMING seeds, NOT out-going.
BUT, we all know there has to be the redeaming sting in the tail of this sorry tale and it surely is funny (in this instance, funny haha AND funny peculiar) how sometimes bad manners can catch up with you...
The landline telephone rang 2 days after Christmas Day. It was an International call and SHE took it and guess WHO was on the line? Why, goodness me, the bad mannered meanie herself!
Unfortunately for her, My SHE is slow, but thank goodness, NOT that slow.. SHE DID have a sore throat but SHE knew why Beverly was calling.
For 2012 is just around the corner and Beverley and Geoff are planning their free stay at our home in Central London. The sacherine tone of Beverly's voice was extraordinarily sweet, cloyingly so. So much so, that if SHE hadn't been twice bitten by this family, she'd have fallen for it. But she had, so said that "she wasn't feeling great and didn't want to talk" and disconnected the call. Well, I'd LURVED to be a fly on a wall in THAT Melbourne house!
But what was this? A long rambling International Text Message (wow, she must have been desperate as they don't come free). How she "misses HER emails with the tales of the garden and the news of London, how Beverley and SHE have been friends for such a long time.. Etc, etc"
Boring. Too little and MUCH, much too late.
Now.. on the other side of the world, in Bali, is our-gurl-Nora. Hop-diggedity-dog, now she's a cute gurl, she's LuLu's (from NYC) daughter and is over there in the big outside world paddling her own canoe (very useful if you live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean). She's learning how to make Silver Jewellery and to speak the local language.
When we've been in touch, we'll post the link to Nora's site so you will be able to see what she's doing with semi-precious stones.
Back to Guests..
Nora came to stay the night a few years ago, she was leaving very early to catch a morning flight, in the morning SHE found the bed stripped and a box of Chocolates was on the table together with a note..
Any time Nora, you're welcome anytime. Just like your mama. Hello, you reading this, LuLu?
Oh... Do you know LuLu said a couple of days ago, get this! Did I want an Editor, an Editor, edit this.. you're joking LuLu, that's the whole of this.... FREEDOM of Parrot Speech, with NO Editing!
Bringing my thoughts back from warm Pacific Isles.. I think of 'our' allotment. There are nasty problems with stealing and not just small things, someone lost their small caravan! The thieves, probably the same ones who stole the metal water tanks for scrap metal, drove onto our site, backed up on to the plot, hitched up the caravan and towed it off. Inside were all her gardening tools, her gardening boots, gloves. It will be in pieces now.. Sold for scrap.
HER shed was vandalised 3 weeks ago. Someone forced the door and rummaged through the shed looking for ..... we don't know what. But the mess... Grrrrr. Come next week SHE is planning to get sheets of exterior ply and reinforce the side of the shed and put on a door lock, padlocks can be forced off so easily.
This makes HER so sad. When SHE first went there 11 years ago, you could leave your shed open, go off up the patch with a cup of coffee and chew the fat with another gardener. the fruit remained on the trees, vegetables waited to be dug up and SHE and I would sometimes work there in the summer until it was too dark to see what you were doing. all alone, no fear of nasty thieves or creepy people lurking with evil intent.
Last June, thieves climbed over the back fence and stole her mobile and took £20 out of her purse, the frightening thing was SHE was only 20 feet away weeding the Asparagus bed and her bag was on the table where I would have been in my cage! They steal Parrots.. So now I only go if she is going to work on the terrace which means I am only a few feet away and in sight ALL the time.
Sadly, this means I won't see Daisy & Bunny-Doos until it is a warm Spring day. They're toy Bunnies who belong to Jane, Jane is a fellow allotment holder and her plots are just up the path from ours, in between we have our very own OSCAR winning fellow plot holder Brian. Bunny-Doos like to watch the river, he gets a bit alarmed when it is low tide and accuses the French of stealing our water.. Well, they did buy Thames Water!
Bunny-Doos is from Adelaide, which is why he likes water, they don't have enough in Australia. Miss Daisy is from Lady Bamford's shop and sometimes, well, she gets a 'little' above herself and has to be left behind at home with the cats and Jane's friend.
Talking of water.. It is tea time! I like Lapsang and I know there are some mini Stollen, I love the bits of Maripan, don't you?
More tomorrow... Got to speak to those Goaty Folk and find out when they're coming to Parsons Green Farmers Market.
Kindness, of course, goes a long way. As do gestures that show the other person has thought about what would amuse or interest or be useful. One of these gestures happened when SHE was 'across the river' in Barnes. someone gave HER a Christmas present and it was for me! This meant that the present giver had recognised the importance of myself in HER life.
It is a hanging Bird food holder, very cunning it is too. It consists of a long metal rod, at one end is a hook and at the other a bird's foot, in between is a metal bird. The foot unscrews, you push the spike through the food, it could be a Fat Ball or a piece of fruit, then you hang it up.
The only trouble was... I had never seen such an item before so it was a bit scary... SHE loaded it with a piece of Papaya and hung it on my triangular perch in the kitchen and then took a picture of it... Shamefully, in the picture you can also see me.. cowering on Goosehead.
I hope SWSBO doesn't post THAT picture!
BUT.. That was yesterday and as Scarlet herself said "Tomorrow is another day", so today I flew into the kitchen, got hold of that piece of Papaya and gave it a good breaking... haha, that'll teach it to frighten me.
Whilst it is grey skied and dismal here in London, at least our home is snug. We heard that Debi, Yowie & Little Miss are having a dreadful time in Sheffield. The weather in Yorkshire is cold and windy, their boiler went out yesterday morning and the pilot light won't light. There is NOTHING worse than being far away and hearing sad news like this. There is nothing one can do... And the gas engineer can't make it to their house until this afternoon.
Today is December 30th.. and in another 2 days it will 2012. Two thousand and twelve, it sounds strange, doesn't it. Mind you, Parrots are older, much older than than two thousand years. We are the direct descendants of Dinosaurs. Did you see the film Jurassic Park? There was a scene when one of the scientists was in a car with one of my little relations, the man did something stupid so my (many) great, great grandfathers showed his displeasure.
Well, I can do that and very frightening it is too! In fact, all animals have this ability, we raise our feathers or fur and puff out our cheeks and growl / hiss. And I, although I say it myself, can make the most spine chilling growl if I am displeased.
SHE, of course, is not alarmed at all by any of this... apparently Dagga-the-Parrot introduced her to all of these Parrot tricks, so when I came into her life she wasn't scared. One night when I was a baby, I thought that I could intimidate her into letting me stay up late, oh boy, was I wrong.. she ignored the nip I gave her and the next thing I knew, I was in my cage, the door clanged shut and blackness descended over me...
And that, dear reader, is what happens every night, I get put to bed. So you see why the act of NOT being put to bed, when SHE stayed the night with a friend was most alarming. My bedtime was upset, this was very disturbing to a small grey avian person.
SHE has had some very nice news..
Remember I wrote about Patsy, the weekend Californian Fruit Seller? Well, she wants to come and stay with us next year.. Won't that be fun? Sadly, she cannot come laden with fruit, those wretched Officers of HM Customs & Revenue will have it off her in a flash - they know a GOOD Apple when they see one, you see, (they mostly have to deal with BAD Apples), so when a good one comes trundling towards them, they say to themselves.. "hello, what do we have here?" and nick ii.
And Barbara, human mother of DOG, is coming too... It will be a full house next year, that's the great thing about living in a great city, we get to see our friends. If you live in the Boondocks, nobody wants to come and stay with you.. Why would you? If you want peace-and-quiet you go on a Retreat. We get to see our friends and the nice thing about real friends is that they stay in touch, we don't just hear from them when they want a bed in London...
Not like the subject of the next part of this Blog.. And I bet you've got or hopefully had, so they are ex friends, your equivalent of Beverley.
My HER and Beverley used to work in the same profession, but different companies, in the same building in the 70's, Beverly went to live in Australia, Melbourne to be precise. Over the years, chatty letters were exchanged and she sent a photo and card announcing the birth of her daughter, Sophie. They called each other on Christmas Day and each other's birthdays.
Email came into being and this was fun, then my SHE realised it was becoming very one sided... As it was she who wrote and seldom got a reply, or it was short and very dull..
Then an email came asking if Sophie and a friend could spend 3 nights upon their arrival in the UK, they came, they stayed, they left for Europe having asked if they could stay for 3 nights before they left to go back to Australia. SHE gave them a set of keys so that they could let themselves in.
This all happened. They went back to Australia and nothing more was heard.... NOTHING. Neither of those young women bothered to send any form of "thank you".
SHE realised that Sophie had absolutely NO manners. So SHE wrote a small email asking about the well-being of the daughter to her mother, "had Sophie AND her friend got back safely, as no word had been received", this filtered through and a meagre "thank you" email was received.
Fast forward to 2010, an email was received from Beverley, a cousin was dying and she would be in the UK for a few days and it would be " just WONDERFUL to catch up on my HER'S news and could she spend the night"?
Well.... You see, my HER is a softie... And,sometimes,NOT so bright.
Beverley arrived in the UK, she didn't call, but sent a text saying that she would arrive at our home on such and such a day at x time.
She duly arrived, recounted the tale about her cousin dying, told MY HER that she had not brought her a pot of her NEW, FANTASTIC FACE CREAM - she is an Aromatherapist of some renown - and generally was quite 'unpleasant', she moaned about: Sophie, her lack of money, that she and her husband, Geoff, were finding it so hard saving to come to the UK in 2012 to celebrate a sister's 60th birthday, how strictly the Australian Board of School Governors was treating her... gosh, such dreary stuff, I couldn't take it and went off to sit and do my dry cleaning on the bedroom door.
SHE decided she was b......ed if SHE was going to cook for this monster, so suggested a pizza, up the road they went, and SHE GOT STUCK with the bill... Upon returning home, the monster said "I am SO tired, I am going to bed" and did, thank goodness. She left before SHE got up in the morning, leaving a note that she had left early as she wanted to go to Harrods to do some shopping.
She didn't write a "thank you note" either and the 'promised' vegetable seeds never arrived.. Strange that, as I am pretty sure the Australian Customs only stop INCOMING seeds, NOT out-going.
BUT, we all know there has to be the redeaming sting in the tail of this sorry tale and it surely is funny (in this instance, funny haha AND funny peculiar) how sometimes bad manners can catch up with you...
The landline telephone rang 2 days after Christmas Day. It was an International call and SHE took it and guess WHO was on the line? Why, goodness me, the bad mannered meanie herself!
Unfortunately for her, My SHE is slow, but thank goodness, NOT that slow.. SHE DID have a sore throat but SHE knew why Beverly was calling.
For 2012 is just around the corner and Beverley and Geoff are planning their free stay at our home in Central London. The sacherine tone of Beverly's voice was extraordinarily sweet, cloyingly so. So much so, that if SHE hadn't been twice bitten by this family, she'd have fallen for it. But she had, so said that "she wasn't feeling great and didn't want to talk" and disconnected the call. Well, I'd LURVED to be a fly on a wall in THAT Melbourne house!
But what was this? A long rambling International Text Message (wow, she must have been desperate as they don't come free). How she "misses HER emails with the tales of the garden and the news of London, how Beverley and SHE have been friends for such a long time.. Etc, etc"
Boring. Too little and MUCH, much too late.
Now.. on the other side of the world, in Bali, is our-gurl-Nora. Hop-diggedity-dog, now she's a cute gurl, she's LuLu's (from NYC) daughter and is over there in the big outside world paddling her own canoe (very useful if you live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean). She's learning how to make Silver Jewellery and to speak the local language.
When we've been in touch, we'll post the link to Nora's site so you will be able to see what she's doing with semi-precious stones.
Back to Guests..
Nora came to stay the night a few years ago, she was leaving very early to catch a morning flight, in the morning SHE found the bed stripped and a box of Chocolates was on the table together with a note..
Any time Nora, you're welcome anytime. Just like your mama. Hello, you reading this, LuLu?
Oh... Do you know LuLu said a couple of days ago, get this! Did I want an Editor, an Editor, edit this.. you're joking LuLu, that's the whole of this.... FREEDOM of Parrot Speech, with NO Editing!
Bringing my thoughts back from warm Pacific Isles.. I think of 'our' allotment. There are nasty problems with stealing and not just small things, someone lost their small caravan! The thieves, probably the same ones who stole the metal water tanks for scrap metal, drove onto our site, backed up on to the plot, hitched up the caravan and towed it off. Inside were all her gardening tools, her gardening boots, gloves. It will be in pieces now.. Sold for scrap.
HER shed was vandalised 3 weeks ago. Someone forced the door and rummaged through the shed looking for ..... we don't know what. But the mess... Grrrrr. Come next week SHE is planning to get sheets of exterior ply and reinforce the side of the shed and put on a door lock, padlocks can be forced off so easily.
This makes HER so sad. When SHE first went there 11 years ago, you could leave your shed open, go off up the patch with a cup of coffee and chew the fat with another gardener. the fruit remained on the trees, vegetables waited to be dug up and SHE and I would sometimes work there in the summer until it was too dark to see what you were doing. all alone, no fear of nasty thieves or creepy people lurking with evil intent.
Last June, thieves climbed over the back fence and stole her mobile and took £20 out of her purse, the frightening thing was SHE was only 20 feet away weeding the Asparagus bed and her bag was on the table where I would have been in my cage! They steal Parrots.. So now I only go if she is going to work on the terrace which means I am only a few feet away and in sight ALL the time.
Sadly, this means I won't see Daisy & Bunny-Doos until it is a warm Spring day. They're toy Bunnies who belong to Jane, Jane is a fellow allotment holder and her plots are just up the path from ours, in between we have our very own OSCAR winning fellow plot holder Brian. Bunny-Doos like to watch the river, he gets a bit alarmed when it is low tide and accuses the French of stealing our water.. Well, they did buy Thames Water!
Bunny-Doos is from Adelaide, which is why he likes water, they don't have enough in Australia. Miss Daisy is from Lady Bamford's shop and sometimes, well, she gets a 'little' above herself and has to be left behind at home with the cats and Jane's friend.
Talking of water.. It is tea time! I like Lapsang and I know there are some mini Stollen, I love the bits of Maripan, don't you?
More tomorrow... Got to speak to those Goaty Folk and find out when they're coming to Parsons Green Farmers Market.
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