Parties & Parakeets

I went down to London at the weekend, as it is my nephew's 4th birthday today. My sister drove and has luckily found that her baby daughter appears to like jazz and will stop crying if a Courtney Pine CD is put on, so we had quite a peaceful journey down on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning we left my sister-in-law making chocolate rice crispie cakes and took the children to the local park, which has a mini-zoo with goats, sheep, dormice (which were hibernating so we didn't see them), monkeys, rabbits, guinea-pigs, hens, ducks, geese, rheas and lots of other exotic birds. We also spotted a couple of wild parakeets in a tree. There are now breeding flocks in the wild, descended from escaped pet birds, making for an unexpectedly exotic sight in various London parks.

When we got back to the house, we cut out masks out of card and threaded them with elastic, and made up the party bags for the children to take home with them. My sister-in-law commented that this is where pound shops come in very useful, as otherwise holding a children's party can cost a fortune nowadays. When the party started, the first thing that 3 and 4 year olds did was to decorate the masks with feathers, beads and glitter (also from the pound shop). Then they played musical statues, then there was face painting, then pass the parcel and then tea. We had to leave shortly before 17:00 to drive back up to Nottingham.

I arrived home at 19:30 and was so tired that I went to bed at 21:00 and was asleep by 22:00. Of course I woke up at 05:15 this morning still shattered, but that's par for the course at the moment.

An Unexpected Find

I went to the library after work today, and on my way back I popped into the Barnardo's charity shop. As usual I browsed the bookshelves and I was surprised to find a 1969 Folio Society copy of "The Diary of a Nobody", in fantastic condition, although without the slipcase. I like "The Diary of a Nobody", and I love Folio Society books, they are so tactile and lovely to look at and this is my third one. Unfortunately I had to have another look at their website when I got home, and now of course I am tempted to sign up.