hippopotanews

there was a knock at the door last week - well, more of an almighty great bang - and when i opened it, there, on the doorstep, was a hippopotamus who announced that he was my long lost cousin from africa...


personally, i thought this was unlikely as i didn't think rabbits and hippos were related, but he said his name was buttons hippo and, sure enough, he had his name written on the bottom of his feet which struck me as a very practical way of introducing yourself...


anyway, buttons hippo was soon going on and on about living beside the nile and about the beauty of the pyramids at sunrise and how surprising it was that a "world traveller like you hasn't ever been to egypt".

and, as if that wasn't bad enough, he was soon eating me out of house and home! it didn't take me long, therefore, to come to the conclusion that one of us had to go - and that it wasn't about to be me!

i decided to pack him off to live with brian and david's friends, sheila and roger, who have a kind of hippo sanctuary that is home to (among others) hippolyta hippo about whom i have written before.

so, happily, it looks like we've seen the back of him and apparently he's settling down ok in his new home in ascot.

ascot? you ask! well, yes, i know what you mean and I have to say if sheila and roger are thinking of trying to race him, they're probably in for a bit of a disappointment!

expressing myself

it's been ages since i blogged and i might not have got round to it this time but sheila sent me this cartoon by giles from the daily express on 24 july 1969 and asked if that was me on the right paw side of the picture?


me? 1969? just how old do you think i am, sheila?

in point of fact, it was my great-grandfather who used to moonlight as an artist's model.