Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

A Diversion

Alice has been a little unwell recently, and suffering from stress for a variety of reasons. Not that have been any sabre-toothed tigers in our vicinity of late. [See the previous link.]

So we haven't done anything very interesting for ages. Sigh.

After we pleaded for a diversion - almost anything for a change - she took us along with her to visit a very old friend, not an ancient man, just someone she'd known for many years, going back in time. Long ago he had defected to live "Down South", but has recently returned to Bonnie Scotland. He was complaining of the cold, but I think he should just wait for the long and balmy summer nights!

Those of you who know Alice and are familiar with some of her friends may be a little confused. In fact she has two "old friends" in this situation - but the other one hasn't completed a return just yet.

This friend has an absolutely wonderful cabinet in his sitting room.

Ba says it's just a glorified book-case, and she knows The Cabinet is something else altogether. And I didn't think she ever paid much attention to the political scene. . .

Alice insists that as the shelves are so tall, it is intended to hold objects of special interest, like the Victorian collectors used to do. She just spent half an hour Googling photos to prove her point, but most of the examples had glass fronts. And I thought I was the pedantic one!

So we had to check with a dictionary, and it turns out both are correct.

Of special interest there was a-plenty, too.

I felt drawn to make the acquaintance of this very serious-looking Angelfish (Pterophyllum to the experts) on the top shelf. Apparently the nomenclature, when roughly translated from the Greek language, means 'winged leaf'.

He told me that his personal name was Cedric, and that those of his kind were not at all "angelic" but carniverous creatures, and fierce fighters.

He had many adventures to relate, so we cosied up, and I told him most of my life history, as well.

The two of us got on like a house on fire.

Ba, on the other hand, was curious about these three striped or spotted creatures. Their owner told us they were two giraffes and a zebra. But there were no long necks! I think they must be some kind of antelope, impala, or gazelle. Alice concurred.

They were very shy indeed, and Ba couldn't get them to communicate with her. All four were quite contented, however, to simply sit and watch the two humans chatting away.

We all enjoyed our visit a great deal. I hope this was an interesting diversion for you lot out there, too. And don't forget to click on the images to see them at a larger size.