Brief Round-Up!

Keith is off today for his Annual P&T "Magical Mystery Tour" Big Day Out.  Again, I can't wait to hear what they came up with this year.  Previous years, the stories are in here and I'll find them for you. Here!

And tomorrow I will be posting about yesterday's trip to "Dragon Gardens" and meeting my hero Cynthia Lee:

Cynthia Lee, Superhero!

... but in the meanwhile I just want to check something.

Twice recently I've been told that a particular totem pole is an exact copy of the one that used to stand in front of the Yuanmingyuan, the Summer Palace of the Chinese Emperor, and I want to put them both side-by-side to see if they are alike:

The Yuanmingyuan 

totem pole at Dragon Garden.

The Yuanmingyuan 

totem pole at the New Yuan Ming Palace 

in Zhuhai, China.

Yeah, they're alike, except the one at New Yuan Ming Palace is much bigger.

Not bad for a copy of something that no longer exists, wrought simply from a long dead poet's description.  That must be some poet!

And I also want to show Lady R. a photo of somebody she should add to her collection of "Grey Chic Ladies" who do "Old Lady" exceptionally well:

It's a topic of unending fascination to ladies of "our certain age", who see the 'old age train' there in the distance, know it's heading our way and aren't quite sure how to handle it.  Lady R. and I, and recently Lindy and I, talk endlessly on the topic: How We Intend to do OLD!

Well, that gorgeous lady above is my exact choice.  When I grow up, I want to BE her!

And tonight I'll come back and tell you exactly how the P&T tortured poor Keith this year.


Later:


Well, I'm very disappointed.  Keith has just walked in and it seems this year they took the teachers to the same wetlands bird sanctuary they took them to four years ago ... before they actually started working on it and it was still a swamp.  Now however, it is what it's meant to be so it wasn't the usual screwy mess-up as past occasions.  However, it wasn't a total failure-of-failure because, afterwards, The P&T organised a wonderful "Korean-style" BBQ picnic that consisted of fried tofu and that well-known Korean dish ... Spaghetti.  And then they all went off to find a patch of shade so to read the papers.


Don't you just LOVE Keith's P&T!