We’ve had a couple of stunningly gorgeous mornings this week. It’s been brilliantly bright & clear, crisp and frosty with the sun so low in the sky it seems to scrape along the horizon. In the mornings on my rambles around the recreation ground with Molly I have to pull my hat down well over my eyes and stare at the ground a few paces ahead to avoid burning a hole in my retina. Hmm, perhaps that’s how I got it in the first place. Of course those couple of gorgeous mornings have been interspersed with the usual collection of grey and dreary mornings accompanied by the occasional deluge of Biblical proportions with gale force winds. What would we talk about if the weather weren’t so variable?
22 December 2013 – Amusements
A man goes into a pet shop, wanting to buy a bird. He sees a beautiful bird, the loveliest he’s ever seen. He asks the shop owner how much the bird costs.
The shop owner replies, “That bird is $1000”.
“What?!?” cries the man. “$1000 for a bird? What does it do that makes it worth that much?”
“Well, I’m glad you asked,” says the shop owner. “You see, that bird can sing every female role in the Ring Cycle from memory.”
The man is truly impressed but he cannot afford to spend that much money. He sees a shorter, but still beautiful bird in another cage and asks how much that bird costs.
“That bird is $2000,” replies the shop owner.
The man asks what this bird can do.
“Well,” says the shop owner, “he can play any Paganini concerto you request on the violin from memory.”
The man is amazed but he can’t afford this bird either.
He then sees an ancient, hunched, half-dead, ugly, bald bird croaking and gasping in a cage in the corner of the shop.
Thinking that this bird would not cost very much he enquires of the proprietor, “How much for the half dead bird in the corner?”
“Oh, that bird is $20000,” he is told by the owner.
Flabbergasted, the man asks what this bird does.
“Oh, we haven’t found out yet,” the owner replies, “but the other two call him ‘Maestro’.” Continue reading “22 December 2013 – Amusements”