The May Big Read

[rathbone]

[Porty]

[rathbone]

Porty On-line straddling the Equator, as promised.

[foxy]

Always wondered what the Equator looked like Rathbone How was Kenya and was it work or play?

[Bob Jefferson]

Great effort rathbone! I know some people who won't even wear their POL T-shirt on Porty High Street.

[Poppy]

[Epykat]

[bellybabe]

[foxy]

[Poppy]

[bellybabe]

I'm wary of replying - don't want to waste my 1000th on something mundane - but for you I'll make an exception. You're right - Sandra and Bearcub are pretty strange callers ...

My tea man - I first had one (don't go there) in Sheffield, when a lovely chap knocked on my back door one day (they don't use front doors in sheffield - we weren't even given a key for ours, and the letterboxes are in the back doors too) with a big basket filled with tea, and coffee, and, wait for it, biscuits, and asked me if I'd like him to visit once a fortnight with his wicker basket filled with heaven. I said yes (who wouldn't?). And when I moved here I called up and asked if I could get another nice chappie with a wicker basket to come here; so he does.

As for hamster man, am wary of alienating my neighbours, who might well be posters, but what the hell. Last Wednesday night, there was a knock at the door, and when I answered there was a man I've never seen before (I swear I walk around with my eyes closed - as Porty will confirm). He said "Hello. Erm. You've got kids, haven't you?". Not knowing him, I just stared at him, bewildered. He then backtracked and said "Well, kids live here. So. I was wondering if you have a hamster?". At which point I was bewildered enough to wonder why anyone would want to borrow a hamster . Then he told me he was our neighbour from further down the street (I said, "Oh, are you the new neighbour?" and he replied, "No, we've lived here for a while..." ), and he'd found a hamster in his garden, and sicne we had young kids he'd wondered if it was ours. I said no. I hate the damned things. He said he wasn't keen, but...now that he'd seen it, it was really cute...

So that's my tea man and my hamster man. The week before another neighbour I'd never seen delivered a huge bouquet of flowers for my partner. Turns out the florist delivered them to him by mistake, he said they were for his neighbour in the block of flats so volunteered to keep them for her, and eventually, some time later, realised they weren't for her at all but for us at the opposite end of the street...

It's all happening in our street.

[Sandra]

[foxy]

BB its worth asking you a question, just to get one of your wonderful and wordy replies

I'm still not clear about the tea man though. I presume it's not just a social occasion...is he there to sell you of his wares

[bellybabe]

I've been trying hard lately to be less wordy.

My tea man- yes, I pay him for services rendered.