breaking news

Saturday 31 March 2012

day forty-seven and seven-eighths

After the meal, one of the air steward penguins took me to the front of the airship to meet the pilot in the cockpit. He introduced himself as Captain Peters Cookie. He was eating a pancake while his co-pilot, Lieutenant Montblanc was flying the airship - actually she was busy steering around and between some icy mountain peaks. She was concentrating like crazy, trying not to crash into the icy peaks and she didn't even say hello. I don't think she realised I was there in the cockpit.
Capt. Cookie said we would soon be making a brief stop at a small port in the mountains, and everybody would be getting off to stretch their legs, feet, flippers etc. and to have something to eat and a drink (hopefully without a slightly fishy odour).
After that the airship will be continuing it's flight to the penguin homelands in the Far North (with me, accidentally, on it).

Tuesday 27 March 2012

day forty-seven and three-quarters

The airship was just approaching Watercolour Lake and I was preparing myself to let go of the rope, when suddenly I felt myself being pulled upwards again, except this time it wasn't the airship climbing into the air, in fact I was being hoisted into it. Ten seconds later I was being bundled aboard by two air steward penguins. They asked me a lot of questions about who I was and why I was on the end of their rope and they seemed to be satisfied with my answers.
They showed me to a seat at the rear of the airship cabin and brought me a boarding pass and a miniature bottle of brandy (which had a slightly fishy odour). The other passengers, mostly penguins, occasionally turned around to look at me, but they didn't seem too perturbed to see a random stork in their midst. For a while I gazed out of the small porthole at the landscape of muddy hills and valleys below, but before long I was brought a glass of champagne (which also had a slightly fishy odour) and a plate of raw anchovies (of course they did), followed by a lemon curd tart (yes, it did).

Monday 26 March 2012

Ron's Summer Holiday - day forty-seven

I walked into the Cocktail Lounge as usual one afternoon and saw a rope dangling down through the open window. It made me jump - I thought the snake invader had sneaked back in! But it was just a rope. Naturally, I grabbed the rope and gave it a tug. The next thing I knew I was pulled through the window and up into the air! The rope was attached to a passing airship. In just a few moments I was high up in the sky, dangling over the countryside around the Kola Nut Hotel. The airship continued to rise with me on the end of the rope, and after a minute I could see most of Strawberryjamshire and some of Chips County spread out below. The view was good but I was beginning to lose my grip. I could see Watercolour Lake in the distance and I knew if I could just hang on till the airship went over it I could let go and land in the water. But could I hang on that long?!