Jess was going to leave me at home so that I didn't get lost, but I snuck into her suitcase and stowed away! I got jostled and bumped around in there but managed to quawk when the case stopped moving. Jess wasn't on the plane yet, but it was too late to send me home!It was a bit stuffy stuck in the suitcase in the overhead compartment for the plane trip, and Jess forgot to take me out until bedtime but by the next morning I was rested and ready to roll. Jess said it was a bit far for me to walk so I got to hitch a ride in her handbag!
First we went to the laundromat, that's where humans wash their fur. Jess let me for a ride in the Mega Load machine! It was fun but I got a little bit dizzy and nearly blew fishy chunks in her handbag.
Next it was off to Chinatown for yum cha!I had never had yum cha before and I was very excited. My favourite was the prawn and coriander rolls. Prawns are just awesome and remind me of home, and coriander is like spicy seaweed! I was a little disappointed that we didn't get fish cakes but I guess it's not my birthday yet.
In the evening, Jess and Earnest went to a fancy place for dinner and it was a bit crowded so I had to stay put in the handbag and be content with eavesdropping. I'm glad I didn't have to walk to the restaurant though, it was a long way there and back again.
After we got home, Jess and Earnest went back out without me. I was a bit sad about that but Jess explained that they were going to places where humans get very silly and noisy and she was afraid that I might get lost. Also, apparently you have to be eighteen years old or even older to get into those sorts of places and I am only three and a half months old so I am way too young.
It wasn't so bad in the end. I played in the Lego, and read some books, and then when I was playing in my room, I looked up and on the bed I saw a new friend. I introduced myself to Tiggr and we talked a lot and played together and made a midnight snack of fish fingers with ice cream (unless you are a penguin you will never understand the appeal of that particular combination).
Tiggr decided to go back to bed just before Jess got back. She was on her own and explained it had been too noisy and had hurt her ears so she had left early. I'm very glad I didn't get to go, my ears are much smaller than hers so I imagine it would have been quite painful. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. I curled up with her while she wrote the blog and then we went to sleep.
It was very late when Earnest came home. I think you could safely say he got home in the morning! It woke me a bit as we penguins are light sleepers. I didn't get a lot of rest and I was very tired in the morning. Even when she goes to bed late, Jess tends to wake up early and though I begged for five more minutes I had to get up too because we had people to see and places to be!On Sunday we were having lunch with Earnest's family and I got to meet his two children, Bugalugs and Caboodle. They loved me at first sight and I got lots of cuddles. They decided that maybe my name should be Penguini. Jess laughed and said it sounded like a type of pasta "I'll have the Scallop Penguini" she joked. It made my tummy rumble though. Good thing we were headed for lunch at a fish and chip shop!
Caboodle said that it wasn't after pasta though. She thought my name should be Penguini because I was an artist like Michaelangelo. She and Bugalugs had brought their art supplies so I took it in turns modelling for them.
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| Me modelling for Caboodle. |
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| Bugalugs hard at work on his masterpiece. |
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| Caboodle drew me with a girlfriend and an egg! |
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| Bugalugs drew me as an artist painting a picture of my egg. |
After round one of the children's artistic endeavours it was time for lunch. I got to nibble on little bits of Jess' yummy snapper, she even let me share her dessert though I have to say, I'm not a big mango fan. Maybe that's why there are no other Little Penguins in Queensland, too much mango. While everyone laughed and talked I went and looked at the nice photographic prints on the wall of the fish and chip shop. One of them was of a beach scene so I got to pretend I was going to go for a swim!
After everyone had finished eating Bugalugs and Caboodle were straight back down to business. Caboodle wrote a story about me. It says "Pengui the penguin adventures. One day pengui went to the real life and hy went to the city to play soccer and they lift happy ever after." [sic]. She did a very good job and she didn't even know how much I do love soccer! When I'm at Mr Smart's house I always watch the soccer with him.
Bugalugs decided that on another adventure that I could be a ninja penguin. I'm not so sure about that, my wings aren't really very good at gripping things so throwing nunchucks around might be a bit hazardous to my little penguin noggin. It was a very exciting drawing though!
The next day was Earnest's birthday! It was a public holiday in Victoria but not in Queensland so Earnest had to take the day off work. We wanted to make sure he had a good day so we decided to go out and do something fun.
We walked in to the city, well they walked, I rode in the handbag again. We found some cool sculptures on the way, Jess said one of them reminded her of a Dalek so I climbed up to have my picture taken.
It took a long time to get into the city, even longer than it took to get to the restaurant on Saturday night. I didn't mind so much because at least my feet weren't sore, but my bottom was getting a bit bruised as the handbag banged against Jess's leg. Still, it's not a bad way to travel really. It's certainly a lot faster than waddling.
It wasn't really all that long before we reached our destination. The cinemas! Jess and Earnest had decided that we would see Oz The Great and Powerful! Because I'm so small it was easy to sneak me in too.
The movie was exciting and scary in bits. I haven't seen the Wizard of Oz yet (I know it's an old movie, but I'm a very young penguin) but I don't think you need to have seen it to understand this movie. I enjoyed myself but I'm glad I saw it with friends. After the movie we went to a very nice book shop. Mr Smart, Jess and Earnest all enjoy reading a lot so it's rubbed off on me a bit. Jess let me go and browse on my own and then caught me with my beak in a book.
Once all of our shopping was done we went to a pizza place for dinner. It was nice eating as the sun went down because it was cool and people were relaxing on their ways home from work. In the twilight we also got to see quite a lot of fruit bats flying about. They look like flying Little Penguins! They are shaped like me but with the pointy bit at the bottom and the wide bit at the top. I can't fly in the air like bats can, but I bet they don't do well under water.We went home with a new supply of ice cream (I had sneakily finished the previous supply with my fish fingers after all) and we settled down with a drink to watch more movies. Jess only let me have a sip of her cider and I didn't like it anyway.
My favourite movie of the whole trip was Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indiana Jones! I really wished penguins could grip things then. I might not want to be a ninja but I think I rather fancy being an adventurer! Maybe I will ask Jess to get me a little hat so that I can play pretend. I think that cracking the whip would be cool too. I was mesmerized the whole time.
We went to bed relatively early on Monday night, because on Tuesday we were heading home. Jess woke me up bright and early and put me in her handbag straight away so that I wouldn't be forgotten. I was glad that I didn't have to ride in the suitcase this time. Earnest walked with us to the train station and we caught the Airtrain and I got my own seat! The Airtrain doesn't fly which is a bit confusing but it did get us to the airport quickly.
One of the distinct disadvantages to being a penguin is that they don't let you go walking around in the airport. In fact, since I couldn't walk through the metal detector on my own, they rudely classified me as 'a personal item' and I had to go on the conveyer belt through the X-ray machine. I hope X-rays aren't too harmful to penguins, I have my whole life ahead of me yet!The didn't notice anything suspicious in my fluffy insides so we went into the airport to go and catch our plane. Due to being in a suitcase on both flights of my life I had never gotten to see the plane I was flying in before but luckily we arrived at the gate in time to watch our plane being fuelled and stocked with afternoon tea! I was hoping it would be smoked mackerel but it wasn't.
It was a good flight home and I was very glad to see Mr Smart and Pizza Cat again. I'm going to stay with them for a little while before I go back to Jess's house. I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures and seeing my photographs. Mr Smart says I'm a very photogenic penguin. Perhaps I will have another adventure this year.
Anything it possible for a penguin with plenty of pluck!
Love from Pengi
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| Home Sweet Home |
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