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Sunny has the most amazing smile. He is footloose and fancy free, but there is one thing I can bet on: A few days after a party Sunny will show up. When all the tidying up is done, all the left-overs are in the freezer and the place looks spick and span. It’s time to relax on the deck with a G&T. And then here comes Sunny, on the prowl for a frozen doggy bag to take home as a cheap meal. Usually his mum cooks for him, but if he can score a good frozen meal somewhere he is quite happy to give her a day off and treat himself to something different.

“Not many puppets around last Sunday, were there?”  was his opening line. “Didn’t you get the email?” I asked and watched his reaction. “I don’t read emails!”  He shrugged his shoulders. “Do you write any?” I inquired further, as all of a sudden I thought he might have uninvited the others to score a bigger doggy bag. “It wasn’t me, if that’s what you mean”. This is so typical of Sunny. He doesn’t even know what I am talking about, but he is sure it wasn’t him. And yes, most of the time it is true, as he doesn’t do much at all.

Then he told me he had hoped I would finally introduce him to my dearest friend Chance. If he had asked me before, I could have told him Chance wouldn’t be there, as she is currently out of town on a marketing assignment together with Foxy Lady and Clown.

“The crowd was pretty boring, don’t you think?  Isn’t  it always the same?… These puppets are so predictable… Professor and Pig get plastered… and this pompous git Ducky! Give me a break”. He was thinking out loud.

“Stop right there” I intervened. “You are talking about my friends!” And you are not the most exciting puppet either, I thought to myself, but stopped short of saying it.

He sat down next to me: “Any chance of getting a G&T around here?”

Thank God I had been warned. My reader Rae had asked in a comment who had his hand on Pig’s ear in the photo posted in Good Times.  My sincere apologies, as a publisher of photos I honestly don’t want to put anybody in the poo. I am not a papparazzi. It was an honest oversight on my part. When I selected that photo I looked at the expressions on their faces and didn’t pay much attention to their hands. Big mistake! But in my defense…when you are out on the turps you just have to behave yourself so much more nowadays if you don’t want to see any compromising images of yourself on the internet. But in this case it is slightly different, as Professor has now got his knickers in a twist, because he saw something he shouldn’t have seen.

Sure enough, last night when I came home from work Professor was waiting on my doorstep. As I had an inkling about what he wanted, I just jumped in and said: “Great to see you, can you tell me again about this email?…” He looked at me and shook his head. “It is not all about you missy, you always do this to us!!! We visit you and the first thing you do, is telling us what’s on your mind! We might be little, but we have problems too!” He really worked himself up into a rage here. I immediately backed down, apologised and asked why he had come.

He wanted to see all the photos I had taken at the party. He is suspicious there is something going on between Pig and Sunny. His biggest fear is being cuckold. Pig and Professor have been together for as long as I can remember and what a fine couple they make. After all, they are the poster boys on my blog. So I listened to his lament and thought to myself: jealously is a more likely feeling. Knowing Sunny, tickling Pig certainly  means nothing to him. Sunny is just an air-head, always silly. I would say, if he had five fingers on his hand, he would have given Pig the ever so popular rabbit ears on this photo. (I only found out recently the annoying V sign people make on photos are supposed to be rabbit ears, not the peace sign.)

The party was a bit of a fizzer in terms of attendance. I feel sorry for Mouse and Push Push. After all the preparations only a few puppets showed their faces. Later Professor told me he had received an email letting everybody know the party was cancelled due to rain. The email looked authentic. He decided to drop by anyway as I certainly would have stocked up on wine and it would be a pity to waste it.

I have my suspicions who sent the email, but I will keep them to myself. He wouldn’t stoop that low would he? He wouldn’t try to ruin Mouse’s efforts. He hurt her more than he hurt me, as she has done all the hard work. I only paid for the wine and the food. If I ever find out that it was him…

In the end there were only a handful of us. We still had a great time. We always do. Nobody raised my issue with Devil. They all have their own problems. Why should they be interested in our little tiff? They all wanted to forget their sorrows and to party, not to burden themselves with yet another problem.

Usually I am not much of a party animal. I prefer one-on-one conversations with my friends.  I usually don’t  remember much detail about the party, what I have talked about (certainly nothing deep and meaningful) and who was there… All I can remember is the general feeling whether I enjoyed myself or not. And I certainly did enjoy myself last night.

Looking at my illustrious friends I had around last night… I am sure I can call myself open-minded.

I took a couple of photographs as proof we had a good time. The one I have chosen for today’s post shows Professor and his mate Pig in the foreground on the left. Pig is just happy he had enough booze and Professor is on the brink of slipping into the melancholic phase.  In the back Sunny the aspiring artist is talking to L’Artiste Dede  the accomplished artist. L’Artiste Dede  is not particularly interested in what Sunny has to say. If you know Sunny, you know his story as well. He is a good guy but very repetitive. He just can’t get his break. As L’Artiste has advised him many times, less talk and more doing wouldn’t go amiss. Skeleton (to the right of L’Artiste Dede) feels she is missing out on something and I have my suspicions she is hard of hearing, but she just wouldn’t make an appointment with the hearing doctor. And the one on the far-right is Ducky. He is a politician and stands for election in the Dede Society. He has tried a few times unsuccessfully, but he doesn’t give up hope and in the meantime he just makes everything his business. He has an opinion about everyone and everything.

I just noticed, this is so typical, all the boys were hanging out together and most of the girls (Witch, Mouse and Push Push) were in the kitchen. How stereotypical is that?

Mouse must be out of her mind! I couldn’t believe my eyes this morning. I have to tell you the story.

When I woke up I heard a clinking and clonking from the kitchen and my first thought was: “Great, Mouse has everything under control. I will turn around and have a nice sleep-in.”  But then there was this shattering noise and of course I couldn’t resist any longer and had to check out what’s going on. Would you believe it? Of all the puppets… Mouse gave the job of cleaning my glassware to Push-Push! The elephant cleaning my precious glasses, my heart nearly stopped. And I felt like screaming.

“Get out of here” Mouse commanded when she spotted me in the door way. She was crouching over the dust-pan brushing up glass pieces from the floor. “You can’t be serious!” I exclaimed but I stopped short of telling her what I thought of Push-Push‘s dexterity. After all Push-Push was right there and it would have been terribly rude.

“Trust me and don’t worry. Push-Push is so keen and she can do it….”   Mouse said confidently and added “You don’t get that many volunteers these days.”  Then I discovered that she had given Push-Push all the cheap 1-Dollar-Warehouse glasses I had hidden in the back of the cupboard, while the heirloom pieces were still locked away.

Phew!.. Everything under control! Thanks Mouse.

 

I went around to Witch‘s place last night. She is a brilliant mediator and I needed to confide in someone. Sometimes it is just good to talk to someone and the problems diminish. First of all she put me right. She said it is not always about me! Devil’s Advocate and Fairy Godmother are having an affair and of course Devil’s Advocate doesn’t want anybody to know because he is still married. So, their strange behaviour yesterday had absolutely nothing to do with me and they certainly were not talking about my case with Devil.

I discussed whether a puppet meeting at this stage would be a good idea, as Arindam suggested yesterday after I had posted the latest incident. Witch loves meetings and she says they are always good, but she had an even better idea. She said I should just invite everybody to a party at my house on Saturday. This could defuse the situation, no doubt. And it wouldn’t have an official feel to it.

Then she offered to look in her crystal ball for me to see how it all pans out in the end (of course for a  fee – she is not cheap, good old Witch). I shouldn’t have gone for it. Her best crystal ball is in the repair shop at the moment so she had to use her old one. That ball is so unreliable. She couldn’t see anything about me or Devil. All she could see was that Santa Clause will have an accident this year. This wasn’t helpful at all. Unfortunately I had already paid her, she collects her fees in advance and never refunds! It’s common practice, she says.

If I let the kids know that there won’t be any presents this year I will be in even more trouble. Sometimes it is better to keep your knowledge to yourself.

Devil has left his spot on the sofa and is nowhere to be found. He is not one for being known as a gossip, but I have the feeling that all the Dedes know of our little disagreement that just got out of hand. Whenever I see two characters sticking their heads together I can’t help but think they are talking about me and how mean I am to poor Devil. Whatever I do, they all watch me out of the corner of their eyes and shut up, or worse, lower their voices to a whisper as soon as I approach. The situation is becoming increasingly awkward.

I wanted to ask Fairy Godmother for advice, but when I arrived at her place Devil’s Advocate was already there and they looked as if I had interrupted something important, their eyes unmistakenly told me: “Bugger off”.  I might try to win Witch as a confidant in this case.

Devil is building a case against me… He says I neglect him and he wants to put me in front of the dede puppet tribunal. I am not too worried, (despite I am currently re-reading Kafka’s The Trial).

I wonder if Devil’s Advocate will represent him in court.  I don’t know who I could employ as lawyer if he does. Personally I don’t think  Devil has a leg to stand on, but I can’t laugh it off or take it too lightly. Devil is building the case around this photograph he found in the shed. He says it is proof I have taken Witch, Cat and Mouse on holiday, but I won’t even take him on a little outing across the road. He believes I am prejudiced towards devils. He wants to sue me for one million dollars in damages for my continued ill-treatment of him.

Obviously he has never been to Witch’s house, otherwise he would know that this image was taken in her living room in front of the horrible photo-wallpaper Witch is so proud of. This type of wallpaper was very popular in the seventies and obviously Witch hasn’t renovated since then.

Sure enough, On Sunday the weather was much better (at least between the showers).  Devil pestered me all morning to go on our outing. I did not have the time, I really couldn’t fit him in. In the end he got very miffed with me. He didn’t leave the sofa at all but made heaps of snide remarks while I was pacing up and down the hallway trying to get organised. At one stage I had enough and told him off for his upsetting behaviour. When I talked to him he looked a bit meek, and now he is curled up in the corner of the sofa and feeling sorry for himself.  He will be okay when I come home tonight. I am sure he will be back to his devilish self in no time. But seeing him how he is right now, makes me feel really bad…

The past week we had the most beautiful spring weather and I had promised to take Devil down to the boat ramp today, to catch a little sun and talk our puppet workshop through. For us humans it’s a little trip, just across the road and down a tiny lane and we are there. But for Devil it is a huge event.

Would you believe it? Every day this week I woke up to the sound of singing Tuis. Sadly, today it was the sound of pounding rain. First I thought Devil had his hand in it, but when I spotted him kneeling on the sofa gazing into the grey yonder I changed my mind. He is truly upset. He was all dressed for the outing. (As you might know, the Dedes have only five dresses and he had booked one of them as soon as I had told him my plans).

I had a hard time consoling him. As we say in German “Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben”. It means the trip is only postponed, not cancelled.

I do have an ulterior motive for the outing. I have to talk to him about how I should go about running the workshop. How shall I start the session? I am not sure if I should introduce the puppets by their name and character (as on the character page) or whether the participants of the workshop should come up with names and traits for the puppets they adopt for the session. What do you think?

Focus on the difference! This is another contender for Silent Week.