Friday 22 January 2010

The Fat Budgie


I've been a milkman for oh, more years than I can remember now, and at Christmas time I get lots of cards from my customers. This year I had a bit of a surprise at one of the cards I received, as it was one of the newly reprinted Oxfam cards designed by John Lennon back in the sixties of his pet budgie Jeffrey. Whether or not this customer knew that I was a budgie fan or not I don't know, but I loved the card and have kept it after I recycled all the others.

The card entitled "The Fat Budgie", was an illustration from one of John's poems, wrote when he was a young boy from the age of seven. Apparently, he kept a journal of his work, which he called the Daily Howl. The poem is not particularly flattering of his pet, but somewhat amusing none the less. Anyway, it's nice to think that I had something in common with one of my teenage idols, we both loved budgies!

I wonder how many other celebrities love budgies? The only one that comes to mind is strong man Jeff Capes, but don't let him hear you say the word 'budgie', as he is quite insistent that they be called by their full title - budgerigars!