Bit by a Chicken

On Saturday we returned to Dunham Massey.  It was May when we last visited and Darwin was only 2 month old, the main difference being that now he was mostly awake and sat in his tricycle where last time he will have been asleep and tucked away in his pram.

When we arrived at the car park a man said, “That will be £6 please, but the really exciting news is that if you join the National Trust today you can get this refunded”.  “That is exciting news”, I sarcastically said to Kerry.  This time we decided that not only would we walk around the gardens but we would also have a look in the mansion too.  “That will be £25”, the woman said, “but if you decide to join the National Trust today we can refund this amount”.  As it happens I had been thinking about joining the Trust at some time anyway and now I could get a third off!  I felt like apologising to the car park man because now his news was actually semi exciting.  We did join the NT.

The folks at Dunham Massey are remembering the start of the First World War where during this time the hall was transformed into a military hospital.  They are recreating some of the scenes from this time, placing beds in some of the rooms and creating a mock operating theatre in another, and they have employed a few actors to play nurses and wounded soldiers to enact possible conversations that happened in the hospital.  I love acting and at some stage in my life I may get back into it, but these actors must have the 2^nd shittest gig an actor can get.  (The shittest has to be commercial actors who go to businesses to act out business scenarios for potential management candidates.  I've witnessed this and it’s one of the most embarrassing scenes I have ever cast my eyes on).  The actors stay in character at all times which both annoys and embarrasses me.  I bet Robert De Niro never says, “You talking me?” when you say hello to him, in fact I’m willing to believe that he has never said it ever, and despite being my all time favourite actor I bet, and hope, he would make a shit commercial actor.

After that we walked around the gardens marveling at the many varieties of daffodils and other flora.  We stopped to say hello to the chickens and Darwin put his arm through the fence to give them a stroke.  One of the chickens got excited and nipped his fingers and Darwin began to cry.  I wanted to protect him from all the evil in the world (like bitey chickens) but Kerry couldn't stop laughing, she was laughing half an hour later.  She has always said she wants chickens but now I’m questioning her motive.  Is it because she wants them to bite our child?

"Upset Piggy"

"Happy Piggy"

"Mr Fuckin Smooth"