It was Mavis’s 9th birthday last week and much to our delight she decided that instead of a party she would like to take a friend to see The Sound Of Music on stage at the London Palladium.
Whizz was away in Minnesota so it fell to me to get us there and back taking in a trip to Hamleys in between. I was a little nervous as I don’t really know my way around London but I had Horace with me for moral support and it is quite a simple trip so we arrived safely and with plenty of time to spare.
The day proceeded to plan and it wasn’t until the return journey that Mavis and her friend Puddy began to get a bit restless. The carriage was sparsely occupied so when they asked if they could get up and wander round a bit I agreed. Unfortunately they became a bit too boisterous and started sliding down the vertical hand rails and swinging from the horizontal ones in great excitement accompanied by shrieks of pleasure. This was too much and I ordered them to return to their seats immediately so they came dancing back, still laughing and being noisy.
Puddy suddenly pointed to the back of the carriage and in a very loud voice shouted “There’s a very grumpy man at the back of this carriage!”
I was absolutely mortified, I ducked my head below the top of the back seat and hissed “Puddy, that’s very rude! Come here and sit down!” but she just stood there pointing and said “No, it’s all right, look, there he is.”
I peeked over the back of my seat to be confronted by a poster of a rather cross looking man.
Mavis was hysterical with laughter as she saw the varying emotions crossing my face. We spent the rest of the journey snorting with laughter every time we thought about it. The two young men who were still in our carriage were grinning too.