Holocaust Memorial Day in Havering Libraries.

I popped over to Gidea Park Library earlier this week and took some time to look at the displays they had up.  They were brilliant - I got Josh's Mum to take lots of photos of them and will put some more up another day - but for today, I feel that I should just show one of them.
Earlier this week was Holocaust Memorial Day and each of Havering Libraries decided that they would like to commemorate it - they had lots of information about what people endured during the Holocaust in WWII but also in other Holocausts around the world. 
I spent quite a long time looking at this display and then took a couple of minutes to just sit and think about how cruel some people are to others but also to marvel at how incredible people are and how very inspirational their stories are.  Although I was a little sad, I left feeling very uplifted and hopeful!

Monkey Monkeyx

Just visiting!

Some of the team visited Jo and her little boy Alex today.  Remember, Jo is the lady who was showing me the poster with Alex on it at Harold Hill Library - she was the one who had eaten the baby!  If you have forgotten , you will need to just skip back a few posts - well quite a few, because alot happens in Havering Libraries!  I just loved Alex's top!

Alex had a game that he wanted me to join in with - sliding down the pole, like Fireman Sam - we have Fireman Sam books at the library so I knew who he was!

I took my shoes off ready to slide down the pole - Alex went first!

And then Jacky came up and stopped us!  She said that she didnt think it was a good idea for us to be sliding down poles - even though I am a monkey and Alex had a "Mighty Monkey" top on!

She kept a watchful eye over us as we played - can you see the PG Tips Monkey in some of the pictures?  Well, people keep saying that I am a PG Tips Monkey - and as you can plainly see - we are nothing alike!!  Not even a little bit like each other....I hope I have cleared this up now!

Alex is still quite young so he had to go up for a nap - so, of course, I kept him company.  We played for a while...and then I dozed off!

I had a lovely little nap - his quilt was very soft and snuggly.

And this is what I saw when I opened my eyes again!  I like seeing little faces like this when I wake up!

Monkey Monkey x

Visit to Collier Row Library!

I popped into Collier Row Library today and saw Ella - she showed me this fabulous display!  It is to promote a special event they have coming up with the RSPB - thats....now let me think....the Royal Society for the Poking of Beatles.  No, thats not right...Royal Society for the Prodding of Bats - yes!  Hang on........  Ok - just asked Josh's Mum - its the Royal Society for Protection of Birds!  That would explain why they had all the books about birds!  There was a much bigger display but I liked this bit best.  They are doing a special evening event to tie in with the Big Garden Birdwatch and people can listen to a talk, find out lots about birds they can see in their gardens and then children can do a craft too!  It sounded like lots of fun!

One of the other events that I quite liked the look of was their Taste of India event - they are going to be cooking in the library!  Yes, really!  A man is going to come down and do a special session on Indian cooking and the spices that are used!  How cool is that?  Unless its a Madras of course!  I only like chicken tikka masala - its nice and creamy! MMMMMMMM

I meant to put the website up on my last blog - or the one before - and forgot.  If you want to find out more information about events and STUFF - then you need to go to this website.....http://www.anywhere.me/havering

Did you like how technical I got there?  You can either click on the word "this" or copy and paste the address into your browser bar.  Wooooo get me!  Sound like I know all about this computer stuff.  I still think computers are just a passing phase!  But I am loving them while they are here!

Monkey Monkey x

Sleepover Fun!

Saturday night I had a sleepover - well it was at our house, but we had our friend Ebony over for a sleepover.  Josh's Mum let us all sleep downstairs - she normally makes us stay in Josh's room when we have sleepovers - so we were really excited.  Here I am in my jimjams ready for the fun!

Ha ha - look at me now!!!  We had such a laugh!  We had a midnight snack and didnt settle down until gone 11pm!  Unfortunately, Josh's Mum gets up early on a Sunday morning to do her ironing so we all got woken up at 7.30am!

This is me and Bessy - she is Ebony's build-a-bear dog!  I found that a bit confusing ...a build-a- BEAR that's actually a dog.  And she did giggle alot!

Here we are all together - you can see the thing that we used to make my funny head!  It was very strange - you could squish it and poke it!  I fell asleep on it at one point!

This is me tucked up for sleep - I was so tired because we chatted for so long.  We told funny jokes and then Josh told a scary story that really frightened us!

In the morning, Josh's Mum asked Ebony to help me find some clothes to wear - and this is what she did to me!!  Needless to say, I didnt go out shopping like this!  We are off to Bluewater in a minute - after pancakes!

Monkey Monkey!

Brookside Primary School @ Harold Hill Library

Jo, the Reader Development Librarian, who covers Harold Hill asked me to come down to the library the other day and look at a project she has been doing with Karen and the other staff there.  I wasnt able to get to the library on the day that the children were there but I went along today to go and see their work.  It was amazing!  .... Sorry, how rude of me....this is Lauren, one of the ladies who work there.  She really wanted her picture taken with me - she squeezed me a little tight, but I coughed a couple of times and she loosened off!

So - here is the display...well actually, just a tiny bit of it.  The children in Year 5 came down to the library to talk about Harold Hill and how it used to be.  There were some really great volunteers who came in to talk to the children and tell them about life when they were younger...the volunteers were....mmmmm, how should I put this? .... of an age!  Well they had to be really, else they wouldnt have had anything to say!  The children had a great visit and, when they got back to school, wrote newspaper articles and did a timeline of Harold Hill.

The timeline was fascinating - Harold Hill was a settlement hundreds of years ago - although it wasnt known as Harold Hill then.

I had to climb quite high up to read the articles!  Josh's Mum said that I shouldnt put this picture up because it might encourage people to climb up on the shelves!  I dont think anyone would be that silly!  Josh's Mum also said that the shelves looked really neat and tidy - think that was why she let me put the picture up in the end!

Monkey Monkey x

Fit for......nothing!

What a busy day I had at Hornchurch Library today!  The theme for all the libraries in Havering this month is Health and Wellbeing.  To help people along with their New Year's Resolutions, there are going to be healthy living roadshows in most of our libraries - hmmmm I think its Gidea Park tomorrow morning!  Anyway - this was me at the Hornchurch roadshow with the Healthy Living Team!  They had a good chat with me about my diet and how much exercise I do - too many bananas is not a balanced diet apparently...not even if you hold one in each hand!!!

This guy here is called Tom - or Mr Smoothy Man as Josh's Mum kept calling him!  He has a bike that is connected to a smoothie maker and you have to pedal to make it work....mmmmmm smoothies!  He helped me choose my fruit, and we added yoghurt and milk - guess what I chose?  Yes bananas - and also Raspberries.

I had a little bit of a problem with the pedalling! 

But got my drink out eventually (Tom jumped on and helped with the pedalling a little!).
The arrow on the counter was pointing to my smoothie!

I then went and had my blood pressure checked.  Unfortunately, mine was a little high.  The lady said it was probably because I had just been pedalling on the bike, so she suggested I had a 10 minute massage to calm me down.  It was all free so I thought I would have a go.

Ooooo it was lovely - Louise was so nice......

Perhaps a little TOO relaxing!

Monkey Monkey zzzzzzzzzzzz

Suspect I might get in trouble again.....

Shhhhhh - am posting this really quickly while Josh's Mum is reading a story to Josh!  Actually, they are reading a brilliant book by Josh's teacher Mr Walsh - hmmmm, need to do a post on that - will try and visit him next week and get a picture!......anyway, I am meant to be quick! 


This is the book that I found at Collier Row Library this morning.....can you see the title????  Well it gave me an idea.....

But Ella caught me when I was trying to do a re-enactment in the library - a little old lady shrieked when she spotted me and Ella rushed over to stop me......

She stopped me both times I tried!!!

Ella is so funny - she says she has too much hair for one girl...I really liked it, it smelled like strawberries!  Ella offered to read a book to me - we looked at the Strictly Come Dancing book - I would really love to whisk Ella around a dance floor....I think I  might have the teensiest little crush!

Monkey Monkey!

Fame at last!

Oh what a fun day I have had!  The BBC were at Elm Park Library today filming for See Hear!  Yes, and I managed to sneak into the background so I got filmed too!  No kidding, really!  Natasha, from Bookstart kept saying that her marketing people would be miffed, so we let her put her Bookstart Bear on the table (in a much more prominent position!).  She actually had two bears to use - they were twins - and they had to keep swapping around as they got too over-excited!  Josh's Mum was holding them still most of the time as they were really quite naughty!  You watch when the piece comes on tv - she really does keep hold of them! 

This is a picture of the library before we started filming.  Louise, Jan and Danielle were there and had spent a long time making the library look really beautiful for my big moment! 

Danielle was a real angel and made a mercy dash in her car to pick up a treasure box for us to use for filming.  Ok, sorry I am really not explaining what we were filming but I am just so excited!  See Hear wanted to come and do a piece on literacy and deaf children, with a particular focus on Bookstart.  Yes, I know I promised I would do a blog post on Bookstart - I have done the photo shoot for it, so its nearly ready!   Other than me, there was Josh's Mum (from libraries), Natasha (from Bookstart), Val (from Health) and Lisa (the hearing impaired support teacher lady).

The star of the show was little Danny and his mum Emma - they are both deaf and so used sign language - little Danny was so funny because he was playing a game with Natasha and she was teasing him that she didnt know the signs and he kept signing that she had the signs wrong and then laughing and showing her the right sign.  They ended up joining the library and taking books out with them - Emma had thought that Danny didnt like books but he really did and had so much fun taking all the books off the shelves and throwing them on the floor!

There was also a lovely lady called Claire from press office - she was very shy and just would not have her picture taken with me!  And there was also Gareth and Danny from the BBC - they were such nice guys and seemed to really enjoy their lunch at Greggs the Bakers up the road!

This was me and Director Danny - I got to look through the camera and held the big fluffy sound thingy for a while - but it was quite heavy and made my arms ache.
And, this picture was with Gareth as well.  Gareth was writing everything down as we filmed it - so he was the one who knew what shots were needed - things like Natasha had to hold some books up but she had to make sure she held them in the same hand that she had used earlier so Gareth had it written down!  I got on really well with them both and am waiting for them to ring me up and ask me to star in my own programme!

This picture shows the people who were in the filming.  You have seen Natasha before on this blog, but you might not recognise her today as she had done her hair especially for the cameras!!  She has this rather strange puppet, which Lisa said was quite scary!  Lisa is the lady holding me - she does look like an expert the way she is holding me doesnt she...and look at that smile!  Val is the lady in the middle - she is so kind and lovely - she was the nursery nurse who came round and saw Josh when he was a baby!  She comes and does work with libraries when she gets the time and she is also our Bookstart link with health in Havering.

This is a picture of the twins....as you can see, I had to hold onto them quite tightly as they would not keep still!

I really had such a great day - it was fascinating watching the filming being done!  The funniest bit was when they filmed each of the people nodding and looking like they were listening to someone talking - they did look very funny!!!

Oh - and if you want to catch my moment of fame....I will be on See Hear on the first Wednesday in February - and also on iplayer after!

Monkey Monkey!

Events meeting

We had our events meeting today.  I love these meetings - they are so buzzy and we get lots arranged - we were sorting out what we are going to be doing up until August.  The Summer Reading Challenge theme is going to be SPACE this year - wow that sounds like lots of fun!  I will do a special post on the Summer Reading Challenge another day because it really does deserve a post of its own.  As you can see, Sam was very pleased to see me again - he apologised for trying to kidnap me last time and gave me a shoulder ride to make up for it.  I really did get to view the world from a different perspective!

This is a picture of Kim, from Upminster Library washing all the mugs up at the end of the meeting.   I was giving her some guidance and generally supervising.  I think she was pleased that I took the time to help her out - between us, I think she would have been totally lost without my guidance!

This is not what it looks like....Sam and Michael (what a super sweet and great manager is he???) look like they are trying to shove me into a tin of chocolates dont they?  But no - they had asked me to help them catch the person who keeps taking all the strawberry creams....the plan is, that I hide in the tin....then when the person comes to take a sweet, I pop out and surprise them.  But -  no matter how hard they shoved and squashed me - I just couldnt fit into the tin!  It was strange though - even when I told them that there was no way I would fit - they still kept trying to push me in!  Hmmmmmm!

Monkey Monkey!!