Monkey gets reading! But not books!

I was thinking this morning, while I was brushing my teeth, about how often we read during the day!  Not just books but all sorts of things.  SO...I decided I would record all the things that I read at work in one day!  I am going to do a follow up on this with all the things I read at home too!

So - the newspaper!  Before I started work, I thought I would catch up on the news.....and there are so many papers in our libraries!  Not only do we get the papers everyday, but we also keep them for a while too, so that people can come and find something in a paper that their friend mentioned.  I am actually playing peekaboo in this picture but I thought it was useful to show how many papers there were!

This lady popped in - looking rather fetching in her scarf and hat - and bought in the latest copy of Havering Adult College classes prospectus.  So, I sat and read that!  I am considering taking up bellydancing at the moment, but that would mean I have to drop my badminton class.  

This is where I found out about my badminton class!  It was in a folder in the library.  Libraries get lots of posters and they just dont have room to put them all up, but the ones they dont have room for are kept in a folder like this one.

And this is our latest calendar of events in libraries.  I am a little late showing this because it started in January!  I am really looking forward to some of the thrifty living events....look out Ella, I may come to your swishing event!  Oh, sorry, you may not know what swishing is...well its a special time when you come to the library and swap clothes and handbags that you dont want anymore.  Obviously I dont have any handbags (although I may have to carry one for the Race for Life!)...so I might have to take along some of my old tshirts.  Just hope I can find someone to swap.... sorry..... swish with!

And of course, we all use computers so much - and we read things at them constantly.  Some people tell me that they dont read, but I am sure they just mean that they dont read Books!  Surely, just about everyone reads something!

We have to read signs to keep safe!  Just hope someone helps me down soon!

And we read posters with information on them - are you following the TV Book Club - I am loving it!  I particularly like Jo Brand!

And another poster - actually, the Reading Buddies one has a picture of Josh on it - with Mrs Howland, his teacher!
The poster below is about a buggy walk - not one I will be attending!

Even people who pretend they only ever play computer games read...they may read magazines like this one, or the title of the game, the instruction booklet - or on-screen instructions as they go through the game.  I play alot of PS3 games with Josh - our fave at the moment is Mirror's Edge!

Ok - Josh's Mum made me put this picture up - Erin lifted up my Playstation Magazine to reveal what I was really reading in the picture above...it was a teen magazine!  All in the name of research.... I found both of them in Gidea Park Library Teen Area!









I dont usually need to wear glasses to read....but I think these make me look rather distinguished! 
What have you read at work today?

Monkey Monkey x

Race for Life, Nicky's haircut and paying to talk to me!

This is a pic of me and Nicky - she is the....hang on...yes....Frontline Services Manager - this means that she marches up and down waving a bayonet and maintaining the Frontline!   oooo sorry - no she doesnt - Josh's Mum said that she actually makes sure that all the Frontline Services run properly with no hassle or worries.  I can tell you that she makes a lovely cup of tea.  She wouldnt let me have my picture taken with her before she got her hair done - it was worth the wait though, dont you think?  Nicky and Josh's Mum share an office together - and, let me tell you, this is the good view of the office - by far the tidiest angle!  And boy, do they giggle!!!! 

Over on the right you will see a rather special button - its to the Library Ladies' Just Giving Page.  Lots of the library ladies are entering the Race for Life in memory of Maree Ashton who used to work with them.  She died last year and the staff all wanted to do something to commemorate her life and remember her by.  So, they are all going to enter the Race for Life!  Josh's Mum will be doing two events as most people want to go to one of two venues - I am hoping to sneak into both of them too - but am not sure if I will be allowed to join in, me being male!  Oooooerrrrr - Josh's Mum just told me that she wasnt joking when she said she was going to dress me in pink to get me in...hmmmmm not too sure about that idea, think we need to think it through a little more!  Anyway, if you would like to support the ladies by making a donation then please just click through on the right hand side and go for it!

And finally - did you see me on See Hear???  Well actually, you can only get a glimpse of my legs now and again!  But I still think this counts towards my 5 minutes of fame!  Its on BBC iPlayer now - so go ahead and play "spot the monkey!".

Night Night Monkey Monkey x

Gidea Park visit

I said the other day that I went to Gidea Park Library and was marvelling at all their fabulous displays.....well here are some of them.
I have to say first though, that the library was very neat on the day we visited - you can see behind me in this photo just how neat everything is!  Josh's Mum said that it looked like I had my hand behind my head and I was posing like a model....but I wasnt, I was doing my exercises!!!  Havering Libraries have had a month dedicated to personal improvement - so Exercise fitted right in there!  I do like to keep fit, but sometimes people laugh at me when I try to do push-ups!

This is me having a good old chuckle at some of the books on this display.  It was global belly laugh day on the 24th January and most of the libraries had done something to commemorate it....some had put up displays, some held joke competitions, some told jokes to people coming into the library....

....here at Gidea Park, they put up a choice of funny books and also their Special Reading Agents Group had a joke swapping session.  I nearly fell off the shelf laughing when I read the jokes.  My favourite one was...."What do you call a sleepy bull.....a bulldozer!"  ....I told this to Josh and his dad and they both giggled, but I think this might have been just to keep me happy!  Josh's Mum laughed alot though!

How amazing is this??? The staff at Gidea Park are just so talented...this is the wardrobe from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - you can see the furcoats hanging in the wardrobe and Narnia beyond.  Of course, never one to pass on an adventure, I just had to climb into the wardrobe.....

....and here I am, in Narnia!  This penguin seemed a little lost so we had a short chat and then I moved on to the.....

.... Snow Queen's Palace.  I did think about going in, but I wasnt feeling too brave - and it was almost time for lunch!  Kate, the manager, said that Erin went in there last week and was gone for 3 days!  I am just so glad I resisted the urge!

Monkey Monkey... Phew!

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!