Libraries aren't what I expected them to be!

You know, Libraries aren't what I expected them to be!

Hmmmmm - I was a little confused when I met this chap on the front desk of one of the libraries!  It turns out that they run a Saturday Club (there are a few of these in the libraries now) and that this was one of the things they had made.  He is a cress head!  I wasn't formally introduced so I don't know his name....but he looked like a Timothy to me!  Quiet fellow!

This creature had a bit more to say....Baahhhh!  Now, I am the first to admit that my "sheep" is a little rusty but I thought I would have a go at translating for you.....

I THINK he was saying...."Darwin's theory of evolution must have transmoggified with Einstein's theory of relativity and bumped into a camel on it's way back from the Thar Desert" .....although, as I said, I am a little rusty - he could just have been saying Baaaaa!

Then, I went into another room and found this funny thing - turns out it belongs to the children from the Children's Centre - thought the sheep was up to it's tricks again!

And into another room......and I found these beauties!  Now - you have to realise that I was not actually eating them...more examining them with the inside of my mouth - its a well-known dragon technique to discover...what...something...erm .....tastes like?

Hey, you can't blame me....look what was left over from the recent "Events meeting"!  And barely a morsel passed my lips!



As I said....libraries really aren't what I expected them to be!

Dexter x

Elm Park Anniversary

Wow - Elm Park is 75 years old!  Who knew an area could have a birthday?  And Elm Park is also home to the first ECO Library in London!  Of course, I just had to go down and see what was going on.

The staff had lots happening throughout the week - including a special board where people could write up what they liked about the area, a fabby reader's day (the Mayor attended!), a HUGE Baby Bounce - 61 babies all bouncing - actually quite glad I missed that one, I may have been squashed!  They also had a fabby display of the area throughout the past 75 years and some of the staff invited people to come and share their reminis...reminic...reminisenses...MEMORIES!

Above is a photo of me listening to Frances telling me about when she used to run the library!  The book she was holding is all about Elm Park and she was showing me pictures of things she remembered.  She said that the book is for sale from the library - I am sure lots of people will be buying it!

This lady and gentleman spent a long time talking to me - we spoke about all sorts - and some of it was to do with Elm Park!

The gentleman looks like my great uncle Henry!

This lady was showing me a picture of planes which used to fly over the area.  It was all fascinating.

The lady was a little concerned that she wouldnt look very nice in the picture...but I think she looked just lovely!

Going to go and puff at the fluffy cat thing now - it sat on my glasses again last night and the fur it left behind keeps making me sneeze!

Dexter x

All the C's

We are talking CCTV - how cool is this?  Apparently the libraries have CCTV in them - and I get to play with the joystick thingy bobby!

I couldnt see Ann on there at all - but I did see Michael go out and put something in the bin.....think it might have been Rosie!

Ha ha - can you spot me???

What about now????

So much fun!  I feel like a celebrity - America's Next Dragon?  The D-Factor?  Coronation Dragon?

Hmmmmmmmm - maybe not, eh?

And another "C" - the CAB - that stands for Citizen's Advice Bureau - and they have an office in South Hornchurch Library.  People can come and get advice on all sorts of things -  I was waiting for some advice too.  I need to find out what to do about a bit of a delicate situation.....I was talking to Michael and had an unfortunate "bottom burp" situation and it burnt a hole in his trousers!  I need to find out if, as it was an accident, I am responsible. 

I also need to have a chat to Josh's Mum later about men wearing tights - I thought it was only ladies and Robin Hood who wore tights but it appears I was wrong.

Dexter x

Elephants but not for me!

Well it appears that Josh, his mum and Nicky went on an elephant hunt in London.  And they didnt take me!

They said it would have been difficult for me to keep up!  Hmmmmmm - well they were Dexterless and that serves them right!

except.......they weren't Dexterless!  They found Dexter Daschund! 

Well, I am seriously unimpressed by all these shennanigans!!!

Grumpily Dexter

Busy and scary....and a bit ridiculous too!

This is Rob and Jo - I had to take some chocolates over to them earlier because they work at Rainham Library and the staff there were responsible for calling me Dexter.  Such good taste!  And YES there was someone on the end of the phone that Rob is holding!

On the way back, I popped into South Hornchurch Library because I wanted to see the RFID machine - and here I am ....looking at it!   Its a rather miraculous thing....you touch the screen (I was always told not to put my fingers all over computer screens!) and then you put the books you want to take out (or bring back) onto the bit that I am sitting on....and it just "does" them!  I was totally amazed!

When people have "done" their books they have to put some of them into the book return box......

It was very dark in there and I told Rosie that I couldnt see anything....so she decided to help me out......

Yeah - real funny!  Oh how I laughed....well, perhaps Rosie laughed a little more than I did!


Back soon - I hope - Dexter!

You've got MAIL!

....or should that be MALE?  This is Michael who is showing me how to deliver the MAIL!  I am really not totally convinced that this is the way it should be delivered!  This is certainly not how it is done in New York!

This is my version of delivering the mail...seemed far more sensible to be honest....Michael kept telling me I had it all wrong - in fact, you can see he was openly laughing at me in this photo!  Mind you, I did have to be careful not to hiccup and set it alight!

So - I went to Upminster Library!  They had the BBC filming there this afternoon - they are filming a slot about Human Libraries and Viv (one of the team) is going to be famous and go to Hollywood!  Kathy (another member of the team) is doing some "method acting" - she is going to pretend to be a member of the public getting some books out!  I cant wait to see how they get on - check out BBC London - they MAY be on tomorrow night at 6.30pm.

Well, got to go and deliver some chocs to Rainham Library now - for giving me the fab name of Dexter


Dexter

Meeting of Minds!

Friday morning I was invited to attend a meeting with Josh's Mum, Jan and Lorraine.  Jan and Lorraine are both storytellers - or should that be Lorraine and Jan?  You see, Lorraine has been storytelling for a living for a while now and Jan is fairly new to it all so maybe it should be Lorraine and Jan - not Jan and Lorraine!

ANYWAY!  We were all talking about a brilliant project around a children's book - The Secret Garden.  It was really odd because the minute THAT book was mentioned they all got gooeeyy!  No really!  There is a long way to go yet before the project can be spoken about in public - I feel quite honoured now because I get to know about it before other people!  Sometimes its like that though - when things are being planned sometimes they are kept a secret until they are "firmed up a bit" - well thats what they told me when I said I was going to blog about the meeting!

This is me with the ladies - Lorraines is on the left and Jan is on the right - I am in the middle!

In the afternoon, Josh's Mum had a meeting with Nicky (she of the scary Librarian Hard Stare) and Ann (the boss lady) so I went and had a nose around - see what I discovered! 

I am not under 16 or over 60 so I dont qualify to swim for free - but I am going to go swimming later today.

Josh has even lent me his goggles so I don't get chlorine in my eyes.  Josh says it really hurts and makes your eyes go red and blurry.  He said that I might not need them (the swimming pool he goes to isnt too "chloriney" but I thought I would take them just in case.


Oh - and the final piece of news......I can now announce my name!  The branch that suggested my name was Rainham - all the staff, except for Dave, thought it was a good name - they said that they named me after the author Colin Dexter who writes crime novels - they suggested I could be a "detective dragon!".  Hmmmm, I like the sound of that!

Ok - am off for my swim now

Dexter

Who Knew????

I was really hoping to show you a picture of me putting my vote into the ballot box.  Here I am with Josh and our voting cards.

So, round we went to our local school which was the polling station.  Nice lady asked us our names - I now have one, but you need to wait to find out what it is as the winning staff dont know yet! - and then told us we couldnt vote!!!  BUT we had polling cards.....nope, they werent ours - hey, who knew - they were on the fridge!

It turns out that Josh is too young to vote and I am not entitled to vote because I didnt have a voting card! 

AND>....to top it all off, it turned out that there were no dragons standing for election anyway!  Not even any raving monster candidates!  So, maybe just as well I didnt have a vote to cast, I am sure I would have found it so hard to decide who to vote for.

Dragon

Human Libraries

No - you are not mistaken!  HUMAN Libraries!  How strange!  I was at the portacabin with Josh's mum and she got tied up with something - think it was a pipecleaner! Anyway.....I thought I would pop over to the library next door - South Hornchurch Library - and see what was going on.  You can imagine my surprise when I walked in to find a group of people listening to a man talking about bungy jumping!  I did have the chance to do a bungy jump once but decided against it due to a rather uncomfortable experience I had with a pair of braces....least said! 

It turns out that the group of people had "loaned" out this gentleman to tell them his story.  I had a chat to Viv, one of the ladies responsible for bringing this idea to Havering Libraries and she said that they had lots of "books" for loan.  She told me that individuals or groups could "borrow" the books for a short while and listen to their story.  Whats more, they can even ask questions.

I asked Viv if I could be a human book and she sort of coughed and spluttered a little.  I think she may have swallowed a little piece of her biscuit!

I spent a little time looking through the "catalogue" - in front of a rather interesting biographies display!  There were some really interesting looking "books" in there - they ranged from someone talking about preserving the Ongar - Epping Railway Line (Josh's Mum said she had listened to him and he was fascinating!) to people who have had a really tough time and recovered.

I think this is an amazing idea and was so impressed with how it was run.  Viv said that there will be another Human Library session in October in Rainham so I will definitely be going along to "borrow" one of the books!

Got to go now - am reading a rather interesting biography myself and want to read the next chapter.

Dragon

Librarian Hard Stare!

My friend, Maisie, told me that to be a good librarian I had to perfect the librarian hard stare.  So, since Nicky and I have almost the same glasses I asked her to show me how to do it!

I have been practicing over the last couple of days and am better now, but this was my first attempt and Josh's Mum said I did quite well for a first go!

Got to go and stare at that fluffy cat thing!

Dragon - still waiting for the staff to choose a name for me!