What a strange week it has been....

I have spent a large part of the past week, sitting at this computer waiting for news to arrive from the expedition in the Gambia. But not all of it by any means...

To start off with, we had a housefull! Nick and Dana Redfern (all the way from sunny Texas), and my old mucker Nigel Wright (from not-quite-so sunny Texas). The three of them arrived on the friday afternoon, and (to my chagrin, because I am doing my best to persuade Baldy the Bandicoot and his lovely missus to move to North Devon), the weather was chilly with intermittent showers. However, I still maintain that it wasn't as bad as all that, and Fig 1 will show how Nick and Dana overreacted to the weather. Poor Dana; usually it is nice to sit outside at night during July. It was lucky that one of my late mother's anoraky things was hanging up in the porch for her, but it doesn't excuse her hubby dressing up like a scouse drug dealer...

`ere Chuck, you wanna buy a hooky dvd player?

The saturday was the Village Fayre. Now, I have always wanted to use the headline `A fete worse than death` but I can't, cos it was great fun and a splendid time was had by all. Helen the CFZ Housekeeper, (and generally believed to be the brains behind the whole operation), and Lynsey (who filled the same role before going off to have a baby), were absolutely marvellous and manned the CFZ stall all afternoon ably assisted by Nige, me, and the Redferns although it has to be said that Helen's little girl Jessica tooke one look at Dana R, totally fell in love with her, and took her by the hand and paraded her around the fayre all afternoon...

Lynsey (L) and Helen (R) do their own inimitable thing
Nige (L) Helen (middle) and Baldy the Bandicoot (R) trying to flog tickets to the Weird Weekend..
Nige, back doing what he does best

A splendid time is guaranteed for all

Dana and Helen understand the value of product placement for the Owlman book

But that wasn't all. I had to disappear half way through saturday afternoon to collect Corinna from Barnstaple railway station. Cos monday was her 50th BirthdayParty. We showed her that the CFZ may not be very good at a lot of things but we can't half throw a memorable party. Lots of people came, lots of cake was consumed, lots of champagne and tequila was drunk, and several hangovers ensued.

But I think that the reason that Coinna and I are going to be blissfully happy when we get married next year, can be summonned up by the two main gifts that I gave my darling to celebrate her half-century on this planet: a broadsword, and an Argentinian horned frog (below). Any girl who can not just be happy with such things, but actually expressed a desire for them some months before has got to be the most perfect bride, some fat weirdo who runs the world's largest cryptozoological research organisation could possibly ask for.

Happy Birthday Darling!