Date: May 2, 2003
From: Joanne
Subject: I wish I were a Chicken!

I'm beginning to think I want to be a chicken!! This bird has traveled to more places and seen more things that most people ever would in an entire lifetime!!

Just before we left for Holland, Germany and France, our school performed "Aladdin and His Wonderful Magical Lamp". Just to try and keep him from flying around, one of our teachers rounded him up to help her with the casts' make-up. His attention span not being too long, he flew around the set, making his way to the collection of cast photographs. At the conclusion of the performance, we made our way home to pack for our European adventure.

We arrived at the Calgary International Airport at 5:30 am. Due to the ever increasing security, Murray was asked to remove all his pins. He wasn't thrilled about it, but perched himself up on the counter to have them removed. He made himself quite well know to all the students and their parents, running around like a "chicken with his head cut off". The time had come to say good-bye to the parents and Murray promptly gave each one of them a "peck" on the cheek, promising to take good care of their children. We settled him in for the long flight and he promptly fell asleep.

We arrived in Amsterdam the next morning and boarded the bus to the cruise ship. Murray kept everyone entertained as we watched him flirt with the foreign "birds". It wasn't long before we arrived at the ship and made our way to our cabins. Murray was anxious to explore his new surroundings. Despite the kids wanting to go to sleep, we kept them up and took in the sites of Amsterdam. Some of the buildings were simply stunning. The condominiums along this particular canalsell for anywhere between 4 and 8 million Euros.

More updates soon!!
Joanne

Hi Everyone,
I thought it would be the 'ol pick up a package from the post office routine, but was I in for a surprise. The ladies looked at me with the "We've been there, done that before" look. Apparently, Murray made his way out of his packaging and began to "ruffle" some feathers. He made it perfectly clear the the staff that he really does not like being all "cooped up" and was eager to spread his wings and let loose.

I had a heck of a time keeping him from flying around and was about to threatened him with a visit to the local RCMP station. Imagine my surprise when he informed me that he could hardly wait to "fly under the influence" again. Apparently, being released on his "Promise To Appear" and becoming the local "jailbird" was a joke to him. I'm thinking we've got our work cut out for us.

After spending a quiet evening at home, I brought the little guy into work with me. He said Hello to our SECRETARY, Linda and made his way back into my office. He perched himself up on THE CHAIR, making himself right at home. We took a tour around the school after helping the volunteers with the NEWSLETTER, reacquainting him to the surroundings. This landed us in the Art room, where he is learning the fine art of SKETCHING.

He's become quite a well known little fella around the school and is looking forward to our upcoming production of Aladdin and his Magical Lamp. If the school trip to Europe is still a "go", he'll be flying with us over to France, Germany and Holland.

Well, it's almost the end of the school day, so I better go get him before one of the kids takes him home.

Joanne