One of my favourite Facebook pages is Rare and Strange Instruments. Basically it’s a collection of videos of the strangest instruments you’ve ever seen. A lot of them are homemade.  The people who make them are musical inventors!

Like for instance, did you know you could make a bass guitar out of a couple of balloons?

Apparently you can! Check this out…

I bet you didn’t know toy cats could hold a tune either….

This guy must be a regular at The Boogaloo Family Clinic of Musical Cures!

I need a glass of water after watching that!

Well twang a banjo! some people can make music with just about anything!!

How I would love to get this close to a humpback.

You know there’s a whale at The Boogaloo Family Clinic of Musical Cures

His name is Leonard and boy can that whale sing! 

The whale in this video reminds me of Leonard.

If you thought a 30,000 kg animal was too big to dance, think again…

How big IS big?

Good question….

When it comes to Dexi’s hands, I’m afraid we’re talking really big. Take a look.

Yep. Those are some BIG hands! And along with those big hands come some pretty big problems. No wonder Dexi wears boots! Tying up shoelaces would be very tricky I imagine. I wonder if you can guess what’s gone on here?

You’ll have to read the book to find out!

Well you’re going to have to read the book to find that out of course!!!!!

Dr Boogaloo and The Girl Who Lost Her Laughter

But because you seem like a decent person, I’ll show you a picture…..

And then you can get to thinking about what, when, why and how does THAT work!

Illustration by Daniel Gray-Barnett

Knock knock!

‘Who’s there?’

‘Is there anything for afternoon tea?’

This conversation happens at around 3.30pm each day as my children arrive home from school & want to be fed.

‘Sure’ I yell through the yellow door, ‘there’s apples, nuts, bread….’

‘Yeah, but is there anything to eat?’ comes the reply.

It’s my eldest son. He’s fussy. Real fussy. And if it ain’t got sugar, it doesn’t classify as afternoon tea.

Behind that yellow door is my office. I painted it yellow as a salute to my most favourite author – Roald Dahl. He had a writing hut at the bottom of his garden and his door was painted yellow. The yellow door inspires me and reminds me of Roald Dahl every day. I’m so lucky to have a place where I can write. Roald Dahl put it nicely when asked about his writing hut:

You become a different person, you are no longer an ordinary fellow who walks around and looks after his children and eats meals and does silly things, you go into a completely different world. 

Here’s a picture of his writing hut where he wrote Matilda and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.

When Roald Dahl opened his yellow door and went inside, he was able to imagine entirely different worlds. Maybe the yellow door helped with the passage from one world into the next. I was once told yellow was an illusion we all shared.  I’ve no idea where I heard it but it’s stuck with me. Whether it’s true or not or makes sense doesn’t matter to me. I just love the idea of an illusion we all share. Something imagined that we imagine together. A lot like reading a book.

p.s In truth all colours are an illusion. It is our brains that see colours, not our eyes.  Colours are not real at all. What is real is light!!