Once Wilson had completed his examination of Calendars
and Children's Books we sat down in the café to review what we had
learned.
I drew Wilson's attention to the fact that all the
calendars on display were marked down to half price, because they were a
very seasonal product which, if not sold quickly, immediately lost most
of their value.
On the other hand, as one of W's friends has pointed out, maybe the Anteater Calendars were so popular that they'd all sold out — in which case there wasn't a gap in the market at all.
W
conceded that while calendars could do with more investigation,
children's books were always in high demand — to which end he's bought a
copy of That's Not My Cow for research purposes while designing his own book That's Not My Anteater.
'If That's Not My Anteater is a success,' Wilson explained, 'I will consider expanding my publishing empire with The Very Hungry Anteater and possibly even The Anteater Who Came To Tea.'
I hope the publishers of the original books don't hear about this and get a bit cross...
Moving on from calendars, Wilson checked out the display of children's books.
It didn't take him long to note the total absence of That's Not My Anteater from Usborn's range of That's Not My... touchy-feely books.
I shall prepare myself for a large invoice from on-line book publishers Blurb...
Once we reached the garden centre Wilson dashed inside and — even before calling in at the restaurant — headed directly to the Stationery department.
Here he walked slowly up and down the calendars aisle, examining each calendar in detail.
At length he rejoined me and reported his findings. 'There are calendars about Piglets, Owls, Goats and Cats. There are calendars about every breed of dog in existence, plus some made-up breeds. There are even calendars about water-skiing guinea pigs, cats doing yoga and puppies dressed up as fairies!'
I waited, sure of what was coming next. I was not disappointed.
'Do you know how many calendars there were about anteaters?'
I raised my eyebrows enquiringly, sensing this was a rhetorical question.
'NONE!' he exclaimed, 'Not a single one! I have definitely found a huge gap in the calendar market — and who is better placed to fill that gap than me?'
I should probably prepare myself for a large invoice from on-line calendar printers VistaPrint...
Now Xmas is over, Wilson woke me very early this morning, asking to go to the Garden Centre to score some post-Xmas bargains.
As we drove through the sombre, brown countryside he lamented that if only he'd been born in 'Queen Victor's' reign he could have become rich and famous by inventing the Xmas Card, but sadly all the best inventions have now been invented by other people.
I replied that as a child I had thought exactly the same, although my childhood was in an age when how things worked could generally be deduced by taking them apart; nowadays no amount of casual dismantling will tell you how a smartphone or a digital camera functions.
I suggested than maybe he could find some simple, non-technological everyday object that people loved and needed, and improve on it in some way.
He subsided into a ruminative silence until we arrived at the Garden Centre.
The entire family slept in this morning, following a very late night last night (although nobody managed to stay awake until midnight) then gathered to watch Disney's new CGI Jungle Book.
Neither Neil the Sloth nor Mole the Mole is used to TV, so Wilson gave them each a bag of Cheesy Wotsits and suggested they didn't watch the drama, lest they be scared.
Mole confessed that the Wotsits were a welcome change from Earthworms and grubs, while Neil said they were 'V-e-r-y ...' but we never found out what.
During one of the (many) comfort breaks required by the younger children, Wilson mentioned that he had been researching Xmas online, telling me confidently that, 'Before Queen Victor and her husband Prince Charles Dickens invented the Xmas Tree, Xmas used to last 12 days! I think WE should start doing that next Xmas!'
My heart sank a little at the thought of 12 days of unremitting eating and drinking, when I can barely cope with two!
'Although,' he continued, 'there weren't any presents until the last day. I don't think I could wait that long.'
I enjoyed Jungle Book much more than I'd expected — it was quite dark, and hardly at all cutesy!
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Being the first of the month, today should have been The Bees' Blog, but they said that, following all the festivities, they'd prefer to just chill in front of the box.
They both insisted that they weren't giving up on the Blog, and they'd be back on 1 February as usual!
