MAGIC GRAFFI'S CHRISTMAS STAR

As you know, I’ve been having a great time in Africa over the past few months, but despite this, I’ve really been missing my family and friends back at home, especially so now given that Christmas is just around the corner.

 So, on-the-spur of the moment, just yesterday in fact, I decided to do my cosmic cat trick and whiz back home, at almost the speed of light, to suprise everyone.

But this time, instead of flashing back around the world in no time at all, my curiosity got the better of me. And so I plucked up courage and made a diversion, which led me to whizzing off around the moon – the dark side of the moon that is – both for fun and also out of interest.

Wow! Whizzing’s amazing, but what I really noticed on this trip was how cold it was out there! Just as well I’ve got a triple thickness, Norwegian Forest Cat coat, I thought, giving myself a good shake. My whiskers were definitely no longer very bendy because it was so cold, and even my tail was feeling a bit stiff.

However, just as my whizzing started to take me off out around the dark side of the moon – so out of sight of all of you here on earth – something really interesting happened. I bumped into Santa in the gloom. Really I did! And you’ll be happy to hear that I didn’t cause any accidents by bumping into anyone, despite my speed!

‘What on earth are you doing all the way out here, Santa?’ I asked, laughing to myself a bit because, as we were on the far side of the moon, we couldn’t even see the earth!

‘Oh, I’m just having a bit of sledging practice with my four, frosty white reindeer, Graffi,’ he replied. ‘It’s cold up here, isn’t it?’

‘It sure is,’ I replied, giving myself another good shake. ‘Anyway, what are you all doing, hidden away up here in the depths of the darkness?’

‘We’re playing with torches and practicing for Christmas present deliveries,’ he said, with a gruff, 'ho ho,' escaping from his bushy beard. ‘And the reason we're here is that, because it's so dark and so the torches shine extra brightly, we wanted to make certain that no one could see us from down there,’ he added, pointing across towards where our blue planet was, but totally hidden away on the other side of the moon.

Thinking that it was probably better to leave them alone with their practicing - watching them playing was a bit like watching a Star Wars movie really - I gave the five of them a big wave, before shouting as I sped off, ‘See you soon and make sure you pop in for some yummy mince pies on your way by. They’ll be waiting for you up on the mantel piece. ’ But, because I was going so fast already, I never heard their replies.

Arriving back in our village, I had a bit of a bumpy landing and ended up at the edge of a carpark, after coming to a fun and skiddy halt in a large pile of snow. Over the top of this I found that each of the parking spaces were full of Christmas trees. Here they were being stocked carefully, in the places where the cars are usually parked. (This was because someone was giving the choice of lots of different sizes to different children and their families.) Anyway, while having a good look around the trees, I was surprised to come across my friend, Sparkles, under a rather large one. I’m sure you’ll remember Sparkles from my third book, Magic Graffi at the Honky Tonk Ball. He's our garden hedgehog, who’s also the local electrician.

‘Hello Sparkles,’ I said, almost making the mistake of giving him a huge and potentially painful (to me), happy holiday hug. ‘What a surprise to see you here. What are you up to?’

‘Getting some electric cable so as to attach your family’s Christmas lights to the tree that's just been delivered to them,’ he replied.

‘Ah, thanks for that, Sparkles,’ I replied. ‘Let me help you out.’ And in no time at all, off we both went back home, well wrapped around in wires.

Now, what you the reader doesn't know about me, is that I've always absolutely adored the scent of wild, freshly cut Christmas trees. I don’t know what it is about them exactly, but the strong scent they have gets me all excited and this makes me snuffle around at everything that that's attached to them.

So of course, as soon as I got home with Sparkles, while he was connecting wires, I was immediately buried in under the lovely thick branches, inhaling all the yummy smells wafting over the trunk and branches. In fact, I got so over excited that I climbed up the tree towards the star, which was the good news!

However, the bad news was that, after getting rather wobbly, it toppled over and I ended up with one of its stars stuck on the top of my head! To solve the problem my magic kicked in almost immeditaely. As usual, my tail went all sparkly blue, and the tree righted itself with enthusiasm, flashing brightly because of the magic. With my renewed and wonderful view from near the top of it, I could now see everyone arriving for the Christmas party, with lots of them remarking on me with the happy star clinging to my head.

And you won't be surprised to hear that I was incredibly thrilled when, later that night, the star told me that it had decide to come back to Africa with me in the very early morning. This was because, as we flew across space, it knew that many of the stars we would be passing would wave to my sparkly friend and sing, 'Stary, stary night.' Anyway, one last thing before I go . . .

I want to wish you an especially Happy Chrismas, and at the same time, I want to ask you please not to forget to be kind and really helpful to those around you who may well need a lot of your kindness and comfort, particularly right now so as to help cheer them up if life is difficult. Have fun and take care!

Magic Graffi's HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN PRANKS – MAGIC SURPRISEs

Hello and welcome to my Halloween blog.

As you will see in one of my recent blogs, some while ago I visited East Africa for a day with my cosmic cat friend, Marmalade . . .

And so, because the journey there and back was at the speed of light, I technically became a cosmic cat, meaning that from that moment onwards, I was able to fly anywhere, alone and at the speed of light. What's more, you'll discover in the blog which follows the one mentioned above, that it was not long afterwards that I flew back to East Africa, this time in an aeroplane. And Serge and I have been living here for quiite a while now, having a really fun time.

One morning, while I was dozing peacefully, outside under the early morning sun, I was woken up by the sound of someone shouting that it was Halloween that very day. This made me jump up, all excited, so much so that I decided to fly home and surprise my neighbour, Samson. My whole idea was to give him a huge surprise and and then share some spooky fun with him.  In doing so, what made me laugh was that in reality, this trip back home made me an instant flying fantom. Just the thing for Halloween, don't you think?

However, what I hadn't thought about at all was the weather. And so, instead of arriving home in no time at all on a lovely warm evening, as it was the moment I left Africa, I found myself only a second later, shivering outside in our village, on a really chilly Halloween evening. BRRRR.

Despite this, the streets were already filled with masses of noisy kids wearing all sorts of scary costumes, which ranged not only from wicked witches and petrifying pirates, but also from scarey skeletons to spooky spiders.

Upon arrival and feeling all shivery, I scooted down our lane to surprise Samson in his garden. And once he'd got over the shock, we shared a happy hello hug, after which, we sat down on his lawn to put together a plan for us to become part of the Halloween fun. As we chatted, I suggested to him that our plan HAD to include pumpkins, explaining that just before I’d got to his house, I’d spotted a cart full of hollowed out pumpkins, which had a sign on it saying, ‘Help yourself’. I told him that this had given me the idea of using a little magic to turn these pumpkins into perfect cat costumes.

Having thought this over for a moment, quickly he became thrilled with the suggestion, and so off we scampered, back to the cart, to have a good look to see what we could find that would be both fun, and also frightening. As you may remember, Samson is an enormous urban cat, with a heart as big as his paws, and it made me laugh when I saw him peering at a gigantic, round, orange pumpkin. It was so big that I was not sure if he’d fit into it, but, in no time at all, he lifted its top off and, after some serious wiggling, and a good wag of his tail, he managed to squeeze himself inside.

After this, I put its top back on his head and I have to say that Samson looked like the world’s fluffiest ever, one-eyed pumpkin. His whiskers, that were sticking out of the vegetable’s cut-out mouth, were soon twitching with excitement, while his four large paws were excercising while sticking out from the large holes underneath.

As for me, I's spotted an unusually, long, green-striped pumpkin which had yellowish streaks on it. This was shaped like a giant cucumber with a fat end, and from the way I looked at it, I was certain that it would suit me especially well, what with me being the sleek, green-eyed, magic cat that I am. However, as it turned out, it was incredibly difficult for me to force myself backwards into it, and in the end I needed Samson’s help to get inside. This required him to pull me into it by my tail. Not comfortable at all I can tell you, but it the end it did the job!

‘Ready for some tricks, Samson?’ I muffled, purring loudly from just inside my pumpkin skin, while at the time his tail was thumping like a drum inside his orange pumpkin, which made it wobble like a jelly. ‘I’m ready’ he said. ‘But are you sure this is going to work? I mean, we’re partial pumpkins now!’

‘Trust me,’ I replied. ‘The kids are going to scream with surprise when they see us, and before long they’ll be laughing until their tummies hurt!’ And with that, my tail kinked, making our two pumpkins rise up and hover slightly above the ground. Floating pumpkins with cats inside? Now that was a hairy Halloween surprise for the children.

And as the trick-or-treaters passed by, I used my magic to make the pumpkins roll and float toward another group of kids who were dressed as zombies. And, just as we reached a particularly dark part of the street, my tail kinked again, and suddenly our two pumpkins sprouted bright, glowing eyes and wiskery faces.

‘WoooooHOOOoo!’, I mewed in my best ghostly voice, and with this the kids in front of me froze, their bags of boiled sweets rattling in their trembling hands.

‘Did one of those pumpkins just TALK?’, one of them squeaked to his friends. And, before any of them could figure it out, Samson joined in the pumpkin fun and let out a really gruff growl. “GRRRRR. Watch out, I’m a scary pumpkin pest,’ he added. With this, the kids let out squeals of terror and delight, running around in circles before bursting into fits laughter. It was hilarious to watch them as the began to realize that something especially silly was afoot.

‘True talking pumpkins? This is the best Halloween ever,’ said one. And feeling lifted by the laughter – I’d in fact lifted him up off the ground with my magic as a surprise – another brave kid in a vampire costume approached and hesitantly tapped Samson’s pumpkin. ‘Is there a dog in there?’ he asked. Samson wiggled his tail and meowed loudly, which made his pumpkin jiggle and Samson giggle loudly. With this, the kid gasped and then doubled over with laughter. “I knew it! A magic pumpkin, but perhaps I should call it a catkin,’ he continued. This made us all cackle with laughter, which frightened the child and his friends even more.

Seeing how much fun everyone was having, I decided to up the ante and, with a twitch of my whiskers, the pumpkins started to dance — spinning, hopping, and bouncing sideways and down the street, while shooting off sparkly colours. With this, the kids followed, giggling and cheering as the magical pumpkins led them on a merry chase through the village.

By the end of the night, both of Samson and I had played tricks on dozens of kids, each prank being more fun and even funnier than the last. At one point, I turned a handful of striped candy sticks into spirals, which became colourful confetti. And near the end of the night , I used my magic to make some of the pumpkins on the cart burst into fountains of stringy, but harmless glitter, like one often sees on a Christmas tree. All in all, much of the neighbourhood was filled with laughter and excitement, even more so as we amused ourselves by making spooky sounds that came out from nowhere near where we were standing.

Finally, as the moon rose high in the sky, I manoeuvred our pumpkins so that they floated back down behind the pumpkin cart. Then, struggling to get out of my green, striped pumpkin, and purring with satisfaction once I had, I said to Samson, ‘Mission accomplished! That really was the best Halloween ever, don’t you think?’.

And Samson, still half-stuck in his giant orange pumpkin, wagged his tail and replied. 'Yes, very definitely the best Halloween ever.'

And with that, we went back to Samson’s house where Delilah, after being really shocked by how orange we both looked – this was because the pumpkin juice that had soaked into our fur – handed us each a bowl of scrummy cream, which helped get us to recover from the exhausting magical mischief that we'd both enjoyed.

And so, on that special Halloween night, Samson and I proved that sometimes the best tricks are the ones filled with laughter, friendship, and, of course, with a bit of Graffi magic. 🎃✨

Magic Graffi flies to Africa

Two air disasters on one flight

Hi, and good to be with you again after my last blog about my brief visit to Africa with my friend Marmalade, a cosmic cat. As you’ll know, after this trip, I was very excited, and worked closely with Serge to plan my first ever flight to Africa.

So, after discussing Serge’s baggage, we decided on what he would be bringing for me. As I always travel light, we agreed on just a few items that he’d put in his backpack, which would be carried onto the plane as hand luggage. In it would be: The harness that Serge wears on his chest to carry me around in over short distances; my battery-powered food bowl, which opens automatically as soon as the identification chip in my neck gets close to it; a small water bottle; my squashy basket, with its comfy padding to ensure that I sleep well, especially at night; my brush – because, as a Norwegian Forest cat, I get a good brushing every day; a pair of tweezers, a must for removing thorns, ticks and spikey grass seeds; and a small bottle of disinfectant. (One never knows when this might be necessary.) Finally, a dog whistle was slipped into a side pocket. Serge uses this sometimes to attract my attention when I’m off, out exploring. (Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I’ve never worn a collar, nor a lead.)

For our flight, there was a seat reserved for me, next to Serge’s. After all, the flight time was expected to be almost 10 hours, so sleeping well was obviously a must!

And, as part of my preparations, over the weekend I spent quite a bit of time talking to Jeep. I wanted to hear some of his stories about his life in Africa, and along the way, he finally told me why he absolutely hates flying . . . and you couldn’t make this up! The reason was that when he was young, and had already lost one of his legs – probably from a crocodile attack – Serge’s mother rescued him in the jungle near a large lake, and decided to take him home to be a family pet, and a garden gardian.

So, for the journey back there, Jeep found himself stuffed into a sack. However, not being used to sacks, he managed to escape onto the floor of the small aeroplane they were in. And somehow, while he was crawling around, he managed to get himself completely stuck under one of the rudder (steering) pedals, meaning that neither he nor the pedals could move at all. This created havoc, with the plane rising and diving wildly for a few minutes as the pilot fought to get him unstuck. Understandably, Jeep soon felt extremely airsick, and hence his deep fear of flying.

Finally, the day of our departure arrived, and Florence drove us to the airport, stopping first at a field nearby, to give me a good run – if you get my drift. And then, after unloading the car, she gave us each a BIG hug, before saying goodbye.

I’ll spare you all the boring bits about being at the airport, except to say that I followed Marmalade’s advice and let Serge carry me around in the harness all the time. Just as well, not only because of the vast volume of humans milling around everywhere, but also because there were several extremely large security dogs roaming around too. These seemed to wanted to sniff everything they could see, and as you may remember from Book 1 (https://www.magicgraffi.com/s-projects-side-by-side), I’m not at all good when it comes to being sniffed by dogs. Anyway, despite my very loud and deep warning growl, stupidly, one decided to try his luck. The result being that he quickly backed off yiping after I caught him with a left paw straight across the nose, followed by a sharp right claw. Result: Graffi 1 – Dog 0!

Then, after standing around for what seemed like ages, we eventually got into the plane and found our seat numbers. I had an aisle seat – about halfway up the plane, on the right-hand side, when looking towards the front from the tail end that is. And Serge, whose seat was next to mine, was really kind and unpacked my basket – which I jumped into immediately – before sitting down himself and giving me several reassuring caresses.

The flight crew were extremely friendly, and treated me as a VIC – Very Important Cat, of course – and I was showered with strokes and yummy tickles until we got ready for takeoff. The lift-off was not at all what I'd imagined - shuddery and unbelievably noisy – and that’s not to mention the horrific screams that came from the little baby, two rows up on the other side of the aisle, as we rose up into the sky. This was so bad that I had to put my paws over my ears to try to block out the sound, and even that wasn’t terribly successful, especially once my ears had popped.

That was one thing, but what I hadn’t expected at all was that the baby’s young, and evidently inexperienced mother, wanted to tap the baby on the back every time it started to cry, supposedly to help it go to sleep. Inevitably, this had exactly the opposite effect, and what was worse was that each time it seemed to be dozing off, she tapped it again, restarting the whole process. All of us passangers nearby quickly got seriously fed-up with this, until a tall, and very patient airhostess, came to our, and to the mother’s, rescue. Bringing a small hammock with her, she attached this to one of the overhead, luggage holder doors, just above the mum’s head. Then, she placed the baby in it very gently, where it fell asleep immediately, followed a few minutes later by its exhaused mother.

That was the good news! But I’m sure you know that silly question about, ‘Which would you like first, the good news or bad news?’ Well now, soon after us passengers had fallen asleep too and were cruising along smoothly in level flight, and dreaming peacefully about who knows what – this being the good news bit – we hit a very small air pocket, which woke me up. Opening one eye lazily, I looked up at the hammock, only to spot the bad news. And, seeing this made me sit up with a start, because, without a doubt, I was the only witness to an impending disaster. Why?

Because of what I’d just spotted on the underside of the hammock, which was a long, wet patch – no prizes for guessing what the wet was – and, not only was the patch getting bigger and wetter rather rapidly, but, with my sharp eyesight, I noticed that from time to time, little drops of liquid were dripping down from it onto the sleeping young mother’s shoulder. So, before I tell you what my reaction was at being confronted by this problem, have a really careful think about what YOU would have done if you’d got magic powers and had found yourself in this situation.

For me the magic answer was a quick and simple solution, which, most importantly of all, was based upon something essential. This was that none of us wanted the baby to wake up and start crying again. So, avoiding movement, and therefore avoiding disturbing other passengers - including the baby and its mother too – had to be the key to the solution. (Perhaps, knowing this now might help you to solve the problem, if you haven’t done so already.)

Anyway, you should know that with my magic there’s no time to think. I just trust it and let it happen. So, as usual, my tail clicked and tingled, and a small bolt of fizzy blue light shot across the cabin aisle, and then danced along the underneath of the dangling hammock. This didn’t change its colour, or its wet look at all, but what it did do was make the underside completely water-proof, and all without disturbing anyone. Feeling rather pleased with myself at what I thought was a great outcome, I dozed off again, without a care in the world.

However, somewhile later, the baby did start to cry again gently. Not only did this wake me up, but it encouraged the tall airhostess to get up and come over towards the infant to help. Just as she was about to lift the baby from the hammock, the young mother stood up to try, herself and, still half asleep, lifted her baby from the sling. In doing so, she tilted one end of the support straps in such a way that the piddle puddle that had developed subsequently inside the now waterproof cloth, ran down the interior, and spilt out on onto the shoulder of her dress. No only did the commotion of all of this make the baby scream, but it also made the mother cry out as she got wet. As a consequence, everything suddenly became rather complicated for the poor airhostess, who looked a bit exasperated as she tried to deal not only with both of them, but also with a number grumpy and groggy passengers too. (I felt a bit grumpy as well, I have to admit!)

So, as you can imagine, not only was the rest of our flight not a quiet one, but this incident also illustrates really well how the outcome of magic is not always exactly what one expects. The moral of the tale being, as for Sparkles in Book 3 - https://www.magicgraffi.com/s-projects-side-by-side - be careful what you wish for.

Graffi