Today we went to the Roald Dahl children’s museum. Both the kids have been very interested in his books and have even traded movie time for book time, they’re so excited about the adventures. A very healthy fair deal, I’d say. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was just the beginning for them and their favorites tend to be the lesser known stories. So lucky for us his hometown is just round the corner from Greg’s hometown. And they built a museum and a café in his honor.





I remember when I was first introduced to Roald Dahl. Yes, I admit I’m a big fan too! I had just met an English woman (who actually ended up witnessing our wedding) in a youth hostel in India. She had just finished a volume of Dahl’s short stories. She asked me if I knew who he was and when I said no, she just smiled and handed me the book and said, “you should.” And so I traveled to the south of India glued to the pages of his twisted and sometimes shocking short stories.

But anyway back to the museum. I’ll admit that it was definitely not up to American standards. I expected to be able go inside the Giant Peach, and talk to an Oompa Loompa, and make my own marvelous medicine, and design my own twit. But none of that. It was however very detailed in his life and for adults interesting. And I will say that it really encouraged reading, which was his point, wasn’t it now, really? He was quite the prankster trouble-maker himself. The coolest thing, I thought, was making up my own silly words. Deva thought the coolest thing was coloring (surprise) and Kai liked trudging around the museum with Mrs. Twits cane. The gift store rocked (funny how they managed that!) and Kai literally had a stack half his height of the books he has not yet read. Not happening. Dollars just aren’t what they used to be in the rest of the world.

But the appetizing highlight was in the official café where we had an original whizzpopper. How can one resist something chocolaty, marshmallowy and bursting with raspberry with a name like whizzpopper? Well if you’re American, you gotta try one of them. And we did. It was simply divine. In fact it was frankly dazzi-scrum-poppilicious.

Cheers & Ciao for now,

Gina