Clic Sargent.

Spotted in our local Sainsbury's store today having their photos took; I wonder what Sir Malcolm would think of this despicable creature collecting money for his cancer charity. It is a little known fact that the great man had a budgerigar that died of cirrhosis of the liver.

As children, Sis and I shared a pet budgie who had, pretty much, the run of the house. One of his strange customs was to bath in a glass of water, he'd take a header straight in, no messing about; the first time it happened The Old Man pulled him out by his tail feathers where-upon he immediately went back in. Any drink was acceptable and, if it was a beer, he would emerge covered in froth; it can't have been very hygienic, but I suppose the alcohol helped to kill the germs or, at least, take their taste away. After his ablutions he would drink from the glass, his preference being for the stronger drinks that really would kill 99% of all known germs; It was an amazing sight to see him go into a whisky glass head head first and do a "U" turn so that he popped up head first as well.

I can quite understand Sargent's bird going the way he did.