Flamingos

One day I fell in love with a flamingo. Not a live flamingo. Not any old flamingo. A Fabergé flamingo.

In the jewellery section at the V&A museum there is a cylindrical display case with a spiral of Fabergé animals. Right at the top is a flamingo, or my flamingo as I now consider it. I’m very grateful to the V&A for looking after it for me though.

I saw it and was entranced. About 3 inches high, gold legs, a mother of pearl body, a diamond studded neck, ruby eyes; just beauty and perfection. I visit it every time I go to the museum, although sadly now that I’m in a wheelchair I can’t really see it properly anymore.

For that reason a friend took a photo of it for me when we were there a couple of years ago, although it doesn’t really do it justice. It was taken in a hurry as you’re not supposed to take photos of the jewellery.

But it doesn’t matter, the magic had happened years before, the flamingo had entered my soul and little did I know where it would lead!

That was back in 2010 and flamingo designs weren’t really a thing back then. However, I found a cushion in Habitat with flamingos all over it and that was item number one.

But then flamingos as a design trend did become a thing and some friends found out I liked flamingos having told them about the one I fell in love with. My Fabergé one.

It suddenly became very easy to buy presents and cards for me. I received a couple of flamingo themed cards and gifts one birthday, which I happily placed in the flat. Friends and family visiting the flat would notice there were quite a few flamingos.

And so it began to snowball. I was given a lot of items that were flamingo themed. I loved them all but the flat wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate so many flamingos! However, they all brought joy.

They included a flamingo watering can, a string of flamingo fairy lights in the lounge along with three flamingo cushions, a flamingo tea towel and fridge magnets in the kitchen, flamingo glasses to drink out of and flamingo glasses to wear, a flamingo make up bag, plenty of things I’m afraid I may have forgotten and lots of flamingo birthday cards every year.

When my ex left me my wonderful nephews bought me a yodelling flamingo. Yep, press button on its wing and its neck rotates and it yodels! It was exactly what I needed to cheer me up.

I had just started a new job in a pupil referral unit, so it took pride of place on my new desk and brought a smile to pupils and teachers alike.

Then three years later I was admitted to hospital and never returned to my job or flat. I had to get rid of all my belongings and only two flamingo cushions and four flamingo drinking glasses survived. I decided it was time to let the flamingo theme go.

When, eventually it came time for me to retire on grounds of ill health I packed up my desk and my friend helping me took the yodelling flamingo for his daughter, spreading the flamingo joy.

Even then a colleague from work who came to visit me in hospital gave me the gift of a book titled ‘How To Be Flamingo’ because she’d seen the one on my desk.

My nursing home room was flamingo free…until Christmas. On Christmas Day afternoon there was a knock on my door and it slowly opened to a familiar sound. The yodelling flamingo! My friend and his daughter had arrived with a Christmas gift for me and so I was reunited with the toy of joy.

Another friend visited on Boxing Day with food and drink for a celebration and with her came a pair of very stylish flamingo Santa earrings.

When I left the nursing home and moved into my new place the two flamingo cushions, drinking glasses and yodelling flamingo came with me. I wore the flamingo Santa earrings on Boxing Day again when my friend and family visited.

But I felt that flamingos had finally taken a back seat in my life. I made the decision that flamingos would not be a theme in my new home (although I must confess to having bought flamingo salt and pepper pots pretty soon after I moved in because the pink looked good on my dark grey table).

Funnily enough, I do like real flamingos but I’m not crazy about them. However, I was very happy to see the flamingo emoji finally appear, although I sadly seem to have little opportunity to use it 🦩 .

Last week it was my birthday. I didn’t receive any flamingo cards or gifts, but then…the following day one of my carers arrived with a card she had made online saying ‘Have a flamingotastic birthday Nina’.

She also gave me a nightshirt with two flamingos on the front saying ‘Let’s flamingle!’ I slept in it last night. She bought it because the colours match the wallpaper in my new bedroom. Oh Fabergé, so much to answer for…