And now... hot off the ... erm.. press... Behold - the NINTH wonder of the world...
The above shot is a picture of Father Ratmas pulling his rat sleigh from the side. You can see the wondrous presents that he has for all of the good rat children. He has a little something to leave behind for the bad children... let us not dwell upon this...
Unlike the ridiculous myth of their being 7 or 9 "reindeers" that the so-called "real" Father Christmas had, one can see the lie of that silly fable. Father Ratmas here has his traditional five ratdeer with the ever present Rudolph the red-nosed ratdeer doing sterling work up at the front.
And here above IS the star performing ratdeer, Rudolph himself. Just look at that marvellous red nose - one can feel the heat from here. It is of course made from Brimstone - lately wrenched from a very real volcano in Iceland... probably...
Wow! Only when one sees it from above can one truly realise its beauty and dedication to detail. You almost don't realise it's a model the detail is just so fine...
This picture above shows old Father Ratmas at his funniest. He could not last one whole night without feeding his big fat belly. So, halfway around the world (just off Southend High Street) he stopped off to buy some fish and chips for a midnight supper on the move.
I hope you have enjoyed this slide show of the Father Ratmas, his sleigh and ratdeer.
Please tell your friends so they too can enjoy the 9th wonder of the world.
And return at a future date to come and see the Last Rat Supper - I am hoping it will be ready for Easter 2009!
Andy Barham, inventor, sculptor and office Jester <¦:¬)