Hi all, Bill here
Many of the Australian residents on the list will know of the company I
work for, IBIS Business Information, or the boss, Phil Ruthven. One of
the problems of having a high profile in the world of business is that
satisfied clients tend to give him gifts. Specifically, ibis-related
ones. As a consequence, the office here is littered with ibis
paintings, ibis carvings, and ibis statues. Most are quite tasteful,
and indeed, most are ibis.
...and then there's this.
A ceramic statue, about 50cm high, presumably hand painted or glazed.
It's ... shall we say ... awful?
This kitsch has been the subject of much debate between the CEO and the
GM for some time, mainly over whose office it should grace. The GM says
it should be in the CEO's office, and the CEO says it should be in the
GM's office. Currently it's in the CFO's office, but that's because
she's on leave. I'm tipping when she gets back it's moving again.
You get the general idea.
However, (this is when I get closer to the topic) one of the arguments
used by the CEO was that the GM doesn't have any ibis in his office.
Passing the office at the time, I commented that I wasn't really sure
what it was, but it definitely wasn't an ibis. This comment was greeted
with some glee by the GM, of course, who immediately parked it in the
corridor outside his office.
I work in a pretty odd place, don't I?
So the problem now is to try to identify it. Of course, it's highly
likely to be a fanciful bird, not representative of anything in reality.
If it is a real bird, it's possible that it's an Asian native - the
statue has a certain Asian jizz.
This is my description of the bird:
It's egret or a heron-like in overall shape, I think. The size is
indeterminate, but the statue is about 50cm high. The head and throat
are white, with a thin blue line running from above the eyes to the back
of the head. This bill is yellow, and relatively short, like a cattle
egret rather than a great. The bill has a black dot at the end of the
upper mandible. The eye is black with a short horizontal line front and
back. The back (mantle) is white with (I'm stretching here - remember
it's a statue) a band of reddy brown coverts, followed lower by more
white coverts, then the same red-brown colour on the primaries, edged
with black. The tail is white with a black band at the tiop. The
breast is blue, and the feathers above the legs are brown. The legs
themselves are very long and dark blue.
Thanks to the wonders of a combination of modern technology and the
presence of several techno-geeks, I've got a couple of digital photos of
the offending item, and so if anyone wants to actually see this ...
thing, they can email me direct.
Maybe there's someone out these who can help settle this argument once
and for all!
Many thanks!
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