During my last visit to Iran, I was playing with Feri’s niece Parnian who is four years old, and taught her all about “Two little dickie birds sitting on the wall…..” She in turn taught me how to say it in Farsi- ” Dota Parandeh….”

Improvising with home-made paper finger puppets was a great way to start communicating with an enthusiastic toddler and she was clearly delighted and amused with my efforts at learning to speak her language.

What Parnian doesn’t know yet however is that I asked Feri to visit IKEA and buy a set of their finger puppets to take with me so we can make up stories about frogs, lions, pandas and rabbits. Kings and Queens, ghosts and nurses. Snakes, lizards, snails and butterflies.

I just need to learn the words in Farsi now! Guess what I’ll be doing on the plane!