Sunday, December 30, 2007

 

A Cousin from Canada!!


Guess what. A long-lost relative has turned up. Mum and Dad never knew just what sort of small bear I am. That's because Dad cut off my label and lost it (Dad does that sort of silly thing). During the year the oldies spend a lot of time on the web trying to find out where I was made and what brand I am. No luck, so they decided I was a Unique brand. Unka Patrick got interested and spent lots of time looking as well. He did better than the oldies and found a small tribe of bears like me at a place called E Bay in Canada. He paid the airfare to bring one of these cousins out to stay with me and he got here just in time for Christmas. Meet my cousin William Thomas. Dad calls him Billy T and giggles, evidently there is an in-joke here that nobody has explained to me. Anyhow, here are Billy and I waiting for Santa. The cute waistcoats are from that superb outfitter of small bears, Unka Paddy. And we now know that I am a Russ Cub bear.

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Unka Paddy's Christmas Village


Every Christmas Unka Patrick takes over their dining room table and builds a model village on it. Because he is from America, he makes it with lots of snow to remind him of home. This year the village is big enough to go up two levels. He even has a train running around it, and he lets me drive it. Visiting the uncles is always fun, and specially at Christmas because they always find presents for me.

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Friday, December 28, 2007

 

It's Cricket Time Again


What do small Aussie bears do in the days after Christmas? That's right. They watch the Sydney-Hobart yacht race and the cricket. I love cricket. I have only been to one game and that was the only game our guys lost last year, so I am happy to watch it on our TV. It seems that they never lose then. I thought this summer we might see some close matches, but it seems like it is more of the same. The series with New Zealand was a complete win for us and the Indians are struggling at the moment in the first test match. I hope that they will put up some real opposition to our team, but I do like seeing Gilly, Ponters, Haydos and Pup slamming balls all over the ground, and Clarkie and Brett Lee bowling wickets over. Who says cricket is boring? They just don't appreciate the skill and strategy involved. If small bears are ever allowed to play for Oz, I will be there.

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Thursday, December 27, 2007

 

Silly Hat Time


Christmas is not just about Santa and the birthday of Jesus. It is also the time of year when the oldies think that everybody has to wear silly hats when they go out to Christmas dinner and parties. This year my hat is a real beaut. Not only is it shaped like a classical Santa hat, it has a confused-looking reindeer on it as well. I gather by the red nose that the reindeer is Rudolph. This hat is a present from my special friend Enid. By the way, the opal thingies are not mine. Mum collects things like that and Dad and I gave her these ones. I think my helicopter is lots more fun.

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Santa Came Again!


The whiskery old guy in the red suit snuck up on me again. I had a screen of helpers to catch him, but he picked the only time that all of us were catching a bit of shut-eye and left a pile of packages for us all. I was first up on Christmas morning and there was this huge bag labelled "Bart". I had a tough job unpacking it. Actually I had to wait for some help from the oldies. Guess what was in it. My very own helicopter. I have been on a few helicopter rides and saw how the pilots flew them, so I am going to have lots of fun flying this little one around the house. When I can get it away from Dad that is.
You can see the pictures a bit bigger if you just click on them. And don't forget to check back through the archives for my earlier postins.

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Sunday, December 23, 2007

 

Egypt, Taken By The Ancient Monuments


Here's another picture of ancient monuments from the trip that my ancient ones were on. No prize for guessing what these are, even very small bears know them. The big pointy thing is the pyramid of Chephren and the strange crouching critter is the Sphinx. The Sphinx is one of Mum's favouritest things, so don't be surprised if she forces me to put some more pictures of it on the blog. Dad was surprised by the size of the pyramid. It is almost as big as the so-called Great Pyramid next door and it still has some of the covering stone left on it up at the top where people couldn't grab it to build houses and chook-pens and things with. Mum has a statue of the Sphinx in her collection of Egypt stuff. It is just the right size for me to use as a horse when I play cowbear.

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Musical Lunchtime


No doubt about the crew on my Fiji boat "Reef Escape" (actually it belongs to Captain Cook but I pretend it's mine). They make every bit of the trip fun and they never seem to stop singing. Here Scruffy and I are, up on the top deck at lunchtime. Notice that there are no oldies around? Guess why. They are too busy stuffing their faces with the delicious nosh to take much notice of anything else. What us bears are doing is listening to the crew who prepared the fodder singing again while they wait for the non-bears to finish eating. My special friend Mere is in this picture; I like her because she sometimes fluffs my fur up with the hair-dryer when she is on cabin duty.

And: stop press, hot news, guess-what-type announcement. Dad has booked us in for another trip with my Captain Cook friends. We are going on the Dateline Cruise next July. Scruffy and I can hardly wait!!!

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Friday, December 21, 2007

 

Argh!! Not Again!!!!


I've said it before and I'll say it again. I HATE BATHS. Why do my oldies feel that they have to subject me to water torture just because I get a bit smelly. Active small bears get smelly, that's the way things are, so learn to live with it. Water is meant for drinking, swimming in, fishing in, travelling over in boats and watching when it makes waves and waterfalls. Maybe one day my oldies will accept this law of nature. Until then I will just have to try hiding whenever they mention the B word.

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A Fine Hibernation Hole


Every bear needs a batch of places where he can hole up and hibernate when the weather starts to head towards winter. I have lots of places hidden around our house. Trouble is that Mum keeps finding them and "tidying them up". I reckon that she would find it hard to do much with this one, even a mother has her limits. I found this great hollow log on Norfolk Island. It is just the right size for a bear-house. The only thing you have to watch is the trio of spikes above the entry, but they help keep the big animals and people out. It even has a great big anchor outside to belt dangerous critters with, or to tie things like Santa's reindeer to when they come visiting. And, best of all, it is high on a hill and up off the ground so there is no way them nasty crabs can sneak up on sleeping small bears.

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It's That Time Again


I just found out that it's that time of year again. Maybe it's because the oldies have put up the artificial tree with the little lights on it. Maybe it's because the friends that I only see for a short time at the end of the year have appeared again. Anyhow, the signs are unmistakable. It's almost Christmas and Santa's on the way again. Last year I spent lots of sleepless nights parked under the tree waiting to see Santa but he snuck in when I dozed off for a bit. This year I am not worrying. Mum says he will come anyway, so I am leaving the job of checking the aerodynamics of reindeer to my friends, Cobber the Christmas candle cow, and Rudolph Newrayev the ballet-dancing (whatever he/she/it is). They have some more friends there to help them keep awake, like Chris Moose and Major Nutcracker, so hopefully when I wake up on Christmas morning they can tell me a bit more about the old guy with the whiskers.

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

 

See, Dragons


All the dragons in stories are big, scary monsters (even if some of them turn out to be friendly ones). The only dragons that I've seen are very different, not scary at all. Here are two of them. The yellow one is a leafy sea dragon and the orange one is a weedy sea dragon. These are small critters, about my size, that are related to seahorses and live in the ocean around southern Australia. The oldies have tried for ages to spot some while they are snorkelling (the oldies that is, sea dragons don't need snorkels) but no success so far. The trouble (or excuse) is that the critters live in sea-grass and seaweed areas and are almost perfectly camouflaged. These ones are in Melbourne Aquarium, the best place to see them if you aren't allowed to get wet. I wonder if they have any troubles with crabs?

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Dragging My Way Up a Dak


You know, people just don't consider small bears when they design aircraft. This Dakota is in the South Australian Aviation Museum and the door was open, so obviously I was meant to climb in and see if I could fly it out of there. The only trouble is the pitch of the entry steps. It was a real struggle getting up them and by the time I had, Mum noticed I was missing and collared me. So I still don't know what it looks like in the cockpit of the greatest passenger/cargo aircraft ever built, and haven't had a chance to try my hands at the controls.

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Big Ben and Other Bits


Here's another photo from my Oldies' Big Trip. They took this one while they were riding the London Eye (without the benefit of a small bear to point out interesting things for them). Dad says it is the scene that really says "London" to him because it shows so many famous London places. You can see the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, some of Whitehall and Big Ben. I like Big Ben best, because there was a movie bear called that. According to Dad the most interesting thing is the river, because the bit to the left of the bridge is where Sir Alan Cobham landed his DH.50 at the end of his England-Australia-and-return flight in 1926. Dad sure likes aviation history. Mum liked the ride.

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Friday, December 07, 2007

 

My Very Own Quilt


My Unka Patrick is a man of many talents. While I was staying with him he made a special quilt just for me. You can see it is just the right size for a small bear to use as a play mat on cold tables and floors. It is also just right to curl up in an snooze when weariness hits. I watched him doing things with bits of coloured fabric, but never guessed that they could make something like this, and I never thought it would be for me. And guess what; the pattern on the quilt is called "bear paw".

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Down Among the Dunes


No doubt about these oldies of mine, they sure do some interesting and slightly crazy things. This is one of the things they did on their big overseas trip. They went zooming across the big, red sand dunes in Sharjah. You can see how big the dunes are by the Landcruiser on the left of the photo. The dunes are so red because the sand is full of iron oxides. To get up the big dunes the driver had to really belt along. That meant that at the top of the dunes the Landcruiser was sometimes completely airborne. Mum was scared and excited both at the same time and yelled a lot, but didn't like the bump when they came down again because it hurt her sore back. Dad just sat tight and said nothing. At the other side of the dunes they stopped at a camel farm, had dinner with Bedouins and saw a really gorgeous belly dancer. The only thing missing was a small bear. Next big trip they had better get me diplomatic immunity so I can go and keep an eye on them.

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