Saturday, May 31, 2008

 

Trouble by Tiffany's


Sometimes it seems like it is impossible to keep out of trouble. Yesterday I was poking around in the bedroom while the Oldies were out shopping and I found this drawer full of interesting sparkly, shiny things on rings and chains. Well, I mean, what would any small person do. Of course I had to try them all on. I really liked this one because it looks a bit like the things that soldiers wear in the movies. I didn't think Mum would mind if I borrowed it for a while. After all, it doesn't have any of those sparkly or coloured stones in it, and it isn't made out of gold. Besides, it is just the right size for a small bear's neck. Wrong again. It turns out that it is a prized Tiffany's silver thingy, her favourite bracelet. It reminds her of her favouritest-ever movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's". I knew about the movie because she has about five copies of it, but didn't make the connection with the bling. So I am in trouble again and on washing-up duty for a week. Serve her right if I fall into the sink and get all wet.

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

 

Beautiful and Dangerous


This is one of the prettiest fish that I have ever seen, also one of the most dangerous. Fortunately, this one is behind glass at Canberra Aquarium. It is a Butterfly Cod, also known as Lionfish, Fire Cod and Zebra Fish. They live in shallow, warm water, usually hiding in crevices in the rocks and corals. Their coloured stripes camouflage them very well, so they just lurk in wait for smaller fish to come close. Then they quickly spread out their long fins to surround the poor little fish and suck it into their mouth. It all happens very fast. The spines in the fins are very dangerous. They are really sharp and venomous, so if you are stung by them you will be in agony for hours. The Oldies see lots of these guys when they snorkel on the Reef, Lord Howe and Fiji. The first time Dad saw one he was pulling himself down to see under a ledge and his hands went either side of a butterfly cod. Both Dad and the fish got a big fright. Actually Dad in his snorkelling gear is a sight to scare anything, sort of a cross between an elephant seal and Batman.

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A Classic Cathedral


Here's the front of the big cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. You can see the back of it in the picture three posts below. This is one of the cathedrals that the Oldies rave about when they are telling friends about their big (bearless) trip. Notre Dame was one of the very first Gothic cathedrals to be built. Construction started way back in 1163, but not completed until 1345. It was one of the first buildings to use external flying buttresses, the prop-things you can see in the picture of the back. These allowed the builders to make the walls higher and thinner without them falling down. During the French Revolution a lot of the fittings and art was destroyed or stolen. Today, it is very impressive inside (so they tell me). There are lots of statues and stained glass and a huge pipe organ. The only problems visitors have is that thousands of people visit it every day, so you get shoved around a lot. There are also lots of pick-pockets around. I keep telling the Oldies that a guard-bear in the handbag is essential; they really do HAVE to take me next time.

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Friday, May 16, 2008

 

My Colossal Concorde


Dad and I have just finished building one of the biggest models we have done so far. It is also one of the most frustrating, the fit of parts was not great and small bits kept being broken off and eaten by the carpet monsters, but it turned out OK in the end. This is the BAe/Aerospatiale Concorde. The real aircraft was one of the world's two types of supersonic commercial transport aeroplanes (the Russian Tu-144 was the other one). Concorde first flew in 1969 and was withdrawn from service in 2003. It was a fantastic aircraft, a real marvel of technology. Unfortunately, it was also extremely costly to operate and British Airways and Air France were the only airlines to use them. Concorde is a huge aeroplane. Our model is 1/72 scale and as you can see, it takes up over half of our dining table. To give you an idea of the size of the aircraft I photographed the model with a model Mustang in the same scale. The insert is a photo of me sitting on a real Mustang at the Richmond ADF airshow. If you have some spare time you can calculate how big a Mustang and a Concorde are in SBU (Small Bear Unit = the height of a Bart). I would love to have flown in a Concorde, even in my usual spot in the overhead locker, but the Oldies never had the chance to do so because Concordes did not operate out of Australia.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

 

Catseye Bay; No Cats in Sight


This is Catseye Bay on Hamilton Island. Scruffy and I are sitting on a railing at the top of One Tree Hill, a place where you can see most of the bits of the island that you can get to easily. The tide is in, so the bay looks like a good place for a swim. When the tide is out the bay is empty and the exposed sand and mudflats are alive with crabs. That is a good reason for us to be high up above the bay. We stayed in one of the big hotels you can see in the picture. It had a glass elevator on the outside of it. Mum liked riding in it, Dad just went pale and hugged the back wall. I really liked Hamilton Island. It is a place where small bears can hoon around in golf buggies, and it is quite safe provided you watch out for piratical cockatoos.

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Sailing Along the Seine


Here's another great photo from the Oldies' big trip. During their stay in Paris they went for a trip along the river at night. The river is spelt "Seine" but it sounds like "Sane" when you say it. This photo is looking towards the back of Notre Dame cathedral on the Isle de la Cite. You can see the way the river splits to go around the island and one of the dozens of bridges that cross the river. The bridges are all low, so the boats that go along the Seine have to be low to fit under them. On the left of the picture you can see the top of the Eiffel Tower and the beacon light rotating on the top of it. The only thing missing when this picture was taken was a certain small bear. That had better not happen again.

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Saturday, May 10, 2008

 

Mum's Mootorch


No doubt about it, there are some strange critters imported into this house. This one really takes the cake (except that cows don't normally eat cake). She appeared on Friday afternoon. When I first saw her I thought she was just a funny-looking cow with an outsize tail. What's the natural reaction of small bears to something like this? That's right, they sneak up and pull the tail to see why it's so different. What a surprise! When you grab the tail of this cow she opens her mouth, moos and shines a light out of her mouth. She is a torch! You can probably guess who bought her into our house. Just think; who has this thing about cows and gadgets and would find a mooing, cow-shaped torch totally irresistible? Yep, this is Mum's latest cow-thing, something that will spread confusion and mirth at future astronomy nights. She is also my latest friend.

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Thursday, May 08, 2008

 

Stuck!!


How embarrassing! This thing looked like it was put there just for small bears to climb on, but it turned out to be a trap. It is actually meant to be a sculpture thingy, full of meaning and artistic merit. It is in the main parking area at the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier. You can read more about the lake in some of my earlier postings. Anyhow, while the oldies and Scruffy were reading the signs at the lookout, I climbed up the sculpture. It has this interesting hole in the centre that goes right through the rock. I thought it would be great to climb through the hole and up the other side. Half-way through I got stuck. "No problems", I think, "I will just turn around and go back out". There were problems. I got well and truly wedged in the hole. The oldies and Scruff were no real help, they were too busy laughing their heads off. Dad got me unstuck by pushing my posterior with a thin log. He seemed to think that was funny. Some days not even a small bear can win.

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An Animated Pine Cone


Here's a lizard that looks like he has been put together using three pine cones. He is a shingleback lizard, also known as a stumpy or sleepy lizard. Shinglebacks are one of the biggest types of skinks and are found all over southern and western Australia, except for the really cold or wet parts. They eat flowers, berries, leaves, snails and insects and are really crazy about orange marmalade, except that they don't often find that by themselves. Shinglebacks don't move very fast, even when they are in a hurry. Their legs are even stumpier than mine. Their colour varies a lot, depending on how hot it is where they live. In the hot areas they are a dark yellow-orange and browny-black. In the cold areas they are almost completely black. I have seen these guys on lots of my trips, but this one lives at Sydney Wildlife World. He gets lots of hugs from visitors, except for the scaredy-cats that think lizards are yucky. I think all lizards are great.

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