Monday, October 27, 2008

 

Circus, Sensational


On Saturday night we went to the circus. Not just any circus, but the fantastic Cirque du Soleil. This circus doesn't have any animals in it, just the most amazing people. We had dinner at the National Library before the show, but I couldn't eat much because I could see the big tent just across the road and had the Oldies moving there as soon as the gates opened. We got into our seats fairly early. I even got the Oldies through the shopping area without too much fuss, the only things that they bought were some masks and special pencils (did I ever mention that Mum has this thing about stationery?). So there I was, all hyped up, wearing my mask, climbing around the frames of the seats, watching people come into the tent and find their seat, when this bright light hit me square in the eyes. The guys that drive the lights evidently pick out interesting things to put in the spotlight for a while for people to see. I guess that I looked interesting. The show was called Dralion. It had some very peculiar critters in it as well as the people. Dad says that they were just people in critter suits, but I don't see how that would make dragons that could balance three at a time on a big rubber ball. I am still practicing to see if I can do some of the things I saw. I can bounce around as well as the guys on the trampoline, but I just can't get the knack of scratching my ears with my heels while balancing on one hand and stretching my legs over my back. When I can "borrow" some of Mum's special scarves I will learn to fly around in them and flick and roll myself up and down them like the pretty lady and the guy full of muscles did. When I grow up I might even run away and join the circus.

To see bigger pictures, just click on them.

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We Nearly Made It


No matter how hard we try Scruffy and I can never manage to go swimming. You see, we have this mother who believes that small bears get all soggy and yucky if they get wet, so she grabs us every time we head for the water. This water is at Manava Cay in Fiji. It is some of the clearest water we have ever seen. The day Captain Cook took us there was really hot, all the people on the cruise were swimming and, most importantly, the Oldies were nowhere in sight. Scruff and I made a break for the beach. No luck. Our eagle-eyed Mum had us by the legs just as we were about to make our first splash. And to add insult to injury, she took a photo to remind us just how close we came.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

 

Nessie, Nearly


Here's another photo from the Oldies' trip to the UK. This time they say that they came close to photographing the Loch Ness Monster. Well, the ruined castle is certainly Urquhart castle and the water is Loch Ness but I don't believe them that the ripples in the water are the wake of Nessie. They try to tell me that Nessie was there but swam away fast when she saw the camera pointing at her. After all, lots of people say the same sort of thing happened to them when they tried to take photos of her. I suspect that the ripples have a lot to do with the motorboat that passed in front of the castle and shows up on some photos the Oldies took just before this one. Just as well I wasn't with them that day as Dad would probably have tried to see if small bears make good Nessie bait.

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Melbourne Again


Last weekend we went down to Melbourne again. Just a quick trip to see "Wicked", which is a musical play about some OZ witches. I always thought that ozwiches were big birds like emus, but Mum has set me straight on that. We all liked the show very much, even Dad. He says that it really put the mockers on one of the worst stories ever inflicted on kids. I guess that he doesn't like "The Wizard of Oz" very much. Anyway, do go see "Wicked" if you get the chance. I really liked the view from our room. It was just across the river from the tallest building in Melbourne, that's the sharp-looking one one the left in the little picture. Last time were in Melbourne we went up to the observation deck in that building and Mum got me my football there (check the "Melbourne" entries in the blog to read about that visit). The really great thing about our room was that it was near some helipads and helicopters kept flying past outside my window. You can see one of them inside the little green box that Dad drew on the photo; they didn't really have little boxes around them. The helipads are in a little park called Batman Park. I waited and watched but Batman didn't show, even though almost everybody visits Melbourne sometime.

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Monday, October 13, 2008

 

A Wet Return


The weather in Fiji isn't always fine and sunny. We had some really wild days during our last cruise there, with rain and rough seas. Now you would think that wet and wavy days would keep passengers penned up on the ship, wouldn't you? Not the sort of people that go with my friend Captain Cook. They are in it for every shore trip planned and don't care too much about getting wet and tossed around. Just look at this lot coming back to the ship in one of the "beach buggies". The waves are smacking into the front of the boat and spray is going right over the lot of them. Some people in the front of the boat have their umbrellas up in the vain hope that this will keep them a bit drier. Of course the Oldies went on that shore trip and came back absolutely soaked. Scruffy and I stayed on the ship, warm and dry, and watched the fun.

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It's Pretty Crowded In There


Here's another picture of my day at Floriade 08. While the Oldies were busy inspecting the flower beds I sometimes snuck away and had a close-up look at small bear level. It's amazing what you can see in a flower bed, apart from the flowers of course. I saw all sorts of bugs and beetles in this one, plus bees, worms, ants and millipedes. The big flowers like the tulips and irises are a bit hard for me to see into, but I managed to watch the bees and ants doing their thing pollinating the pansies and snowdrops. One of the problems is that the stems are so close together that I sometimes get lost. The other big problem is that Mum always scolds me for getting dirty.

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Bathurst 1000. Beaut!!!


Guess what I did for most of yesterday? I watched the top Australian motor race. OK, F1 fans might claim that their Melbourne event is the best and the Indy mob will no doubt say their Gold Coast Indy is tops, but most of Australia watches Bathurst. I guess the reason is that the cars that rip around Mt Panorama are more like the ones that you can drive on the road. Not much like them though as the motors are really souped up and you would get into real trouble if you zoomed up the highway at 300 kph. Anyhow, I like all sorts of car races, and boat and aeroplane ones as well. Yesterday I was barracking for my favourite driver, Craig Lowndes, and he won (with great help from his co-driver, Jamie Whincup)! That shows what can happen when you have a small bear backing you, sitting in his very own sports car and carrying a model of the nicest car that Craig ever drove. I do a lot better when I barrack for car drivers than I do with cricket (when I am at the game) and AFL (when I am with Unka Mark).

Remember, you can see bigger pictures if you click on the one here, and check my archives for earlier stuff.

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Wednesday, October 08, 2008

 

Red Point Rocks


The coast near Boyd's Tower is very pretty. The headland the tower is on is called Red Point and I guess you can see why. The top picture is on the bay side of the point. The sea is usually not so rough on this side as it is on the other side. There is not as much colour in the rocks either. On the ocean side the colours are really spectacular and you see how the rock layers (Dad says they are called strata) have been all twisted and folded. The red colour is because of the iron compounds in the rocks. Way back in time this area was volcanic and the red stuff shows where lava used to flow. The volcanoes are dead now, leaving behind some pretty spectacular scenery. The National Parks crew have made a nice boardwalk and lookouts so that you can see it safely, although you shouldn't ever sit on the rail like I am doing. If you are ever visiting Eden, take the time to drive out to Red Point and see the old tower and the much older rocks.

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My Very Own Certificate


After four years of helping Mum with her hieroglyph homework I have finally been recognized. After all, Mum got her certificate for completing the two semester course two years ago. She would never have done it without my help. For the past year I have been helping her with translating all of the stuff she photographed in Egypt, thousands of photos with gazillions of hieroglyphs in them. The message finally got through that I was at least as good at this as Mum was when she finished the course, so she produced my very own certificate for me. It is good to have your skills recognized.

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Thursday, October 02, 2008

 

In my Courtyard


Gardens are great places to rest and relax. Mum has turned our courtyard into a garden where the plants are all in pots. This is so she can move them around and change the look of the garden whenever she gets tired of the way it looks. That happens too often for Dad, who does the lifting and moving. Anyhow, I like the look of it no matter how it is arranged, specially when the flowers are blooming. One of the coolest places on a warm day is sitting in a flower pot where the soil is cool and damp, with a bunch of flowers overhead making shade. I learned about this from a neighbourhood cat, who adopted our courtyard for a while. The drawback is that Mum doesn't like me to get damp and dirty so I have to pick the pot very carefully. There are some interesting things mixed in among the flowerpots. You can see a wizard reading a book to a small dragon off to the left of my resting pot. And there is a family of small bears sitting in the shade of another pot full of orange flowers. They seem to be rather shy and don't say much. Everyone should have a small garden or at least a few pots of pretty flowers.

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Acres of Flowers


It's Spring. Days are getting warmer even here in Canberra. Flowers are blooming everywhere and magpies are swooping unsuspecting walkers and cyclists. Despite the maggies, I like spring. One of the things I like is called Floriade. This is a flower festival where the park in central Canberra is turned into a mass of flower beds full of all sorts of colourful flowers. Mostly there are flowers that grow from bulbs, like tulips, iris, daffodils, jonquils and so forth with pansies and things mixed in for ground colour. This year Floriade has an Australian movie theme where each section is based on a movie. This bed of yellow and white flowers celebrates that essential movie food, popcorn. I tried to get to the big popcorn container in the centre of the bed. I figured it would surely be full of huge popcorn, just right for a hungry small bear. But I got lost among the plants, it's like a jungle in there, and Dad caught me and hauled me back. He says that the popcorn is really plastic but I would like to know for sure.

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