Scrummy Scottish Food!

Glasgow usually has the edge on scrummy unhealthy food, but an Edinburgh bar (The Fiddler's Elbow, in Picardy Place) recently proved itself to be the champion of "coronary on a plate" food, with Braveheart Butter Bombs - a dish of deep-fried butter balls served with an Irn Bru ice cream.

Despite his good results from the hospital, Paul will not be allowed to sample this delicious-sounding dessert, but we bears are going to ask the nice Lady from Stirling to send some to us for Christmas.  Tony and Kitty don't want any - Tony is on a strict diet as he is training for the Olympic games, and Kitty is at bursting point in his bid to grow the thickest fur coat in feline history! 

Ok, Mrs Nice Lady, can you send 5 portions of the Braveheart Butter Bombs to us for Christmas, and please find out how we get on the volunteer tasting programme!  Oops, I'm drooling over the keyboard just thinking of those butter bombs!  I need some NOW!

The Cresta Run, Kilts, Tony and snow!

The Nice Lady in Stirling says they still have lots of snow, with the driveway to their house being nicknamed The Cresta Run because it is so narrow, slippery with ice and difficult to traverse!  Tony the Chimp is visiting to practise for the Russian Winter Olympics in 2014, but sadly he has had to hang up his kilt for the moment -  he says Scots men are very brave wearing a skirt in such cold weather, but he was scared his tail and chimp-bits would freeze and fall off in the snow!  So, he is currently wearing warmer clothes and improving his snow-boarding skills on the Cresta Run!

Look after him well, Nice Lady in Stirling, and feed him lots of bananas! 

Come back soon, Mr Chimp - we miss you!

Laundered money!

Doh - Paul managed to wash his wallet along with his clothes, so he now has some "laundered" money!  At least it's clean money, but the notes are a little crinkled - he should take a leaf out the Nice Lady from Stirling's book and iron the notes!  Yup, the Nice Lady, many moons ago, managed to wash a large amount of money in the washing machine, so having rescued it all, she proceeded to dry it in the oven and then iron the notes to make them look new!  By the time she had finished, the notes looked like she had just printed them in the basement :-)  Mind you, this is the woman who dropped her library book in the bath, so dried the book in the oven and then ironed the pages to avoid getting a row from the librarian!  We like you Nice Lady from Stirling - you're our kinda gal - a bit kooky but lots of fun!

Hamish's great idea

I have had a great idea - we will take the nice lady and Carlos to the racing at Cowdenbeath! The nice lady will get to drool over the pretty young drivers and Carlos will see that his attempts at white knuckle rides are tame in comparison with the real professionals!

Ok nice lady and Carlos, prepare yourselves for an outing that you will NEVER forget - the adrenaline, the smells, the noise and the Scotch pies! BLISS!

Oh no!

We have just discovered from Stoxnet that Knockhill stadium in Fife has banned all stock cars as of now (they cause too much damage to the tarmac, apparently), so Cowdenbeath is running both days of the Scottish Weekend in June 2008. But Cowdenbeath stadium has been sold to Asda for redevelopment, so 2008 is the last year the F1 Stock Cars will be racing there. We are devastated! We love the racewall at Cowdenbeath and the kitty litter (gravel pits) at Knockhill!

So we are going to the final Scottish Weekend at Cowdenbeath in June 2008 and then we are having a Scottish holiday with the nice lady and Carlos. That will give us a chance to check out the nice lady's fur coat to make sure it isn't made of teddy fur, and if we miss the adrenaline rush of the racing we can always go out in the car with Carlos for one of his white knuckle rides round Scotland :-)

Fur Coat

Bev was talking to the nice lady from Stirling a few nights ago, and she revealed that she had bought herself a grey fur coat! She did stress that it was made from fun-fur, so no teddy or bear was harmed in the making of the coat. I must admit that I am a bit suspicious because the fur is the same colour as mine, but perhaps she wants to look like me, so I should be flattered!

We like you lots, nice lady, but we will be very grumpy if we find out that your coat is made from teddy fur! If we spot a tail or ears protruding from your coat, you will be in BIG trouble!

Ok Carlos, send us a photograph of the nice lady in her new coat so that we can examine it.

Get well soon, nice lady in Stirling!

The nice lady in Stirling has had to go into hospital to have an eye operation - Bev said she had cataracts, but we can't understand why she would have waterfalls in her eye. However, we are sure the nice doctor will sort her out!

Anyway, she is now wearing an eyepatch and hopefully getting better. Get well soon, nice lady in Stirling, and don't frighten any of the neighbours with your pirate impersonations!

Carlos and the nice lady in London

Carlos and the nice lady from Stirling were in London yesterday to celebrate the nice lady's birthday! So, Bev and Paul headed off for London by train (a bit of an adventure for Paul, who never uses public transport) and met Bev's mum and dad at Sloane Square. They all went for lunch and had a natter in the afternoon before heading off for a lovely Italian meal in the evening. You'll notice that they didn't take us bears with them, so we missed out on the yummy grub, unfortunately :-( Why didn't you take us with you? You know we love Italian food - especially Bruno, who is Italian and has thumbs. But the rest of us love pasta too, even if we struggle to eat it with our paws (no opposable thumbs, just like Eddie Bear)! That's the reason we dribble our food down our t-shirts. Hmm, not sure what excuse Carlos, Paul and Bev have, mind you - despite having opposable thumbs, they still manage to dribble their food down their t-shirts! On the other hand, you'd never catch the nice lady from Stirling dribbling HER food down her clothes - she's obviously got the hang of using those thumbs!

Customer Satisfaction Feedback for Whistle Stop Tours

Our humans received a card from Carlos and the nice lady in Stirling thanking Whistle-Stop Tours for their recent "tour" of Mallorca. They thanked the driver for his good driving and consideration in providing adequate "comfort breaks", and they thanked the navigator for guiding them to so many places and providing interesting details on the local places of interest as they whizzed past them. Perhaps this is a new career for the humans - taking oldies on tours of different countries, herding them into cafes for cups of tea and comfort breaks, and providing in-coach entertainment in the form of Bev's iPod. And all the bears could come too - what a brilliant idea!

Holiday in Mallorca, Part 1

Apologies for the delay in writing the holiday blog, but I had to get a detailed account of what happened from Little Ted and Magnus, then I had to get the photographs from the cameras, and I then had to tend to Bev who had a stinking cold. Since Bev is getting better and Paul is en route to Blackpool, I now have a few spare minutes to write up my blog!
Ok, Bev, Paul, the nice lady from Stirling, and Carlos all had a very pleasant time in sunny Mallorca with Little Ted and Magnus, while Bill, Phoebe and I partied for the entire fortnight with pole-dancing bearesses and a chippenbear (he was for Phoebe). So, a good time was had by all, though we bears are still suffering from too much partying.
Magnus and Little Ted had fun playing on the beach, seeing all the sights, chasing the Spanish bearesses and generally having a good time, though Little Ted was somewhat anxious in case Paul left him behind again, but Bev made sure both bears arrived home safely - Paul only managed to leave a fleece in Mallorca (silly boy!). Yet again, his lost property was picked up by the nice lady from Stirling - she's a star!
Anyway, what did Magnus and Little Ted see when they were in sunny Mallorca? Well, they went to Palma, they visited caves, they went to a glass-blowing factory, they explored most of the coastline and they drove up scary roads in the mountains.
For a more detailed description and photographs of their great Spanish adventure, read on.....