Hooray, hooray, it’s a holi-holi-day!

Well our blog spot header details don’t say ‘incorporating the travels of George & Yorkie’ for nothing. Yes, you’ve guessed it, we are about to leave for another adventure which will allow us to do further research for the Friendly Planet Guide, while at the same time having a well earned holiday which promises to be great fun. It’s just a shame that other members of Bears Unlimited will have to stay behind in the interests of keeping the wheels of commerce turning.

We’re not going to say too much about our big adventure now, but all being well, and internet access permitting, you will be hearing more from us your roving correspondents soon.

Lots of love from a very excited George & Yorkie xxx

The Dumpling Speaks

Hi everyone, Dorset Dumpling here. I was slightly worried after out last blog entry, that you might have been a little confused about who I am and what I looked like. I’m guessing that not many people will have had a face-to-face encounter with a Dorset Dumpling. I therefore ordered a close up picture of myself so you can see me properly and get to know me a bit better.


As you will see I am quite hairy, some might call me shaggy and I have two beady bright eyes, good for instantly sizing people up, a button nose and pointy yellow ears, good for picking up gossip. I was acquired, strangely enough from Dorset, more years ago than I care to remember – it’s rude to ask a dumpling his age anyway. I’m not sure that we Dumplings proved a particularly popular sales line as I’ve never met another of my own kind and when I did some Internet research to try and trace some relatives the only thing that came up in the search engine was recipes for puddings and I assure you I would not make good eating, so no-one should try it. After all I do have a label on my underside saying ‘Dorset Dumplings, these creatures bite’. I haven’t bitten anyone yet but it is a good idea to keep on the right side of me. There is no need to feel sorry for me being devoid of the companionship of other Dumplings as everyone at Bears Unlimited has made me so welcome I am well and truly one of the family.

Bye for now.

Lots of love, DD xxx

Restoration Project

Has it been as wet for you today as it has been for us? It’s been a thoroughly miserable afternoon in Norfolk and we’ve not strayed very far. However, a few days ago the weather was better, and two of us, me (Jock) and Dorset Dumpling took a trip over to the marshes at Blakeney. We had a special reason for going there, in addition to the fact that we are partial to taking tea at the Blakeney Hotel. We were on the look out for a suitable new boat restoration project for Bears Unlimited. The marshes and creeks around Blakeney are a good place for us to search as there are a lot of wrecks stranded on the mudflats. All of us bears find it very sad to see what was once a fine boat with lots of character, abandoned and left to rot on a mudflat. We can’t save them all, but as we are all boating loving bears, we like to have a restoration project on the go at any time and we usually do them up so well, we can sell the restored boat for a high price and make a handsome profit. Isn’t it great to have a hobby that can make you money?


We’re not too sure about the boat in the photograph so thought we should ask our readers whether they think we’re up to this challenge or whether the boat is too far gone to be helped? If we do go for it, we will need to call in the waterways specialists at the Midlands branch to provide assistance. Let us know what you think.

By the way, I, Jock, am the cream coloured bear (not really a very practical colour really for clambering round slimy and muddy boats) and at my feet is, not a football or a cushion, but my friend Dorset Dumpling. Unfortunately he doesn’t show up too well as it was a bit overcast when we took the picture. However, Dorset Dumpling is from Dorset and he is a Dumpling, what more is there to say? It just goes to prove, as we have said previously, that Bears Unlimited is a very inclusive company!

Love from us all, especially Jock and DD xxx

The Hospital Inspectors

We reported in our last blog entry that the Midlands branch had a V.I.P. in hospital in Coventry. Fortunately the operation went well and, today, members of the Norfolk branch were able to travel over for a hospital visit and to see how their Midlands colleagues were bearing up.

Now, we’d like you to know that for members of Bears Unlimited, hospital visiting involves much more than handing over a few grapes and wishing the sick relative well. It is essential to carry out some quality control work to ensure our loved one is receiving the finest care. Today was no exception. Our first serious job, after testing the various remote controls and the bathroom facilities, was to examine the x-rays to check up on what the consultant had done. This test was passed very satisfactorily, although we did check all 4 x-rays just to be certain.


The next job was to test the purity of the oxygen supply and comfort and fit of the mask. Confection volunteered for this job before going on to test the gliding facilities of the drip stand. He reported that the oxygen had a pleasant flavour of meadow flowers and made him feel much invigorated.


After finally testing the evening meal of lamb medallions and strawberry tart, we were all able to leave for a overnight stopover at the Midlands office, well satisfied that quality care is being given and our loved one is in safe hands. Hopefully he’ll be home tomorrow and we’ll all give three cheers when he comes through the door.

Love from us all, especially Confection, Chelmer and Noel, the chief hospital inspectors xxx

Accidents will Happen (but not too often we hope)

Our apologies for being ‘off air’ for a couple of days but yet more problems with the Norfolk fleet are to blame. This time bearmobile 2’s windscreen wipers gave up the ghost. Unfortunately our chief mechanic Blue Bear, who you will recall fixed the last problem, was unavailable as he was off pursuing his hobby of driving steam trains. This meant our minder had to take over the mechanic’s role. Everything started off well and we were on course to get everything fixed before the rain forecast for today started, but then disaster struck.

Although our minder has excellent car mending skills, he lacks some of Blue Bear’s experience and as a result there was an accident with a moving part of the windscreen wiper assembly, the result being a deep cut to a finger and the loss of lots of blood. There was only one thing for it, a trip to the big city and the A & E department at the Norfolk & Norwich hospital. They treated us very well and we were all very relieved bears when we found out our minder could be made better with steri strips and super glue (yes really!)

We didn’t get back home until nearly 11.00 p.m. and we weren’t really in a blogging and Wherry drinking mood so we went to bed with a cup of tea. As we haven’t got a photo to go with today’s entry we thought we would just take the opportunity to post a photo that we like. The challenge is to name us all (we’ve all appeared previously on this blog).


Talking about hospitals, the Midlands branch have a minder in hospital recovering from an operation today and we’d all like to wish him a speedy recovery and hope he’s back home soon.

Lots of love from us all xxx

We're no Pussy Cats!

Our regular readers will know that we bears have had a busy summer. As a result we had to record a lot of T.V. programmes and are only now getting round to watching them. One of the series that really captured our bear imaginations was the Tribe series with Bruce Parry. Did you see it? We have two favourite episodes: one was the one when he ran along the backs of the cattle, which we plan to try ourselves one day when we can find a suitable field of cattle. The other was the one we all watched last night, where Bruce went out at night in a canoe to hunt crocodiles. We thought it would have been incredibly hard to keep your balance in a dug-out canoe like that but really exciting when the orange eyes were glimpsed and then having to calculate the distance between them to gauge how big the croc and whether or not to try and take him on.

To find out for ourselves just how hard it would be, the Norfolk gang decided that we, Rocco and Yorkie, should have a go. We were chosen, as although small, we are completely fearless bears. The smell of roast pork cooking in the kitchen, and the fact that Bruce had said that croc meat was quite like pork, inspired us to have a go this evening.

We launched our canoe on the kitchen lake and while Rocco poled, I (Yorkie) stood at the front with my harpoon ready. It was certainly very wobbly! We were expecting to have to try and spear a pretend crocodile so imagine the shock and the frisson of fear we felt, when we saw a croc swimming up towards us for real.


Our normally tamed, wild bear instincts kicked in and we experienced a huge adrenalin rush. The croc opened his jaws wide ready to swallow us up (it was a fearsome sight like looking into the jaws of hell)
but having got ourselves into this situation we realised it was up to us to get ourselves out. I summoned up every ounce of energy and gave a huge roar (which brought the rest of the bears running) and hurled my harpoon into the jaws of this deadly foe. I realised that if I didn’t get him, he would get me. Fortunately on this occasion my aim was deadly and true. After a brief thrashing the croc was still, never to move again. The smell of his flesh roasting is a truly a delightful smell to behold and we will all dine well tonight (who said anything about our minders roast pork dinner – sheer coincidence!). We think we have earned ourselves an extra pint of Wherry for our bravery, don’t you?



Lots of love from the all action heroes, Rocco & Yorkie xxx

Who's who at Ipswich

Yesterday’s blog entry focussed, quite rightly, on Apple the Fiesta, the Ipswich branch’s new pride and joy. As the Ipswich branch members have not featured before, we thought our readers deserved a closer look at these fine bears and the chance to find out a bit more about them.


In this photo you can see them a bit more clearly – it’s not all of them by the way, just a representative sample. If some of them look a bit familiar then it’s probably because you’ve seen their brothers in the Norfolk and Midlands branches.

We introduced Fred, the branch President yesterday. He enjoys travelling, and as well as being Apple’s chief chauffeur, he also pilots the company helicopter along with Panda the cat. Old Pandy (a real Panda this time, not a cat), appearing on the left of the picture, is Bears Unlimited’s oldest member. He is over 60 but wearing incredibly well and says he has no plans to retire yet as working for Bears Unlimited is such great fun. In front of Pandy are Billy and Bobby the beddy bears who are preparing for a busy winter season working the night shift. The twins are Poofle and Gem brothers of Confection of the Midlands branch. Poofle and Confection were parted from Gem early in their life and it was a very happy and emotional reunion when they re-found their brother Gem at a car boot sale in Ipswich.

You may have spotted a few non-bears appearing in this (and other pictures). In this instance you have Harry the bush baby and White Doggy. Bears Unlimited wish it to be known that their company is an inclusive company and non-bears, so long as they are (or have once been) furry are members of equal standing.

You’ll meet the other members in the entries to come so we’ll save their profiles for later.

Au revoir xxx

Meet the Proud ‘Parents’

You may recall us reporting problems with the Norfolk fleet of company vehicles last week. We’re pleased to advise that the Ipswich branch vehicles are in much better shape. In fact, there has been great excitement at the Ipswich branch recently as they have just taken delivery of a brand spanking new bearmobile, which they have rather appropriately named ‘Apple’, you’ll see why in the picture below, which shows Ipswich branch staff proudly showing off their new acquisition.


President of the branch, Fred – he’s the distinguished one with the ear patches, standing tall at the back - has given us a quote. He says of Apple, “she’s so green and juicy she lives up to her name and is a fine company car for the Ipswich branch’’. She is straightaway proving her worth as, prior to delivery, she successfully passed a special orientation programme, designed by Fred, which teaches new cars the key routes around the area in which they live.

It is particularly appropriate that the Ipswich branch has such a fine fleet vehicle as they undertake a lot of important account management work for Bears Unlimited and are frequently out on the road, visiting customers. Apple will certainly help to create the right corporate impression of quality and reliability combined with just the right blend of style and sophistication.

You’ve got to admit she is a fine looking vehicle and she’ll turn lot of heads when she is out and about. If you see her on the road give the boys a wave and Apple a toot and you’ll be guaranteed a friendly response.

Love from all at Bears Unlimited, especially the Ipswich branch members xxx

Hail the conkering hero....

Well it’s that time of the year again, and the Bears Unlimited conker championships are now under way. This is always an important event in the company calendar and the business of choosing the right conker and undergoing training is taken quite seriously. Will it be the big conker that wins or the small compact one, the shiny one or the dull, slightly wrinkled, but hard dried one? Will soaking in vinegar or baking in the oven ensure the winning conker? Only time will tell but there is a lot of fun and anticipation in guessing and placing bets. Although we pretend we’re not, we’re all secretly quite competitive, although we never forget that the main aim of the contest is to have fun.



Here you see the Norfolk branch preliminary rounds getting under way. At the same time similar knock-out rounds are taking place in the Suffolk and Midlands branches. It is always a happy occasion when we all get together for the finals and much Wherry beer is consumed.

Any guesses who might be victorious from these three heats?

Love from the conkering bears xxx

Harvest Festival

We finished off the Flower Festival with our Harvest Festival when we sung lots of different harvest hymns including one song from Zimbabwe. It was great fun with people trying to eat malteezers with a six foot long spoons. Aren’t humans silly sometimes, we bears find it far easier to use our paws! Especially when there is Chocolate involved. But we wanted to play a full part so some of us put together a box of harvest produce, and here we are getting it ready to take.


At the end we a collection for the church’s harvest charity “Harvest Help” which helps people in Africa to grow enough food and earn a living for their families and raised over £120.

Following the harvest festival we retired to the Church hall where we had a scrummy harvest tea, of crisps, scones, pizza and quiche, unfortunately we couldn’t see any Nutella available, but all came home with full tummies.

Love from all the gang
xxxxx

Jam or Cream First?

One of the good things about flower festivals is that there is frequently an opportunity for a cream tea after looking at all the flower displays. The Hindolveston flower festival was no exception. I, Chelmer Bear, went over yesterday afternoon to check on the arrangement my colleagues had put together and to see how it compared to the other displays. I was very impressed and proud of what Bears Unlimited had done.

I decided to celebrate our success with a delicious cream tea, with raspberry jam, my favourite. Here is a picture of me about to tuck in.


The flower festival events continued into the evening with a concert given by Fakenham Choral Society. Quite a few members of Bears Unlimited were in the audience (we’d been enticed over by the promise of cheese and wine in the interval). We were thrilled when early in the second half the choir sang ‘The Teddy Bear’s picnic’. Obviously they’d heard that there would be a group of bears in the audience. We also were able to give Trigger from Only Fools & Horses a wave, as he was there with his wife who was reading her poems. We all thought they were rather good.

Love from us all xxx

Flower Power

We, at the Norfolk branch of Bears Unlimited, achieved a first this week. We did a flower arrangement for the Hindolveston flower festival. Although none of us have any experience of flower arranging, we thought it important to participate and show support for this event, especially as we pride ourselves on being community minded bears.

Actually putting the arrangement together was a bit traumatic and some of us now have a few more grey hairs in our fur. One of our main problems was that we didn’t know you had to tape the oasis into the dish and a result our developing arrangement kept trying to stand on its head. We eventually solved the problem with some cable ties and socket spanners hung on a skewer to act as a counterweight. We had no idea flower arranging required such ingenuity and engineering skills and we now have even more respect for flower arrangers everywhere!

Anyway, we’re sure you are eager to see our creation so here it is in situ. We are secretly quite proud of it and very relieved that it doesn’t look too out of place. Any Greenbelters may recognise this year’s Greenbelt logo alongside. We adapted the ‘one festival, many faces’ tag line to fit the Hindolveston theme of ‘community’.


Love from all the gang xxx

Meet the Midlands Branch

Today is a special day in the life of our blog spot as our colleagues from the Midlands branch are making their first entry. Pictured checking out the blog spot in their Rugby office, are Rupert (no prizes for guessing which one he is), Raj, the dark bear with some Indian ancestry, and Confection, their smaller, but just as industrious, colleague.

In case you’re wondering how a bear got to be called Confection, this dates back to the time he was bought in the Lake District. He appeared on the receipt as a sale of ‘confection’, which caused some amusement, but the name stuck. This might explain why Confection has such a sweet tooth. Raj of course is very partial to a hot and spicy curry.
The Midlands branch has special responsibility for some of our inland waterways projects as they are so well placed to oversee this work. They own a fleet of canal boats which are available for hire and also undertake boat restoration work. The members are currently working on entries for the Midlands area for the Friendly planet guide so we will almost certainly be hearing more from them in the days to come. We should also mention that we have heard that the Ipswich branch have been checking out some of their local tourist spots for the guide so we hope to have lots of exciting entries coming in shortly.

This all goes to show that bears are a force to be reckoned with in the world of commerce.

Love from all at the Midlands branch xxx

Nutella goes well with.....?

Some of the guys felt a bit hungry earlier, so a few of us went on a raiding party to the kitchen to see what we could find. Imagine our surprise when we found a fantastic wheat sheaf shaped loaf on the kitchen table. Naughty Bear has introduced us to the delights of Nutella, so what else did we think of to have with the loaf, but a jar of this nutty nectar. We thought it was such a splendid loaf that we should take a picture of it before we demolished it.


It was a good thing we paused to have this picture taken as during the photographing delay our minders came in and explained that the loaf was not for eating but it was the harvest loaf from one of our village churches and it was en-route to another harvest festival next weekend. Phew, a potentially embarrassing moment has been averted! Would we have lived it down if we had eaten the harvest loaf?

Problems with the Norfolk Fleet!

Yesterday we reported a bearmobile breakdown. That was in relation to bearmobile no. 1, which had a new starter motor today. Bearmobile no. 2 in the Bears Unlimited fleet, has also been in the wars, and has had a poorly eye (cracked headlight) for a week or so. Since Bears Unlimited has a skilled mechanic in the form of Blue Bear, we didn’t need to go to a garage to get the eye fixed. We ordered the part and it arrived this afternoon. Blue Bear wasted no time in getting on with the job.


Here you see him competently sizing up the job in hand. Even though he had to take the front bumper off he wasn’t at all phased.


The job has now been finished and bright lights have been seen outside from two headlights. He is now coming inside to enjoy a well-earned pint of Wherry with his friends. Where would we be without such talent in our midst?

Shopping we will go

After something of a holiday weekend last weekend, we were caught up in more mundane things this weekend. Yesterday we took the bearmobile into the big city (Norwich). Before we headed for the shops we needed to check on the balances of Bears Unlimited bank accounts and to withdraw some of our wages. Here you see Oscar, the Company Accountant, organising this for us.Our favourite type of shopping is food shopping, probably because we all like food so much. We particularly like riding shopping trolleys and checkout conveyor belts. Here we are riding through with the week’s shopping, taking care not to get scanned and charged for.

We did wonder how we would get home after we returned to the multi-storey car park where we’d left the bearmobile only to find it wouldn’t start. Fortunately there were a lot of paws available to help push and we managed a bump start which got us home.

Love Oscar and Rocco xxx