Friends Re-united

What a wonderful Christmas we've had. The snowed cleared sufficiently for members of the other B.U. branches to arrive safely in Norfolk - some on Christmas Eve, others on Christmas Day - and once we were all together the fun really started.

Of course we remembered exactly whose birth we were celebrating, when we all crowded into the pews for church services, at midnight on Christmas Eve, and again on Christmas morning.


As you can see, there was no shortage of presents round the tree: bears simply love giving and receiving presents, and as we all know each other so well, we know exactly what to buy. We can't understand why humans find it so hard to find just the right present.

In fact, our present mountain was so big, we managed to lose (temporarily!) smaller bears, George and Yorkie in the present mound. We also had to have several instalments of present opening, breaking off for such important things as eating our Christmas dinner. Chef Oakley had once again excelled himself by cooking, Tina, our locally farmed, succulent Norfolk black turkey, to perfection, and there were plenty of sprouts to go round, another bear favourite.

On Boxing Day the sun shone and we went out for our traditional ramble, and we ate lots more and played lots of games. The Suffolk Branch had brought their W.I.I. we gave us hours of fun.

But far and away, the most important thing was that we were all able to be together. Bears never fall out at Christmas, and love nothing better than to be in each other's company (preferably with a beer and a big box of chocolate biscuits!).


You're probably used to seeing double, sometimes triple, when the various branches get together. Here you see the phenomenon yet again, with this picture of some of the gang, re-united with brothers and sisters from other branches.

We hope all our readers had an equally good time, and we wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Lots of Reasons to Celebrate!

We're returning (post wise) from the heat of Egypt to a snowy and frozen Norfolk to share 2 happy events with you.

The first is the news that this is our 500th post! Who'd have thought, when we tentatively published our first post some 3 years ago, that our blog would survive long enough to reach 500 posts. Not only is it still going, but we feel it still has a lot to offer, and we still enjoy writing it - so long may it continue. We will be getting the festive season off to a jolly start with a celebratory party tonight.

We're also looking forward to the arrival of 3 Bears Unlimited branches over the next couple of days and celebrating Christmas en masse. Our tree went up last weekend and Randolph has been diligently keeping him well watered with the cold contents of his tummy.


When the snow arrived in Norfolk last week, we began to feel really Christmassy. We have been out in the snow most days making snow bears and snow angels - this is the reason we're all flat on our backs in the next photo, not because we've had a drop too much!


During this cold snap we've also been remembering to keep the bird feeders topped up with food, as it is a very difficult time for our feathered friends, and we want them to have a happy, not a hungry, Christmas.


Marmaduke is a special friend of our local birds as he is out every day to check that supplies don't run too low. We hope you are doing the same.

We hope all our readers have a very happy and peaceful Christmas and will raise a glass, not only to celebrate Christmas, but also our 500th post.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Come Fly a Kite

As well as helping out on the operations desk, we also helped look after the equipment. Sometimes we were getting it out, to be used by eager punters, sometimes we were putting it away. You will find us in our next picture if you look hard.


Everything was really well looked after which we fully appreciated: after all, equipment that lasts, because it is well cared for, ultimately means lower prices for eager holiday makers like us, and that's definitely a good thing.

Being small bears, we did find the windsurfer boards a bit heavy to manoeuvre, but we had no problems with the sails, and we soon became experts in selecting the right sail to match a person's physique, experience and the prevailing conditions.


As a thank you for all our hard work, we were given some free kite surfing lessons. Potentially this could be a dangerous sport - the exhilarating ones often are - so it was important to learn how to fly a kite safely on land first.

Here I, George, am, demonstrating how it's done on the simulator.


Even the simulator was exciting enough to make my fur stand on end. The real thing - well it was completely mind, and fur, blowing.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Flagging and Tagging

We really liked all the Mark Warner staff, they were simply great. We enjoyed talking to them and getting the benefit of their extensive knowledge of sailing and windsurfing. They were a mine of useful information and great fun.

We also enjoyed helping out with some of the jobs they do. Our favourite was manning the operations desk.


This was where you go to take out a boat, a canoe or some windsurfing kit. Mark Warner operates a flag and tag system and we quickly got familiar with it. The flag tells you the strength of the wind and the type of experience needed for the conditions ...


... this blue flag meant windy conditions suitable for experienced sailors. We were happier when the green flag was flying, as this meant conditions suitable for beginners.

As people came to us for boats, we gave them a wristband and recorded their name and room number, and the equipment they were taking, on the whiteboard. As wristbands were returned, we cleared the details. It was a great way of getting to know people and we were pleased to be able to help out.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

A Life On The Ocean Wave

Once we had mastered the basics of windsurfing - which took us a whole week - it was time to turn our attention to sailing. This was a bit more scary as you can't just drop your sail and jump off your board if you get into difficulties, as you can with windsurfing.

We therefore paid lots of attention to the instruction given on the simulators ...


... as we wanted to get our tacks and gybes to be flowing seamlessly before we took to the water. The laser Pico was a lovely small boat, perfect for bears, but being particularly small bears, it took two of us to handle the boat: one to take the tiller and the other the main sheet. They perform beautifully, and look good on the water, as our minder who was learning with us kindly demonstrates.


It was important to avoid the crashes that can easily happen when a group of learners take to the same stretch of water and the wind gets up. We therefore all made sure we had learnt the rules of the road ...


There was an awful lot to take in but we had a good time learning. We even enjoyed our capsize drills: once deliberately and once accidentally!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Windsurfing is Magic

As many of our readers will know, we do have some water sports expertise within Bears Unlimited, but it doesn't lie with me and Yorkie. It is Eddie who is the chief boating bear, but unfortunately he was too busy running his seal boat to join us on this holiday.

Yorkie and I had to learn to sail and windsurf from scratch. Fortunately this was no problem for the excellent Mark Warner staff, and they had just the right courses to help us to learn enough to get out on the water and have some fun.


In our first week we tackled windsurfing. There were several simulators which allowed us to practise our moves on dry land. This one was a bit big for us, although look closely and you will see us trying to master it. We used this one to practise our gybes and the ones with sails attached we used for other manouevres.

It wasn't long, mere minutes in fact, before we were out on the Red Sea, joing the band of other novice windsurfers.


It might look dead calm but there was more than enough wind to make us feel we were going very fast. We weren't too worried about falling off as the sea was nice and shallow and lovely and warm. Strangely enough, because we weren't bothered about falling off, we actually managed to stay on the board most of the time.

Eddie would have been proud of us.

Lots of Love George & Yorkie xxx

As Active As You Want to Be

As we strolled along the beach for the first time we began to get quite excited when we saw the sign we were looking for ...


... this was because we were on a Mark Warner holiday where you can do lots of lovely watersports for free. It is all optional and we thoroughly approved of their slogan of 'As active as you want to be'. There were a few times when we were happy just to relax in the sun - here we are being really chilled out bears -


- but most of the time we were on, or in, the water, trying out all the different gear.

We'll let you see us in action next time.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx