Did Gilbert make the Balls?!

Tensions have been running high in the Norfolk Bear Cave today. We've spent the afternoon glued to the television set watching the concluding matches of the 6 nations rugby tournament and cheering on our respective teams. We're sure you'll forgive us for breaking into our Irish adventures to talk about the rugby, but we could hardly talk about it after today.

As we're quite a cosmopolitan household, we have Bears Unlimited members representing 4 of the 6 nations of the competition. It makes for rather noisy spectating and some interesting alliances.

Poor Scotty Dog was so disappointed with Scotland's performance in the first match, that he went off to be on his own and we haven't seen him since. We'll tempt him out with a glass of Wherry shortly.


The England v Ireland match was eagerly awaited. Patrick made sure he got a front row seat to support his team. As French bear Gilbert knows what it is like to be in a minority of one, he cheered on Ireland as well, and between them them made nearly as much noise as the large English element of the Norfolk branch. In the end, as it was such as good match, everyone agreed that the final score didn't really matter and Patrick took the Irish defeat with good grace.


When it came to France's turn to play, Gilbert began to get quite nervous. He really did want his team to win, not only the match, but also the tournament. He proudly displayed his French rugby rosette and tried not to look too worried. As we have no Welsh B.U. members and Gilbert is very popular, he had the whole of Bears Unlimited rooting for his team, not just Patrick.

Sadly, Gilbert's dream was not to be realised but he was the first to admit his team was completely outplayed. With a typical Gallic shrug he turned to the one thing that he knows his country never fails to excel at - red wine.


What better way to drown your sorrows and enjoy the company of your friends.

Lots of love, all at the Norfolk branch xxx

Bears in Relaxing Mode

After our very enjoyable visit to the Bushmills Inn, followed by an excellent Irish stew back at the ranch (Irish due to the makers, rather than the ingredients) we weren't in too much of a hurry to get up the next morning.

When we did surface we took a stroll down the road to the harbour to buy a paper and what we saw there gave Boating Bear, Eddie, a real treat.


Yes, we saw a lifeboat just setting out (between ourselves we think it was actually going out to try and rescue the local lifeboat which had run aground off nearby Rathlin Island, while trying to rescue another boat - they don't like to talk about it too much locally though). Looking at Eddie's animated face we could see he would have loved to go out with them, but he had turned up just a minute or two too late.

We did point out to Eddie that if he had gone with them, he would have missed the marvellous Ulster fry we were going back to the house to enjoy.

The fry was great, but after it we needed some exercise so off we went for a walk. Mid afternoon the rain drove us back home but we weren't disappointed as we were able to settle down in front of the T.V. and enjoy the Rugby.


As neither England or Ireland were playing, there was no inter-bear rivalry and we simply enjoyed the game for what it was. For us, it beats football any day.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Eddie & Patrick xxx