Be Prepared!

Chief mechanic and engineer Blue Bear here - you don't often hear from me as I do tend to be rather busy, especially at this time of year. When icy and snowy weather arrives, while Chelmer is busy worrying about the birds and local wildlife, my focus is on keeping the fleet of bearmobiles in tip top condition and prepared for hazardous driving conditions.

One important investment the Board of B.U. authorised me to make just over a year ago, was the purchase of a set of winter tyres for one of the bearmobiles. I felt this was a good move to make as we live in rather a rural area, with little public transport, and we do need to keep mobile even when snow and ice appear.

The first year we had the winter tyres, we only had one set of wheels, so had to pay a friend to take off one set of tyres and put on the other. I'd been looking out for a new set of wheels on E-bay and managed to get a set before the time came to take off the summer tyres.

This made it nice and easy to put on the winter tyres when the time came. It was just a case of changing a wheel, but it took me a while as I had to do it four times.

I then had to find somewhere to store the summer wheels and tyres. It's a good job I'm a big strong bear as I had to lug them up to the garage roof to store them on the beams.

I had as good a workout that day, as any of my friends who pump iron at the gym.

Last week I also made sure all bearmobiles carried shovels, rescue mats (to provide tyre grip), ice scrapers hi-vis jackets, torches, boots, warm clothes, water and Mars bars.

Despite all the snow last week, we managed to keep motoring and stayed safe, so I was quietly pleased with my preparations.

Don't forget to equip your car properly too before you venture out.

Lots of love Blue Bear xxx

House Sitting Can Be Such Fun

Just for a change, it's Blue Bear and Ungi here readers. While Gio, Pedro, George and Yorkie were away with our minders, walking the Camino, we had a very important job to do. We were looking after the house which includes our Bear Cave. As I, Blue Bear, am so big, our minders think I make a very good security guard and it is certainly true that I have a very deep growl, which I can make sound quite threatening, if I want to.

As well as looking after the house, we also did a bit of car sitting for a friend. The car we looked after, and still do from time to time, is a rather special car, especially for such a car enthusiast as me. It is a Austin Healey with a 'B' plate which makes it pretty old - 48 years in fact - many times old than me, and even older than Ungi!


As you can see it is a fantastic red model - what better colour can there be for a classic sports car? And on a nice day we can fold back the roof and go for a spin with the wind ruffling our fur.

As you might expect we turn quite a few heads when we go out in this car, affectionately known to us as 'Vroom'. We'd like to think this is because we cut such fine figures behind the wheel/windscreen, but it probably has as much to do with the fantastic throaty engine roar and the classic good looks of the car.


Being able to drive and look after this magnificent car was seventh heaven for me and I can honestly say I wasn't envious of the Camino walkers. I'd much rather have been behind the wheel of Vroom, which I was.

The current wintry weather and dark evenings means Vroom stays firmly tucked up in his owner's garage. I can't wait for the spring when I'll hopefully be allowed to take him out again. Before then we'll have to find Ungi a better booster seat as the wooden Rioja case he was sitting on to give him a good view, was apparently a bit uncomfortable!

Lots of love, Blue Bear and Ungi.

Not Guilty M'Lud

A spokesbear for Bears Unlimited, when interviewed about the above story which appeared in the national press yesterday, said "this has nothing to do with our organisation or members. All our drivers hold full licences and respect the rules of the road. In fact, our driving prowess is such that there are rumours that one of our members might actually be The Stig.  All we know is, he's called Blue Bear."

What to Buy a Mechanic Bear

Hi Blue Bear here, (just in case you haven’t met me before, I’m not blue because its cold, I’m always blue, which I think is a fantastic colour to be, as does my (also blue) friend Marcus).

As those who know me are aware, I look after the Bears Unlimited fleet of Bearmobiles, and am very keen on trying to reduce the collective Bears Unlimited carbon footprint.

So for Christmas this year, the chaps gave me the perfect gift: something to help the larger of our two Bearmobiles to reduce its carbon foot print, by improving its MPG (or KPL is you are metric). What they gave me was a Broquet® fuel catalyst.


After I got it, I had to inspect it first, and then read carefully all about it, and how to install it in the Bearmobile.


The Broquet® was developed years ago to make fighter aeroplanes run better, and now they are put in cars. Apparently it will produce a cleaner, more efficient engine, and should improve our fuel economy by 7% to 12% and also reduce emissions. Its sounds fantastic, so without further ado, I got my jack out, jacked up the car, and crawled underneath to install it.


The Broquet® has now been installed and hopefully we will soon see the results!

Happy, but green motoring

Lots of love Blue Bear xxx

Two Left Minder Feet

As anyone who has seen Mary Poppins will know, chimney sweeping can be very dirty work. But as we've said in our previous posts, Blue Bear is a very careful and tidy worker. He put dust sheets all over the furniture and then, just to make sure, he taped polythene across the fire place, leaving only a slit for his brush and rods.


From his supervisor's vantage point on the mantelpiece, Chelmer looked for any gaps where any soot might escape!

All these precautions were sucessful, and after the sweeping was completed all we we were left with was a pile of soot in the bottom of the fireplace.


Monkey then leapt into action with his dustpan and brush and quickly filled a bucket with all the soot. All that was left was to tidy everything away and re-light the fire, but then DISASTER struck, a clumsy minder tripped over the bucket and the soot went everywhere!


Chelmer swiftly dived into action wielding the vacuum cleaner hose and, in a short time, you wouldn't have known that the accident had ever taken place.


We wasted no time clearing away the equipment and re-lighting the fire before settling down will a well-earned reward, a glass of Wherry.

Love Chelmer, Blue Bear and Monkey xxx

Chim Chiminey, Chim Chim Cher-ee

After the transformation of the Bear Cave, we really got bitten by the change bug and thought about spring cleaning and other improvements we could make.

First, our fireplace. Through the long cold winter we have been keeping warm by having a roaring log fire each night. The only problem is that after a long winter of daily log fires, the time comes when you need to sweep the chimney.

Having got into spring cleaning mood, we set about organising for the chimney to be swept.

Remember meeting the very agile Monkey last year (July) when he shinned up the trees we were felling? Well, because Monkey is such a good climber, he immediately volunteered to emulate Tom from the Water Babies, and go up the chimney with a dustpan and brush and sweep out all the soot.


However, the older members of the Norfolk Branch felt this was a bit risky and that he might get stuck.

At this point, Chelmer, with an eye to an action adventure, quickly suggested that he, instead of Monkey, should be the one to take on the task, as he is considerably smaller. The older bears worried yet again, this time that Chelmer might fall and injure himself.

Fortunately wiser heads prevailed and the company Health & Safety policy was wheeled out. After a board meeting, it was decided that Blue Bear should take charge and have Monkey and Chelmer assist.

Blue Bear, being a true professional, began by assembling all his tools, (a large pile of dust sheets, his brushes and a vacuum cleaner) and, with his two assistants primed for action, started the job.


As each brush disappeared up the chimney, Monkey would pass over another.


Chelmer's job was to be outside with a pair of binoculars and a Walkie talkie, prepared to shout 'STOP!' as soon as the brush came out of the chimney pot. He had to do this before the brush hit the top of the cowl that stops pigeons trying to BBQ themselves by coming down the chimney when the fire is buring.

With such teamwork and Blue Bears's leadership, the job was swiftly, cleanly and efficiently completed.

Welcome to Your New Home

You really should see Blue Bear in action. Not only is he an ace mechanic, when it comes to car deals he is a skilled negotiator. I went with him to buy our new BM2 but there really wasn't anything for me to do. I just sat back, smiled sweetly at my favourite sales girl, Laura, and let Blue Bear secure the best deal he could.

And so, it wasn't long before we were the proud owners of a new bearmobile 2, a very smart Corsa in air blue. It went through the garage in record time and 3 days later we all went along to collect our new acquisition. As it was Laura's first sale, having only been at the dealership a week, we insisted she be in a photo with us.


As you can see, Blue bear had been in touch with the B.V.L.A. to transfer the plate from our sadly missed Golf so we could have a permanent reminder of her. Our new BM2 is honoured to be wearing the same plate, but a little nervous of following in such great wheels.


Once we got home Blue Bear put the new BM2 through her paces and gave her a thorough check. He pronounced himself well satisfied and enjoyed sitting in her and admiring the view round the cockpit. We had a job to prise him out from the driver's seat. If it hadn't been for the delicious lunch smells wafting from the house we think he'd have stayed there all day.


After lunch he was straight back to work, this time doing a bit of tuning to the Toyota Yaris we've been using as a hire car while we've been without our second vehicle.


For Blue Bear, looking after cars is a real labour of love.

Lots of love Chelmer and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Being 'The Stig'

Chelmer and I were quite pleased that What Car supported our own thoughts, which were that we should be looking out for a Corsa or a Fiesta. We wasted no time in arranging test drives for both types of car, which we needed to do as we've never owned a Corsa, and there weren't many of us around the last time our minder bought a Fiesta (which was 17 years ago).

The Fiesta was good to drive and was a distinct possibilty for our new Bearmobile. However, it was pipped at the post by the new Corsa. Of course this was partly due to the fact that it was the new Corsa model that we test drove, and this model has not been out for long. It drove very well and looked really good, especially in air blue, as you can see.


I did half wonder whether Chelmer was biased towards the Corsa because, being a bit of a ladies bear, he took rather a shine to the attractive young sales lady who took us out. Mind you, this worked in my favour, as while Chelmer kept her talking, I was able to concentrate on the car and how she drove.

Our test drive took place in the dark, so Chelmer and I went back a couple of days later to take a closer look at the car in daylight, and to show her to the rest of the Norfolk Branch and see what they thought.


She certainly passed my intense scrutiny. I looked hard for any signs of wear and tear but I couldn't find any. Although just over 6 months old, she looked just like a new car. The other guys gave the thumbs up, so as soon as we could, we went back to secure the deal.

Keep reading to see how we got on.

Lots of love, Blue Bear, Chelmer and all at the Norfolk Branch xxx

Followed by bad News ...

Unfortunately, when the letter came, it was the worst possible news. BM2 was beyond economic repair. I put on my dark glasses as I didn't want the rest of the guys to see how upset I was. I didn't like to think of BM2 being scrapped purely for economic reasons, so I phoned up the engineer at the repair centre to see if we could get her repaired ourselves.

The engineer assured me he would have loved to have repaired BM2, and they did in fact put her on a machine to see what would happen when they tried to pull out the dent. Unfortunately it didn't come out cleanly and the engineer could see that BM2 quite simply couldn't be put back to her pre-accident condition. Reluctantly, I had to accept that her injuries were just too serious and she wasn't coming back. We are all pleased though, that she will be a fantastic organ donor and will live on through many other cars who will benefit from her quality parts.

I thought the best thing would be to get busy finding a worthy replacement for BM2.


I called in the help of Car Bear Chelmer, who spends a lot of time travelling in Bearmobiles, and together we pored over 'What Car' and surfed the Internet. Chelmer also looked through the cars for sale in the local paper.

We had already decided, that since Bearmobile 1 is now an estate car, and as fuel is now so expensive, the next Bearmobile 2 should be a smaller car. Of course, we were only planning hypothetically when we had had this thought initially. We hadn't expected to be shopping for a new BM2 for a very long time.

Keep reading to see what we decided to look for, and what we found when we started looking.

Lots of love, Blue Bear, Chelmer & the gang xxx

Disaster Strikes

There have been some long faces, and not as much laughter as usual, at the Norfolk Branch over the last couple of weeks. We are all upset at what happened to our much loved Bearmobile 2. While she was innocently and lawfully stationery in the road, waiting to make a right hand turn, someone (we will say no more about them as it wouldn't be printable) drove into BM2 at speed and did some serious damage.

BM2, being the trooper that she is, took all the impact and as a result our minder didn't suffer a single scratch. We were able to drive her home, and, as soon as I could, being the Bears Unlimited Chief Mechanic, I checked her over, to see what could be done.


Considering the force of the impact, at first inspection she didn't actually look too badly damaged. I examined her from every angle and unfortunately saw a few things that caused me some concern.


I realised that the experts needed to be called in. Our insurers sent a recovery vehicle to take her off to a big repair centre on the edge of Norwich. We were pleased that she was able to drive up the ramps under her own steam but we were very sad to see her go. We all desperately hoped we'd see her driving back into our drive before too long.


The initial prognosis did give us some hope. The engineer who inspected her, thought she could be repaired, but as she was a bit of a borderline case he said he would have to call in one of the Insurer's own engineers for a second opinion. We settled down nervously to wait for the verdict.

Lots of love from a rather subdued Blue Bear and friends xxx

Life Savers on the Move

A few days ago we had an interesting visitor who arrived in a very special vehicle which was of particular interest to our Chief Mechanic, Blue Bear. This fine vehicle, a Ford Focus, was a brand new First Responder vehicle which will whisk an amazing band of volunteers off to local medical emergencies. As the area where we live is so rural, it can take a long time for paramedics to arrive, and the nearest hospitals are an hour's drive away, so these First Responders, who quite literally do what the badge says, and turn up and save lives until the paramedics arrive, are absolutely vital.


We all think the First Responders are terrific people. We hope we don't need their services, but we're glad they're there in case we do need them.

We hope that the new vehicle, which will be with whoever is on duty at any time, will be very useful. We certainly hope that by providing visibility it will enable them to get to incidents more quickly. They're not allowed to have blue flashing lights, but the car does have orange flashing lights which were turned on especially for us when we went out to have a look round the car.

After we'd finished posing for this picture, Blue Bear was allowed to go on a test drive. He was very relieved that an emergency call didn't come in while he was out driving.

Lots of love, Eddie, Charlie, Henry, Blue Bear and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Norfolk Branch Report Back In

George & Yorkie are safely back from their latest adventure with a lot of new material for the Friendly Planet guide that they are eager to share with you. However, we, the less frequent travellers of the Norfolk Branch, have persuaded them to hang fire for a couple of days so we can update you on some of the things that we have been up to on home turf. As the end of George & Yorkie's posts about one holiday seems to coincide with the start of the next one, we thought that if we didn't make a concerted effort to get a few words in, there was a danger that you'd be reading about our summer activities in the middle of winter.

As we've enjoyed reading the Suffolk branch's tales of their French adventure so much, we also thought we'd like to give them the opportunity to tell us more, if there is more to tell.

Anyway, back to Norfolk, it has been a busy summer so far and we'd like to share some highlights.


Not long ago the garden was buzzing, literally, with activity. This was because the chain saw gang of Blue Bear and myself (Ungi) were in action. Now, we love trees and we wouldn't want any of our readers to think for a minute that we would cut down a tree without good reason. However, sometimes there comes a time when a tree (or three) have grown too big and sad though it is, they have to go.

In the photo above you see the before 'now you see it' shot. Monkey being a very agile tree climber was giving us a hand to get ropes tied on. Below, you have the 'now you don't' shot.


In total three trees had to come down and it was a whole day's work for a gang of us to chop up the trees into logs. We ended up with quite a large stack of wood as you can see in our next picture. Sadly, being fir, the wood wouldn't have been suitable for our wood burner for several years and as we couldn't store it that long, we had it taken away.


More news on the gardening front from Tommy, the chief gardening bear, is that the vegetable beds are doing well and we have had a particularly bumper crop of broad beans. This is good news as they are one of our favourite vegetables. Below you see Tommy handing over one of his pickings to Chef Bear Oakley. They decided they would pod the beans and freeze them so we could enjoy them over a long period.


As well as producing great vegetables Tommy also fills the garden with lovely flowers. We thought the following was a great example of what his green paws can achieve.


We'll be back soon with more news of our Norfolk summer.

Lots of love Ungi, Blue Bear, Tommy & the rest of the gang xxx