Birgit's Birthday Bash

Our badminton friends Birgit and Wade are very bear friendly and always ensure we have a great time. Do you remember the wonderful things we got up to last year when we went to stay with them at Camp Griem-Leada? The highlight was the glider flight that I (Chelmer) enjoyed with my friend Rocco.

Recently Birgit had a special birthday (us bears are too discrete to mention which one). And so she had lots of people round, including us, for a garden party with musical entertainment provided by the guests.


The first musical act set a very high standard. Birgit performed with her guitar group of 4 guitarist friends. We sat there listening entraced, as you can see from our picture.

Lots more musical people performed after them and the acts ranged from witty words being sung to traditional tunes to a group from Germany singing in German.

I'm sure you're all eager to know what Rocco and I did for our musical offering. Well, the clue should be that Wade is a drumming friend of mine, as you may recall from previous posts.

It was therefore only natural that we joined Wade for a spot of drumming.


First we provided an accompaniment to a male / female duo and then we accompanied Wade's brother who was a cracking guitar player.


We were so inspired by all this musical talent, that we thought that we really should start learning to play the guitar as there is one available for members of the Norfolk branch to use.

And in case you wondering, the party food and drink was pretty fantastic too. The only dampener on the day was the rain which was never far away. Fortunately we did have a collection of gazebos to shelter under and we refused to be driven inside.

Lots of love Chelmer & Rocco xxx

My visit to Frankfurt by Rocco

Hi gang!
 
I thought I'd better write today as Chelmer seems incapable. He's been on the internet all day, I think checking flights to Frankfurt. He's been really badly smitten by Teddy De Baer, who we met at the weekend. She's about 7 years older than us but even I have to admit that she wears her age well. She was quite good company too. She ate and drank a bit too much for my liking and I'm sure she is harbouring some dark secret. She was very moody at times - a fact which Chelmer was oblivious to. You should have seen him. He carried her bag all day, found seats for her, bought her nearly a pound of Haribos - and she was lapping it all up. I tell you if they'd been my only company I'd have screamed!

As it was, Katrin, who we were staying with, and who is Birgit's sister, was absolutely wonderful. She was charming, funny, very good looking for a non-bear, and although at times somewhat embarrassed about being seen with us two prize specimen of the bear world, you could almost forget that she was human. Oh yes, and she was an excellent cook!

I can recommend the skyscraper festival to all of you. We enjoyed lots of rides, spectacular architecture, great weather, jaw dropping stunts and brilliant music. The atmosphere was very peaceful and Germans seem a very inclusive nation. They even had a bear band! This liberal attitude and lack of prejudice really surprised me very pleasantly.


Ok. I'm just off to do the washing up as Wade has gone to Tai Chi and Birgit is flaked out on the sofa, looking brain dead.
 
Speak to you soon,
Rocco

Chelmer & Rocco's Fifth Day at Camp Griem-Leada

Hello,

Today we spent learning a few important German phrases, as we'll be spending the weekend in Frankfurt. We've been told that we will be meeting Teddy de Baer, so numero uno in our repertoire is 'drei Wherry Bier bitte'. We've also mastered 'wo sind die Schrebergaerten?' and 'zum Flughafen bitte'. Speak to you lot on Sunday!

Lots of love,
Chelmer and Rocco

Chelmer & Rocco's Fourth Day at Camp Griem-Leada

Hi you guys,

It was sooooo nice to see you at Badminton tonight. You really made the atmosphere special! Thanks!! Didn't realise just how much we'd missed you.
So, you already know what we did, but here's the evidence. As you can see, we took our umpiring seriously. We had to. The players were getting so uppety at times......We thought Jeremy was particularly gazelle like and his tiger surfaced on several occasions. Roarrrrrrrrr.

By the way, we forgot to tell you: we might not be coming home again. It's so lovely here - and there are far too many where you are. What do you think?

Chelmer and Rocco

P.S. Badminton is a doddle. As you can see it took us hardly five minutes to get the hang of it.


P.P.S. A very fine looking crowd you are


P.P.P.S. We're not asleep, we're concentrating on the lines!

Chelmer & Rocco's Third Day at Camp Griem-Leada

Hi Guys,

Wow, what a day! We set off at 7 o'clock after a bowl of rice crispies and some fennel tea (not very butch) and after an hour's ride in a rickety, old Nissan Micra, we thought that was it. That flying was easy. However, we soon found out, there is a lot more to it, as you will see.

Wade said Wednesdays is the retired gents day, but he reliably informed us that he is neither retired nor a gentleman! He never did explain how come he manages to fly on a Wednesday. A mystery.

Miss you lots, tally ho and chocs away,

Here is the record of our day!



The crew! Rachel's bacon sarnies were delicious and just what we needed for breakfast.


We had to carry out a d.i. (daily inspection). Here we are checking out the instruments



The parachute was too big for me

....and Rocco

We also had to check out the weight restrictions. Despite Wade being in there as well (of course), we didn't go over the limit.

We had to practice using the controls, synchronising rudder peddals and stick together. I needed help with the rudders! But it was ok.

Rocco was even more challenged in this area! On account of his height, not lack of brain. He WAS taking it all in.

We tried different seating positions with safety always uppermost in our minds.

We had to check the winch parachutes, although we weren't winching. This was part of our duties for the day.



Another part of our duties was to log the aircraft in and out, as well as use the radio to contact various aircraft. Roger, reading you 5!

Our glider

Before we flew we needed to check that the d.i. had been done and carried out in accordance with BGA regulations. It had - after all we'd done it!



Our seating positions next to the pilot. Wade, although being a very patient instructor, fiddled with the camera while we were in the air which almost led to a spin. He then decided it would be safer to leave us in our pockets. However, he was most obliging in banking the aircraft, so we could see the sky, and the other way we could see the ground. Scary!


After a hard day's gliding we imbibed the favourite club brew. There was no Wherry available, so we had a pint of Flowers instead, served by the very lovely Eddie.


Wade introduced us to the Chairman of Norfolk Gliding Club, Grum Ashworth, who was very proud to meet such fine upstanding members of the gliding community and shook our hands.

He presented us with our certificate!

Love

Chelmer and Rocco xxxxx

Chelmer & Rocco's First Day at Camp Griem-Leada

Hi guys,

We've had a brilliant day! On the way to the allotment we met Hunneybun, the rabbit (what else). Isn't she cute? She's also pregnant, so she wasn't interested in us........Anyway, when we got to the allotment we a) did some weeding, b) planted some sweetcorn and c) shovelled some s*** (don't tell Ma and Pa we said that - it's manure to them). It was raining a bit and we got really muddy - it was great. Hope Auntie Birgit is going to get us clean again.......
And your day? I suppose you were playing scrabble again.

The rest of our pictures from today follow.


Lots of love,
Chelmer and Rocco

Chelmer & Rocco's BIG Adventure

As the reports of Eddie's canal boating holiday draw to an end, the latest excitement in the Bears Unlimited community is Chelmer and Rocco's spur of the moment holiday departure. 'Carpe Diem' is one of the Bears Unlimited mottos and so when the chance of a holiday came their way, Chelmer & Rocco had their bags packed before you could say Bear Robinson.

Since Chelmer is a bit of an adventure bear and adrenalin junkie, no ordinary holiday sunbathing by a pool would do for him. He and Rocco have left with Chelmer's drumming buddy, Wade and Rocco's guitar teacher, Birigit, for a multi-activity week. With a combination like that an interesting week is guaranteed and we do happen to know that they left with their Bearports (bear passports).

They've been gone less than 24 hours but their excitement is so great that we bears have already heard from them twice. They've promised to send us daily email postcards and we'll publish the first one shortly, but first a poem from Chelmer we received earlier. We never knew he had such talent as a poet, but we are all familiar with his droll sense of humour which is very evident in the following:

Hello Mudder, hello Fudder

Here we are at Camp Griem-Leada
and it's very entertaining
they say we'll have some fun when it stops raining.

Take us home, oh Mudder, Fadder
Take us home, we hate Griem-Leada
Don't leave us out on their allotment
where we will be all too despondent

No, I don't want to scare ya
but Rocco might have malaria
I remember your great dinnas
here we get nothing but spinach

Take us home, we promise we will not make a noise
or mess the house with other bears
oh please don't make us stay
we've been here one whole day!

Dearest Fudder, darling Mudder
how's our precious littles brudda
Let us come home, if you miss us
I would even let you kiss us.

Wait a minute, it's stopped raining
bears are planting, bears are gliding
playing badders, yes that's better,
Mudder, Fudder, kindly disregard this letter.

What a wind up merchant Chelmer is!!

Lots of love the Bears Unlimited gang xxx

Shopping the Swedish Way

On our way home from our Derbyshire adventures we were treated to one of our favourite shopping experiences: a trip to the Ikea store at Nottingham.

East Anglian readers will straight away appreciate why this is such a treat; it is because there are no Ikea stores in East Anglia (good job there are other things to recommend it).

We like Ikea as it is a very bear friendly store, even so there are certain features that we particularly like. We think it is great that they provide lots of computers to allow us catch up with our blog entries after being away for a few days.


We also like the bright and cheerful design of the bedrooms which makes us feel at home and we always appreciate the chance to make new friends, including in this picture our new friend Croc.


We'd also like to applaud Ikea, not only for the lovely Swedish meatballs served up in their restaurant, but also some of their wacky and innovative products. Our favourite from this recent trip were the inflatable animal cushions which we demonstrate to you in our final picture for today.


Our visit nearly ended in disaster, however, when Rocco nearly came a'cropper in the store. You'll have to read our next entry for the dramatic details!

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Chelmer & Rocco xxx

Beer, Bears and Song

After a day spent enjoying the great outdoors it is always pleasant to enjoy a cosy night in, and us bears like to make our own entertainment as much as we can. When you are away from home, as we were in our Derbyshire cottage, there are often new activities to try out.

Before we could properly relax, we had to master the old fashioned range in the kitchen. It gave us a taste of what life was like before all the labour saving devices we now take for granted. There was a role for each of us. I, George, kept the grate supplied with wood; Dessie and Black Doggy checked the hob was hot enough for our kettle and that the soot box wasn't too full; Chelmer and Rocco prepared the iron; Ungi was in charge of toast making and Yorkie, we're not sure about - he appears to be supervising.


After tea Ungi revealed previously hidden talents as a pianist. He has a great repertoire and ran us through some classics, some songs from the shows and finally some rousing drinking songs - yes we did have the beer to go with it, but Wherry sadly wasn't one of the local brews. We were a fair distance from home though.


Lots of love George, Ungi and co xxx