The Big 250!

Doesn't time pass quickly when you're having fun blogging. In fact our 250th post has crept up on us so quickly, that we haven't had time to arrange a party and take some photos of the celebrations.

Rest assured though that we will be having a party and it will be soon. Chef Oakley is currently studying his favourite cakes recipe book and the champagne is chilling in the fridge (the Wherry is ready already).

We just love a party as it lifts the spirits no end - especially when it is cold and wet outside as it is now.

It really does seem no time at all since we were having our party to celebrate 100 posts. We've just been checking the Bears Unlimited photographic archives and discovered it was in February 2007 so well short of a year ago.


We enjoyed that occasion so much that we thought we'd remind you of it (especially as we're short of a photo of the party we haven't yet had). We reckon though that as 250 is two and a half times bigger than 100, our cake will need to be two and a half times bigger than the last one. We can't wait!

Here's to the next 250 posts. Hopefully we'll continue to have lots of exciting news and pictures to share with you.

Thanks for reading.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

On With the Party

And what a party it was! I can tell you it was a huge success, without abandoning my natural modesty, as I, Bris, only played a small role. The success was all thanks to my lovely friend Yvonne and her willing band of helpers.

My role might have been small but the gateaux I cut up certainly weren't!


As you can see from my first picture, I really had to put my back into the task of cutting the gateaux as they were still well frozen (we weren't joking when we said we got there early).

Henry and Chelmer came in to admire the food table once we had loaded it up.


What you can't see, however, are the tonnes (or so it seemed) of steaming jacket potatoes and the vats of very spicy chilli to be served with them. It was hard to wait until the end of the service.

Although Henry and Chelmer hadn't helped with the food they had done a great job with helping decorate the hall and the decorations really helped create a party atmosphere.


We all thought the 75th birthday balloons were really cool. Even so they were surpassed by the fantastic entries in the children's painting competition (they had to paint the church). They were so good that it was really hard for the Bishop to choose a winner.

Talking of the Bishop again, he was kept very busy. Not only did he have to judge the paintings he had to cut the birthday cake which was in the shape of the letters 75.


We were going to help Bishop James with the cutting, but when we heard that two ladies were present, whose father had built the Church, it was of course only right that they should help with cutting the cake. We had a chat with the ladies and learnt lots about what the Church was like when they were girls. It was one of the best history lessons we've had for a while.

We will certainly remember this birthday party for a long time to come. True we had some lovely food and enjoyed the bubbles from the Bucks Fizz going up our nose, but the thing that really made it, was the great atmosphere and all the chat and laughter. We like spending time at Hindolveston as there is a great community spirit.

Lots of love, Bris, Henry, Chelmer and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Preparing for a Party

We've been busy bears today helping to prepare for a party. Before we tell you what we've been up to, in true, Where's Bear? style, we want to ask if you can find us in our picture?


In case it's too hard we'll make it easier for you! Mind you, you might still want to enlarge the picture? Don't you think the colours are lovely and autumnal?


As you can see we've been helping to erect a gazebo in front of the Hindolveston village church. This is the clue to the reason for the party: it is to celebrate this Church's 75th birthday. It's actually surprisingly young for a Norfolk church and its nearest neighbour is over 900 years old. The reason why it is so young, is because it was only built when the old church fell down, on a Sunday when there should have been a service taking place. Thankfully the church was empty when the roof caved in, as the Vicar had forgotten to tell his parishioners about the service. Talk about a close shave!


Anyway old or not, 75 years is a good excuse for a party. The Bishop of Lynn and lots of other local people are coming to a special service tomorrow, followed by a lunch which can confidently predict (having seen the preparations) will be rather good.

We'll all be there armed with our camera, so will be able to give you a full report of this happy community occasion.

In the meantime we thought you'd like to see a clearer picture of some of us hard at work. Good job Henry and I have a head for heights.

Lots of love Chelmer and Henry xxx

A Banquet Fit for Bears

All that brain work solving the murder made us very hungry. We felt in need of some fish as they say it is very good brain food, don't they?

We were in luck as the excellent buffet that was provided at the party included a whole salmon. We were in bear heaven as we loaded our plates. After eating our fill we looked further round the table and were particularly struck by some terrific fruit carvings that the caterer had done. There was a banana squid and an apple swan.

We loved these so much we felt they merited a photo for the Bears Unlimited album. Apologies though that we didn't get the side profile of the swan for you to see him in all his glory, but we did get a good picture of Yorkie!


They were far too good to eat which quite suited us as it gave us a good excuse not to be healthy and to tuck into the Banoffee pie instead. It was definitely 'naughty but nice'.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie & the gang xxx

Murder at the Manor

Recently we were party to a murder! Yes there really is no limit to the situations we bears find ourselves in.

The truth is that we attended a Murder Mystery evening. It was great fun. Lord Badrubbish, who was apparently a friend of ours (in the story) got shot and we saw the body with the shot gun lying close by. We had about 16 different people to question and, shock horror, we were also suspects ourselves.

There was so much information to glean and analyse that our heads were spinning. We were shocked also at some of the naughty things we discovered people got up to and all the secrets they had to hide. We even discovered our minders doing some partner swapping (fortunately they explained later they were just acting).

Eventually time was called and we all had to say who we thought the murderer was. We had our suspicions about Bishop Crook as he was suspiciously nice when we talked to him and we were convinced he was covering something up. Imagine our surprise when we found out we had correctly identified the murderer and were the only ones at the party to do so.


We thought we were very brave to have our picture taken with a murderer don't you?

Lots of love the Bears Unlimited super sleuth team xxx

Party Time!

Today is a very special day in the life of our blog as we are publishing our 100th posting. Such an auspicious occasion called for a celebration, so earlier chef Oakley and his assistants got busy in the kichen baking a clebration cake.


N.B. the recipe book isn't standing up on it's own, Raj is behind it reading out the all important instructions, but due to his dark fur and the fact he had forgotten his glasses, you can't see too much of him!

What a delicious chocolate cake they made. Nutella was an important ingredient of course. Such a special cake deserves a photo of it's own. Well done Oakley & team.


We were pleased to be able to share this special occasion with members of the Midlands branch, Rajah, Rupert & Confection who came up specially. For once we decided to forgo our usual favourite tipple of a glass of Wherry and celebrate in style with some champagne. We hope you like the official photograph. Members of the Suffolk branch were of course with us in spirit, and we drank a toast to them.


We look forward to the next 100 blogs, hope you do too.

Love from all at Bears Unlimited xxx