Bernard & Sleepy Hippo's Excellent Hippo Adventure

Volunteering at Bishops' House

2012-02-06T11:29:00.001Z

There is a lovely little museum in Meersbrook Park in Sheffield called Bishops' House. It is kept open by volunteers at the weekend. Sleepy and I decided on Saturday that we would go and open up. We weren't particularly busy over the weekend and it seemed like a useful and public spirited way of passing a cold and cloudy morning. So we nudged the Grand Humans into wakefulness and got them to get up, get dressed and take us into Sheffield and to the museum. We let them come and sit in the house too, for it was a bit chilly outside and it was nice and warm inside. We didn't want them to catch cold


We've arrived at Meersbrook Park. Bishops' House is just over there

I've put the sign up. Hurry up, Bernard. We're open!

Righty oh. I'm coming

I think we should go round and make sure everything's shape and ready for visitors

Be careful on the stairs everyone

Making sure the beautiful windows are clean

Alas - there is work to do. No sleeping for us

Checking that the goose and cat have been fed and watered

The parlour is ready for visitors

The merchandise is all accounted for


We've got sandwiches, hot chocolate and leaflets about forthcoming activities. We're READY!

And despite the fact that it was cold and grey outside, we had lots of visitors. There was a little boy who was doing Bishops' House for a school project. There were visitors from out of town. There were happy, giggly children and interested adults. Some other volunteers came by too, to say hello. And the morning went by really, really quickly.

And very suddenly - it was time to go back to the Grand Humans' house and have lunch. A morning very well spent. We might come and do it again

Heading home for lunch

A weekend partying

2012-02-01T09:35:00.003Z

We've been to a party. A birthday party. All the way down in Warminster which is in Wiltshire.

The party was not too far from the pub we usually stay in, so we put up in The Swan for the weekend.

We went to the party with our Grand Humans and with Grandmother Gwen. Lots of family were there. So was Barb, for it was her brother Greg's birthday. He was 70!

There was lots of food and wine. There were balloons and music. There were people to play with and friends to make. It was a lovely evening. We played with Evie and Rebecca and with some little boys who we met at the party. We chatted with Grandmother Gwen and new adult friends. We were very pleased that we had been invited.

Then we went back to The Swan and had a lovely, cosy, long sleep. Then there was lots and lots of tea in the morning and a hearty breakfast. And we went to a HUGE garden centre and helped select the seeds for the coming year's harvest. Then we went back to our Country Residence for a lovely Sunday Roast

And since then we have been dozing and drinking tea and keeping warm and dozing and munching and drinking tea and dozing with The Builder and Marlo, while the Frannie has been going to work.

There is a very great deal to be said for being a *retired* Business Hippo!! (Although it is possibly time that we returned to our University; classes seem to have started again after the long Christmas break)

Hippos and The Birthday Boy

You will find the party album here

A warm welcome to 2012

2012-01-03T09:20:00.000Z

And so we have finished our first semester studies in Oenology, Somnology and Epicureanism. (Go on - Google them; you know you want to!!!) We have, of course, worked very hard, particularly in the practicals. We have accompanied our Human to Cultural Events, Historical Events and Tea Tastings. We have indulged in the odd crumb of cake and sustained ourselves with vegemite sandwiches and pizza. We have embraced student life in all its fullness - except that we have eschewed beer in favour of the more civilised wine and port.

Thus we were very ready to return Oop North for the Christmas and Winter holidays and came, with our Human, just before Christmas to snooze in Sheffield and doze in Derbyshire.

Christmas was a very happy time. It was Cally's first Christmas, so we had to help her with her presents until she got the idea

Sleepy and our Human, handing Cally a present

Bernard supervising Cally playing with her new toys

We have visited various friends and relations and caught up on all the gossip

Chatting with Jack and Janet

And have made merry for Christmas

Under the pretty Christmas tree

and New Year

Happy New Year everyone

Being mindful of the fact that we are still students (albeit very mature ones) we did not accompany the Grand Humans on their trip to Salisbury but remained behind to continue with our studies, preparatory for Semester 2

Oenology

Somnology

Epicureanism

And so we look forward with pleasure and anticipation to the delights that 2012 surely holds in store. And we wish you all much joy in the year to come.

Getting ready for the delights to come. Zzzzzzzzzzz

We've gone to be (mature) students

2011-09-13T09:40:00.005+01:00

We have moved to London!

We went down on Friday with the Grand Human who had to go to a business meeting Somewhere in the City. It put Bernard in mind of the many business meetings he had to attend before he became a Retired Business Hippo. He is quite glad that he doesn't often have to attend business meetings any more - although it must be said that the lunch was rather delicious. And the sticky buns we all had at morning tea in the bookshop on our way to the meeting were especially tasty.

But we have moved down, accompanied by our Human in order to take up later life studies at the University of East London. We have moved into a lovely little room which has come equipped with wine, the internet and a snuggly bed. What more could we ask for? Food? Well yes. But the Human has provided food and we have discovered many little eateries around our new flat. It is true that students traditionally do not have much money to fritter on meals out. We will have to send our Human out to work to keep us in style.

The new flat is by the river and across from a small airport. We think we are going to enjoy this :-)

Our very first class, once we had registered and enrolled at our new University, was in the decorating of cupcakes. We had a lovely time getting sticky as we rolled sugar paste and made flowers and ice cream cones and little cakes all out of sugar paste. We scattered glitter and spead hundreds and thousands and placed coloured sugar puffs. If this is student life, we are thoroughly going to enjoy it. Although we could do with a piping bag and some fancy nozzles so we can keep practising.

And now we are snuggled in our bed, recovering after the weekend's excitements. We might go back to the library and ponder sliding down the yellow poles. Or heading back to the benches by the river and eating sandwiches while watching the planes come and go. Or we might stay in bed and have a little sleep and wait to see what the afternoon brings. And there are, of course, cupcakes to nibble on

Click on the photo to go to our album page

Bernard and Sleepy's excellent August Bank Holiday week's holiday

2011-09-05T09:43:00.001+01:00

We've been on holiday this last week. We have spent it with the Grand Humans and have been having a lovely time.

We went to Salisbury for the actual Bank Holiday weekend and stayed at The Swan, where we have stayed many times before. You can say many things about The Swan. You can say that the food is delicious and the wine plentiful. You can say that the beds are very cosy and the pillows are snuggly. You can say that the people are delightful and the atmosphere charming. What you wouldn't normally say is that The Swan is exciting.

But it was VERY exciting to find that they were having a small steam fair in their car park over the weekend. There were lots of steam engines, steaming away and looking lovely. We could see them from the comfort of our room. We also went out and inspected them more closely. It was very, very exciting. And very unexpected. Who would expect there to be a whole steam fair in the pub car park?!?!?

An unexpected excitement at The Swan

We had a few meals while we were there. Not too many. We are not greedy hippos. We had dinner with Barb and Greg in a country pub. We had lunch with Grandmother Gwen at Jeanette and Matthew's place. We had lunch at The Wheatsheaf in Romsey. We had breakfasts at the Swan. We had dinner at The Swan too. And the occasional afternoon tea. We did other things too. Let me think, erm ... Oh yes. We went shopping as well.

Then we came home. And went out into the countryside with Tabitha and Cally for ice cream. And to chase alpacas

We do like ice cream

And we went to a HUGE country park with the Grand Humans to watch cricket and wander in an enormous kitchen garden and eat yummy food and to collect a beautiful bridge. We were a bit disconcerted when Frannie decide to enliven the afternoon by flinging herself from a standing start onto the road. We tried to get underneath her to soften her fall, but weren't quite quick enough. She has a most exciting graze on her elbow and knee now!

And now our week's holiday is over. Frannie has gone back to work. And we are supposed to be getting ready to move to London next weekend. Although we are a bit worried about the move to London. Our real Human has given up her job in order to be able to accompany us. Will she now have enough money to keep us in good food and wine? We are very partial to vegemite sandwiches, but we like to eat other things as well. We especially like to eat cake

You will find the photos of our week's holiday here

A hippo's ideal way of spending a morning

An excellent adventure in Japan

2011-08-13T06:17:00.003+01:00

Sleepy and I are on our way home from Japan!!

We went for a wedding, but had excellent other adventures as well.

We arrived with our Human and her friend about a week before everyone else came in, to help our Human's brother get ready for his wedding. It was hot!

Then we went on to Tokyo, where arrived a load of people from Australia and our Human's mother and The Builder from England. It was still hot! But we are hippos from Africa and coped better than the humans seemed to

We played a lot with the Tokyo subway. And we went shopping. And we went exploring. And we ate a lot. And we might perhaps have drunk quite a bit. But no sake. The Human's mother drank some sake and said that it made her hair curl and her ears fall off. We didn't want curly hair or a lack of ears so stuck to beer and wine.

And then we all split up. Some of the Australians went to Hiroshima. The wedding organisers went back to Nagoya and we went with the rest of the party to Kyoto and Nara. There are deer in Nara. They are very cute. They cross the roads on the pedestrian crossings!! (And they bite you if you have deer biscuits and won't give any to them, as Frannie discovered. But that seems only fair to us. We would bite too if you were withholding food from us!)

And then it was time to go back to Nagoya for the wedding. It was very beautiful. Kaori looked lovely. Our Human's brother Austin scrubbed up really well. There was lots of smiling. And a very great deal of clapping. And there was delicious cake. There was music and merriment and fun and laughter. It was a good day. There was pizza in the evening. We like pizza!

We have climbed the Nagoya castle and we found some dinosaurs in some gardens. We were very careful in the china shop and didn't break anything. And we have been to Osaka with our Human, her brother, the beautiful bride, a Pieman and two Australians.

And now we are on our way home.

Was an excellent holiday. When can we go again?

Our group of humans, except Lindsey who was taking the photo, in Osaka

River Cottage Weekend

2011-07-05T20:36:00.001+01:00

We've had the most excellent weekend down in Devon and Dorset. We went with our grand Humans for a long weekend. There was, as you might imagine, a great deal of feasting :-)

We stayed in a little seaside town called Seaton which we had never heard of. It turns out that the grand Humans hadn't heard of it either! Frannie had booked us all into a B&B based purely on the pictures on their website!!! Fortunately, it was a good find. A lovely, comfortable, snuggly bed and magnificent breakfasts delivered right into our room. We were right by the sea. It was all excellent for venerable hippos.

We dined in pubs. We went on a tram ride. Sleepy tried to drive the tram away but the real tram driver came back and stopped us. We had to passenger back on another tram. We were chased by a lion and smothered in flowers. The sun shone and shone and shone and shone and the sea was as blue as blue as blue can be.

And then we went to River Cottage HQ where we strolled in the gardens and drank elderflower fizz and ate lots of lovely, lovely food and had a friendly chat with the very lovely Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. (He came over later and told Frannie that he likes us hippos. That was very gratifying. We like him too!)

We came home via Braishfield and called into the Wheatsheaf to have lunch and to catch up with the just as lovely Matthew.

And now we are back at the Grand humans' house. It's nearly time for us to return to our own Human. We are very, very soon off to Japan!

Our photos are here

Nether Edge Fair

2011-06-21T13:17:00.001+01:00

There was a fair just around the corner from where our Human lives on Sunday afternoon and all of the Humans decided to go, even baby Cally who had very bravely just had her injections. So we decided to go too.

It was lots of fun.

There were flowers

And food

And more food

And games

And lots and lots of people.

The sun shone, on and off. And we all had a good time.

Then we went back to the Grand Human's house and ate cake. There is not much better than cake for afternoon tea :-)

Mmmmmm. Lemon? Or chocolate? Chocolate? Or lemon? One of each? Good plan!!

But we wonder what Marlo is looking at so intently

A hippo-tastic food weekend

2011-06-13T13:16:00.000+01:00

So. The grandhumans had plans to head down south for a weekend of visiting, eating and drinking. Did we want to go too?

Did we want to? Did we? What a silly question. There's food and wine on offer. People to play with. Of course we want to go too!

So we were up and dressed and packed, ready to leave at the appointed time, abandoning our nice, cosy bed to its own devices and off we went, heading in the first instance to Warminster, to our friend Polly's house. Polly's human has a lovely, flowery garden. And on a table in the middle of the garden were hippo sized glasses with lots of lovely wine. And inside there were scones and jam and cream, not to mention more wine, and things to play with. We had a *lovely* visit.

Then we went to one of our very favourite pubs to stay the night. There was more wine and more delicious food and a bed that is even more comfortable and snuggly and cosy than ours. We have been trying to convince the Grand humans to move down that way so we can more often indulge in the cosy bed and the delightful food. So far they are proving resistant to this idea. Frannie says if they did that it would be just as likely that the folk at the Swan would randomly move to Derbyshire or Yorkshire. I suppose that might be right. And I suppose if we lived across the road we wouldn't be allowed to use the bed anyway.

On Sunday we went and collected Grandmother Gwen and we all went off into the country to visit our friend Matthew in his lovely pub with its beautiful dining room. He also has wonderful kitchen staff and they make the best Sunday lunches ever. We thought we might have some success persuading the Grand humans to move closer to The Wheatsheaf, even if just for the Sunday roasts. But Frannie says that Matthew is just as likely to disappear as the folk at The Swan. And that anyway, it wouldn't be good for our digestions to eat Sunday lunches like that every week. We suppose she must be right again. But we find it hard to believe!

It rained yesterday. It's a long time since we can remember there being any really proper rain. There were lots and lots of hippo sized mud-puddles :-)

It was a lovely weekend. Food, friends, a cosy bed, wine and mud baths. What more could your average hippo require?

Bangor

2011-05-04T11:37:00.002+01:00

Our Human has been given some thought to moving. Naturally - if she is going then we will be going too so we felt that we should have some input into the decision. Besides - when all the humans decided to go and have a look at Bangor they decided to take a picnic.

Any picnics our various humans make up are always DELICIOUS. There was no way we were being left behind. Even when the trip departed from a house at which WE WERE NOT PRESENT!!!!!!! We sent a message to our Human's mother and she made the travellers come by our place and collect us :-)

We had a lovely day. The sun shone and there were summery flags everywhere. The water was sparkly. There were boats to watch. And there was, of course, lots of yummy food. There were shops to play in and parks to stroll in. There was one of the longest piers we have ever seen. It went on, and on, and on and on, very nearly but not quite as far as the island of Angelsey. It seemed a pity you couldn't walk all the way across. But then - how would the boats get through if the bridge took up the whole strait? And at the end of the pier is a lovely tea shop. Of course, we had to recover from our exertions, and from the wind, by indulging in a nice cup of tea.

We are very pleased the car came around to pick us up. It would have been a great pity to have missed out. Although I suppose we could have had a lovely day snuggled up in our bed.

We are at the Human's mother's place now, playing with the cat and the chickens. And on Monday we got to help clean out the fish pond. It was a delightfully muddy afternoon. The fish are very happy with their newly cleaned accommodation too

We've been busy

2011-03-22T19:08:00.000Z

Frannie, our grand human, works in a University and some times she takes us in with her. So we thought we should practise looking and behaving like students so we would blend in. Here we are with our puffin friend, enjoying a taster of student life:

Frannie recently bought some new plant pots to put in her front porch. She says she is going to grow baby salad leaves in them. We thought that rather than being used for salad leaves, they would make excellent flower pots for Bill and Ben to live in. But before we despatched them as new home, we thought we should probably check them out and make sure they are really desirable residences:

They do seem quite comfortable, it must be said. But not as comfortable as the couch, with our new blanket. Marlo also seems to find the blanket cosy. Fortunately, Sleepy was too sleepy to notice that Marlo was using him as a pillow!

Here we are, a happy family with Marlo and with our friends Jack and Janet:

You may remember that our Human's sister has recently had a wee baby (hello Cally). We all went to visit her in the hospital when she was less than a day old. But first we had to inspect the food offerings that people had brought for her mother to ensure that they ere acceptable gifts. What do you think? Were they OK? We thought so, after a very close inspection!

And here we are with Cally and her auntie, our Human. Although our Human seems to think that Sleepy might have eaten far too many of Tabitha's snacks!!

So it's been a busy little while. We are back at home now in our Sheffield residence for a bit of rest and relaxation to recover

Our new baby has arrived!!!

2011-03-14T13:04:00.002Z

Cally.

Came today.

Born to our human's sister and her husband (the sister's husband, that is).

Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for it to be our turn to go and meet her.

Hooray for new friends to play with :-)

The Birthday Party

2011-02-28T09:34:00.026Z

We had such a lovely time at the birthday party.

But before we could go, we had a task to perform.

It was our duty to supervise the baking of the birthday cake. The small birthday cake. The small birthday cake, duplicated 80 times. We had our Human actually do the baking, closely instructed and supervised by us. And she did a not too bad job. Grandfather Tony seemed pleased, anyway.

We went to visit him on his actual birthday, taking with us an appropriate present. We all went out for dinner and then came back for celebratory port and cheese. Then we repaired to our beds for a good long rest, before the actual party itself.

The party was a great success. Lots of people came. The sun shone. There was lots of lovely food. There was wine and beer. There were lots and lots and lots of balloons. And, of course, the cakes. Which were much admired by everyone. And Grandfather Tony had a really lovely time and smiled a lot. And wore his birthday hat which we had carefully brought with us from England, just for the occasion.

It was a lovely day and well worth the trip. I wonder if he could be persuaded to have another party next year ... You'll find more of our photos on our album here

Sydney

2011-02-25T07:01:00.036Z

We've been having a lovely time in Sydney. We've stayed in the most beautiful apartment overlooking Circular Quay, where we could see ferries and little boats and things. And we could see this too:

Sleepy thought we should move out of the apartment immediately, and go and get a cabin on the very classy ship. Alas, we didn't have a ticket. And we did have the apartment. So it wasn't really practical.

So we went out and about on the ferries instead. We went to Manly to play on the beach and eat chips. We went to Darling Harbour to eat more chips. We wandered through the Botanic Gardens and found another beautiful boat

Unfortunately, we didn't have tickets for this one either!

So we walked a lot and admired a lot and played a lot. And then we went to watch the Queen Mary sail out of the harbour. We waited and we waited and we waited and we waited. The ship didn't move. So we waited and we waited and we waited some more. And still it didn't move. We wondered if someone should go and show them where the reverse lever was!!

Then it started to move. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. It backed around out of the bay it was in. It backed slowly into the harbout. It backed and it backed and it backed and it backed. It was heading, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly - straight towards the harbour bridge!!!!!!! If it didn't stop soon, it was going to take out the harbour bridge.

Wait. Where's Sleepy? Has anyone seen him? He was the one who said they needed to be shown where the reverse lever was. SLEEPY!!!!! Let go of the reverse lever RIGHT NOW THIS VERY MINUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew. The ship has stopped. The bridge is safe. Sleepy says it wasn't him. He was having a nice, quiet sleep in the bottom of the Big Red Bag. Hmmmmmmm. We're not so sure about that. We think we had better take him back to Melbourne forthwith, before he gets up to any more mischief.

Visiting Victoria

2011-02-16T20:24:00.000Z

We have come to Melbourne for a birthday party at the end of the month. but it seemed a very long ay to come just for a birthday party, keen though we are on partying, so we decided to extend the party season and come a little earlier.

And we've been having a lovely time. We've been to the Melbourne Zoo to admire the new seal pool and to greet the baby elephants and juvenile tigers. We would have called on our relatives the pygmy hippos, but they seem to have gone on holiday somewhere. In any event, their pool is being pool-sat by some rather large fishies. So we greeted them and wandered on.

We have been eating remarkably well. We've had food and wine in streetside cafes, in pubs and in coffee shops (coffee, rather than wine in the coffee shops, of course). We've stayed in a penthouse flat in East Melbourne and are now in a beach house on the Mornington Peninsula. We've been on trams and walked lots and lots (although to be fair, we've had the humans doing the walking and we've hitched along in our travel bag). And the weather has been lovely. No need at all to wear the new jumper that Grandmother Stella has knitted for Bernard (although I think that she might have really knitted it for an orphaned penguin; she seems to be knitting lots of jumpers for orphaned penguins on Phillip Island).

And there has been lots of time to play. There is still another week before the party, so even more time to play is in prospect.

Click here to see our photo album

Christchurch

2010-12-30T15:01:00.003Z

We were all snuggled up in our lovely new blanket that Santa brought us for Christmas, on a warm snuggly bed at The Swan in Stoford. All ready for a nice day spent snoozing. So you can imagine that we were a little bit surprised when our GrandHumans started talking about the possibility of heading to Christchurch for a quick look around and perhaps a bite for lunch. Not that we had any objection to going to Christchurch. We have heard people speak very well of it. Though we have also heard that there have been earthquakes and ongoing earth tremors which don't sound ideal for a relaxed day's outing. We also thought that was perhaps just a tiny bit far, given that we all had a dinner engagement in the evening. But we're up for most things so said we'd go along for the ride.

We were a bit disconcerted to find we were going by car. Not sure that you can actually get from Wiltshire to New Zealand by car. And then it turned out that we weren't going to New Zealand! (Probably just as well for we didn't have our passports with us!!!). It seems there is another Christchurch, in Dorset, near Bournemouth.

And it's beautiful, even in the fog. There is an amazing priory, and some beautiful old buildings. There are many pretty bridges. There was a river, and a quayside, although we couldn't see much of the quay because of the fog. We had a lovely wander around, and met some nice French people who wanted us to take their photo - we got one of the GrandHumans to do that. She's better with the camera than we are. We went shopping and had chocolate and really enjoyed ourselves.

Then we headed off for lunch.

And were easily back in time for our dinner engagement.

But we're quite keen now on the idea of collecting the Christchurch in New Zealand as well. Who's heading to the antipodes in the near future?

We met lots of furry friends in the pub in which we lunched.
Our Human would have love it

Our winter holiday in Norfolk

2010-12-15T15:51:00.004Z

Here is our holiday cottage

Holiday Supplies

We had a lovely winter holiday in Norfolk at the beginning of December. We went to Hoveton near Wroxham with Frannie, The Builder and Lindsey, together with our new friend Rupert Hippo. We had a bit of snow and a lot of sunshine and even more lots of food and wine and many fun things to do.
There were lots of excitements, like when the canopy of our boat collapsed under the weight of the snow. Fortunately, we weren't in it at the time!

We had some nice walks in the snow, although the snow never got very deep. It was very deep indeed when we got back to Tupton. We saw lots of birds and some beautiful country scenes. And now, refreshed and invigorated, we are getting ready for Christmas. Here are some more of our pictures:

Shall we eat them on our holiday patio?

Maybe it would be better to eat them inside!

The view looks like a Christmas card :-)

Is this our boat?

Fortunately this was our boat

Warming jugs of hot chocolate after our snowy boat ride

Engaged in traditional winter holiday pursuits

It was quite a difficult puzzle - but we did it in the end

Off for a walk

This is where we went, looking for lunch

We've found a lunch venue :-)

Our humans are hopeless

2010-11-05T19:00:00.002Z

They really are.

They're excellent at organising fun, adventurous and interesting things for us to do. Generally things run to plan. The occasional hiccup, yes, but mostly their organisational skills are fine.

We head off and have a super time somewhere, come home, dictate our adventures to them and ....

As amanuensises - erm, amanuenses - ummmm amanuens... -- As scribes they are HOPELESS!!!!!

Days and days and days ago we went with the Senior Humans and with Taffa and Gaz to Matlock to look at the pretty lights. And there were pretty lights. Lots of them. There were lots and lots of people milling about in the shops, particularly around the fish and chip shops and burger bars. There were lots and lots of cars on the roads. This meant that we got to drive nice and slowly up through town and back through town, giving us plenty of time to admire the pretty lights.

It appears that they were looking for somewhere to park the car so we could go and admire the lights more closely and, indeed, see some fireworks. But parking spots there were none, so we admired what we could see from the road and went to Bakewell for a small spot of dinner.

It was quite a cold night, but we were well rugged up in our lovely new winter coats.

On the Sunday we accompanied the Senior Humans to the Norfolk coast for the serious and sombre task of helping to place their Uncle's ashes into the sea. But it was also a merry day. There were lots of cousins there. We played with the children and snuggled the adults. And we saw lots and lots of seals. We dispatched the uncle with all due ceremony ...

... and then repaired to another pub for a magnificent feast :-)

And now we are preparing for a visit to Valencia. We believe it has been quite warm in Valencia. We are not sure that we need to take our snuggly new winter coats. Sun hats, maybe?

You will find our photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bernardbusinesshippo/SealsBoatsAndFood#

Our human's brother came for the weekend

2010-10-26T13:42:00.001+01:00

He did. All the way from Melbourne. Just for the weekend. It was all very exciting.

So, of course, we had to have a party. Lots of people came. Big people and little people. And we were there, so there were hippos. Plus various other animal, creatures and beings.

There was lots of food. Lots and lots of food.

There was wine and fizzy drink and fruit juice.

And the sun shone and shone and shone.

And we played Hungry Hippos.

And we chased the children (well, Sleepy and Bernard did)

And everyone talked to the chickens.

It was a lovely day.

And now the uncle has gone. He's been to Winchester and the New Forest and London. And then he went to Prague. We hope he had fun - we like all those places. And now he is heading back to Melbourne.

And we are heading into cold, wintry weather. We are sorting out our wardrobe and getting nice new snuggly clothes. There will be pictures shortly :-)

In the meantime we are snuggled down in the sunn =y and warm lounge room of our country estate. But we ought to think about going back to our YOung Human's house soon. We're supposed to be escorting her to Spain in a couple of weeks. But her mother keeps enticing us to stay at the country estate with the blandishments of warm and comforting food. Steamed pudding and custard, anyone?

More Food :-)

2010-09-28T10:49:00.000+01:00

We've been having a merry, foodie time for the past week or two.

We've been to pubs and to restaurants. We've had riverside picnics and delicious home cooked food. We've had cakes and biscuits and pies. It's all been extremely yumdelicious! And there have been many, many cups of tea.

And then, after family feasting and celebrations, we went with our older humans down to Salisbury for the weekend. We stayed in one of our favourite pubs, where the beds are soft and fluffy and cosy and warm, and the pillows are down-filled and floaty, and the breakfasts are hearty and toothsome.

And then we went off to visit many animal friends at the Longleat Safari Park, where you drive around and the animals gaze upon you and come to say hello. We didn't see any hippos, but we did see some rhinos. We are not hornist. Rhinos definitely count as family! We had our friend Frank Lyon with us. He was very excited to call upon some of his lion friends. He was quite excited by his tiger friends too. It was a mighty day. And the sun shone and it was lovely and warm. And there was a lovely Sunday lunch in a country pub.

And now the weather has turned foggy and autumnal and chilly. We are at our country home in the warm and cosy living room, snuggling up with Marlo the cat. We were going back to our city home this weekend - but the older humans are going to another food fair on Saturday. We have found that visits to food fairs always result in extra tasty treats for us!

But cups of tea and lovely sleeps for us before then.

Oh - our photos are here

Bath time

2010-09-19T20:00:00.000+01:00

It's bath day. Lots of bubbles in nice hot water

Bernard!!! Don't forget the towels

Washing my face. Mustn't forget behind my ears

Time to get out

Enjoying the steam room after our bath

York

2010-09-19T10:00:00.001+01:00

We've been to York. Our humans decided that they were going to explore the food festival markets to see what delicious things they could forage. We decided to go too. You need a hippo's guiding hand when making food choices!

Beautiful York

We had a lovely time. There were lots and lots and LOTS of delicious food things to sniff and gaze at and admire. It was all very delicious. We had a lovely time sampling. And all the humans bought lots of food to take back to our houses.

While we were in York, we dropped into the Christmas Angel shop and had a quick word with St Nicholas. We need to make sure he gets our Christmas wishes in nice and early. Our needs and wants are modest, but we do feel that, being such a busy man, St Nicholas needs to be alerted in good time

Then, having had a very busy day, we had a lovely sleep in the car on the way home.

And now it's Sunday, and we hear tell of ambitious Sunday lunch plans. Must Stay Awake!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Whispering secret wishes to St Nicholas

Roasting potatoes for Sunday lunch. Such pretty colours

2010-09-18T08:46:00.000+01:00

Stretch. Yawn. Snurfffff. Sleepy? What time is it?

Wrffffff? Erm. I'm not sure, Bernard. Hand on. I'll find out ...

Um - it seems to be about half past September

Half past SEPTEMBER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Get up! Hurry! We seem to have slept in. We've missed one birthday party, several Sunday lunches and a bundle of cake. Much as I love my warm, snuggly bed - I love FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD just as much

I certainly think we should get up, Bernard. I can hear the humans talking about going to a food market in York. Food. York. YUM!!

Hang on people. Wait for us. We're coming too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Celebrations!!

2010-08-09T19:30:00.001+01:00

A year ago this weekend we were the ring bearers at Frannie and The Builder's wedding celebration. It was, of course, a very great responsibility looking after the rings. We were a bit scared we might lose them. Fortunately, The Builder's granddaughter Rebecca was there to help and the rings made their appearance at the ceremony at the right time and in the right place :-)

We were very surprised when we realised that this weekend had been the one year anniversary. That year surely went very fast. Mind you - we've done lots of exciting things. so it was bound to go quite quickly.

Frannie and The Builder decided to celebrate with lots of foodie fun. Fair enough. The wedding weekend last year was marked by a very great deal of foodie fun!

So there was a pub for lunch on the anniversary itself, followed by a delicious "Sunday" meal in the evening. Vegetables and potatoes from the garden and allotment. They had roast meat from the local farm. And there was, of course, an ample supply of nice wine.

On Sunday itself we all trundled down to Cambridge to take Taffa, Gareth and Auntie Joan out for a celebratory Sunday lunch on a Sunday in The Green Man in Trumpingdon.

Then we brought Taffa back with us ready to start her new job back in Sheffield bright and early on Monday morning. Much too early if you ask us. We all had to leave at HALF PAST SIX IN THE MORNING to get her there for her 07:00 start. Much, much too early for sleep-a-beds like us! We have now gone back to our cosy bed at Freyja's house to recover.

We will miss our holiday base in Cambridge very much. But it will be good to have Taffa, Gaz and Frank Lyon closer at hand. Their new house isn't all that far from Freyja's house and is a delightful bus ride away from Frannie and The Builder's place

So, gentle readers. Raise your glasses to Frannie and The Builder, who have marked a year of wedded bliss. And to Taffa who has successfully started her new job. And to our human, Freyja who, on Sunday, roller skated 26.6 miles at the Goodwood Park circuit with the Sheffield Steel Roller Derby girls to raise a whole lot of money for the Sheffield Children's hospital

We've been to Scotland for the weekend

2010-07-28T08:43:00.001+01:00

... And to Durham and to Berwick and to Bamburgh

And along the way:

* We had wine

In the Fox and Pheasant, Durham for lunch

In the Goblin Ha', Gifford for dinner

and there was food

Cheesy garlic bread. Nom!

Hooooooooge big chips

And a home grown Sunday dinner

* We caught up with family

Cousin Ruth

And Cousin Jo

and made new friends

Not-quite Cousin Richard sharing his champagne

Our new horsey friend

* We found a hill fort

It was just there, alongside the road heading towards Dunbar

* There were bridges

The old road bridge, Berwick upon Tweed

The railway viaduct, Berwick

and castles

Bamburgh Castle

Taking pot shots at the Farne Islands :-)

and mementi mori

Scottish graveyards are remarkably morbid!

* And there was a beautiful wedding:

Cousin James and his beautiful bride, Kimberley

This is our kind of Rolls - it was dispensing ice cream and chocolate!

Nom! Cake

Congratulations to James and Kimberley

It was a fabulous time.

We're a bit tired now, though. We might have to have a good long nap before we do anything else. But first - a cup of tea and a biscuit perhaps

We've met Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall!!!

2010-07-07T08:43:00.006+01:00

We have, we have. Look:

He gave us some of his cider and everything.

It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo exciting!!!

It all came about because Frannie, our human's mother, likes food very nearly as much as we do so she took out membership on the River Cottage website so she could improve and develop her growing, making and cooking skills - we assume to indulge us. One of the advantages of this membership is that you get invited to things at the River Cottage headquarters on the Dorset/Devon border.

Alas - we don't live anywhere near Dorset. Or Devon.

But when Frannie got an invitation to the members' summer party she declared that we would all go. And so we did. We made a whole weekend of it.

A food weekend.

We had dinner on Friday night in a 16th century pub

The Bottle Inn

There was lots of delicious food and wine. And some very nice people in the pub. It was a lovely evening.

But we were tired, for we had travelled a long way to get here. And there was an exciting day in prospect on Saturday. So we went back to our B&B out in the Devon countryside and had a nice early night with lots and lots of sleeping.

There were deer in the fields. And rabbits.

Saturday saw us out exploring in Devon. We had lunch here:

The Thatched Tavern

And then it was time for the main excitement. Dinner at Park Farm, near Lyme Regis. The River Cottage HQ!!

It was lovely. We went down onto the farm in a trailer, pulled by a tractor.

And there were lots of gardens and terraces and a beautiful farmhouse.

Dinner was in a marquee decorated with butterflies.

We met those very nice people from the pub again. Spookily - they were sat right next to us at dinner. In pre-assigned seats. We think they might be some new friends. The food gods must surely want us to get to know each other?

And the delightful Hugh FW was - well, just delightful.

(But trust Sleepy to get the cider!!!!)

And the foodie things didn't stop there. Because on Sunday we went to Lyme Regis for Sunday lunch in a pub with the Lovely Farishta.

And then we came home. For a nice long doze in Frannie's spare armchair. It was a wonderful and very exciting weekend. But all that food and delightfulness (and EXERCISE) has left us extremely tired

The photos are all here . There are LOTS!!!!!!!!!

Amsterdam

2010-05-23T12:43:00.000+01:00

So the train was definitely our style – hours and hours of delicious first class. We shared a little cabin room with a lovely retired Australian couple. They were visiting their daughter and also rail passing around Europe. I was very jealous.

The trains were absolutely amazing – living in the UK where you never know if a train will be on time or what platform it will stop at – to getting on a train to find a little leaflet that explained to the minute when it would stop, how many minutes it would be there and what other trains you could get from there and at what time and at what platform was amazing!

We did have a little difficulty with the train tickets. The tickets had been bought on credit card, which had since expired. The German ticket company said you definitely needed the card with the ticket, but the card had been destroyed and the new card had a different number. The humans had tried to update it online but to no avail and no one in customer services had been able to help except to say “Hopefully the ticket man will accept your new card as proof, or you may have to pay full fare”. Well… there were a few tense moments, let me tell you, when the ticket inspector looked at the ticket and the card and then went outside for a few moments. *sharp intake of breath* luckily, however, he handed the tickets (and the card) back and let us on our way.

Then we arrived in Amsterdam – hurrah! We have been quite a few times with the human and the human’s mother, but always enjoy it – there are so many things to see and do and it really is a lovely place just to wander around. And that is mostly what we did.

We found our hostel – which was in the middle of the red light district! Of course, in my old business hippo days, there were rumours of clients being entertained by similar places elsewhere, but I… obviously… know nothing about that. The hostel was basic but nice – the rooms were all “themed” and painted by artists. Ours mostly seemed like a cell! There was a bar downstairs that also did food, an area to sit outside, drink tea and use the wifi and apparently a club underneath but we never ventured down that far.

We arrived quite late but had a gooooood long wander around and had dinner in a lovely Japanese place. The human spoke very basic Dutch to the restaurant owner who promptly apologised and exchanged the English menu for the Dutch one! The human sheepishly asked for the English one back.

On the second day, the weather was absolutely beautiful, so we ventured out for breakfast, to somewhere we had had recommended for profitjes, but unfortunately they didn’t sell them. Then we wandered down and looked at lots of markets and then spent the afternoon in the Vondelpark. It was lovely and sunny… we did give the human a stern talking to when she got sunburnt.

The third day arrived quickly and we tried the free breakfast the hostel provided. It was rather plain, unexciting but free. We then checked out and moved to our second hostel, the Passenger Avanti – a boat! A BOAT!

Our room was a teeeeny tiny cabin, but there was a big kitchen, dining and lounge area at the top of the boat and there was a beautiful outdoor area for sitting and rocking on. The human was excited by the large quantity of DVDs to watch (and by the dog that was occasionally around).

We then had lunch in a vegetarian café – the food was very hearty and very delicious. Quite expensive though.

The humans visited the Amsterdam Dungeon, which was ridiculously expensive and delivered in about a third English and two thirds Dutch – but they didn’t explain what was said in either language, so those that weren’t fluent in both seemed a bit confused! Now, you might think “Duh, of course it wasn’t just in English!” but the people stood outside enticing you in, definitely implied it was! Stick to the York Dungeon, I suggest – much cheaper!

The human had been wanting to go skating in the Vondelpark but unfortunately ran out of time – next time, eh?

After a bit more wandering and looking around, we returned to the boat and made a delicious dinner and ate it on deck.

Then Sleepy and I retired to bed, whilst the humans went to the cinema. They saw The Ghost (or The Ghost Writer). The human said there were two French people next to her who blatantly didn’t understand much English or Dutch, but one did find the use of a particular swear word quite funny, especially when he had to translate it for his girlfriend. Eventually he said that he thought Price of Persia was more his type of film and then they both left.

There wasn’t much time on our final day. The Canadian woman running the boat suggested visiting the library. So off we went. And what can I say, but it was absolutely the library of the future. It was white and airy and windowy and lovely. There were computers everywhere that you could just jump on to – no logging on or timing or anything, there were cafes and all the newspapers you could wish for and a piano. A piano! In a library! The piano did have a sign saying “Advance Players Only. Please play for no longer that 30 minutes at a time” but that seemed to be the only rules. The human is not an advanced player, but fortunately the other human with us was. He realised this was probably his biggest ever audience, since the whole library could hear you! It was lovely being sat right at the top, checking our emails, hearing beautiful piano music being played.

Now, again, we are waiting for the train. Not first class, but, y’know, a hippo can’t have everything.

Bearlin

2010-05-20T00:46:00.000+01:00

And so to Germany! Berlin to be exact. Or is it spelt Bearlin. There seems to be a lot of bears around.

So after arriving here later than originally planned meant that we arrived quite late at the hostel, so just wondered around the area, ate some food (the human seemed impressed with her ability to remember some German, easily pleased that one) and frequented the hostel bar.

Now, if you do happen to find yourself in Berlin, looking for a place cheaper than a hotel but nicer than a normal hostel, we’d definitely recommend the Globetrotter Odyssee Hostel. The room was hostely and a little bare, but clean, painted and comfy. It has a lovely, huge kitchen (unfortunately only available after they’ve finished brekkie in the morning) and the common area had a small cheap bar, computers, books and table football. The breakfast was filling too. It was generally pretty great for the price.

Day one – Walking tour and Aussie company

So first full day. We went on the Berlin Free Walking Tour, with a lovely Aussie tour guide, Anique. It was a great tour, we learnt so much, saw so much and had a great time. Anique mentioned that tour people got cheap schnitzel at a particular restaurant, if anyone wanted to join her. So we all tagged along (especially when we heard that our English companion had never even heard of schnitzel, let alone eaten it!) Anique’s Aussie friends joined us and we did indeed have delicious, cheap schnitzel (and veggie schnitzel). Then she offered to continue to show us around. We went with them for the rest of the evening. It was really great of them to let us tag along and it was great to see some areas that were off the map.

We have since spoken to a few people about the Free Walking Tour and discovered that the tour guide has to pay the company for each person that comes on the tour – so if you do decide to take a tour – be sure to tip well or else you are costing the guide. And trust us, if your tour was half as good as I were, it will be totally worth it.

Day two – Build a bear, DDR Museum, Walking, Squats, Punk Pizza and Drinking Mead from a horn

We did the most important thing first, visited Build A Bear. The woman in the shop was delightful, stamped our passport, chastised the human for not filling them with more information and then gave us some lovely bows for our hair. Too girly for us, so the human snatched them for herself.

We visited the DDR Museum which was an interesting insight into life in the GDR. The human keeps spouting little interesting information she learnt in there to whomever will listen.

Then we walked and walked and walked. Berlin is great for exploring, so many interesting places, arty types and squats. The human found a supermarket so dragged us round excitedly. It always seems the highlights of her holidays is running around foreign supermarkets and enjoying foreign food.

Now, for your one big fancy meal in Germany, what would you go looking for? That’s right, we went Italian. A friend had recommended this Punk Rock Pizza Joint – also known as Cucina Casaligna – an amazing pizzeria (best pizza we’ve had in a long time) – run by people with a love for punk rock. The walls were covered with posters, but for those not interested in the music, no need to worry – it isn’t playing and if you ignore the posters, it’s just like any other amazing pizza place. The waiter spoke Italian, German and a little English. The human spoke a little Italian, a little German and English. They muddled through and got there in the end.

After such a lovely meal, Sleepy and I stayed in and enjoyed some relaxing, played some table football whilst the humans checked out the Viking Rock Bar they had seen advertised. Oddly, on the way to find it, they found a completely different Viking Rock Bar. It wasn't a chain, they were just two individual Viking Rock Bars, within four minute walks of each other. Who knew there were so many Vikings in Berlin, looking to rock. The human drank mead from a horn. Odd behaviour.

Day three - train

And so today we are waiting for the train...

Leaving the country

2010-05-17T19:33:00.000+01:00

We are thinking of trading the human in for a new one. She showed herself to be a terrible trip-starter-off-erer.

First, there was the passport debacle. Who, in less than a week before going on holiday, decides to lose their passport?! The human went to the cinema to see Four Lions (£10 inc snacks) and then went to BBs in Sheffield for dinner (£20). Then returned home to find her passport was no longer in her bag. So add to that total £50 for the train to Liverpool and £130 for a new passport! So that's over £200 spent on the traditional evening of dinner and a movie. Nearly the entire budget for the trip blown, before we’d even left the country.

Now, talking about leaving the country, the human has done that enough times by now, that you’d think it would all be easy going. Oh no. What does she go and do? Books a plane to fly off, just as there is volcano ash landing everywhere.

At 10pm the night before we had intended to leave, our flight from East Midlands (originally £25) was cancelled. So our travelling companions set about looking at every alternative route to getting to Berlin the next day. The cheapest option was getting the coach from Sheffield to Berlin for £47, a delightful 25 hour trip. However, unfortunately, it didn’t leave until Wednesday and so by the time we arrived we’d be leaving again. The next cheapest option was getting the train to London, the Eurostar to Brussels and flying from there, but this was around £250 each! Whilst trying to book it, the Eurostar website crashed. Luckily, at about 3am, the human thought to look at an airport she hadn't considered before – Bristol – and luckily Easyjet was flying that day for £90 at 5.30pm, so we decided to take a risk and go for it.

At 7am we were awoken by the human’s mother, getting in touch to let us know that Bristol had closed, but was scheduled to possibly re-open at 4.00pm. In order to be there on time we had to get the train at 12.30pm. We decided we would just take a chance on it re-opening and got the train (£60ish) to Bristol. Our budget holiday *gulp* has already got very expensive.

Luckily, at 1pm, the human’s mother got back in touch to say the airport was open! Hurrah!

A short wait at Bristol airport (very small, but some nice places to sit in the sun, before you go through security) and now we’re off to Berlin.

Abu Dhabi Airport

2010-05-03T08:53:00.001+01:00

Who knew there would be hippos in the Abu Dhabi airport!! Camels, yes. We knew there would be camels. But hippos?

But there are. There's a whole bar dedicated just to hippos. Although they do let humans in as well. Look:

It was all very exciting. And we had lots of yummy things to eat and drink. Then we got onto another plane and came home. At least, home as far as London. We're in a hotel near the airport at the moment. Soon we will be taking a HUGE umber of trains and heading back to Tupton. Then on to Sheffield on Wednesday.

We had a lovely time in Australia. Now - where to next?

TIme to go home

2010-05-01T01:42:00.001+01:00

We've had a lovely few days in Mount Martha. We went for a lovely walk along an estuary boardwalk. We ate lots and lots. We had lots of snuggles with Grandma Stella. And we had lots of snoozes in her very comfortable chair.

Then we came back to Melbourne to Lindsey and Ian's flat and LOTS of people came to dinner for steak and fish and **roast** **potatoes**. IT was very yummy. We LERV roast potatoes.

And now it is our last day and we are all packed and ready to fly. But first - we are going out for lunch when Lindsey gets back from work. We didn't think people worked on Saturday mornings but it seems that sometimes they do.

We will be sad to leave our family in Australia. But we are looking forward to seeing our family in England again. We are very lucky to have family in lots of countries. We have family in Japan too.

Going all posh

2010-04-29T01:11:00.000+01:00

We went to visit a wonderful hippo wading pool yesterday. It was up in the hills between Mount Martha and Healesville. It was lovely. All wet and muddy and gloopy.

But we couldn't stay for long. For we were going Up-Market!! We were on our way to the Healesville Country Club for lunch. And a very delicious lunch it was too. And there were mountains. And a golf course. Oh, and a huge game of pick-up-sticks. And a pool and a spa and everything. Tres Posh

Then we went to play with some alpacas. We tried to convince Frannie to take an alpaca home with us but she seemed to think it wouldn't fit on our Human's balcony. No imagination. She could always keep it at our country residence in Tupton. We wonder if Lucy and Zac would like one in Ballarat? Or maybe Marmalade in Warragul?

We came home by a slightly different route and saw a mangrove swamp. I wonder if hippos would like playing in a mangrove swamp. It looked a bit scratchy

The rest of the photos are here

A visit to Port Fairy

2010-04-27T02:44:00.002+01:00

Most of the humans were going to the seaside for a wedding. Frannie and The Builder were going too, although not for the wedding - just for the ride. We decided to go too.

We had lunch by the beach.

We went walking around an island.

We saw wallabies (our friend Frank was very excited by the wallabies - he's never seen them in the wild before. We have, but not for a couple of years. We were quite excited too!)

We saw lots and lots of birds.

We sat in the sunshine and ate and drank and contemplated the world.

We watched boats.

The humans who were going to the wedding all scrubbed up quite nicely.

We had ice cream.

And we spent quite a lot of time sleeping on the big bed in our lovely room. Sleeping is our very favourite activity. And eating. And drinking.

Having a lovely time

2010-04-23T23:33:00.000+01:00

We went to visit Sage, William and Marmalade at their lovely house out in the country. We had our first ever Warragul concert when Sage serenaded us. It was very lovely. You can see a video clip of her singing on Frannie's blog here if you scroll down to the bottom.

Frank decided to tease Marmalade. Marmalade was very cute. Our hippo chair was very cute too. That's William behind us. We had a lovely time at their place. We had vegetables from the garden for dinner and we had a lovely walk around the avocado tree and the fruit trees. There were oranges growing, ripe for the picking. We had a lovely, food-filled time. And in the night there was a BUNYIP on the roof of our bungalow. At least, Frannie said it was a bunyip and we're sure she would be right. We are not sure how a bunyip would get on the roof. Perhaps it might have been a possum. And we were woken in the morning by kookaburras singing. Lovely :-)

Now we are in Ballarat, where we have been very cautiously playing with Lucy and Zac. Lucy and Zac are not little dogs and we have no wish to be eaten. But we had some lovely snuggles. But soon we need to get up. We are going to Port Fairy this afternoon. That is quite a long drive

Food, yum diddly food

2010-04-20T00:59:00.000+01:00

We've been having a lovely time. We went to Mount Martha, to Grandma Stella and Grandpa Tony's house and lots of people came and there was lots of lovely food and many cuddles and a few games. We got to play with Ian's new Peugeot. The roof goes up and down and up and down and up.

Then we went to Sorrento so Grandma Stella could go shopping. We must admit - we had always thought that Sorrento was in Italy or France or somewhere, but it seems it's near Melbourne by the bay. Then we had lunch in Mount Martha before heading back to the Melbourne flat for steak night. The lovely Mandee came with her friend Zoy. Mandee has been to visit us in our Country Residence. The lovely Cassie came too. And so did all the boys who usually do steak night.

The photos are here

Goodness Gracious Us!

2010-04-19T00:21:00.002+01:00

Frannie announced that she and Lindsey were off to a hen night. Oooooooh, we thought. We like hens. Can we come too?

Frannie explained that hen nights didn't, ordinarily, involve actual real chooks and that customarily only females attended such events.

We were very curious. We wanted to know what happens at hen nights, especially if there are no hens. But how could we get in, if only females are invited.

Brain wave. We went to the Build a Bear shop and bought girlie clothes. A nice matronly dress for Bernard, a girlie girl sparkly t-shirt and shorts for Sleepy, and a tutu for Frank.

And disguised as women, we went along. All in the interests of science, you understand.

We were a bit surprised when we got there to find there were easels. Goodie, we thought. Drawing. We like drawing. There was champagne and pizza as well. It was looking to be good night. And we don't think anyone noticed that we weren't really girls.

But what were we to draw? There didn't seem to be any fruit or flowers or anything else to make a still life of.

And then - into the room strode a young man clad only in a dressing gown. You can imagine our surprise when he cast off the dressing gown and COMPLETELY NAKED assumed a pose. We were to draw a naked man!!!!!!!!!!! Not once, not twice, not thrice - but FOUR times!

It appears that "hens" nights are things that women do before one of their number gets married. The bride and her friends all went out clubbing after the excitement of the life drawing. We went with Frannie, Lindsey, Emily and Jess for a Moroccan meal.

The Builder went to the football. Members stand at the MCG. He seemed to have a good time. But there were no naked men. Or not that he mentioned

Meeting new friends

2010-04-16T23:32:00.003+01:00

When Frannie said that we were going out for lunch with a friend of hers, we were very excited. We like lunch. We like meeting new people. And we especially like meeting friends and having lunch in Carlton.

What we hadn't realised, though, was that we would be meeting a dignified dignitary. An Emeritus Professor of Theology. We had no idea that Frannie knew such elevated people! He was very charming, and seemed very pleased to meet us. A very pleasant afternoon.

We enjoyed lunch as well. Pizza. On Lygon Street. An excellent afternoon!

Then we went to Ballarat and met the new chooks. More friends. We kept well out of the way of the doggies, though. We have no wish to be chewed

Lunch at the beach

2010-04-14T07:30:00.000+01:00

Lindsey and Frannie had decided that we needed a trip on a tram and a visit to the beach. So off we went.

The tram was quite exciting, although we are hopeful of a trip on one of the old trams, now only used for touristy things. But we can be touristy if need be.

Then we went to the beach. We paddled in the sea and played chasey with the waves. We went for a walk on the pier and admired the boats. We had a lovely lunch in a cafe by the beach. We even sat outside, for it was relatively mild, especially compared to the temperatures over the winter in Tupton and Sheffield. We've had hot chocolate and tea, and chips, and a meal in a pub. And perhaps the odd glass of wine.

We've been walking and pottering. We've played football with Simon (although I'm not sure Sleepy was quite expecting to be the ball!). We're having a good holiday :-)

On Saturday evening, Frannie and Lindsey are going to a hen night (though they tell us there won't actually be any hens there). The Builder and Simon are going to the football and perhaps to the casino. We have been pondering our options. We are not so keen on the football - the footballers might also decide that Sleepy would make a grand football. We might go to the hen night and see how you can have a poultry do without any chickens present. We're told that only girls are supposed to go. We are off to the shops today to buy girl-disguises!

We're in Australia

2010-04-13T00:27:00.001+01:00

It's very exciting. It's not all that long since we were last here, but we've never been with Frannie and The Builder. We've also never been with our friend Frank Lyon, who has accompanied us this time. We have three weeks of adventures lined up.

We've been travelling in style. We went from Tupton to London in a first class train carriage. We stayed in a very swanky hotel near the airport. We flew from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne in BUSINESS CLASS!!! (Frannie had organised an upgrade for us - we are wondering how to convince her to buy an upgrade for the whole return leg; it was extremely comfortable and the cabin attendants were delightful). Etihad economy class was quite comfortable, but the business class cabin was wonderful. There were buttons to play with. And the chair had lots of settings. And there was a massage facility. It made our bottoms bounce!

We could get used to this level of luxury.

Now we're in East Melbourne in Lindsey and Ian's flat. There are lovely views of central Melbourne. And we have been making friends with Jennifer Cuddles, a venerable teddy who has very graciously allowed us to come and stay with her. She is very charming. And has a lovely flower on her hat.

We're going on a tram today :-)

Our only complaint (so far) is that when we woke up on Sunday morning, preparing ourselves for a vigorous 24 hours of travelling - we found that there was NO TEA in our hotel room. Just coffee (first thing? in the morning? BEFORE TEA?!?!?!?!?) and camomile rubbishy stuff (BLEURGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH). What sort of a hotel doesn't provide tea for thirsty travellers? We shall stay somewhere else on the way home

You will find the photos here

Visiting Grandmother Gwen

2010-02-08T20:15:00.004Z

We were in Salisbury over the weekend, visiting Grandmother Gwen. We were peacefully having breakfast in our hotel on Sunday morning, studying our Japanese, drinking our orange juice, muching our cereal. When - all of a sudden a man burst over to talk to Frannie. Who were the hippos? Why were we here? Then his wife came over and started patting us and stroking us. It seems that, like our human, she also lives in a huge hippo family where new friends come to live quite regularly. I think she would have liked us to join her hippo family. But we would miss our human, not to mention Frannie and The Builder. And she might not have taken us on adventures! But it was exciting to meet her.

We had lunch with Grandmother Gwen, Frannie and The Builder in a pub in the middle of the New Forest. There were lots of ponies around the pub, and some cows. And there were lots and lots of dogs in the pub. Lots more outside going for walks. Here we are trying to decide what to have for lunch. Grandmother Gwen had game pie. But we're not entirely sure how you would make a pie out of scrabble or chess or doodle jump, so we looked at more traditional choices.

But first, a refreshing glass of wine to get us in the mood.
And to warm us up.
It was cold in the New Forest!

A lovely bowl of vegetables for me. And a pint of Muddy Boot. Then it's time for a nice long sleep. Muddy Boot is quite strong

Bernard being more restrained.
A plate of vegetably things and a civilised glass of wine
Sunday lunch is such a good thing!

Then we took Gwen home and came home ourselves, back to our Country Retreat. We took Frank the lion back to his Town Home last weekend. It might be nearly time for us to go back to our Town Home too. We are missing our human. And it's not very many weeks until we got to Australia and she is not coming with us. We need to go home and make sure she knows what she's supposed to be doing while we are away!

Here be sandwiches

2010-01-27T13:05:00.008Z

Being a retired *business* hippo, Bernard is accustomed to attending business meetings and various conferences, although Sleepy Hippo is less experienced in these matters, and Frank the Lion not at all.

However, none of us has ever been to a conference about maps. And nor have we been to Edinburgh. So when Frannie, our Human's mother, said that she was attending such a conference in Edinburgh and asked if we wanted to go - we accepted with alacrity.

We went up on the train. There were sandwiches. And a laptop to keep us amused.

Edinburgh is *lovely*, although Frannie nearly expired from pounding up a long, steep and uneven flight of stairs getting from the station up to the road to the University. She certainly couldn't speak when she got to the top!

And we stayed in a lovely hotel in the University grounds. And had a delightful supper. And chocolate mousse.

And we took some time to learn a bit about maps, so we could better enjoy the conference.

We had a magnificent breakfast in the hotel before setting off on the short stroll to the conference centre. When we got there, there were cups of tea and biscuits. We like tea. And biscuits. And later there were plates and plates and plates of sandwiches. And more tea. We like tea and sandwiches. And later after that there were slices of carrot and walnut cake. And tea. Tea and cake ... nyom!

Oh - and there were interesting people saying interesting things about maps, of course.

Then we came back on the train (more sandwiches, more tea!) and are now back at our country residence where there are tea, sandwiches and leek and cheese tart.

Maybe next time, we should have a bit of a look at Edinburgh as well! We didn't see much other than the University and the outside of the castle.

Snow

2010-01-09T14:50:00.007Z

It's been snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing and SNOWING since we got back from our holiday. In some places in our garden at our Tupton Country Retreat, the snow is almost as deep as us, especially down in the orchard, and it's much deeper than our friend Frank Lion (who is still with us).

Today we went out to play in it:

A snow slide! (Actually, it's poor Oscar, The Builder's car)

Picnic, anyone?

Not that you could easily light the barbecue :-S

Trying to build a snow hippo. It's hard, building snow hippos

So we settled for a snow hippo's head

Back inside, warming up and waiting for our après-snow-fun hot chocolate

New Year's Day Plus One

2010-01-04T08:24:00.004Z

We’ve been busy exploring today. We went through icy, frosty roads to Stockbridge this morning for a look around. There seem to be lots of rivers,streams and mill leats in Stockbridge. And a very large number of gift and craft shops. Frannie bought a bowl. She seemed very excited to find it!

Then we went back for Grandmother Gwen and went for a lovely, long drive in the New Forest. There were toasted teacakes! And ponies. And lots of cows walking about in the middle of the road and holding all the traffic up.

And this evening we went to Winchester to play with Evie and Rebecca, Evie’s bunny friend and their cousin Sophie.

Now we are back at the Hobbit House for our last evening before returning to our Country Retreat in Tupton tomorrow. Must make sure we get a good sleep. Tupton is quite a long way away.

(And now we are back in Tupton. Once we got to Derbyshire, there was SNOW!)

You will find our photos of our adventure here

New Year's Day

2010-01-02T08:21:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone. We hope 2010 brings you lots of lovely things, many exciting adventures and lashings of yummy things to eat.

New Year’s Day is certainly a Hippo and Lion festival, and we celebrated it in style. First we collected Grandmother Gwen and went with her and Frannie ‘n’ The Builder to the Swan @ Stoford, where we had a magnificent pea and mint soup. The humans all had shepherds pie. Hippos, of course are more or less vegetarian. We do eat the occasional fishy thing, but definitely not shepherds. And even if we did, I doubt we could manage a whole one each. And neither could Frannie or Grandmother Gwen, although The Builder managed to scoff all of his shepherd. Frank, of course, is a lion and does eat shepherds when he can get his paw on one. However, he is only a very tiny lion, so gnawed on some of Frannie’s left over shepherd.

Then we took Grandmother Gwen back home and went for a drive in the New Forest. We found a hippo skating rink (although not for Frank - doesn’t matter much if hippos crash through the ice and into the water!!) and a seesaw, and even a climbing frame. We saw lots of small horses. It was all very exciting.

And then we came back across some pretty countryside and back to the flat, where we spent a lovely evening watching children’s films. We’re having such a lovely time.

It’s dark and cold outside now. This means, of course, that we should all be in bed, tucked up cosily and asleep. Can anyone explain to us, then, why Frannie and The Builder are sat in their bed each messing about on their laptops? Especially since there is no internet to amuse them!

New Year's Eve

2010-01-01T08:18:00.000Z

And we did go to the seaside. We went to Lyme Regis to have lunch with Frannie’s friend, the lovely Farishta. It was very exciting to meet Farishta. We had lunch and walk on the windswept beach. We avoided being stolen by small children or kidnapped by young dogs. We had all the cobwebs blown out of our heads, all the while kept snuggly and warm in Frannie’s carry bag where she had her hat and gloves as snuggly cushions for us. It was an excellent day.

In the evening, Frannie and The Builder went out again to a family party to celebrate the New Year. This isn’t really a hippo or a lion festival, so we stayed at the flat, wrapped up against the wintery chill in Tabitha’s scarf, while snuggling down on the very soft and warm bed. Frannie and The Builder seem to have had a good time at their party, but we enjoyed our night in, telling each other stories and fables and certainly not drinking all the humans’ wine.

The sun is shining this morning. And we are off to visit Grandmother Gwen.

A winter holiday

2009-12-30T08:08:00.000Z

Having had a lovely Christmas, and having delivered Frank’s Humans back to his place, we, Frank, our Human’s mother Frannie and The Builder all came down to a place near Salisbury called West Dean. It’s a cute little village out in the middle of nowhere.

We’ve come to visit some of our human friends and relations down this way.

First we collected Grandmother Gwen (it was lovely to see her again) and took her to visit Rebecca and Evie and their grown ups. We had a lovely time there. There was lots of lovely lunch. Sleepy played with Rebecca’s iPhone (for some reason Frannie won’t let us play with hers - something about random calls to Australia and huge phone bills). We played chasie with Evie, and helped her set up her new laptop. We had a little wine and lots of fun, and many cuddles. And

we met a new gorilla friend who had that very day moved in to live with Rebecca. It was a

good day. And we had a lovely, quiet evening back in the flat above a barn where we are staying. There isn’t much on the television, though. And only three channels. But there are twiglets and chocolate and biscuits. And wine. We are very happy hippos and lion.

Then we went to visit our friends Barb and Greg in Barb’s lovely little cottage. There was more food and more wine. There were Christmas crackers and a cute kitty. We ate lots and drank a bit and played snakes and ladders and sat next to the roaring fire. Another good day. There is a lot to be said for

taking holidays in the winter. Fires, food and wine, and no requirement that you take any exercise. Although, I suppose if you did that for long enough you might end up rather fat. Mightn’t you, Frannie?

(Frannie is talking about her and The Builder going on a diet when she goes back to work, so they fit in their summer clothes when we all go to Australia in April. Fortunately, we will be back with our human before going to Australia and no diets are being spoken of there. Anyway, hippos and lions don’t need to fit into summer clothes. And in any case - we are not fat!!)

That’s enough for now. Today we are going to the seaside. We haven’t been to the seaside since we were in America back in September. And Frank says he can’t remember the last time he was at the seaside. We’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

We're BAAAAACK!!

2009-12-28T09:46:00.015Z

Bernard

And Sleepy Hippo

We've had an exciting few months since we last spoke to you in August

We've been to America, although our Human hasn't written up our adventures for us.

We had our Facebook account suspended after we got back, just because we aren't Human. Why would you want to be human if you could be a hippo? Stoopid Facebook Humans!

Our Human and her Mother have been taking Japanese classes. We've been helping them revise so we can talk to Kaori next time we are in Japan (オはよかおり）

And now we have been celebrating Christmas

Here's Santa Bernard, handing out presents:

And Sleepy, misbehaving AGAIN:

Here is the Christmas dinner table:

And dessert:

And now we are in Cambridge.

And this afternoon we are going with our friend Frank, our Human's mother and The Builder for nearly a week near the New Forest.

Our excellent adventures are set to begin again :-)

2009-08-21T06:53:00.001+01:00

It was our human’s birthday on Monday. We took her to York for the day.

She was very excited. She likes York. She also liked the vegan tapas bar we had heard about. We told her mother about the tapas bar and she looked it up on her iPhone and found its location. The food was lovely. We do like nice food.

Then we went shopping in all the fun shops and then went to the York Dungeon. Once we got used to the dark we had a great time. The humans were all a bit disconcerted by the squirts of water which sometimes shot at them. We hippos are not a bit worried by squirts of water. We like water.

Our human has had to go back to work. She’s moved us into a new house and she is getting ready to take us on a nice holiday in America, so she needs to work extra hard to fund all the excitement.

We have come to Cambridge to visit Frank Lyon at his place. The rest of the humans have come too.

Yesterday we all went into Cambridge with Austin, our human’s brother. He’s going back to Japan today and wanted to take a special present back for his girlfriend. So we went to a place where bears are born. It was very, very exciting to be present at the birth of our very new friend Oscar Bearrington the Third. Everyone bought lots of presents for the new bear. They bought presents for us too. We are now properly equipped with passports for legitimate international travel (no more skulking in the bottom of a bag hoping no one will spot us). Bernard also now has his very first mobile phone and Sleepy has some lovely new travel luggage. We do like presents.

Breakfast time. Outside in the sunshine in Frank’s garden, watching the rabbits hopping about. Then we might get around to pondering what we might do today. Although - we might do nothing at all.

Great excitement

2009-08-15T09:59:00.001+01:00

We’ve been BUNGEE JUMPING!!!!

At least, Frank Lion and Bernard have. We were out on a lovely walk with Frannie, The Builder, Lindsey and Ian around a village called Stanhope. Suddenly we happened upon a hipo bungee jumping place. Bernard, despite being a *retired* business hippo decided he absolutely had to have a go. And he did. And it was great fun. Alas, it was a bit big for Frank, and Sleepy decided that he had had quite enough excitemen

t watching Bernard bouncing around at the end of the bungee rope.

We progressed on our walk. And just as suddenly we happened upon a bungee jump especially for small animals. Frank leapt at the chance to have a go too. It was all great fun and not at all what we had been expecting to do when we set out on our morning constitutional!

We’ve also spent a day collecting more Romans and more Roman bathhouses. We had a mighty picnic. We’ve been on more walks. The humans do worry a great deal about us getting wet. They worried very much indeed when we had to cross some stepping stones. We have to keep reminding them that we are *hippopotamuses* and are quite used to being wet!!

Now we are back at Frannie and Jim’s place. We are having a well-deserved rest so we are ready for next week’s set of adventures. Who would have expected quite so much activity. Normally we lead very quiet lives!!

Bernard and Sleepy Hippo - Ring Bearers

2009-08-13T10:00:00.002+01:00

We have been having a really exciting time since last we spoke.

Last Friday we went to our very first wedding ceremony. We’ve been to receptions before but this was the first time we’d actually been invited to the wedding itself.

Not only that - we had a very important tak to perform. For we were to be ----- The Ring Bearers. My Preciousssssssssss. Oops. No, not that sort of ring bearer. I mean, we had to carry the wedding rings, ably assisted by The Builder’s granddaughter Rebecca.

It was a very lovely ceremony. Lots of people took lots of photos of us. The Registrar thought we were lovely.And said so. Our friend Frank the Lion and our new friend Travelling Camel were there too.

Then we all went off to have a picnic in the park. There was lots and lots of lovely food.

It was all just very lovely. Everyone was very happy.

In the evening all the humans went off to a pub for food and wine. We had a well-deserved rest.

Then on Saturday afternoon people came to Frannie and The Builder’s house and there was lots and lots of food. And even more people came on Sunday and there was even more food.

Then we stopped feasting and our human, her brother, sister and brother in law, her aunt and uncle, her mother and new step-builder and Frank and Travelling camel all came away on honeymoon.

And now we are having adventures. We have been to a Roman fort and played in the bathhouse. We’ve been on a country walk, where we managed to get lost (humans really are stupid, you know. The guide book said not to enter the penned area filled with horses and sheep. What did they do? Well of course they got lost!) and then found again by some friendly local humans. We’ve been to Durham where Frank went up the cathedral tower. We didn’t; tower steps are much too steep for small hippo legs. Frannie took us to look at the cathedral library instead. We’ve collected bridges, played cricket and croquet and recommenced feasting.

And we have been making friends with about a thousand chickens.

It’s all still very lovely.

We will tell you more. As it happens.

An excellent bear adventure

2009-07-03T11:41:00.003+01:00

Some weeks ago our pal Jeff told us that he was going to a Bear Festival in the middle of the New Forest. We thought that was a very exciting thing to do and started to wonder how we would get there. Only – we weren’t really sure where the New Forest was.

So we asked our human. She said it was hundreds of miles away on the other side of the country and much too far for us all to go, especially since we would have to take two or three trains and at least one bus to get there. Then, of course, we would have to come back again.

We were a bit disappointed, but we put our disappointment on our Twitter page and went off to do other exciting things. Like drink tea. And sleep.

Unbeknownst to us, Frannie the human’s mother was idly trawling through Twitter to while away the time on a long car journey. She noticed that we wanted to go to the Bear Festival. Aha, she thought. We could take the Hippos, and their human. We could collect The Builder’s mother too. She would like to go to a bear festival. She told The Builder about it. He thought it was a good idea too.

And so it was that last Sunday saw us all in Beaulieu in the New Forest, visiting lots of bears.

There were antique bears and artist’s bears. There were children’s bears and humans dressed as bears. There were all sorts of fun things to do. Bernard and I had our first ever portrait taken in a professional photographer’s studio. AND – we had our portrait drawn too, by a real artist. There were things to eat and things to drink. There were games to play and competitions to enter. We helped our human’s mother free a teddy princess from the clutches of an evil dragon.

The Festival took over the whole village. The sun shone. It was a lovely day. We found our friend Jeff in the school ground. He had his friend XXXXX and both their humans with him. We ran across them again later on the playing fields. We were very happy that Frannie and The Builder had been able to take us down.

Then we took Grandmother Gwen back to her house and we all drove to Cambridge, to our friend Frank the Lion’s house. His human is the sister of ours, and their cousin and his friend were staying for two night. The cousin lives in Australia usually so everyone was very pleased to see him. His friend is a very nice lady. We all sat outside in the sunshine and had pizza for a late dinner.

In Christian-the-cousin’s honour everyone had taken Monday off (not that we needed to, Bernard being a *retired* business hippo, and me being a professional sleeper). It was a lovely, sunny, summery day so we went to the market, and had iced drinks, and walked along the river and had lunch in a pub with a terrace down to the river.

Then we and our human had to go home. Frannie and The Builder wanted to get back because they had things to do. We would have quite liked to go punting with the others. But I suppose we can go to Cambridge almost any time and go punting. Frannie says she’ll come too – but only if someone else punts and she gets to sit elegantly about in a straw hat and floatie skirt. The Builder didn’t seem keen. We don’t think he likes water very much. This seems an odd attitude to two hippos!

We are sorry this has taken so long to write up. But it was such an exciting weekend that I have only just woken up from my after-weekend nap. Even Bernard has been sleepy this week. Frannie says she’ll sort our photos our this weekend. But not tonight. Tonight she is going to make ravioli and cheesecake. We think she should make ravioli and cheesecake for us too!

Here are the photos

Three Counties Show, Great Malvern

2009-06-22T13:43:00.005+01:00

We’ve been to an agricultural show. We can’t remember having been to one before. It was excellent fun.

We went with Frannie and The Builder, and their friends Bea and Steve, all the way to Great Malvern where there is a huge show grounds

There were tractors. And sheep shearers. And animals.

There were chickens and ducks and geese (Frannie wouldn’t let us bring the chickens home)

There were pigs. Frannie wouldn’t let us play with the pigs lest they bite us and refuse to give us back.

There were very soft alpacas and fluffy sheep and huge big bulls and a carthorse or three.

There were food stalls and craft stalls and chicken houses.

There were medieval archers and jousting and tents and barbecues (well, they were cooking fires but they could have been barbecues)

There was food and cider and beer.

And best of all – it DIDN’T RAIN!!!!!!!! (Though it threatened to several times!)

Then we went to a village with the remarkably wonderful name of Upton Snodsbury for the night, where we stayed in a beautiful pub, with rooms made from old barns. And with magnificent food. More than two quite small (if portly) hippos could possibly manage to eat. All the humans had many courses!

On the Sunday we explored the village and played on a farm and admired a very young foal and some minute piglets and talked to a barky dog and a very small girl.

Then we all went to Upton upon Severn for a walk along the river and a count up of all the pubs (we ran out of paws for counting and so lost count. So more than eight pubs in Upton upon Severn). And we had lunch in one of them. Fortunately, we couldn’t eat at the riverside tables because they’re not allowed to carry hot food across the road. And half way through lunch there was a VERY heavy shower. We, of course, are hippos and don’t mind getting wet. But the humans seem to be rain-averse. Something about the wet rain drops making their food go cold.

We’re at Frannie and The Builder’s place this week. Next weekend we are all going to the New Forest Bear Festival. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! Can’t wait :-)

Here are the photos

B.

A Cornish Adventure Part 2

2009-04-22T14:51:00.008+01:00

15 April

*Yawn* I got up today and went out on an adventure. It was such an exciting day that I stayed awake for nearly all of it. I only slept in the car, and I think that all three of us did that!

We went to visit our old friend Arthur at his birthplace at Tintagel. You do have to wonder why our mystical friends chose to have birthplaces and other hang outs in such out of the way, inaccessible and above all - STEEP places! All I can say is thank heavens for the doughty Frannie and redoubtable Builder who carried us up and down. Those steps were much too steep for tiny hippo legs to deal with. Even my longer legs would have struggled. But it was all worth it. The views from the top were magnificent. We made friends with two black labradors called Hector and Henry. We scrambled about. We went back down from the island headland and up to the main part of the castle on the mainland. Even with Frannie and The Builder carrying us, it was a solid afternoon’s work for two sleepy animals and a retired business hippo. Fortunately we had had hearty pasties before setting off to fortify us. I was ready for an after lunch snooze after that.

There is nothing left of King Arthur’s father’s castle. The remains now are mostly medieval. And a great deal drier than the iron age village. The sun shone and it was lovely and warm.

We went back to Tintagel Village via the Saxon and Norman church and stopped to talk to two black pigs on the way. We ran across Hector and Henry again in the Old Post Office. We had restorative ice creams before hopping back in the car and travelling to Camelford, to collect it for Lindsey. We all decided we were too tired to go to Padstow as planned and came back to the house, where we spent a pleasant late afternoon telling our adventures to Cookie, dining well and then retiring for a very well earned rest. It really was an exciting day.

********************

16th April

The mist and the rain are back today. The humans are off to Eden. The hippos and I have decided to have a day off exploring. We are still tired from all the excitements of yesterday. And tomorrow is our last day. We are expecting many food excitements tomorrow. We need to be ready and rested! Right time for a nap before breakfast.

SB. [Sleepy Bear]
__________________

18th April

I tell you - you can’t take Bernard anywhere!

We were on our way to Polperro to talk to the smugglers when we completely inadvertently found ourselves close to a medieval castle. We all decided to call in. Pottering about on the steps we were, when Bernard decided he just had to storm the castle. He leapt from the travel basket and stood upon the stair, brandishing his paw. “The castle is mine!” he heroically declared. “Attempt to breach my defences if you dare!!!” Talk about an embarrassment. He has no idea how a RETIRED business hippo ought to be behaving!

Frannie recaptured him and put him back in the travel basket. She was muttering something about how English Heritage might not be best pleased to find that their castle had been commandeered by a small, elderly hippo.

We went to find a beautiful Tudor bridge over the river Fowey in nearby Lostwithiel. Fortunately, Bernard wasn’t minded to storm that. He seemed more interested in the provisions on the picnic table in the park.

Then we got back on track to find the smugglers in Polperro.

The talking map device took us along some very, very, very narrow winding lanes. It was very exciting and a little nervous-making. And when we finally reached Polperro we discovered that we had come into the back entrance. And only authorised traffic was supposed to proceed between certain dates. Except we didn’t see when the dates were. But we thought it highly unlikely that we were in an authorised vehicle. But The Builder said there was no room to turn the car around. And even if we had, we couldn’t have gone very far because there was other, possibly authorised, perhaps not, traffic behind us. He drove very, very, very carefully through the amazingly narrow streets, failed to run any holiday makers over (thank goodness) and drove us out of the town again.

We fled, before any smugglers or excise men could come and impound the car!

And took the Main Roads back to Megavissey where Frannie had promised us lunch in a seafood restaurant overlooking the harbour. It was a very magnificent lunch. And much less fraught trying to get to it.

And then it was back to the cottage for a last talk to the horses and to Cookie and to the puppy, and a last sleep on the fluffy sleeping cushions, before we had to come back home again. Except that we haven’t made it home yet. We’re still in Tupton. We’ve been telling our friends Jack and Janet, and Marlo all about our adventures.

SH.

__________________

Postcript

We’ve got some lovely photos. Frannie says she’ll put them on our website and on Bernard and Sleepy Hippo's Facebook page later. But she has to go back to work today so it may not be until tonight. She was muttering yesterday about how she would like to look for a nice little part time job so she can spend more time idling about in her garden. We can certainly see the temptation of the garden. But she needs to get her priorities right. Her top priority is to raise the wherewithal to fund further hippo (and bear) adventures!!!

B SH & SB.

A Cornish Adventure Part 1

2009-04-20T07:42:00.003+01:00

12 April

Bernard and Sleepy Bear and I are in Cornwall, staying in a tiny, tiny cottage surrounded by horses. The horses are very friendly. There are also very friendly dogs and the most friendly cat in the whole Universe. He’s huge. And very friendly!

Sleepy Bear has found a snuggle cushion. We’ve hardly been able to get him off it since we got here. But Bernard and I have been being quite adventurous. We went with the human's mother and The Builder yesterday to look for a supermarket. We didn’t find one in St Austell but we did find one in Truro. We also found a cathedral. And we found a huge river of mud. It did eventually fill up with water but the first time we went past it looked as though it would be a great place for two hippos to stop and play. Alas, Frannie and The Builder seemed to think the mud might be a bit deep for two very small hippos and took us to play in Mevagissey instead. We would like to go back to Mevagissey - there were lots of beaches and rocks and things to play with and we only had a couple of hours. There were also lots of pubs which all served Cornish beer and Cornish cider. Frannie said we couldn’t have lots to sample because Holy Saturday is supposed to be a day of restraint. Can’t say we noticed her being restrained. She had lots and lots of fresh scallops AND some rattler cider!

But today is Easter Sunday and Chocolate Day.

The sun is shining. While Frannie is organising our festive breakfast, we might try and wake up Sleepy Bear and take him out to talk to the horses. We might see if we can find that cat again too.

Happy Easter Everyone!

SH.
__________________

13 April

Well now. Chocolate Day turned out to be very exciting, especially for me!

Sleepy Hippo and I went out to talk to the horses. We found nice, still horses for us to ride. It was so exciting being outside in the warm sunshine on a huge tall (but still) horse that we ran back inside and forced Sleepy Bear to wake up and come out to play too.

Then we came inside to explore our chocolate options.

Then - an Alsatian puppy came in to say hello. He was very charming. Except for when he tried to pick me up in his mouth and Take Me Away!!!! Frannie had to step in sharply to rescue me. Heaven only knows where I might have ended up! The Sleepies dozed through all that excitement.

It was such a beautiful day that we made Sleepy Bear wake up and come with us for the day. The human's mother said that we were going out in search of some lost gardens. And we had to travel along many very narrow, very winding roads to find them. Although, it has to be said that they were quite well sign posted when we got very close to them. I don’t really think they are lost anymore, although it seems that they were very lost indeed for nearly 70 years and were only found again by some sort of accident. We had a lovely time exploring and had scones and elderflower presse for lunch sat enjoying the sunshine. We went for a woodland walk. We found two giants and another giant who was a bit hard to see - but will be wonderful when her foliage grows properly. We admired the sea views.

Then we came back to the cottage for a well deserved rest. Our kitty friend Cookie came for a rest too. Kitty friends are much less boisterous than puppy ones. At least they don’t try to kidnap you!!

Overcast and very windy today. Frannie and The Builder are lazing abed and drinking coffee. They say we are going out and doing History today. We’re ready!!

B.
__________________

14 April

It was an extremely wet day yesterday. Sleepy Bear decided to take the day off. At least, that’s what we assumed he had done. When we asked if he was coming out with us, he curled up on his fluffy sleeping pillow and put his paw over his eyes. We took that to be a no!

But Bernard, Frannie, The Builder and I are made of sterner stuff than that. We went out in search of an iron age village. We went up, up, up a hill and found the village at the top. The houses were round and made of very solid stones. You could see that they would have been very cosy. If they had had roofs! The human's mother says that they did have roofs but that the thatch hasn’t survived. She may be right!

We tried to convince her that we were hippos and quite enjoyed wet and windy conditions. But she said that we are fluffy hippos and need to keep dry and made us stay in our new travelling basket. She keeps thwarting us when we find lovely muddy pace to play!

She also wouldn’t let us go to Land’s End, even though neither we nor The Builder have ever been. She says that she’s been and that it is a particularly Not Nice theme park and that once was enough, thank you very much. So we went to a place called Sennen Cove which is just along a bit from Land’s End and had lunch in a pub where we all dried out and had a potter about - and then drove across country and along the windy, picturesque coast road back to the cottage. It was a very pretty drive.

We got back and found Sleepy Bear still sleeping. We woke him up for our magnificent dinner which we had gathered in farm shops and restorative wine which we had got in a Co-op out in the middle of nowhere. And then we all went to bed.

It’s not actually raining today. I think we might be going out again soon. I wonder if Sleepy Bear will come too. I wonder where Cookie is. We haven’t seen him since we went out yesterday morning. At breakfast time yesterday he was knocking at the door to be let in!!

SH.

More to come

A springtime jaunt to Cambridge

2009-04-07T11:54:00.007+01:00

Spring has sprung!

It must have. Not only has Sleepy Hippo woken up after a long winter’s doze – but so has Sleepy Bear who has been hibernating, with one or two notable periods of wakefulness, since about October. Or, maybe November!

And – not only that, but we have found an amanuensis who also seems to be awake. At least, she has put our photos up for us. It is true that our Human stirred long enough to put our snowy photos up back in February (you can see our snow adventures here), but all our scribes, secretaries and junior office staff seem to have passed the winter dozing. Some surrounded by lots of empty bottles. Some snuggled into feather beds and quilt pillows. Some hazily munching on vegemite toast.

Frannie, however, seems to be awake and reasonably efficient. I think it’s because she’s been down in the greenhouse, where it’s been nice and warm, comparatively speaking. Seems to have kept her brain cell alert.

Anyway. Sleepy Hippo and I had a grand time in Las Vegas back in the dark days of winter. A very lovely lady, Yvonne and a very lovely gentleman, Nico, decided the most lovely way to spend New Years Eve is to spend it in Las Vegas. We agreed. So we went with them! We may even put up a belated post about the trip when we're completely back on form - but if you can't wait for that here are some photos!

Even Sleepy Bear managed to wake up to play in the snow storms of February. We all more or less dozed through the dreariness of March. And now the sun has returned, the days have lengthened, the jumpers have gone away and it’s time to get out and play.

So we did. We shoved our Human protesting and grumbling out of her bed on Sunday morning so we could go down to Cambridge, driven by The Builder and navigated by Frannie ably helped by Jenny-the-SatNav, to visit our friend Frank and his new housemate Cookie Monster. It was a beautiful day, just right for a nice drive around in the country. We went on a beautiful drive up across the hills and down through the valleys. Even Sleepy Bear managed to wake up once or twice to admire the view.

We got to Frank’s place and introduced ourselves to Cookie Monster, and to the new fish who have moved in to what was the Venerable Dicken’s tank. The humans caught Bricknell and Hennie and put them back in their run. Then The Sleepies and Cookie retired for a Sunday doze on the sofa in the sunshine. Frank and I escorted the humans down through Cambridge, along past the Backs of the Colleges and down to the river to the Anchor where we all stopped for a delicious lunch. There was a post-lunch pause for ice cream, then we all wandered hither and thither along the rivers and canals and pathways, enjoying the sunshine, oggling, I mean admiring the birds, laughing at the punters (that’s people on punts, not gamblers, though we would have laughed a them too!) and generally taking some much needed spring exercise.

Finding ourselves back in town, in a shopping mall which the Credit Crunch, which has been so-exercising the venous minds of the humans, has apparently failed to find, we called in to a purveyor of gentleman’s clothing. The Sleepies appear to have become slightly vague of sight over the winter, so we acquired corrective spectacles for them. And a truly magnificent hat for me to wear when we escort Frannie and The Builder down to Cornwall next week. It will meet the duel need of protecting me from excessive exposure to the sun *and* from excessive rain. We moved on. The Human and The Human's Sister gambolled in the Disney Store. Frannie, The Builder and Gareth disported themselves with seemly dignity in the Sunday Market. Then we returned to Frank’s house, where his humans were expecting the arrival of a friend who has come to pass his holidays with them. The Human collected the Sleepies from their Sunny Sofa and, with the assistance of The Builder, we returned her to Sheffield. Sleepy Hippo, Sleepy Bear and I are staying at Frannie and The Builder’s house this week so we can visit with Jack and Janet – not to mention Marlo - and be ready to leave fairly early on Friday morning for our trip to Cornwall.

And while we are away, the human will be having a holiday too. She’s coming to stay with Marlo. A magnificent holiday, if you ask me, snuggling with Marlo.

More later in the week. But here are The Sleepies and me with Jack and Janet, once again on a sofa in the sunshine!

P.S. Happy Easter.

Happy Birthday Wendy and Beary Christmoose to all!

2008-12-26T15:06:00.016Z

Happy Birthday Wendy for yesterday!! Come on now, altogether or not at all: Hippo Birdie Two Ewes!

Also, We Wish You a Beary Fish Moose!

On Christmas Eve the human went out and saw friends and delivered presents [Don't get the wrong idea, she's not Santa!]. We stayed in and wrapped the remaining presents, put the carrots out for the Reindeer and the milk for Santa, listened to Christmas songs and watched the Muppet Christmas Carol.

When the human got home we persuaded her that we should pull the sofa bed out in the lounge room so we could keep an eye out for Santa. We snuggled in bed, watching the Christmas lights around the fire place and a few Christmas specials on TV whilst we waited for Santa...

No!!! We woke up and Santa had been! The carrots are gone, the milk glass is empty!! We missed him!!! Next year, we won't leave Sleepy Hippo and his friend, Sleepy Bear, in charge of Mission: Santa. But no time to be sad - It's Christmoose!!

We opened the presents that were waiting under the tree (and the ones at the end of the bed from Santa). The human was very happy with her presents. We were too. Then we made Christmas breakfast and Christmas cups of tea [the best kind of tea!] and watched children's television [which we're sure is really toy television because all our toy family love it!] until the chauffeurs arrived to take us down to Tabba and Gaz's.

We swapped presents with the chauffeurs (including Frannie's belated birthday presents). Well, we say swapped, we gave them presents and the human gave them presents and they gave the human a pasta maker [which we're very much looking forward to her using for us!] but our presents were waiting in the car, so we had to wait until we got to Cambridge. We had to wait so long for Santa and now we have to wait again!!

The chauffeurs described the drive as good - enough cars that you didn't feel you were driving through the end of the world, but not enough to slow you down in any way. In fact, there were so little cars that we arrived just as Tabba was planning on having a Christmas bath. She was a little upset until she remember she was about to get presents :D

We had cups of tea and Gaz, the Chef of Christmas Present, cooked us up snacks [Don't worry - he cooked snacks for us, he didn't cook us into snacks!] and we all gave out presents. There was wrapping paper everywhere - it was very exciting! Sleepy Hippo and I blatantly got the best presents of the day. Mine was sold to Frannie by elves, Sleepy Hippo's was knitted by Frannie herself!

After that there was more food and then some people had Christmas naps and others listened to Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's Movie Game on Radio 5. Then there was Dr Whooooo and we sent out Christmas messages to our fluffy friends [Hello bearplace!]. Some people got very excited about Christmas Hollyoaks but we were just wait wait wait waiting for the new Wallace and Gromit - which we enjoyed very much! There were more Christmas naps for some and others listened to silly songs and then watched silly television. There was lots of laughter from them!

Then it was nearly bed time so we snuggled down and watched Penelope - which was a lovely fairy tale about a girl with the nose and ears of a pig. Then we fell asleep watching Definitely, Maybe, the DVD we bought for Gaz. It was a very lovely day.

Today, we're having a nice relaxing Boxing Day, playing with the presents [even other people's presents - Shhh] and waiting for the Big Meal by Frannie, the Chef of Boxing Day Present and Christmas Future.

Then it might be time for the traditional Boxing Day cinema trip. We might go, or we might relax. Time for a bath perhaps?

See our Christmas fun here!

B.

Our Excellent London Adventure

2008-12-08T19:40:00.007Z

We have had a lovely time this weekend, helping Frannie celebrate her birthday.

We all went to London on the train. It was very exciting. The train went along the same route that goes past Frannie and The Builder's house. It was a beautiful day but the sun was shining brightly quite low in the sky so it was hard to see. But we did see their house. And their greenhouse. We didn't see Marlo though. I think he was asleep on his radiator hammock inside.

The train was a bit late into London. But that was OK. We weren't in any hurry. And the hotel we were staying in was quite close to the station. We checked in, got organised and then all four of us went out for a stroll in the late afternoon sunshine. We looked in some shops and pottered around and then went to the Marquis Cornwallis for a pre-prandial pint. Actually, it turned into pre-prandial wines, and then prandial wines as Frannie and The Builder decided to stay there and while away the evening over wine and food and general chit chat.

We all slept very well. Apart from Frannie, who seemed to have lots of dreams featuring ziggurats. We think she might have been over excited by the planned visit to the British Museum on Sunday to see the Babylon exhibition!

So. Breakfast, and then a stroll along Bernard Street to get to the museum [SH reminds me to inform you that if you are on facebook you can see the original Bernard Street saga here here here here and here. Frannie says that she has always wanted to have an apartment over the Brunswick Centre as a nice London town pad. We can certainly see the attraction , especially now that the complex has been smartened up and has a Waitrose and various food outlets downstairs. But why would you live there, when you could live in Bernard Mansion? I think we have convinced her that an apartment in Bernard Mansion is the way to go!

We enjoyed the British Museum. The Babylon exhibition had some magnificent lions, and a bull and a lovely dragon. It also had lots of paintings and clay tablets and other things which were all very interesting in their way, I suppose. But Sleepy Hippo and I really would have liked to have spent more time talking to our new friends the lions, the bull and the dragon.

Frannie and The Builder took us to a pub that they've been to before for Sunday lunch and a drop more wine. Then we made our way down Charing Cross Road to the River Thames, pausing on the way to admire Trafalgar Square. We had to cross the river over the new footbridge, for we were being taken for a ride on the London Eye, which is a huge Ferris wheel. You get fantastic views over London and it isn't a bit scary, even though it's very, very high, because you're in an enclosed capsule and can't possibly fall out. It was an excellent adventure for two small hippos.

But what to do after the ride was finished? Frannie and The Builder offered us a boat trip along the river. Even more exciting. We all sat outside in the sunshine (still very bright and very low), although it was really quite cold. We snuggled up in Frannie's scarf and hat and kept nice and warm and enjoyed watching London float past us.

Then it was time to head back to the station. We were very early but there is a lovely pub at the
station named for some poet who fought a long, hard battle to stop people knocking down the building. We don't really know why anyone would have wanted to knock down such a lovely building. It looks like a fairy's beautiful birthday cake. But Frannie says that they did and the poet, who loved trains and stations, almost single-handedly saved it and now he has a statue in the station and the station pub named after him. And it's a lovely pub. It does good food and serves nice wine and has a dining room and a snug and Christmas trees.

We got home quite late and have been resting today. Frannie tells us that we have been invited to go to Gran Canaria next week. We hope that Freyja has been looking out our sunscreen and straw hats!

The photos are on our Facebook site. If you don't have a Facebook account and would like to see the photos, let Frannie or Freyja know and they'll organise it for you. We've just put our Cambridge photos up on picassa.

B.

Publish Post

Australia

2008-12-06T12:17:00.005Z

Apologies to the complainers about the lack of Australia story. Apologies to the non complainers who are wondering why they are reading this. We didn’t really know how to blog our Australia holiday, as it wasn’t really a holiday, more just going to the other home. As we don’t blog our England home, why blog the Aussie one?

But the guilt tripping has worked. So here you go.

You can see our trip photos here (on picassa) or here and here on facebook.

We had a few plane “issues” which we’ll deal with in a bumper plane edition in the near future.

We arrived in Melbourne and saw no one at the gate so went to freshen up before collecting our bags and meeting the father and the friend. Only the father and the friend weren’t there. Perhaps they were at international arrivals, perhaps we didn’t tell them we were coming via Cairns and getting a domestic. Nope, not at international arrivals either. Now, the friend, we’ll call her Julia, had been meeting us at an airport in North Carolina a year earlier to this and hadn’t been there when we’d got off the plane either. Surely she wouldn’t have done it again?! But they were definitely nowhere to be seen.

Eventually they turned up - blaming us! They had been at the gate. Only not from the moment it had opened so must have missed us. How dare we go to the toilet?! All we know is, “Julia” is on two strikes! (We’ve also decided to stop mentioning this from now as it’ll only come back to haunt us when we’re not there to meet her some time).

So we drove to Julia’s new apartment and checked out its awesomeness, our room, more of the awesomeness, the pool and generally were just in awe of its awesomeness. Then the human’s father went back to Ballarat, the human and the friend Julia, and the friend Julia’s sister, Lucy, went to some funky Musical premier thing. We stayed at home and recuperated. The human reports there was a lot of standing and a lot of screaming and a lot of d-list Aussie celebrities who we had heard of, but perhaps not many non Aussies would, and lots more screaming, and then the stars and then so much screaming you needed ear plugs, and a security guard woman who looked like a 12 year old boy, and then Julia got an autograph (not by crushing any 10 year olds she says) from a lady called Vanessa, and they took lots of photos and had a great time. We stayed at home and rested and secretly watched Julia and Lucy’s DVDs.

The night we had pizza and pasta from Papa Gino’s (we’re on holiday – we can have both!) and snoozed some more.

The next day the humans went out and did human things whilst we relaxed around the pool. They came back from the city with lots of exciting food shopping (they even found vegetarian prawns at the local supermarket!) and a million DVDs. We settled in with them to eat amazing dinner, dessert and snacks (all of which were sorely missed when we were out of the country) and watched Horton Hears a Who and Maid of Honour. Even two masculine grown up hippos such as ourselves enjoy a girly movie night now and again. We definitely suggest everyone sees Horton Hears a Who, by the way.

Friday was the day of The Wedding. So Julia, who is very nice and very special indeed and lovely for all the driving she was to do for us this week, drove us to Geelong where the humans went for lunch with a long time family friend, we’ll call her “Irene”, and we went for a stroll on the beach. Then we all went hunting for the Russian Orthodox church somewhere in Geelong, found it with time to spare and went op shopping. [The human just mentioned that whilst op shopping she’s certain the father and the friend bought her scarf type things which she never saw again]. Then the father and Julia went for coffee and cake whilst the human went to The Wedding (of a primary school friend of her’s). Between The Wedding and The Reception a trip to TimeZone, with the father and the friend, was in order (very traditional). Then to The Reception for a couple of hours, whilst the father and Julia, again very kindly and lovelyingly, went to the movies to kill time. Then back to Ballarat and Buninyong.

After all this driving around we were exhausted and also were very happy to be back with some of our Australian family and so decided to stay around the house for the weekend, spending time with them, relaxing (someone forgot to tell Freyja that that is what holidays are for), wandering around the garden and such. Freyja decided she had to get as much done and see as many people as possible (crazy crazy humans!). Various exciting things that didn’t involve us so we won’t dwell include lunch with various friends and family (including Ian, Zoy and Ross), visiting Emily (a cousin) at Lindsey and Ian’s house, dragging Lindsey and Ian and her dad to Chat For Tea to her favourite Vegetarian Asian Tea Garden/Restaurant in Ballarat (yes it’s the only one), seeing Death Race with Zoy, having Fun with Julia, Lucy and Zoy, a big family lunch in Mt Martha (which we were sad to miss) and on the way back to Buninyong, seeing the Big Apple (which we were even sadder to miss!), dropping in on another family friend, having Fun with some primary school friends (from The Wedding) and visiting The Bride, where the human’s dad kept them there until 2am talking to The Bride’s Mother (although he’ll claim he was just waiting for the human to be ready to leave…)

Anne, who we were staying with, made us a lovely Hello/Goodbye dinner on the Sunday and then Monday morning meant it was time to leave the Ballarat/Buninyong area and return to Melbourne (first though, an early lunch with Ross, Anne and Friend Pat), via a quick stop to say hello/goodbye to more cousins, Ant and Christian, who were battling giant spiders in The Shed). We took the train to Melbourne and visited Ian and Lindsey’s flat, which was very nice. Then Zoy took the human to Karaoke with Julia and Lucy and some friends of Julia and Lucy (and on the way showed us the DVD of his performance as Gaston in Beauty and The Beast… we’ll say nothing).

The final day arrived. We diligently stayed home and packed, whilst the human went out and had more Fun with her dad. Lunching in the city with a friend, Rod, visiting the Western Bulldogs shop in Footscray, hanging with Lucy, dinnering at Ian and Lindsey’s again (although sans Ian and avec Simon and Emily), seeing some crazy 3D movie at Imax, where the friend Julia works, (which did sound far too scary for us, to be honest). Some friends came around and Bernard had a nice snooze with one of them whilst the human stayed up and waited to leave for the airport (at about 5am gulp!)

Then there was some more plane drama that, yes, will be dealt with later.

The Long Weekend

2008-11-15T06:52:00.003Z

Ohayo! Welcome to Gifu.

We were exhausted from all the travelling in Tokyo and so took a back seat over the next few days of adventuring. Mostly deciding to hang around Austin’s place whilst the two humans went out and had fun. Because they were out having fun and we weren’t there – we won’t go into great detail – who really wants to know what the humans were up to??

We had to try Pepsi Yoghurt (yes, that’s Yoghurt flavoured Pepsi) which was crazy weird!

The human was meeting Austin’s girlfriend in Nagoya and so before they left, she had to learn an introduction in Japanese. Austin translated it himself so we don’t if what she was saying is what she thought she was saying or not. In Nagoya, she tells us they looked at awesome shops with awesome things, Austin looked at some shoes he liked (Monopoly shoes!) but they only did the best ones as girls shoes and they were very expensive! Then they checked out the arcades and went to Mister Donut for a donut before dinner. A bit more walking, a look at the Apple Store, some good signs and some good stores and then it was time for the restaurant and meeting Kaori. According to Freyja the self introduction went okay, as did her list of questions. They had what sounds like Japanese tapas with lots of yummy things (lots of which were vegetarian) and then went to an Irish Pub. Back to Gifu for some Karaoke and then bed time.

The next day they went for a drive around Gifu and checked out Austin’s school. Then they stopped at a little fair where some guy (possibly Australian) was playing didgeridoo. There were a lot of children who kept calling out to Austin. We don’t know if that means he is a celebrity there or if they are just all his students. One asked if Freyja was Austin’s girlfriend (ewwww!). Then they went to a big arcade place. We’ve seen the video of the human playing some baseball game – hilarious – but she did hit a couple (she looked as shocked as the rest of us). A few more alien catcher games and some sticker photos (which looked cool) and it was time for home, a movie and some mashed potato.

Mashed potato and tofu seemed an odd combination but it tasted okay.

We actually got to play with Kaori. She kept patting our heads and took some nice photos with us. We didn't need to learn a self introduction - we were cute enough to get away with no language skills.

Next day was another day of rest for us, and for the human this time. Sat round the house, slept for a very long time and caught up with things. In the evening she and Austin did go out for dinner again in an Italian restaurant (where Austin met someone he’d known at uni in Australia – crazy!). Austin turned into the Japanese master – it turned out the plain tomato pasta had bacon in it but he was able to check out what else was vegetarian and saved the day. A few more goes on some alien catcher games (the human may be addicted) and then Eagle Eye at the movies. They also checked out this awesome second hand store, which had a crazy mixture of clothes, games, toys and gaming merchandise.

Then on the last day, the human and us went on a big walk around Gifu and checked it out whilst Austin was at school. We had a nosey around the big supermarket and walked around the residential areas. There was a really interesting mix of traditional houses and new(ish) apartment blocks. Then time to pack :( and off to the plane.

The Final FriDay (Jason goes to hell)

2008-11-15T06:03:00.004Z

So the human woke us at 5.40am!!!! She was apparently planning on us all waking up at 7.00am but woke up early and thought it was a mistake to go back to sleep for an hour. If she had to be up so did we! Think about poor Sleepy Hippo!

Another all you can eat breakfast and a man comes up and calls Freyja beautiful (suspicious again!) he then asked to take her photo which he would email her.

A very nice human lady Kumi suggested we go to Asakusa. She said it is “an old part of Tokyo. It has Sensoji temple and lots of stalls there with traditional food and gifts”. We went and it was very exciting! We enjoyed the traditional buildings, the market (which was selling a lot of fun touristy traditional gifts and presents, mixed with lots of Doraemon), a stall selling Octopus, which had a big banner of an Octopus cooking it (does that mean he’s a cannibal?), seeing a fair ground and having lots and lots of people smile at us!

Then the human was having lunch with the other human again and we went to Ginza, which had lots of pretty shops and funny looking buildings. There was a Krispy Kreme which the human’s friend explained often has queues so long it goes up and down the street! Talking about queues, apparently H&M is very popular here and new in Tokyo. We saw one that was opening for the first time soon - there were people camping out!

Then quickly back to Harajuku for some money spending and present buying. The human got into trouble for not taking her shoes off in the changing room (she’s always getting us in trouble, very embarrassing). We’d wanted to go to Yoyogi (Park) but we ran out of time so we’ll just have to come back again!

Back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then to the train station. Freyja’s suitcase was very full (mostly with magazines for Austin). She was dragging it down the stairs at the train station and just as she was saying to us that “if this was America someone would have stopped (her) and offered to carry her bag down the…” – an American man stopped her and offered to carry her bag down the stairs.

Time for some Shinkasen action and then Austin!!! Another train and a car drive tour and we’re at Austin’s! We had a snooze in the tatami mat room whilst they went and checked out the supermarket. The loaves of bread here are available in eight, four slices or even three slices! We spent quite a while working out why you could possibly want just three slices of bread (it’s not even two sandwiches!) We’re going with three people who each want one sausage each. Or for a really small sausage sizzle!

The human tells me they went out to dinner at a restaurant which Austin takes everyone. So much so, the waiter exclaimed (in Japanese) it had been a long time since Austin had been in and asked if he wanted the usual. They had yummy tempura (Austin had the shrimp) with rice and soup.

Then they came home and played Mario Kart and we kept sleeping.

SH.

The Day After Tomorrow

2008-11-10T05:46:00.005Z

Hello!

We are dictating this to Freyja on some grass near the Imperial Palace in the sun (it's not been incredibly sunny whilst we've been here but it's been nice and warm).

So breakfast time! Breakfast time! [scroll down to the bottom for the breakfast menu] For 320 Yen (down from 370!) you get unlimited serve yourself tea (and they had at least 20 kinds of tea!), coffee, soup (corn cream instant soup), and toast (which you toasted yourself!). We didn’t eat very much as we were about to go out for lunch.

The second part of the bank money story is coming up now! The human asked the reception human where the Citibank was and he gave her a map and we realised we were right next to the place the night before when we were hanging outside the Metropolitan Art thingy, because it was in the Metropolitan plaza next door on the 9th floor. It didn’t work.

After getting the Marunouchi Line to Korakun and the Ginza Line to Hibya (with a brief stop somewhere that turned out to be a mistake and we had to get back on the Marunouchi Line) we were to get out of Hibya at B7 (or the station next to Hibya at Exit 1 as they were right next to each other). Only on the Hibya Station map there was only A0-9. I said to the human that there must be a B if there was an A (plus we’d been told to go to B) but it definitely wasn’t on the map.

So we left at A7 and found a street map that indicated that the other station was straight up the long road. Just as we were about to set off up the street a very nice Japanese man stopped to help. He was apparently not from around here and was able to read out loud the human’s notes but not understand them. We remembered the word for station and he looked excited. He took us to a police lady who pointed us back to where we just were for Hibya (it’s awkward when people start to help when you already know what to do!) but managed to understand we wanted the next station.

The human found the other human to have lunch with and they had bagels. Then a walk around the area (it seemed like a financially/Bond streety district) and up to the Imperial Palace.

Freyja says that outside the Imperial Palace some guy took a photo of her taking a photo of us, but blatantly he was taking a photo of us having our photo taken. Another nice lady patted us on the head and called us “Moomi” which we hope doesn’t mean she was calling us a Moomin because they scare us. She said no to a photo of us, but then offered to hold Bernard up in a photo so we sneakily took one of her too (hehehe). Then a policeman took a photo of the human (the only photo the human has of herself in Tokyo).

After a walk around the gardens, we decided to move on. Standing in front of a map, considering where to go next (Shibuya or Shinjuku first?) and the human was just saying to us “If we stay here any longer someone is going to be super nice and offer to help, even though we know where we are” and got cut off by a super nice lady offering to help. We acted out that we were just thinking and she went on her way.

So to Shibuya (how can it be bad if it’s called Booya?) where we found an amazing Disney store (the human was a little embarrassing at this point). Then lots of walking and wandering around and lots of lights!

Whilst walking around aimlessly, we found the Shibuya crossing (featured in movies! Such as Lost in Translation and Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift) which the human made us cross even though we were right next to the station entrance. We took the train to Akihabara again (as we hadn’t stayed very long the time before).

We played games machines (UFO Catcha), sweet winning machines, looked at bright lights, saw all the awesome things in the awesome shops, won a big mouse guy who is a chef (he has a chef hat, an apron and is holding pancakes), more lights, more games, lots of excitement and pain to our retinas.

Time for the train to Shinjuku, where we decided that Tabata sounds like Tabitha and so Tabitha must go there and get a photo with the sign. Shinjuku was more walking, more lights, more shops, and more feet pain! Lots of fun.

On the way home, a man called Freyja beautiful (which we found suspicious) and then asked for 500 yen (see!). We are always suspicious when people call her beautiful (follow up on this in the next blog!)

Dinner in the café downstairs again, pack our bags because we’re leaving tomorrow (boo hoo) and then bed (you know I was excited about that part!).

SH.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

2008-11-06T22:23:00.003Z

(stood still for about three minutes before we walked everywhere again!)

So it all started off with a misunderstanding at Starbucks. Yes, we know what people think about Starbucks, but the human wanted english breakfast tea (it was breakfast) and they do it! First off, she was a little embarrassed about not being able to get it (whilst the doors are automatic, on some of them you have to press a big grey blocky thing so it'll open) she ordered it, was given a little tub to put the tea bag in (a splendid idea!) and then the lady behind the counter started talking in very fast Japanese and pointing at a Christmas menu. In hindsight, I explained to Freyja that I think they were doing samples and asking if she wanted any, but I was in the bag at the time and couldn't help.

Breakfast today consisted of a chunky chocolate chip bread thing from the Family Mart down the road. We all decided that they surely wouldn't put meat in with chocolate so we should be safe. It turned out to have its own surprise - filled with yummy chocolate goo! N'yum N'yum N'yum!

A few trains later, Harajuku! I cannot decide if it is a good thing or not no such place is in Sheffield. If it was, the human would be very happy, but very poor and would stop buying things for me and SH. I shall ponder this.

Anyways, ups and downs many many many streets of excitement and wonderment and awesomeness. I think, apart from the lack of hippos, there was anything the human could ever want! She wouldn't be able to eat, but she'd have a very exciting house! She also seemed overly excited by the sock stores. Who knew someone could love socks so much? Sadly for her, but luckily for us and her bank account, it turns out her bank card doesn't work here (more on that later) so she could not buy very much at all. We walked all around with no real plan and saw a big store with King Kong on it.

We stopped at another Starbucks (sorry - there are millions of them!) as the human had arranged the possibility of meeting with the other human again today so needed to check emails and had been told that Starbucks always had wifi in Tokyo. This turned out not to be true, but it did mean we got to make a nice temporary friend who was sat next to us also trying to get wifi. After that more walking and looking at fancy things and places selling lots of exciting clothes (although not Austin's Beatles tshirt), Gumby, Carebear, Doraemon, Powerpuff girls, Nintendo, socks, presents, shoes, excitement!

Now a quick trip to Akihabara (Electric Town). It was verrryyyy preettty. And I mean that in the way those little insects get caught into those bright light insect killing machines. So many lights! So much excitement! We watched some people play some exciting games. There were lots of those games where you try to grab the prize, only in so many varieties with much more exciting prizes. Instead of trying to get something in one go, the aim seemed to be to pick something up and nudge it ever so slightly until it falls off the edge. We had to pull the human away because she gets very addicted to those types of machines and we could see something bad happening.

We went upstairs in one of the arcades to see all the exciting games and fun, only to find we couldn't get down again! We used the fire escape stairs to the second floor when the fire escape stairs had a big sign up saying no good (or something to that effect) - good thing there wasn't a fire! Then we found more stairs in the middle of the shop. I'm not sure our brains could have survived all the flashing lights had we been stuck in there forever (even if our brains are just fluffy fluff).

Then the 7-11 (this is the first part of the sad non-use of bank part of the story). We finally spotted a 7-11 which we had been told would take our bank card. It did not. Oops! We then walked around a lot of Akihabara looking at the pretty lights and for another 7-11 (just in case the first one was just moody!)

I started to get tired and Sleepy Hippo was already done for, so we took a nice train home to Ikebukuro. The human was exhausted and must have looked it, because another nice man gave up his seat for her and us and all our bags.

Back at the hotel, a discussion with the human's mother and brother formulated the plan to find a Citibank which apparently accepts all cards ever known to man kind. There is one in Ikebukuro but we didn't know where. We decided, after a nice rest, to go vaguely look for it but really explore Ikebukuro.

We mostly found restaurants and restaurants and restaurants and restaurants. Freyja says she also saw a couple of "naughty adult" stores, but why any one would want to buy a naughty human, I have no idea! We also found lots more bright lights! Then we stumbled upon what we later found out was the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Centre (a funny looking building) and we sat outside it in what seemed to be a general outdoor sitting area, and watched some teenagers make up dances. They were scarily good at all doing the same thing.

By then it was getting ready late, so we came back to the hotel and had pizza at the restaurant downstairs (Margherita pizza is hopefully vegetarian, right?) and then bed time.

Sleepy Hippo and I were worried that posting every day/every other day was too often, but we're already having complaints for being too slow! We did want to say thanks for all the comments and emails - its nice to know people are out there, reading this.

B.

These paws are made for walking

2008-11-06T01:12:00.006Z

And that's mostly what we've done!

The human seems mostly to have forgotten that we have very small feet and no shoes [suggestion for a christmas present if ever I saw one! - SH] and has taken it open herself to walk EVERYWHERE!

On the first night after a nice long shower, in the world's deepest but shortest bath, we travelled the trains again. The system here is kind of fun. There's a big board (usually with English translation) that tells you how much to pay to get to wherever it is you want to go, you put the money in and you get a little ticket. When you get to the other end there are Fare Adjustment Machines that you can use if you didn't pay enough or weren't sure how much the trip was and so only put in the bear *wink* minimum and you can just top up your ticket. There are lots of lines and colours. The stations are mostly huge but there are lots of sign posting and it seems if you just keep walking you'll find something you need eventually.

We've been travelling a lot on the JR Line which is an overground loopy line [Hello to my loopy friends - Freyja]. Our friend Berrie Penguin told us : "If you got chance to take JR line at Tokyo station, there is a poster ad (on the train) of Suica penguins taking JR and doing all sorts of human activities like shopping, fishing, eating, reading newspaper, using mobile phone... It would be great if you could take a picture of the poster for me. I missed it last time " Whilst we've not seen the ad on the actual train (there is a television that shows ads on the train and it had a video of the penguin doing such things but we didn't get a chance to photo it before it finished) last night we saw some at the station and took some photos with them. Freyja said that for once people looked less confused about the fact we were having our photos taken and more about the fact we were taking many photos of the penguin advert.

Anyways, back to the first evening, the trains took us to meet the human's friend Anse, and we went to a vegetarian restaurant. To be honest, Sleepy Hippo and I were exhausted and flagrantly disregarded the rules of jetlag that you need to stay up as late as possible and feel asleep in the human's bag. From what we heard, it was just boring human talk. Freyja informs us that whilst we were asleep we went on a big walk around several areas on Tokyo including an area that was famous for its abundance of non-Japanese men and Japanese ladies who would be interested in non-Japanese men. Very odd. Apparently, Anse promised he'd only heard stories and wasn't at it first hand, but we don't know.

The restaurant was in Azabu-juban and they walked to Roppongi. There were apparently lots of very tall buildings and bright lights and interesting things to look at. The only part Sleepy Hippo and I were a little sad to miss out on was a giant Doraemon in what Freyja suspected was a television studio (they didn't go inside, she spotted him through the big glass windows). She said she had considered waking us up for it - but will try and find him again before we go. After that there was a lot more walking around and looking at things (including many Starbucks and two Tiffany stores as pointed out by Anse - possibly to woo the Japanese ladies with?) there was a cup of tea stop at about 1030pm (why can't we buy tea in Sheffield at 1030??) and then a train ride to Harajuku (which was mostly closed but interesting to look at and get the general bearings *wink* of.

Then the train home. Ni Zero San O Kudasai to the man with the keys (who then very quickly asked our names as we stared at him blankly) and off to bed.

The human says that if we eat any more of this all you can eat breakfast we're going to become very rotund so time to be offski.

B.

Getting to Japan!

2008-11-05T00:21:00.005Z

Ever wondered how a hippo gets to Japan?

Well, I cannot speak for the whole species but here is how Bernard, I and the human made it.

First off was a train from Sheffield to Manchester at 3.45am. We had to stand outside the station waiting to be let in, there was a few scary people just hanging around and a few people also waiting for the train and a nice city centre ambassador type person (do they never sleep?? What is wrong with them??) came and chatted with us about the weather (and how we were lucky we weren't there the night before, apparently there had been torrential rain!) and then came and let us know when the station human had opened the doors so we could get in.

Three other humans got on the train and we all sat in the same carriage (which I think the very tired-looking conductor appreciated). Time for a snooze for me - it was very late for a sleepy hippo! The train got into Manchester at about 4.40ish and we were told that the connecting train was in fact a connecting bus. We arrived, on the connecting bus, at the airport at about 5.20am. The flight was at 8.35am and many airports now want you to arrive 3 hours early for international flights.

Not KLM. Their desk didn't open until 6.30!!! Still, a quick vending machine cup of tea, a couple of learn japanese podcasts later and we were checked in and then through the bag checking things. The first time I was put through an xray machine I thought I was dying! Now, I quite enjoy it.

When we were in America and went through two baggage checking ladies grabbed Bernard and myself (terrifying Freyja, perhaps they thought we were full of drugs and tried to rip us open!) but it turned out they just wanted to give us a cuddle and talk about how cute we were. Although, they did say that Bernard needed a new name - they obviously didn't know Bernard! And a friend of ours, Harry Mantle, was being put through the same thing in Paris and got felt up by a strange man "with a very cliched French moustache" who declared that there was no bomb inside him! (Lucky thing too, I'd be rather upset if Harry was s'ploded up!)

Anyways, no such excitement for us this time, just through and out. We went and looked around the shops, got some money changed, bought a couple of magazines for Austin (the human's brother), a present for Kaori (the human's brother's girlfriend) and a present for Kaori's family (the human's brother's girlfriend's family). We also went to the little Hamleys store where the store woman was watching the movie Penelope and we sneakily chatted with the toys and had a ride on the giant horse (no photos sorry!)

Then onto the KLM plane to Amsterdam (don't be naughty). It was very much like an Easyjet plane (three on each side and all squished in like sardines) only much less orange. No television screens. They did come through with a breakfast snack but it was egg sandwiches so we all said no thank you. Another quick snooze for me on the plane and we were in Amsterdam!

We had a four hour wait in Amsterdam so again, a quick look around the shops, another snooze for me and a very rude lady at the noodle store who avoided serving the human for ages until she finally served someone else. Then it turned out the vegetarian noodles weren't vegetarian because they were cooked in pork. Still, every one says we'll find it difficult to eat in Japan, so we might as well get used to it!

On to the next plane. A big jumbo jet from Amsterdam to Osaka. Freyja says some of you will want to know what movies were on the plane - there was loads! I slept for most of the flight, but from what Bernard and the human tell me, there was Get Smart, Meet Dave, What Happens in Vegas, Sex and the City, Ironman, Indie 4, Baby Mama, An American Girl, 21, 27 Dresses, 300 and loads and loads more. Far too many to watch in a 10 hour flight, I think. There was also television shows and games and things. The food was quite nice. There was a vegetarian curry type thing, a cup noodle, some yummy chocolatey desserts things, some snacks and a scary looking breakfast that not even Bernard would try!

Osaka!!! From Osaka we had to get to shin-osaka. We were looking at all the funny ticket machines and were just about to take the plunge and have a go on one when a very nice Japanese man asked where we were going, "Surely you take the plane to Tokyo?!" when the human said we were definitely getting a train he pointed us to the ticket office. No funny machines for us yet :(

Then when we put the wrong ticket in the machine to get into the train station, another very nice Japanese man came to help. Then, whilst we were looking at the train map trying to work out how many stops, the same very nice Japanese man came and tried to help. He wasn't sure if we could get on the train we were about to try so called over the station man who said it was fine and that we had three stops.

At shin-osaka station we bought some m&ms and got on the shinkansen. Luckily for us, Frannie had explained that it is much cheaper to get non-reserved tickets, so we had and Austin had sent information on getting the trains and told us to get either the Nozumi or Hikari bullet train, not the Kodama. We got on the Nozumi and after a bit more snoozing from me, arrived in Tokyo at about 4.30.

It then turned out our train ticket from the airport actually took us further than just getting to Tokyo and would get us out to Ikebukuro (which is where the hotel is). We managed to get on the right train and a very nice television screen told us what each stop was in Japanese and English. So we knew when to get off!

Another very nice, very old looking Japanese man was on the train. He looked like he was going home after a loooong day at work. In England, whenever we've travelled on the tube in London or on the bus in other places, we've noticed that younger human's get up for older humans. Here the old tired looking business man (Bernard said he felt like he had a lot in common with him!) stood up and tried to give us his seat!!! We thanked him kindly but refused. We'd been sat down all day and had so much to look at out the window!

The out of the station, follow the easy map to the hotel (past the KFC, past the Family Mart, up the big street, past the other Family Mart, turn at the drug store) and we arrived at the hotel! Hooray!

For those of you interested we are staying at the Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro.

We'd all been practising the greeting and how to check-in from our Japanese podcasts, but sadly she was on the phone and just handed us a form to fill in and then when she was off the phone spoke to us in English. Maybe next time.

And so, with a lot of thanks to the very nice Japanese men who helped us out, that is how these two hippos got to Japan!

SH.

A visit to Salisbury

2008-10-27T19:40:00.003Z

We had a jolly good time in Salisbury. We went down after Frannie had finished work on Friday. It was a very long trip. The roads were very busy and one of the roads was closed. Fortunately Frannie and The Builder have a device which reads maps and which told us how to get to our hotel even if one of the roads was closed. But we were all very tired when we got there.

We were staying in a pub called the Swan. It overlooks a river. And there really are swans on the river. We could see them from our room.

We were in Salisbury so The Builder and his brother could make a new patio for their mother. She is a very sweet but elderly lady and the old patio was very uneven and the little fence was falling down and it wasn't safe for her. We sat in the window and supervised proceedings to make sure the new patio was level and had no slab edges sticking up. We wouldn't want Grandmother Gwen to catch her foot and fall over. But both The Builder and Brother Peter did good work and had nearly finished laying the slabs by lunch time .

Grandmother Gwen had made us all a really lovely stew with lots of different beans and vegetables. Kept us well fed for the afternoon's supervising.

After the slabs were laid, The Builder put the fence up. And by tea time it was all finished. It looked lovely. Excellent supervising by us!!

Grandmother Gwen gave us sandwiches and cake and cups of tea to reward us.

Then we went back to the Swan for a well-earned rest. We were both very sleepy after being alert and concentrating all day.

On Sunday we took two young American students to Stonehenge in Frannie and The Builder's car. They were going to go on the buses, but there aren't any buses from the Swan on a Sunday. So Frannie and The Builder offered to take them. Stonehenge isn't very far from the pub, and we had never been there (Frannie and The Builder had). Stonehenge looked as though it might have been used for pagan rituals, so we asked Frannie if we needed to be particularly careful there. But Frannie said she didn't think hippos had ever been in danger at Stonehenge so that was all right. We didn't stay for long, though, because it was raining hard and it was a bit cold. We also saw the very tall spire of the cathedral but we couldn't get very close because of the rain. It was good that it didn't rain on Saturday. The Builder says they couldn't have laid the patio slabs if it had been raining hard.

We had lunch with Grandmother Gwen. She made us a lovely roast Sunday lunch. It was very tasty, but she gave us huge portions, too huge even for hippo appetites! We made sure there was room for the roast potatoes though. We had lots of lovely snuggles with her after lunch. She told us that she is 82 and a half and she has never had a cuddly toy of her very own, ever, not even when she was very little! We thought that was very sad. We have told Frannie that she must make sure that Grandmother Gwen gets a very soft and very cuddly toy for Christmas this year. Frannie says that we are not to worry. The matter is under control

B and SH

Salisbury advice

2008-10-24T18:54:00.002+01:00

So far, with our plan to attack Salisbury (not really attack don't worry!) we've had a few pieces of advice.

Double H (a very lovely humantype) has suggested we watch out for the pagan rituals... although we don't know why - do they eat hippos?

A very nice bear, with the spectacular name Niagra Radcliffe Bourne, has recommended visiting the cathedral. He said "the foundation stone was layed around 1220. It's now only quarter to three and they've finished it"! Hehehe.

Anyways, time for a nap before bedtime.

SH.

Extra adventures

2008-10-24T08:42:00.004+01:00

We came in to Frannie's office yesterday, expecting Freyja to come and collect us today.

Freyja can't come in until next week.

So Frannie has invited us to accompany her and The Builder to Salisbury this weekend. They are going so The Builder can put a new patio in for his mum. Frannie is hoping to catch up with a friend for afternoon tea while the patio is being laid.

We haven't been to Salisbury before. So we accepted Frannie's invitation with pleasure.

It's nice here in Frannie's office. There are biscuits and cups of tea and a nice comfy chair for Sleepy Hippo to doze in.

B.

PS

2008-10-20T19:23:00.006+01:00

One of the things we forgot to tell you.

We were sat, chatting with Frannie and The Builder, at the Prague airport. A woman and her husband happened by. The woman stopped and looked at us. Then said to her husband: "Jacov, look. So cute!" Then she approached Frannie and asked if she could see us. So we obligingly turned around and she picked up Sleepy Hippo and hugged him and then adjusted Bernard's jumper sleeves (which in truth had rather unrolled so you couldn't see his paws). Then they sat down at a nearby table and we went back to our chatter. They spoke to us in English and to each other sometimes in German and sometimes in another language that none of us recognised. Frannie thinks it might have perhaps been Hebrew because they were reading books printed in Hebrew script.

Lots of people stopped to look at us, very briefly and politely. That lady was the only one who stopped to talk to us.

B and SH.

Prague adventures

2008-10-19T09:30:00.005+01:00

It's probably just as well that we shelved the jazz club idea. We walked into town from the hotel for our dinner in the Cafe Louvre. Dinner was mighty fine, the company was genial, the restaurant had a lovely atmosphere. Then we walked back to the hotel. And after some light chat and a glass of wine, everyone went to sleep and slept right through until morning. I think it was all that walking around during the afternoon!

Yesterday we all went on a lunchtime cruise on the river. The sun was shining, the water was sparkly. The lunch was very nice - a serve yourself buffet. Fortunately Frannie and The Builder helped us. We might have been a bit little to reach the buffet and to carry the plates. For a long time the boat was stationary in what looked like a tunnel without a roof. We were a bit worried that the boat might be stuck. But The Builder explained that we were in a lock and that the water level was being raised so we could keep going on up the river above the weir. It was like being in a watery elevator!

After lunch, Frannie discovered that there were seats on the roof of the boat. We all went up onto the roof and watched the scenery. There was a man playing a accordion and we had a guide who could tell us what we were looking at. It was very interesting and lots of fun. The Builder and Frannie took very great care that we shouldn't get too close to the edge of the table and accidentally fall in the river!

After the cruise we sat in the Old Town Square for a couple of hours and watched the world go by. It was all very relaxing.

Then it was time to come home. The airport in Prague is much, much bigger than the terminal in Warsaw. There are shops and everything. Lots of things to do while we were waiting for our plane.

And now we are at Frannie and The Builder' house, enjoying a couple more days holiday before we go home to Freyja.

We seem to have eaten very lots of cheese while we were away.

B and SH.

Resting in Prague

2008-10-17T16:24:00.010+01:00

We are just about to have a little nap before dinner. It's been a big day. We've been on a coach trip around Prague and done lots of exploring. We had pizza for lunch near the City Square. We've collected lots of bridges with Frannie and The Builder. We've walked for miles - or we would have done if The Builder hadn't very kindly carried us for much of the time in Frannie's red travelling bag. The sun has shone but the wind has been cold. We were glad of our jumper and scarf.

Frannie says she will put the photos onto Facebook for us on Sunday. We do have internet connection in the hotel but it's very slow.

And so a rest before we head out again to dinner in a nice restaurant. The Builder is asleep as well.

Oh, and Frannie says she does like jazz. She's not mad keen on jazz clubs though and particularly not where people are still allowed to smoke. She doesn't think lots of cigarette smoke would be good for our lungs or hers.

B and SH.

On a sad note...

2008-10-15T01:54:00.016+01:00

We'd like to take a minute of silence for a good friend of ours who passed today.

Dickens, a good friend for over a decade. We watched him grow bigger and bigger (and even bigger when he moved in solo!), we sat by his tank keeping his company when people were on holiday, we were all very proud of how well he took the move (and the terrifying car journey!), we fed him when we went to visit. He was a lovely fish, a real gentleman(fish) who had a great taste in movies and televisual programming.

RIP Dickens

We'll miss you.

(minute begins) (minute over)

B and SH and Sleepy Bear (guest blogger).

Prague tomorrow, Prague yesterday, but never ever Prague today!

2008-10-15T01:11:00.011+01:00

Here's our next adventure plan!

I'll try and get this out quickly, I'm tired and not sure I won't fall asleep before it's done! Tomorrow, Bernard and I are having a mini-adventure to Frannie's workplace - ready to rock'n'roll, so that on Thursday we can jet off from EMA at 625pm for a much bigger adventure, with Frannie, the human's mother. We'll try to get some photos on the plane :) (ooo and throughout Prague of course!)

On Friday, the wonderful Frannie has booked us all in on a coach tour around the city (like we did in Warsaw) and then she's booked us into the fancy schmansy restaurant for 8.00pm cafelouvre. There was the possibility of a jazz club afterwards, but we weren't sure if they discriminated against hippos, and Frannie doesn't like jazz so we are giving it a miss. Which is a pity as I had my jazz club hat all dusted off and ready to go.

On Saturday we're going on a lunchtime cruise on the river (Bernard has been known to get a little sea sick, but he says this is a river not a sea so he should be okay) and then fly home at 9.55pm. We might have to make sure that we buy presents on the Saturday - just in case there's nothing in the airport like in Warsaw!

And that's about .... zzzzzzzzzzz

SH.

Very exciting!

2008-10-14T02:27:00.010+01:00

Sleepy Hippo and I are very excited. Lots of exciting things have been happening!

We're now on Facebook (as Bernard Gillard)!

We're now on Twitter (as Businesshippo)!

We've also joined bearplace.net (a place that bears have set up to fight the heartless facebook people who delete bears)!

We've got tickets to Australia and Japan!

We now have a blog!

And....

We're off to Prague this week!

So many things, such little hippos!