Our humans are hopeless

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

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 :-)

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

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

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

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!!

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