Happy Christmas
from Balloon Bear, The Pig, little brown and rodney. 

Whilst we were in Munich we heard the news that the England Rugby team coach, Andy Robinson had finally gone (hip-hooray!).

The Pig and Bear (not Robinson's greatest fans after a string of humiliating defeats) decided to explore a coal mine in search of somewhere dark and inaccessable where the former coaches remaining career could be safely stored.

Balloon Bear was of course delighted to find a little train to sit on. 

Balloon like any form of transport. It started with "boop boops" (trains), but now extends to any form of getting somewhere. He therefore loved going on the trams in Munich, waving (as you will know one of his other areas of expertise) to anyone and everyone.

The inhabitants of Munich must really like Bears, as no-one batted an eye! 

Even on a chilly Munich street the pig will always come out for a photo with a "relative". 

We suspect the Pig might have a drink problem. 

Whilst in the museum the boys found loads of things to do - here Balloon found a model balloon which took off when you pressed a button. He may need a little work on his paws now as they were red raw from pressing.

Still it kept him occupied and out of trouble for a while. 

We took Balloon Bear and the Pig on holiday last week to munich in germany. There's a great museum there with loads of buttens to press - sadly we couldn't find the button to set off this ejector seat exhibit! 

Balloon had a really good day on Saturday.

First he went to welford Road, that sacred spot where Leicester Tigers play, to see us up against London Irish. Balloon was delighted to see us beat them 26 - 18 (of course Balloon doesn't know exactly how many points we score, just that we had more than the opposition).

Hi day was really topped off though by the trip to the cinema to see Casino Royale. Balloon Bear is just about the world's biggest james Bond bear fan. We had to keep it a secret until the last few moments before the film started as there would have been no holding him.

As it was he sat all the way through in the cinema twitching with excitment every time JB belted someone or shot at a bad guy. Balloon's been walking, turning and shooting to the music ever since. Still it keeps him mout of trouble - almost.

It's been a while since we posted anything, and now when we do it's not the best of news.

The boys had to go in the wash today. Balloon Bear had got quite smelly and it was clearly time for a dunk. The Bears and the Pig hate going in the washy machine. Rod on the other hand thinks it's great - something like the rhino version of white water rafting at the fair ground.

As you can see from the pic they are pretty down cast after their wash - though they do smell a good deal better. 

Sorry, haven't blogged for a while. Today is special though, the Pig's somethingth birthday - possibly his 17th. We're not telling him he's old enough to drive though! 

Here's one we couldn't resist from a skiing holiday at Killington in the States. 

The Pig always has to say hello to his bigger cousins.

When we're driving we have to squeel "Piggieeees!!" at the top of our voices when we see pigs in a field. 

The Pig and Bear like the sea side. The Pig likes to chill and catch a few rays. The Bear likes to get near the water and do what Bears do - catch fish.

Sadly for Balloon, he's not realised that even tiddlers would be a big catch for him and as he's only ever seen things like sharks on TV (and they look small on the tele) that evn they are easy game, in short he always claims he will catch and eat evey fish in the sea.

When he does this his little arms start to grasp air desperately in preparation for the big one which he thinks lies just under the surface of evey bit of water. He even thinks fish live in the bath. 

Whilst trucks in Africa excite the Pig it was nothing compared to when they got near a real gun on safari.

We had to stop little trotters and paws from searching for the trigger. 

When we took the Pig and Bear to africa a few years ago on safari they liked the idea of big trucks. In fact the safari vehicles are the only plus point for the Pig. 

The boys as we call them had a bit of a treat last night.
We'd been out, and got home at almost 11pm, I switched the TV on, (to much hurumphing from a pig a rhino and two bears who can't understand why we don't leave it on for them - it's not the waste of electricity it's to stop the arguing over who thinks they know hoew to change channels), to find James Bond - The Man with the Golden Gun.
Well - you can imagine the joy on four little faces, especially Balloon Bear who is the world's number one 007 fan.

For the first 10 minutes all the bear could do was the walk, turn, shoot bit from the start. The he spends the rest of the movie wriggling in time to the action, aiming kicks and punches to mid air and making shooting noises when the gunfire starts. Thank goodess it wasn't the one with the car with the ejector seat - it took us ages to find where he'd kicked the Pig last time it was on.

Other than that it's jolly hot in the UK at the moment which is quite tough on a working bear. The problem is he can't hug properly at night as he just sucks in any sweat and starts to smell. No problem for him of course (he thinks it makes him more like his rugby idol Martin Corry from Leicester Tigers at the end of a game) but it is for us - and untimately him as he has to go in the wash. Of course didactic thinking like that is way beyond Balloon Bear's mind.

maybe he'll get it on the third rinse. Then again......................

It's been a bad week for Bears. Balloon went down to London, which was fun as he got to go on the train, but then he had to spend three days in a row in a bag in the hotel room.
You see the trouble is you can't leave him out as he'd just play with the TV buttons and scare the maids, and you can't take him to work as he'd just run amoke trying to make friends at the meetings (not very business like).
So it was three days in a bag. He did get to watch TV in the evenings - and even lucked in as one night Channel five was showing Judge Dread (Balloon thinks he is the law too), but otherwise he's had a pretty poor week. To finish off his week he managed to get something green on his head on the way home and he could end up in the washy machine. If he does then they all go in which will make him about as popular as a kick up the pants.

The Pig in contrast has had a decent week with Jane going to work as usual and catching a few rays in the car as they travel about. His shirt needs sorting out though as he looks a real rag-a-muffin. If we can tear it off his back sewing up a new one might be one of this week's jobs.

We took the Pig and Bear on Holiday last week -Three days in cornwall at a little seaside town called St Ives.
Now as well as being famed as a beuty spot St Ives also has loads of sea gulls. Of course BB wanted one as a pet as soon as he arrived. Mind you he did almost change his mind when they woke him up at dawn the first morning squaking away outsdie the bedroom window.

Any way, Cornwall used to be known for its tin mines and we visited one just along the coast from St Ives which is now a museum. The Pig and Balloon Bear just had to try their hand (paw/trotter) at driving a mine digger.

Thank goodness we didn't take them down to the harbour when the fishing boats were being unloaded. The Bear would have been in the boxes grabbing fish for all he's worth. 

Despite being a very sporty Bear balloon hasn't really got into the World Cup - too much crying and faking fouls for his liking. He is quite keen to have telivised rugby matches pitching soccer players against rugby players.

Still if he'd been a Roman bear he'd have spent all his money down at the Colleseum every weekend.

That said he was sad when England went out - even though he thought they should have scored points when the ball went over the crossbar. 

The Bear doesn't read too well either.

He thought the sign said Balloon Bear. Oh how we laughed. 

This is one of the Pig's greatest moments, when he had his shirt signed by his all time hero, Richard Cockerill (AKA Cockers or Cocky) who was hooker for Liecester Tigers and now a coach.

On his first trip to Africa the Pig was quite brave - but being quite young he didn't understand about things eating other things. You'd never get him stood out in the open like this now (the Wuss!!). 

Whilst Rodney and Little Brown NEVER go out of the house, the Pig and Balloon Bear are inveterate travellers and have been to some really exciting places with us. Here is the Pig at Nanyuki in Kenya right on the Equator.  

This is a really early one of the Pig and Bear. When they were young they ran around naked all the time. You can see how balloon has lost some weight and how pink the Pig was way back then.

When we first made the rugby shirts for them it was for match days only, but as they do help keep them clean we let them wear them all the time now. 

This is the first photo we have of the Pig taken when we took him on holiday for the first time. This was in fact the holiday we took pity on him living in the car one night as it was thundering (and he was quite little then) and brought him into the cottage we had rented. He's never been on his own since!

Whilst this photo suggests he is reading the map, the truth is he's just looking at the colours. He claims he can read, but this is patently not true - he thinks words printed in large type are more difficult to read as they are bigger words than words on small type, no matter how many letters. 

Peace at last, something good on telly for them. 

The Pig's been in a bad mood today. You see cylists have been going past the house, and the Pig absolutely , positively, completely hates them. Worst of all are groups of cyclists racing - we don't know why, but he gets into a real monk about them.

We suspect it might be the lycra shorts and garish colours they wear, what evever, it has his ears back and snout twitching.

Naturally Balloon Bear, lover of all things sporty, likes to see them and insists on making a cycling movement himself. The end result as you can guess is a falling out with the Pig taking it as a personal slight that the Bear is "cycling" in his house.

Rodney and Little brown don't get involved in this one. As the cyclists are outside they not part of their world - neither of them lever leave the house. Just as well , with two of them already fighting, we don't want a little bike race to start a full blown riot!

We've had a couple of dodgy days with Rod recently. It's been hot and sticky and there's been the odd rumble of thunder at the end of the day - poor Rod hates thunder and lightning, and whilst Ballon Bear and the Pig are revelling in every clap of thunder and flash of lightning Rod is under the cushions on the sofa.

No matter what we do we can't make him come out - even the Pig can't pursuade him - and Rod usually does whatever the Pig says no matter how stupid.

The one thing he has taken to (not during storms of course) is sliding down the bannisters. Rod's just the right shape for it. Ballon Bear of course tries to get in on the act but being the wrong shape for bannister sliding he usually falls straight off and tumbles down the stairs in a most undignified manner.

They'd hate to admit it, but they do get on quite well sometimes.

Of course the one thing Balloon Bear likes above everything else is ........ yes you guessed it. 

Here's Balloon at one of his pilgimage spots - Twickenham. This was a particularly good day in Bear terms as he saw England beat Australia.

The Bear still believes he is Dean Richards and insists on having a number 8 on the back of his jersey.

His other favoritist place is of course Welford Road, home of Leicester tigers. If Balloon wasn't a bear he'd probably be a tiger - mind you he'd also probably be Wesley Snipes in that film where he catches the baddies by jumping out of a plane or Bruce Willis in any of the Die Hard movies, or James Bond (except Timothy Dalton) - or quite a number of other things. He likes rugby best though.