Beanie Mouse

Beanie Went To Brussels, Day Five!!

2012-02-27T09:36:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, Andrea said it was our last day in Brussels - so this was our last breakfast at the hotel!!! Andrea made sure I had Panno Shoko Lah again because she knows that's my favourite!!!

Then we had to go make sure we packed everything!!!

We looked out the window and saw that it was raining..... and because we only had an hour or so spare we decided not to go out for a last walk.

All done!! Time to go!!!

After we paid the hotel bill, we got a taxi to the train station....

Here we are!! Gare du Midi where the Eurostar goes from!

We had one last chocolate before we left Brussels!!!

And then found a horse having coffee in a Station Cafe!!! That's funny!!

Then it was time to go through customs.

Here we are!! Coach Three, that's ours!!

There were a few empty seats when we left Brussels but then we stopped in Lille on the way, and picked up some more passengers!!

And two hours from leaving Brussels we arrived at St Pancras in London!!!

That's King's Cross Station!!!

We got there just in time to get a Number 73 bus!!

And we're off......!

This is going down Park Lane past the Dorchester Hotel..... Andrea spotted a new sculpture in the boulevard down the middle that looked like a Dale Chihuly glass sculpture. When she took a picture this bus got in the way, dang it!!!

We put an arrow pointing to the sculture which you can see a bit of through the windscreen but you might have to click on the picture to see it properly!!

And then we got back to Victoria Station with loads of time to get our train home!!!

and we're off....

And then it was a short walk home from the station!!

And we even saw a really pretty sunset too!!

It's nice going on holiday but it's even better seeing your friends again when you get home!!!!!

I even got two stamps in my passport this time!! This one's a Woo-woo train from the Youth Hostel!!

and then I also got another stamp from Belgium!!

Here's the art journal we started in Brussels!!

Here's page one....

Page two.... we put a found ticket on here!!!

Page three..... with a found Metro ticket!

and page four with another found ticket!

What a fun little trip we had!!!

Beanie Went To Brussels, Day Four!!

2012-02-26T04:10:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday, we had Panno Shoko Lah for breakfast again!!! Andrea had the croissant and coffee.

Then we went to the nearest subway/Metro stop to go somewhere fun!!!

We got off here at a stop called Rogier. Wonder who he is????

OH!! It's a Comic Strip Museum!!!!

Let's go in!!!!

It's Asterix and his dog!!!!

And that's the rocket that Tintin went to the moon in!! How exciting!!

This is another Art Nouveau building..... the roof is pretty....

Then we had a good look round the museum!! It had loads of comic strip in it of lots of different comics!

And there's even an artists desk with all the paints and pencils ready for him/her to use!!!

That's a little bit like Andrea's work desk at home - very messy!!!

After that, we had a look round the museum shop and then stopped for coffee.

Then we decided to walk to the main square again. We went past the Cathedral.

And saw a statue with donkeys in it!!

We met an elephant on wheels!!! Hahahahahahaaaa!!

And we saw a crocodile made of bread!!!

And a dragon made of floor tiles!!

Oh wow....!

Then we got hungry so we went into another Taverna on the main square for lunch.

We had Moules Mariniere with fries!!! Andrea says it's one of her favourite meals (I understand why, now!) but usually has it with bread that she dunks into the soupy bit at the bottom.

Oh!! There's Tintin and Captain Haddock!!!

We saw a Court Jester shop sign too!

There's the Mannekin Pis again, and he's peeing with his clothes on this time!!!!!

Hahahahahahahaaaaaaa!!!

We saw a very pretty brass shell on the pavement today.

Oh wow!! Andrea says that might be part of the orignal town walls.....

It definitely looks very old.

Coo....

There was a sign on this building saying it was built in the 1500s!!!!!

Then we saw this statue somewhere.....!

And lost some tags on the way!!!

We saw this muriel of some warrior women!!! They're scarey!

Somebody drew a radio here!! I liked the coloured glass at the top.....

That's pretty too.

And another drain cover!! They have really nice ones in Brussels!!!

And they have red post boxes too!! (You just can't find anywhere to buy stamps though.....!!!!)

When we got back to the hotel, we got out all the parking tickets and elastic hair ties that we found today!

We got loads!!!

Andrea even remembered to buy us a big box of Belgian Chocolates to take home!!! Yay!!!

We also got some dark chocolate for Andrea's Mum because it's her birthday soon.

Later, we went back to that Italian restaurant again for dinner!!! We like it in here...!

This time, we had Tortellini-oni with mushrooms and chicken and lots of cheesey sauce on top!! It was seriously scrumptious!!!!!

Andrea always makes sure I eat well on holiday, have you noticed?!?!?!?!!

Gosh, I'm exhausted.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Beanie Went To Brussels, Day Three!

2012-02-25T03:04:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, we got up for breakfast - and they had Panno Shoko Lah at the hotel!!!! I'm so happy!!

Later, Andrea asked at reception about how to get to the Art Museum, and they said we could walk there in 5 - 10 minutes and gave us a map with the route on it!!

So off we went and we found another drain cover on the way!!!

We also found a funny fish on the wall!!!

Oh there's a weird sculpture!! It's a scuba diving monster about to jump into a pond!!!

Oh wow!! We came to a very pretty park with a pretty building at the end!!!

Oh wow!!! I like the rabbits at the bottom!!!

Another drain cover!!

This looks like the centre of town....!

Oh here we are!! The Art Museum!!

After we had a good look round, we spent some money in the gift shop and then stopped for coffee!

Then we went for another walk and met a goose on the way!!

Coo...... that's an interesting sculpture!

The sides of it are a bit steampunky!!

Oh what a pretty window!!! I want one like that!!

Where shall we go now......?

This way!! They have a fun muriel down here!!

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAaaa!!!!

He's peeing in the street!!!!!

Oh that's so funny!!! Andrea says the statue is called "Mannekin Pis" and sometimes they dress him up in clothes!!!

Then we went to the Grand Market Square...... that picture on the wall is so pretty....

Andrea says it's Art Nouveau.

Coo....

Oh wow! These buildings are completely over the top!!!!!

Oh look what we found!!! Bob T Bear would love it in that museum!!!

Another goose!

We decided to stop for lunch on the square and found a little Taverna to sit in.

We had fried scampi and chips and they were yummy!!!

Afterwards, we had a wander up to the main central train station (where the only post office in Brussels is, according to the tourist information office!) We went past this pretty picture.

Aha! Here we are!

Then we had another wander around town. We saw a Hedgehog!!!

A cartoon shop! Let's go in!!

We met a friendly dog too!!!

Wow, that's a pretty view...!

Now, there's a building!!!!

That one's a museum of musical instruments!!!

We stopped for a hot chocolate drink on the way..... that was VERY yummy indeed!!!

Then we came across an oom-pah band playing in the street!!! Me and Andrea had a little boogie dance while they were playing and we clapped loudly when they finished!!!

I wish Hammie was here - he likes dancing to music too!!!

When we got back to the hotel, we got out all our shopping! Postcards from the art museum, a Tintin book and calendar and some smelly Kneipp bath oil that Andrea likes. She's says it's aromatherapy and it's good for you.

We found loads more parking tickets today too!!!!

We made another postcard for someone as well!!!

Then we went out for dinner to an Italian restaurant down the road called Patty Pate's. We had a beer....

And we had a Cannelloni stuffed with crab and scampi with cheese on top!!!! This was very yummy indeed and we couldn't finish it all either!!!

We later discovered that they had one of those mangle machines that rolls and thins out hand made pasta!! No wonder this tasted so good!!!

Wow!! What a day! I'm totally pooped.......

Beanie Went To Brussels, Day Two!!!

2012-02-24T03:34:00.001-08:00

On Monday, we had a Breakfast Basket at the hostel. It had Panno Shoko Lah in it!!!! That's my favourite!

Then we had to go pack our stuff up ready to move on!!! Where are we going??

Oh!! I recognise this place!

Eurostar!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're going on holiday!!!!

we checked through the passport control and waited in the departure lounge for our train!!!

After we went through the tunnel, we had our lunch on the train. Yummm....!

And here we are arrived at Gare Du Midi in Brussels!! That's a picture of Tintin on a train - he's a cartoon drawn by Herge who's a Belgian artist!!!

Then because we didn't know how to get to the hotel, we got a taxi. It didn't take long - we're staying here!

The Hotel Beverly Hills!!!

Our room was on the first floor and we got a big double bed all to ourselves!!!

That's our view outside - it's off the main road here so Andrea reckons it'll be quiet at night.

The bathroom was a bit of a matchbox sized bathroom but that's OK. We're little too!

Then we went for a walk round the neighbourhood - and straight away, we found some halfsized drain covers!!! Wow!!!

And grafitti!!!

Oh he's a bit creepy.....

Gosh....

There's so many of these!!

Hahahahaaaa!! He's funny!!

Another one!!

Oh!!! It's an art shop!! Andrea had found out about Schleiper's art shop on the internet before we came, and it's near our hotel!! LET'S GO SHOPPING!!!!!

They have SOOOO MUCH stuff in there! It's huge! We got lots of stuff, including some pigment to make paint with when we get home!!!

More drain covers...!

Oh...!

And another one!!

That's a pretty butterfly!

We then had a sit down at our hotel room..... here's our art supplies that we bought!

And we found a load of metro tickets, parking tickets and elastic hair ties!!! How fab is that?!?!?!!!

Andrea got a watercolour paper pad and we decided to have a go at art journalling about Brussels!!!!

We also made a postcard with some of the tickets we found!!! (Sullivan already blogged about this!!)

Then we got hungry so we walked down the road and went to a little Asian restaurant that did Vietnam and Thai cooking. We had an asparagus and crab soup which was yummy.

And then we had a prawn and vegetables dish with white rice. That was yummy too!!!

We had another little wander aftter dinner and saw this church down the street.....

And then we were so tired, we both crashed out and went fast asleep!!!

Beanie Went To Brussels, Day One!!

2012-02-24T02:54:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Andrea told me to start packing - we're going on holiday!!! Yippee!!!

All done - where are we going?!?!

Well, off we went up the road....

To the train station!!!!! I love trains!

We came to London!! Hey, there's the 73 bus!!! Oh, are we getting that one?? Excellent!

And we're off, going past the back garden wall of Buckingham Palace!!

When we got to Park Lane, all of a sudden, hundreds of Roller Bladers whizzed across the road and stopped the traffic!! Wow!!!

We got off the bus at the British Library!!!

Oh!! We've stayed here before..... when we used Eurostar!! Are we going on Eurostar again?? Are we?!

We got a room on the third floor and we got a top bunk! How fun!

There's the view from the window....!

After we dumped our luggage, we decided to go visit the British Library - and we noticed these funny drawings on the elly vator doors!!

That one's a movie one!

Oh, now I remember that guy!!!

We went into the Library to see an expedition about illuminated manuscripts from Henry 8th's time. They used gesso (which is a mix of plaster of Paris and glue) to paint where the gold was going to be put, and then they breathed on the gesso to activate the glue, and then the gold leaf stuck to it!!! I never knew that! They used Carmine, Lapis Lazuli and Malachite to paint the words, and also Lamp Black!!

We've used some of those colours to make paint with!!!

Afterwards, we had a sit down.

And then we visited the gift shop and then had a drink. We got a red badge, a skull badge, a dragon badge and a blue badge. Who shall we give them to..... let me think......!!

We had a wander round after that, to stretch our legs. We saw an artists place!!

And we found a pretty flagstone on the pavement!!

The snowdrops are out!!!

We also tied some of our weathergrams to railings! I like doing that!

We also found where the artist Paul Nash used to live..... never knew that!!

Oh that's weird.....!!

Then we got hungry so we went to Pizza Express for dinner!

Pepperoni Pizza!! YUMMMMMM......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm exhausted...... wake me in the morning!!

Updated Drain Covers!!!

2012-02-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

Recently, I got some mail art from a friend called Kaz who lives in Japan. Kaz sent me a picture of a man hole cover!!!!!

I can't remember where he said it was - I think it was either Japan or LA, but I'll check and update this update later!!!

Here's some more drain covers that we found in London last October! This one is near St Paul's Cathedral!

This one's pretty - I can't remember if we've seen this design before though....!!

This one's a bit like a chequerboard!

And Bob spotted this one on the way to the art shop! He's a sharp eyed bear, you know!

Hammie went on holiday a while ago and sent me this picture of a drain cover he found!!

Hammie sent me two more pictures today - he found more drain covers on his camera!! This one is from Amien in France...

And this one is also from Amien in France!!!

Last week, Andrea got out some old photographs from a trip she took to Barcelona. She went there before she met me, which is why I didn't go. But she showed me a picture of a Spanish drain cover she found there! It has lots of little pictures all over it!!!

She also showed me this picture in Barcelona. She found this on the pavement/sidewalk but she's not sure if it's a drain cover or not.

She says it might be a fancy sundial or something...

My friend Hammie just got back from a vacation in the Brittany area of France (August 2011). Because he knows that I like looking at drain covers, he took lots of pictures of different French ones and said I could post them here!

I'm not sure what towns they're in but maybe he'll tell us!

This one looks like a telephone cover!!

A circle inside a rectangle! We don't get those in England!

This one's almost a Fleur De Lys design!!

A spotty one! It has measles!

That looks a little bit like the English Gas covers...

I think Hammie said these three are from St Malo.....

Wow!! Those are pretty!! Thank you for sending those, Hammie!!!

The next four are ones we found in Portsmouth! This one is in the Historic Dockyard!

And this one got poo'd on by a seagull!!
Hahahaha!!!

This is an arrow one for the Brunel House in Portsmouth!

This is another one we found in Portsmouth.

This one was recently found in Prague, Czech Republic by my friend Sullivan McPig (he has his own blog too, listed on right). He took a photo of it specially for this collection!

These ones are from Brighton and Hove. We went for a walk along the seafront last week, and found some more drain covers!! This one has holes in it!!!

And this one has lumps!!!

This one has holes and lines on it....

And this one is self locking!!! How does it unlock though???

This one looks a bit like a wagon wheel and has bits of glass in!!

Oh! I think this one's my favourite! It's got a daisy in the middle!!!

We found another drain cover just with lines on it.

I decided to add my three new found drain covers to the big post of all of them!

This one I found in Rotherhithe, London, last May!

This one I found near Spitalfields Market in London

And this one I found near Victoria Station, London, not far from that fancy hotel that Princess Kate stayed in before her wedding!!
(Ed's note: I can't tell if this is the same as the other starburst ones we found in Brighton.....?)

As promised, I've now collected all my drain cover pictures into one post!!! This one is the latest, taken in Brighton, England!

And a round Brighton one with holes in!!

And a rusty Brighton drain cover!!

I found this one in Groningen, Holland back in February 2011 and has the Martini Tower on it!

These ones are from Groningen, too!

This one is from Hove in England, and has a starburst on it!

And this one has a lion!!!

Below is my original post all about drain covers in Brighton, England, first posted in September 2010!!!

A couple of weeks ago, me and Andrea went for a walk. I wanted to show her the drain covers I'd noticed - I think because she's higher up, she doesn't see them but they're ever so pretty!! This one has glass in some of it!

This one says "Gas Gas" on it - Andrea says thats You Tilly Tea.

This one's pretty too - I like the squares and diamonds on it!

This one's another You Tilly Tea for Water.

G G. I wonder if that's another gas one? The other gas one we saw was also a square cover...

This one has a sunflower engraved on it!!!

Oh - a rectangular one! Wonder what this is for?

This one's called "Pam Water". I gues she's in charge of that thing called You Tilly Tea.

Oh!! This one's made up of diamonds but has a flowery design on top!

And another one made up of circles!

Hodges and Butler..... wonder who they are?

Oh! More gas ones!! Yeah, I think all the gas ones must be squares. That's how they tell.

Another square gas one!

Ah, now we have to be careful now. This is Grade C Dangerous Electricity. From Sigane. Wonder where Sigane is?

On the way home, we found some more drain cover things. This one says M but Andrea said it might be W for Water.

A triangular one!! I wonder what that does?

It's a Thomas Dudley Meter! I wonder what You Tilly Tea that is? I've never heard of getting Dudley and Thomas Bills.

FP - wonder who that is?

FH Brickhouse. Hmm..... Oh, it's Water.... it says so on the bottom!!

Fire Hydrant.... Andrea says that's for the Fire Engines if they need water to put fires out.

Oh, another little square one - must be gas!

We also saw one with a starburst in!

And another FH Water one! I never knew there were so many shapes and designs!

Year Of The Bear pick nick

2012-01-31T04:28:00.000-08:00

To start off the Year of The Bear celebrations, we decided to have a Pick Nick!!! Beanie told us all about those, and they sound like fun! We started off with Fortune Cookies which are munchie biskits!!

We've never had these before....

Oh!! They come wrapped up, like presents!!! Wow!

Clarence opened his first! They're funny shaped Biskits with a piece of paper inside. Clarence's said "If you worry about yesterday's failures, then today's successes will be few."

That's deep.

Boo went next! His said "Good Things are On Their Way!" Oh wow! How exciting!!

Tango's said "Nothing profits more than self esteem, grounded on what is just and right."

Another Deep Thinking fortune for a Deep Thinking Bear.....

After that, Andrea got out a big plate of Bak Larva. She said they're middle eastern pastries, usually made with filo pastry (that's the lots of layers pastry) and nuts and doused with honey. We Love Honey!!!

Hey, Boo's Fortune Cookie was right!!!!!

Coo.... they come in all different shapes!!

Tango had that one..... These are seriously yummy!

Boo Bear had the nutty one......

And Clarence had that one. We all decided that when we'd finished the Bak Larva cakes, we'd give the plate to Beanie and Andrea so they can schlepp it with paint!!! They like doing stuff like that!

Tango and Boo......

2012-01-29T04:59:00.000-08:00

Oh......!!

pstpstpstpstpstpstpstpst......

hehehehe!!

clippetyclippetyclippetytap...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEHEHEHEHHEHEheheheheheheheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Happy Year Of The Bear, everybody!!!

A funny sign!!!

2012-01-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

We saw this on the sidewalk in town recently - I just hope it's the "Peace" sign!!!!!

Posting comments....

2012-01-16T04:50:00.001-08:00

As Bob T Bear has highlighted below, there seems to be an issue with posting comments on this blog. Having checked with the "Problem reporting" thingy, it looks to be a google problem which they're in the process of fixing.

Please keep coming back - you'll be able to leave funny messages again soon!!

BTW - we may have to change the Year of the Sheep to Year of the Llama....... Sheeps, goats and rams are closely related in the Chinese New Year apparently and they can't have another one. Unless someone has another idea??

Cyberstrology Year of The Bear, 2012

2012-01-07T03:41:00.000-08:00

Since the Chinese New Year starts on 23rd January this year, I think it's only fair and reasonable that the Cyberstrology New Year starts on the same day. So MARK YOUR CALENDAR!!! 23 JANUARY marks the start of the Year Of The Bear!!!

Special Notice for All Bear Bloggers. Please decide how you'd like to celebrate your year and when you've posted about it, put a comment here so we can all check in to find out!!!

Personality of The Bear.
Bears are very Loyal Animals. Once you've made friends with a bear, he or she is friends For Life. He will provide Nose Hugs when needed (and also when it's not!!! That's just because he likes you!) and Issue Tissues when you're upset. Bears make excellent navigators so be sure to take one when you go on holiday. You'll never get lost that way. And even if you do, Bears always know where to find Honey, so you won't go hungry.
Bears are interested in Football, Beer, Poo, Farts, Playing Pirates, dancing and gardening. They specialise in fertilising.

Famous Bears.
Paddington
Rupert
Winnie T Pooh
Baloo T Bear

The Patron Saint of the Bear is St Ursula. Her information is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ursula

I have also created a special Bear Treasury on etsy here http://www.etsy.com/treasury/OTk1OTM2MHwxNzM3MTQ2OTAz/a-celebration-of-bears

NB. If I have missed anything out of this Bear Description, please comment and let me know. I shall amend where needed!

Cyber-strology.

2012-01-02T04:24:00.000-08:00

I was talking on the phone to Bob the other day - well, texting on the mobile phone - about the Chinese Astrology thing and how some animals have their own year. There's 12 of them..... Horse, Tiger, Ox, Dragon, Rat, Goat, Snake, Dog, Rooster, Pig, Rabbit, Monkey but not necessarily in that order!

Now, what upsets me and Bob is that there's no Year of The Bear and no Year of The Mouse. (Rattie is a third cousin twice removed, and not quite the same as a mouse!!) We decided to invent the Cyberstrology Years of Animals that Were Left Out by The Chinese!!!!

So, here's the start of the list.
1. Year of The Bear
2. Year of The Mouse
3. Year of The Hamster
4. Year of The Hippopotamus
5. Year of the Honey Bee
6. Year of The ~~Sheep~~ Llama?
7. Year of the Ladybug
8. Year of The Cat
9. Year of The Chicken
10 Year of The Giraffe
11 Year of the Scorpion
12 Year of the Elephant

Now, obviously we need a few more animals to put in, so if you know any that aren't listed in the Chinese Zodiac, then please nominate them!! We'll also need to write a "Animal Traits" biography thing for each animal. For instance, Mouse are inquisitive curious animals that enjoy travelling. They are very good at finding lost items on the floor and recycling them into new objects that can then be re-used. In fact, the Mouse invented The Green Movement currently in use amongst humans. Mouse has a healthy disrespect for authority and are known to have a wonderful sense of humour. They get on very well with everybody. It is a little known fact that the Mouse Patron Saint is St Anthony of Padua..... patron saint of lost things, seekers of lost things, little animals, travellers and the postal system!!! (sounds like Beanie, right?!!?)

So - want to join in???!! We'll decide when each "Year Of" starts later on, and then work out some celebration-y stuff!! Also, since Tazzie chose so many animals, we only have one more space to fill!! I did suggest the other day we have more than 12, but I changed my mind. It'll mean waiting AGES for the next cycle to come round!

WE DID IT!!! Yay!

Review of The Year, 2011

2011-12-31T04:24:00.000-08:00

Wow!! What a busy year I've had!!! It started off in January with some Long Walks Along The Seafront, one of which we had a play on Brighton Pier, and won some toys in the arcade games!!!

The story is here http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/another-walk-on-seafront.html

Then in February, I had a really exciting trip to Amsterdam by Air o'plane!!! I met Hammie and Sullivan on that trip!!!! It was so much fun!!!

The story is here http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/beanies-trip-to-holland-day-one.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/beanies-trip-to-holland-day-two.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/beanies-trip-to-holland-day-three.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/beanies-trip-to-holland-day-four.html

In March, we had a surprise visit with Andrea's friend Mim from America!!! They've been mail-arting together for we think about a dozen years, and this was the first time they met!!!

That story is here http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/when-beanie-met-mim.html

Also in March, we had a day out to Winchester!!! We went to see King Arthur's Round Table and took pictures specially for Hammie!!

Here's that story... http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/beanie-went-to-winchester.html

In April we had another day out.... this time to Spitalfields Market in London!! We'd never been there before.

Look here - http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/beanie-went-to-market.html

Then at the beginning of May, we went to see our friends Lynne and Chazzy Doggie on the Isle of Wight! That was the same time as Will and Kate got married - that was on the telly!!!

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/beanie-on-isle-of-wight-day-one.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/beanie-on-isle-of-wight-day-two.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/beanie-on-isle-of-wight-day-three.html

At the end of May, we had a long trip to London, and I met a Real Steampunk Captain!!!!!!! That was SOOO exciting!!!!

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/beanie-and-manga-show-day-one.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/06/beanie-at-manga-show-day-two.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/06/beanie-at-manga-show-day-three-and.html

In July, we went to London again to use out National Art Pass Card to get into a watercolour expedition for half price!! That was fun!

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/beanie-went-to-london-again.html

In August, we decided to take a proper look at Portsmouth Historic Docks..... we'd been past them on the way to the Isle of Wight but had never been in to see the boats. We found Pirates too!!

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/beanie-went-to-portsmouth.html

We also found some bread mix in one of the shops, and learnt how to make bread this year!!! I've never done that before!

Also in August, we went to another art expedition at Somerset House! We used our Art Pass card again and got in free!!!

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/beanies-day-out-in-london.html

In September I also sold a painting off my Etsy shop!!!! That was SOOOO exciting! We've sold two paintings and several sheets of hand printed wrapping paper too!!!!

October was my birthday!!! I had a whole weekend in London and met my mates Bob T Bear and Dilly!!! We had a big Feast in a Posh Restaurant and shouted at some protesters too! That was heaps of fun!

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/beanies-birthday-weekend-in-london-day.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/beanies-birthday-weekend-in-london-day_25.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/beanies-birthday-weekend-in-london-day_26.html

http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/beanies-birthday-weekend-day-four.html

And then just a few days ago, I had another day out in London!!!
http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-went-to-london.html

And on top of all that travelling, we met loads of friends of ours. Andrea STILL has a job (which is quite amazing seeing how loads of other people are getting laid off at the moment) and we have a lovely little flat to live in, and yummy food to eat and Andrea can afford to take me on lovely trips to places.....

I'm such a lucky mouse, you know......

We went to London!!!

2011-12-29T04:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, me and Andrea got up REALLY early when it was still dark!!!

We got a bus into town..... the Christmas lights look so much prettier when it's dark!!

Oh wow!!! Look at them!!!

Then, we got on a big coach!! We're going somewhere!!!!

About an hour later, we got to somewhere called 'Burbs! Andrea said it was just outside London!

Then, a little later on, we arrived in London! We even got here 15 minutes earlier than expected!!!

We walked up the road to the train station, and had to get a bus.

We got the number 38. This bus stops right outside the Royal Academy opposite Fortnum and Mason's shop, which is very handy if we ever want to go see an exhibition there!!

But yesterday we didn't - we got off at Piccadilly Circus!! I've never been here before!!!

Then we walked down to Leicester Square and along towards Covent Garden. We went in here but couldn't find what we wanted.....

So then we got a 24 bus.....

That took us to Tottenham Court Road Station! We walked down the road a bit - and then saw Tas Restaurant!! We've eaten there, it's yummy!!

And then we went to the British Museum!!! Andrea said there was a Manga exhibition there!!!

It turned out to be a really small exhibition and not really what we expected, so we were a little bit disappointed. But, in the gift shop, we found the Manga book that the exhibition was about, so Andrea decided to get it!!! It's all about this Professor here, and his adventures in London!!!

Then we went down the road to Andrea's favourite art shop!!!

They had a funny treee in the window!!!

Then we went back to Tas for lunch!!! We had taboulleh (yummy!!) and hot bread with a cheesey dip (more yummy!!!)

and then we had lamb shish with couscous (more yummy again!) and a big glass of pommegranite juice which was FAB!!

Then we got the 73 bus......

I really like riding London buses!!!

We got off a Hyde Park Corner because Andrea spotted something. We walked under the "Underpass" and saw lots of pretty tile pictures!!

In Hyde Park they had a Winter Wonderland amusement thingy..... but it cost lots of money to go in so we didn't.

Then we got a 16 bus which took us behind Buckingham Palace.

And back to Victoria Station!!!

Then we walked back to the Coach Station......

And got the coach home!!

JAFFA CAKES!!!! Andrea remembered the Jaffa Cakes!!!

I love these!!!

Here we are in Sussex now...... you can tell because it's all green!!!

Here we are back home!!!

We then got a bus back to where we live....

And saw more Christmassy lights!!

Here's the Manga book we bought!!! It's Professor Munakata's British Museum adventure!!

And it's written and drawn by Hoshino Yukinobu. Apparently he's one of the best Manga writer/artists around. This book has a bunch of other stuff in it as well as the Manga story, including an interview with Hoshino Yukinobu.

We started reading this last night, and it's a really good story!!!

(Ed's note: this book costs £14.99 and if anyone's interested in getting a copy, I'd suggest looking at the museum website at http://www.britishmuseum.org/ - I think that has a "shop" section)

We got some postcards too!!

at the art shop, we got these things - there's a hole in the metal end which you can put your pencil stubs into (when they're down to the last couple of inches!) and then you push the circular band up which tightens it. So, you can finish using up all your pencils!! Andrea says it might work with soft pastels too.

and we found two more of these as well!!!

What a fun day!

What we Did on Christmas Day!!

2011-12-26T04:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning we were all so excited that we made Andrea get up early!! We wanted to open all our presents!!

We started with the Kart one from Australia!! It had 17 different mail art things from all over the world, including one of Andrea's CDs!!!

Then we opened two presents from Andrea's brother - they were movie DVDs!! That's good, because there's crap on TV at the moment.

THEN we opened the one from Bob and Dilly and their family!! It was even from Scooter the cat!!!

It's a book about funny envelopes like Andrea makes!!!!

Oh what fun!!!!!

Then we opened the one from Raquel!

It was a Nativity set!!

We saved Bob and Dilly's proper present to last!!! It was the biggest!!!

WOWOWOWOWOWWW!!!

Look at all this!!!

We even found chocolate bears!!

Tango found a fifth bear hiding at the bottom of the box!!!

LOADS of stuff to play with!!!!

Then it was time for breakfast....

We had croissants and babycham!! It made us hiccup!!!

Then we went for a walk to Andrea's parents!

And we lost stuff on the way!!

We found some dogs in a shop window!

And a red bear!!!

And a piggy and a skull!!!

And another bear!

Then we saw the big Christmas tree in town!!!

and a Hannukah chandalier except I don't think it's called that....

Here they'd painted the windows!!!

We had to walk through a park, and they'd chopped a tree down and turned it into a chair!!!!!

We're going in here!!

We had more presents and lunch!!!

And then lost more stuff in the park on our way home!!!

Can't forget to decorate a bike, now, can we?!?!

That's the old Pickfords building....

When we got home, Andrea showed us her presents!! More DVDs and somd fancy ink....

Belgian biscuits!! Yum!

Smelly soaps..... Andrea says I can have the wrappers!!

And these ones are specially for me!!!!! They're out of the crackers!!

And before we went to bed, Andrea gave me some of her biscuits!!

Wow, what a day!!!

A Christmassy Outing!!

2011-12-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Andrea took me to work with her because we were Going Somewhere Special afterwards!! How fab!! On the way to the bus stop, we saw some Christmas decorations!

We went past a funny shop that had cars for children to sit in so they could watch TV while their Mummies had their nails done!!!

When we got off the bus, we saw some more decorations.....

After work (which was really boring - I fell asleep!) Andrea and three of her friends brought me here! It's the Royal Pavilion!!

Oh! Are we going skating?!?!

OH!! We got a Reserved Table!!! What's going on??!

Oh look - there's the skating rink!!!! I saw one of these in Amsterdam once, in Leidseplein!

The really little children have skiing penguins to lean on so they don't slip over!!! What a good idea!!

Andrea says she's upset they don't have those for grown ups too!!!

That's the Royal Pavilion behind me!!! It was built by Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Regent who was completely bonkers. Much like the present royalty then....

WE'RE GETTING A POSH TEA!!!!!!

Oh look! We got finger sandwiches and scones and cakes and everything!!!

We started off by having a chicken sandwich, cheese and pickle sandwich and two tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches. We were supposed to have one of those and one ham sandwich but we had ham sandwiches for lunch. Besides, the tuna ones tasted nicer!!!

Then they brought two giant Teapots along with some Giant teacups and saucers!!!

THEN we had scones and strawberry jam and clotted cream!!!

Apparently in Devon they put the cream on first and then the jam and in Cornwall they put the jam on first and then the cream...... or is that the other way round?? Andrea can never remember....!

And THEN to round it all off, we had some ginger cake with icing on it, and lemon drizzly cake with icing on it!!! There was tons of this left, so Andrea and her friend Mel fought over the rest of it and took it all home wrapped up in napkins!!!!! (well, half of it each!!)

Then after we'd finished our tea, it was time to go home!! We saw these sparkly trees near where we live! What a fun outing!

Oh hang on - is that Father Christmas over there? He can't start now, it's not Christmas Eve!!

We saw more sparkly christmas lights in people's windows!

And we found this bracelet on the way home too!!!

Oh, I'm totally stuffed now.....

We got the Tree Up!!

2011-12-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

Last week, Andrea got the Fake Tree out of the wardrobe and asked us to get the Decci-Ray-tions out!! We're putting the Tree Up!!

Even Benny Carrots helped! He likes doing this!!

Tango and Boo Bear love this Decci-Ray-Tion! It's their favourite!

Benny, Jenkins and Ickle Bear even decci-rated the top of the tree for us!! They were terrific at that!!

HURRY UP!! WE WANT THE LIGHTS ON!!!!!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We love our Fake Tree!!!

A Mini Outing....

2011-12-10T03:23:00.000-08:00

Andrea took me to work a while ago and the bus did Diversion along seafront. This is what we saw when we got off!! We have a Ferris Wheel!!

At work, I met Bogdun the Meercat. He's very naughty and the worst in his class. He's been sent to live in Birmingham now, with a lady that loves Meercats!!!

Updated drain covers!!

2011-12-03T03:15:00.000-08:00

Here's some more drain covers that we found in London last October! This one is near St Paul's Cathedral!

This one's pretty - I can't remember if we've seen this design before though....!!

This one's a bit like a chequerboard!

And Bob spotted this one on the way to the art shop! He's a sharp eyed bear, you know!

Hammie went on holiday a while ago and sent me this picture of a drain cover he found!!

Hammie sent me two more pictures today - he found more drain covers on his camera!! This one is from Amien in France...

And this one is also from Amien in France!!!

She also showed me this picture in Barcelona. She found this on the pavement/sidewalk but she's not sure if it's a drain cover or not.

She says it might be a fancy sundial or something...

I'm not sure what towns they're in but maybe he'll tell us!

This one looks like a telephone cover!!

A circle inside a rectangle! We don't get those in England!

This one's almost a Fleur De Lys design!!

A spotty one! It has measles!

That looks a little bit like the English Gas covers...

I think Hammie said these three are from St Malo.....

Wow!! Those are pretty!! Thank you for sending those, Hammie!!!

The next four are ones we found in Portsmouth! This one is in the Historic Dockyard!

And this one got poo'd on by a seagull!!
Hahahaha!!!

This is an arrow one for the Brunel House in Portsmouth!

This is another one we found in Portsmouth.

This one was recently found in Prague, Czech Republic by my friend Sullivan McPig (he has his own blog too, listed on right). He took a photo of it specially for this collection!

These ones are from Brighton and Hove. We went for a walk along the seafront last week, and found some more drain covers!! This one has holes in it!!!

And this one has lumps!!!

This one has holes and lines on it....

And this one is self locking!!! How does it unlock though???

This one looks a bit like a wagon wheel and has bits of glass in!!

Oh! I think this one's my favourite! It's got a daisy in the middle!!!

We found another drain cover just with lines on it.

I decided to add my three new found drain covers to the big post of all of them!

This one I found in Rotherhithe, London, last May!

This one I found near Spitalfields Market in London

As promised, I've now collected all my drain cover pictures into one post!!! This one is the latest, taken in Brighton, England!

And a round Brighton one with holes in!!

And a rusty Brighton drain cover!!

I found this one in Groningen, Holland back in February 2011 and has the Martini Tower on it!

These ones are from Groningen, too!

This one is from Hove in England, and has a starburst on it!

And this one has a lion!!!

Below is my original post all about drain covers in Brighton, England, first posted in September 2010!!!

This one says "Gas Gas" on it - Andrea says thats You Tilly Tea.

This one's pretty too - I like the squares and diamonds on it!

This one's another You Tilly Tea for Water.

G G. I wonder if that's another gas one? The other gas one we saw was also a square cover...

This one has a sunflower engraved on it!!!

Oh - a rectangular one! Wonder what this is for?

This one's called "Pam Water". I gues she's in charge of that thing called You Tilly Tea.

Oh!! This one's made up of diamonds but has a flowery design on top!

And another one made up of circles!

Hodges and Butler..... wonder who they are?

Oh! More gas ones!! Yeah, I think all the gas ones must be squares. That's how they tell.

Another square gas one!

Ah, now we have to be careful now. This is Grade C Dangerous Electricity. From Sigane. Wonder where Sigane is?

On the way home, we found some more drain cover things. This one says M but Andrea said it might be W for Water.

A triangular one!! I wonder what that does?

It's a Thomas Dudley Meter! I wonder what You Tilly Tea that is? I've never heard of getting Dudley and Thomas Bills.

FP - wonder who that is?

FH Brickhouse. Hmm..... Oh, it's Water.... it says so on the bottom!!

Fire Hydrant.... Andrea says that's for the Fire Engines if they need water to put fires out.

Oh, another little square one - must be gas!

We also saw one with a starburst in!

And another FH Water one! I never knew there were so many shapes and designs!

LOOK WHO WE MET!!!!!

2011-11-26T04:04:00.000-08:00

This morning, the Post Man knocked on our door and gave us this Package!! Andrea got me, Tango and Boo Bear off the bed and said this was a Very Special Delivery!!!

When we opened the bag, Clarence the Polar Bear climbed out!!! He was so happy to see us!!!

He said that Captain Birds Eye had rescued him and was asking lots of people to adopt him and Andrea had saved up some pennies to send away to do that - and we got him!!!

He was so happy to get out of the plastic bag though - he said it was all hot and sweaty in there, and he's not used to hot since he's a Polar Bear.

He was very happy that he's now living with Tango and Boo Bear though - they made sure he got a good spot on the bed too!!!

Another book painting!!

2011-11-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here's the same painting a bit later on! We put the labels on the jars!

We just finished this painting off the other week...... another picture of Beanie in the Paris art shop!!!

And if any of you ever go to Paris, it's the Sennelier shop on Quai Voltaire not that far from the Louvre!

We found another friend!!!

2011-11-19T02:41:00.000-08:00

One day last week, Andrea came home with a new friend for us!!! She found him sitting on a wall and he said that his last owner dropped him and didn't come back!!! So she picked him up and brought him home and now he gets on really well with all my other friends!!! (specially my dog, Comealong Stanley!!!)

A Very Late Halloween Picture!!

2011-11-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

Do you remember when we got back from London, I showed you a Pumpkin that Bob and Dilly had given us?? Well, Andrea helped us carve out a face and then bought some little candles to put inside!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

New Style Bus stops....!!!

2011-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

We came home one day to find two new seats at the bus stop near our house!!!!! Andrea said it might be something called "Fly Tipping" or it might be something called "Up Grading Public Seating"....!!! It's funny though!

Another Beanie Masterpiece.....

2011-11-06T03:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest piccie for my book..... it's the art shop we visited in Paris!!!

View from Our Window....

2011-11-06T03:34:00.000-08:00

We watched the sun from our living room window make pretty colours the other day......

Beanie's Birthday Weekend, Day Four

2011-10-27T02:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday, it was our last day on holiday in London...... and our last breakfast at the Youth Hostel!! We had cornflakes, toast, blackberry jam, fruit juice and coffee. It was yum!

Then we had to pack everything up, hand our room key in at reception (we asked for a new rubber stamp for Beanie's passport!!! - they don't actually offer to do the rubber stamps, so if you want one, you have to ask) and then we headed off for the bus stop round the corner.

And then got the number 11 back to Victoria Station. We didn't want to go home, we had so much fun!

Well, here we are, with time to spare!

Andrea had to spend a penny (That's "taking a poo" in Bob-speak!!!) We tied a tag to the door while we were there!

And then got the train back home!! Tango decided to look out of the window this time!

And here we are walking home from the station!!!

Andrea gave us a surprise when we got home! It turns out when we went to Horrids, she bought us a box of Macarons for Beanie's birthday!!!!! We got MORE birthday cake!!!! Andrea also got a pink box for Bob and Dilly's Mum too, with pink and brown macarons in (they didn't have any blue ones)

We also got a mini pumpkin from Bob and Dilly's Mum, to carve a face in for halloween!!

We had mail waiting for us too! We got a postcard from Hammie's holiday and a birthday card from Jerry and Ben!!!

And here's the lasted stamp in my passport!!! Good, huh?!

What a fab weekend.....!

Beanie's Birthday Weekend in London, Day Three

2011-10-26T04:05:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, when we were having breakfast, Andrea said we were going to Do Something Special today!! But first, we had to pack our stuff up and put it in the baggage room downstairs, because we were being moved to a different bunkbed room when we got back.

After we'd done that, we got a bus to Liverpool Street Station. Hang on, we went there last year too...!

We found a wonderful Statue of Bob T Bear's great great grandbear who came over from Poland in 1939. Apparently we're meeting somebody here later on.....

Then we went for a wander round since we had some time to spare. We met Bunny!

Then we came back to Liverpool Street Station, where the Great Eastern Railway works.

AND WE MET BOB T BEAR!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!

We travelled on Subway to a place called Angel, and it was so busy we were packed like sardines!! Just as well it was only three stops. Then we had a little walk, and found a drain cover that looked like a bear!

We saw a shop that was A Very Special Bear Adoption Centre!! We met a Giant bear outside!

And we finally arrived at Cass Art Shop, where we were going to spend money!!!

We did loads of shopping, it was great fun!!!

Then we walked round to a restaurant called Browns for lunch, and passed a bookshop with a mouse in the window!!

At the restaurant, we all sat down and said hello to everyone!!! There was Bob T Bear, Dilly, me, Tango and George!!! We were having a party!!!

Tango and George had presents for Bob and Dilly. Tango gave Bob a hole cutter gadget that cuts out bear shapes! George got Dilly a little bottle of Pink Parfum!!!

Bob had a present for Tango too - an Orange Push Push car!!!! How fab is that!?!?!??!

Dilly had crochetted a scarf for George!!

It fit him perfectly!! He sleeps in it too!!!

There's Bob and Tango again with the push push car.....

and THEN, Bob gave me a present too!!!

It's a box of gingerbread Bears that have Jazzy Pants on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See?!?! I love these!!

Dilly gave me a birthday card with a chocolate coin in too!!! and a picture of a mouse!

Bob gave me a card too, it had a bear on it!!!

Then we had lunch. Bob's Mum spotted a drink on the menu called Elderberry Fizzy which sounded interesting, so we got one and so did Bob's Mum!!!

These were seriously yummy drinks too...!

I had a Fakey Bacon Burger with fries for lunch.

and so did Bob!!! He had mayonnaise on his chips and was scooping out the mayo with his paws!!!

Then we decided to ride the buses back to the station. We took the long way round (via Victoria) because that's the only way Andrea knows how to get there!!!) Which is good, because Bob and Tango had never been on a London Bus before!!

They had a fabulous time waving out of the window to people!!!

We couldn't get them away!!!

At Victoria Station, we got off the bus and walked past another adoption centre to get another bus, the number 11 to Liverpool Street.

Here we are going past Westminster Abbey.

We all stopped for coffee before Bob and Dilly went home....

George and Dilly didn't want to leave!!! Neither did any of us - we had such fun today!!!

After we waved them goodbye, we got the bus back to the youth hostel.

And we checked into our new room for the night. We got Bunk One this time, another top bunk!!!

After that, we were starving, so we went out to a place called Strada for pizza. It wasn't as nice and the Pizza Express pizze though.....

We're exhausted. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............................

Tombola Update....

2011-10-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

The prizes are going to....
Big patch to Raquel
Little patch to Ryan
One magnet to Buttons (I think I'll need you to send me your address please!)
One magnet to Pinky (Ryan's sister)
Clog to Alix (I think I'll need your address too!)
Bus to Sullivan.

Big Ben is still available if anyone wants it.

Beanie's Birthday Weekend in London, Day Two

2011-10-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we all got up and had breakfast!!! Andrea got us cornflakes, toast with apricot Jam (Tango's favourite because it's orange coloured!!!) and coffee.

Then we had a look round the hostel because Andrea forgot to show us on Friday!! We had a game of table football!!!

Here's the front of the St Paul's youth hostel.

Apparently, it used to be the boarding school for the St Paul's Cathedral Boy's Choir!!!!

Then, Andrea took us all on a bus to Trafalgar Square!!

They had a great big pirate ship there!! Oh, Bob would love this.....!!!

I wish this boat was a youth hostel, we could stay on here instead!!!

And THEN we found a Big Grizzly Bear!!!!!!!!!!!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Bears do that SO much better than mice, don't you think?

On our way back to the bus stop, we found these fabulous murials!!! This one's a crocodile!!!

George had his photo taken with the Crocodile!!! There's even a DRAGONfly and a frog, if you look closely!

We also saw fish and squid and sharks and all sorts!!!

This one had a creepy spider on it!!!

And a Bat!!! Sullivan said that in Dutch, those are called something mousies!!!!

Then we got on another bus.......

and got up here, near to Euston Station!!! Where are we going now??

Gower Street?! I've been here before....!

We found another drain cover in Gower Street!!!

And another one!!!

We walked past Bedford Square and saw a sign up about a festival. I tied one of my CDs to the railing next to it, can you see?!?!

Then we got to Cornelissen's, one of Andrea's favourite art shops!! What's that machine in the window??!

Oh wow!!! Are we going to buy one? I think Urbandon would like that......!

We went inside and had a play with the crayons while Andrea did some shopping.

After that, we went up the road to the British Museum!!!

We stopped here for a drink because we were all thirsty.

Then we got another bus.....!!

We saw this fancy clock!!!

And then we got off at High Street Kensington and went for a walk in Holland Park!!!

We saw a funny sculpture in the park too.....

And then because we were all starving hungry, we stopped for lunch at Byron's.

They do burgers here!!!

After lunch we got on another bus. We love riding London Buses!!! They're great fun!

We had a look at the Victoria and Albert Museum....

And then got another bus to............

Horrids!!!!! We're going shopping in Horrid's, the Queen's Walmart shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andrea took us to the Laduree french patisserie at the back of the building!!! We went to buy Something Very Special!!!!

And then it was another bus back to the youth hostel!!

We did lots of shopping today! And Andrea even found a little sewing kit in an Oxfam shop, so was able to fix the shoulder straps on her red backpack with all the patches all over it!! Yippee!!!

Then we went out for dinner and had another pizza. We had a Fiorentina Pizza which had an egg on the top!! Not as nice as the pepperoni pizza, that's our favourite!!!

And then we went to bed. We were all pooped!!!

Beanie's Birthday Weekend in London, Day One!

2011-10-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, Andrea said we were going Away For The Weekend. OH!!! Tango and George have helped packed the suitcase!! And they're coming too??! How fab is that?!?!

When it was time to leave, it started Looking Like Rain outside, so Tango and George rode in Andrea's fuzzy hat in her backpack.

Then we went up the road.....

And met a very friendly black cat!!! He was so friendly, he wouldn't stay still for a photograph!!!

Then we arrived at Brighton Train station....

What??? There's no trains on the announcement board!! We asked at the information desk and they said our tickets were to travel from HOVE station - Andrea brought us to the wrong station!!! Hahahahaha!

So we got the train to Hove.....

And all waited for the train to London!!!

Here we are!! Arrived at the right place!!

We got the Number 11 Bus up to St Paul's Cathedral and found Lots of protesters outside the Cathedral! Tango will be happy - he likes shouting about stuff!!

Then we went to the Youth Hostel and checked in. We stayed in the same room as last time and had bed Four on the top!! Tango and George have never stayed in a bunk bed!!! (Minor disaster though - both the shoulder straps on Andrea's red rucksack broke off and the Hostel didn't have sewing kits!! We had to go straight out to buy a New Bag from a sports shop nearby. It was On Sale for £7!!! More on that later...)

We went out later on and the first thing we did was find a new drain cover!!!

Then we went and yelled at the protesters. Or was that WITH the protesters? I can never remember....

We heard that they have their own Library Tent so we gave them four of our bookcrossing books!!!

Then we had a wander round and tied a CD to a bench in a pretty little square...

And then saw this sign. Friendless Churches? That sounds a bit sad....

This is us outside the Royal College of Arms - they design all those fancy coat of arms thingies. George says he's starred in a lot of them as a Model!!!

On the way to the river, we found this man with no head wearing glasses and a bowler hat!! Andrea says he pinched the idea from Bob's Halloween costume last year when he pulled his jumper up over his head to make it look like he didn't have one!!!

Then we found a fancy scientific instrument thingy.....

Hmmm..... how interesting!!

We all had a look at the River Thames..... but we were scared we'd fall in!

Then we saw a shiney ball that reflected everyone that walked past. Andrea's new £7 bag had a pocket in the front that me, Tango and George all rode in!!!!! It's a Family Photo!!!! We could all see where we're going this way!

then we stopped for coffee............

And saw a pretty little statue near the Cathedral.

then we got starving hungry so went to Pizza Express for dinner. We had a fizzy drink....

And a pepperoni pizza...........YUMMMMMMMM!!!!

AND THEN, they got me a chocolate fudge cake birthday cake with Smarties on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love these!!!

We had a wander round the tent camp after dinner - this is the library tent that our books went to!!!

And then we were so exhausted, we fell straight asleep in bed..........zzzzzzzzzz.....

Beanie's Birthday Tombola!!!!

2011-10-16T04:41:00.000-07:00

I discovered last week that I had some stuff from my travels that I want to give away, and since it's my birthday soon, I thought that would a good excuse to have a Birthday Tombola Giveaway!!!

So, Prize One is this sew on embroidered patch from Amsterdam

Prize Two is another sew on patch from Amsterdam!!!

Prize Three is a blue and white china Fridge Magnet from Amsterdam

Prize Four is another blue and white china fridge magnet from Amsterdam

Prize Five is a yellow clog keyring from Amsterdam. It has pictures all the way round both sides as well as the front.

Prize Six is a brass Big Ben keyring from London. It can stand up on it's own, too!

Prize Seven is a London Double Decker Bus keyring - this also as a zipper on the bottom so you can open it up and use it as a purse as well.

If you post a comment under this post and say which prize number you'd like to "win", I shall have a Big Birthday Tombola Prize Draw ..... say in about ten days' time, so that's about 25th October?

Special Message for Dilly

2011-10-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

GeoRge BorrOW PooTer for mESSigE For diLLy

GeoRGe caN'T wAit TOO meEt diLlY!!!

I got an award!!

2011-10-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

Marlowe the bear gave me a special award the other day!!! How fab is that!!!

He said that I get to give this to five other toys that blog about their adventures, but I had to think hard about that, because a lot of my friends have already been given this aware.

Anway.... I'm passing this on to....

1. The other mousie

2. Biff Da Bear

3. Ryan

4. Somebody else that wants it

5. Doesn't really count because Marlowe chose six!!!!!

Beanie's book picture!!

2011-09-25T03:25:00.000-07:00

This is the next one, when we walked past Musee D'Orsay in Paris!!! I think we did a good job painting the horse - never had to paint them before...!

Piratey Name!!

2011-09-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

My pirate name is:

Mad Jack Bonney

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

We Made Scones!!!

2011-09-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

The other week, Andrea brought home a packet of Scone Mix and said we were going to Do Cooking again!!! I like cooking!! I like eating what we cooked better though!!

First, we emptied the Scone Mix into a Big Bowl..... just like making bread!

Then we had to add a bit of milk. Hmm, this is easy.....

Then we had to mix it all together until it looked like this!! That was messy...

Then we decided to add some sultanas and raisins because Andrea says Scones taste better with them in. We had to mix it all together again....

after that, we were supposed to roll out the mix and cut out the scones with a round cutter thingy. We didn't have a round cutter thingy, but since the packet said that it was enough mix to make eight scones, we just divided it all up into eight round-ish thingies!! Then we put them in the oven and cooked them!!!

They came out looking like this!!!

We had one for pudding after our dinner!! We cut it in half, and spread some butter and jam on each half and ate it all up!! Andrea says that in Quaint English Tea Rooms, you can have Scones with Jam and thick cream on top!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to go to a Quaint English Tea Room!!!! Please please please! Can we??!

I SOLD A PAINTING!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-09-11T03:43:00.001-07:00

I just got an email from my etsy shop saying that a lady in Brooklyn, New York, bought one of my paintings!

I'm SOOOOOO HAPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beanie's book!!!

2011-09-10T03:24:00.001-07:00

Here's the next painting for my book!!! It's the National Assembly in Paris that i went past on my first day in Paris!!!

Look what we found!!

2011-09-04T03:35:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Andrea was walking up the road and she found this book on the pavement!! Somebody had either dropped it or lost it or something, so she picked it and brought it home to read to me and Tango at bedtimes. It's a really good book too, an adventure story that starts on a pirate ship in the China seas and then goes on a big trek through Mongolia and Tibet! It's really exciting!

And then a few days after she found that book, she went for another walk and found a box on somebody's wall with a sign saying "Help yourself" and a whole pile of books inside!! She picked these three...

...and we just finished reading them last night!!! Shipping News is set in Newfoundland and about a single Dad who works in Journalism, Time for a change is about a family where they think Dad had an affair but he didn't, and No Angel was our favourite!! It's about a family of book publishers set from 1900 up to the 1920s flapper age, how things are never how they appear and it has some REALLY good twists at the end!!! At least twice, we all shouted "OOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!" out of surprise!!

We have these listed on our bookcrossing shelf (I think if you scroll all the way down the bottom, you'll find our bookcrossing link) so if anyone would like to read one, please leave a comment here!

Beanie's Day Out in London!!!

2011-08-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Andrea said we were going out again!!

We went up to Train Station again!! Wonder where we're going this time?

I made sure I tied a tag onto the seat in front!

And then watched the countryside going past....

We got to London again!! Andrea needed to go for a pee, so I tied another tag to the door.

And then we had to go out and get a bus.

We got the Number 11 bus - here we are outside Westminster Abbey!!

And then going along White Hall. That's where Prime Minister lives.

And then we got off here at Aldwych!

We came here last time!

And there's Somerset House!!

Andrea said we were coming to see this Exhibition!!! We used out National Art Pass again and we got in completely free!!! Wow!

I love this Courtyard....!

I had a big surprise inside the building though!! We saw some Indoor Drain Covers!!!

I never knew there were indoor ones!

These are a bit dark.... but they're ever so pretty!!

It's a shame we couldn't take them home with us!

I really like these ones!!

After we saw the exhibition (which was great fun by the way! We did Shopping in the gift shop too - more on that later) we got another bus to go for lunch.

and we got off here at St Paul's Cathedral!

We had a good view from the restaurant table!!!

First we got the drinks in....

And then we got Baguette to nibble on!

and then we had pan fried salmon on a salad nicoise which was seriously yummy! We ate the whole lot!

Then we got another Number 11 bus back into town. We went down Fleet Street where Sweeney Todd worked.

And then we got off near the Savoy Hotel and found a little passageway to this little park!

And then we found this!!! The river Thames used to come all the way up here until they changed the banks of the river to build this park.

We found a camel here too! There were even pingpong tables for people to play games on!!!

We walked through to Embankment - this way, you can see to St Pauls and Gherkin.

And the other way, you can see the Millenium Wheel!

We then walked back up the side of Charing Cross Station.....

To Trafalgar Square!

This is the Count Down Clock for the London Olympics!! Less than a year to go!!!

Then we went and did more Shopping at an Art shop!! I love going in here!

And we also met Elephant.

Then as it was nearly home time, we got another Number 11 bus...

Back to Victoria Station!

And we crossed the river at Battersea Power station.

and then we got the bus home!!

We got our shopping out at home.... this is the book of the exhibition.

We got postcards to send people too!!!

Andrea even bought me a present of candy!!

They're made out of Green fairy potion!!!

I wonder if Sullivan would like a pack of these? We should've got two.... oh well.

And we also got two books made out of Indian khadi paper. I use these for scrapbooks!!

We made paper!!!

2011-08-21T08:59:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Andrea bought some red printing ink and we made loads of lino prints onto tissue paper!!! We made red flowery ones and red fishy ones and red stars that we coloured in with gold and silver ink!!! They're hanging up drying now!!