Wednesday 27 January 2016

From New Zealand This Time

My next friend I'm going to show you is from New Zealand, now she's gonna tell you a little it about herself and her country:



'Hi, my names Jaffa the kiwi after the New Zealand sweet Cadbury 'jaffa'. The Jaffa, a hard coated orange flavoured sweet with a chocolate centre, a must have for my sweetie jar!

 (We even celebrate this treat each year when thousands of Jaffas are raced down Dunedin's Baldwin St, the steepest street in the world, as part of the annual Cadbury Chocolate Carnival.

We kiwis are already cool, but wait and see some weird facts about us! There are about 68,000 of us left in all of New Zealand. We are losing 2% of our relatives every year –that's around 20 per week. We also have one of the largest egg-to-body weight ratios of any bird. Our egg averages 15% of the female's (My) body weight (compared to 2% for the ostrich).

It's approx 11,700 miles from the UK to New Zealand, that's A LOOOOOOOOOONG WAY!

Monday 25 January 2016

1st Introduction, Somalia

My first friend that I'm going to show you came ALL the way from SOMALIA! He is a giraffe who's going to tell you about himself!


Me and Sam!
 'Hello! My name is Sam, short for 'Sambuusa', Just in case you don't know 'Sambuusa' is a well-known dish in my home country, Somalia! A sambuusa is the Somali variation of the Indian samosa!

 Bet you didn't know that we giraffes can run up to 35 mph! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that our hearts weigh 25 POUNDS! We are also the type of giraffes most often found in zoos!

Somalia is in Africa. From here, in the UK, to Somalia its approximately 7,600 miles. The equator runs through 13 countries one of which is Somalia.

Somalian Flag

Sunday 24 January 2016

My New Friends!

I've met some new friends today, at somewhere called 'Car-boot-sale', they're from ALL over the world, and now they've come to live with myself and Abbie! I'll be introducing them one at a time over the next few weeks and telling you a little bit about their home country's!


Wednesday 20 January 2016

20 Useless Facts About Teddy Bears!

Well, Here are 20 useless facts about my cousins, uncles, Grandads and Nannies:

1. The first book written about bears appeared in 1834, 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'.

2. A Brooklyn shopkeeper, Morris Michtom sells the world's first 'Teddy's Bear' in his shop in November 1902.

3. Bear toys were originally called 'Bruins'.

4. 'Teddy Bear' was one of the first illustrated books based on these soft toys, written by Alice Scott.

5. In 1909, the first animated teddy cartoon "Little Johnny and the Teddy Bears" appeared in USA.

6. 'The Teddy Bears Picnic' was actually called 'The Teddy Bear Two-Step'.

7. The lyrics for the song 'The Teddy Bears Picnic' where only introduced in 1932.

8. The worlds smallest teddy bears is <5mm high! (not actual size) ------>

9. In 1924, Walt Disney produced the first colour animation film with a teddy bear theme 'Alice and the Three Bears'.

10. One of the most famous bears, Winnie-the-Pooh made its appearance when the first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh was published in 1926.

11. In 1944, even as forest fires caused havoc across the USA, Smokey Bear was adopted as the mascot of the United States Forest Fire Prevention Campaign.

12. Sooty, the teddy bear glove puppet and magician, made its way on British television in 1952. Sooty became hugely popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand. So much so that Sooty is now the longest running children's television show in the UK and turned 60 in 2008. Devised by Harry Corbett, father handed the job of puppeteer over to son Matthew in 1976. Matthew retired in the late nineties with Sooty's popularity unfinished.

13. A common problem was solved when Wendy Boston, Welsh toy maker, produced the first washable toy bear in 1954.

14. The world BIGGEST teddy bear is 16.86 m (55 ft 4 in) in length and was made by Dana Warren (USA). The bear was done on 6 June 2008 and was named C.T.Dreams, which stands for Connect The Dreams.  (Hmph, I wish I had a name like that, but I'm stuck with Koppar-Bear-G!)

15. 1958 saw another widely loved and popular bear, Paddington Bear, appeared for the first time. The first Paddington story, A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond was published.

16. The first animated film on Winnie-the-Pooh is produced by Walt Disney in 1975. It instantly became a classic. (I'm not a fan of winne the pooh by the way, too unrealistic. Unlike me ;)

17. In 1989, the first British Teddy Bear Festival was held in London.

18.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, someone who collects or is particularly fond of teddy bears is called an ‘arctophile.’This word comes from the Greek arctos (bear) and philos (loving).

19. Teddy bears take their name from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt; an avid bear-hunter, whose nickname was Teddy. A newspaper article in 1902 reported that, after an unsuccessful bear hunt, the President’s guide wanted to please him so took a wounded bear cub and tied it to a tree for him to shoot. Roosevelt declined, saying this would not be sportsmanlike. The newspaper article included a cartoon of the president cuddling a small bear and it wasn’t long before an American company latched onto the idea and came up with the phrase ‘teddy bears.’

20. The largest teddy bear collection ever auctioned belonged to the American multi-million dollar investment scammer, Paul Greenwood. His unique collection of 1,300 toys was auctioned off by the US Government at Christie’s in 2010 for a record £1.1 million. (Am I worth that much!?!? No? Thought so :( )

Here's me writing this blog! :)

And that was 20 facts about my family tree, nothing was said about me though, ;-;.

Tuesday 19 January 2016

A Trip To The Vets.

Hello, my name's Koppar-Bear-G and today me and Abbiegail went to the vets for our dogs injections! Here's me on an examination table. Luckily they didn't give ME an injection! ;)

Koppar-Bear-G

Here's a couple of pictures of the HUMONGOUS dogs: