At Last!

Hello from the land of Pharaohs - well, at least it used to be.

So here we are in Egypt.
Took soooo long time to update. It because we don't have our own computer and have got only dial-up connection at home at this moment.....
It might change after Christmas.

The trip from Spain wasn't too bad. We were tucked nicely in the carry-on bag, the flight arrived more or less on time, no luggage was lost and going through security was easy. Nobody called us suspicious bears - which happened once before.

We visited the pyramids in Giza, the oldest pyramids in Saqqara, Khan el Khalili bazaar, Alexandria , etc, etc.... We are now well settled in.

Hopefully we can post some photos and more info about how things are over here soon(ish).

Love to you all
Teddy and Pencil

Earth Day Photo Project

Are you doing something special for the Earth Day?
We will be participating in the Earth Mosaic Project!

Earth Mosaic Project wants you to participate in this Earth Day event by sending them some images. All you have to do is that you take photos within the 24 hour period of 22 April 2009 and upload it to EarthMosaic.org. That's all!

It really doesn’t matter if you’re hot-rod D3X or 1Ds Mk III pro-shooter, or a student with a 1.3MP cellphone camera. We all share this planet, and we’d like you all to share in this mosaic. And that leads us to what YOU can do now. The success of the project depends on getting hundreds of thousands of images. Each one represents your tiny block of our life on earth. Even though you can’t see your picture at first, you can see the result, and you know that you’re part of that. Everyone is. Everything we do, affects our planet.

There are some rules and you can find them out on their website, so go to http://earthmosaic.org/index.html and check them out before the event.
Hope you'll join us!

Long time no see

Hi there.
We haven't blogged for a while (again), hope you all are doing well. The reason we've been so quiet is because we've been having a dilemma; whether to continue blogging or to stop it completely... Still not so sure what to do.
Meanwhile, we will be posting some of our photos we haven't yet shown to you until we make our final decision.
Hope you enjoy our little photo stream :)

Teddy and Pencil

Sea of Light
(St. George's Bay, Malta)

Merry Christmas!

We Wish You a Very Merry Christmas!

with lots of love

from
Teddy and Pencil

Dancing Bear Christmas Tree

Christmas is just around the corner now!

While we were visiting several websites for Christmas decorations, we found this super Christmas tree! We asked Y & M to get this rather special tree for us, but our request was turned down...

"$895!? Farrrrrr too expensive!!", they said.

It's a pity.
We thought it would look spectacular in front of our house.

By the way, here's the link for the shop, if you are interested in having a look.
http://www.bettyschristmashouse.com/evergreen/evergreen_figures.htm

Nearly Four

We came across this rather sad poem about three years ago, and finally today, we decided to share it with you.
It is actually the lyric of a song and was written a guy called Jeremy Lloyd.
We are sure that it will bring some little tears to your eyes - It certainly did to us and several other people!

So here we go...

---

NEARLY FOUR


A teddy bear sits on a mattress
One glass eye and threadbare paw
Looking at a cuckoo clock
Which shows it's ten to four


Four o'clock is teddy's teatime
Lots of friends and fancy cake
Although it's only pretend eating
Oh how long ten minutes take


Shadows grow on distant hillsides
Orange sun on glassy sea
All in his amber eye reflected
And still ten minutes left 'til tea


The mattress, striped, is old and broken
Rusty springs through stuffing show
The cuckoo clock is also broken
But how's a teddy supposed to know?


Unaware he's been discarded
That this is not the nursery cot
The hills and sea just glass, old papers
On a disused rubbish plot


A telephone that no one answers
Empty tins that once held tea
The clock that still says nearly teatime
Where can all the children be?


For ages now he's lain unwanted
Saluting with his threadbare paw
He'll never know he's been abandoned
'Til the clock reads after four


Don't tell him that the clock is broken
For as long as teddy doesn't know
It'll always soon be teatime
As it was so long ago.

We Were Stranded!

Do you remember the story we had told you on one of the blog posts, about the terrible rain we had in October?

We went for a walk the other day and found out that the downpour washed a road to the next village away! We loved taking this road. There was almost no traffic, so it was perfect for us Teddy Bears to enjoy a safe stroll.

Well, now we'll get NO traffic. Certainly guarantee that! But safe? Not for us!

---

By the way, we were awarded with "Superior Scribbler Award" by Charity and "I Love Your Blog Award" by NJTomboy.
Thanks a lot! We'll give you huuuuuuuuuuge hugs and hairy kisses!

Teddy Bear At Work

We went to a fiesta held in one of the nearby towns.
All the glittering lights, music, jingles, laughter, smell of waffles and etc...
It was so mesmerizing!

At one of the fun rides, we found this ginormous Teddy Bear towering in front of the picture of Mr. Bean.
He looked very majestic and we felt a little bit intimidated, we didn't get to talk to him.
We regretted it though.
After hours of standing and posing, he might have liked a little cup of honey lemon and a chat with fellow teddy bears....

Next time when we see him at a fair somewhere, we might invite him to come and stay with us for a couple days so that we can fill each other with stories of different places.
If he says yes, we might need to get a huge bed for him.

After the October Rain

Grrrrrrr, we heven't published any blog posts for a very long time...
How are you all doing? Hope everything is OK with all of you guys.

We had a terrible rainstorm last week and the rain water came into our house!
Drip, drip, drip...
First when we heard the sound, we weren't so sure what it was.
Our human buddies were rushing around the house with buckets, gushing water was running through the streets, the sky was filled with rolling thunder and lightning...
Wow, that was horrendous!
We'd never experienced that heavy rain before!

At last, a little bit of dry weather came back yesterday, so we were busy mending our roof!

Svasti's Teddy Bear: George Edward

Recently, we got to know a very courageous person from Australia. Svasti had a very painful experience, physically and mentally. On her blog, she bravely shares her journeys to the wholeness from assault.

When we had a little chat, she mentioned us about her teddy bear "George Edward". He's been a faithful companion to Svasti since her late teens. We asked her to show us his photo, and here it is!
He is a good looking bear, isn't he?

You can meet George Edward at http://svasti.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/for-teddy-pencil/ .

To know more of Svasti's story, please visit her great blog at
http://svasti.wordpress.com/

What if....

We came across the following news the other day. This news really shook us!
What could we do if we were kidnapped by a burglar? We don't know how to fight! Our paws are a bit too soft and we can't run fast... How can we escape from them? OK, we know how to drive - in theory, but our feet cannot reach the pedal!
Maybe we should learn karate or something...

Man steals PlayStation, Teddy Bear during burglary
Returned to his grateful owners

By Mark Cavalo, GameRush Entertainment

For a burglar in Waikato, New Zealand, stealing a PlayStation was apparently not enough, as the thief grabbed a teddy bear as well during the theft.
Police spokesman Andrew McAlley said that the 18-year-old man entered a couple’s residence sometime between 8am and 5pm. Asides from stealing the PlayStation, he made off with a hair dryer, some shoes, and a teddy bear.

When the couple arrived home, they noticed some of their belongings placed along a rear fence. When they looked over the fence, the couple was confronted by the burglar, who threatened them with a pitchfork, reported the New Zealand Press Association.

Police were called and had to use pepper spray to subdue the man. The resident of the neighboring property was also arrested for obstruction.

“Meanwhile the teddy bear appeared none the worse for his travels and was returned to his grateful owners,” McAlley said.

Paddington To Be Arrested!

There will be a new book of Paddington Bear published in June 2008! YES, A NEW STORY!
What a great news! The first new book in 30 years! And from what we heard, Paddington will be arrested and interrogated over his immigration status in this new book.

The year 2008 is a land mark year for Paddington as it marks the 50th anniversary of his debut. In this new book, "Paddington Here and Now", the bear is interviewed about his right to stay in England. He has no papers to prove his identity as his Aunt Lucy arranged for him to hide on a ship's lifeboat from Peru when she went to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima.

The book will be published by HarperCollins, who have been publishing Paddington books since the very beginning, when "A Bear Called Paddington" was launched in 1958. HarperCollins Children's Books will be releasing a variety of Paddington re-issues and new formats to celebrate the anniversary year.

We are so excited about this book, but it brought us a little concern... If Paddington could be arrested by police over his immigration status, the same might happen to us. Neither of us have passport... Nobody had ever asked us to show a passports or a visa on our travelling before. What should we do if people from the immigration office show up on our doorstep?

Teddy Bears Need Fun Too

We know that most of people think teddy bears do nothing, just sit around and watch the world by. OK, we admit that some of us actually like to have an inactive life, but not all!

Here's an email we received some time ago with the photo above.

I was in a local toy store and to my shock, two large teddy bears were in a Ferrari. I said, "What in the world are you two doing?"

The driver said, "Waiting to be adopted" and the passenger said, "Sometimes we get bored. So Justin there drives and I do the 'vrrrm! vrrrrm!' noise. Teddy bears need fun, too, you know."

They allowed me to photograph them.

--Chris S.

Taking Photos Can Be A Challenge

When we walk around the towns and the cities, we always take a camera with us just in case we meet some photogenic teddy bears there. Sometimes with babies and children, sometimes in the shop windows, teddy bears are always around.

The tricky bit is not upsetting anybody when we take photos.
Usually teddy bears are quite willing to pose for some photo shooting, but humans don't like a stranger taking photos of their children... It's quite understandable since there are a lot of weirdoes lurking around to do BAD things.

But we are so innocent looking bears...
Do you think we look like bad bears?

Why Do We Travel?

Not all who wander are lost.
~ J. R. R. Tolkien ~

Do you like travelling?

For us, travel is almost not a choice. We do believe that when our body was stuffed with fluffy stuffing and love, a travel bug crept inside our body! We just cannot stay still. If we stay in one place too long, we get a nudge and start dreaming about all the adventures we haven't accomplished yet.

Every time when we visit a new place, it doesn't matter whether it is a nearby town we've never been to or a different country & culture, we get a great excitement. A excitement for something unknown, for the joy of freedom (well, we are always free to do anything anyway), for the new possibilities, and for all the wonders!

It seems to us that the travelling is one of those things either you hate or love. Love, for us, of course.

Where is the most memorable place you've ever visited? Would you like to share your experience with us?