Month: February 2007

Voting for the Herts24 Web Awards

I have been nominated and accepted for the Herts24 Web Awards. 🙂 This is going to be a great opportunity for me to be seen by as many people as possible, and maybe one day when buying donuts someone might recognise me. 🙂

If you would like to vote for me then click on the link below, for voting you could win yourself a pair of virgin balloon tickets or a website in a wallet. I wouldn’t mind winning a balloon ride, I’ve never been in a hot air balloon. Vote today and make a pint-sized teddy bear very happy.

http://www.herts24.co.uk/webawards/voting/personal/cuddly

London Underground


I had to navigate the London Underground today by myself. I was able to travel from A to B without any problems. I will look at the journey planner next time to ensure that I know the quickest route.

There is a Guinness World Record for travelling around the 275 stations in the fastest time possible. I can’t imagine where you would start looking at the map, but apparently the record stands at 18 hours 25 minutes and 3 seconds. It must be really frustrating if the northern line train is going to High Barnet when you want to go to Edgware.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/

Primrose Hill


Primrose Hill is a park on the north side of Regent’s Park in North London. It has been a couple of years since I visited the park. The hill has a wonderful view of central London. It overlooks Regent’s Park and London Zoo.

The aviary for London Zoo can be seen in foreground of the picture beyond the path. Centerpoint on Tottenham Court Rd., London Telecom Tower (formally BT Telecom Tower) on Cleveland St., and the Millenium Eye on the South Bank can be seen in the distance.

You might recognise the park. It was in the films Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason and Maybe Baby.

Wag the tail

David Marshall, who developed the Bodydoctor Fitness programme has developed an excellent programme for children which help stem the problem of unhealthy and obese children. The exercises don’t require any exercise equipment other than a soft floor or mat. The exercises include wagging the tail, a baby crawl and dry land swimming. I am going to try this programme as for a small bear like me these exercises would be ideal. 🙂

Barrow Hill primary school in London is the first school to hold Bodydoctor classes and was trialled with year 5 children. They are now teaching the programme to the rest of the teachers in order to roll it out to the rest of the school. I hope that the programme gets adopted around the country.

http://www.bodydoctor.com/

Sling


The personal session was really difficult. It might be that I am out of shape. I have been eating too many donuts. I have started eating healthy and have cut down eating donuts to only once a week.

I did weight work, lunges, and exercises with the ab-roller and the sling. The sling helps you to exercise the ab muscles, but I think that might have been too advanced for me. I was afraid of falling, so suspending from the sling was very scary.

http://www.bodydoctor.com/

Rowing


I was able to find one cardiovascular exercise which I was able to do, the rowing machine. It was very tiring for me as I am only a small bear. It takes far more effort than it would for anyone else. I might try the treadmill next time as that has got to be far easier for a small teddy. I had to complete my cardio before proceeding to my session with my personal trainer.

There are so many different exercise machines; the x-bike looks really cool, the strider looks scary and the never ending stairs looks dangerous. I will have to try some others next time.

http://www.bodydoctor.com/

Exercise Bike


I started my training today for the Bay to Breakers. I went to Bodydoctor Fitness. The Bodydoctor specialise in sensible exercise programmes that everyone can do at home or in the gym. I have been eating too many donuts recently so having a personal trainer will really help get me into shape. I had to start the session with cardiovascular exercise, but I was having problems trying to find an exercise machine small enough.

http://www.bodydoctor.com/

Drew Barrymore


I was reading an article on elle.com, they have an interview with Drew Barrymore. She is in one of my favourite films, The Wedding Singer. I have to say that I like her even more after reading about her teddy bears, ‘An aubergine-color teddy bear, a gift from a hotel in Paris, is peeking out from her soft suede Foley + Corinna satchel. “I love him sooo much,” says the star, meaning the toy, as she reverts to a six-year-old. “Feel him!” she urges, fondling it, then rolls her eyes ceilingward. “Clearly, I’m a little girl. I used to have a blankie and when my mom had to wash it, I would sit outside the dryer and watch it go round and round, and cry.”‘.

I would also like to wish her a happy birthday.

http://www.elle.com/coverstory/9441/drew-barrymore.html

Time to get running


Teresa has raised £2,444 for charity in the last year by running two 5km races, two 10km races and a 7km race in a gorilla costume. I was there supporting her for all of the races. She helped 3 charities, Cancer Research UK, Grove House Hospice, and The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. She has been training over the winter and will be starting the season with a half marathon on March 18th, 2007 at Silverstone.

The Silverstone London Half Marathon is going to be running around the race track, thankfully there won’t be any formula 1 racing cars at the same time. It might be a bit windy and wet, but I am going to be there cheering Teresa on. The race will be in aid of The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign.

The next run after Silverstone will be The London Marathon on April 22nd, 2007. The marathon is 26.2 miles around London finishing on the mall. I am going to be cheering from wherever I can get to on the route. We are hoping to be able to catch her at numerous points along the route. The marathon will be in aid of Cancer Research UK.

The third run which we will all be participating in, will be the ING Bay to Breakers in San Francisco on May 20th, 2007. I have started training for this race already because one section of the run is a 11.5% incline. It is going to be very tough for my paws. We are running in aid of The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation which is the only charity in the world dedicated to fighting lung cancer.

If you would like to donate to any of the runs then please click on the justgiving pages below. Thank you in advance.

http://www.justgiving.com/LondonHalfMarathon07

http://www.justgiving.com/LondonMarathon07

http://www.justgiving.com/BayToBreakers

Tales of a Globetrotting Teddy Bear

I am in our local newspaper, The Herts Advertiser. I had Aimee Brannen from the newspaper contact me last week asking several questions. I didn’t expect the article to be in the newspaper so quickly, but when I was reading the newspaper earlier I suddenly noticed that an article was about me. 🙂

Its a great story. If you would like to read the article then click on the link below.

Yes, yes, yes. Eddie we all know that its you in the picture in Venice. I wasn’t allowed to go because I might have fallen into the water. 🙁

http://www.hertsad.co.uk/content/herts/news/story.aspx?
brand=HADOnline&category;=News&
tBrand=herts24&tCategory;=newshadnew&
itemid=WEED22%20Feb%202007%2011%3A58%3A37%3A033

Inside a balloon


Teresa gave a wonderful gift to Craig for Valentines Day, a Gund bear inside a big balloon with smaller heart balloons. The bear was desperate to get out of the balloon, we eventually popped the balloon and he sat there quietly on the floor deafened by the bang. His name is Barnaby. He is very fascinated by the world outside the balloon so tends to spend his time looking around him.

Make Your Own Cuddly Bear


I went into WHSmiths earlier and I couldn’t believe it when I saw a box on the shelf for ‘Make Your Own Cuddly Bear’. The teddy bear on the box doesn’t even look like me. 🙁 The bear is still very cute, so if you see one of these then you have to get one, make your own cuddly bear and it will be just so huggable like me. 🙂

Penélope Cruz


I went to the BAFTAs last night. I stayed at the Grovenor House hotel in the executive suite and was pleased to meet Penélope Cruz in the lounge. I didn’t get a photo with her because I didn’t want to impose. She was there with Pedro Almodóvar as Volver was nominated for Best Film not in the English Language and Penélope was nominated for Best Actress. They sadly didn’t win a BAFTA for either which I think was unfortunate. I really thought that it would win for Best Film not in the English Language category.

The red carpet had quite a few major film stars grace it, besides Penélope Cruz there was Dame Helen Miren, Daniel Craig, Forrest Whitaker, Dame Judi Dench, James McAvoy, Leslie Phillips, Abigail Breslin, Toni Collette, Sienna Miller and the wonderful Kate Winslet. There weren’t any fashion disasters this year and Sienna Miller actually remembered to wear a complete outfit, although at the end of the night she had appeared to damage her dress.

http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2007/baftas

Hours of work


I was going to say that I built the polar bear on my own, but it is obvious that I am too small. I needed a little help. I am hoping that the weather stays cold enough so that he stays around for a while. They are saying that the wheather should be around 2c tomorrow. The snow continues to fall which is promising.

Polar Bear


There was so much snow in the garden that we grabbed two buckets and built a polar bear out of snow. He borrowed a scarf and we gave him coins for a nose and eyes. There is so much snow left in the garden that we might go and build something else later.

Deep Snow


I am not a very big bear, so when I started to walk in the snow I fell deep into it. I couldn’t move my legs and had to get pulled out of the snow. If I hadn’t got pulled out then before not too long I could have been a small snow man. 😉

Snow Day


We had a small amount of snow a few weeks ago, not enough to make a snowman or to play in. I wasn’t expecting anymore snow this year, but they had predicted snow for today and late last night it started snowing. 🙂 When I woke this morning there was a wonderful blanket of snow. There are now several inches of snow. The garden is covered and the streets look really pretty. There are children playing outside in the snow, so I am guessing that they closed the school for the day. I have even seen people getting around on skis. 🙂