Tweeting baboons

I just wanted to tell everyone how happy it makes me being on Twitter.  This is my 3rd Christmas on Twitter and every year it gets more and more important to me.  I only started on Twitter in summer 2009 so that I could see my good friend @hi_im_monkey's pictures when he was touring Tibet.  I never intended tweeting or anything like that and I didn't really know how it worked.  But boy did that take off.  The first pal to talk to me was my good friend @marleyterrier. I don't even know how he knew I was there.  He was followed by @jedbramwell and it took off from there, suddenly people were following me and I was following them and I suddenly had lots of friends.



Because we had recently been to visit Monkey in Texas my first Twitter picture showed me in my Longhorns T-shirt with my armadillo Arty who had been bought for me at the Alamo in San Antonio.  Because of this lots of people thought I was Texan. I also confused people by saying that I was from the deep South on the sunshine coast.  Well I'm English and in English terms I do live in the deep South on the sunshine coast.  Never mind we soon sorted that confusion out.

Lots of things have happened to me because of Twitter.  From the minute I arrived with my family I was well loved and made part of the family but I did used to stay at home quietly when my people went to work and I never went out and about.  Because of Twitter I have been to all sorts of places.

I met my good friend Henry (@henryandfriends) and that led to meeting more folks.

Last year I spent a lovely day at the Monkey and Owl Haven on my island where @AdoptedMonkeys live.  I was lucky enough to meet @BearBerkely there as well.  We also had a fantastic picnic in the New Forest in 2009.



We had buns and bananas. 

We had a lovely day on the steam railway with @MrsFiddlesticks and @tim_kirby.

 Lots of pals joined us when I drove the train away! Heee heee heee!

 @kyba @zackrabbit @syd_pie and @tweetypie54 all joined us for the fun.

I have done so many things I would never had done without Twitter I can't list all of it.  But it has all made me very happy.

A great hightlight has been having Lippe to stay during his world tour.  He was great fun to have around!

Amazing things have happened.  During the world cup my housemate Leroy joined me on Twitter to comment on the football.  I love football but he is football crazy.

He still pops up on Twitter sometimes and he often travels instead of me as he is much smaller.  He went to America at Easter and met @pinkbunnyr in LA.

You can see @him_im_monkey and my brother Henry in the picture.  We are wearing our Bearmani outfits that @snuffy_norton made for them.  They had lots of adventures in the US with our friend Monkey.

Leroy has also been to London and met @dogstoyevsky's mum.

and another day he met @choc_the_moose, they at massive pizzas I don't know how they managed to eat so much they are so small.

The world cup was great fun.  Particularly I am thinking of my dear friend Mookie who enjoyed it so much.

After I made my world cup pizza that represented the English flag Mookie made a German flag pizza.  We had such fun following the world cup together and football fans will be amazed as the English and Germans don't usually see eye to eye when it comes to football.  Mookie and I are such good friends that that didn't matter to us.

The world cup brought lots of friends into football or back to football and produced a lot of new Arsenal fans including @marshallsheldon and @ollyted.  It also enabled me to meet a lot of other Arsenal fans on Twitter and we tweet during games.

I have done so many things because of Twitter, things I would never have had a chance to do and I have met some fantastic pals who I love so much.  I don't get on to Twitter as much as I would like but there is always a warm welcome when I do arrive.  I wish I could mention all my friends.

There are also sad times on Twitter.  We are often sad to see friends who are ill or who go over the rainbow bridge.  I nearly gave up tweeting when dear Mookie went over the bridge it was such a sad time and so sudden.  Again I nearly stopped when we lost Gunner (@tweetypie54).  Of course anyone going over the bridge is met by dear @PepiSmartDog our dear pal who welcomes them.  I hope Pepi will let me visit and play football again with dear Mookie and see other friends that have gone over the bridge.



Well that is a long post and tells just a bit about what Twitter means to me.  I can't express the whole of how I feel even if I write a post as long as War and Peace.  Twitter has meant friendship, laughter, tears and frustration when it doesn't work properly.  In other words the whole world can be found in Twitter.

Thank you all for being my friends.  I wish I could be around more but life isn't like that.

Competition Part 2

I hope your Christmas is going well.

Those monkeys, owls and bunnies really need our help and hey after the excitement of new year things can feel like a bit of an anti-climax. So I am announcing part two of my competitioin, the new year draw.

All of the people who entered last time and did not win anything will be carried forward and this is an opportunity for other pals to enter as well.  See instructions below.

The prizes are almost the same, but not quite,  baboons like to keep surprises up their sleeves.  Again there are 3 first prizes.

1. An adopted primate or owl from the Owl and Monkey haven near my home on the island http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/
2. A T-shirt of the colour of your choice from Kaninchenretterin to help our dear friend Miriam with the work she does to rescue rabbits http://www.kaninchenrettung.de/
3. An amazing mystry prizes that will really surprise you.

If you entered for the Christmas draw your name will be carried forward if you didn't win.  For everyone else there are three ways to enter this competition.

1. Leave a comment on this blog saying that you wish to enter.
2. Send me a DM to @Kolo_Martin on Twitter. If you find I do not follow you please send me a message so you can DM me.
3. For my friends on Can Be Social, if you are not on Twitter please leave a message on my CBS wall.

I don't ask my dear anipals to do anything to enter the competition as I could never judge between their entries. Please enter just be sending me a message in one of the ways listed above.

The competition will be drawn on New Years Day at 9 am and the winners will be announced and contacted via this blog, Twitter or Can Be Social.

Good luck and please enter.

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year.

Lots of love and HUGS HUGS HUGS from Kolo

Announcing the winners

Well its Christmas eve and I have drawn the competition.  I will be sending a DM to each of the winners but here is the announcement.  I used a random number generator and generated 3 numbers these were.

1. MarleyTerrier - wins a monkey or owl adoption - http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/adoption-form.aspx?package=Silver Marley can select his owl or monkey from the website.

2. Happpiii - wins a T-shirt from our dear friend Miriam's bunny sanctuary - http://www.hasenfarm.com/pages/de/motive/kaninchenrettung.php it is in German so I will ask Happpiii to select style, size and colour and I will use Google translator to do the order.

3. Mogsbear - wins a rehomed cuddly baboon who will be posted after Christmas (we will give him a nice Christmas dinner before he leaves so he should arrive quite happy.

Congratulations to all the winners.  I wish you could all win, if you didn't win this time look out for my next competition.

Thank you to all of you for entering.

TV assembly

I have had a very busy morning. Our man person decided to upgrade the television and get HD so we needed a new sky box as well and then we needed a new TV stand cos the TV was too big for the old one.  Well I arranged all that but then it all had to be set up.  I knew this was a job for superbaboon!

It did all look a bit complicated with all those wires and stuff and then I would have to get the TV onto the stand.  I might need help there.

Ah but there is not just one baboon in this house there is a whole troup of them so we managed it together.

Yayayayaaaa we did it between us.  Nowe we can watch Arsenal play Manchester City in HD!  Go Gunners!

You might have noticed a baboon you haven't seen in our house before he is Bradley the 6th and last baboon to join our troup.  He was sent to us at the Kolo Martin re-homing centre so that I could find him a new loving home.  He is a great character and he has some problems with his hips.  He did live in a home before so we decided we would keep him at the re-homing centre as one of our troup.  He is the last baboon we will be keeping here but we will continue to re-home baboons in need.

Here is a closer look at Bradley.  I am sure you will see he is a great character.

Wouldn't you all like a bright shirt like his? His badge says his name is Bradley so we knew.

HO HO HO!!!

Hello everyone I only seem to pop in here every so often but I always think about you.

This the time of year for baboons to run competitions.  This year's competition has three first prizes:

1. An adopted primate or owl from the Owl and Monkey haven near my home on the island http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/
2. A T-shirt of the colour of your choice from Kaninchenretterin to help our dear friend Miriam with the work she does to rescue rabbits http://www.kaninchenrettung.de/
3. To rehome a small cuddly baboon trained, by me, to give fantastic Kolo patented HUGS HUGS HUGS. Don't worry this baboon will not be as big as me so you won't have to buy as much food as my people have to.

There are three ways to enter this competition.

1. Leave a comment on this blog saying that you wish to enter.
2. Send me a DM to @Kolo_Martin on Twitter.  If you find I do not follow you please send me a message so you can DM me.
3. For my friends on Can Be Social, if you are not on Twitter please leave a message on my CBS wall.

I don't ask my dear anipals to do anything to enter the competition as I could never judge between their entries.  Please enter just be sending me a message in one of the ways listed above.

The competition will be drawn on Christmas Eve at 10 am and the winners will be announced and contacted via this blog, Twitter or Can Be Social.

Good luck and please enter.

Lots of love and HUGS HUGS HUGS from Kolo

Bruvva

Hello everyone I am sorry I haven't blogged for a while its been hard with my person's new job as my last blog post explained.  Now I have news, a big surprise so I wanted to share it with my friends.

You all know me and most of you are aware of my bruvva Yaya who came to live with us a year ago, but look how many baboon there are in our house now.

Yes, there are five of us now three baboons and two mandrills Kolo, Roco and Yaya at the back and Arne and Archie at the front.  However, look at this next picture.

You may have noticed that one of the new baboons looks rather like me, although he is a smaller version, he is my new brother Roco.  He came all the way fro Texas which just confirms what I knew in my heart all along, I am a Texan.  He is my new younger brother, we rescued him from eBay where he was looking for a new home.  We couldn't believe it when we saw him looking so like me.  He is less than half my size but he does look rather like me doesn't he.

We gave him an Arsenal shirt like Yaya's straight away and now he is having to learn all about that.  Of course he is also a Longhorn's fan like me and Yaya although I don't think Yaya is Texan I think he is from one of the northern states of the US.

Yesterday when my person arrived home from work they found a package wriggling about outside the door so we knwo what that was.  When we opened it we knew this was my new brother, he is darker than me but I used to be dark like that too so he may fade a bit like I have.  He will be able to help me cos I am really far too big to go out and friends who have met me lately have seen that my skin on my face is cracking a bit and getting delicate so I cannot go out if it is at all damp, but he can and he will be easier to carry around than I am.  It will also free me up to do my new job of advising Mr Wenger on the running of Arsenal.



Well so now we are a troup of five young baboons who play together and have fun.  We all have our jobs to do, we do some household chores and I help to run Arsenal.  We also help our people after they have had a hard day at work and the little mandrill, Arne, sometimes goes to work with people if they are going to have a hard day.

We are very happy and we feel that our family is large enough now.  Obviously if more baboons need to be rescued we would do that and we would always make room for the baboon like me who works in the shop when he needs a home, but we are quite a handful now aren't we!

So a new bruvva in the Martin household I hope he will like it here, we are welcoming him with all of our favourite foods, fish and chips yesterday,  homemade pizza today and macaroni and cheese tomorrow.  Not the healthiest of weekends but its important to welcome a baboon with food he will like.  Of course we also have to buy extra bananas now as well.

From December 2003 to September 2010, when Yaya arrived, I was the only baboon here, look at us now!

Changes

Most of you probably know that my person has been at home with us for the last year with no proper job.  It was hard in a way but we did enjoy spending time together watching DVDs, going for walks, having days out with friends  and having lots of fun.  Now there are only a few days left before my person starts a new job so that is going to mean changes at home.

This was one of the many lovely days out that we had at the monkey sanctuary with @henryandfriends and @bear_berkeley but there were many more and I am sure we will have days out again.  But now we will have to organise things differently.

I will have to watch DVDs on my own, thank goodness my person taught me how to lie on the sofa.

I will be able to read my books, I have some great books written by my friends @henryandfriends, @eldritchdragon and @tales_from_the_burrow.

and I will be able to play with my toys, here is my favourite robotic dinosaur!

I enjoy sitting outside in the sunshine with my brother Yaya.

But I think we can also be helpful to my people cos they will be more busy than before.  I have been learning to do some dusting.

and I have always done cooking sometimes with my brother Yaya.

I can also take charge of the gardening.

So I think we will be helpful to our people and of course Leroy will supervise he is good at that.

But there is one problem.

I can play with the computer but I am not good at tweeting or blogging without help from my person.  We intend to keep on tweeting and blogging but when my person starts their job we may have less time for a while as we are all getting used to our new way of life and at the beginning we might all be tired in the evenings.  So if you do not see us around for a while please do not worry we are OK and we have not forgotten you all we are just busy and will be on when we can.

We have a treat planned for this Sunday and we will blog about that but probably not until the following weekend and we are going to see Arsenal on the following Saturday so you might not see our news and pictures very much for a few days after next Saturday but we will be thinking of you all and we will be back.

When we go to the Arsenal game we will be leaving a pile of HUGS HUGS HUGS for a special friend who we don't get to see at the moment but who will be sending somebody to pick them up a few weeks later.  The stewards at the ground will keep them for them and although that friend won't see them they will know they are there and that we think about them and that they will be taking HUGS HUGS HUGS home with them.

So everybody we will be around for the next few days but then we might be a bit quiet for a while we won't have gone away just being a little bit busy and getting used to things.

HUGS HUGS HUGS to everyone and we'll see you when we can.

Not Unique

Everyone who knows me knows that this is me, Kolo Martin.  I don't know about you but I have never seen a boy who looks like me before and neither have my people. So imagine our amazement when we were walking through another town on our island last Friday and saw this.

I knew I wasn't really the only baboon like me around, they must have made more, but I did think I was probably the only one on our island. 

My person was quite emotional when she saw him, it was quite a shock.  My people were not looking for another baboon and neither was I but we did feel that we needed to find out whether he needed a home, we couldn't leave him there if he did but we tried not to get our hopes up.

The shop was closed and we rang the number in the window for several days.  Today finally the shop was open and we spoke to the lady who owns it.  She told us that he has a responsible job in the shop and she needs him there.  We were a little disappointed but we did understand.  We asked her if she would let us know if she changed her mind and she said that another lady was interested in him too but if she no longer wanted him she would let us know as she would be clearing out the shop in the next 18 months.  She did tell us he was very popular and lots of people wanted to buy him but she had said no to all of them.

Well we had to accept that and you know our friend Henry (@Henryandfriends from Twitter) would say it will happen if it is meant to be.  We will wave to him and say hello when we pass the shop and when the day comes that they close down we might be lucky but if not we will know that he will go to a home where he is really wanted, so although we are a bit sad we are happy for him he has a job he likes now and when he finishes he will go to a loving home like mine.

I learnt a few things too.  I learnt that I'm not the only baboon on the island, that feels a little but funny but also quite nice in a way and also that not all baboons are the same even if they look similar.  This baboon has responsibilities whereas I live in a place where everything is done for me and I am cuddled a lot.  I hope this baboon also gets cuddles when he gets to his new home, he looks as though he has not been handled much yet.  I learnt that sometimes you can't get what you want and you have to wait and still maybe not get it.  I also learned that my people love me so much that they were willing to go to lots of trouble to find out whether a boy like me needed help.

We are sad and a little disappointed but we understand and know that this baboon will also have a loving home one day even if it is not with us in the meantime he has a job he likes.  I am happy that we did go to some trouble to find out about him and if we ever saw another boy like me we would do the same thing again to make sure he was OK.

Scamp's big adventure

Today it was Scamps turn to go out. For those of you know don't know Scamp he is one of @Bear_Berkeley's brothers made by Snuffy Norton, but he lives with us not with us here in England.  Scamp was very excited he has met Henry before but then he was very shy.  He put on his best hockey shirt because he is Canadian (actually he always wears it) because he wanted to look good for his day out with Henry.

Scamp met Henry at the bus station after Henry had come across on the hovercraft and they took a long walk to the abbey that is in Ryde where we live.

When they got to the gates they were shy to go in as it was an abbey so they sat around for a while on the gate getting up the courage to go in.

Anyway Henry was too keep to get his chips to hang around for too long so they got in, found the tea shop and got down to the serious business of ordering and eating their lunch.

Scamp noticed that somebody was either trying to kidnap Henry or steal their chips can't have that but we did offer them some as it was a big bowl for two small bears.

Well having given half their chips away they did need some cake they chose a lemon and coconut cake which was very tasty!





They made very sure nobody tried to steal their cake chips is one thing but cake is another, they looked to see if Olly was lurking around they would have shared some with him but not just anybody.

Then they looked around the farm shop at the abbey and tried all the fruit and vegetables.  There were pears and beans that they wanted to buy for dinner.

After lunch they were too full to walk home so they got the bus.

They both had a lovely day but were very tired after all that walking, eating and travelling on the bus.

Small lion, big city!

Hello its me Leroy again taking over Kolo's blog to tell you about my adventures and give an opinion or two.  Yesterday I was luck I went to London again for the second time in two weeks.  I went close to where I went before but to a different place. I am learning more about my city now than when I lived there.  I also met some nice friends and had lunch.

As usual when you live on an island our journey started on the ferry. I couldn't believe this was the sunshine coast in the deep sount in August the sea was grey and stormy but I like it when the ferry rolls around so I wasn't complaining, its more exciting that way.

We went on the train, same journey as I did before to Waterloo although the scenery was a bit grey and misty this time not like last time.  When I got to London I went on the tube, I haven't been on the tube for ages so that was exciting.

When I got to London Bridge I noticed that the London Underground signs were big enough to sit on so of course I had to try.  My person couldn't get far enough back without falling onto the tracks so you can see clearly but I am sitting on the London Bridge station sign.

We walked round past Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market so busy and rainy we didn't get pictures and eventually we arrived at Bankside Pier.  Just a suggestion London Mayor, can you put better signposting from London Bridge Station to the Globe Theatre everything else is well signposted but if you don't know the area, like if you are a tourist not a Londoner, you might get lost. I was OK of course.

When I got there I met our lovely new Twitter anipal @Choc_the_moose (follow him pals he is nice and a very snappy dresser).  We are not the types to waste our time so we got straight down to reading the menu and deciding what we would eat.  We both decided to have pizzas.

This was my pizza, Choc's was even bigger!  Well that didn't exactly pose a problem we got through those pretty quickly and then settled down to the serious business of choosing a pudding.

I had a look at this pudding but you know frankly, and I am sure you will agree with this, it doesn't look very impressive, how would you expect that to satisfy a rapacious lion and a moose with a healthy appetite? Not really!

So we quickly moved on to more promising territory!

Now this was more like it a full size cheese cake and a banoffee pie now you are talking!  Choc and I agreed that these would be fine for us!

After our lunch we decided to have a stroll along by the Thames.  Good job @dogstoyevsky's mum Wendy was there because I have to admit we had eaten so much that we would have found walking ar a bit difficult.

Here we are in front of Southwark bridge. Thanks Wendy for helping us after our lunch.

Well we were near the Globe Theatre so we thought we should visit that, afterall Choc is from Norway so he needed to see some British culture.

Here we are outside the theatre.  We did think about going to see a play but my person thought that a whole play would be a bit beyond the concentration span of a hyperactive lion and she may have been right.  We actually preferred the idea of acting in one of the plays, Hamlet was on, but it would need a rewite to get rid of the tired old Prince of Denmark and include the Moose of Norway instead and a new part would need to be written in for a sophisticated lion about town.  Then we would consider taking the parts.

Now on the subject of rewrites of Shakespeare plays I have a suggestion to make.  Four hours watching a play, that seems a long time to me.  I was going to suggest some cutting down, getting rid of the long speeches, making things a bit more user friendly.  I thought that might be a job for Kolo, he is a bit of a writer, get rid of the image of the bard with a pointy beard, Elizabethan ruff and quill pen and replace it with a baboon in a T-shirt with a netbook, (or an iPad that would seem cooler), kind of theme.

While you are at it Kolo they need to be a lot shorter.  I think the ideal length for a spectator event is 90 minutes divided into two 45 minute halves with a break between to get a pie and a pint, a mug of tea and a doughnut or, if you attend more upmarket events at a stadium in the Highbury and Islington area, a balti lattice slice with a glass of Chablis.  A red and yellow card system would be useful for actors who try to big up their parts or fluff their lines.  I am sure you can come up with something Kolo.

Well anyway back to the day in hand.  Choc had to take his person back to the office and Wendy had to go to a meeting so we wended our weary way to Waterloo (now that is just the sort of high maintenace, over indulgent kind of writing that I want to get rid of), so my person and I got the train from Waterloo and the ferry back to the island and had an uneventful journey, now that is another thing I need to mention, an uneventful journey, no unforseen events beyond their control, no lateness or delays, no danger of missing the ferry, come on if you keep this up travellers will have nothing to complain about, then where will we be?

Acknowledgements:

Food by Pizza Express

Leroy's wardrobe by Snuffy Bearmani

Choc's wardrobe by the Norweigan Department for Tourism (an as yet unknown but clearly talented designer who has a big future in moose on the loose wear (that could be a fashion lable, Moose on the Loose Wear))

Plays by Shakespeare with suggested alterations/updating by Leroy

Weather by Grey and Damp Productions Ltd

Leroy in London

Hi there everyone remember me, Leroy, I think I have been getting more use out of Kolo's blog than he has lately. But he is planning a great entry soon so hang on in there genisuses never work quickly!

Anyway as many of you know I live on a little island off the south coast of England, but really I am a Londoner!  I need to point out here that I am not a cockney, those people are born within the sound of Bow bells, I was born within the sound of cheering at Highbury (Arsenal's old ground) and yes I am old enough to remember when they used to cheer there! So I guess that makes me an Arsenal boy.  I am from north London but any visit to London is a good thing to me and this was special cos I met a nice person.  Read on and you will see.

We started by going over to Portsmouth on the ferry so we could get the train to London.  I had my own seat on the ferry.

If I stood on tip toe I could just see out of the window.  While we were waiting for the ferry to leave we could see our town.

When we got to Portsmouth we got on the train.  I had my own seat again.

I could see out of the window from the train too and I could see another train waiting to leave like we were.

I was very excited to get going.

We went very fast past trees and then past fields.

It reminded me how lovely our countryside is this is Hampshire which is very nice we saw lots of animals in fields too, horses, cows, donkeys and even lamas!

When I got to London I met the person who I was telling you about this is Wendy, you may know her cos she is @dogstoyevsky (Lexie's) mum.  Isn't she pretty.

We went to the south bank (of the River Thames) and had lunch I had a chocolate brownie (Wendy got it for herself but well you know me I used my charm and here I am eating it! Heee heee sorry Wendy I'll buy you one of your own next time.

After lunch we walked along the river a bit.  This brought back old memories for me I looked across the river and saws some buildings that I remember well in the city of London.  If you look you can see St Paul's cathedral, new gerkin building and the London Stock Exchange building.

Oh but you can see the buildings but not me, well here is one with me in it!

The island where we live is lovely but I do miss London, who wouldn't its a lovely city and is my home town.

Eventually we had to go home.  As I couldn't get a picture of me with the London Eye (because it is so big and I am so small), I tried to take one from our train at Waterloo, there was a train in the way but you can see it above the train and you can see the Shell Building on the south bank as well.

We didn't gon on the London Eye cos it moves slowly and I'm a boy that gets impatient and likes to be quick but we had a great time in London and I hope I will be going there again soon.  Maybe even to go to see Arsenal again!

I just wanted to say thank you to Wendy for a lovely day out, it was so nice to meet you and sorry I ate your chocolate brownie, but it was very nice!