Day out at the Owl and Monkey Haven

As you know @henryandfriends and @BearBerkeley and I had a day out at the Owl and Haven on the island where I live.

http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/index.stm

We were so happy that Berkeley could join us because I had not met him before and I always wanted to.

I took Scamp with me so he could meet Berkeley because they are brothers. We met Henry and Berkeley at the hovercraft terminal I didn't get to go on the hovercraft this time because I was already here and if I went on the hovercraft I would be on the other side. Then we got a bus to the Haven which is a few miles from our town.

It was a very bright sunny day so we didn't get as many pictures as we hoped because the light was so bright and the monkeys were enjoying the sunshine.

The first friend I saw was Martin who is adopted by our friend Hunter (@Kyba) and my friend Monkey in Dallas. At first he seemed very busy and didn't want to talk to me but I could see he had lots of things to play with in his enclosure so no wonder he wasn't interested in talking. I wanted to talk to him about signing him up to play for Arsenal

Eventually he did come over and talk to me, he drove a hard bargain saying that he would play for Arsenal but only if Olly (@OllyTed) paid him in banana cakes and banana chips. I will have to speak to Olly about that but we are sure we can come to some arrangement. They said Martin was intelligent but I never realised he would drive quite such a hard bargain.

After visiting Martin we went ouside and met some really interesting monkeys who swing about and sing all day they were fantastic. After lunch we decided to copy them and sit in a tree to keep cool. Unfortunately some of us got hidden behind a branch but that wasn't a problem for me. Now I'm really behaving like a monkey at last.

I really wanted to get a picture with Kajan for @MarshallSheldon however she was much more interested in eating her lunch and wouldn't come over even though I waited and waite. You can see how many things she has got to play with so why would she bother with me. I hope she didn't think I was trying to sign Martin up for Arsenal and not her. I would have signed her up to if she had come over to talk, maybe next time. My own adopted monkey, Fudge was also playing it cool and didn't come to talk to me.

We also visited the owls and Berkeley led the climb up the fence to have a closer look with Henry and Scamp not far behind. The owl looked rather bored with them and slept through the who thing.

There are lots more wonderful monkeys and owls at the haven including the singing gibbons who are hillarious although our friends Martin and Kagan (@AdoptedMonkeys) would probably say we need to try living next to them before we say that. There are sweet little marmosets with tiny babies and other very intesting monkeys. I would recommend anyone who visits the Isle of Wight to go and visit them, they are very welcoming and its lots of fun. If you can't get to visit at least have a look at the website to see the monkeys in their home and learn more about them.

http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/index.stm

We had a lovely day and thank you to Henry and Berkeley for making it such a nice day out.

Missing a dear friend

It has been a long time since I have written anything on my blog and that is because I really wanted to write this post but it has taken me a long time to do it because it is a sensitive thing for me and I haven't been able to think about it clearly until now.

Most people know how fond I am of our dear friend Mookie and we all miss our strawberry blond friend badly.

Mookie first introduced himself to me when he was in the world final of the voting walls that we all used to be familiar with. He told me, in a Mookie way, that he was the only German in the competition. Well of course as soon as I got to know him I wanted to vote for him. Anyone who met him would want to vote for him.

Everyone who knows me and Mookie know that we are both football mad! Only English and German people would know how difficult it is for English and German people to discuss football in a friendly way, the rivalry is such that it is almost impossible, but with Mookie I could do that and we regularly discussed football. During the World Cup England played Germany and lost badly (as usual), Mookie was so gracious in victory that I acutally supported Germany in their next games. We also used to discuss our clubs and supported each others teams in our national leagues which was fun. Most fun of all was playing football with Mookie on Twitter. He always won but then he is German and I am English.

The picture above is one of my favourites of Mookie and how I like to remember him, dressed up for the world cup as a committed German fan. He so enjoyed the world cup and made a German flag pizza to match my flag of St George pizza for England. It always makes me smile how much Mookie likes Wayne Rooney because they are both strawberry blond.

Of course football wasn't the only thing we had in common we talked about lots of things and found out a lot about each other's countries. He extended that by generously allowing his friend Lippe to come and visit so many of us of it was wonderful to have him here.

I miss Mookie terribly and hope he will tweet from OTRB sometime because we all love him and his mum so much. We know his mum must not be rushed into doing this and we are sure she will make a decision when things feel right.

But on behalf of all your Twitter friends Mookie we love you and miss you and hope to see you again one day when you are ready. For now I am sending you and your mum lots of Kolo HUGS HUGS HUGS!

Football pals

Most people who know me know that I support Arsenal and that I live in a household of crazy Arsenal supporing friends. This is fun of course but recently I have had even more fun supporting Arsenal because some of my Twitter friends @marshallsheldon, @OllyTed, @Tweetypie54 @ShanyaCat, to name but a few (there are too many to list them all), have started supporting Arsenal as well and watching the games and some of our friends who support other teams such as @Schnille (Cologne/Koln), @MonkeysBrother (Burnley) @marleyterrier (the real Manchester team) and @WallasEKatt (Liverpool) are joining in the fun.

Of course we all enjoyed the world cup together supporting our own national teams, and now it is wonderful to carry that on with Arsenal and a few other teams.

It is wonderful to see Olly in his Arsenal kit and MarshallSheldon with an Arsenal shield on his Twitter avatar and what could be better than the fact that @Tweetypie54 is called Gunner he is named to support Arsenal isn't he. Olly turns up for games with cakes and banana chips how wonderful. @Leroy_Sealion and I are just so happy that you have all adopted our team, already this season we have celebrated large victories, commiserated over losses and kicked the furniture when we have drawn and you have all stuck with it. It is wonderful after the game to go on Twitter and talk about the game with friends who have all learned so much about the Gunners in such a short time and have such passion.

I am so glad you like the team that means so much to me and thank you to all of you for adding to the fun of supporting Arsenal. I haven't been to the stadium yet this season but I feel as though I have because of having friends to chat with during and after the games.

Most of all GOOOOOO GUNNERS! Let's win something and make all your fans even prouder and happier than they already are and give us an excuse for a red and white pizza party!