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!

WINNERS OF THE MONKEY COMPETITION

We drew the competition this morning. Each entrant was allocated a number corresponding to the order in which the comments were received. I wish you all could have won it always hurts me that I can only give prizes to one or two winners.

We used the random number generator http://www.random.org/

I drew the first winner and number 17 came out and so the first winner is Marshall Sheldon.

My brother Yaya drew the second winnet and number 2 came out so the second winner is Huntyr.

I will DM both winners and I need to you to please visit
http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/in-safe-hands-adoption-packages-form.asp?package=Bronze

and choose your monkey, then DM me on Twitter to tell me what monkey you have chosen, how you want your name on the certificate and the address you want it sent to.

CONGRATULATIONS to both winners and I am sorry to the rest of you I really wish you could all win. You can adopt a monkey at the haven if you wish to by following the link above and I may do another competition in a while so watch this space.

Monkey Sanctuary Competition

WIN A MONKEY ADOPTION!

A new sanctuary has opened on my island for owls and monkeys. The owls are lovely but if I am honest its the monkeys that interest me!! I visited them in August and boy they were fun. So lively we could hardly get pictures of them and noisy! Wow you can believe the noise they make, so much fun! They were glad to see me.

To on find out more about them visit their website: http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/

or follow them on Twitter: @MonkeyHaven.

It is possible to adopt a monkey at the haven and this competition is about giving you the chance to win an adoption. You will be able to choose your own monkey and just look at the characters involved.

http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/in-safe-hands-adoption-packages-form.asp?package=Bronze

If you would like to enter the competition please either add a comment to this blog post or DM me on Twitter @Kolo_Martin

The competition will be drawn on Christmas Eve at 10 am GMT. There will be two winners, I will draw one and my brother Yaya will draw the other.

So come on every one and enter you know how much fun it would be to have a monkey of your own.

Please don't think that this means I am abandoning the donkey sanctuary I will also continue doing things with them.

Anipal Photo Hunt #16: My 2nd Job

This week's anipal photo hunt theme is my 2nd job. I am very happy cos I can do this one. I didn't do it last week cos I'm lucky enough not to have to go to the vet so noooo vet gonna fight this baboon and win (just saying)!!

Now my 2nd job I have several jobs and I'm not sure what order they come in so after my first job of being with my person and making sure they have something to do, is being a professional football fan. Arsenal mainly, then England (perhaps I should say sports cos at the moment I am massively supporting England's cricket team and hoping they win the Ashes). I also gvie my support to the Texas Longhorns (different type of football of course)!

Here I am in my Arsenal supporting outfit kit, very professional I'd say!


What else? Well then I look after the garden. Here I am pruning the fushias, yes I am allowed to use secateurs (even if I can't spell it). My person, however, would never be allowed to use such a dangerous tool, can you imagine the damage they could do!








As many of you know I am also a chef, not in Zack Rabbit's league but not a bad chef! I make cakes but mostly I make pizzas. Here I am with my world cup pizza ready to dish up. This one is red and white for England (its also useful for Arsenal celebrations too). Other friends made pizzas of their flags, Mookie (@Schnille) made a German flag pizza and, in the spirit of international relations (see I'm also a diplomat), I made a German flat pizza too after England had done their usual trick of being knocked out!

Well those are some of my jobs I am a multi-tasking baboon wouldn't you say!


So come on all of you now you have seen how much fun the anipal photo hunt is come and join in. Cokie has extended this one for two weeks so no excuses!

Anipal Photo Hunt #14: MOM

Well you all know by now that we do an anipal photo hunt every week so just come on and join in!! Do it now, don't put it off, you really know you want to.

This week's theme is Mom or as we uptight Brits say "mum". We it does matter what we call it the fact is I don't have one, no stuffed baboons do not have moms, mums or anything of the sort. However, I have got a person (well two acutally but I suppose the second person is really my person's person, confused, you should be) and that will have to do. Of well needless to say my person has got an attack of shyness now pictures are to be shown.

Here is my person very happy in an Arsenal shirt at Highbury. This is her when she is most happy watching the Gunners and this was during the season when they went unbeaten all season so it was very special.

Now this picture is a bit of a shocker, notice what she is wearing, a skirt, well I've never seen that before or since! What was that all about then?

So there you are now you have seen my person, not really my mum more my best friend but the closest I have to a mum so she will have to do. If you are ever looking out for her you are more likely to see her looking as she does in the first photo.

Anipal Photo Hunt #13: From where I stand

This week's anipal photo hunt theme is From where I stand.

Do join in come on you know you want to, click on the button to join us, its fun, you know you want to.









Well this was what I could see from where I stood on a rainy day. Its a nice view but boy was I sick of the rain.




This is what I can see from my window on a nice day. The water is the Solent which is part of the English Channel that separates my island from the mainland. The city you can see in the background is Portsmouth, a big naval city in the south of England, its only about 3 or 4 miles away from us and we get a good view of it.

The town you can see is Ryde where I live.

Anipal Photo Hunt #12: All Souls' Day

This week's theme is All Souls' Day which also makes us think of the Mexican day of the dead that we have heard about and saw an exhibition about once in Dallas, Texas. I love the idea of celebrating our dead loved ones anipal or human so this is great.

If you want to join in the anipal photo hunt please click on the button, its fun and you know you want to.

My problem this week is that I do not have a picture of the loved one I am thinking of. She died in the mid 1990's when we did not have any digital pictures and we cannot find any of our photos to scan in because they were lost when we moved. However we remember her well, she was my person's sister, so I guess my aunty in a way. Her name was Lizzie and she had bright red hair and she was a lawyer, she did very well to become a lawyer because, like my person, she did not do well at school and she was a kidney patient, eventually that is why she died so young. She worked hard to become a lawyer and she never really got to practice law but she was such fun and always laughing so we want to remember Elizabeth Martin (Lizzie), we always laugh when we think or talk about her but we do miss her lots.

This picture is not of her but it reminds us of her because she and my person used to go there on Sundays and walk around and eat dinner and have a lot of fun. It is Covent Garden in London and it was one of her favourite places.

Sorry to have talked so long in this blog entry. We miss our Lizzie and we are glad to tell you about her. A couple of weeks ago my person had a lovely afternoon in Covent Garden and it made her happy to have been there again.