Leroy's Adventure Part 1 - Texas

Kolo very kindly said I could use his blog to tell the tales of my travels and show you the pictures. I will be doing it in two installments as we have so many pictures. I thought I would start with Texas as we arrived there and then do LA next. Thank you Kolo for letting me use your blog. We had no doubt we were in the US when we saw the stars and bars hanging up everywhere. Needless to say we had to take pictures of each other with the flag.

First my brother Henry took a picture of me and then I took one of him just to prove to oursleves we were in the US and also to introduce my little brother (or bother) to you. This is Henry in this picture.

We just love our Bearmani holiday outfits that Snuffy made.

Then we had to work out what state we were in as we knew we were going to Texas and California but we needed clues as to where we had arrived as Henry and I have never been very far before this was a confusing experience so we started looking for clues.

Our friend Monkey (@hi_im_monkey) met us at the airport and took us for tea. We know that Monkey lives in Dallas but we also know he is a traveller so that was not too much of a clue and the tea shop seemed very English. Its very nice its called the Culture Cup (theculturecup.com). We had coffee which made us seem like the Americans as Monkey, who is American, had tea. But don't we look American in our outfits. We needed more clues to decided which state we were in.

Ah now here is a clue this car has a Texan number plate it says Texas, shows a cowboy and says its the Loan Star State. Agh but cars can drive anywhere is this enough of a clue?

Ah now here was something more helpful, a yellow rose, could this be the famous yellow rose of Texas. I was beginning to feel confident that we were in Texas.

Oh now here is a big clue, the Texas Longhorns shop we know they are a Texan team so I can't imagine they would have a shop in another state. Now I'm feeling more confident.

Oh now here is a big clue what about this Texas Barbecue resturant. Well obviously we wouldn't eat there as we are vegetarians but it does look Texan doesn't it. By this time I was beginning to feel that this was definitely Texas. I should have taken more notice of what airport we landed in really but I was too excited.

Oh by now I was certain we were in Texas look at this diner seat at Norma's Diner, now that is the Texan flag isn't it. By this time I knew we were in Texas where else could we be?

Ah yes we knew we were in Texas when we saw our friend Betty she lives in Texas and here she is welcoming us to Texas. Right this is Texas Henry now we can be sure.

When you are in the USA you need to visit a soda fountain so we visited this one at Highland Park Dallas, it is very traditional and is the home of the best milk shake in Dallas. We had grilled cheese as we know that is a US delicacy and 12 April 2011 was national grilled cheese day in the US so what else would you eat?

Can you think of a better place than this to have a soda and a grilled cheese sandwich? I certainly can't.

So we were in Texas and we had a great adventure there, but our next adventure was to go to LA to meet our friend @pinkbunnyr. We were very excited and here with are with Monkey at Dallas Fort Worth Airport waiting for a plane to take us to LA to meet her. We were very excited as you can see. I will show my pictures of me, Henry and Monkey in LA in my next blog tomorrow (I hope) and you can see pictures of us meeting Pink Bunny, she is so lovely and we had a fantastic time with her. But that story is for another day.

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.

Animal Adoptions

For all sorts of reason not all of us can have pets in our homes. However, that doesn't me we can't help with caring for animals. Most of you know that I talk a lot about animal adoptions and you are probably thinking, here goes Kolo again but I think it is an important issue to talk about.

I always used to sponsor donkeys on behalf of friends and @henryandfriends and I have a great day at the donkey sanctuary visiting his donkey Snowy and other donkey friends that other anipals had adopted even though they lived too far away to visit them. Its important that we look after donkeys because some people are not very nice to them.

But as you know, I'm a baboon, you can call me a monkey or a primate whatever you prefer. Imagine how happy I was when I heard that a moneky (and owl) sanctuary had opened on my island. I was very excited to adopt monkeys for friends at Christmas, I know Huntyr (@kyba) has great fun having Martin's adoption from the sanctuary and @marshallsheldon loves Kajan, his adopted monkey very much nad friends of ours in Texas enjoying Martin and Fudge in their family.


On thing I have never thought of doing was to adopt an animal myself. But this week I took the plunge and adopted Fudge from the Owl and Monkey Haven on the island and here I am with my certificate. I haven't passed any exams so this is my first certificate ever and I am very proud because I think it means more degrees or diplomas, what it means is that my adoption feed has gone to help the haven to help Fudge and other adoption fees go to helping Fudge and his friends have a fulfilling life and I think that is important.


Most sanctuaries and havens send news letters by post or e-mail to keep you up to date about your animal and the adopted monkeys Martin and Kajan have even been tweeting with us as @AdoptedMonkeys on Twitter, that is really cool don't you think!! Yes OK they tell us they are throwing poo around but they're having fun and its great talking to them.


There are all sorts of animals that can be adopted, in the past my people have adopted dogs from the Dogs Trust and a friend adopted a river otter on our behalf. So its up to all the individals to decide what sort of animal they want to adopt or sponsor and I am sure they can find a sancturary that will enable them to do that.


I am lucky because Fudge, Martin, Kajan and their friends live near me and I am going to visit them soon with @henryandfriends. If anyone wants to adopt a monkey from there I can visit them on their behalf, but otherwise, if you want to help animals and cannot have pets at home or have as many pets as you can cope with, remember that another way of helping animals is to adopt one in a haven. Its great fun and you really feel part of something.


The on the Isle of Wight have a great website:
http://www.owlandmonkeyhaven.co.uk/ have a look they have fun videos and stories about the animals. If monkeys and owls are not your thing I am sure you can find animals to adopt that suit you by searching the internet or talking to people locally.

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!