Did you hear that VERY loud crash noise the other day?!! The one when there was a "boom" and a "bang" and a "screeching shudder"?  ! It was as if the Kiosk gave a big shiver! ( It was very, very cold that day,  and when my teddy fur feels cold I give a little shiver too, but this sound wasn't because the Kiosk was cold. But it is a funny image of a house feeling cool, and then catching a cold! I can just imagine a house starting to sneeze! That would cause a lot of trouble to the people living there. Every time their house would sneeze, the family would be jerked up into the air, do a topsy-turvy and perhaps land in a totally different room from where they were first sitting or standing! I would think that a house would need to have very big tissues if they had a cold. The Kiosk sells thick and large tissues, but somehow I don't think they would be at all suitable or big enough for a house to use!  Perhaps people should just make sure that they keep their heaters on and their homes warm so as their house doesn't catch a cold!)

Anyway, back to the big crash noise that I was asking you if you had heard. Cassie the chatty teddy called Trina the talkative teddy who then called Pamela the phone liking teddy who lastly called Celeste the  conversationalistic teddy  to tell them what had happened at the Kiosk, and then it went right through the teddy bear grape vine ( we call it the tutti-frutti teddy news line! If you want to know what is happening, just become  friends with one of these teddies and they tell you all the news!) and so I thought that you may have heard what happened. Just in case you don't know, I will tell you all about it.

Frederick the fruiterer teddy and Victor the vegetable teddy had their truck piled high with fruit and vegetables that they had just picked up from the fruit/vegie market in the City. They had been at the market very early in the morning to load up their truck, and it was quite chilly so they took a big thermos of tea to drink and warm themselves up. They were going to buy some hot jam donuts and a big bucket of crinkle cut hot chips from the local take-away stop, but they had second thoughts. Perhaps it didn't project the right "healthy look" to be stocking up their truck with nice fresh fruit and vegies and at the same time be enjoying a hot jam donut and chips? The smell of these foods may have also invaded the truck, and then the eaters of the food produce would have chips and donut jammy scented fruit and vegies!

When Frederick and Victor had stocked up their truck, off they went on their truck journey to deliver their produce to the various teddy locations. Did you know that it has been brought into the regulations of every teddy school that each little teddy is guaranteed to be provided with 3 fruits each day to eat? Oh, the little teddies enjoy these fruits so very much! They all gleefully line up when they hear the friendly toot of the fruit truck approaching the school because it means that they get to choose what fruit they will eat that day .They don't eat the 3 pieces of fruit all at the same time though. Every little teddy has been given their own lunch/play time box which they put the fruit into, and then they have this fruit for morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.  Of course, you always have to put bright happy stickers on your lunch box, and it such fun to look at all these colourful lunch boxes that appear from out of their school bags.

 Anyway, Frederick and Victor were on their way to start delivering the fruit and vegies to the schools. When I said earlier that teddies are given 3 pieces of fruit, I forgot to mention that they also get a choice of having a carrot instead of a piece of fruit. Carrots are really vegies though. Also, they can have a tomato which is classed as both a fruit AND a vegie. Teddies can also have a beetroot or some lettuce or broccoli or cauliflower florets if they wish too…but sadly these last options are very rarely chosen. But…the option is still there if the teddies really feel like eating them.

Fredrick and Victor were travelling along in their truck, when all of a sudden they discovered that some bananas had fallen off the back of their truck which was piled up high with fresh produce, but instead of the bananas falling off  the back and hitting the road where they had been, instead there was a huge gust of wind which blew the bananas the other way and they landed in front of the truck right where the truck was travelling! People may think that if you walk on a banana skin it can be very slippery, but as eyewitnesses to this accident all agree, lots and lots of bananas still in their skins leads to an even more slipperier predicament! The truck could not stop in time and landed on all these bananas, and the next thing they knew they had slid and crashed right the way through the Strathalan grounds and had landed in the Kiosk! It was quite a commotion!!  It was okay, because although they crashed into the front of the Kiosk, there was no structural damage to the building. And most importantly Frederick and Victor were not hurt with this awful accident, albeit quite shaken!! Hmm...the fruit and vegies though were not left in a very healthy condition ! There were apples where the choc biscuit shelves were, grapes amongst the cream biscuits, oranges were to be found amongst the lollies, and the long life milk were surrounded by pears!  It was quit an odd sight to see cherries hanging over the choc bars, and lots and lots of little grapes got mixed up with the birthdays cards container! It was a big mess! Fruit here, fruit here, fruity fruitness everywhere! I had to be careful that I didn't step on any pieces of fruit or else I might get flooded by a deluge of fruit juice made from the squashed fruit!

After taking a few big deep breaths, I called in my teddy friends and we all started to clean up the Kiosk! We worked very hard trying to locate every piece of fruit, and it was a bit hard because they seem to like to sneakily play "hide and seek" with us and roll into all sorts of nooks and crannies. Of course, if you do visit the Kiosk and happen to find a stray grape amidst the biscuits you are buying or a cherry caught up amidst the chocolate, please just tell our nice Kiosk Helpers and they will remove it as quick as can be!

I must mention that Frederick and Victor survived the ordeal well, but they were taken to the ER department of our local teddy hospital for observation by the teddy doctors and a check over of their teddy blood pressure etc. Do you know what they were offered for lunch that day when the hospital food trolley came around? Yes, they were offered a salad sandwich full of tomato, lettuce and beetroot, followed by a serving of fruit salad in a bowl! The drink that day was fruit juice!

 I had better say goodbye for now. It is time for my lunch, and I don't want to miss out on my cheese and tomato sandwiches and fruit salad with yoghurt!

Until next time,

                         Please remember that an apple a day keeps the doctor away… unless a huge big fruit and vegie truck crashes into your home and you get knocked unconscious and feel very shakey and a doctor has to come and check you over to see if you have been injured!

 Your friend, Mr. Kiosk-Ted Strath

                       Also simply known as "Ted"!!