Do you like doing puzzles?? I definitely do!! My favourite ones are crossword puzzles. You see, I have grey fur and they say that crosswords keep your grey brain matter ticking over well, so my theory is that I need to keep doing crosswords so that every part of me that is grey including my fur and my brain keeps as healthy as can be!! And anyway, it is fun to do them! In fact, I am working on s crossword right this minute. Perhaps you could help with one of the answers? The clue is: a five letter word. It starts with "k", and it "is a shop that sells food, drinks and toiletries." Hmmm…this has got me a bit stuck! I keep thinking and thinking, and my teddy brain keeps rattling and rattling and whirring, and I have put my bright pink with green polka dots thinking cap firmly on my head, but I just can not think up the answer! What can it be? I am a good speller you know! I just soooo much enjoyed doing English as a subject at Teddy school. Belinda Bear, my favourite teacher, used to hold Spelling Bee contests! They were sooo much fun! The girls would all have prettily decorated pink writing paper with roses all around the edges, and us boy teddies would have blue writing paper with cars, boats and fire engine pictures all around the edges and Belinda would call out a word and we would have to write it down how we thought it was spelt. But…a thing that always puzzled me then and is still something that I don't quite understand is: why are they called spelling "bees"??! Bees make honey and they can't spell! Honey is for eating! And ooh!! Just the thought of putting a little teddy paw in a jar of homey and licking my sticky paws…mmm yummy!! Wouldn't bees  that are making buzzing noises as they fly around your head be very annoying when your head is concentrating so hard and your forehead is all crinkled up with wrinkles and creases as you try to spell out words?! My friend Henrietta teddy, the best honey joys maker/cooker that I know of, never ever tries to spell out words when she makes honey joys. She just gets the cornflakes and the honey, and off she proceeds with the steps of the recipe!! And they taste delicious! Hmm…I have just thought of something…perhaps that it is the secret behind making great honey joys and Henrietta just hasn't ever told me!! You must need to think up a word, and say the letters that it contains out loud, then somehow it adds a nice flavour to the food! I will have to try doing that the next time I am using a recipe involving honey!

Back to the spelling bee, it was really great words that we would need to spell. I'll be back in a moment and just check the spelling of them in my trusty Oxford dictionary….

Right I'm back again, Mr. Oliver from Oxford Bear thinks that it so "cool" that he comes from where the Oxford dictionary comes from !! He is always telling people that he was born in the famous dictionary-producing town!  Anyway, some of the words were: *fantedtastic: meaning that teddies were having a fantastic day  *celebearation : a teddy bear party and my favourite one:*Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!! I'll tell you a little secret...no one ever spelt that one right!!! Oh, I am VERY sorry, I told a lie. Bethany the brainy Bear DID spell it right on one occasion!!! Wow! She got 2 gold stars, 3 elephant stamps, a "you're a star" sticker and a cute teddy bear sticker on her writing page that day!! Since then, Bethany has been a contestant on "Who wants to be a bearillionnaire?!" Do you know that tv show? Lots of brainy bears appear on it, and if they answer all 15 questions without making any mistakes, they become a bearillionnaire!  You do need to understand though, that a bearillionnaire is not the same as a millionaire. Teddies don't have pockets so they can't hold money, so they never need to have money. That is why teddies don't wish to become a millionaire. But...it would be nice to be a bearillionaire, because when you become one of those, you get to do the most bestest thing in the whole wide world! Would you like to know what that is? Okay, I'll tell you. You get to...go flying with Miss Abby Cadabby for a day!! Isn't that the best thing to do in the whole wide world!! Oh, perhaps you don't know Miss Abby Cadabby? Well, may I have the utmost privilege of telling you about her? She is a fairy who lives on Sesame Street. She is best friends with Big Bird and Ernie and Bert and Oscar the grouch and Elmo and Mr. Snuffleupagus (that would be a tricky word in a spelling bee wouldn't it!!) and all the Sesame Street gang! She does have lots of friends doesn't she?!! She has pink and purple hair tied in pigtails, pink skin, a pretty blue dress and nice blue wings. She has a pink nose and big blue adorable eyes! She is only a little fairy, a fairy-in-training so her flying skills aren't so good, but she is a very friendly little fairy. She has promised that she would take any teddies that became bearillionnaires with her for a flying lesson. Sadly no-one as yet have answered the whole 15 questions correctly, so she is still waiting to give this "flying lesson opportunity of a bear lifetime" to a brainy bear. Perhaps one day it will occur... I'll see if I can find some photos in my photo album and post pictures of Abby at the end of my little talk with you.

The spelling bees were so much fun, and sometimes I even got the most amount of words spelt correctly! On those occasions, I would puff out my teddy chest and be quite proud for just a half a second...but no longer because I didn't want  to appear too arrogant, but inwardly I would be jumping about with glee! I soo much enjoy spelling words!!

Hmm...whilst I have been talking to you, I have accidentally let my pen drop and it has made a mess on the crossword grid. And I really did want to send the crossword in to take part in the Crafty Crossworders Contest for Thinking Teddies that like Wordy Words and Grappling with Grids on crosswords! It is a long contest title, but then it takes "ages and ages" to correctly complete a crossword with the right answers to the clues! Well, it seems to me, the only solution is to use some liquid paper! Oh, I just have to tell you about Barbara the beautician bear and the most drastic event that happened one day when she helping one of her bear customers! Danielle who is a dancing bear really likes to have lovely painted nails when she goes dancing. It makes her feel nice, when her hands look nice. Well, Barbara enjoys doing crossword puzzles too, and she keeps a spare bottle of liquid paper handy both at work and at home. In between nail polishing bear customers, she likes to fill in bit by bit the crossword grids with answers. It was a very nice Spring day one time, and the sun was shining brightly but there was also a bit of pollen around. Barbara suffers quite badly from hayfever in Springtime. Danielle came in to the Beauty Shop and right at that moment, Barbara's eyes started to feel very watery and hayfevery. She decided though that she would still paint Danielle's nails, because perhaps her eyes would just start to feel better very quickly. Danielle put out her fingers, Barbara reached for the nail polish...hmmmm, yes...you cam imagine what happened. Her eyes were so watery that instead of the nail polish bottle she grabbed the liquid paper bottle instead and starting applying that!! And because she could barely see out of her ryes she didn't realise her mistake! Danielle in the meantime, just thought it was a new chic Parisian shade of nail polish and always being ready to stay up with the latest beauty trends, she thought that the white "nail polish" looks quite fashionable! Barbara only found out her mistake a few days later, when Danielle bumped into Barbara when they were doing their grocery shopping at Coles, and Danielle said how well the new nail polish had matched the lovely white silk dancing costume that she had worn when performing that night! So if you happen to bump into Danielle the dancing bear anywhere, please don't tell what that "nail polish'" really was!!

I really should try to finish this crossword that I started. It can be quite frustrating when you have completed the whole crossword, and there is just one word/clue that you can't get the answer for! Perhaps if I have a little sleep, the answer may come to me whilst I am at rest? I will get into my comfy chair and have a little nap.

Zzzzz Kiosk zzzzz

    Until next time,

             Happy crossword puzzling to you!

                         Your friend, Mr. Kiosk-Ted Strath

                       Also simply known as "Ted"!!