Have I ever told you about my special friend Charlie Clock-Ted? No, I haven't? Well, I think it is best that I not let you go through one more minute, not even one more second before I tell you all about him! He is a very clever teddy you know. He went to Oxford University and did a PHD in the theory, practice and zinging of clocks!! His thesis was: "Tick Tock, Tick Tock, what happened to the mouse of Hickory Dickory Dock's clock?" Apparently, according to my friend Charlie, the little mouse whose name was Monique the mini mouse decided to go on a very grand adventure! She got out her suitcase, packed some supplies of cheese, popped in a freddo frog (Charlie told me that it is a proven fact that mice like freddo frogs! So if you want to catch a mouse, I would suggest that you put a freddo frog on your mouse trap!" ) and then gleefully made her ascent up the big clock laden with her suitcase on her back. "Oh, what a lovely view it is being up so high." Monique thought to herself as she stopped half-way for a little rest and enjoy a mini snack of the cheese and a bite of the freddo frog. "What a great place to stop and reflect on life, as I survey the surroundings." Having lightened the load she was carrying in her suitcase because she had eaten some of the food, she decided to keep going on her ascent up to the top of the clock. She thought to herself: "The higher I go, the better the view that I will get to enjoy looking from and at." And…she also wanted to claim the position of being the first mouse to conquer Mount Hickory! Some people aim to climb Mount Everest, whilst mice attempt to climb Mount Hickory. Both are very worthy feats to try to achieve. Anyway, Monique kept climbing and climbing up the clock, and she had to battle a bit of altitude sickness because she had never ever climbed as high as she was doing that day! But she mousefully battled on and on, and eventually she reached the pinnacle… she hit the round spot where the numbers of the clock dial were located!! Monique was soo excited! She quivered and twitched and her mouse tail gave a little twirl around and she was soooo happpy!! Hmmm…her happiness was very brief!! As we all know, "the clock struck one, the mouse (called Monique) fell down, Hickory dickory dock!" And Monique's descent was certainly very much quicker than her ascent, just as quick as the speed of lightning! She crashed to the ground with not even a chance of taking in the views! She landed abruptly on the floor with a loud "thud"! It just happened to be that Matthew mouse had decided to come and  visit Monique that day and he witnessed the full episode of what happened! He quickly dialed the mousebulance to get some paramousemedics to perform mouse-to-mouse resuscitation on her but it was too late by the time they arrived. She was no longer an alive mouse, she was now a dead mouse, but she did have time just before she gave her last mouse gulp to relate to Matthew her whole adventure of  her ascent and descent and how she had been feeling earlier that day. Her dying wish was that the true story of how much she enjoyed the ascent up to the top of the clock would be broadcast to the world. When Charlie was doing his thesis, he located and interviewed Matthew mouse, and was able to include in his detailed report and thesis all of Monique's thoughts and all that happened to her. And so now you know about Charlie's thesis and the true story of Monique and The Hickory Dickory Dock clock!!

  Charlie said that studying fo his PHD was very hard work and required a lot of brain energy! He kept his energy levels up by eating "tic-toc" biscuits. These biscuits come in the shape of little clocks.

  Charlie knows so much about clocks! He also wears 5 watches on his left paw and 5 watches on his right paw, and each has a different time relating to the different time zones around the world! It is very handy you know. If it is 3 p.m. in the afternoon and Charlie feels like eating breakfast, he just has to look at one of his clocks and there is sure to be somewhere in the world where it would be the time when they would be eating breakfast!

I have been meaning to ask Charlie a question that has been puzzling my teddy brain and mind for many a year. I like looking at pictures of Grandfather clocks. But… I feel very sorry for Grandmothers! Why are they not allowed to have clocks named after them as well?! It would be nice to have rooms where there was a grandfather and a grandmother clock side-by-side! And even better, would be a lounge room which had a grandfather clock in one corner, a grandmother clock in another corner, an aunt clock in the third corner and an uncle clock to stand in the fourth corner. It would really make a family room a true family-themed room!  I will have to ask Charlie "Why is it so?" (Did you know that he is best friends with the teddy bear that used to live with Julian Sumner Miller, the physicist/scientist?)

  I used to have an alarm clock. I would set it for a certain time so that I was up bright and early, to give me plenty of time to prepare myself for when the lovely Kiosk Helpers arrive. I didn't want to miss out on hearing their cheery chatter when they and our special Kiosk customers arrive! But… I soon found that there was a little problem with my alarm clock system. I discovered that I was lying awake all night just to wait to hear if the alarm noise would go off! I decided in the end that I didn't really need an alarm clock at all!

 Charlie has lots and lots of clocks in his house! He has clocks on the walls in nearly every room of his house, and they are all shapes and sizes. Charlie is a very cheerful teddy…except for 2 days of the year. These 2 days are in October and April when Daylight Savings begins and ends! He then has to get up at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning and go around his house and change every clock either forward or backwards an hour!  He is soooo tired at that time of the night and he feels very very sleepy. It is also very cold at that time of the morning so he has to put on a woollen beanie, a thick overcoat and some fluffy slippers whilst he does his "clock hour changing trek".  He always sticks to the rules though, and knows that it must be changed at precisely 2 a.m. Well, some of the clocks are a few minutes late in the change over because Charlie only has 2 paws and so can only change one clock at a time. Hmmm… I suppose an octopus could change 4 clocks at a time with an octopus having 8 arms! Perhaps Charlie could hire Octavia the octopus  for 2 nights a year to help him in his clock changing expedition around his house? 

How time flies when you are having fun! I must go off and have a little nap now.

 Until next time,

                         Your friend, Mr. Kiosk-Ted Strath

                       Also simply known as "Ted"!!