My teddy friends and I always go to the Carols by Candlelight at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl every Christmas Eve.  We pack up our big square wicker picnic basket with lots of tasty treats, put in a red checked tablecloth, throw in a big fluffy picnic blanket, and off we travel in our bearmobile to the carols! The male bears wear bright green and bright red flashing lights bow ties and the girl bears put red and green ribbons in their hair. And we of course all carry our lit candles in our paws. Yes, if you carefully look on the tv on Christmas Eve and scan carefully the crowd, you are sure to catch a glimpse of a group of little teddies proudly holding up in the air their candles and with all their strength and might singing at the top of their bear voices the Christmas carols. Teddies really enjoy singing!! We also sometimes meet up with other teddy friends that have been brought along by their owners that are children or little babies!

Talking about singing, did you know that I have a secret sound transferring system set up in the Kiosk??!! Yes, no-one knows about it ( hmmmm I suppose now you who are reading this now know about it though!  Please promise me that you will keep it a secret?!) Anyway, this sound system is attached to the McKittrick Centre and each Sunday night when the Church service is on, I get to hear through a microphone set up in both the McKittrick Centre and the Kiosk, the music being played and everyone singing. And so I sing heartily at the top of my voice too!!  

The only thing is, that one Sunday night somehow the control button of the sound system in the Kiosk had been set to "high" and I was just having a little bear snooze after my evening meal, and the music came "booming" over the sound system! It was a very loud and unexpected awakening of me from my sleep. (And I was having such delightful bear dreams! I was surrounded by lots of wheelbarrows that were full and over flowing with flowers, and there were lots and lots of friendly teddies chatting together and dancing about happily!! It was just like a Teddy Bear's picnic dance! ) And I got such a shock, that I woke up with a start and my little paws waved wildly in the air…and I knocked down the packets of chocolate coated almonds/sultanas/fruit and nut, and the choc apricot balls, and the tic tacs and the eclipse mints and peppermints and the dollar mints!! It just HAD to be all the packets with lots of small items in them that I knocked down…and the outside packagings all "burst" and split open…and there were little lolly items everywhere!! Tic tacs were here, mints were there, choc coated sweets had rolled everywhere!! Here, there, everywhere!! It is quite amazing all the little nooks in the Kiosk that these little sweets can roll into! It was so very, very important that I found each and every one of these food items because I did NOT want any of the Kiosk Helpers or Customers to come in to the Kiosk…slip on one of these things...and very quickly say to the floor a "Hello! Good morning to you!" in a very panicky and shocked voice tone! It would be just so awful if anyone tripped…no! no! I would never ever want that to happen. So… to the melodious accompanying background tunes of the piano playing and everyone singing, I went about my duty of grabbing my magnifying glass and searching high and low for everything that had exploded from the lolly packets!!It was quite tiring work you know. I did stop half-way and grabbed a block of dairy milk chocolate to nibble on to keep my energy levels up! At one stage, I was so intent on my "inspecting for little items" work, that I  missed one just behind me , and went for a nice slide right across the floor and landed with my legs up in the air, head on the floor, right  in front of the appropriately named "get well cards"!! Not a very nice teddy sight to see! But I just "picked myself up, dusted myself down, (figuratively not literally!) and started all over again" as the saying goes!!

Little by little I was able to clear away all the "evidence" of my "bear paws wildly waving about in the air knocking everything down in its vicinity" crime, and everything in the Kiosk was back to normal.

But…I've just been thinking about something. Indeed, a worrying thought has started to cross over anxious teddy mind. Sometimes I can hear the booming noise of a voice announcing a practice fire drill in some of the areas of Strathalan. What would happen to little me, a defenceless little teddy, if there was a proper fire?? Would anyone come and rescue me?! I have fur and that would catch alight very quickly. Of course I would want every Strathalan Resident and Staff member to get out first and be safe and secure in a protected area. But now I am a little scared that I would not have any rescuers. And it would be very hot, and ….and… and…Oh yes! I forgot!! Mr. Oliver the bear owns a fireproof bearmobile and he would rescue me!! Yay!! I now can relax and dance with glee!! I would just give him a little ring on my bear mobile phone, and he and his bearmobile would be here as quick as a flash. But…I'm sorry to say bearmobiles are only licensed to carry bears. It just is the teddy bear law.  And anyway only bears can fit into them, because these vehicles are quite small and humans can't really squeeze in to them. We must leave the rescuing of Residents and Staff from the fire to the brave firefighters in their fire engines instead.

Until next time… Keep singing inwardly or outwardly!!

      Your friend, Mr. Kiosk-Ted Strath

             Also simply known as 'Ted".!!