awwwww, how cuuute :P

Sorry I'm late, i got stuck in Wales due to bad weather :(

Oh,any idea why?

 

Not sure, really. I guess it's just one of those more or less universal childhood things that get embedded in one's psyche over time... My bears and cats and things had their own universe, pretty much, and it probably had a big influence on my writing. *shrug*

generally my woman is my teddy bear

 

i like it :charming:

Sorry I'm late, i got stuck in Wales due to bad weather :(

 

Well what did you expect? It's WALES!!:P

Well what did you expect? It's WALES!!:P

 

I know, as soon as I crossed the bridge after paying the £5.20 charge :angry:, it started to rain and didn't stop raining until the Newport tunnel.

Shite,tolled roads!!!

i opened my closet this afternoon and realised the many other stuffed toys i have stored up there. there are many! in fact, sitting here right now i can see 12 stuffed toys, and these aren't event the ones in my closet :tongue: i shall post a pic later

Shite,tolled roads!!!

 

Do you have any roads at all in NZ??:rolleyes:

Do you have any roads at all in NZ??:rolleyes:

 

 

 

No,don't need them as we have yet to discover the "wheel".

Shite,tolled roads!!!

 

It's only the bridges which have tolls on, there is a long-way round if your too cheap to pay the toll (which for most cars will end up more expensive with fuel)

 

They haven't built the M4 Toll-road yet to by-pass the newport tunnel (as it be a bottle-neck, 3 lanes of motorway going down into 2 lanes)

No,don't need them as we have yet to discover the "wheel".

 

Thought so.:P

I hope we get paved roads here in Canada soon. The ice layer that covers the country is fine, but skating everywhere can be tiring.

I hope we get paved roads here in Canada soon. The ice layer that covers the country is fine, but skating everywhere can be tiring.

 

Where on earth do you live??:stunned:

An igloo with the world wide web.

^Well it sure sounds like it from your description!!:rolleyes:

Can you send some hot chocolate my way?

Can you send some hot chocolate my way?

 

There's no point - it would freeze in moments.:rolleyes:

An igloo with the world wide web.

 

And do you search using Igloogle??:rolleyes:

And do you search using Igloogle??:rolleyes:

:laugh3: good one

 

yes and I listen to music on iCetunes

And we now know why this is your favourite board.................. :rolleyes:

Yeah man, I love playing in the cold.

I just don't get why people talk about Chris Martin here so much. Who the heck is he? Even boys here seem to love him.

Yeah man, I love playing in the cold.

I just don't get why people talk about Chris Martin here so much. Who the heck is he? Even boys here seem to love him.

 

I think you mean ykw........................ :P

'Island Man' helps me pitch a tent for the night on Shetland - with just a teddy bear for company

 

By JANE FRYER - More by this author » Last updated at 20:00pm on 23rd November 2007 Comments

A stormy day on a fishing boat on the North Sea just off the coast of Shetland.

 

The sky is steel grey, the waves are crashing and smashing and I am simultaneously willing myself not to be sick and trying to listen politely to Andy "The Island Man" Strangeway as he chatters on, and on.

"Ooh, fantastic! Look at those waves - just look at them. And feel that wind biting into your cheek, ha ha," he yells as his two-foot-long grey ponytail whips about in the biting wind.

 

"Can you feel it, love? Can you feel it?"

 

Scroll down for more ...

Mind blowing: Andy Strangeway and Jane Fryer face the gales in Shetland

 

 

Er, yes Andy ... along with the rain lashing into my eyes, the 5ft swell beneath us, the waves of nausea and a rising panic that it's going to be dark by 3.23pm.

 

Which would be fine, of course, if we were going to be tucked up nicely in front of a roaring peat fire drinking whisky and telling tall tales.

 

But instead we're going camping. In late November, at 60 degrees north on a tiny treeless island called Mousa that has been uninhabited since the 19th century and which is now bobbing into view, black and looming, every time the boat pitches.

 

"You're going to love it," shouts Andy over the thundering wind. "We'll make a lovely fire and have a few drinks and everything will be okey-cokey. I promise you, we'll be really cosy."

 

Although it looks anything but, I don't like to be a wet blanket. Not least because, when it comes to remote, uninviting-looking Scottish islands, Andy, 42, a decorator from Pocklington in the Yorkshire Wolds, knows his stuff.

 

He's spent the past four years braving everything from howling gales to kamikaze cows to become the first person to stay overnight - "or do a Strangeway" as he prefers to call it - on all 162 Scottish islands of 40 hectares (about 100 acres) and above, 100 of which - like Mousa - are uninhabited.

Starting with Barra in the Outer Hebrides and finishing just a few weeks ago with Soay in the St Kilda group, he has spent the night on all of them, occasionally in spare rooms or garages, but more often in his tiny tent with just Clyde, his intrepid teddy bear, for company.

 

And, today, he has offered to give me a masterclass in the art of the Strangeway.

 

Scroll down for more ...

St Kilda: Just one of the 162 uninviting islands landed by Andy Strangeway

 

 

He is certainly an enthusiastic teacher. "This is the final frontier, love. This is the new adventuring!" he shouts, throwing his arms up in the sea spray and beaming like a small boy. "And I am the Island Man!" (He has even trademarked the name.)

 

It all started back in 2002 when Andy read a book about the 162 islands and was astonished to find that no one had ever landed on them all.

 

"I realised that not one person existed, past or present, who was in a position to compare them all, so I just sat there looking at it and thought: 'Oh well, Andy, I suppose you're going to have to go for it.' And that was it - I'd always known I was going to something amazing with my life, I just didn't know what."

 

So did he try a couple of islands to see how it went?

 

"Oh no. I just decided then and there. I thought I'd just skip from island to island - but it doesn't really work like that. Some islands can be reached by tourist boats, some by hired boats.

 

"But for others, there's no obvious way. I didn't have an inkling about the enormity of what I was about to do."

He has strict criteria. His definition - "an island is a piece of land surrounded by water that you can't walk to" - rules out Skye, because it is now joined to the mainland by a bridge.

 

And don't, whatever you do, compare his island challenge to the Munroes - the 284 Scottish peaks over 3,000 ft which climbers "bag" as they climb.

 

"This is completely different," he says, hotly. "This isn't island bagging. For a 'Strangeway' you have to stay overnight, so it's completely different - it's about the adventure, not ticking a box."

It certainly hasn't been plain sailing. "Camping in the Orkneys in a force 11 gale [12 is the maximum] was pretty hairy," he says cheerily.

 

"It was like being in a continuous car crash for five or six hours. I wouldn't want to do that again in a hurry - most terrifying experience in my life."

And it's not just the weather that can pose a problem. "I've been on some 'uninhabited' islands where I've heard people talking and laughing and children playing, or dogs barking. And then there are the feral cows. D'you know about feral cows?"

 

Er, no. "They knock each other off the cliffs. People say they go for humans, but they didn't go for me. But I make sure I'm always in the right mindset.

 

"It's as if the islands allow me to spend the night on them - I'm very aware of the feeling of the island and I get very emotional when I arrive."

Over the course of his 162-island adventure he's developed a routine: tent up, beer, quick kip, then a walk round the island ("clockwise - it's a Buddhist thing") a bowl of instant noodles, a whisky and bed, with the alarm set for 5.15am and the shipping forecast to find out if it'll be a long stay, or a short one.

 

But does he ever get lonely? "Never. I love solitude. To me, to sit and witness the battle between the sea and the rocks is the greatest thing in the universe.

 

"It's like a heavyweight bout - Ali versus Tyson. How can you get lonely when you have a ringside seat for something like that?"

 

It's not easy to get tickets, though. The logistical problems would test even the most committed adventurer.

 

He had to wait six weeks for the right weather and tide to land on Boreray in the St Kilda group, more than 40 miles west of the Western Isles.

 

He was one of only two people to have landed there this year - the other had to be helicoptered off again.

 

But the isolation had its benefits: "I got to sunbathe nude in 34 degree heat with 240,000 puffins and 120,000 gannets for company. It was a dream."

 

Only once has he been tempted to chuck the towel in. "It was after island 17. But then I realised I'm the link, I am Island Man. One day, people will look back and be amazed at what I've achieved.

 

"The islands have become part of my soul."

 

He could scarcely be accused of not taking his challenge seriously. Even his final island, Soay, was not without incident.

 

"I couldn't get there between May 1 and August 15 because of nesting razorbills. I approached in an inflatable dinghy and when the boatman says jump, you jump. I landed on a 6ft ledge and from there it was a 90ft climb, which I managed without ropes.

 

"By 5am the next day it had started to rain. I lowered myself down the rock, but I couldn't get a footing. I got half way down and the boatman arrived. The wind was gusting and the swell was building up.

 

"I took my boots off and tried to get a better grip in my socks and then just dropped 20ft to the ledge. I didn't have time to think. But it all worked out beautifully."

Which isn't exactly quite how things are going on our boat.

 

Alan, the twinkly-eyed fisherman, has just listened to the shipping forecast - force 6, rising to gale 9 or 10 - and gone rather pale: "Dropping you off at Mousa would likely smash the boat to bits on the pier. And even if we could, you're looking at a long stay or a helicopter rescue."

 

"Ooh! Just imagine what a great story that'd make - journalist and Island Man rescued by helicopter!" chirps Andy excitedly, before catching my eye and hastily adding: "Such a shame, but you do really need to camp to experience it properly."

 

And he looks so ridiculously disappointed that we compromise - we'll head back to Alan the fisherman's home on Shetland and camp on the windswept clifftop that doubles as his front garden.

 

"It's still an island," says Andy, back in his stride. "It'll do. I love Shetland. If I could live anywhere in the world, it'd be here. I came to Scotland for the first time only eight years ago, but the islands have taken over my life."

 

And, presumably, that of his long-suffering wife Ruth, 52.

 

The pair met through the local Buddhist group ten years ago and married in 2003. Ruth has joined him on three of the islands, but prefers Yorkshire to Scotland.

"It's not really her thing, but she's very supportive," says Andy. "And amazingly, neither of us has started divorce proceedings, which is a hell of an achievement - though I did spend our third wedding anniversary on the Outer Hebrides."

 

Financially, it's cost tens of thousands of pounds, but he prefers not to tot up exactly how much. "I've put a little extra on the mortgage, but the bailiffs haven't moved in yet - mostly thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the islanders."

 

He's very good company, and staggeringly chatty, but could he be just the teeniest bit mad?

 

"I'm the sanest man you'll ever meet. I just can't believe that more people don't sleep on islands by themselves," he says, looking genuinely shocked. "I'm also the luckiest. Who else can say their occupation is 'sleeping on islands'."

He's not the obvious adventurer - he hails from a family of farmers, can barely swim ("I've nearly drowned three times") and is prone to seasickness ("I threw up four times on the journey to Rona up to the north west of Cape Wrath - that was my personal best").

But he is clearly as tough as old boots - nothing can get him down. Certainly not the horizontal rain and howling wind as we pitch the tent on Alan's scraggy cliff back on Shetland.

 

"This must be the coldest day I've ever spent on the islands - what a fantastic experience for you. You're so lucky. You'll hear the wind and waves and the seals barking all night.

 

"You'll be at one with the islands - just you and nature."

He's right there, it is just me. Because happily for him, Andy's already ticked off Shetland, so as I shiver with Clyde in his tent, he opts for Alan's toasty warm sofa, the England/Croatia football match, a few cans of Guinness and a bottle of rum.

 

Eight hours later, just as it's starting to sleet and snow, I stagger inside, shattered, cold, gritty-eyed and full of teary gratitude that we're not stuck on Mousa, just as Andy bounds from the sofa, scattering cans everywhere.

 

"How was it love - brilliant? Fantastic? Awesome?"

 

Well ... it was cold, windy and unbelievably noisy. But, to be fair, it was also strangely exhilarating.

 

Maybe there's something in this Strangeway thing after all. Ah well, one down, 161 to go.

• To read more about Island Man, visit: http://www.island-man.co.uk

British teacher faces 40 lashes in Sudan for naming a teddy bear Mohamed

 

Last updated at 12:08pm on 26th November 2007 Comments

Bear: Gillian Gibbons was arrested after naming a teddy Mohamed (file image)

 

A British teacher is facing 40 lashes from police in Sudan where she has been accused of insulting Islam after naming a Teddy bear Mohamed.

 

 

 

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was being questioned at a police station in the capital Khartoum.

 

 

 

She had been working at one of the city's exclusive British schools for the past three months since giving up her job in Liverpool.

 

 

 

 

Read more...

• Saudi rape VICTIM sentenced to 200 lashes 'admits to affair'

Police arrived at the old-fashioned brick and stone buildings of the Unity High School on Sunday to arrest Miss Gibbons after a complaint from parents that she had named the bear after Islam's most holy prophet Mohamed.

An angry mob shouted death threats as she was taken away.

The school remained closed yesterday and children were sent home for fear of reprisals from Islamic extremists. Robert Boulos, the school's director, said the teacher had made an innocent mistake.

"We have lost one of our best teachers. She was maybe a little naive but she really had no idea what she was doing."

The Teddy bear had been brought to school by one of Miss Gibbon's six and seven-year-old pupils as part of a project.

They were asked to take the bear home each weekend and keep a diary of his activities.

 

The class voted on a name and settled on Mohamed - also the name of one of the most popular pupils.

"No parents or teachers complained because they knew she had no bad intentions," said Mr Boulos.

"She has done nothing wrong but now we are very concerned that there's a risk to the school and the students from the men in the street.

He added that the problem only came to light last week after parents complained to the ministry of education.

The school would stay closed until January, he said.

Miss Gibbons faces six months in prison, a fine or 40 lashes if convicted of insulting the Prophet Mohamed.

Unity is one of a number of British schools in Khartoum that cater for the children of well-heeled Sudanese professionals or ex-pat oil and aid workers.

Its dusty brick and stone buildings evoke the feeling of a Victorian boarding school despite its Arab-style arches.

The headmaster's study is decorated with sepia photographs dating from the days when the children of Sudan's colonial masters would have studied Latin, algebra and trigonometry.

Today many of the school's teachers are exiles from the British education system, looking for adventure or better pay.

Miss Gibbons had spent her career working in primary schools in and around Liverpool as a supply teacher and then as a literacy adviser.

She arrived in Khartoum in August for a new life in Sudan, a country governed by religious conservatives.

Sharia law was introduced in 1983 and the country's religious leaders hosted Osama bin Laden during the 1990s.

Sudanese women must cover their heads and alcohol is banned.

Police officers guarded the entrance to the Christian school yesterday.

Most parents arriving at the gates were supportive of the British teacher.

One mother, whose seven-year-old son had hosted the bear for a weekend, said her family had not been offended by the name.

"Our Prophet Mohamed tells us to be forgiving. So she should be released. She didn't mean any of this at all," she said, inside the school courtyard.

A spokesman for the British embassy said consular staff were aware of the matter and were trying to visit Miss Gibbons in her cell.