Travelog for: Aaron

Another cold and wet day.  We tried going on the beach, but it started to hail so we checked into ToyVoyagers, in an internet cafe, and then found *Pirate Golf*!!

The little boys I am staying with love mini-golf, so we all went and played.

Even the weather couldn't dampen our spirits, or spoil the pirate-y fun!

Ahoy me hearties!

Roger, maybe.

But Jolly?  Don't think so!

Visited Chesterfield - home of the famous Crooked Spire - pictures to follow!

Been along as the token male on a 'girlie weekend'.

A six hour (ok, so we got a bit lost in the dark!) road trip to Cornwall saw our safe arrival after midnight in St. Mawes, a pretty fishing town with lots of fantastic walks, sailing, a castle and lots and lots of pasties, ice creams and Cornish cream teas!

I am meant to be travelling onwards on my journey, but the British postal service had other plans - threats of a postal strike have meant that I'm staying put until New Year.

Today I went to the local church.  A terrible photo I know (I blame the hosts!) but it's me outside the church, in front of a Christmas Tree!

There were so many people at church today as it is the Crib Service, where the figures from the Christmas story are arranged inside the stable, and the Nativity is re-told for local children.  Everyone brings along their teddy bears, or other stuffed animals, so I felt quite at home, and for once(!) no-one looked strangely at Isobel&Neil as they took my photo!

Here I am with a traditional floral decoration - Christmas colours!

And this is what it's all about.  The Christmas Story. 

The figures of Mary and Joseph have been 'travelling' throughout the month of December.  They have been staying at people's homes around the local villages, spending one night per household before moving on to the next family.

Thus their journey to Bethelem has been remembered. 

And today they arrived back at the church and were placed into the stable, and the other figures have joined them.

I *think* I have fulfilled my Life Mission to be part of a Nativity Crib.

Happy Christmas Everyone!  May your holidays be bright and peaceful, and the spirit of Christmas stay with you throughout the coming year.

Petra, Ralf, Martin, Fabian and Sabrina - I send you warmest wishes from England, and wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.

Love,
Aaron XXX

On the way to the zoo




Aaron at the entrance of the Singapore Zoo!




The three TVs at the Polar Bear enclosure.




Aaron poses with some elephant statues at the entrance of the Singapore Zoo.




Aaron's posing beside some unhatched crocodile eggs. Did you know that the gender of the unhatched eggs depend on what temperature the eggs are kept at?




The TVs have some fun at the crocodile statue outside the Crocodile exhibit.






The TVs pose with a statue of Ah Meng. Ah Meng was an orang utan that was the mascot of the Singapore Zoo. Ah Meng passed away recently, and in her memory the Singapore Zoo erected a statue at one of the garden pavilions. Her funeral was attended by 2000 members of the public.




We couldn't find a donkey, so Aaron posed with a Falabella, a miniature horse instead!




Aaron and Kamie huddle in fear at the sight of the huge snake!




Aaron posing with a cheetah, the world's fastest mammal.




Aaron poses beside a Bengal white tiger.






Aaron says, welcome to the Night Safari!




We all waited eagerly for the Creatures of the Night show, but were unfortunately rained out!




The TVs huddle beside a scary skull.




Aaron joins us for dinner at the Bongo Burgers restaurant.

You can believe it was a real Christmas surprise, when the postman came and brought a package from Singapore. I had a really nice stay there and even fulfilled a mission: visiting Singapore zoo. I can tell you, it was great. From now on I will be a home stay toyvoyager, only updates made by my family. I know, I'm too large to travel on, although I can be really small packed in a package. I'm just too large to take with in a bag

For Mother's Day we ate a big big icecream. It was so yummy!

Today we took a photo of nearly all tvs, which stay here right now. There are several tvs of our host: Robinson, Schnuffi, Scotty, Cassiopeia, Simba Leon and me. Then there are the regular guests: BarryO, Bubo, Henry, Sanji, Tuffy, NiliHH, Jack, Chuckle, WillyW. All the others are tvs, which stayed with hosts, who had some problems and no chance to send them on to their owners or the next host. It is the biggest amount of toyvoyagers I ever had around me

A thunderstorm is coming.

I like this Christmas decoration on the window. It's on the same place each year. If you like it too and want the originals to cut them out for yourself, please send a note to Petra.
It's a nice place for us toyvoyagers, too. It is warm and you can see everything that's going on on the street






The first photo is without flash, just to show you, how dark it is outside although it is early midday. If Petra hasn't done a mistake, then there are 26 toyvoyagers sitting together. Some are her toyvoyagers, some her daughters and some are rescued toyvoyagers, which still are at her place and of course some are guests, who will move on again.

After the big group photo session the guests finished the stars.




Of course we other toyvoyagers were really curious and came to take a look at the beautiful stars.







Later a group of starsingers visited our house, but we just had been too slow, so we aren't on this photo. Nevertheless we thougth, that it is a good idea to show you, how starsingers can look like. They don't carry one of our stars, though. They belong to the church region, were our hosts live, but our hosts go to another church, where they lived before. It's a bit complicated




In the afternoon we all helped our Petra to bake two cakes. She told us, that tomorrow isn't only Epiphany, but also her husbands 50th birthday and that we will go to the parish hall and carry cakes with us. At first we baked a Hermann cake. It is a cake like a round robin, that's how it seems for me. Petra told us, that she received a part of the cake a few days ago and that she had to stir it and to feed it and that now it is ready to get baken. Of course we added some more stuff like flour, sugar, almonds, cinnamon, chocolate pieces.

We read the recipe.




Then we had to get some more dishes for the "kids" of this cake.




We had been really busy.



























We also added some apple pieces.






We wondered, if this dish would be big enough and decided, that it wasn't. So we took a star for the dough of Hermann.