Travelog for: Buzz BlueJay

We're back (on sunday night we travelled down to stay with my host's friends in Gloucester). I am going to split these updates into sections. This section shows us on monday morning, learning how to quill; a skill which my host's friend taught us

We cut some strips of coloured paper and I chose the light blue  Then we used a cuticle stick which had a slit cut into the top to keep the paper strip on, and twisted the paper into a spiral. We put the spiral down, then glued the end of the paper so that we could pinch the sides of the circle to make a leaf shape. Finally we glued all of these onto the card and stuck pipe cleaners on to make the trunk of the tree. At the end of our stay we gave the card to our host's friends as a thankyou for looking after us

On monday afternoon we went for a stroll to the local park. We had to go through a church graveyard to get to it, which was nice and calm. Then we entered the park and for some reason it looked a bit like Autumn, with the leaves falling already! Some of the trees must be confused. There was a building hidden behind the trees which looked pretty. Then we found a mini nature reserve to investigate. There didn't seem to be much wildlife about... I called out to the bird houses on the massive tree I saw. I thought there might be some fellow bluejays around but there was no response However on the way back to the flat we saw some black and white cat twins sat on bins! They looked rather amusing

The third of our mini break updates:

This morning we visited the town centre of Cheltenham. Edelweiss and I were posing on the wall for our picture (well Edel was actually having a lie down), then noticed that behind us was a a cute group of fluffy ducklings! We zoomed in the camera to get a closer look

In the shopping centre I found this nice erm... I'm not sure what it was, but it was decorative

We went to a park for our lunch, then did some climbing  On the second climbing photo I had just decided to sunbathe, honest mum, I didn't fall! The sun was so bright the pictures aren't that clear as we're washed out by the light! The fountain looked cooling, but we didn't really want to jump in as it was rather green.

On our way back along the high street to the buses there was a pretty bank building. I will update again soon to show where we got the bus to next

The final instalment of our mini break...

In my last update we were just about to get the bus from Cheltenham to Gloucester city centre. Here I am on the bus When we arrived we were glad we'd made the journey. The cathedral is so beautiful and calming. We were even allowed to take some pictures inside and it wasn't really dark like some cathedrals. We were messing about around the walls when a man went past saying 'what a good idea to take your teddies with you on a day out!' He didn't stop long enough for us to explain that we weren't any old teddies - we were teddies travelling the world! :P Ah well.


We managed to get some pictures in the centre grassed bit of the cathedral, just before the camera's battery died and signalled it was time to travel back to our host's home! We had lots of fun mum


Added trivia found online (My host likes visiting places where bits of the Harry Potter movies were filmed )

On our walk back from the library where my host had been studying, we went along a bridge. There wasn't much else to see on the walk apart from the Free-range chicken farm near to my host's house. I don't think we were meant to be on the land so we zoomed in a bit.

The next photo is us inspecting the exciting looking sequin glitter glue Michel was using to make his mum's birthday banner - we helped too!

My host travelled to Durham for a meeting about her education, so us toys went along too. We had fun taking pictures from the back of the car We're not sure what the landscape was that we passed, on the map it looks like we skimmed the top of the Yorkshire Dales.

We had a break to stretch our legs and met some sheep  They wanted to talk to us I think but our host was wary about our safety.

When we reached our destination we didn't have much time to investigate as the journey is a long way to go there and back in a day. But we just about had time to walk along the river a bit and saw the cathedral in the distance. Since Edelweiss had seen it before she described to the rest of us what it looked like close up We had parked in my host's college grounds which is on a hill next to the river Wear, so we had a quick look around there too.

(Sorry the pictures are a bit out of order towards the end!)

Hi Mum!

Today my host took us to a nearby city called Liverpool. We visited her favourite shop which is known as 'Quiggins'; it is full of gothic/retro/vintage/alternative clothing and objects. Sorry the indoor pictures are blurry; it is rather dimly lit and we suspected a flash may not be allowed!

The next pictures are of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, just up the hill from Quiggins. We waited for a group of tourists to move so we could get a group shot undisturbed From the other side of the cathedral we zoomed and could just about view the top the Liver Building, which has two liver bird statues on top. This building is situated next to the Docks and River Mersey. We will hopefully go to see that side of Liverpool another day.

Today we went back to Liverpool!  But when we got there we realised there was someone missing... Edelweiss! There was a moth whizzing around the other day and since Edel is made of wool she had crawled into her plastic bag with the cedar wood for safety. When my host scooped us all off the shelf in a rush this morning, Edel was still in her bag on the other shelf!  So sad. But when we got back she said she'd had a nice rest, and was happy to see our photos


It was a day of typical English whether; dull sky and the constant threat of rain. We made our way past St George's Hall (the one with all the collumns) and through St John's gardens. These are part of the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO world heritage site (gosh what a mouth full!), along with Pier Head and Albert Dock which we are making our way towards. OH, and I met a seagull! But he was a bit stuck-up and didn't want to talk :/

There was a statue with people in chains and the words 'England expects every man to do his duty'! We didn't have time to look at what the surrounding buildings where, but perhaps it was to do with the courts...


We reached Pier Head where the Royal Liver Building is. This is the main landmark in Liverpool and according to legend if the birds on top fly away, the city will no longer exist  This is the building that I saw in the distance the other day when we visited the cathedral.


We wandered along a bit more to reach Albert Dock, where The Beatles music band museum is. THEN... we saw the Yellow Duck Marine! It is a site-seeing bus/boat created due to The Beatles 'Yellow submarine' song. It tours the main sights on land, then splashes into the river and turns into a boat. We heard the driver saying in a strong scouse accent 'The louder you scream, the bigger the splash!' LOL. Buzz, Michel, Pengy and I started singing 'we all live in a yellow submarine... a yellow submarine... a yellow submarine...' Because we're cool We got so carried away singing we didn't get the big splash on camera, but I managed to snap a photo of it sailing away just before it disappeared from site.

We also spotted some Superlambanana decendants The original one was much bigger and bright yellow, as you would imagine a bannana would be It was created for Liverpool due to its history of bananas and lambs being common cargo at the docks, and also to make a point about the dangers of genetic engineering. In 2008 125 small replicas were made, with lots of different designs and scattered throughout the city. The superlambananas you can see me with are part of a collection of 8 new ones which arrived in 2010.

Hi there!

My host is a bit behind with her photo updates, but we've given up on trying to get 'correct' dates!

As you will know, the other week BineHH arrived! I recognised the writing on the envelope, WOO Although my host helped Bine use the computer to draw black lines on the photo to hide the addresses. For 'security' reasons apparently . Anyway, I managed to free the little crab, and he introduced himself He showed me the postcard and I was thrilled to see that there was a birdy on there that looked similar to me. It was from you mum! And to see the drawings on the other side, made me so proud to be able to say that the card was from my mentor The other TVs loved their pictures too!

Bine and I also had fun nomming on the yummy sweets.

The first few photos are of Pengy showing us the Royal wedding postcards he found I was very interested in the dress!

Then another day my host saw a nice island-type thing with ducks and geese and swans on, in the middle of a business park. Usually business parks are horrible to look at, but we thought using the water to attract natural wildlife was a good planning idea Sorry I didn't get many pictures though mum, the camera battery died!

Here are some pictures of a church in the next village along from my host's home village. It was the end of a lovely hot day which felt like summer. The weather was quite strange for the beginning of October, but we weren't complaining.

A few weeks ago we all got packed into a bag, ready to travel to my host's term-time home in Durham, North-east England. It was very exciting! 

We stopped off at a service station for a break. Unlike the rather dull motorway stations this was a friendly country one with farm animals. Just as we were leaving we looked across at the cows and then stared I said 'is that a deformed cow?!' Pinky Bear exclaimed 'That cows got humps!' and then BineHH shouted 'That cow's a CAMEL!' :O Ahahaha. So funny. It was extremely windy so much so that my host had to try several times to get the camera still, but we were determined to get the random field camel on camera My host had never seen a Camel in a field before. In England we usually only see Camels in zoos!

I don't think Mr Camel was aware that he was not a cow... :P He was on the other side of the field though so I have added some really zoomed in pictures for you to see

So, on the 3rd of October (quite in the past now!), we arrived in the university Halls of residence. On another day there was a double rainbow! We rushed over to climb onto the windowsill, but sadly it was fading quickly I don't know if you can see the remains of one of them just above the roof on the opposite building?

The other pics are of our new Toyvoyager accomodation :P The shelf is very much like the one back at my host's home, only this one is more spacious so we can all fit on

Helloo mum!

I am actually on my way to Germany right now. I was posted today! I had to put my wings up in order to fit into the envelope, a bit like when humans put their arms up to fit into a jumper The others laughed and bid me farewell. I will especially miss Edelweiss as we have stayed here together for quite a while. My host didn't want to put me into the envelope until the last minute as she was so sad to see me go. She will keep looking out for my updates when I get to Germany

The following is from a week ago:

Every saturday now, a private tutor comes to teach my host statistics (because she really fails at understanding anything to do with numbers!). Anyway, that is rather dull, but the room where she is tutored is really pretty, so last Saturday we took some photos. It is in the building where my host lives, but all sorts of people book it. Today we couldn't go in as there was a wedding!

We had a bit of a chuckle about the bum on the wall My host said it was artistic but we just thought it was funny!

I'm not sure if TVs are allowed to take photos of the room... but we didn't touch anything! The sunlight was beaming in through the windows, and I had a nosy at the trophy cabinet. I don't know what the trophies were for though as we were trying to be quick just in case anyone came in! My host said she may have a look at the trophies another time and report back to me

Me leaving for Germany!

Sorry these are late mum, but here are the photos we took on my last host's mobile phone, when her camera was broken. Hence the lack of quality There were lots of postcrossing postcards coming alongside my parcel to the post-office!