MARCEL'S ADVENTURES IN EDINBURGH - PART ONE

Hi,

I thought I'd write today to tell you a bit about Marcel's holiday in Edinburgh! He never seems to be working this bear!! Still - he escaped from the dog with the bad breath and arrived in the city only to find - guess what!! - that he had to go through customs as he went into Scotland and he'd not brought his bear passport along with him.

"There's nothing I can do about it!" said the station guard. "You''ll have to go and see, Lenny and he'll decide if you're allowed in..."

So, off he went - poor old Marcel, he'd not even had dinner yet and his tummy was rumbling - and when he got to where Lenny was he was shocked to discover three things!! A) That Lenny was a lion and that B) Lenny was made of metal and C) Lenny could talk! Blimey...

"What do you want?" asked Lenny. "You want to visit Edinburgh?"

"I would, rather..." explained Marcel. "I've come for a holiday - but I forgot my passport! I didn't know you needed a passport to get to Scotland from London..."

"I'm afraid bears do... I'll have to ask you a question... Is that okay?"

"That'll be fine..." agreed Marcel politely.

"Okay..." began Lenny. "You must guess what my favourite pie is... You only get 60 seconds and one guess!!"

"Really!" exclaimed Marcel and Lenny nodded. "Okay... I can do that..." he said and putting on his glasses he peered really close up to Lenny's metal mane. "Okay..." he said, once his minute was up. "Your favourite pie is Steel bolts and Rosemary pie..."

"CORRECT!!" grinned Lenny. "Well done, young bear - how did you know?"

Marcel beamed. "You have bits of pastry and bolts and rosemary all in your mane..."

"Really? Oh, how messy I am..." sighed Lenny. "Anyway - you may pass into Edinburgh now... Have a good trip and don't forget your passport next time!"

"I won't... I'm sorry!" Marcel apologised. "Can I just have my picture taken with you before I leave?"

"Of course!!" smiled Lenny and so they had their picture together and you can see it at the top of the page there.

Marcel is still away - we're missing him here in the library - but he won't be back for a while yet... In my next post, I'll tell you all about what happened when Marcel nearly got himself fired out of a cannon from the top of a hill in Edinburgh... You'll never believe it...

Bye for now!

Paul The Librarian x

MARCEL AND THE DOG WITH THE BAD BREATH

Hi,

This picture commemorates the day that Marcel took a few days off working in the library and decided to go on holiday.

Alas, he took one of those coach tours and had to sit next to a dog named Fik who had extremely bad breath. Fik was a very exciteable hound and was also a big fan of Kick Pie, which is a little like football, but with pies. This year is the Kick Pie World Cup and so Fik was all dressed up in his supporters gear and he wouldn't stop talking to Marcel about it. Marcel likes pies, of course! All bears do! But not Kick Pie... What a waste of a good pastry!!! Marcel just likes books really... Reading books, filing books, being the central character in books - he's a quiet bear and having Fik hang around him drinking ginger beer and not cleaning his teeth is just something that he's not used to.

Oh well. Marcel won't let it put him off pies. Just Kick Pie fanatical dogs with bad breath. Which is fair enough.

Bye for now.

Paul The Librarian x