Thursday 31 December 2009

Uglyworld #264 - Jeero's Sweatband

Jeero is the first in our household to start their 2010 fitness kick after all the eating which has taken place over the festive period.

We had been in the process of making him a new hat, but he managed to get up out of bed before us and grab what had been made so far and jogged out the front door with it on (as there's about 6 rows made so far and he reckoned it made a perfect sweatband).

I just hope he doesn't make it too sweaty otherwise it'll need to be washed before we can continue turning it into a hat.

Wednesday 30 December 2009

Uglyworld #262 - I'll Try The Back Door

After finding out that IKEA had no current job openings Wage wasn't about to let his dreams of working there be dashed so easily.

He ran as fast as his wee legs could carry him into the carpark beside IKEA and then used the lift to go all the way to the top floor.

When myself and Mireille finally caught up with him he was standing on the top of the fence wobbling side to side. Mireille shouted at him, "Wage, don't jump, talk to us about it". Wage replied, "Don't be silly I'm not planning to jump, I'm trying to find another way in, like a back door!".

After an hour and a half of him trying the handle of every single door on the roof, sides and back of the store (which were all locked tight) he decided that enough was enough and that it just wasn't going to work out "this time".

Uglyworld #261 - Maybe I Could Work In IKEA

Wage asked us if we could go visit IKEA in Heerlen as he had filled in a job application to work there.

When he walked up to the customer service desk and handed the form over that he had filled in (including his Phd in Uglyness at Notsonice University) the girl looked a little bit sad.

Wage asked what was wrong and she replied "You're sooooo cuuuute and I would love you to work here with us, but we have no jobs open at the moment, maybe try again in a month or so" and gave him a big hug (he seems to have that effect on women).

He naturally was dissappointed, but already had a cunning plan up his non-existent sleeve...

Tuesday 29 December 2009

Uglyworld #260 - What Happens When An Uglydoll Borrows Your Camera

Have you ever wondered to yourself what happens when you decide to let an Uglydoll borrow your camera for the day?

Today I found out the hard way....

Almost 16Gb of photographs which contain various parts of Wage's anatomy and random objects from here, there and everywhere.

Don't get me wrong, they're funny (Wage still laughs whenever I ask him about the pics he took) but having to sort through almost 1000 images to find stuff that is keepable (or usable) is quite a hard task and one that Wage has kindly deligated to me.

I particularly like this one which he said he shot while a security guard was forcibly removing him from the female changing rooms in one of the local department stores in Aachen.

Wage is completely mad (but great fun too).

Monday 28 December 2009

Uglyworld #259 - Ice-Bat Says Bye to Scottish Mum

Scottish mum flew back to Scotland today from Charleroi airport near Brussels in Belgium.

Ice-Bat asked if he could come along for the drive, and once mum was through security to the departure area Ice-Bat flew over the top of the terminal and watched her as she boarded the plane and then started to set up for take off.

He tried his best to stay alongside the plane as it made it's way along the runway but eventually had to give up once the plane got really fast. After catching his breath again he flew over to meet me at the car and tell me all about it.

Sunday 27 December 2009

Uglyworld #258 - Ox Having Fun On The Ice

Today we went to visit the Dreilander Punkt (3 country point) where Germany, Holland and Belgium all come together on top of a hillside.

As the area is quite exposed to the elements there was a lot of snow and ice around, which Ox decided to make full use of by sliding for about 20 meters at a time from one end of the carpark to the other. It was so funny to watch as other people stopped to admire the grace in which he slid across the ice.

Ox only came back to the car one he couldn't feel his feet any more because of all the sliding around on the solid surface of the ice.

Uglyworld #257 - Jeero Orders Some Fries

Jeero was starting to get hungry as we walked around Monschau and decided that he wasn't going to move a single step further unless we recharged his batteries (by means of a large tray of fries, which are known as "fritten" in Germany).

He ordered a super-duper-humungously huge tray all for himself, topped with a massive dollop of Tomato Ketchup (he verified it was Heinz before ordering it), and then set about demolishing as many of the chips as he could before finally realising there were too many for him at which point he opened them up to the rest of us.

Wage and Babo helped to quickly make the rest vanish, and then it was back into the city to explore some more...

Saturday 26 December 2009

Uglyworld #256 - Wage Makes A New Friend

While exploring the village of Monschau Wage found himself a new friend who he wanted to introduce us all to.

It turns out that the chaps name was Hans and he worked at the local textile mill where he could be found wringing the water out of the fabric after it had been soaked in the water pulled into the old mill from the river Rur.

Hans was nice enough to stop his work for a few seconds so that Wage could have his picture taken with him (which Wage was over the moon about).

Uglyworld #255 - Daytrip to Monschau

Wage, Babo and Jeero suggested to Scottish mum that instead of taking the long drive down to Koblenz which was already planned that we should go visit Monschau which was only a 30-40min drive from where we live outside of Aachen.

The village of Monschau is pretty cool, it is high up in the hills to the South West of Aachen and as such there is more snow around. The streets of the village are all small and are surfaced with cobble stones, with many buildings having that cool "leaning" style to them as they've moved a little since they were first built.

Wage, Babo and Jeero were all dressed for the colder weather and after seeing how fast the water was flowing down the river, they decided to pose on one of the bridges with the steeple of the church at the village square poking up over the buildings which lined the river, and the outline of the old ruin which sits on top of the surrounding hillside.

Friday 25 December 2009

Uglyworld #254 - Babo Meets The Stig

Babo called our local supercar dealership today to try and arrange a test drive of a car (she wouldn't listen that it was christmas day and that the people who work there would all be off on their xmas holidays).

Babo was adamant that she could acquire the keys of a sports car for a day or two and marched round to their door to sort this out!

She knocked on the door several times to no answer and then started shouting "cooo-eeeee" through the letterbox until a figure moved in the back room. Unknown to Babo The Stig from Top Gear had been drafted into the dealership as a security guard over the festive period.

Babo tried to ask Stig for the keys to a 911 Turbo, no response from the Stig so Babo moved down to a 911 Carerra, still no response. Babo was beginning to get a little annoyed and decided to try and stare Stig out - unfortunately she's not watched Stig on TV before so he's still standing there now!!!

Uglyworld #253 - Thank You Santa

Ice-Bat was very hard to keep under control ever since I showed him the present Santa had left for him earlier today, we even considered sedating him for a few hours so that we could get some peace and quiet, but thankfully he lowered his blood pressure all by himself by the time dinner was served.

After dinner we sorted out all the presents under the tree and made Ice-Bat wait until everything else was opened (he complained at first, but once we explained that it meant everyone would be watching him open his he was really excited again).

Finally when all the other presents had been opened it came the turn of Ice-Bat to open his present from Santa, we told him to be gentle as it could be something fragile inside, so he flew up and then using the tip of his wing cut through the paper to reveal the contents of the present.

"A big brother, all for me, Santa is the coolest person alive, after my new big brother of course!", screamed Ice-Bat at the top of his lungs.

It would appear Father Christmas is 100% alive and kicking after all - cheers Santa!

Uglyworld #252 - Ugly Xmas Picture 15

Uglyworld #251 - Ugly Xmas Picture 14

Uglyworld #250 - Ugly Xmas Picture 13

Uglyworld #249 - Ugly Xmas Picture 12

Uglyworld #248 - Ugly Xmas Picture 11

Uglyworld #247 - Ugly Xmas Picture 10

Uglyworld #246 - Ugly Xmas Picture 9

Uglyworld #245 - Ugly Xmas Picture 8

Uglyworld #244 - Ugly Xmas Picture 7

Uglyworld #243 - Ugly Xmas Picture 6

Uglyworld #242 - Ugly Xmas Picture 5

Uglyworld #241 - Ugly Xmas Picture 4

Uglyworld #240 - Ugly Xmas Picture 3

Uglyworld #239 - Ugly Xmas Picture 2

Uglyworld #238 - Ugly Xmas Picture 1


Uglyworld #238 - Ugly Xmas Picture 1, originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

I hopes you likes my first attempts at making picturegraphs, I wanted to remember christmas this year with all of my Ugly friends.

Merry Christmas everyone,

Babo x

Thursday 24 December 2009

Uglyworld #237 - Ice-Bat's Excitement

After Ice-Bat wrote his letter to Santa earlier in the month he has been very quiet and only really speaks when he has to. When everyone was getting ready to pack the presents into the car today I found an extra present under the tree which I hadn't noticed before.

I shouted to Ice-Bat who slowly fluttered over to where I was and asked what he had done wrong, I replied "nothing, but look what Santa has left under the tree for you".

For a couple of seconds he just looked at the tag and the present it was attached to, then he turned and looked at me half puzzled, half excited, and then once again back at the present before lifting off of his feet directly upwards at around 250 miles per hour and then went whizzing all around the room (he was getting so crazy we opened the door to let him out into the garden as there would be less chance of him hurting himself.

I just hope it's what he wished for!!!

Uglyworld #236 - Ox and Babo Get Carried Away Wrapping Up Presents

Ox and Babo were enjoying the fun of wrapping up presents today before we got ready to drive to Mireille's mum and dad (as in Germany xmas is celebrated on the evening on the 24th, unlike back in Scotland where it's the morning of the 25th).

This year we're doing both - we will give some presents tonight and the rest tomorrow...anyway, back to the story...

Tray had been upstairs showering while Ox and Babo wrapped up all of the remaining presents, and when she came downstairs she hunted high and low for the remote control for the television - without success.

She decided to ask Babo and Ox if they had seen it as all the other uglies were either outside playing in the snow, or were hiding in their own little part of the house wrapping up their remaining presents too.

Of course Ox and Babo had no idea where the remote control could be, secretly Tray had seen it in their wrapping paper but didn't want to disturb their fun and left them to it.

Wednesday 23 December 2009

Uglyworld #235 - Ugly Xmas Tradition Of The Cookie Queue

Tonight we were treated to what Babo referred to as "a really, really, really important tradition in the history of Uglydolls".

On the night of 23rd of December once all of the smaller uglies are already in bed fast asleep the big uglies all get together to recreate the historical act known as the "Cookie Queue".

I asked Babo what they needed to make it happen and what all was involved, Babo took me to the side and whispered, "Can you bring us some cookies? In all of the excitement I forgot to get them today!". I told him I could arrange this no problem if he told me a little more about the ancient ritual they were going to re-enact.

Babo explained that it was the way that the uglies grow from being little to big - that as the clock changes from 23:59 to 00:00 on the 23rd/24th December all the big uglies must be queued up and ready to take a cookie from the jar one by one until they all hold one in their hand at which point they all must eat them together.

I asked Babo what would happen if one of them forgot about the ceremony or there were no cookies available, to which he replied "terrible doom, best not to even think of this as we have cookies and all of us are ready".

As the clock struck midnight Babo started the procession as they each took a cookie from the jar and then once all were standing ready with cookie in hand they all munched them together.

It was akin to watching a wildlife program on the discovery channel with hidden cameras setup to capture the action, really cool!!!

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Uglyworld #234 - "Is It An Early Xmas Present For Us?"

Wage and Babo had heard me answer the door earlier this evening and wondered who was there and more imporantly what they wanted (i.e. had they brought anything interesting, or tasty for that matter for them to "take care of" for me).

I told them that it was only some local kids selling homemade biscuits in order to give a better christmas to blind local rabbits (not sure how they bought that story, but it seemed to work all the same).

Later on I summoned Babo and Wage to the living room where I told them to stand perfectly still with their hands over their eyes. After catching them both peeking through their fingers a few times they finally did the job properly, and I placed something in front of them and then quickly got the camera ready and shouted "ok, open your eyes NOW!!!".

The expressions on both of their faces as they turned to each other and shouted "TRAY" was simply priceless - as you can see in the photo they even held hands for a brief second or two amidst all of the excitement!!!

P.S. The hat Wage is wearing is my first ever attempt at crocheting, and I reckon it came out quite well :)

Monday 21 December 2009

Uglyworld #233 - Wage's Winter Wonderland

Wage has been outside playing in the garden nearly all day, he says that he loves the snow so much as it's so cold and white and fluffy under his feet.

He only came in for lunch and dinner when we shouted on him for about the 200th time, and then went straight back out again once he finished eating....he sure does love playing in the snow!

Sunday 20 December 2009

Uglyworld #232 - Snow Watchers

Wedgehead, Cinko and Babo were amazed when they found out that there had been a reindeer in our garden and spent the entire day standing looking out of the window watching out for another one.

They said that it was too cold for them to go outside as they don't have any warm clothes to wear yet - they keep asking Mireille and me to make them some clothes to keep them warm during the winter months.

I'm actually working on my first ever hat for big Wage at the moment, while Mireille works on a Santa hat for Babo - hopefully they'll appear in the coming days ;)

The trio of snow watchers are also in for another surprise, as "Scottish mum" will be arriving here tomorrow afternoon - will be fun to see their faces then!!!

Uglyworld #231 - Shhhh There's A Reindeer In The Garden

Babo and Ice-Bat were standing at the window looking out towards the garden and all of the snow which lay there.

All of a sudden they could hear footsteps coming down the stairs to a chorus of "shhhh" from Wage, Jeero and Ox. Once the trio were beside Babo and Ice-Bat they whispered, "There's a reindeer in the garden".

They all quickly put on their clothes and I gave them a carrot each to take with them as they slowly walked towards the reindeer who was munching away on some grass down near the swimming pool. I had warned them to be as quiet as possible and not to make any quick movements or the reindeer would run away.

Thankfully they listened to my advice and were able to get right up close to the reindeer and feed it the carrots they had with them.

Ice-Bat looked to be the most afraid, whilst still looking at the deer with the same excitement as all the others.

Saturday 19 December 2009

Uglyworld #230 - Posing in Snow Country

After walking about 10 metres through the snow they realised that it wasn't going to be a quick walk to the wind turbine and decided instead to pose for a photo with it in the background.

As they made the challenge earlier that the first Ugly to reach the turbine got the front seat of the car to themselves for the trip back to Aachen, understandably Wedgehead and Jeero weren't going to let Wage out of their sight incase he made a run for it and left them behind.

Thankfully Wage didn't turn and run, and after playing a little longer in the snow they each agreed to take turns in the front seat for the rest of the journey home.

Uglyworld #229 - First Ugly to the Turbine Wins

On the way home to Aachen from Freiburg the car was continually filled with big shouts of "wooow", "aaaaah" and "cool". I had forgotten all about the fact that the uglies had yet to experience their first winter in Germany with us and didn't know what snow really felt like.

I pulled over into one of the autobahn services and let them get out of the car and into the snow - they were so excited to stand in it and look out over the white covered fields towards whichever city sat on the horizon.

Wage challenged Jeero and Wedgehead to a race, whoever reached the windmill first would get the front seat the rest of the way back to Aachen. Jeero and Wedgehead were too busy admiring the view to worry about Wage's challenge though...

Thursday 17 December 2009

Uglyworld #228 - The City Looks Like A Big Xmas Tree

Wage was a big fan of the view from our hotel room in Freiburg this week, so he asked me to take a picture of him at the window with all the big banking buildings in the background.

Jeero and Wedgehead couldn't understand his fascination with them until he explained, "They look like huge concrete and metal christmas trees when it's night time and they're all lit up, and it's a perfect spot to watch the snow falling from too".

How right he is!

Uglyworld #227 - Caught In The Act

This morning we had to pack our bags and get ready for the drive back to Aachen (christmas parties tonight for both Mireille's job and mine).

I had already loaded my own case and Wedgeheads into the car by the time Wedgie asked, "Where's my chocolate for the 5 hour drive? I left them here beside me on my seat!". This immediately got me thinking too, where the hell was Jeero.

Myself and Wedgehead went back upstairs to the room to see if he was still there and as soon as we opened the door we could hear "nom nom nom" coming from the bathroom. I signalled to Wedgehead to be quiet which he acknowledged and then we crept quietly in armed with the camera.

We immediately saw the Kinder Bueno box moving around on the floor, and then it suddenly stopping moving and out popped Jeero's head - funny as hell and definitely caught in the act!!!

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Uglyworld #226 - Presents for Mireille

Wage, Jeero and Wedgehead asked me if they could organise some presents for Mireille from the xmas market in Freiburg.

I wasn't sure what they would pick up (and whether it would end up being cookies which they would eat themselves), but they did well - they found a stall with loads of Italian specialities for sale.

As Wage is off alcohol at the moment he organised a special box of cake for Mireille, while Jeero and Wedgehead sorted out a drink of the alcoholic variety.

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Uglyworld #225 - Wedgeheads Walk Around Freiburg

Wedgehead was willing (that's 3 W's to start this story for some strange reason) to brave the winter weather (there's 2 more now) and head outside for a walk around the old city (alt stadt) of Freiburg in Germany. It may only have been a few degrees below freezing, but the wind last night made it show as -12oC - quite cold I will admit myself.

Wedgehead stayed out a lot longer than I did and came back to the hotel around 10.30pm full of stories about the places and things he saw - Wage and Jeero said they were excited to hear the tales but preferred staying warm in front of the TV with cookies.

Monday 14 December 2009

Uglyworld #224 - Stop, Thief!

Last night after dinner we came back to the hotel to use our complimentary drink that we received when we arrived on Sunday evening (the hotel bar is closed on Sundays).

Jeero wanted to hang around downstairs with us too, and everything was going great until he noticed a couple at the other end of the bar had a glass of pretzels. He was over there as like a flash and after grabbing two of them he made a bee-line back in our direction as fast as his feet could carry him to shouts of "stop thief" from the couple.

Thankfully after he explained that he didn't think he was "stealing" their pretzels, with his reason being that he planned to "give them a good home, in my belly" the couple laughed and forgot about the whole thing.

Sunday 13 December 2009

Uglyworld #223 - Jeero Found Some Mints

When we arrived back in Freiburg last night (I'm working here again this week) Jeero already said he had "dibs" on any sweeties or chocolate left on the pillow of the hotel room bed.

Sure enough Jeero was through the door before myself, Wedgehead and big Wage as soon as we arrived on the 4th floor of the hotel.

I asked the guys if they wanted to go for a walk with me, but Wedgehead had noticed the temperature reading -6oC and spread that news quickly. As we were staying in Jeero decided to be nice and shared his little packet of peppermints with everyone else.

(Internet access this week will be a little limited, but hopefully I can still get a pic online each day, I'll catch up on all your cool pics when possible)

Uglyworld #222 - Ice-Bat's Letter To Santa

This morning started off quite sad, when myself and Mireille woke up we could hear some feint sobbing coming from downstairs, so I got up to find out what was wrong. When I got to the living room I found Ice-Bat sitting on the couch crying, so I asked him what was wrong. He replied, "I really really really want a big brother too, like the other uglies have, I've been super nice this year too!!!" and then wailed some more into a never ending pile of tissues.

I told him that it would maybe help if he sent a letter to Santa about it all, he started looking at me stupidly and said, "How will that help?", so I explained to him that here when it gets to this time of year and you've been good all year you get the chance to write a nice letter to Santa, and if you're one of the lucky people to be chosen then Santa makes your wishes come true.

Ice-Bat immediately flew over to my desk and brought back a pen between his feet and when he reached the table he hovered just above it and began writing a letter to Santa on a piece of paper I prepared for him.

He seems to be a little happier now, I just hope his letter gets to Santa in time for him to make his wish come true, and he needs the support of all his Ugly cousins around the world too to make it happen!!!

Saturday 12 December 2009

Uglyworld #221 - Teamwork

Having one Wage taking over the TV and Xbox 360 has been quite hard to deal with - now with the arrival of his cousin from Canada who we've been told is going to stay through the holiday period with us things have managed to go up a notch to a whole new level of crazy.

The pair of them were playing Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 this afternoon, one of them taking care of the running and shooting duties and the other one giving out loads of abuse over the headset...I must admit the pair of them did make quite a good team...

Uglyworld #220 - Did You Forget Your Key?

Everyone was relaxing in the house today when there was a ring of the doorbell, Babo was playing the Xbox360 with Cinko while the others spectated, so Wedgehead was the one who went to see who it could be.

Wage had been upstairs when the bell rang, and made his way downstairs by which point Wedgehead already had the door open. Wedgehead asked, "Wage, did you forget your key? Why did you ring the doorbell?".

Things were just about to become a whole lot more interesting....

Uglyworld #219 - Babo's Sense for Snow

This morning Babo was all excited after seeing on the TV weather that it is expected to snow at some point this weekend.

She put on her favourite dress and went out for a wee stroll around the village to check for signs of snow.

When she arrived home again she informed us, "The sky is looking very grey and I estimate the temperature to be only 2oC at present, so the likelyhood of snow is relatively high".

All the other Uglies cheered at this news!!!

Thursday 10 December 2009

Uglyworld #218 - You Have To Try It

Babo and Jeero last night brought back a tasty treat for Orange Ice-Bat to try, some quarkbaelchen from the local bakery.

Ice-Bat wasn't too convinced that it would taste nice and wondered if the pair were playing some kind of trick on him which would result in the little doughball blowing up in his face when he got close enough.

It took quite some persuading by Babo and Jeero before he finally took a bite, and lets just say even my own one was eaten within a minute of this picture being taken!!!

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Uglyworld #217 - I've Come To The Right Place

With big Ox arriving yesterday amid all the chaos of all the other uglies working out their birthday surprise for my mum back in Scotland, he wasn't really sure what to make of everything and whether or not anyone had actually noticed that he was now there.

Things changed for the better as he went for a hunt around the house and found the OXO cubes, immediately he knew that he was going to fit in with all the others!

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Uglyworld #216 - Happy Birthday Scottish Mum

During the end of last week myself and Mireille had been buying a card to send to my mum in Scotland for her birthday (today - 9th December), little did we know that Babo had overheard many of our conversations and along with the help of Wage put together a little special ugly present of their own.

Last night myself and Mireille were told to leave the room as there was important stuff to be done that we were strictly not allowed to see until it was 100% ready, shortly after midnight we were summoned back to the room to see this awesome sight.

They all started singing "happy birthday scottish muuuuuuuuuum" at the top of their voices (wish I had video'd it rather than take a picture), so cool and funny at the same time, and this was swiftly followed up with "hip-hip hooooooooray" which seemed to go on forever...

Happy birthday mum (from everyone over here in Germany)!!!

Monday 7 December 2009

Uglyworld #215 - Why Won't You Smile Berndt?

Wage last night decided that enough was enough, Berndt sits beside our TV almost all day and all night and never once has tried to "crack" a smile. Being an Ugly means that this may not follow normal human convention in how Wage approaches this - first off he tried dancing past him in all manners of weird ways, I reckon 12 or so passes were made without even the hint of a giggle (I was in stiches of laughter watching).

Wage then adopted the see how close I can get to you without actually touching you routine, when Berndt huffed some air out and said "Can you please give me some room to breath?", Wage replied, "Not until you even pretend to smile, only then shall I move".

Berndt managed a wry smile for about an fifth of a millisecond before returning to his normal pose, Wage told me to take a picture of them together in the hope that he may smile again when we all shouted Ugly (they don't use cheese in Uglyworld you see).

Uglyworld #214 - The Wedgies Meet Santa

On Sunday in Germany everyone was celebrating St Nikolaus Tag (Saint Nicholas Day), which depending on your outlook on things can mean already starting to give gifts (normally only to children at this time in most European countries), so when both Wedgehead Snr and Wedgehead Jr went out a walk in the evening they were amazed to see so many Santa Claus running around - so the pair of them grabbed one each to explain how good they had been all year and start wishing for nice presents on christmas day.

Like father, like son...