Happy Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

I just wanted to take some time to wish all my little friends a very happy Christmas. I hope you have all been good boys and girls so that Santa could bring you some nice toys this year.

I think Christmas is good because you get to spend time with your family and have lots of yummy food as well. I hope you will all say a big thank you to your mums and dads for making the day a happy one for you. I hope you are being good, too, and not fighting with each other or being naughty. Did you know that there are lots of children who don't get any nice presents, or any nice food. Isn't that sad? And some children don't live in nice houses with families who love them. There are some children the same ages as you who will even have to go out and do work at Christmas, and every other day, because they have no food or enough money to buy anything. So you children are very lucky, aren't you?

I hope you all got some nice gifts. I did. I got one of those tablet things.

It's lots of fun. I can play Angry Birds and can do my blog and get some bargains in the sales, too! I think some of you might have got them, as well, but some of you are too little. Another thing I got was chocolate. I love chocolate. It's so yummy. I'm not sure it really goes with turkey, but maybe I'll get used to it.

Look what Grandad got, by the way!

I think that might be the biggest lollipop I have ever seen! It's even bigger than Grandad!

I like shopping at Christmas. Some of the stores have lovely windows. I saw this one in a very big shop called Bloomingdales. Isn't it nice, with all those cute little teddies?

I also saw one window with a very cute Christmas village in it, with a train!

One of the nicest things about Christmas is that people are kind to each other. I wish they would be kind to each other all the time and not just Christmas. Maybe you cubs can show them how it's done. You can be kind to each other so that other people can see how they should behave. Sometimes, when we're kind to each other, we can get a really nice warm feeling inside, and that's the best feeling ever! Try helping your mummy by keeping all your toys nice and tidy. And help your daddy by doing the things he asks you to do. It will make them very happy, and it will make you happy, too! Much happier than being naughty, actually. So, will you do that? Do it for me. Do it for your mum and dad. Do it because it's the right thing to do, and when we do the right thing, it will always make us happier than when we do the wrong thing. I think all my little friends will do the right thing anyway, because they are all my special friends.

Remember why we have Christmas. It's not just for getting toys and having fun. It's to remember that Jesus was born, which is a very important thing. He wants you to be good, too. 

Have a lovely day, remember to be good and not to eat too much! I'll be back soon with another blog. Until then, this is your favourite lion signing off and saying Merry Christmas everyone!

Love from your little pal Bryan. 



National Day

Hello again, everyone!

Here is another blog post from your favourite Lion! Now, you can see from the picture of me that I have two flags. They are the flag of Dubai, and the reason I have them is because December 2 was National Day in Dubai. They celebrated 41 years of being, er, Dubai. That's nearly as old as Grandad!
There were a lot of flags about. Big buildings had giant flags on them. Cars and buses had flags on them. Even people had flags on them! I even saw some yummy cakes which had been made to celebrate National Day, in the baker's window. Don't they look nice?

Another big thing they did here was to have a parade. I don't know about you, but I love parades! We had a great view, too, because Grandma and Grandad live in a big building and we could look down at the parade from the balcony. There were lots of people down on the street, so it's a good thing I didn't have to go down there. I'm only little, so I would probably have got lost, or someone would have stepped on me, or something! So we watched from 30 floors up, and we had some people over to watch with us, while we scoffed some yummy food - Grandma got some Cinnabons, which I love! And cheesecake! Anyway, we got to see the whole parade, and we took some pictures.

On this picture you can see some camels. I like camels. they are so nice and friendly. They have big humps, which make them tricky to sit on. In Dubai they have camel races. Grandma says we might go and see some camel racing in a few weeks. But these ones were not racing. They were just walking slowly. Camels also make a really funny noise. Not as funny as your daddy when he snores at night, but not too far off!

On this picture there are some Arab people playing bagpipes. I thought only Scottish people played bagpipes, but these were definitely not Scottish. Bagpipes make a funny noise, too, but at least they can play some nice tunes.

There were some things called floats, too. Now, don't ask me why they are called floats. They don't actually float, as far as I can see. They are really lorries dressed up to look like things. This one was my favourite. The blue bit is meant to be a Metro train. They have the Metro in Dubai, which is a train on stilts. They go over your head and they don't have any drivers. On top of this one are models of some of the buildings in Dubai. There is a model of the world's tallest building, and also a model of the building we live in! Also, if you look closely, there's a model of an aeroplane. I think it's a model, anyway. If it isn't, somebody did a bad job of landing! haha!

There were some fun characters in the parade, too. I saw a blue dolphin, an octopus, a zebra, a rhino, a ninja turtle and a dragon! I don't know what they had to do with National Day, but all the little cubs seemed to like them. I'm not sure where the other three ninja turtles were, though. This was the red one. I forget his name. Maybe he's going solo these days.

We had some marching bands, too, with some girls twirling batons. Did you know that Grandma used to do that, a long time ago? There were also some girls waving flags about. The marching bands were quite loud, with big drums and things. And there were some big balloons, a bit like the ones in the Macy's parade but not as interesting. I was hoping they would have one shaped like Spiderman, or maybe Snoopy, but these ones were just square and white, with writing on them.

Anyway, I hope you like the pictures. You can see it was an interesting day. At least it was nice and sunny. You might think it's always nice and sunny here, but we did have a very big thunderstorm a few days ago, with lots of rain and lightning, which was scary! At least it didn't rain on the parade. It would have been a shame if all those people had got wet.
Well, it's time for me to go, but I will be back soon with a nice Christmas blog. I hope you are all being very good, so that Santa will bring you some nice things. I'm hoping for a tablet, but I'm not sure if I've been a good enough lion to get one of those! You have to be extra good to get a tablet, Grandma says.

Until next time, this is your pal Bryan saying Bye bye for now.

Balloons and Bananas!

Hello again, friends! And Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who live in America!

It's your chum Bryan here again. I've been out and about this past week and I've seen some very interesting things. This picture is a drawing of me. Do you like it? Grandma did it. Actually, she cheated a bit. She has a new camera and it takes pictures which look like drawings. I think she should just do the drawings herself, what do you think?

I went to some place called the Marina last week. That was interesting because there was a big mall there and lots of water. And I saw the funniest thing! I saw an aeroplane made of balloons! No, really I did! It was a Boeing 737 and it was made of red balloons! No wonder aeroplanes fly if they are made of balloons!

See, it looks really good, doesn't it? It was inside the mall. Nobody was allowed to touch it, which was a pity because I really wanted to have a ride on it. It even has some white balloons there to look like clouds! I think somebody must have run out of puff blowing up all of those balloons, though. But it would be lots of fun to get a pin and run around and pop them all, wouldn't it? Ha ha!

There was this merry-go-round there, too. I wanted to go on it, but the lady said it wasn't open yet. She said she didn't know if lions were allowed on it, anyway! Can you believe that?

I had a look around the toy store in the mall, too, and I saw my buddies, Mickey and Minnie. They both said to say Hi to all of you. Not sure who the tall giraffe dude is, though. He didn't say very much. I don't think giraffes like lions a whole lot. Can't imagine why! I love toy shops, though. They have lots of cool things in there. I would like to live in a toy store. Or a sweet shop. Or a bakery. I can't quite make my mind up!

I also went out one night and I saw some very nice cars. One of them was a very posh car called a Rolls Royce. I think the Queen has one of those. This one was shiny, like a mirror.

Would you like a shiny car like that? I think it would need a lot of polishing, though!Grandad said he thought it belonged to someone very important. That can't be right. I KNOW that isn't Grandma's car! Hers is blue. Or did she get this one without telling anyone? Hmmm! Anyway, it was a very nice car!





Now here's a picture of me eating my breakfast. I used to like Coco Pops but I've discovered I really like bananas. I know a few monkeys who like them, but I hadn't tried them. I preferred zebras, or a nice Lion Bar (of course!) but now I like bananas and I eat them all the time. I think they taste yummy! I even had something called a Banana Split, which is a banana with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Double yummy!

I was thinking about Thanksgiving and deciding what I was thankful for. I'm thankful that Grandma and Grandad look after me and have let me come to live in Dubai for a while, where it's nice and warm. And I'm thankful for all of you little cubs who read my blog. You are my best friends and I like to share my pictures with you (not my bananas, though - they're all mine!). If you think there are any other little cubs out there who might like to read this, please tell them. I might be a lion but I'm not very fierce. I'm very friendly, really.

I hope you like the pictures this week. I'll try to find some more nice ones for next time. Until then, please be good and take care of yourselves.

From your pal Bryan :)

Trick or treat!

Happy Halloween, friends!

Your little pal Bryan is here, with another blog post to cheer you all up. Well, today is Halloween, and tonight all the scary ghosts and ghouls will be out scaring people in order to get lots of candy! Now, I was thinking this sounds like a great idea. I'm a lion, and I can go around scaring people every day! It's funny how people run away pretty fast if they know there's a lion about. It's funny, though, nobody gives me chocolate to make me go away. I must be doing it wrong! Grandma must scare lots of people because she always has loads of chocolate.

Anyway, I was out and about in the Mall today and I saw some Halloween things, so I thought you might be interested to see them.

This one was in the supermarket today, in the fruit and vegetable section. The big pumpkin is very big indeed! You could make a lot of pies out of that! I'm not sure what kind of vegetable that scary pirate skull is made of, though. Grandma said it was a skull fruit, but I've never heard of that!



This picture is a shop window. it is a chocolate shop, and all the pumpkins are made of orange, pumpkin-flavoured chocolate. I hope none of you are too scared by the great big spider at the bottom. If you are, just give me lots of candy and I'll make it go away! (See, I'm getting the hang of this Trick or Treat lark already!)

I saw those lion dancers in Texas Roadhouse all dressed up like witches and skeletons, but we didn't go there today so I didn't get any pictures of them. But I'm sure you can imagine how funny they looked. I did see some interesting things, though. I saw some cars made of wood. No, really, I did. they had wooden seats, wooden wheels, wooden lights, everything! And you know what? They "wooden" work! (That was a joke! Haha!) I don't think some of you cubs believe me, so here are the pictures I took, to prove it!

Did you notice there is one of those wooden puppets driving it? Grandad said he used to be a puppet, and sometimes when I see him driving I think he still is!

I also saw some camels in the Mall. Now I know you won't believe that, but it's true. Camels are very big. Some of you have got toy camels, and they are small like me, but real camels are huge and people can ride on them.

OK, well maybe it wasn't a real camel. It was made of metal. But it was the same size as a real one. There are also horses here, made of stone. I made friends with the one at Chang's. He agreed to pose for this nice picture, and he even smiled when I asked him. He's a very friendly horse.

I expect some of you are going out tonight to do some scary Halloween stuff. I hope you get lots of candy, and that you send some of it to me. Grandma won't let me have any of hers. Mind you, I did sneak a KitKat when she wasn't looking! KitKats are nice, but I would have quite liked one of those chocolate pumpkins. Anyway, have fun tonight, stay safe, and I hope it isn't too cold or wet for you. Maybe you could send Grandma some nice pictures of your Halloween costumes. I saw Faith and Lewis and their Mummy and Daddy all dressed up, and they looked great! I think their Daddy should keep that outfit and wear it every day for work, as it looked really smart.

Well, time to go now as I think my dinner is ready. I hope you like my blog. Until next time.

Bye bye and Happy Halloween,

Your scary pal Bryan xx

Dancing Lions?

Howdy y'all!

That means hello, in American! This is because I went to Texas a few days ago. No, it wasn't Texas in America, it was Texas Roadhouse in the Dubai Mall.

It was really great in there. They didn't mind having a lion in there, and they let me have lots of peanuts from a big bucket. They were nice, but the shells were a bit crunchy. Grandad seemed to think it was funny, and he told me after I ate them that you're not supposed to eat the shells. Naughty Grandad! The bread was very yummy. I asked for antelope or zebra for my main course, but they said they didn't do those, so I just had sirloin. I must say, I was quite excited to hear that there would be some lion dancing. I was expecting some big lions in lycra, twirling around some lionesses in sparkly dresses, doing waltzes and tangos. I was looking forward to that, but I must have misheard, because it turned out to be line dancing, which was a bunch of waiters shuffling their feet and clapping their hands. Oh well. It was all right, I suppose. Maybe I could persuade them to do lion dancing instead. I think they would get a lot more customers. And while they're at it, a bit of grilled antelope or zebra steak tips would certainly make a difference.

The Mall is very big, and has some unusual things in it. There is a very big fish tank, and you can walk through it in a glass tunnel. The sharks are a bit scary! There is also a really cool waterfall, which has silver men on it who look like they are diving. I think they should change the men and put lions on it. They could use me as the model!

There are lots of shops and you can buy just about anything you want in there. I was disappointed that the Krispy Kreme shop has closed, but at least they still have Cinnabon, which is nearly as good. There is a shop which sells lots of wooden toys, and Grandad told me he used to be a puppet made of wood, but I don't think he's telling the truth.

I would have liked to play mini-golf, but they don't seem to have it here. I bet Grandad is happy about that, because I keep beating him every time we play. He says he lets me win, but I don't think so.

We had a nice walk around, but it is a big place and I got quite tired. I went back to the apartment and watched a little bit of TV.

They don't have very good programmes on here, unfortunately. They have some shows I like, and I did watch some football (that's soccer, to you American cubs) but it's not as good as TV in England. I think I will just have to go out and do more things and take more pictures. Maybe I will just have to learn line dancing. But I won't wear lycra!

Anyway, that's all I have time for, so I will say bye bye until next time. Don't forget to leave some comments (you might have to get your Mummy to do that) so I know if anybody is really reading my blog. I hope you are, and I hope you like it.

Bye y'all!

It's HOT here!

Hello to all my little friends! And to any new little cubs who might be reading this!

I have spent some time looking around here and one thing I can tell you is it's very HOT here! I thought it was quite hot in Florida, but this is hotter. When you go outside it's like stepping into the oven! I will be a roast lion if I stay outside for too long. One thing I did to help to keep cool was go swimming. The place where I live now has a very big swimming pool. they said they don't let lions in it, but I sneaked in when the man wasn't looking!

Grandma told me off for that, and said I was naughty. But I like swimming. The pool is near a very tall building. It's the tallest building in the world and it's called the Burj Khalifa. Burj is the Arabic word for Tower. It is half a mile high. (That's a long way! It takes your Daddy all day to walk half a mile!) The building is made of glass and is very shiny. Grandma says she will take me up to the top one day. I thought that might be a bit scary, but she said I would be higher than all the other lions in the world, so I'll do it one day.

Grandma's new house isn't really a house. It's another very big building and we live quite high up in it. This is me on the balcony. You can see there are lots of other big buildings here. And there are lots of people building lots of new buildings here, too. I have never lived in a big place like this before. Lions usually just live in zoos, or in Africa, so I think I must be quite a lucky lion. This place is right next door to a big shopping mall, too, so I can go there and get all the cupcakes I want!

Grandma doesn't think they will let me into Texas Roadhouse, but she says we can give it a try. I hope we can go there soon. So far I have had to make my own dinner. That's not very easy to do when you are just a little lion like me. Or if your name is Grandad. At least Grandad is actually bigger than the serving spoon!

It's a very nice apartment, though. Here is a picture of me in the bathroom, cleaning my teeth. Lions like me have to keep our teeth clean. We have big, sharp teeth so we have to take care of them. That's not easy when the washbasin is the size of a bathtub! And don't get me started on how hard it is to climb into the shower!

Grandma says I will be sleeping in this basket. It's all right, but it's not as comfy as a real bed. Grandma says I'm lucky, because some lions don't get a nice basket like this to sleep in. And next time Grandad goes away for work, she says I can sleep in her nice comfy bed! That sounds just great! But I'm not sure Grandma will fit into my little basket. Still, it was kind of her to offer.

Well, cubs, that's all I have for now. I will go out and about in the next few days and write another blog update for all of you. with more pictures, of course! Don't forget to tell me if you like what I've done so far, and if you have any ideas for what you'd like me to talk about.

Until next time, bye for now,

Your pal Bryan xx

I'm Back!

Hey everyone! Remember me? Your fav Lion is back! This time I am in Dubai, which is a very hot place. Grandad brought me out here, after leaving me shivering in Darlington for months. He said I would like the weather better here, so I decided to give it a try.

Those of you who have read about me in the past will notice that I have a new page. I had to make a new one because some other lion called Brian seemed to be taking over! I even had to change how I spell my name. It has a y in it now, so nobody will mix me up with that other fellow. Also, nobody can find my other blog. it seems to have disappeared! So I'm starting this new one.

Anyway, I will be adding photos and letting you know what I get up to out here in the desert. Well, it's not really the desert. There are big buildings and lots of people here, but a few years ago it was all just sand. Amazing what they can do, isn't it? Apparently there are camels here, but no lions. Except me, of course!

I'm mostly writing this for the little humans - Kaylee, Spencer, Siena, Isabel, Faith, Lewis and Aurora. Their mummies and daddies can read it, too, if they want to, I don't mind. I'm going to try to write something every week, and I hope you like it. Some of you might be a bit small to understand, but you can look at the pictures. And don't forget to tell me if you like them.

I'm off to do my unpacking, then I'm going to the swimming pool to try to get a tan and soak up some rays. Tomorrow I'm going for a look around, then I'll write a bit more and tell you what I think of this place.

Bye bye, until then,

Your pal Bryan.