Pantomime

Posted on January 10th, 2019

I was asked to be in a Pantomime this Christmas. It was Beauty and the Beast in Rugby at the Benn hall. “OH YES IT WAS!”

This is why I look a bit sad in these photos from the official photo shoot.

At the photo shoot with Jan and Shane. Shane played Silly Billy and I was his dog.

You can see I don’t look very well but Shane tried really hard to get me to smile.

Our first proper rehearsal. Shane showed me exactly what to do.

Jon Dylan Brown played the Dame. I loved his funny clothes. He really made me laugh!

Hollie Aires played Belle. She was very pretty and had a beautiful singing voice. Hollie also bought me a secret Santa, it was a bag of treats, chews, a water bottle and a pull toy. Thanks Hollie!

Ethan J Smith wrote the Pantomime and played Belle’s father, the Professor. Thanks for asking me to be in your pantomime Ethan, I had a great time!

Charlie Healey was the Prince and the Beast. He had could sing brilliantly! He was also a very scary Beast!!

Maggie Oliver was the Enchantress and looked very beautiful!

Chris Gilbey-Smith played one of my favourite characters, he was the baddy called Leonardo and he was brilliant!

This was where I sat back stage waiting to be called on. It was great because squirrels kept running around outside and I was very good at barking at them, until everyone said I musn’t do that when people were on stage.

Jan made me a special sparkly scarf to wear for the final scene when everyone was dressed up for Belle and the Prince’s wedding. Don’t I look smart?

I had such a great time at the pantomime and we’ve all made some lovely new friends. Thanks to everyone in the pantomime for letting me join in the fun!

Big woofs, a very happy but tired
Chico Chugg.

Christmas

Posted on January 4th, 2019

For Christmas I got an Elf hat, don’t I look cute?!!

On Christmas morning we went for a walk.

On Boxing day we went for another walk this time to a lovely beach. The water was very cold but I couldn’t resist running and biting the waves, it was great fun!

I’m hoping to put a film up of Jan and Mike singing Christmas songs. I’m not sure I like it when Jan sings, Mike’s OK though.

Hope you all had a Happy Christmas and I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Big woofs Chico Chugg.

CHILDCARE EXPO at the Ricoh Arena

Posted on September 12th, 2019

September 27th to 28th.

Come and see Jan and Mike on stand B20

They are going to have all my books and merchandise and will be offering schools great offers when they book us to come to their schools for assemblies and workshops.

We’re so excited to be at this amazing event!

Summer Holidays

Posted on August 30th, 2019

It’s been a funny old summer.

The weather’s been very mixed, boiling hot one minute, cold , wet and windy the next!

We haven’t been away because Jan and Mike have been working lots on a new book, but it’s not about me, so I’m not sure I’m going to like it!

AND I’ve been poorly and had to go to the vets!

Anyway it wasn’t that bad, have a look at my photos.

Hope you’ve had a good summer. We can’t believe it’s almost time for back to school.

Jan and Mike are busy booking lots of school assemblies, so watch out they may becoming to see you soon with my books and films!

Big woofs, Chico Chugg.

First it was really hot!
Jan wasn’t sure if she liked it but I loved it. Lying in the warm sunshine is my favourite. Don’t forget to always put your sun factor cream on though, even us dogs can sunburn our tummies and noses!
When I’m not sunbathing I like to keep an eye on what’s going on around the marina. If anyone moves their boat I’m watching!
I’m also very good at giving them advice!
Unfortunately, on that record breaking hot day of 38 degrees, I had to got to the vets for a biopsy. But all my results were good! Just some fatty little lumps. So I’m fine!
When I got back home that day I was feeling a bit sorry for myself.
The vet ended up cleaning my teeth and found a bad one, so took it out!
I had some chest X-rays and they found I’ve also got asthma, so I needed some medicine for that, which made me very hungry.
It was lovely having a fuss though. Jan and Mike let me have and do just what I wanted for a few days! WOL!
Except I’m not so keen on Mike’s new knick name for me.
‘Little Fatty Lump!’
One of Jan’s students gave me a beautiful handmade scarf and bunting for our boat. Don’t I look smart and doesn’t the boat look pretty?
Last Monday 26th August was National Dog day and I wished all my canine friends a very happy day. If you check out my Fb page you’ll see all their replies.

ASSEMBLIES for a writing week.

Posted on June 26th, 2019

ASSEMBLIES for the ROMERO MAC Academy schools.

To support these schools with their Writing Week, Jan and Mike went to Corpus Christi school on Monday and Tuesday to deliver my assemblies.
On Monday reception classes from all 7 schools came and Tuesday all Year one classes came.
Jan and Mike said they had two lovely afternoons with the children joining in well and asking some great questions about how Jan writes and Mike produces the sound and music for my TV series.
Many thanks to teacher Laura Mc Ginty for organising the visits and to all the schools for coming to meet Jan and Mike.
Good Shepherd, Sacred Heart, SS Peter & Paul, St Gregorys, St John Fisher and St Patricks.
Hope all the children enjoy reading my books!
Big woofs Chico Chugg.

WORLD BOOK WEEK

Posted on March 12th, 2019

Look at Willow, doesn’t she look great dressed up as me?!

Thanks for sending me the photo Willow.

We had a great assembly at st Matthew’s Primary school in Stroud. Thanks for asking us to come.

Mr Lugg from a beautiful village school in Mears Ashby invited us to start off their World book day celebrations.

Jan said the children joined in really well with her part of the assembly all about how an author writes.

Mike said the children were brilliant at putting voices over the film and writing their own script for Henri.

We all hade a lovely day in Swindon visiting Shriven primary school. The children, staff and parents were very friendly.

We finally finished at Woodford Hales Primary school where the children joined in brilliantly and despite the rain lots of children and parents came to see us. Many thanks for all your support.

Well that’s the end of another busy World book week and I’m absolutely pooped! Mind you Jan and Mike look a bit tired too, now we’ve only got to film over this next weekend and then maybe we can have a rest, but knowing Jan and Mike it won’t be for long.

REMEMBER Keep reading and your writing will get better!
Big woofs
Chico Chugg.

Radio Series and my Birthday!

Posted on January 31st, 2019

Jan and Mike asked the children if they could come to rerecord their parts at Mike’s studio so the headmaster and teacher very kindly brought them.

Here they are doing a wonderful job at speaking the parts of Jimmy and Charlotte!

They even let me come and listen to what the’yd recorded. They were very good!!!

Jan let them come down to the boat and we all had birthday cake because it is my 8th birthday today!

They even gave me a birthday present!

Many thanks to the headmaster and teacher for bringing the children. It was lovely for Jan to meet them all again and I had a lovely birthday.

A few weeks ago

Jan and Mike went to a school to record some children who are going to be the stars of a radio series all about my books!
They did some auditions and found two wonderful children to play the parts of Jimmy and Charlotte. They were brilliant and sound just like I imagined the characters would. Well done both of you, stars in the making!!

Here are some photos.

Royal Television Society Awards evening.

Posted on November 23rd, 2018

Jan, Mike and Anita had a lovely evening in Birmingham at the Royal Television Society awards this week.

My TV series didn’t win but a really funny comedian, from the Midlands, called Frank Skinner received the Baird Medal and at the end of his speech mentioned the episode that had been shown, which was ‘Poo’.

He said how much he’d liked it and how funny it was.

Everyone was so excited that Jan even gave my double, who was there for the evening, to Frank.

Here are some photos.

Here is our nomination certificate. Everyone enjoyed watching a bit from the episode called ‘Poo”.

Jan and Frank Skinner. Can you see he’s got my double? I’m so glad Jan gave it to him, Frank looks like he’s great fun.

I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to really meet him or speak with him? You never know one day I might.

Jan, Mike and Anita want to say a big thank you to everyone for a great night and a special thanks to Jayne Greene for organising such a wonderful evening!!

Big woofs, Chico.

Book Tour

Posted on November 15th, 2018

In November Janet’s doing a book tour to celebrate our RTS nomination.

Here are some photos of the schools so far.

Many thanks to all the schools for their invites and warm welcomes, Jan and Mike are having a lovely time meeting lots of really wonderful children and staff.

Malcolm Arnold Prep School.

Kineton Primary School

Wooton Primary School

Some children from Wooton School have a pet pig called Boris and they sent me a photo. Isn’t he lovely.

Willows Primary School.

Helmdon Primary School, was a lovely little village school.

I love the big photo with all the children in it! I was just wondering what Mike was doing with another dog?! He told me her name was Lila and she belongs to the school, isn’t she lucky! She looks lovely and very happy, but I’m not surprised being around children all day must be great fun

Stockingford Primary.

Weddinton primary school.

For her final assembly of this book tour Jan and Mike were at Weddington Primary School. We would all like to say a big thank you to the staff, children and parents who were amazing! They made Jan and Mike feel very welcome and the children joined in brilliantly, even lots of the reception children!! Look at the lovely special signing table they made for Jan to sit at, it made her feel very special!! What a lovely final assembly to be finishing Jan’s book tour.

A big thank you to all the schools that Jan and Mike went to for this book tour, they made them feel very welcome.

Jan will be doing another book tour around World Book week in March, so if you know of any schools that would like a visit get in touch with Jan now, as she is already getting booked up!

Happy reading everyone!

Big woofs Chico Chugg.

Chugging holiday.

Posted on September 25th, 2018

We went chugging for 2 weeks and almost got to a place called Rugley.

We had lots of misfortunes and adventures along the way.

At Watford locks we had to wait 3 hours for 12 boats to come up but we didn’t mind. The only problem was that by the time we started chugging it was pouring with rain and we got absolutely soaked!

The next morning, moored at the top of the Braunston locks, the engine wouldn’t start so Mike was going to phone the RCR but the phone was dead, then the generator, he was using to charge the phone, ran out of petrol. So it was a 30 minutes walk down the locks to the chandlers where they kindly let us use their phone. The RCR are special people who come and mend your boat if it breaks down. RCR stands for River Canal Rescue. A bit like people have the AA or RAC for their cars.

The RCR man was lovely and soon mended the boat and we were on our way down the locks and moored in Braunston.

The next morning Jan had a bad leg and couldn’t walk so Mike chugged the boat to Hillmorton. Phil from the marina kindly drove our car to meet us and then Mike and Jan dropped me off at the Kennels while they took Jan to A and E. I had a lovely night with all my friends but I was happy to see that Jan was on the mend when Mike came to pick me up the next day. She just had to rest and not pull the boat in with the rope.

Wow we’d only been away 3 days and so much had happened.

I helped Mike do lots of locks while Jan steered the boat. The weather was rather wet and very windy. In fact we came back early because someone told us a tree had blown down across the canal ahead of us in Rugley and boats couldn’t get through.

Most rainy days we stayed inside and made a fire, I love snuggly days.

In the evenings I was very tired after a long day chugging.

We met some lovely people along the way. Here’s a little boy who had one of my finger puppets.

Mike and Jan kept saying “You’re driving us crazy!” All I was doing was warning them when the water moved, which it does quite a lot on the boat when you speed up or slow down. Barking grabs everyone’s attention, so it was the only thing I could do. Look what they did! They put the canopy around the edge thinking it would stop me seeing the water, but as you can see, it didn’t!