PART 6 of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
- PART 6Welcome to the 6th part of our new internet-exclusive, 15 part, mini-adventure by Paul Chandler, once again set in Spain, which is a sequel to GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL and GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA. Although the story refers back to some elements from the previous two stories it can be read on its own and detailed below is a brief summary of the events of the two stories so far. The three stories will be published, along with other stories from this site, in a collection called POSTCARDS FROM MCWHISKERS, due in Spring/Summer 2009. The story so far…During a visit to Barcelona; Gladstone, Oliver and Charlie meet a cat waiter called Claud and embark on a pie-crawl around the city. During their adventures they stumble on secret goings-on under a pie factory and discover a map that leads them to The Lost City Of Bearcelona - which just happens to be somewhere on the island of Majorca. The only person who can understand the map is Charlie's father Augustus; who is imprisoned inside a cocoon where he can't cause any further trouble. He isn't dead - and yet he isn't really alive in any proper sense; although he is able to communicate with Charlie psychically and during their visit to Barcelona he escapes and Charlie and he fall through a portal that may or may not lead to the lost city… The portal closes behind them and there is no sign of them for months. This new story takes place almost a year later and nothing has been heard from either Charlie or Augustus…
So far this adventure: Oliver Louse and Laura Dust-mite have trailed Gladstone McWhiskers to Barcelona where there have been sightings of Charlie up in the mountains near Alquézar… Meanwhile, Charlie is safe and sound, but stuck in "The Lost City of Bearcelona", which is rather smaller than expected; he and Augustus are at loggerheads - but Charlie has decided that he must escape - he would rather be dead than trapped in the lost city with only his father for company… Meanwhile, back in Alquézar, Charlie's growl can be heard echoing around the streets…
But meanwhile - back in the other dimension...The Other Dimension, Somewhen...Make no mistake about it; Charlie Grrr had done his very best to escape his new prison within the ever-so slightly small “Lost City of Bearcelona...”There was the slight problem that the “City” would not let him leave...If you stood from the balcony of the apartment or up on Augustus’s side of the village by the monastery looking out across the countryside you could see fields and trees, roads and what might even have been further settlements up amongst the mountains in the distance.
You could see all these things; but it seemed you could never reach them; it was as if they were lost behind a thin veil of haze. The weather was still bright, but there was a definite film that seemed to hang over everything; a blur – as if the world beyond their town was somehow out of focus...
Charlie had done his best to find a way out beyond the lost “city”, but as he reached the outskirts one of a number of things happened; he felt sleepy and fell asleep in the road, he smelt pies and had to return – once he saw an enormous ball of parmesan rolling in the opposite direction and had to chase it back into the village. When he finally caught up with it; it wasn’t half the size that he’d first imagined it to be – but it still made a nice addition to his dinner that night. There had been one occasion where he had deliberately drink 20 espresso coffees before he went out; this kept him awake and he had taken provisions of pies so as not to be distracted.
But he’d still not been able to find a way out – in fact he’d gotten so far and then had, quite literally, hit an invisible barrier and could simply go no further...
“This is RIDICULOUS!!” he complained to the reflection in his bedroom mirror; the only other beary face that there was for him to speak to, other than his evil father. “RIDICULOUS!!!”
The mirror seemed to echo his words in agreement and so this only helped to fuel Charlie’s anger and encourage him to prolong it…“Not only is it RIDICULOUS!!” he declared. “But it is ALSO MORONIC and FOOLISH and plain UNFAIR… I am an actorrrr and a creative bear overall and I not only NEED but CRAVE an audience and that audience CRAVES and NEEDS me back… It’s a two-way relationship here and that’s been snatched away from people. The world back home must be mourning the loss of my amazing beary talent…” he observed and then turned back to the mirror to see what its opinion was; only to be quite shocked by the sight of his own reflection sitting in an armchair, eating a large pasty with his earphones on; head swaying gently to whatever growly music its was listening to and paying absolutely no attention whatsoever to Charlie.“Well, I never!!” exclaimed the bear indignantly, before striding off furiously to try and find some other object to complain to.
He’d tried venting his fury at a milk bottle only that morning – but all his bile and grumbling had only resulted in his turning the milk off; it hadn’t even turned to cheese – it had just gone bitter and unusable…
Life was hard for a bear like Charlie in the Lost City of Bearcelona…For what seemed like months Charlie had lived this dull and boring life and hadn’t known what to do. He’d begun to wonder if Augustus had actually left him there and found his own way out; but then, occasionally, Charlie would spot his father chasing the large ball of camembert around around the town square with a stick; or sometimes vice versa…
…And then some hope for the future had come in the form a mini-bus of French tourists…At first when Charlie had seen them he wondered if perhaps this was the “city’s” way of telling him that it had run out of cheese and break and chorizo and pies and belly button fluff tea – but that a coach load of French tourists would probably do just as nicely…
Except that they all looked pretty old and wrinkly and Charlie had made a pact with himself years ago never to eat humans; because he knew far too many of them in the entertainment business; that and he had also heard that they were flavourless and as tough as old boots…
What he did want to ask them though was how they had gotten through the portal into the “lost city”; for the only thing that he could think of was that the portal must have reopened and the tourists had accidentally driven straight through, which possibly meant that he could escape out the same way.
Now Charlie’s French wasn’t great, but he did his best as he approached their mini-bus; smiling and waving pleasantly and even holding out the remains of a chocolate cake that he’d been eating as an offer of friendship.
Unfortunately Charlie’s plans didn’t go so well – in fact the tourists all started screaming and began throwing onions and fresh croissants at him – which was actually a nice thing for the bear and by the time he’d cleared up the mess that they had left, they had driven away…
He never saw them again after that…But although he had lost his potential audience – Charlie had not lost his hope of escape…
He no longer wished he was dead – he felt alive and excited by the possibilities of life again.“I WILL GET OUT…” he declared to the hills and house of the lost city. “I WILL ESCAPE…”
…And this time there was no doubt in his mind…Charlie Grrr would escape. End of story.Erm… We’re talking metaphorically here, obviously! It’s not really the end of the story…So, will Charlie escape? Is there some hidden way out that the bear has yet to find? Next episode we return to Alquézar to discover what Oliver, Laura, Claud and Gladstone are up to…NEXT WEEK GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION WILL BE POSTED ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY – AS I AM HEADING TO OSLO TO RESEARCH A NEW MOUSE SERIAL TO BE POSTED IN DECEMBER ON THIS SITE. THE FOLLOWING WEEK EPISODES WILL BE POSTED TUESDAY AND THURSDAYS AND HOPEFULLY THIS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE END OF THE CURRENT SERIAL - UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE…SO TUNE IN AGAIN, ON TUESDAY 4th NOVEMBER FOR PART 7 OF THIS ADVENTURE!!This instalment of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION was originally written in Bierge, Spain on Monday 13th – Tuesday 14th October 2008.
BEHIND THE SCENES OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...In this post we continue to look around "The Lost City of Bearcelona” – which, in reality, is made up of quite a fair few towns that Dr Neph and I visited during our trip; most notably Bierge, Rodellar and Peratallada, Next episode we return to Alquézar to see more of that area…
Story, text and photos - copyright, Paul Chandler, 2008.Labels: BARCELONA, Charlie Grrr, Claud, fiction, Gladstone McWhiskers, HUMOR, HUMOUR, Laura Dust-mite, Mouse of Commons, Oliver Louse, SPAIN
PART 5 of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
- PART 5Welcome to the 5th part of our new internet-exclusive, 15 part, mini-adventure by Paul Chandler, once again set in Spain, which is a sequel to GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL and GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA. Although the story refers back to some elements from the previous two stories it can be read on its own and detailed below is a brief summary of the events of the two stories so far. The three stories will be published, along with other stories from this site, in a collection called POSTCARDS FROM MCWHISKERS, due in Spring/Summer 2009. The story so far…During a visit to Barcelona; Gladstone, Oliver and Charlie meet a cat waiter called Claud and embark on a pie-crawl around the city. During their adventures they stumble on secret goings-on under a pie factory and discover a map that leads them to The Lost City Of Bearcelona - which just happens to be somewhere on the island of Majorca. The only person who can understand the map is Charlie's father Augustus; who is imprisoned inside a cocoon where he can't cause any further trouble. He isn't dead - and yet he isn't really alive in any proper sense; although he is able to communicate with Charlie psychically and during their visit to Barcelona he escapes and Charlie and he fall through a portal that may or may not lead to the lost city… The portal closes behind them and there is no sign of them for months. This new story takes place almost a year later and nothing has been heard from either Charlie or Augustus…
So far this adventure: Oliver Louse and Laura Dust-mite have trailed Gladstone McWhiskers to Barcelona where there have been sightings of Charlie up in the mountains near Alquézar… Meanwhile, Charlie is safe and sound, but stuck in "The Lost City of Bearcelona", which is rather smaller than expected; he and Augustus are at loggerheads - but Charlie has decided that he must escape - he would rather be dead than trapped in the lost city with only his father for company...
Alquézar, Spain. Early AutumnMeanwhile, back on the other side of the portal, back in what most people refer to as "the real world", Oliver Louse and Laura Dust-mite were finally getting a chance to catch their breaths; it had been a hair-raising few hours; not to mention a rather dangerous time for them both too…
"Darling! When you said we were going to catch a lift I had no idea that you meant anything quite so crazy and unplanned…"
"It wasn't unplanned…" Ollie snapped a little too quickly and then smiled, apologetically. "Although it probably was kind of crazy; I'll give you that…"
Having spotted Gladstone and Claud climbing into their chauffeur-driven limousine Ollie had decided that there was no alternative but to create a diversion. Having rescued Laura only moments before he had hurried straight into the path of the limousine and almost got both of them run over in the process. However it had done the job and the limo had slowed and once Ollie had waved them on furiously with his walking stick, as the car had passed, Oliver had been able to attach them both to the vehicles back bumper using another of Smith's devices inside the stick. So, although they had been safely attached to the limousine for the period of the journey neither of them had really felt that safe as they had blown around in the breeze somewhere just above the exhaust pipe. That said, whilst Laura had almost lost her fake butterfly wings on a couple of occasions, she had been amazed to see that Oliver appeared to be looking quite calm and was even filling in further pages of his notepad; updating his diary even though they were speeding along tight mountain roads at 100 km an hour, or some such ridiculous speed…
To be honest Laura was too scared by the whole journey to say anything and the g-force that she was experiencing also put pay to much conversation…
But now, THANKFULLY, all that was over because they appeared to have finally reached their destination - a town, high up in the mountains, called Alquézar…"I may be jumping to the wrong conclusions here, darling…" Laura began coyly. "But I have a nasty feeling that there are no superb fashion houses up here in the mountains… Tell me I'm wrong, sweetie? Well?"
But Oliver simply tried to ignore her and stared around the square in which they now stood. "Don't be so negative…" he replied with a slight smirk. "I'm sure you'll find a few I LOVE SPAIN t-shirts in your colour and size and all manner of pleasant tourist trinkets…"
Laura said nothing, but simply glared at Ollie - but the louse was distracted. They had held back a moment or two to allow Gladstone and Claud to get some distance between them, but they now needed to make a move so as not to lose them entirely amongst the maze of streets that made up the small town. "Come on slow coach…" he urged his companion. "No dawdling now, dear!"
Laura was so surprised at the sarcasm in his tone that she didn't even consider arguing - but tried instead to pretend that she was interested in the architecture of the town; stumbling along after the louse, still wearing her butterfly wings with her head turned towards the rooves and arches far above her tiny dust-mite hairdo bee-hive. "Do we even know why we're her yet, darling?" she enquired eventually.
"Err - yeah - well…" Ollie mumbled, for he was distracted - but looking more relieved now, for Gladstone and Claud had appeared ahead of them at the other end of the cobbled streets of Alquézar. "It's Charlie, isn't it - is he here, darling - how super!? He's here, but he's sick is that it? Oh dear, poor bear…"
Ollie shot her another disapproving glance. "Look Laura - I really have no idea - but I'm sure it's more complicated than just that…"
It was beginning to grow quite dark now, especially down the back streets where what sunlight that was left could no longer reach. The shadows were stretching on ahead of them and they kept making Ollie jump because he kept mistaking them for people, but other than Gladstone and Claud up ahead there was no sign of anyone else…
No sign - and no sound; except…Suddenly, a familiar growl rang out across the streets; echoing around them…
There was no mistaking it; it was Charlie... What exactly is going on? Has Charlie managed to find his way through from the other dimension or is this merely another beary phantom? In Friday's episode we return to "The Lost City of Bearcelona" to find out exactly what has been going on between Charlie and Augustus Grrr...GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION WILL (HOPEFULLY) BE POSTED THRICE-WEEKLY: ON MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY - UNLESS STATED ELSEWHERE…SO TUNE IN AGAIN, ON FRIDAY 31ST OCTOBER FOR PART 6 OF THIS ADVENTURE!!This instalment of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION was originally written in Bierge, Spain on Monday 13th October 2008. BEHIND THE SCENES OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...In this post we continue to look around Alquézar - to see what lies in store within the shadows… Next episode we return to "The Lost City of Bearcelona" to see more of the sights and sounds in that neck of the woods...
Story, text and photos - copyright, Paul Chandler, 2008.Labels: BARCELONA, Charlie Grrr, Claud, fiction, Gladstone McWhiskers, HUMOR, HUMOUR, Laura Dust-mite, Mouse of Commons, Oliver Louse, SPAIN
PART 4 of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...
- PART 4Welcome to the 4th part of our new internet-exclusive, 15 part, mini-adventure by Paul Chandler, once again set in Spain, which is a sequel to GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE PHANTOM PIE-CRAWL and GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA. Although the story refers back to some elements from the previous two stories it can be read on its own and below is a brief summary of the events of the two stories so far. The three stories will be published, along with other stories from this site in a collection called POSTCARDS FROM MCWHISKERS, due in Spring/Summer 2009.
The story so far…During a visit to Barcelona; Gladstone, Oliver and Charlie meet a cat waiter called Claud and embark on a pie-crawl around the city. During their adventures they stumble on secret goings-on under a pie factory and discover a map that leads them to The Lost City Of Bearcelona - which just happens to be somewhere on the island of Majorca. The only person who can understand the map is Charlie's father Augustus; who is imprisoned inside a cocoon where he can't cause any further trouble. He isn't dead - and yet he isn't really alive in any proper sense; although he is able to communicate with Charlie psychically and during their visit to Barcelona he escapes and Charlie and he fall through a portal that may or may not lead to the lost city… The portal closes behind them and there is no sign of them for months. This new story takes place almost a year later and nothing has been heard from either Charlie or Augustus…So far this adventure: Oliver Louse and Laura Dust-mite have trailed Gladstone McWhiskers to Barcelona, in disguise - uncertain of why the mouse has travelled there so secretly. Whilst Oliver spies in on Gladstone and Claud using a listening device in a walking stick, Laura takes a peek at some notes written by Oliver that suggest that he may be about to sell his story to the newspapers. Laura survives nearly getting cooked on a crepe hob, whilst Gladstone and Claud head up into the mountains near Alquézar where ghostly sightings of Charlie have been seen - Claud expects another appearance that very night... Alquézar, Spain. Early Autumn.Meanwhile - in another dimension somewhere…Somewhere in the middle of nowhere - Charlie Grrr was well and truly lost and he knew for certain who was behind it all too; well - at least - he chose to believe he did…
"Father…" growled tiredly. "This is all your doing…"
That said, perhaps things could have been worse - his father, Augustus might well be somewhere pulling the strings; but in some ways his was better than actually having to spend time with the bear…
It had all begun, of course, during their search for the lost city of Bearcelona; the map of which had been unearthed under a disused pie factory in Barcelona - the map had led them to modern day Majorca; but only the comatosed Augustus Grrr had been able to guide them to the portal that had led to the lost city - communicating via telepathy. There was even some worry that the portal didn't lead to the true city; but this concern seemed to have been abated by the fact that there was a large sign in the community square which read BEARCELONA (also known as THE LOST CITY OF BEARCELONA…) It could have been a fake - but it was just too confusing to consider. One thing that was for sure, however, was that it wasn't as grand as it had been advertised; but then this is often the case with such important holy grails. Charlie remembered that Professor Smith had once found the sunken isle of Atlantis at the bottom of his garden fish pond and it had been such a terrible disappointment; full of modern sky-scrapers and grafitti and horrible boarded up corner-shops. The problem on this occasion was firstly that there seemed to be very little to do there, now they had arrived - but more importantly that it seemed far smaller than either he or Augustus had expected. The map that Charlie had found had been exaggerated, to say the least making each small street and square appear to stretch on forever…
To be honest The Lost City of Bearcelona was more of a village than a city…Time seemed to stretch on and on and there seemed to obvious way to get away from the city - but more about this at some other date…
To begin with Augustus and Charlie had feuded and argued - especially when the reality had dawned on them that they were stuck there.
"Stuck in this armpit of a place…" Augustus had growled furiously and, thought Charlie, rather unfairly - for the village was actually very beautiful and the views of the mountains were stunning; it just wasn't quite what they had imagined.
It wasn't helped that Charlie began to resent Augustus for not knowing that the place was rather less than impressive and also that Augustus resented Charlie; well - for pretty much everything - including a lot of what had happened to him whilst he'd been still comatosed and imprisoned whilst they'd been trapped in Majorca.
"You'd have seen me die, boy…" he'd growled to which Charlie had simply scoffed.
"Well, you deserved it - after all you did to me - to my friends and to the innocent inhabitants of London - not to mention all the stress you put mother under…"
The rivalries and resentments were far too much for the two bears to ever make amends and to be fair it was Augustus who had done the majority of all the band things, anyway…
It was simply an impossible situation to resolve; especially without anyone else around to mediate; for not only was "The Lost City" small and unimpressive, it was also completely deserted…In the end they had taken their separate sides of the village and attempted to avoid one another… It was a peculiar plight; seeing as they were they only folk around (well, except for one particular instance, which I will return to later…) The irony was that although they were alone they wanted for nothing; from the pick of the houses to a whole range of regularly replenishing foods and drinks that simply appeared in the village square twice a week. They took their share and didn't attempt to steal too much; dividing it equally, which was unusually reasonable of them both. Still, this didn't stop the resentments from growing and in time Charlie began to resent his father for causing them to be trapped in the "Lost City"; for he was a creative bear and although there were pens and paper; a small theatre, an old cine-camera, a basic printers and all sorts of other objects useful for his craft; there was still one very important thing missing…
An audience...There was no point being creative if there was no-one to adore him; for Charlie this was the only reason to continue with his writing and performing - because adoration brought with it the other favourite thing in Charlie's life…
Pies…
"It's all your fault, father!!" he bellowed again out across the valley, as he stood on the balcony of his lonely, yet luxury villa and stared over at the abandoned monastry on the hill on the other side of the community. "You have killed the thing that I loved most - well, other than pies - you have dimmed the limelight - stolen the attention that was my lifeblood…" he continued melodramatically. "You! Father… You did this to me…"
Sometimes it seemed to him that Augustus was teasing him deliberately - for he didn't seem at all bothered that their fates were to be exiled in this place - this living prison of a lost city… If anything, it probably made the bear smugly content to watch his son straining at the leash to escape their shackles and knowing that he did so in vain.
"BUT I WILL ESCAPE!!" Charlie insisted - to an audience of none; for Augustus was sound asleep and dreaming of world domination. "I WILL ESCAPE!!" insisted Charlie. "I WILL ESCAPE AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME…"
Now all he had to do was find a way to do just that; except that so far he had absolutely no idea how to escape the "Lost City…""I'll find a way…" he growled under his breath. "If it's the last thing I do, I'll
find a way…"
...And he knew this was true - for if Charlie couldn't escape the village then, without a doubt, the bear would rather be dead...Next episode, Laura and Ollie also reach Alquézar as the hunt for Charlie begins - but what exactly will they find and what dangers lie in store...GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION WILL (HOPEFULLY) BE POSTED THRICE-WEEKLY: ON MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY - UNLESS STATED ELSEWHERE…
SO TUNE IN AGAIN, ON WEDNESDAY 29TH OCTOBER FOR PART 5 OF THIS ADVENTURE!!This instalment of GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION was originally written in Bierge, Spain on Monday 13th October 2008. BEHIND THE SCENES OF GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION...In this chapter we take a look around "The Lost City of Bearcelona", which Charlie and Augustus find to be rather smaller than they expected. The photos for this part of the story were taken in a number of towns around Alquézar and Girona; namely Bierge, near Huesca (where we stayed for four days whilst taking the Alquézar photos) and Peratallada, near Girona - but also a couple of others. Dr Neph, my driver for this trip, also makes a brief appearance! Tomorrow we will return to exploring Alquézar...
Text and Photos copyright, Paul Chandler, 2008.Labels: BARCELONA, Charlie Grrr, Claud, fiction, Gladstone McWhiskers, HUMOR, HUMOUR, Laura Dust-mite, Mouse of Commons, Oliver Louse, SPAIN
GLADSTONE MCWHISKERS AND THE HULLABALOO DIMENSION... 
