Tag Archives: Paddington

Not the Worst Day I’ve Ever Had

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Today I packed parcels. I wrote eight slips out and remembered, after the sixth, that it was no longer 2019.

I moved on to load a gold 50p piece on eBay (it was Paddington Bear at St Paul’s Cathedral). I won’t trouble you with my views on “collectable” coins or the debasement of national character that accompanies cartoon animals being depicted on coins. However, I will let you imagine what these views are.

Then, just in case the excitement of being back at work became too much, I photographed some 1930s auction catalogues. That calmed me down.

A number of people rang me for advice on “rare” coins. On even rang me twice. I thought about telling him he was an idiot but customer service training prevented this.

Paddington Bear at St Paul’s Obverse
Paddington Bear at St Paul’s in box etc

You can tell how well everything went from the fact that I spent the whole day thinking it was Friday. It was only when Julia informed me that tomorrow was not Saturday, as I thought, that I realised my mistake.

We had vegetable stew for tea. Then we had cheese. It was very relaxing.

Now I’m writing a short post and I’m going to have tea and biscuits before going to bed.

As days go, I’ve had worse.

A Big Order from Peru

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We had a big order from Peru this morning. That isn’t a sentence you get to use very often. Indeed, in 61 years I have never needed to combine those words in that order before. In fact, I haven’t needed to combine those words in any order in a sentence before.

Even at 61, life is full of novelty.

I wish I could say the same for the rest of my day, which consisted of parcels, eBay and coin sorting, as the temperature rose and the the office grew more stuffy.

It wasn’t all bad, as the boss treated us to ice creams in the middle of the afternoon. We’d barely finished them when one of the customers arrived, with a gift of ice cream.

The lightweights stammered and stuttered and mumbled. I merely smiled, said thank you and launched straight in with gusto.

Well, it seemed rude not to show enthusiasm.

Photos may follow, if I can conquer the increasing slowness of the machine. Meanwhile, I am off to make marmalade on toast for Julia. Those of you who recognise the link to Peru, should award themselves trivia points, and stop reading Paddington Bear books.

 

 

 

Who is the Best Bear?

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I’ve been struggling today – having written over a thousand words and deleted most of them. The remaining fragment is saved as a draft and may never be published, which is ironic when you consider the subject is publication.

The trouble is that I kept getting bogged down with the misery of a serious intro.

So I’m now just going to get straight to the point.

The subject is bears, specifically which is the best bear, with a digression into bears that might have been,

Our bear, as seen in the picture, is Farmer Ted. He’s a bear known to only a few, though he is an excellent fellow and sound on rural matters.

His main competition comes from Rupert, Winnie the Pooh, Paddington and Yogi. I’m also fond of the Bulgy Bears, though they aren’t as well known as the rest. Number Two son has just nominated the three bears of Goldilocks fame, Kung Fu Panda and Bear in the Big Blue House. I’ve also just thought of Aloysius from Brideshead. Even better, I actually remembered how to spell it.

So, first question, who is your favourite bear?

My second question is – who else do you think wasted their talents instead of writing about bears?

If T S  Eliot had concentrated on his lighter side and produced a bear book instead of messing about with the Four Quartets he could have been onto something. He did alright with cats so I don’t see why not.

There’s also Barrie, Grahame, Sassoon, Gavin Maxwell…

Memoirs of a Bear Hunting Man would have been a much fairer contest and Ring of Bright Water would not have ended well for the man with the shovel.

Bear of the Baskervilles anyone?