Yes, Friends, have YOU still got your old childhood teddy-bear? Most of us have, haven't we, staying faithful to one of our closest of bonds, a relationship that begins when we're ever so small - remember those days?
Let's hope you still cherish your old "teddy" or other stuffed toy, as much today as you did "back in the day" - also that that "teddy" is behaving himself - no teddy is too young to be taught proper behaviour, as this story in today's local Onion News for East Hampshire illustrates in spades (!).
That Annie is some tough cookie, that's for sure! But the "cruel to be kind" regime that she imposes on her collection of stuffed toys will pay off in the longer term, I think. And the story gives a twinge of happy nostalgia to the faces of me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois this morning, here in grassy, semi-rural Liphook, Hampshire, not a million miles away from Ms Annie Platt and her "menagerie", to put it mildly!!!!
We ourselves, if not their owners, are custodians of several stuffed toys, all the property of our 12-year-old twin daughters in faraway Perth, Australia, and we're trying to bring them up "proper", like little Annie in that Onion story - see above for details. We impose a strict bedtime on them of 9 pm, and we don't let them watch any TV programmes labelled "not suitable for stuffed toys".
Lois and I are merely the toys' temporary custodians, however, or "foster parents" if you will.
Sarah and family last visited us in July this year. Sarah can write off some of the expenses for tax purposes: well, she is an accountant, and they know how to work these "tax dodges", don't they! Not that she's doing anything illegal, I have to stress !!!! Unfortunately this year, for the first time, the twins will count as "adults", which will mean a hefty rise in the cost of their airline tickets.
And the thought of Lois's little bear gives us another chuckle, when Steve, our American brother-in-law, emails us today with his weekly selection of most amusing Venn diagrams from the past 7 days.
Well, I must say, Lois and I, if we do nothing else, monitor the condition of our kitchen sponges and diligently throw them out when they've had their day. But we can't say the same for our old teddy-bears, which are arguably, with their lost limbs etc (!), no longer fit for purpose, like the diagram says !!!!!
Tonight's teams are (1) "The Doctors Matthews" - members of the same family who happen to be doctors, and (2) "The Sorcerers", an Anglo-Irish team who, according to presenter Victoria Coren-Mitchell, are "united by their devotion to dice", i.e. all devotees of the board game "Dungeons and Dragons".
me and my teddy bear - picture taken just 3 hours ago - awwwww!!!!!
Yes, I know what you're thinking! My teddy is certainly in better "nick" than Lois's old one, but does that necessarily mean he's been any less "loved" than hers is, or should I say any less "pre-loved", as people call it today!????
my light-to-moderate wife Lois and me - a recent picture
We can't do much more than that at our advanced age (!).
(left) Lois and I impose a strict curfew of a 9pm bedtime for our stuffed toys, while (right)
always being prepared to give them some extra "TLC" if they wake up with a bad dream
we let them watch a bit of TV with us before bedtime, while banning
any shows labelled "not suitable for stuffed toys"
We've noticed, however, that it always gives the toys a bit of a "lift" whenever their real owners, our 12-year-old granddaughters Lily and Jessica, are in the UK. And today we get word from the twins' mother, our 48-year-old daughter Sarah, that she and husband Francis will be making another "work trip" to the UK next June-July, which will be nice.
Poor Sarah! We call her "Two Jobs Sarah", because, while holding down her company accountant job for a heating firm in Perth, she's also doing her old job for an accountancy firm in Evesham UK, working online evenings and weekends.
"Two Jobs" Sarah, our 48-year-old daughter, (left) second from left with colleagues at
an accountancy firm in Evesham, UK, and (right) leaving for the day at the heating firm
she works for 9000 miles away in Perth, Western Australia - what madness !!!!!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
flashback to July: our daughter Sarah, plus husband Francis and their
12-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica, bid a tearful farewell to us
after their stay Lois and me, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire
Busy busy busy! Because as well as fostering the twins' stuffed animals, Lois and I have our own stuffed toys - our original teddy bears from the late 1940's. Lois's one is looking distinctly the worse for wear, to put it mildly, but only because she's "loved him almost to death" (!) over the last 70 plus years!
(left) Lois's old teddy bear, looking a bit the worse for wear on her pillow today,
and (right) Lois in the late 1940's when her "teddy" was looking a lot more sprightly (!)
Note in particular the middle diagram in Steve's selection for this week!
This "hard-nosed" approach, however, takes "love" out of the equation, which is a pity!
Remember the old kids TV programme Bagpuss, the one that we brought out two daughters up on, back in the 1970's? Remember the show's little girl Emily, and her eponymous stuffed cat, Bagpuss, and the show's iconic catch phrase, heard at the start of every show?
Yes, remember? Bagpuss, that "saggy, old, cloth cat" may have been "baggy and a bit loose at the seams, but Emily loved him"!
And here's the thing.....That Venn diagram, emailed to us by Steve today, invites comparison between a worn-out kitchen sponge and the Royal Family, which may be fair enough, on occasion.
However, I must say that Lois and I still love our wonderful Royal Family, even though they themselves admittedly look "baggy and a bit loose at the seams" from time to time (!).
flashback to June 2023: Lois and I settle on the sofa to watch
King Charles' first "Trooping the Colour" in his own right
10:30 And today, even Lois and I are looking a trifle "baggy" ourselves, when we drive the 16 miles over to Godalming, over the county line in Surrey, to meet up with our other daughter Alison (50) and take a stroll with her through the nearby Winkworth Arboretum, admiring the autumn colours before they go away (!), and also grabbing a quick coffee'n'cake at the Arboretum's cafe.
Lois and I, looking distinctly "baggy and a bit loose at the seams", spending a lovely morning
today with our other daughter Alison (50) strolling through Winkworth Arboretum,
near Godalming, Surrey, catching the autumn colours before they vanish, and before
we ourselves "vanish" (!). Also grabbing a coffee'n'cake at the arboretum's cafe
Yes, busy busy busy! How did Lois and I ever find the time to go to work, back in the day!!!!
[You really don't know what the word "busy" means, do you, Colin! - Ed]
20:00 At last Lois and I find time to relax, on the sofa tonight watching our favourite TV quiz "Only Connect", which tests lateral thinking, recharging our batteries for another bout of "horizontal thinking" later on tonight, if we can "catch a break", that is, haha!!!
Can you see the connection between these 4 "things"?
Yes, you've got it, as I can see (judging from the postcards which are already "plopping" through our letter-box, special delivery (!)).
If you add the suffix "-city" to each of the leading expressions, you get a word meaning the expression in brackets. Pau is the French city that's known as the gateway to the Pyrenees, the TV detective drama is "Vera", a long Norse story is a saga, and, finally, a PhD interview is known as a "viva": hence the words paucity, veracity, sagacity and vivacity.
See? Simples !!!!
Note: since reading the start of this blog, several readers have mailed me further postcards by special delivery, asking what has happened to my old teddy-bear. Well, rest assured he's as well as can be expected after 75 years plus (!). And there's no truth in the rumour that I've done away with him, or that I am holding him to ransom, as this photo, combined with today's Onion News big headline, proves unequivocably:
Today's Onion front page headline "Family Revels In Height Difference Between
Mother And Tall Son" included in background to prove the picture's authenticity
I wonder.....!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment