Anyway, this battered relic of sentimentality is with us. The poor thing now has a yellowish pallor and would you believe he only has one functioning eye. He has had a couple of warming days in the sun and he was then tarted up, just a tad, with a red neck-ribbon and then we were off courtesy of British Airways from Alicante to Heathrow via Gatwick and then onward to New York. He was joyous; a big smile creased his face for he was on his travels yet again.
I will want you to know that he has been a well-travelled bear before he was hidden away in a very dark place. Of course he had travelled like Paddington from deepest darkest Peru to be with Michelle in England but that was when he was only a baby. When still quite young he had been as far away as Tehran when the whole family travelled to Iran where Richard (Father of Michelle) was gainfully employed by The Shah and his regime.
On 22nd July 1976 ‘Sleepytime’ boarded a VC 10 at Heathrow to take off for a month’s holiday in Tehran. He was back home in August but was to make this trip thrice more notching up nearly fifty hours of flying time and almost 20,000 miles. Wow, what a bear!
Then the log shows that he had a single trip to Amsterdam but we don’t know what for. However he did get his travel log signed but there is no evidence of the return journey. Perhaps there is nothing sinister in this but a lonely bear could have been attracted to some pleasure of the bear kind. He could have succumbed to carnal delights or he may have been happy just gazing at the sights. I am convinced that he would have found some shapely curves to satisfy his desires. Maybe after a beer or several he may have found a coffee shop where he could let all his hair down. This could explain where he lost not only some of his colour but that left eye. I talked to him the other day about this single trip but he turned his blind eye to me and remained stum. It doesn’t really matter for don’t we all have something to keep to ourselves that we don’t want the world to know about.
Anyway, there is to be no more speculation about his adventures. This time we kept both our eyes on him when we flew to New York and brought him back home. He behaved himself impeccably and he was just beside himself when we took him to The Rockefeller Centre to show him the city’s best views. He loved it and you can see his smiling one-eyed face when he is perched and posing for the camera. He says it was a bit too chilly for him now that he is over forty! We took him back to the hotel and wrapped him up warmly.
As well as that old VC 10 he has now been on a B777-200 and an A320 Airbus and I think that he may have caught the travel bug again because I saw him paying a lot of attention to the American Shuttle parked on the aircraft carrier Intrepid when we took a Circle Line Tour around Manhattan Island. I have been warned about bears and there stubbornness for pushing the boundaries. I noted his sly looks but we will keep the top bolt across on the front door which will thwart any escape.
We are now back at home and he has added some eighteen more travel hours with over another 10,000 miles but he does say that he needs to recover before he goes off again. I think that he may need to slow down quite a bit but bears, I am told, have great stamina.
He certainly will not want for company as he now has a prime slot and he is not alone. He, being an expensive minded bear, went into Harrods where he spotted a mate. Now, he has Harold to keep him company or maybe there is more to it? ‘Gayly’ he may now live.
NB Michelle has her own Junior Jet Club travel log which has been signed by all captains on our New York trip. Bully for them!
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