Meet Benny Chris and their Hats

Chris and Benny here readers, although we suspect you don't know who we are, as we think our arrival at Bears Unlimited may have been overlooked.

I'm on the left and I'm Chris, so named as I have Christmas tattoos on my lower paws: a holly leaf on my right paw and the words Merry Christmas on my left. An important fact for later in the story, is that I used to have a lovely hat to go with the scarf you see me wearing.

I came to join B.U. after being left on my female minder's desk at work by a colleague, whose daughter was throwing me out! I had no idea what I'd done to
deserve this rejection, but thankfully this traumatic experience turned out very well, as I was delivered to a real bear lover who truly understands bears.

I was warmly welcomed to Bears Unlimited by all the guys and gals and I settled in well. When I saw how industrious they all were, I didn't want to simply be a passenger, and thought long and hard about how I could contribute. As I'd seen my minder's office, I thought that was a place where there was lots to do, and so I became an office bear.

Over to Benny now.

I'm Benny, on the right, and I travelled a long way to join Bears Unlimited. Look at my sweatshirt and you will see that I was a resident of the Falklands Islands. I needed my sweatshirt to keep me warm there and I could also have done with a hat, although I've never had one.

I was brought to England by a kind man who spent a few weeks working in the Falklands a while back. He knows my minders as he plays badminton with them. He knew all about their bear friendly natures and so, when he saw me, thought to himself that he knew just the person who would appreciate me and give me a good home. And so, I came to Norfolk in his luggage.

Like Chris I quickly settled in to B.U. (who wouldn't?) and Chris was one of the first bears I met. We hit it off straight away especially as we are a similar size and we had being hatless in common. Chris explained that as an office bear, he only came home to the Bear Cave at the weekend and spent weekday evenings with other bears and 'furries' in the office.

As he had such a responsible job, I asked if he might like an assistant, especially to keep him company, and he thought this was a great idea. We've been working together ever since, travelling home at the weekends.

When I first met Chris he had a lovely hat which matched his scarf and he was very proud of it. Sadly it got lost earlier this year when the snow came, when he most needed it. We searched high and low but have never found it. I was very sad for Chris.

However, this is a story with a happy ending.

Our Harpenden Granny who is a great knitter, kindly agreed to have a go at knitting us both a hat using a hat belonging to our friend Noel as a template. We tried not to get our hopes up, as knitting hats for bears is not her usual knitting activity, but we got very excited yesterday when a parcel from Harpenden arrived addressed to us.

Although it was only Thursday and we weren't due home until Friday, we were allowed a special trip home to open our parcel. We were thrilled with our new hats and you can see just how fine they are ...

We love the colours and Chris's matches his scarf really well. Having contrasting stripes makes them extra special and it is great that they are roomy enough to store a marmalade sandwich in true Paddington style.

Thank you Harpenden granny, we are prepared now for whatever the weather throws at us now and we will take special care of them - no more lost hats for us.

Lots of love

Chris and Benny xxx

Meet Patrick

Hello, my name is Patrick and as you can guess from the Shamrock on my paw and the slight Guinness tummy, I hail from the Emerald Isle.  So how you might ask how did a bear who has obviously kissed the Blarney Stone, end up on the other side of Britain, as a member of Bears Unlimited Norfolk Branch?

Well part of my story was told by boating bear Eddie back in January 2008.  Not a good time to go boating is January, and it wasn’t a boating trip,  but Eddie came over to Northern Ireland, with George and Yorkie to visit friends of theirs, John and Emily, whom he had been sailing with in the Greek Isles in  2005 and 2007.   On their arrival at the house in Ballycastle, who was there to greet them but me! 

Emily had thought that the boys and girls at BU needed to experience a bit of Irish Charm and went out to find a fine example. After searching high and low and interviewing a number of bears, she decided that I totally fitted the bill and was sure that I would fit in nicely with all her bear friends. 

Emily is an excellent judge of character and she was right, the four of us hit it off  straight away and, whilst in Northern Ireland, I was able to give them all a fantastic Irish time, introducing them the best of Irish food, scenery and the finest Bushmills Irish Whisky and, of course, Guinness!

We had such a good time that I just didn’t want it to stop.  I hesitatingly asked  the guys if there might be a space for me in the Norfolk Branch of Bears Unlimited?  Their faces split into big grins, because that had been Emily’s plan all along; that if my face had fitted, I would head off with them back to England.  No sooner had they said a resounding ‘yes’ than my bag was packed and I was ready to go.

Within a few hours we were on the plane and off to England and my new home with the Norfolk branch.  A whirlwind of introductions followed and I couldn’t get over how many bears there were – I thought I would never remember all the names, and that was before I met  all the Suffolk and Midland Branch members.

I settled in quickly and have never looked back.  While we naturally had many shared interests, I have taken a great pleasure in introducing my friends to a new (to them) hobby which, being Irish, is a real passion  of mine, and that is horse racing. I was thrilled to discover that my new home was only 9 miles down the road from the racecourse at Fakenham. I asked the chaps what it was like and was astounded to hear that they had never been.

I looked up the next meeting and took everyone along. What an afternoon we had. I was able to give the chaps lots of inside information and really opened their eyes to this great sport. After just one afternoon they were hooked and, as you will know from the main blog, racecourse memberships as last year’s and indeed this year’s Christmas presents quickly followed.

While horse racing is my main hobby I am also very partial to some good craic preferably over a pint of Guinness. The Norfolk chaps always provide a good audience for my stories and never seem to tire of my jokes and even better, they’re always ready to join me for a pint. They also enjoy watching my second favourite sport, rugby football. The fact that we support 4 different teams between us, just makes life interesting and a bit of friendly rivalry does add a bit of spice to life.

Norfolk might be some distance from Ireland, and while I’ll always be a patriotic Irish bear, I can honestly say I’ve never regretted my move to Norfolk. 

Thanks guys and girls for making me so welcome.

Patrick