We were a little late for the Build-a-Bear Workshop bloggers meet-up in Covent Garden last week. In the case of Child One, we were about five years late. As she is now all of 15, a shop full of screaming, over-excited bear fans (and that was just the mummy bloggers, boom boom) was a little bit beneath her dignity.
She completely forgot herself when Bearemy, the Workshop’s giant, furry mascot, came over and gave her a big hug, though. ‘I didn’t think I’d like that but he’s sooooooo furry …. where’s he gone, I want another hug! It’s a bit like Jacob from Twilight ….’ Jacob, for those who don’t speak teenager, is the one who morphs into the giant werewolf. At the moment, we have conversations about how fluffy his fur must be. Long may that remain our emphasis. You can see the strong resemblance in these two pictures:
Anyway, back to the bears, and particularly to Pudsey. Pudsey, as I’m sure you know, is the BBC’s banana-hued Children in Need bear and Build-a-Bear will be donating £5 to Children in Need for every purchase of a gorgeous, yellow Pudsey, costing £15. In a moment of high excitement, we got to make our own Pudseys and stuff them with bear fluff using the special fluff machine. Then we put in a little satin heart with our special wish. Well, some of us did. Some of us *ahem* had already put the heart in because I wasn’t listening carefully enough. Then I couldn’t get the heart out again without disembowelling the entire Pudsey. So my Pudsey has two hearts, just like Dr Who. I’m sure this could be a selling point, a whole new range of Dr Who two-heart bears ….
Next it was off to a special bears’ tea-party, featuring sandwiches in the shape of bears, cupcakes with bears on, bear plates, bear hamburgers, no, I made that up …. needless to say, it was super-delicious. We also got a sneak peak at the Christmas range, featuring Rudolph with a glowing red nose. My favourite, though, was Blush bear, another Children in Need bear who’ll raise valuable funds for the charity this autumn.
But who is Blush? What’s she doing hanging out with Pudsey? I’m sure I saw them holding paws at one point. I asked for clarification. And I was given the official answer. She is not, most emphatically not, Pudsey’s girlfriend. She is just a very, very special friend. Yeah, right.