'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

Go here to find out more.

Thursday 25 October 2012

My Cousin Sean.

I know, I haven't returned to Melbourne yet.  But I will, before our trip to Australia becomes too old news.

But sometimes old news is still good news.
Here is an article I recently stumbled upon.
It was written by Victoria Finlay and published back in 1993 by the South China Morning Post.

If you would rather read it without clicking, this is what it said:


Drama on high seas was bear necessity.


At 8.30 hrs on July 28, the report states, the Captain of HMS Peacock, Lieutenant Commander Sean Steeds, spotted a small body floating face down in the water about 6.5 kilometres due southwest of Green Island.
The crew members of the Peacock were immediately mobilised into action.
Their teamwork and the perfectly executed recovery operation resulted in a teddy bear, about a metre in height, being plucked from the waves.
It was in a soggy condition, but was otherwise diagnosed as being in good health.
The bear, who was too shocked to speak or to provide his name or address, was quartered in the wardroom - because the captain felt he would be more at home among the junior officers.
''It was lucky I happened to be out on the bridge wing at the time,'' said Lieutenant Commander Steeds. ''Otherwise, we might never have seen the poor little chap.
''When we first caught sight of him, I felt my stomach muscles tighten,'' he admitted.  But as we approached, the odd shape of its buttocks protruding from the water made us realise there was going to be something a little different about this rescue at sea.
''He is a jolly fellow, and he fits in well with the ship's company,'' Lieutenant Commander Steeds added.
Since the Royal Navy's duty patrol craft is unable to accommodate civilians while on operations, naval personnel were last night very anxious to locate the family of the teddy bear as soon as possible.
Failure to find his real home may result in him being put forward for adoption - and possibly having to run the gauntlet of living in the Tamar officers' mess at Stonecutters' Island, the navy warned.  But as joint services public relations spokesman Major Paddy Hartigan pointed out: ''The bonus would be that he would have the opportunity of meeting lots of other teddies.''
The blogger's impression.


7 comments:

  1. Cousin Sean must have consumed his annual grog ration that day! I mean, rescuing a teddy bear! Was the item published on April 1st by any chance?

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  2. A touching story.
    We Brits get dafter.

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  3. Mr. DBM rescued a teddy bear once - we found him lying in a puddle in the pouring rain. That was over 10 years ago - we still have him. He goes by the name of Lucky!

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  4. Lucky teddy. What more can I say? I caught a teddy as it nearly fell to its death out of an overhead aircraft locker once. Does that count?

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  5. YP... Cousin Sean is SOO serious, normally. I loved this news item!

    Adrian. I love daft.

    DBM - Where does he sit? What wonderful parents you two are.

    GB - it definitely counts. Was its owner grateful?

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  6. Bemused would be a more accurate description I think. The teddy was very grateful though!

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  7. Ha ha. Good to see that the armed services still have humanity and a good sense of humour - Dave

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