Read Mumsnetters’ special Paddington Bear stories! - £250 voucher to be won for testers!NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

This thread is for the 10 Mumsnetters who received a Paddington Bear cuddly soft toy.

Here’s what they say, “One of the most beloved characters of all time comes to the big screen for the first time on November 28, in a magical family film from the producer of the Harry Potter series, featuring an all-star cast that includes Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Julie Walters, Nicole Kidman and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington.

“Paddington is a small bear who has grown up deep in the Peruvian jungle with his Aunt Lucy. When an earthquake destroys their home, Aunt Lucy decides to smuggle her young nephew on board a boat bound for England, in search of a better life. Arriving alone at Paddington Station, Paddington soon finds that city life is not all he had imagined – until he meets the kindly Brown family, who find him with a label tied around his neck which reads ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’ They offer him a temporary home whilst he searches for the explorer who impressed Aunt Lucy all those years before. But when Paddington catches the eye of a sinister, seductive taxidermist, it isn’t long before his home – and very existence – is under threat...

“You can watch the exciting trailer for Paddington below.”

If you were a Mumsnetter who received a Paddington Bear cuddly soft toy, we’d like you to post on this thread three times in the coming two weeks updating us on the adventures of your Paddington Bear. We’d like you to take a creative writing approach when posting on this thread (embellished or completely fictional stories are encouraged!).

So, what has your Paddington Bear been up to? Maybe they joined you on the school run and snuck into class with your DC and only later did you hear about the tricks they played on your DCs teachers that day! Or maybe they came along on a family day out to the zoo and Paddington Bear tried to befriend the other bears there? Whatever adventures you and Paddington Bear have been on, we’d love to hear them!

If you have any photos of your Paddington Bear on an adventure, please do share these on this thread as well!

Everyone who posts on this thread three times with their updated story will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky Mumsnetter will win a £250 Love2Shop voucher!

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

It's the weekend! Nobody seemed to have to go to school or work today. Together we all went on a trip to Stonehenge.

It all started well. We showed our tickets at the entrance before making our way to the land train. This apparently is a train which travels on the road, taking us to the stones.
The stones got bigger and bigger as we got closer to them. They were huge when we arrived!
Apparently some other people had put them there a long time ago.

As we walked around the stones, I noticed a sandwich box tucked at the base of the biggest stone. As I was hungry (not totally unusual for me) I didn't think twice about jumping over the rope to explore this exciting discovery.
Written on the sandwich box was 'This lunchbox belongs to Mr Barack Obama' whoever he is - I guess he must have left it there when he visited recently. To my amazement, inside were two marmalade sandwiches made of fluffy white bread (my most favourite kind).

As the security guard was distracted by a talkative old lady, I decided to take some time to settle down beside a stone and discreetly tuck into my recently acquired lunch. To my shock and horror, the stone started to wobble and before you could say 'Paddington station' it toppled over!
I couldn't believe what happened next.....

The fallen stone knocked onto the next stone and the next stone and the next stone creating a domino effect until ALL of the stones lay on their side.
I had to act quickly! The security guard was, fortunately, still talking to the old lady about all the famous people he had seen at the stones.
I hastily finished my sandwiches before picking up each stone individually and putting it back where it belonged.
Just as I picked up the last stone, the security guard finished his conversation and turned around......

I quickly ran back to my new family. They said ''There you are Paddington! We've been looking for you everywhere! We are just about to have our sandwiches with a nice cup of tea. Would you like to eat it next to the stones or in the café area?'

I thought about it and said 'Perhaps the café would be best!'
I think life with this family is going to be fun.

Paddington

The Mystery of the Vanishing Milk

Not long ago, the children’s grandma was here and got some milk out of the fridge to make Mrs Halfdrunk a cup of tea. “Don’t use that one – I think it’s going off. I bought some more this morning,” she was told. But the new milk had vanished, and then Mrs Halfdrunk remembered that the youngest human had been holding it, as for some reason she is fond of doing. Try as we might, we could not find the milk anywhere. About a week later, with a bit of help I opened the door of the toy kitchen, and, lo and behold, there was the milk! The youngest human had put it in there when she was playing. By this stage it was all lumpy and a bit yucky, but at least we now know that if the milk vanishes we should look inside the toy kitchen.

--

I was very keen to learn to drive a car now that I’m living with the Halfdrunks, but for some reason they didn’t want to let me drive their own car – and they left me behind when they went for a walk in the woods today (because of mud, I’m told). So I’ve been having to make do with this little toy one that belongs to Cocoa and Cappucino, which was quite hard work when your feet can’t reach the ground to push it along. I’ve also been reading some stories all about me.

Paddington here. I'm in hiding from the big one in charge round here. Middle small person has stowed me safely in his room for now but I fear for what will come tomorrow when is he at school..this time she actually said she would have me stuffed .

I hear her coming, must put this light out now. I hope to be back tomorrow to explain...

Right, I've survived.. She appears to have calmed down. Humans have such a poor appetite for adventure, that is, the big ones anyway.

They took us to the children's museum Eureka and told me to 'explore and have fun' and then get all upset when that's exactly what I do. Complicated creatures indeed! The three small ones and I ran from shop to garage to outer space! It was all very different to Peru but the cafe did a jolly good marmalade sandwich.

It all went wrong during the live show when the lady appeared to confuse me with her bear toy and chaos broke out when I tried to escape. Apparently a lot of expensive displays were damaged and I was almost sent to the zoo, altogether a massive over reaction if you ask me. But as I am learning, it's often best to say little when humans are concerned

Paddington's Sightseeing Day

Paddington was excited. He couldn't sit still. For the ninth time in five minutes, he stood on the train seat and pressed his small black nose to the window. 
“Are we nearly there yet?” he sighed. 
“SHH!” exclaimed Rosie, with a worried glance at Mr and Mrs Carter. “You mustn't say that! Parents don't like it.” Next to her, three year-old Isla nodded sagely. 
Luckily, at that very moment, the train pulled into a drab, grey station. From the platform, it looked just like all the others that the family had passed through... but this time a voice buzzed over the loudspeakers. 
“This train terminates here. All change, please. All change.”
With an enthusiastic bound, Paddington leaped onto the platform, peering curiously in all directions. He had been to London before, of course, but this time was different. This time he had come to find himself. Literally. 

Paddington's first clue to his own acclaim had been on a visit to the local library. He had been accompanying the smallest Carter, who had (as usual) been rushing this way and that, gathering a large pile of books. 
“This one, Mummy! And this one. Read it to me.... <span class="italic">please</span>.” Isla perched herself on the sofa, surrounded by colourful picture books, with just a handful of poetry for good measure. “Come on, Paddington. Mummy's starting the story,” she called, scouring the room for him. 
“Errr....” came a small ursine voice from in front of a display stand. “It's.... it's.... ummm.... ME!” 

And so, in a bid to help Paddington explore his own fame, the Carter family found themselves outside St Paul's Cathedral. Rosie and Isla galloped on ahead, bickering again. 
“I want to be first! Daddy, tell Rosie I was in front,” whined the smallest one. 
“NO! It was me. Stop pushing me!” yelled the biggest. 
“Not fair!” they declared simultaneously. 
While their long-suffering parents attempted to separate and calm the children, Paddington wandered on. He gazed up at the massive cathedral, awestruck by the sheer size. The young bear was wrapped up in his own thoughts as he rounded corner after corner. 
The Carters finally caught up with Paddington at the opposite side of the landmark. After examining the sculptures on the walls of St Paul's, he had crossed the road and begun to make his way towards the Thames. On his way, he had been startled by a very familiar face. 
“Hey! It's Paddington! Paddington and Paddington,” giggled Isla, a grin bursting across her freckled face. 
“But he's made of wood. Or at least I think he is...” she continued, frowning. 

Over the course of the next few hours, the Carter family made the acquaintance of several 'Paddingtons'. They were a very shy, quiet bunch, despite their varied and colourful outfits. Paddington himself was rather bemused by the statues, and by the attention that he received from members of the public. Whenever he stopped for a photo shoot with one of his fellow bears, tourists crowded round, snapping away on their i-phones and digital cameras. One small child even asked for his autograph! 

    At the end of the day, the family headed for home, tired but happy. Paddington had grown rather thoughtful towards the end. 
    "So, thanks to Mr Bond, I'm really rather well-known, aren't I?" he asked, in a surprised tone. 
     Rosie looked at Isla and rolled her eyes. 
     "Oh dear," she sighed. "He's going to be <span class="italic">insufferable</span> now, isn't he?"

The SpareTime have a strange way of marking December. They put calendars all over the walls, then fill the calendar pockets with little tasks to do each day.
I looked, and none of the tasks involved marmalade. They were things like "donate food to a good bank", "write a letter to someone", "make mince pies and give them to the neighbours", "Tidy your rooms and give old toys away to someone who needs a toy this Christmas".
Now, I've been watching the TV while the SpareTimes have been out, and I think they've got the wrong idea about how Christmas works. These Sparetime children are spending December giving and helping, when Christmas is about wanting and buying!
I put in a few extra tasks in the calendars to even the balance. I'm not sure what Mrs Sparetime will do when she finds "drink hot chocolate with squirty cream and marshmallows" in the little SpareTimes' calendar tomorrow...

food bank!
Darn autocorrect...

What a lovely thing to do SpareTime!

I'M ON THE RUN!!! THAT'S WHY I'M HERE!!! THE CINEMA SAID SO!!!

I sat in the cinema ever so quietly, and I was ROOTED TO THE SPOT. Have you MNers seen me yet? IT'S THE REASON WHY I'M IN THIS WEIRD PLACE! I'm not going to give away why, but encourage you to see it. With popcorn, or marmalade sandwiches. Or both, which is what we had.

Christmas is getting in full swing here. Calendars counting down til the Marmalade Man comes, Christmas Plays being practiced, and there's a chill in the air. Do these people not turn on the heating? I'm glad of my duffel coat.

In other exciting news, the WrinklyDog got into a tin of paint last night. I learnt lots of new words that I can use on MN.

Well, I am just back from an awful expedition. The day started very well, the whole family and me decided to have a long walk in the forest as the sun was shining and the children needed to run around.

We walked for ages, past lots of trees and paths. The children decided to play in the fallen leaves on the ground. It was great fun throwing them up into the air and kicking all the crunchy autumn colours around. I thought I smelt marmalade so I wandered off in the direction of the glorious smell. Suddenly I looked around for my family and they were no-where to be seen. I panicked and called out their names to no avail. It dawned on me I was lost again, I was so upset as I had felt so safe with my family.

I decided to try and find my own way back but it was getting darker and darker. The route we had walked on seemed to vanish and I felt so disorientated. All the trees seemed to look the same and now there were dark shadows appearing out of the gloom scaring me. I managed to fall in some mud and scrape my knee.

Out of the dark two figures run towards me shouting, at first I can't seem to make out who or what they are. Just as they are beside me I realise it is my family. They had realised I was missing ( not until they had nearly got home mind) and had come looking for me.

We were reunited and I was so relieved not to be spending a night all alone in that gloomy forest. My family were so sorry for losing me. I was so happy to be with them.

Dear Mumsnet,

I am glad to report that Paddington is finally starting to integrate with our family: things seem to have taken a good turn as soon as I relented and bought him a jar of marmelade. Poor thing was so grateful he literally tried to lick my feet (I explained to him that this is NOT the done thing in the UK- well not in our family anyway). He has since then been calling me Mama and follows me around with the baby, who recently started crawling. I now have two little beings constantly behind me, making me tripping me up they even follow me to the bathroom. But that's fine, I understand Paddington has good intentions apart from eating me out of house. We also took him to the cinema; I was very impressed with his behaviour. He sat completely still possibly utterly terrifiedwhile my two ran complete havoc, running between the seats and throwing popcorn around. Anyway Mumsnet, we are quite proud of Paddington's improvements: he now drinks from a sippy cup instead of the toilet bowl, eats with a spoon (sort of) and grunts 'Da You' for 'thank you' he would be left to starve if he didn't say it. He is however still refusing to remove his coat and hat and they have been getting increasingly dirty with each visit to the park. I am therefore planning to cut them off him tomorrow (booked the day off for that) and give him a loooooong bath (as well as extensive bleach perfume spraying to get rid of his 'body odour' -boak).
I'll update you on that...

I arrived the the H household one cold frosty morning in November and since then I have been a bit non stop!

Firstly let me tell you about the house that I am staying in and the people that live here….

There are 5 other people in the H household 2 big ones and 3 smaller ones of varies sizes! The smallest of the little people was the first person that I met! On my first day here she insisted that I accompany her everywhere! it is amazing the kind of things these little people can get up to! Within one morning we baked biscuits (and ate a few), watched a strange pink pig on tv, went out for a walk where the small one jumped in lots of dirty water on the floor and found it very funny and then we sang a few odd songs about buses and wheels!!!

After spending the morning with the smallest the other 2 small people arrived back from school! They were both very happy to see me and after some snuggles and a conversation about my journey to the house we sat down for some food there was a distinct lack of marmalade in the house but there was some cinnamon honey which I have become quite accustomed to whilst living here!

After dinner it was bath and bed time, I accompanied the small one to bed and sat while mummy H read us all a bedtime story about a strange creature that lived in a wood with a mouse and various other animals!!!

Mummy H kissed us all good night and told us that tomorrow we were going for a surprise day out!!!

This morning I awoke to lots of excitement, It was the morning of our surprise day out and mummy & daddy H were giving nothing away!

After some lovely breakfast we were all strapped safely into the car to start our journey. We drove for what felt like a long time until we finally turned into a strange looking place covered in twinkling lights and shiny trees! Mummy & Daddy H got us all out of the car and took us into a building where we were greeted by 3 big people but these were no ordinary big people they all had green outfits on and pointy ears they were all very jolly, as I looked around I noticed how lovely it all look covered in white twinkly light and what looked like snow! I was a tad confused by the snow as outside it was cold but there was no snow yet inside it was warm and covered in snow? I could see this would be something I would have to work out myself as when I mentioned this to the middle of the small ones he told me that it always snowed inside when it was what he called a winter wonderland! I could see these small ones had seen this kind of thing before and seemed to accept it as normal!

One of the large green people with pointy ears ask us to follow her which we did, she led us to a room with more people with pointy ears stood on a small stage in front of us they started talking to us about something they called Reindeer food and asked us all if we would like to make some! We were all asked to go to a table where there were 3 bowls of seeds and cereal and some bowls of sparkly stuff that the small ones told me was glitter, I have to be honest I was a little bit tempted to taste the seeds in the bowls as was the smallest one I could see her occasionally try to put some seeds in her mouth but the other small ones would stop her and show her that she had to put it in the bag for the reindeer then top it up with glitter! I had a nibble and she really wasn’t missing much they had an odd flavour not quite marmalade!

After we had made the food and sang a song about the green people which I now know are called elves we were led into another room! In this room there in front of me was a man who I had heard stories about before it was Santa Claus he was there sat in front of me I was so happy to see him he was a very jolly chap and asked all of us what we would like for Christmas I obviously asked for marmalade while the other small people asked for a unicorn, a puppy and a cat! I was so happy with my surprise day out and after talking to Santa Claus for a while, we were all given a present it wasn’t what anyone had asked for but we were all allowed to play with them in the car.

On our way back home we stopped off at a forest and went for a walk in the woods we were following a trial from the book we read last night in bed, we had to find a snake, mouse, fox and owl then we would eventually find the large hairy creature at the end! Finding the clues was so much fun I tried to avoid the smallest one as there was a lot of dirty water on the floor and she really loved jumping in it and splashing everyone.

When we got home and had a hot chocolate to warm up we spent the rest of the day making the house look like Santa’s house by putting up a tree and covering it in lights and decorations.

That night I awoke in the night to a strange noise, as I quietly walked downstairs I saw a small house on the fireplace as I got near to the house I noticed inside was a small green elf!! I sat and had a chat with him about what he was doing here and where he had come from, he told me he had been sent from Santa to keep an eye on the children and report back to Santa if they have been good or bad! He told me that Santa sent him out every year on the 1st December but sometimes he can get a little bored and occasionally gets into a bit of mischief! I left the elf to set up his house and went to bed wondering how much mischief a little elf could possibly get into…

Paddington at Nursery

After a few days, Paddington had settled really well into the routine of the Carter household. Every night, he snuggled up with the smallest Carter and slept cosily nestled in her arms. Every morning, he would try to keep out of the way during the manic hour known as 'breakfast time'. Paddington would stand, bemused, at the foot of the stairs, as children rushed backwards and forwards, demanding cereal, toast and milk (there always seemed to be several children during the breakfast hour, although Paddington knew for a fact that there were only two). He would listen as parents shouted instructions in increasingly frantic voices. Each day, the tension would rise as the hands of the clock ticked inexorably on towards 'school run time': 8.30am. At this point, a tide of panic would sweep through the house. Children and adults alike desperately gathered together hats, coats and shoes. As one, they rushed for the door. Then (and this happened every day, without fail) one of the children would let out a wail, just as the door slammed shut.
 “I've forgotten my....” 

Once Mr or Mrs Carter had returned to fetch the forgotten item, peace would fall over the house. Paddington was left to his own devices. At first, it had been great fun. He had investigated daytime TV, played Candy Crush and ordered several dozen jars of marmalade 'by accident' using Mrs Carter's laptop. (Luckily, the Customer Services people  at Ocado had been very understanding...) 

By the fourth day, though, Paddington was beginning to find the days a little tedious. That night, he held a whispered conversation with Isla, after lights out. Together, they hatched a devious plan... 
The next morning, Isla insisted on carrying her own backpack to nursery. 
“It's <span class="italic">very</span> important, Mummy,” she declared. 
“That's nice, dear,” was her mother's automatic response. “Now, what <span class="italic">have</span> you done with your scarf?”
As she dropped Isla into the Butterfly room, Mrs Carter was mentally rehearsing her shopping list- so she failed to spot the small duffle-coated figure which crept out of Isla's backpack and into the corner of the playroom. 

Four hours later, Mrs Carter buzzed on the door of the nursery and was surprised to be met by an exhausted-looking manager. 
“Mrs Carter, thank goodness you're here... May I have a word before you collect Isla, please?”
“Certainly,” Mrs Carter responded, wondering what on earth her youngest daughter had been up to now. 
But it wasn't Isla who was waiting in the nursery office, bedraggled and sorry for herself. It was Paddington. His black hat was bent sadly out of shape. A button appeared to be missing from his duffle coat. One paw was covered in flour, one ear had a distinctly sticky hue and splodges of green paint covered his legs. 
“Mrs Carter!” he gasped. “I'm really glad to see you!” 

Apparently, Paddington had enjoyed nursery very much initally. It was all so colourful, so busy and cheerful. So many activities to choose from. The children had been overjoyed to have a new, cuddly playmate and had almost come to blows over who should play with Paddington in the home corner. After a while though, it had all become a bit too much. 

The next day, Paddington heaved a huge sigh of relief as the Carters finally disappeared through the door at 8.34 am. He settled down contentedly with a slice of marmalade on toast and switched on breakfast TV, looking forward to a nice, quiet day.
“Adventures are fun,” he said to himself, “but sometimes it's nice to stay at home.”

Paddington at the Zoo

On Sundays, the Carter family generally had very leisurely mornings. In fact, Paddington was ashamed to admit that Mrs Carter could often be seen still in her pyjamas way past noon. So, one recent Sunday morning, Paddington was astonished to see Mrs Carter appearing at 8.00am, fully dressed. Mr Carter appeared soon after, also appearing to be ready for the day. Without further ado, the Carter children were cajoled, persuaded and eventually wrestled into appropriate clothing. Bags were packed with a mixture of drinks, snacks, magazines and warm clothing. 
A loud knock at the door signalled the arrival of Uncle Rob. Rosie and Isla bounced around him happily, chattering away nineteen to the dozen. From the odd word that Paddington could make out, he gathered the reason for the early start. A trip to the zoo! 
Less than an hour later, the family made the regrettable discovery that magazines are not, in fact, the best choice of entertainment for small children who experience problems with travel sickness. Followed by the equally regrettable realisation that they had completely failed to pack any changes of clothing for the smallest Carter. Luckily, Uncle Rob spotted a large supermarket and the Carters were able to continue on their way with only a little time lost, Isla proudly sporting a completely new outfit. 
Soon after this, Uncle Rob pulled into 'Giraffe Car Park No. 2' and the Carters tumbled out into the fresh air. Rosie and Isla rushed this way and that, eyes wide. 
“What shall we see first?”
“Elephants! No, Monkeys! Or maybe chimps?” 
“I want to see the penguins!”
“CHIMPS!”
For a worrying moment, the girls squared up and seemed ready to come to blows. Thankfully, Isla's gnat-sized attention span came to the rescue. 
“Oooh, look- crocodiles!” she crowed gleefully, and the little Carters held hands and ran off eagerly together, crisis averted. 
The next couple of hours passed in a whirlwind tour. Paddington was rather dazed by the array of fascinating creatures in front of him: cherry-crowned mangabeys, leopards, meercats (Paddington spent a long while watching these intriguing creatures) and giant anteaters. A particular highlight was a new exhibit: 'Australian Rainbows'. Paddington was a little confused when he entered the aviary and a small plastic cup of nectar was pressed into his paw. As he passed through the doors, his puzzled frown turned quickly to a look of utter terror as a dozen rainbow lorikeets swooped swiftly towards him, battling for a sip of the precious nectar. Paddington's mouth fell open. He froze. A small, strangled sound escaped from his throat. 
With an amused smile, Rosie stepped up. 
“Shoo!” she said, dispersing the birds and taking the nectar for herself. “Silly old bear!” 
Once Paddington's initial shock had subsided, he relaxed and was able to enjoy watching the birds surround Rosie. Isla remained unconvinced and clung to Mrs Carter, although when pressed, she did admit that “They are pretty, but they're too too fluttery.”

Ever since I arrived in the post one day, I've always loved waiting to see what surprises the postman will bring.

When Mrs H opened the post today, I was intrigued to see something she said was a "round robin" letter. Mrs H says this is something that people sometimes send at Christmas time to tell their family and friends what they have doing over the past year. Mrs H frowned when she saw that the letter was from "Janet and Roy." "I don't know anyone with those names," she said. "Who on earth can they be? I suppose we must have met them on holiday sometime and swapped details.”

Whoever they were, Janet and Roy had certainly had an exciting year! "As you know, we both took early retirement last year," they wrote. "We downsized our house and have been travelling around South America in a camper van. We recently visited Peru." - Peru, I thought excitedly, darkest Peru!

The mystery couple continued: "As you may have heard, Hiram Bingham's 1911 discovery of Macchu Picchu has recently been overshadowed by the news of a tiny community of small talking bears deep in the Amazonian rainforest. The only previous sighting of any of these bears was believed to be in the 1950s, when a young lone bear was sighted at Paddington Station and adopted by a local couple. This is believed to have given rise to the famous stories about Paddington Bear.”

“As you can imagine, tourists have been desperate to go and see these bears, but almost no-one has manged to penetrate the jungle to locate them. We were lucky enough to have an experience that few tourists are able to get when we went with a small local cooperative ecotourism company who offer homestays with the bears. They were extremely hospitable, particularly a lovely old lady bear called Lucy who now lives in a Home for Retired Bears. How they came to be able to speak English and eat marmalade is a complete mystery.”

“We moved on to Ecuador just before the devastating earthquake in Peru this year. We can only hope the the mysterious ursine community has somehow survived.”

Posting purely so I can read all these fabulous stories when I am better.

We went to the pictures yesterday to see Paddington. I am buying it when out on DVD. It was great. I cried .

A trip to the library

The next day, after a hearty breakfast of marmalade on toast (the Teals were coming around to Paddington's way of thinking) the Teal family set off for the library. Paddington was still pondering his new internet venture, but was a bit stuck as he realised he was not too skilled in the IT department. Aside from reading articles on Peru and googling marmalade based recipes, he was a relative novice. Setting up an internet forum would require him to become far more internet-savy, but he was a bear who was not afraid of hard work.

When they arrived at the library Paddington was bemused and entertained in equal measure by a spectacle called "Action Time", which involved the miniature teals singing, listening to stories and shaking instruments. Paddington was a bit too nervous to actually join in, but he enjoyed watching the chaos from a safe distance.

Next, whilst Mrs Teal was distracted reading Toddler Teal and Tiny Teal a story, Paddington snuck off to the IT department and tracked down a beginners guide to starting a website. As he sat reading his chosen book, studying carefully, he looked up to see another bear also browsing the IT section. "Good morning" the bear said, "my name's Rupert". Paddington shook his hand, admiring his charming yellow checked trousers. They sat for a while, swapping tales of Peru and Nutwood. "And what do you do now?" Paddington enquired. "Well, I've recently completed a course in internet start-ups" Rupert replied. "Gosh how interesting" Paddington replied, and they continued chatting. Paddington shared with Rupert his ambition to start an internet forum for bears, and Rupert revealed that by an almost uncanny coincidence he had recently inherited a sizeable sum from an elderly aunt and was looking for an investment venture. And with that a new partnership was formed, and the foundations of Bearsnet were born...

The End

Oops, forgot the photo!

We've had a lovely time taking DDs out and about with Paddington, and they've loved seeing the pictures we've taken up on MN . Thank you MNHQ

Paddington at the Panto

I’ve been doing so many new things here with my new family. I think they forget that everything is different here for me, even if it’s a trip to the Coop to stock up on marmalade.

The highlight of the weekend was a trip to the theatre to see a pantomime. I’d never been to the theatre before, and, what with the letter from the mysterious Janet and Roy, I could hardly sleep the night before, I was so excited.

The panto was called “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” We all settled down to watch it. I confess the plot made no sense to me, and seemed to combine every nursery rhyme, pop song and what Mrs H said were “references to popular culture” under the sun. I admit that after about 20 minutes I started to get a bit bored, and went to stretch my legs when the family weren’t looking.

I soon found a door marked “Performers Only.” This piqued my curiosity, and I thought I’d take a look. I soon found myself wandering along a corridor, where to my surprise, there was a dressing room door marked “The Three Bears.”

Bears! I had been wondering when they would actually make an appearance in the panto. I decided to poke my head round to have a look.

“About time too!” yelled an American-accented voice from inside the dressing room. “You must be Baby Bear’s understudy. Cutting it a bit fine, aren’t you?”

“Erm, I’m, er, I’m not..” I muttered ineffectually.

“Quick, you’re about to be called on,” he said.

But I don’t know my lines! I thought. I grabbed the arm of an actress backstage, who I presumed was Goldilocks, and tried to explain the misunderstanding.

“Don’t worry, it’s a panto,” she said. “You know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, right? Just ad-lib and you’ll be fine.”

Fortunately, my family had read the story as preparation for the panto trip, so I had a vague idea of the plot. Personally, I can’t stand porridge, but there’s no accounting for taste.

Somehow, I managed to get through my scene. The crowd loved me! They cheered and whooped and I probably let it all go to my head a bit. When I made my exit, I was immediately accosted by a rather angry-looking young boy looking hot and bothered in a bear costume. “What are you doing?” he said. “I’m Baby Bear’s understudy. How come Steven let you go on?”

“Steven,” I said. “Who’s he?”

“The director! Steven Spielberg! He’s had enough of Hollywood and its ageism. There just aren’t any opportunities for male actors and directors once they’re over 40, you know,” said Baby Bear’s understudy. “That’s why he’s had to come over to England to direct provincial pantomimes.”

Well, that was quite enough excitement for one day. I made my way back to my seat, where I hadn’t even been missed, and had a good snooze through the rest of the panto, waking only occasionally to shout “He’s behind you!” But I do think I could get a taste for acting...

The End

So I tried to get dear Paddington to remove his jacket and hat, have a bath and finally make himself comfortable. Well, that didn't go well it didn't go down at all. I tried to gently explain to him that he needed to remove his coat because it was muddy and needed washing. I then made the mistake of showing him the washing machine. Oh boy...Paddington wailed, ran away and hid in the garden. DD1 thought this was some kind of hide and seek game so she berated me for not playing with her, then ran into the garden to hide too. At that point I thought, well I could go and look for then, or....I could sit and enjoy a cup of tea in the quiet house (at last). I would have sent the baby to hide too if she could walk. Unfortunately it started raining while I was boiling the kettle, and DD ran back in, shouting that I was too slow. Paddington didn't. He stayed outside in the rain. I opened the back door and called him out. He ignored me. I promised him I would not force him to have a bath. He ignored me. I even promised him his own jar of marmalade. To no avail. I then got worried that he had been kidnapped by a gang of foxes in my sleep-deprived brain, so I put on my wellies and went to look for him. I looked for him for a while, getting soaked and finally found him, warm and dry, sitting in the neighbours' shed and snacking on some spinach leaves he had foraged from their veg patch. By that time, I was irate. Paddington smiled at me and asked me, Is dinner ready Mummy?. I grunted at him, picked him and went home. Obviously, I am the one who ended up in the shower - and I had to clean Paddington's paws with wet wipes as he still refused to approach the bathroom.

Hi everyone, thank you so much for posting your wonderful stories on this thread. This thread has now closed. Congratulations to PommingtonBear who has won the prize draw for a £250 Love2Shop voucher! We'll be in touch soon.