PADDINGTON BEAR'S CREATOR LEAVES A LEGACY OF LOVE

I have a number of favourite writers and poets and sometimes I forget that they, like myself, are only human and that they do not live forever. Frank McCourt, Maeve Binchy, Elie Wiesel and Seamus Heaney. And lately Michael Bond who died at age 91 about a month ago on 27 June.

Michael who? Michael Bond, the creator of the marmalade loving Paddington Bear.  

I have unashamedly amassed a number of Paddington paraphernalia – an umbrella, a key holder, buttons, washi tape and an 18 inch bear complete with his signature duffle coat and wellies.  I saw the Paddington movie three times, (once on the big screen and twice over the television) because of the bear and because of Hugh Bonneville, who plays Mr Brown. When I went with my friends to see the movie, I brought along little tubs of marmalade for everyone, just to be in solidarity with the bear.

I even made a special trip to Paddington station. I was secretly hoping to see Paddington sitting on a small suitcase near the lost property office, wearing a hat.  I felt how the bear felt – lost - when he first arrived as a stowaway, sent by his Aunt Lucy who has gone to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima.  I could not resist standing beside the little statue of Paddington Bear at the station.

What makes Michael Bond’s creation so endearing?

Basically it is the connection.

When we attend a social event it is inevitable that we need to mingle. Imagine talking to a group of people who bore your socks off. The first reaction is to wish that the event will end quickly and you can go home. The same goes with the characters in a book – you either love them or hate them.

So I connect with Paddington.

He is honest and kind and has very good manners. It is hard not to love someone with good manners, even more so a bear!

It is also the sorry feeling for an unwanted toy. Michael Bond was searching for a gift for his wife on Christmas eve in 1956 when he came across a teddy bear all alone on a shelf. Clearly he was a last minute shopper and he ‘adopted’ Paddington. That was the humble beginnings of a famous bear.

Paddington came from a different land. Originally Bond wanted him to come from darkest Africa but he was informed by his agent that Africa does not have bears. The bear was a refugee seeking a new home on foreign soil. Because of his cross cultural background, Paddington was chosen in 1994, by English tunnellers as the first item to pass through the Channel Tunnel to their French counterparts when the two sides were linked up. There are over 35 million copies of Paddington books sold worldwide which have been translated into 40 languages. This bear has inspired pop bands, race horses, plays, hot air balloons, a television series and a movie.

According to Bond, Paddington’s universal appeal is due to the ‘Paddington-type situations’ that happen all over the world – the fun times and the mishaps.

I was first introduced to wellies by Paddington. There was no need for me to wear wellies in the city where I was born but I knew about them because of Paddington. Now I have three pairs of wellies of different designs and heights and I can identify with the bear when I trudge into puddles, mud and bog.

Then there is this label around Paddinton’s neck when he first arrived in London which read: ‘Please look after this bear.’ It reminds me of a visit to a school in 1970. It was Chefoo School in Brinchang in Cameron Highlands which functioned as a school for the children of missionaries and the curriculum was based on the British education system. The children were away on holidays at that time and on one of the bunk beds I saw a well-cuddled bear with the same label on its neck. That stopped me in my tracks and I wondered how the child would have felt living in a residential school and also having to leave her favourite toy behind when she went home for the holidays.

Bond’s first book was published in 1958 and his last in 2017, a span of 59 years. The next Paddington movie will be released at the end of this year. On the last day of the shooting, Michael Bond passed away. He left behind legions of fans, his family, his guinea pigs and most of all the much loved bear

from darkest Peru.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN THE NEW STRAITS TIMES MALAYSIA 
23 JULY 2017
https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2017/07/259876/paddington-bears-creator-leaves-legacy-love

THROUGH THE LENS: PLEASURE IN PHOTOGRAPHY

I remember buying a camera with my pocket money. It was a prized possession and I had to load it with a roll of film. Once the film was used up, I couldn’t wait to get it developed at the shop around the corner. There was no way I could have a sneak peak of what the photos would look like. Most times they came up average-looking with one or two over or under exposed. But at 13, I was not fussy.

Photography as a hobby has come a long way.

My son Samuel is into photography big time. When we go on family holidays he has an extra backpack where he puts in his wide variety of gadgets and filters and lenses, to be sure, to be sure. Presently I am using my second DSLR and the difference between Samuel and myself is I am afraid to experiment on manual mode for fear that not a single one of the pictures taken manually would turn out the way that I pictured in my head.

I decided that the way to overcome fear is to confront fear itself. So I joined an advanced photography class conducted by Jim Finn at the Killaloe-Ballina Family Resource Centre. Jim is an excellent teacher and he takes the time to answer any question, however trivial it may sound. The class participants are a lovely crowd who freely share what they know.

There is a different kind of feeling when you walk the streets armed with a camera. Almost immediately people mistake me for a tourist. (Having said that, without the camera, people still mistake me for a tourist even though I have been here for a good few years now.) You often meet people who are more interested in your camera than yourself, which is not a bad thing altogether because it becomes a conversation starter. Then you have friends and family who will gladly inform you where you can get the best shots of rivers, rubble and roses. After all the pictures have been taken, you choose the best to print or put them up on social media. That is what I would do anyway but I know of some who would post 111 photos of an event at any one time on facebook with themselves in 110 of them.

The pleasure in photography is waiting for the right shot.

I was up in the Wicklow mountains recently and saw some lovely horses. As Murphy’s law goes, I did not have the zoom lens with me. So I crept up stealthily to get a good view. The horses saw me approaching and did not seem to mind as they were as curious of me as I was of them. Just as I was about to capture a beautiful shot, the twig that I was holding on to, snapped. The horses bolted in fright and any hope of a good picture vanished, not unlike the disappointed fisherman regaling the tale of the whopper that got away.

The pleasure in photography is looking for something different in the mundane. You can look at a tree and see a tree. You can also look at a tree and see the knots and the grooves and wonder how old the tree is. If the tree could talk, it could tell stories of people taking cover or having picnics or arguments under it. The beautiful tunnel-like avenue of intertwined beech trees planted in the 18^th century in Ballymoney, County Antrim has been there long before it became famous in the Game of Thrones and voted number 1 in the must-see list on TripAdvisor Ireland.

The pleasure in photography is in the unexpected, a bonus even. I am talking about photographing a flower at Glenstal Abbey and then out of nowhere a bee lands on it. So I can zoom in on the bee as well, stripes, sting and all. However, we also hear of photographs that have been spoiled by the unexpected appearance of an unintended subject in the camera’s field of view as the picture was taken. Yes, the photo bomb. Some are quite hilarious actually especially animal photobombs.

The pleasure in photography is in the chasing. I’m talking about the actual running after a person or object to get some good shots. I remember in 2014 a giant 25 foot grandmother of a puppet roamed the streets of Limerick as part of the Limerick City of Culture celebrations. She was followed by 27 Lilliputians who were tasked with moving the Giant Granny, her own band of musicians and a massive wheelchair - weighing 5 tonnes. I was so enthralled I could not stay put at one spot but had to walk the whole length of O Connell Street alongside the Giant Granny, so I did not miss anything. In my excitement, I forgot to inform the beloved (who was standing with me on that spot for a minute). He then realised the next minute that I had disappeared. The street is about a mile in length, starting at the Arthurs Quay / Denmark Street junction and ends at the Crescent.

I still have a long way to go in photography but I am learning. Believe me there is such joy in learning something that is evolving each day and the beauty of it is I can never say that I know it all.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NEW STRAITS TIMES MALAYSIA ON 9 JULY 2017
https://www.nst.com.my/node/255702