Silly Old Bear...

I squealed with delight when I opened my inbox this morning. I had an email from Borders telling me all about the new books that were being released soon - and there it was, "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood", written by David Benedictus, an authorised sequel to the AA Milne classic stories about one, Winnie the Pooh...

Why did I squeal with delight and draw attention (in the form of some weird looks) to myself at the office?

Because, as a child, I was mesmerised by the Winnie the Pooh stories, obviously due in part to the Disney cartoons (that I used to watch back in the eighties), but my Mum used to read to me from the books as well. I was so obsessed with the stories that I gave my Dad and his army buddies nicknames depending on what Winnie the Pooh character they were most like (my Dad was Winnie the Pooh of course).

My Mum also used to read to me from AA Milne's poetry books, especially "Now We Are Six". My favourite poem was "Sneezles" which is about when Christopher Robin gets sick. I used to know it off by heart and even today when I was googling it, I found myself remembering some of it...

Christoper Robin
Had wheezles
And sneezles,
They bundled him
Into
His bed.
They gave him what goes
With a cold in the nose,
And some more for a cold
In the head.
They wondered
If wheezles
Could turn
Into measles,
If sneezles
Would turn
Into mumps;
They examined his chest
For a rash,
And the rest
Of his body for swellings and lumps.
They sent for some doctors
In sneezles
And wheezles
To tell them what ought
To be done.
All sorts and conditions
Of famous physicians
Came hurrying around
At a run.
They all made a note
Of the state of his throat,
They asked if he suffered from thirst;
They asked if the sneezles
Came after the wheezles,
Or if the first sneezle
Came first.
They said, "If you teazle
A sneezle
Or wheezle,
A measle
May easily grow.
But humour or pleazle
The wheezle
Or sneezle,
The measle
Will certainly go."
They expounded the reazles
For sneezles
And wheezles,
The manner of measles
When new.
They said "If he freezles
In draughts and in breezles,
Then PHTHEEZLES
May even ensue."

Christoper Robin
Got up in the morning,
The sneezles had vanished away.
And the look in his eye
Seemed to say to the sky,
"Now, how to amuse them today?"

(Sneezles, by AA Milne, from Now We Are Six)

Ahh, the memories... I wish I could live in the Hundred Acre Wood... Maybe I'll just buy the books instead...