Sgt Slingsby visits Shopgirl

After a very busy weekend at Abergavenny, on Monday morning I had a doze in the car on the way back. I woke up in a car park somewhere in Hampshire to meet my new Bearer. It was shopgirl, whom Horsa and I had met in a curry house the week before, GURB arrived soon afterwards and we unloaded all the things from Abergavenny into shopgirl's car. I said goodbye to Horsa, who was off back to Brat Towers with GURB, and was strapped into the car, sitting on a box so that I could see where I was going and we set off. On the way I discovered that she really was the lady who runs the Holidays4Heroes on-line shop in her spare time, which helped explain her rather unusual name.

We arrived at shopgirl's work and I was taken in to the lodge to have my picture taken for my security pass. The first thing I saw when we got to where shopgirl works was a huge kitchen, so I put put on my very hungriest look (it had been a long time since breakfast in Abergavenny). I was taken through to the office where I caught up with emails and let the BMG know I had arrived safely. Food smells from the kitchen made me even hungrier, then shopgirl appeared with a large burger with cheese and bacon and a cup of tea for me, which I ate while she unloaded the car.

We then left work and drove to shopgirl's house where we had a quiet evening watching tv. Then I went for a hot bath and was tucked up in a comfy bed with my own tv and some books. I was also given a glass of something called Asbach (with some honey of course) and started to read my book.

I must have drifted off to sleep, I don't remember shopgirl tucking me in, taking my uniform off to be washed and turning the light out (wonder if that had anything to do with the Asbach)?

I woke up the next morning after a very good sleep to breakfast in bed ( a special treat for my first day) and a clean uniform to put on. Then we set off for work. Work seemed to involve food in large quantities and a computer for me to use so I was quite happy with that idea.

When we got there, the guard checked my pass and opened the barrier for us, I was quite intrigued as to where we were. We went through the huge kitchen and into the office where I was introduced to Kelly and Lynne who work for shopgirl then taken out into a large bar, where I sat on a barstool and waited to see what happened.

What happened was mayhem! The doors opened and loads of people in uniform appeared at the bar for food and cups of tea and coffee and cold drinks etc. (alcohol is apparently only served in the evenings). When the rush was over, I was introduced all round then asked if I would like to help plan an exercise taking place in a few days time. Naturally I agreed to give them the benefit of my experience and spent a happy couple of hours helping out.

By this time I was decidedly peckish and very much relieved when a huge late breakfast appeared.

The next day I was taken to the dog section to help with training the guard dogs. I was introduced to Marshall and his handler Dave, and told that my role was to help the dog to listen to the handler and ignore distractions. I am not a Bear who is usually happy being ignored, nor do I quite like being classed as a distraction, but in this case I didn't mind too much. Marshall is very large with extremely sharp looking teeth. It all went very well though. I was relieved to hear that pursuit training was undertaken by humans, wearing lots of padding as I don't think short Bear legs would get very far before being caught.

At the weekend I went jetskiing: this was fun! I was given a pair of sunglasses and had sun cream put on my nose. Perhaps people in Hampshire aren't accustomed to handsome, uniformed Bears wearing shades, but we certainly got some attention from other motorists on the way there. We arrived in Southampton, where I was given a life jacket and off we went. It was calm enough until we got out to the open sea, then it was a rather different story. The sea was quite rough and it was a bit windy and we were going very fast. After quite a while out, we were invited back to shopgirl's friend's for an apres-ski glass of wine and spent some time sitting on the balcony sipping wine and watching all the activity on the water.

A few days later we set off somewhere new, we arrived at a riding stable and I was told I was going horse riding. My steed, Tommy, was brought in from the field and brushed off, tacked up and I got on. Tommy stood like a rock while shopgirl took photos then we went for a short walk. I rather enjoyed myself and made sure to give Tommy lots of carrots to say thank you.

The next day we went to work and while everyone was busy, I decided to do some exploring in the kitchen. I took my stool and decided to have a look in one of the freezers. In hindsight, I feel this might have been a mistake. Whilst reaching for an ice cream, I over balanced and tumbled in. It was very, very cold. After a little while, shopgirl heard my calls for help and when she had finished laughing, (I didn't find it at all amusing) rescued me and gave me a nice cup of tea to warm me up.

To keep me amused I was introduced to a rather pretty young bear called Daisy, after a chat I decided I would take her out to lunch. I waited for shopgirl to be busy and borrowed the car keys. I had done some driving with Horsa, albeit in a much smaller car, but shopgirl's car is something called ‘automatic' so I thought I would be OK.

Unfortunately shopgirl missed the car keys and came looking. I got a lecture on driving without a licence, insurance and the unlikelihood of being allowed off camp in a ‘borrowed' car, and Daisy and I were taken back to the office. I rather got the impression that shopgirl was trying not to laugh. She does laugh a lot when I'm around, I think she likes my sense of humour. Eventually Daisy and I were taken out to the patio for drinks and nibbles, it was a lovely afternoon.

On Friday, work was even busier, the ladies were charging around putting stuff in boxes, making sandwiches etc so I went out to see what they were doing. "Packing stuff for Weymouth", I was told, so I sat and watched and told them the best way to fit all the things into the car.

Saturday morning dawned (and I mean dawned, I was woken up at 0500 with breakfast). I followed shopgirl to the kitchen where she was boiling kettles to fill the norgie, and taking sandwiches out of the fridge and putting them in a cold box.

I learned several rather interesting new words (which I have been absolutely forbidden to use) when the kettles suddenly stopped boiling and shopgirl left the house at speed, checked the fuses in the garage and went next door to see if they had power. Apparently not.

I decided to be helpful and got into the car ready to drive. Shopgirl appeared and explained that automatic does NOT mean that the car drives itself and I was moved to the passenger seat.

I learned several more very interesting words when we hit a traffic jam on the way to Brat Towers to pick up GURB. However we got there, then set off for Weymouth. [My adventures in Weymouth and all the wonderful people I met are all in a separate report on my website.]

On Monday morning I was woken up with breakfast. No work today until later, when we will go in to unload the car. Despite sun cream, shopgirl had a very red, sore nose. I found this rather amusing and sniggered quite a lot, I stopped when I was threatened (very halfheartedly and with a smile) with no breakfast and shopgirl went off to get ready for work. Oddly when she reappeared there was no sign at all of the red nose!

We had a very busy week at work, then a quiet Saturday. On Sunday we went off to meet up with GURB and Offspring, Horsa and TPBD. We had a very good lunch, then it was time to say goodbye to shopgirl for a while and to accompany GURB to Brat Towers for some more adventures. Horsa has decided to stay with shopgirl until I get back.

I would like to thank:

Nick for the Jetskiing and apres-ski wine
Sarah-Jane and everyone at Bagnum Riding Stables
Marshall and his handler Dave
Dave and John for asking me to help with their exercise
Daisy for a delightful afternoon
Lynne and Kelly