Hello everybody. Cuddles here. For those of you who do not know, I am a panda bear, made by ‘Charlie Bears’ and I am seven years old. I am Josie’s best friend and she is mine. I look after her and give her cuddles when she needs them and she repays me with chocolate, sweeties and letting me bounce on the bed (that part is a secret). I am also Josie’s travelling companion. Josie has anxiety and struggles in crowded places and with loud noises, so sometimes she takes me along with her, to help calm her down.
Back in September, I decided that we needed a treat. Josie is always trying her best to help people and do things for others, so I told her it was time that we did something for ourselves. I took charge of the laptop, gathered all of my chocy button money and booked us a weekend away in Saundersfoot – one of our favourite places.
Being a teddy bear companion is a very important task. I have to make sure that we had all of the important things with us, so that Josie doesn’t get an anxiety attack or get upset on the journey. We had to get train tickets and I made sure Josie printed out a list of every single stop each of the trains, that we were going on, would stop at. We had to board four trains on the way to Saundersfoot and four trains home. Although I wanted to be in charge of packing all of the snacks, Josie pointed out that if I packed too many yummies then I wouldn’t be able to buy any when were on holiday – my best friend is smart. So I supervised the snack packing, making sure that we had enough treats for travelling.
We set off really early in the morning. I was still a little sleepy, but I didn’t mind, because Josie did all of the walking. One of the upsides to being a travelling companion, like me, is that you get to sit in a tote bag and get carried around. Our first thing to do, was to walk to the nearest train station. Here is a picture of me sat ready and waiting for the first of our trains:
(Oh and just so yous know, Josie says I didn’t have to wear a mask, because teddies can’t catch the nasty virus, but Josie wore one all of the time and we were extra careful and always washed our handies).
This train was a short journey. We were only on it for fifteen minutes, before Josie was walking around again. The next station was where I had to be brave and help out Josie. We were in Birmingham New Street station. It was very busy. Lots of bodies were bumbling about everywhere. I stuck my head out of my bag and Josie rubbed my ear and made sure that we stayed together, so I didn’t get losted. I helped Josie shuffle her way through the crowd and we made our way to a big, long line of screens with lots of numbers and place names on them. Josie told me these where how people figure out what train to get and where to go. I’m glad I had Josie with me, because I didn’t understand any of it.
Once on this train (this was a two hour
train journey) we were finally on our way to Wales. A travelling tip from a
well-travelled panda: always book your train tickets in advance, and when you
do, tick the box that says preference window seat. Getting to look out of the
window on the train is one of my favourite things to do. And if your travelling
friend can’t tell the difference between sitting forwards or backwards, like my
Josie, but you can, the advantage of being a teddy is that you don’t have to
sit facing the same way as your friend. I sat facing towards Josie, that way I
was travelling forwards and she was travelling backwards (*giggles*). This is a
picture of me enjoying the view.
If your friend is like my Josie, and has ADD, they may need to bring a few things to do, to help them pass the time. A window seat helps, but Josie always brings a reading book, a notebook (with sticky notes creating different sections, so she can journal and write different story ideas on different pages) and a mini colouring book, with mini travel-size crayons. I like the colouring in part – sometimes Josie lets me help her.
Two hours later, and having opened the sweetie supply, we arrived in Cardiff. This was a little scary. Josie and I have done the train journey to Saundersfoot before, but since the scary virus happened, we found that the trains stop at different places. Josie gets scared when she is somewhere she hasn’t been before, without having someone with her. She was very brave though and found our next platform all by herself and got us safely on the next train.
Another two hours, more window views, reading, writing and colouring in later, we arrived at Carmarthen. Even though our train left Cardiff on time, we got held up along the way and Josie’s anxiety started getting bad. We only had six minutes to figure out where our platform was and change to our last train without their being a delay. And again, because of the bad virus changing the train routes, we had never had to change trains at Carmarthen before. With the train being delayed getting to Carmarthen, we got there with only one minute before the other train left. Luckily for us, a couple of people ahead of us asked a worker at the station where the train was that happened to be the one we needed. He pointed them in the right direction and we all ran (well I didn’t run, I was in my cosy bag, but Josie had to run). As soon we sat down, the train pulled away. Josie squeezed me so tight, I thought my fluffy stuffings were going to explode out of me. We were on the train and we were safe, that’s all that matters. If we hadn’t gotted on the train in time, we would have been stranded at Carmarthen station for two whole hours. I kept telling Josie, that if we had, we could have gone exploring around the shops and everything would have been okay, but she didn’t like the idea and was very glad that we made it onto our last train.
Another hour later and we finally got to our destination: Tenby. It made me so happy. It made Josie happy too. We were about to spent two whole days at the seaside. No noisy neighbours. No horrible brother. No stressy job. No worrying about seeing any number of people from Josie’s past who will upset her. Just me and Josie time. The first thing we did was go straight to the beach.
Josie likes painting on pebbles, so we ventured a little closer to the sea (but not too close, because we are both scared of water) and we went pebbles picking. Don’t worry, we only collected a few small ones to paint on, we know it is bad to take pebbles from the beach.
Sadly, not long after arriving at the beach, the sky grew dark. Within minutes it was pouring with rain, and I mean pouring. In my seven years of being a panda, I have never known rain be so bad. Everybody ran from the beach and hid in the nearby shops. We tried to hide too – I don’t like getting my fur wet. Josie was a smarty-pants and packed an umbrella. Before we could make it to shelter, Josie’s trousers and sockies were soaked through. She said that every step she took, it felt like the waves, from the sea, were sloshing back and forth inside her shoe. It sounded icky! I wouldn’t want that. I’m glad Josie made me number one priority and kept me dry under the umbrella. We searched some shops for some more sockies and I found Josie some black and white spotty ones – Josie likes polka dots! We tried sheltering, but the rain was set in for the day. From the beach, we had to walk three miles in the pouring rain to our hotel. We usually like the walk from Tenby into Saundersfoot, but this was horrible. Josie normally doesn’t mind the rain too much, but even this rain was too much for her. She couldn’t even cuddle me on the walk to the hotel, to comfort her, because she was struggling to hold the umbrella up in the storm and didn’t want me to get wet. I love my Josie so much, even when she’s upset and wants to cuddle me so badly, she makes sure that she doesn’t if it puts me in danger.
A car sped through a big puddle and splashed Josie from head to toe. I magically escaped the splash. Lucky for me, Josie had the bag I was in on her shoulder furthest from the road. She was so brave and didn’t get upset, like I thought she was going to. She kept telling herself that she could do it… and she did. She was nearly in tears by the time that she got to the hotel, but managed to keep a brave face. The texture of soggy clothes and having sloshy wet shoes for an hour walk and getting soaked by a meany car was almost too much for her. As we got to the front door, there were people who got out of their car, who had driven past us on the way, push past us to get in before us. They had driven all the way there. We were soggy. They were dry and they pushed us out of the way to get in first. I was so angry with them. Steam was coming out of my ears. Josie wasn’t though. She was nice. Josie is always nice. She was happy to wait and it helped her compose herself from the ordeal of walking there.
Our room was so nice! And we gots a double bed all to ourselves! It was huge. We only have a tiny, single bed at home, as we live in the box room. While Josie dried off, I got to do one of my favourite things… bounce on the bed!
We had an early night, ready for an early start the next morning. This was the day of adventuring (and lots of walking). It was also Talk Like a Pirate Day – apart from last year, when the horrible virus stopped us from being able to go anywhere, Josie and I always try to go to the beach for Talk Like a Pirate Day. Setting off, as soon as the sun broke through the clouds we started a steep trek from our hotel to Wiseman’s Bridge. I think it is a silly name. There isn’t a wise man there, not even a statue, and there isn’t a bridge either. How silly. This place is Josie’s mum’s favourite place, so we made sure to take photos for her. We also picked one pebble for her (which Josie painted later). It was such a steep uphill walk to get there. It was like walking up the steepest rollercoaster ride.
From Wiseman’s bridge, we walked even more uphill and through many twists and turns in narrow country lanes, then we got to Amroth. The sun started to come out as we got there. This was the beginning of a lovely warm day.
From Amroth, we had to walk all of the way back to Wiseman's Bridge, then Saundersfoot and then Tenby. Lots of walking - so glad I was in my cosy tote bag. Tenby was lovely this time. Blue sky, sunshine. Josie took lots and lots of pictures. Visiting the beach towards the end of September was perfect, because the weather was still warm and sunny, but there weren’t as many people, so Josie and I were able to actually relax and enjoy ourselves. We sat on the beach and I looked after all of the snacks, while Josie painted some of the pebbles that we collected.
A seagull tried to pinch my snacks. I would not allow it! Josie took pictures of him, to occupy him, whilst I finished munching. Sorry seagulls, I share with my Josie, but not with you.
We visited a few of the nice shops too. Josie found out that there is a shop that sells crystals (she started collecting crystals last year) so we found that shop and she treated herself to three – a rose quartz, a carnelian and an amethyst (her three favourites). They sold other trinkets too and we bought Josie’s mum a Christmas present too (shhh, it’s a secret, but it has pandas on it). We got Josie’s mum’s friend a Christmas present too and the friend’s dog a present, so pretty successful shopping trip. Oh and Josie bought a box of individually wrapped fudge for her office to share, when she go back. She bought us a box of fudge too! It was so yummy! I was a good panda and I made it last; I didn’t gobble it all up straight away, like I sometimes would. I think the sunshine helped!
After shopping, we climbed up a little hill – there are hills everywhere in Wales. At the top of the hill was a cool little castle turret. The map says it’s a castle, but this is all that was left of it:
There were cool canons placed around it, facing out into the sea. Josie says they aren’t real canons. I say they are and they are keeping watch over the sea, in case the pesky pirates return!
After the castle, we walked back to Saundersfoot – it was getting quite late in the day by then. When we got back to Saundersfoot, we walked to the harbour and Josie took more photos.
We got chips for tea from the fish and chip shop! They were so yummy – chips always taste better at the beach.
When we got back to our room, Josie finished painting some of her pebbles. She let me paint three pebbles too. I’m not as good at painting as Josie is, but I wanted to paint three of my teddy friends, who have helped to cheer Josie up. Since then, we have met many more teddy, puppy, kitty, bunny and human friends and we are very grateful to know each and every one. Whilst we were on holiday, I wanted to paint a pebble of Nancy Bear, Peragwin and Jose Arts Bear (for Cal).
The bed was comfy. We didn’t want to get out of it on Monday morning, but we had to, because we had to leave to come home. We enjoyed the hotel room so much. It was so peaceful and quiet. The bed was super comfy. We had our own kitchen area, toilet and shower – not that I used it (I don’t do baths, yuck!). We got to do what we want, when we wanted and no one was there to complain or mentally abuse my Josie. No one made us cry or were mean. It was perfect. Knowing that we were leaving it all behind made us a little sad.
We went for a walk along Saundersfoot beach, before heading back to the train station and got to look out across the sea once more. Josie got a little upset (because we were leaving and because the sea reminds her of someone who doesn’t want to be her friend anymore).
To cheer her up, I made us go to an ice cream shop nearby and we got a triple chocolate chip ice cream. It was the best.
Then we had to say goodbye to Saundersfoot and walk back to Tenby, ready to catch the train. We had a little bit of time left before we had to go. Josie really wanted to go to her favourite café in Tenby that we went to before, but because of the horrible virus, people had to queue up and wait to be let in. This gave Josie really bad anxiety and even though she really wanted to go in, the queuing and talking to people was too much for her. I was a little disappointed too, because this café does a humongous hot chocolate covered in lots of cream and mini marshmallows and chocolate powder, but we found something else really cool instead. There used to be a little shop that sold bath bombs (I may not like baths, but I like watching the pretty colours and bubbles that bath bombs make in the water) but the shop wasn’t there anymore. Instead, the shop was now a bakery! That is a vast improvement, if I do say so myself. So, I convinced Josie to buy us the biggest meringue ever. It was chocolate flavour too. Josie said weren’t allowed to eat it until we were part way home; she said it was something to look forward to. She surprised me and bought two! But the second was one raspberry and white chocolate flavour. She made us save this one until we got back home. Look at how big they were:
(We shared the raspberry and white chocolate one with Ducky, the next day, when we were home).
Before we left, Josei wanted to buy some sweets, for the train journey home (her favourite are milk bottles). When we were in the sweetie shop, we found out that they sold slushie drinks. It was a super hot day and we really needed something to cool us down. The blue one was all gone. They only had the red one, but it was okay, because it was still yummy!
The train journey on the way home got scary. Our first train, from Tenby, got to the station early. So we boarded the train, found our seat and showed our ticket to the conductor, who scribbled on it. Then we waited… and waited… and waited. It wasn’t too scary, because we had a twenty minute wait for our next train when we got to Carmarthen, but it still made our tummies do a flip flop, waiting. Eventually the train left and we got to Carmarthen in time to find the next platform we needed and board the next train. This train was on time, which was good – we always have problems with delayed trains. The first time we went to Saundersfoot, on the train journey home, our train from Tenby was delayed by almost half an hour and the conductor lady said it was the first time in over thirty years that it had ever happened (things like that always happen to us). Anyway, we weren’t worried, because when this train got to Cardiff, we had an hour wait for our train to Birmingham. We got to Cardiff on time. This made me extra happy, because this was when Josie promised we could share out giant, chocolate meringue. But then something scary happened. A worker, at the station, told us that all trains to Birmingham had been cancelled for two whole days, because of a landslide on the track. He said that there was a possibility that our train could be the first train to Birmingham, but it hadn’t been confirmed yet. I got scared. My tummy spiralled round and round and round. Josie was going to burst into tears, I knew she was. I was just about to flop onto her lap, when she asked the worker, “Are the trains still running to Shrewsbury?”
“Yes, that line is unaffected,” the man replied.
“Do you know if I can still get to Wolverhampton, from Shrewsbury?” Josie asked.
“You should be able to,” he told her.
“Do you think the trams into Birmingham might still be running by the time we’d get there?” she asked as calm as ever.
“They should be, but don’t rearrange your journey just yet. We might still be able to get you on the train. I’ll let you know when I know anymore,” he told us.
“Thank you,” she replied.
Wow! What happened to my Josie? Normally when the train is running a couple of minutes late she starts to panic and gets upset. We might not be able to get our train home and she’s planning some scary alternative route. When the man was gone, I asked her what was going on? She told me she didn’t want to be stranded in Cardiff train station all night, so she immediately figured out a way home. She knew had seen on the board of train times that there was a train going to Shrewsbury, and she knew that we could get to Wolverhampton from Shrewsbury, because Josie went to Wolverhampton University and knew trains went to Shrewsbury from there. As she knows Wolverhampton well, she knew she could find us a tram into Birmingham, if it wasn’t possible for any trains to get through and if the tram wasn’t running, she knew a bus that would get us to Birmingham, then we would only have to get one more train home. That sounds very complicated to me and very brave. I don’t know where this new Josie came from. It was almost like she didn’t need me at all – I know she does really. I didn’t like the idea of getting even more trains though, we were supposed to get back home at bed time as it was.
The hour passed and our train actually came. The platform worker told us that the landslide was cleared and our train would be the first train to Birmingham. And it arrived on time. And it left on time. How exciting! Despite it being the first train to Birmingham, it wasn’t too busy. We gots a comfy seat by the window and I got to watch the sunset out of the window of the train.
When we got back into Birmingham, it was very dark. Josie gets a little scared in the dark, so I made sure she could stroke my ear, as we made our way to our next train. When we got there, the train information board said that the train to our village was cancelled. Then the next train to our village was cancelled. Then the next train to our village was cancelled. I gots scared. I knew Josie was going to cry this time. Last time, when we came home from holiday and got as far as here and the train was delayed by fifteen minutes she sat on the floor and cried until the train came. But Josie didn’t cry. She didn’t freeze on the spot. She walked over to the ticket desk and asked the lady if there would be a train going to our village at all that night. “Not until after 9:30pm,” the lady told us. Josie thanked her, but then walked out of the station. What was going on? Why wasn’t Josie upset and why were we leaving the train station?
“We can get the bus home from here,” she told me. “We can meet mum on her way home from work.” And we did it. Getting the bus was scary though. The bus doesn’t go the same way that it used to go, when Josie would get it home from university years ago. Josie nearly got upset and squeezed my handie tight. Soon though, the bus turned back onto a road we recognised and were able to meet up with Josie’s mum, who was walking home from work (she works late hours).
We did it! Josie and I got home safe and sound. It feels like ages ago now. I miss the seaside already, but writing out my adventure and getting to look through all of Josie’s photos has made me smile. I hope my adventure and photos have made whoever is reading this smile too. I am very proud of Josie. This was the bravest she has ever been going on trains by ourselves. I can’t wait to do it again! Oh and this is a picture of me, falling asleep when we got home, cuddling my teddy:
- Cuddles -
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