What happens when you combine too many pints of Belgian Fruli strawberry beer with a gang of rowdy bears out on the town?
Answer: Complete chaos.
Yes, folks, it was the famous Teddy Tedaloo‘s glittering goodbye meet-up in London’s trendy Covent Garden. You see, Ted’s off to America for awhile and, being the popular bear that he is, his nearest and dearest mates wanted to give him a proper send off. (Luckily I was invited too.) So we convened at our usual haunt, The Porterhouse, home of beers guaranteed to send you sprawling onto the floor (after emptying out your wallet – this is London, after all!).
The afternoon kicked off in high style in the pouring rain about half past three, lasting till nearly 11pm, with most of that time spent at the pub. Mind you, considering that people and animals were either lost on public transport or coming from the office, we were definitely in it for the long haul.
It was a very international turnout, including my international bear (Ted holds both American and British citizenship) and myself (the aforementioned nations being saddled with me as well); Ted’s little cutie of a wife Ninny (with Ted’s mother-in-law in tow); a gaggle of bears and other creatures (including two humans) who’d just arrived from Paris; Winston the dog and his parents (one of whom disgraced herself under the table); a trio of Italians, including an elephant that had so much to drink the poor bugger fell over into a plate of baba ghannouj; and a lass from Luton with some monkeys. Oh, yeah, and we had Ted’s Uncle Geoff (a regular cast member, since he always makes a point to attend any London events of merit); Ted’s recently acquired Uncle Paul (who let Ted drive his Mini the other weekend); and Ted’s newest uncles on the scene: Dave (who sneaked out early before things got too wild) and Chris (who forgot to bring his giraffe).
Lots of under-the-table activity was enjoyed by all, including Winston’s mother and, of course, yours truly. I think the former enjoyed it a bit more than was prudent, however.
Having said that, it wasn’t all about boozing and crawling around under tables and getting up to all sorts. There were tender moments to be had as well. Ted hadn’t seen his wife Ninny since their big Valentine’s wedding, and those of us gathered became quite teary-eyed at seeing the young lovers together again.
Okay, I’ll omit the fact that they spent most of the evening snogging, but they did have a lot of catching up to do.
Only when we had the last man (or rather bear) standing did we finally leave the joint and head for the tube station. Being the sharp-eyed lass that I am, I spotted a very interesting-looking ice cream parlour with some very interesting-looking ice cream in the display case, and we executed a quick beeline through the door. Turns out it was a “gay” themed ice cream parlour with plenty of rude posters on the walls, one of which pertained to the film “Brokeback Mountain” and warm bananas. Hey, they said it, not me! The young gent in charge of spooning out our ice cream was such a tasty dish that it was probably inevitable he didn’t swing toward the direction of the ladies in our party. (Always the way, innit?) But the ice cream more than made up for the heartache. In fact, a female member of our party commented that it was better than sex.
Errr… no surprise, that.
A grand day and evening out was had by all. Teddy even ended up with a spiffy new outfit (courtesy of the Italian elephant’s mother). As for me, I ended up with a Fruli hangover and a sore eye.
And I bet you thought my life was just spent writing steamy books!
Wow, that Teddy Tedaloo is quite the modern rennaissance bear! A veritable bear about town.
A superman of snoggling, imbiber of beers, and itinerant ice cream afficionado.
Though I’m sure Mr. Tedaloo’s departure will be a great loss to London, I look positively forward to the further adventures of this lovable, huggable Teddy Bear (and his owner, whats her name… uh, Matzi, or Mootzi, or Metzi or something or other) in the Colonies. :o)
awww…what a memory! *hugs*
Yes, it occasionally works. :-/
Dearest Mitzi,
I hear through the grapevine that Tedaloo has a mysterious mistress, a miss Titi… Titi Latious… could that be why he is making the journey across the pond..? I know he is a very stalwart fellow, but this time he is out of his element…she, from what I hear and by all accounts, is quite irresistable… will the fans be able to bear the scandal..?
I await your response…
Plato
It’s unlikely. Teddy isn’t a player. He wasn’t brought up that way!
We had the most brilliant time Tuesday night! Thanks for everything and you and Teddy will be sorely missed!
Thanks! I hope we will be missed! I want tears and sobbing and hurling oneself over bridges into the churning dark sea below. Okay, we can dispense with the last bit.
Hey, can someone pass me some hand lotion under the table?
[…] from Mitzi Szereto recently. Yes, she does write books with teddy bears. You can read about the night I met the teddy bears on her […]