Bears on Tour
Back in April this year my husband and I took my sister and her partner to Marrakech for a few days. I’d won some free hotel nights writing reviews on Trivago and picked up some bargain flights but of course, in the interests of keeping the costs down so I could subsidise the others, I’d booked with EasyJet.
As a far too frequent flyer I have only one response to being on a plane – I fall asleep. Often before we’ve even taken off I’m in the land of nod and on this occasion my snoozing meant that my hubby got carried away with the duty free trolley and bought me a cute but utterly impractical present, a Hello Kitty dressed up as a strawberry. He knows I love Miffy (or Nijntje as she’s known in her homeland of Holland) and he doesn’t actually seem to have realised that Kitty and Miffy aren’t the same character. I can relate to this confusion and do wonder why Dick Bruna’s lawyers didn’t take Hello Kitty’s creators to court many years ago for basically nicking his idea. But Bruna’s a nice fellow and I guess he turned a blind eye to his bunny being giving shorter ears and whiskers and a new name.I awoke about two thirds of the way through the flight to find Kitty sitting on my seatback tray waiting for me. I asked my husband why he’d bought it and he explained that a man needs no reason to buy his wife a present – and that he was concerned that Pooh, my travel bear, might need some company since his buddy Little Stan had – for reasons now forgotten – opted out of the holiday.
Young Love
Kitty and Pooh hit it off right away and spent most of the trip in the rucksack pocket together. Fortunately interspecies relationships seldom go anywhere so most of the time there were wistful looks, a bit of snuggling but no hanky panky. A young girl needs to think about her reputation when hanging around with an old rogue and Pooh soon realised his love of going away with his mum might be compromised by getting too cosy with a little cat and they agreed to part, stating irreconcilable personal life ambitions.
Talking of which, Kitty’s label tells us that she was born in London and her hobbies include travel, music and reading. Pooh’s include travel, eating honey and farting. See what I mean? Not really very aligned. She was also created as a ‘UK exclusive’ and Pooh’s a bear of the world. Kitty is suitable for an age range of 3 years old and above – so no problems there for me. I’m considerably above.
Vital Statistics
Kitty is very cute. She has the massive head that’s her main feature and a tiny little body which is posed in a seated position. The features on the head are very basic – just eyes, nose and whiskers – but she has a couple of fabric strawberries in her fur by her ear. Her dress is red with white spots and a green felt trim. It’s quite an effective way of recreating a strawberry. If an evil geneticist crossed a white cat with a strawberry, this is pretty much what you might imagine would come out the other end. Mind you, I rather doubt that an evil geneticist would bother with Kitties rather than something more effective at taking over the world like a crocodile crossed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Kitty sits about six inches tall and she’s well weighted so that she doesn’t tend to fall over. It’s nice to have such a thing but – and forgive me for the sacrilege of the next statement – I do rather struggle to see the point of what she’s actually ‘for’. She can sit on your shelf, or your bed, or in the back of your car if you’re so inclined but she doesn’t actually DO anything and she’s not big on personality due to those very blank features. You can take her dress of and then.........well, put it back on again. Maybe I’m too old to be in the target market but I’m a bit baffled about what happens next.
Should you get one?
As a soft toy for cuddling, she’s not really a very good shape. She’s small enough to get lost in a bed and not cuddly enough to really get involved with. And then there’s the small matter of her being white but not really washable. The manufacturers can go blue in the face claiming that ‘surface washable’ is ‘easy to clean’ but we all know that’s a fib. Have Kitty to stay and she’s going to get grubby and a bit of so-called ‘surface washing’ isn’t going to have much impact. Her fur will just go yucky and she’ll never be the same again. It’s just not right to keep a stuffed cat in a plastic bag (even one with breathing holes) just so she doesn’t get dirty.
Of course the idea of these toys is that you ‘collect’ them – oh boy, there’s an evil term if ever there were one. “What’s it for?” you ask naively. Eyebrows are raised as someone sighs and explains in the simplest possible terms because clearly they think you have learning difficulties, that it’s not actually FOR anything “It’s a COLLECTIBLE” they say – which basically means, it’s an utterly pointless but quite pretty piece of nonsense that you’ll be taking to a boot fair in a couple of years time. But if you see Kitty, please don’t tell her that.
When Pooh met Kitty 
