This post is part of the Travel Series – reflections and muses based on the cities I have lived in or travelled to. If you are looking for recommendations on food, things to do and the wows of a city, please go to other travel blogs.
As inspiring as every trip may be, warped with sights and laden with myriad camera and Instagram opportunities, my favorite place is to come home to my apartment, kick off my shoes and venture in my Bear Room, brushing past the wall of dangling postcards from around the world as I enter.
I giggle at the sight of the mattress, covered with 35 Snuffles bears of different colours and sizes, all staring up at me with their soft eyes, welcoming me home with their cuddliness
I sink deep into the red chaise longue by the window, the first significant procurement I had made since I started earning money. I had made seven individual trips to Galeries Lafayette throughout a few weekends during my time in Paris to tip the ambivalence into purchase. It has since been reupholstered from aubergine to velvet pink.
The chaise longue sits next to the wide windows and I can see buses and cars down on the main road overtaking each other by an inch. I stretch out, throwing the keys on to the darkwood dressing table on its right. There is a mess of suitcase on the pink rug in the middle of the room, but I don’t care. I look around, mesmerized by the jigsaw puzzle collection of Jimmy’s illustrations festooned on one wall. On the opposite wall sits a tall bookshelf housing my Jimmy illustration book collection to complement. Old editions of the Concise Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus stampedes silently on the bottom shelf, reminding me of the days I used to write with pen and paper and flip through paper version of dictionaries, instead of pressing ⌘+R.
Bamboo, a two-year-old Shiba, a Japanese fox-like dog dating from the days of the Samurai, runs from wherever she slumbered towards the Bear Room. Her paws pitter and patter on the tiles, while her reddish brown bum sways from side to side, as if still deciding whether to run, bound, jump on me, or do all three at the same time. Her bushy tail has a white tip, and it amazes me how she can coordinate wagging, sniffing at the suitcases, and sneezing simultaneously.
She huddles her head into my lap the looks up, poking her white face into mine, absorbing the new scents I brought from my last destination. She gives me a lick and then gazes at me from under her café-latte coloured eyelashes, as if to ask, “where is my treat for today?”
Perhaps tomorrow I will feel overwhelmed again by the thought of staying alive, seeking to hide from invisible threats and responsibilities. Perhaps in a few days, lights in Sanlitun Village might blur my vision and shock me with an amalgamation of panic attacks and delusions of men dressed in black stalking me.
But for now, I will engorge the safety of the Bear Room, where only things that make me happy exist in silo. Res ipsa loquitur.
Hi, I am from Tamilnadu, India.
I just accidentally crossed your blog, while I searching for “the treatment for depression by book reading”. I first read it for my research paper. But slowly I felt you as a near person to me, I really wanna to be a friend to you. I think some passion created towards you, I could not stop & close the blog, The whole day I only was in this blog till my son have come from school. I was in a new world.
Noch, Sharing whatever we feel is a gift. Sometimes it may be good. But many times it turned to worst condition. So that I won’t share anything to anybody. But I used to interact with others normally, with jokes & regular talks. More than that I won’t share my personal matters. But now I feel you the person I can share anything.
OK, send your email id , Bye.
Caro/18.10.2013
Hi Carolyn
Thanks for your message here and also your email. I’m glad I can help you express some of your thoughts and feelings too. Yes sometimes we need to choose who we share with. This is a safe forum for you to share views with others. I am glad you feel you can trust me!
Any feedback about the blog is most welcomed!
Noch Noch
Nice post!
THanks Dave! 🙂
NN
The Bear Room sounds nice! I was trying to imagine 35 fluffy bears…but I couldn’t! Never seen so many bears in my life so no reference point =p
Having a bear room sounds like a very good thing Nochie, it’s like a safe room where no bad things can get to you =)
Hi Nigel
Good to hear from you. hahaha yah, it’s all fluffy and cozy, sometimes I come in here just to hide or sleep. It feels so happy once I’m here.
NN
[…] trip and staying at a hotel. He is fascinated by the hotel room, and so happy he got to leave the Bear Room to […]
[…] Played with Bamboo. […]
[…] asked the class to help me out for a trial. A few people were very supportive and offered their time and […]
[…] post is part of my travelling series – posts inspired whilst in that location, brought about by photos I […]
[…] the Ebook is designed with bears, it is only logical that it will be housed on Bearapy’s website, so that forces may […]