Her name was Hamina, she was furry, small, apricot coloured and much beloved by the whole family.
Hugo adored her, as did Constance, human uncle ~ whom you should know by now is never named ~ had been known to hold and stroke her with a slightly foolish look on his face but as for my mum, well, as far as Hamina was concerned in family pecking order, she was on a level footing with Balu the Labrador and James the cat.
What was she? Haven't you guessed? Her name should give you the clue. Hamina was a Hamster.
She lived in the kitchen but usually spent most of her day on someone's shoulder or in a pocket, Hugo often had her with him in his pocket in his old country jacket, which had deep pockets and many of them and he would take her in to Tenterden and so Hamina got to meet a lot of people.
There was a particular friend of Hugo, John Byron, who would smile and say "is Hammie with you as I have some yumyum for her" and he would go up to his kitchen, he lived above his shop and come back with some delicious edible treat for his small furry friend. The two antique dealers would then sit, drink LapSang tea and talk business whilst their furry friend would scamper about on John's desk.
Hugo who had an over vivid imagination at the best of time and should have gone into set design, except that the war interferred with his career, built her the most delicious house, it had several floors, including the all-important wheel without which a Hamster's life would not be complete, he also made her a metal slide!
Now how, or why, Hugo knew that Hammie would even look at a slide will never be known but taking a small amount of metal, he beat into shape, fixed it to a platform and added a little wooden ladder, a Hamster sized ladder.
There came the Grand Day of The Slide Opening and John Bryon and Winnie, who was their daily and had given Hamina to my mum for her birthday, were invited to tea. The kitchen table was huge, the tea was at one end and the slide was put at the other.
My mum picked her up and plonked Hamine half way up the ladder, she knew she'd climb up it as she adored the other ladders that Hugo had made for her but would she trot along the little platform and come sliding down the metal shute?
She climbed up the rest of the ladder, sat up and surveyed the party, looked at the yumyum, all her favourite people and she reckoned the fastest way down was by this shiny thing and plunged head first! And she 'got' it, for she immediately clambered up the steps and whizzed down again!
John said "If it survives her teeth, in fifty years time someone will wonder who made it and what the hell is it?" and the party dissolved with laughter!
Now.. I know you're wondering what on earth the connection is between Mrs. Jacqueline Onassis and a Hamster? Read on Dear Readers, read on.. for this is a cute Tale!
For many years she had a lovely friend called Carolyn Blakemore, who lived in NYC and worked as a senior editor for the publishing house Doubledays. (She worked on all of Barbara Taylor Bradford's books besides other best selling authors and died about two years ago, a lovely, generous woman).
Mrs. Onassis came to work at Doubleday after leaving Viking, another publishing house. ,
She knew from Carolyn that Mrs. Onassis mostly worked from her home and so was literally 'gob smacked' when, one day in the late 80's, she went to collect Carolyn for lunch, from the offices on Park Avenue, she saw who was coming with her, holding out her hand and saying "Hello, I'm Jacqueline and I hope you don't mind, I'm gate crashing your lunch".
The three of them walked around the corner to a small restaurant where Carolyn and she always ate and were seated at a table towards the back. Mrs. Onassis sat with her back to the restaurant facing them.
Lunch was pleasant, with talk of dance, horses and antiques. Mrs. Onassis has worked as the editor on a recently published best seller, the autobiography of Gelsey Kirkland called on 'Dancing on my grave', read the book. Gelsey Kirkland is an extremely famous (retired) American ballerina.
She noticed something interesting about her, which was that she cut her food up into small pieces and chewed each piece many times before swallowing it and putting another piece of food into her mouth to eat.
Mrs. Onassis left first, she got up, handed Carolyn a $20 bill and said "I'm out of the office for a couple of days but I will see you on Thursday, ....., I enjoyed our lunch and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your stay in New York", smiled at them both and was gone.
My mum sat and looked at Carolyn and said "You could have warned me!", Carolyn laughed and said "why, you can be a bit too shy sometimes for your own good and she is an interesting and highly intelligent person in her own right, horses, dance, antiques, you both like the same things, did you notice any awkard pauses in our conversation, because I didn't?"
And with that, they left the restaurant and went off to see an exhibition at MOMA and whilst walking to the Museum, she said to Carolyn, "she eats in a slightly 'strange' way, have you noticed this?".
Carolyn laughed and replied "I know exactly what you're talking about and this is why, Jacqueline knows that there could be a camera pointed at her at any time when she's out and so she only puts very small amounts of food into her mouth at one time, for she doesn't want to be caught on camera with what she calls 'Hamster' cheeks".
Hamster cheeks.. don't you love it! And, if you know Hamsters, you'll know exactly what 'Jackie O' meant!
GeeGee Parrot.
November 12th, 2015.
Hugo adored her, as did Constance, human uncle ~ whom you should know by now is never named ~ had been known to hold and stroke her with a slightly foolish look on his face but as for my mum, well, as far as Hamina was concerned in family pecking order, she was on a level footing with Balu the Labrador and James the cat.
What was she? Haven't you guessed? Her name should give you the clue. Hamina was a Hamster.
She lived in the kitchen but usually spent most of her day on someone's shoulder or in a pocket, Hugo often had her with him in his pocket in his old country jacket, which had deep pockets and many of them and he would take her in to Tenterden and so Hamina got to meet a lot of people.
There was a particular friend of Hugo, John Byron, who would smile and say "is Hammie with you as I have some yumyum for her" and he would go up to his kitchen, he lived above his shop and come back with some delicious edible treat for his small furry friend. The two antique dealers would then sit, drink LapSang tea and talk business whilst their furry friend would scamper about on John's desk.
Hugo who had an over vivid imagination at the best of time and should have gone into set design, except that the war interferred with his career, built her the most delicious house, it had several floors, including the all-important wheel without which a Hamster's life would not be complete, he also made her a metal slide!
Now how, or why, Hugo knew that Hammie would even look at a slide will never be known but taking a small amount of metal, he beat into shape, fixed it to a platform and added a little wooden ladder, a Hamster sized ladder.
There came the Grand Day of The Slide Opening and John Bryon and Winnie, who was their daily and had given Hamina to my mum for her birthday, were invited to tea. The kitchen table was huge, the tea was at one end and the slide was put at the other.
My mum picked her up and plonked Hamine half way up the ladder, she knew she'd climb up it as she adored the other ladders that Hugo had made for her but would she trot along the little platform and come sliding down the metal shute?
She climbed up the rest of the ladder, sat up and surveyed the party, looked at the yumyum, all her favourite people and she reckoned the fastest way down was by this shiny thing and plunged head first! And she 'got' it, for she immediately clambered up the steps and whizzed down again!
John said "If it survives her teeth, in fifty years time someone will wonder who made it and what the hell is it?" and the party dissolved with laughter!
Now.. I know you're wondering what on earth the connection is between Mrs. Jacqueline Onassis and a Hamster? Read on Dear Readers, read on.. for this is a cute Tale!
For many years she had a lovely friend called Carolyn Blakemore, who lived in NYC and worked as a senior editor for the publishing house Doubledays. (She worked on all of Barbara Taylor Bradford's books besides other best selling authors and died about two years ago, a lovely, generous woman).
Mrs. Onassis came to work at Doubleday after leaving Viking, another publishing house. ,
She knew from Carolyn that Mrs. Onassis mostly worked from her home and so was literally 'gob smacked' when, one day in the late 80's, she went to collect Carolyn for lunch, from the offices on Park Avenue, she saw who was coming with her, holding out her hand and saying "Hello, I'm Jacqueline and I hope you don't mind, I'm gate crashing your lunch".
The three of them walked around the corner to a small restaurant where Carolyn and she always ate and were seated at a table towards the back. Mrs. Onassis sat with her back to the restaurant facing them.
Lunch was pleasant, with talk of dance, horses and antiques. Mrs. Onassis has worked as the editor on a recently published best seller, the autobiography of Gelsey Kirkland called on 'Dancing on my grave', read the book. Gelsey Kirkland is an extremely famous (retired) American ballerina.
She noticed something interesting about her, which was that she cut her food up into small pieces and chewed each piece many times before swallowing it and putting another piece of food into her mouth to eat.
Mrs. Onassis left first, she got up, handed Carolyn a $20 bill and said "I'm out of the office for a couple of days but I will see you on Thursday, ....., I enjoyed our lunch and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your stay in New York", smiled at them both and was gone.
My mum sat and looked at Carolyn and said "You could have warned me!", Carolyn laughed and said "why, you can be a bit too shy sometimes for your own good and she is an interesting and highly intelligent person in her own right, horses, dance, antiques, you both like the same things, did you notice any awkard pauses in our conversation, because I didn't?"
And with that, they left the restaurant and went off to see an exhibition at MOMA and whilst walking to the Museum, she said to Carolyn, "she eats in a slightly 'strange' way, have you noticed this?".
Carolyn laughed and replied "I know exactly what you're talking about and this is why, Jacqueline knows that there could be a camera pointed at her at any time when she's out and so she only puts very small amounts of food into her mouth at one time, for she doesn't want to be caught on camera with what she calls 'Hamster' cheeks".
Hamster cheeks.. don't you love it! And, if you know Hamsters, you'll know exactly what 'Jackie O' meant!
GeeGee Parrot.
November 12th, 2015.
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