tinker

Here he is. My great sleep aid.

I don't have him in the bed with me very often as he is very old and a bit fragile now. You can see where his fur has worn away and no bear should go completely bald.

He's called Tinker and we've been together a very long time. He was a second birthday present from my Aunty Moira.

"All the toys you had and you had to hang on to 'that'. you took him everywhere," said my mother, somewhat disapprovingly, as she spotted him in my bed when I was visiting - about 10 years ago. He is a regular in family snaps. Sitting on the steps of caravans with me in the early 1970s, attending weddings...

I've stopped taking him everywhere with me now though - he's been through too many x-ray machines at airports and the suspicious looks I was getting from their security staff were making me paranoid.

Usually he sits on a pile of books by my alarm clock, but when I can't sleep I sneak him into bed with me, sniff behind his ear and drift off to sleep - and sneeze first if he is a bit dusty.

No, I don't do 'lends'.