The Bear Chronicles

The Bear Chronicles



Happy New Year everyone! I thought I’d begin 2009 (well, a month and a half in) by introducing you to Jamie Pearson. He’s a lovely lad is our Jamie and we’ve had a jolly good time since he arrived for a visit a few days before Thanksgiving. Jeff and I picked him up at the airport very late on November on 24th after his all day journey from London. His trip actually began on the 23rd when he left Northallerton, in North Yorkshire, in a snow storm, for a multi-train ride south to London.

Jamie was born in Leeds but spent most of his youth in the town of Thirsk. Thirsk might not be a place you have heard of but if you are a fan of the fictionalized British veterinarian, James Herriot, and his town of Darrowby, then you know Thirsk better than you realize. The actual James Herriot was a man named Alf Wight and his vet practice was located in Thirsk. I grew up watching “All Creatures Great and Small” and unfairly judged every veterinarian I had contact with against James Herriot…poor things. So when Jamie and I began chatting online after becoming friends on myspace.com, I was tickled pink to know he was from Herriot country. The big surprise came when he told me he and his grandparents had, for a time, lived over the surgery of Alf Wight in Thirsk. They were there during some of the filming of the series and they had their share of interactions with fans of James Herriot who travelled from all over the globe on pilgrimages to Thirsk. I peppered poor Jamie with endless questions about Yorkshire in the early days of our friendship and bless him, he was patient and answered every one.

As if it wasn’t enough that our Mr. Pearson was a bit of a celebrity with the whole Herriot thing, it turned out he was a musician as well. He began playing keys in high school and soon after bass guitar as well. He also plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, sitar and just about anything he can get his hands on. He spent a number of years in punk bands and ska bands. He likes to juggle and he’s a wiz with a yo-yo. I know…quite a combination of talents is our Mr. P.

Along with the traditional modes of creating music, Jamie is also an electronic artist, composing with his computer and various sorts of turny buttons. He is a laptop dj of remixes and ambient works and I can’t begin to describe what it all sounds like. Much better that you visit his site at Reverb Nation……www.reverbnation.com/mrbear….and hear it for yourself. He’ll have to tell you the story of how he got the name Mr. Bear!

And did I mention that he and his ex had their own pub for a spell and that he has also spent time running a fish and chips shop with his grandparents? It’s true. Jamie is quite possibly as quintessentially a Brit as you are ever going to run across. Any rumors you’ve heard about wretched English cooking will fly right out the window if you’re lucky enough to have this bloke cook for you. Let me tell you about his turkey curry!

Jamie and I were penpals for a couple of years before I decided to take a trip to England to meet him in person. He met me at Heathrow a few weeks before I came to Austin. We went north to Yorkshire and I stayed with him and his grandparents in Northallerton. We had such a great time that I went back again in late June of this year when Jeff gave me the gift of the airfare. Jamie and the grands met me at a small airport not far from Northallerton. We had breakfast together after my 24 hour trip from Texas and then much to my surprise and delight, Jamie put a train ticket to Edinburgh, Scotland, into my hand and off we went further north to a place we both love. I had visited the city when I was in college in Winchester and Jamie had lived there for a spell. We had another great week together then I trekked it back to the Lone Star state with promises that he would come to Austin.


So after a VERY long November 24th for both of us, he was greeted at the Austin airport by me and Jeff in his sombrero with his big sign to make it easy to spot us in the crowd. The plane was late landing and Jeff was the source of many giggles and curious looks as we waited for our arrival. We zoomed off into the dark in the war wagon with rap music peeling the paint off the truck from the inside out. Welcome to Austin!

Jamie has done incredibly well taking in the weirdness that is life in Austin with Crazy Jeff and the library assistant at Dell Children’s. He’s been out doing night photography on the cliffs near the Pennybacker Bridge with Jeff. He’s been to a massive fire at an apartment complex in Round Rock at midnight when we delivered photo gear to the boss after a “do you know what bloody time it is!” response to his phone call. He’s performed at several open mic nights as well as providing guitar and mandolin music for an open house we had here at the library. People love his accent but keep thinking he says his name is Jeremy! If they don’t get Jamie on the third try he just relents and says “Yes, that’s right…it’s Jeremy.” See….patient. Oh my goodness how I laugh!
(The artwork for the album cover is one of Jeff's paintings and now you can download individual mp3 tracks at Amazon.com! You can buy the album there too!)

We had rather a mixed up Thanksgiving that ended up with Italian meatloaf from my bocce repertoire but we nailed Christmas with fabulous turkey and lots of fixings, including chipolatas, a standard with a British Christmas dinner, which are small sausages wrapped with bacon and roasted…..oh my. Jamie used breakfast sausages he cut in half and then wrapped with bacon. Meat covered meat…why didn’t I think of this earlier. Fantastic! Go ahead…you know you want to make them now. Do it then come back and read the final few paragraphs on a full stomach.

We had a fun-filled Christmas. I borrowed a little silver tree to put our presents around…it was too small to put much under but a few things fit. We had a string of colored lights and a gorgeous wreath David had sent down from Pownal. After breakfast and getting the turkey ready we took turns opening cards and gifts. Despite the relatively small size of the packages, each one Jamie picked up he looked at knowingly and said, “I bet it’s an LP.” Meanwhile, having asked repeatedly for a pony for every major holiday and Wednesday for the past several years, I approached every gift with “I bet it’s a pony.”

When we got to the last of the gifts we were exchanging, I found myself with a little box that said OPEN LAST on the tag. I shook it and listened then looked at Jamie and said, “I bet it’s a pony.” And I fully expected to find a little plastic pony inside. So imagine my surprise when as I started to open the box, Mr. Pearson pointed out that he was down on one knee and as I looked confusedly between him and the silver & peridot ring that was nestled in the cotton of the little gold box, he said, “Wren, will you marry me?” Well that pretty much put a wrap on Christmas except for the chipolatas…..

So there you have it. Jamie Neil Pearson in a nutshell. I’m well chuffed about him.
Now before you start asking questions, no there is no date set. Infact, as I'm writing this Jamie is actually back in England. His tourist visa expired last week so we had a teary good-bye on the 21st and it will be months before we're breathing the same air again. We have to file forms with Homeland Security and Immigration to be granted a fiance visa so he can come back and we can tie the knot. This will be the next great adventure...sigh. Thus we are together but apart. Thank goodness for phones and instant messaging is all I can say.

Well there you have it. I think the only person happier than me about all this is my mother!!

Big loves to every one and I hope those of you buried under all that snow up home get dug out soon.