Blob Thing Talks Socks And Is Thankful For The Tyne Ferry

My person says that I said far too much yesterday.  She says that I rambled and went completely off the topic.  She says that all I was meant to be talking about yesterday was my encounter with the Herma Merma Dragora and that by the end of all my discussions about undersea cities, the lack of legal protections for soft toys, and God her fingers were aching a lot.  My person says that I shouldn't just dictate to her today and that she wants to be able to discuss things with me and then just type a few important words.  But I want to dictate.  It's fun to talk.  And it's fun to watch her fingers.

I suppose I should take pity on my person today.  She's very tired and more than a bit dizzy and would probably prefer to go to bed for the afternoon rather than type something about my adventures.  It's her own fault though.  If she had got up this morning and typed with me then she would have had lots of energy for my blog.  But did she do that?  Oh no.  Today she wrote down a short poem and then finished a verse simple work of art and then wrote a blog about it.  She did that.  Instead of writing my blog.  No wonder she's tired.

I'm going to get on with discussing my adventure now.  I'm not going to talk about eating pufferfish today.  My exciting day joining the walk for refugees was approaching its end.  We walked through the streets of South Shields, tired and hungry and with every cafe and curry house we passed we became more tempted to stop and eat.  If we hadn't known there was a promise of a banquet at the end of our trek we would have succumbed and never made it to the far land of North Shields.

We were tired but we felt good and we knew that the day had been worthwhile.  From this point on it would be an easy walk.  Easy.  Or so we thought.  But we were wrong.  As we passed through the final streets of South Shields we came to a market.  Several people were attempting to sell pairs of socks.  The desperate vendors, obviously struggling to make enough money to feed their fifteen children, kept calling to us.  "Five pairs for three pounds.  Come and get your socks.  Quality socks for quality people."  It made me sad to see how hard the market people were working and the struggle a purveyor of cheap socks has to survive in the land of Shields.

None of the brave walkers bought any socks.  We all had socks on our feet.  Nearly all of us.  I admit that I do not own a single pair of socks.  I have no tights or stockings.  None.  That's not a big worry for me though because I don't have any feet.  Trying to sell me five pairs of socks for three pounds is a fool's game.  I don't need your socks.  I don't have any money either.  I am a soft toy friend of few material needs and I am fortunate enough to have a person who looks after me well.  Now she has my sister to look after too and she's doing a very good job.

My sister is sitting with me right now and she's very happy today.  It's been very windy and she has enjoyed watching the way the leaves move on the trees, how the light turns and changes as the leaves shake.  She has loved the way the wind in the trees sounds like the sea washing against the rocks and she has closed her eyes and imagined herself lying on the sand gazing up at the sky as the cumulus clouds rush past, the gulls talk and the fish and crabs sing their songs in the water.  I think my sister would have enjoyed the next part of my adventure with the refugees and their friends.  I think she would have enjoyed the entire walk.  Maybe my person will take her on that walk one day.  I know she wants to see all the places near Sunderland.  I think she would especially love the roof of the glass centre and it's fun to think of her bouncing and spinning on the transparent roof and jumping up and down with all her might to see if it would crack.  Yes.  We must take her.  I'd like to play on that roof too.  Please person, can we go soon?

I was a bit confused in the market.  We were in one of the major settlements in the Land of Shields.  But there wasn't even one person in the market with any shields for sale.  No swords.  No armour.  Not even a helmet.  What was going on?  This was the Land of Shields and there were no shields.  Hey person.  Can we go to the big Roman fort in South Shields too?  It was confusing and disappointing.  A pair of socks is not a shield.  Of what use is a pair of socks when someone is attacking you with a battle axe?  I admit that socks are quite nice things to wear on feet, if you have such things as feet.  But how would you use them to protect yourself when a barbarian horde is rushing at you with their swords and axes and clubs raised high, shouting out with the fiercest of battle cries? - like the Viking my person saw this morning could have done.

I'm serious.  In such a scenario, what would you do if you only had five pairs of socks for three pounds with which to defend yourself?  I'm not at all sure that if you held up the socks and said, "If you don't kill me and promise to leave my land then I will give you a sock," that the barbarians would listen.  I'm not sure there would be a peace treaty made on the basis of a simple sock donation.  I think with a sock but no shield you would surely be cut into four thousand pieces and the barbarians would celebrate in your castle and drink far more mead than was good for them.

No.  There were no shields for sale in the Land of Shields.  Not that I saw.  Maybe they were hidden in some secret shop.  Maybe the shield and weapon sellers felt too vulnerable in that market square.  Maybe the city had defenders I didn't see and any invader would be lulled into a false sense of security.  They would advance from the sea, laugh at the sock sellers and then be destroyed by an unknown force.  Or perhaps a known force.  The known force I had met on the other side of the city.  Maybe the Herma Merma Dragora could fly up and bear down on the barbarians and destroy their whole army, leaving just three of the smallest of them to take a message back to the barbarian king that the Land of Shields would never be defeated.  I think perhaps it could.  It did seem to be a mightily powerful creature.

I'd better get on before my person tells me off for talking too much. This adventure isn't about socks in the market.  It's about something far more thrilling than socks.  We passed the market and saw something daunting.  We had imagined that the rest of the trip would be an easy walk.  We were mistaken.  It would be an impossible walk.  There was no way to walk from South Shields to North Shields.   Our way was barred by an immense body of water.  This was the River Tyne.  Victory in our quest was snatched from us and we wanted to sit and weep in our defeat.  If we couldn't cross the water we would never reach our banquet.  And going back and buying five pairs of socks wouldn't benefit us at all.  Socks don't make excellent floatation devices.

Our journey was over.  Within sight of North Shields, almost within sight of the banquet.  It was over.  Because we couldn't walk on water.  Even Jesus would have had a hard time getting all of us to walk across the River Tyne.  There was no hope.

But in that time of sorrow came a joyful sound.  The minister who was leading the walk has a way of communicating with his god.  He must have called out because suddenly, there before us in the road, was a ferryman and a ferry big enough to carry all of us across the water.  We were saved.  We would be able to eat the banquet.  And my person would be reunited with her rucksack.  All hail the ferryman for saving the day.

I was so happy to see the ferry and I got my person to hold me so that I could be in a picture with it.  A sturdy ferry indeed.  I had no doubt that it would get us across the River Tyne.  The chances of the ferry sinking were minimal.

And so we all boarded the ferry.  Some of us had to pay a fee to cross the water.  None of us had to part with any of our socks.  I didn't have to pay because it turns out that soft toy friends don't have to pay to cross the Tyne.  We may have no legal protections and we may be treated just as property but there are some advantages to being a friend rather than a human.  My person didn't have to pay either.  She has a magic card that she can use most of the time to travel on a bus.  And her magic card worked for the ferry too.  She showed it to the ferryman.  He bowed and said she was welcome on his fine vessel.

As we crossed the water, my person took lots of pictures to commemorate our trip.  Winefride would have loved this.  Maybe one day we can go again and maybe the ferryman will be just as kind to my person.

Here are a couple of pictures of me.  My person had to hold me very tightly because it was windy and I would never have balanced on the narrow ledge on the ship on my own.  Here you see her wearing two bracelets both of which were given to her by my creator.  My creator even made one of them.  It's got rainbow beads and on it are the words "AUTISTIC PRIDE".  My "Autistic" badge was made by my creator too.  She's very clever.  Anyone who can make me must be very clever indeed.  And now I've got a sister and she's got a beautiful dress and a bow and she's very very lovely.  I love my sister.  I'll post something about an adventure we shared soon.  I am quite desperate to tell you about the policemen!

You can see how windy it was.  Just look at what it did to my dress!

Don't look too hard though.  Please.








One final picture for today.  Here are some of the people we walked with.  An excellent group of people.  I was proud to have been part of the adventure with them and would happily walk with them again.  My person is in the middle of that group.  Most of the other people are refugees, some of whom have lived in the United Kingdom for a while and have built a new life.  Some of them are newcomers.  They didn't want to have to come and live here.  All of them would have preferred to have been able to stay in their countries of origin.  Refugees are not refugees by choice but by necessity.  All of them are glad to be here though.  This is a place of relative safety, of welcome, of freedom.  This is a place where they won't have their lives destroyed by war or persecution or hatred.  Here they can start again.  Here there is hope.  Some of these people have passed through many kinds of Hell.  It's been shockingly difficult.  They must have felt like giving up at times.  But they didn't give up and now they are all thankful for their good fortune in making it here.  Many do not make it.  Some even die in the attempt to be free.

I am proud of each one of these people.  And it was a total honour to be among them.  I want to thank them all for such a beautiful, brilliant day.

So we were able to cross the waters and the ferry carried us all the way to the edge of North Shields.  We had made it.  Just a short walk through that city and we would be at our final destination and would share in a fabulous banquet.  Well, some of us would share.  Some of us wouldn't be able to eat with us.  But I can explain that in my next post.





[2158 words.  Blob is bouncing around now and telling his person that it was okay and that he didn't talk as much today.  Blob's person still isn't happy and says it's too much talking and asks why he had to talk so much about socks when they had nothing to do with the adventure.  She wants a short post tomorrow.   Perhaps everybody would prefer a short post.]