Kittens and such

During the 1977-78 Christmas holidays, I went to on a family holiday to Sydney.  We did all the sights, the Bridge, the Opera House, the Rocks....and all the child-friendly places that poor Mum had to take us to, like Taronga Zoo and Luna Park.  At Luna Park, I went on the Big Dipper after my brother bet me 20 cents I couldn't do it.  Never one to knock back a challenge or money for that matter, I did it and Mum, the trooper that she is, came with me.  I spent the whole time with my face buried in her arm screaming "I want to get off".  We all needed a little sit down after that.

Seeing Star Wars was another highlight.  The movie completely blew our minds, and my brother and I immediately had to go searching for merch.  Which leads me to Tom Kitten.  We went to the David Jones toy department looking for R2D2s and C3POs, when I happened upon a kit for making Beatrix Potter figurines out of plaster.  As I am a cat person, I bought Tom Kitten. I am also a Jeremy Fisher person but my pocket money did not extend that far. When I got back home, I made up young Tom and painted him in his traditional colours.

As you can see, he is a little worse for wear as he's had a few moves over the years.  He now sits safely in a cupboard at my parent's house with my other childhood treasures.  Looking at him now, I notice he has crazy eyes. I hate to think what I would have done to Peter Rabbit.  A realistic case of myxomatosis, I suspect.

And why am I mentioning Tom in 2013?  Well, I was at the Post Office the other day and discovered that Australia Post has issued a 60 cent stamp to commemorate the 110 year anniversary of Peter Rabbit.  The stamp comes in a special folder with other stamps of Beatrix Potter characters.  These other stamps do not have a value and can't be used on actual letters.  However, they are soooooo cute and I just had to have them.  Unfortunately, I can't reproduce them here as they are subject to copyright.  However, check them out at the Australia Post website.  Tom looks a little startled in his portrait, so perhaps the eyes I painted do reflect the original.

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