TODAY 32 WINDSOR GARDENS ... NEXT WEEK, THE WORLD!

A message from Paddington's official spokesman:

Paddington has now left his north London abode and is just 119 hours away from take-off. He will travel first to Washington, where he will take his passport from his battered old suitcase, and present it to customs, whereupon he will continue his journey to Buenos Aires.

Paddington does not have his itinerary set in stone ; he will be in South America for five months, so he can afford to be fairly leisurely. That said, he feels Santiago would be the place to stop for Christmas (he has heard Chile is particularly good for marmalade sandwiches and cocoa), and he also wishes to spend a good couple of months in Bolivia, where he hopes to discover a little more about the political situation. After that, he will return to his native land of Peru and will finish his journey in Quito, Ecuador.

As you can see, Paddington is extremely excited about his journey :



Paddington has agonised for several months about how many books he can fit in his luggage. Thankfully, he doesn't own all that many clothes (a hat, duffel-coat and wellington boots are really all a bear needs), which means he can fit in eight books.

The antagonism between Marxism and postmodernism has troubled and excited Paddington for some time, so an abridged version of Capital (Marx), Mythologies (Barthes) and The Metastases of Enjoyment (Zizek) should give him plenty to think and write about.

Detective fiction is good to fill all those hours spent waiting around for public transport / dates who have stood you up / something to happen, so Paddington is looking forward to reading Highsmith's This Sweet Sickness, especially after recently enjoying Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. For long bus journeys an epic novel is what you need, and since War and Peace was just a little too big to fit in a rucksack pocket, Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) got the nod. Speaking of epics, Greil Marcus spins a good cultural yarn - this year's The Shape of Things to Come got panned in a few of the reviews, but Paddington has already earmarked that one for the festive season.

Graham Greene's Travels with my Aunt is set in South America, but Paddington often prefers reading about countries other than those he is in - which is why Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book will also be well-thumbed during the next five months.

And now, I must return to Paddington, who is feeling a little dicky after his yellowfever vaccination. Good night.

Paddington will return to Homo Ludens later this week.