My final day working for Kirklees Council on their market as Father Christmas. I once again got the 9am train to Dewsbury, and was pleased to see my old Credit Union colleague Simon Brereton and headed towards the market and it's little building with the office upstairs and the grotto downstairs. The temperature sign on the nearby building said -8 C when I arrived, but during the day it got the sun on it and slowly went up, to -6, -3, -1, then -0 which surprised me, and then 0 and for a short time, up to 8 C, but it soon fell again when the sun went away, and by 3.30 pm it was below zero again. In reality, where we were, it never rose above freezing.
However, despite it being cold, I enjoyed my day... it was quiet enough to be almost boring, but the occasional visitor made it just worthwhile. I got on well with my 'Santa's Little Helper' or 'Mrs. Claus', Trish, and we had some good conversations. At the end of the day, at 3.30, I gave her some pea beans I happened to have with me.
An uneventful ride home, had to change trains in Leeds though. I cycled home as quickly as possible.
Gill had made tomato soup for tea and this was delicious, really delicious!
A quiet evening.
Showing posts with label Father Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Father Christmas. Show all posts
A disturbed night. Gill discovered that she was losing a lot of blood in the night and rang the out of hours GP service; they said go to Accident and Emergency. So she got a taxi and went in, but was back by 4am and I'm not sure what they did, if anything.
I got up at 7.30, to be heading off out of the house at 8.30 to go to Dewsbury. Gill had got up at 7am and made sandwiches for me, and plaited my hair which I can't do for myself... I got off in enough time to get the 8.58. The carriage I got on had a party of 9 Geordie women, all related, off to Manchester for their annual Christmas bash... shopping, a night out, good times. They were drinking Champaigne and eating fancy chocolates and biscuits... the party had already started. One of the women, Pink, chatted with me and expressed her desire to be less acquisitive, less materialistic. At one stage of the journey she suggested to the group that they ought to only give each other Christmas presents every 5 years. I enjoyed this 'people-watching' time.
I dragged myself away at Dewsbury and the Market Office was quite close to the station, about 5 minutes walk... I'd memorised the route last night on Googlemaps. The grotto was right next to the office, and the Kirklees Council team had brought the Santa Claus costume, so at 10.30 I got started... sitting in the grotto, with kiddies and their families being ushered in, for £2.50 per child, to have an audience with Santa, and a wrapped present.
It was fairly constant, with not many gaps, and I enjoyed it almost as much as the walkabout next week. The most interesting thing this time was the number of Asian customers, many obviously Muslim. This was curious, and my questions like 'are you all ready for Christmas?' were quite often met with a 'no', as they don't celebrate it. But the children are growing up in a culture with images of Father Christmas, so of course they want to experience it. I love our multicultural society. On a couple of occasions when talking with these people, I said I enjoyed Eid, which seemed to go down well.
There was one incident which was a bit disturbing. A pair of women came in right at the end of the day, with a 3 or 4 year old daughter, and one of the women's Dads. He was either drunk, or unwell in some way, and was very controlling, verging on the aggressive. At one stage he tried to sit or crouch down next to my chair, and fell backwards. He said he hadn't been out for 11 days and mentioned that he had diabetes. He also tried to grab and move the child but the mother wasn't having it and stopped him, told him off. It was by far the most difficult visit.
But this was quite close to 3.30, my finish time. I actually worked til 3.40, as the Harry Potter RoadShow finished at 3.30 and I got a few visitors after that.
But I got changed and away to the station for the 4.07 train, and I switched my phone back on and dozed. I tried to send Gill a text but for some reason it wouldn't send. Then I got a phone call from Ashley, one of our friends from primary school days. She'd taken Gill into hospital at midday and the boys were with her. She suggested that I might go to Ward 22 to see Gill, and then come to collect the boys.
So I cycled to the hospital and found Gill, who was in good humour, on her feet, and helping to look after another admission who kept threatening to get out of her bed. Gill told me the doctors didn't know what to do with her, whether to endoscope her to find the source of the bleeding, or something else. Gill told me to get back to the kids and to put £10 on her phone using a card in the hospital shop.
So I did that, and then cycled all the way along the Route 66 cycle path which was mega slippy along to Melrosegate, up Green Dykes Lane, down into Heslington, picked up a good load of logs, and then up Windmill Lane to Ashley and Paul's. The boys were pleased to see me, and had been impeccably behaved, even helping to break up ice on the path outside the house.
I thanked Ashley for all her help, and walked back with the boys. They went onto the computers and I lit the stoves, heated water for pasta, washed up, cooked squash, onion and tomato with herbs, and then boiled carrot, celery and pasta, and those two dishes were adequate for tea, eating at 8pm.
Before bed, we had 2 games of consequences, one a picture game with the theme of robots (good suggestion from our youngest) and then a story consequences which filled 3 sides of A4... meaning that each of us wrote 3 chunks of fiction making 3 funny stories.
Wheat sacks were warmed, hot water bottles filled, hot drinks downed, and they went to bed with no problems whatsoever. Magic!
I then washed up, put the logs in the front and bike away, watched a programme on body language and went to bed at my normal time.
I look forward to finding out what is happening to Gill tomorrow, and if she's in hospital all day, we might go in and see her...
I got up at 7.30, to be heading off out of the house at 8.30 to go to Dewsbury. Gill had got up at 7am and made sandwiches for me, and plaited my hair which I can't do for myself... I got off in enough time to get the 8.58. The carriage I got on had a party of 9 Geordie women, all related, off to Manchester for their annual Christmas bash... shopping, a night out, good times. They were drinking Champaigne and eating fancy chocolates and biscuits... the party had already started. One of the women, Pink, chatted with me and expressed her desire to be less acquisitive, less materialistic. At one stage of the journey she suggested to the group that they ought to only give each other Christmas presents every 5 years. I enjoyed this 'people-watching' time.
I dragged myself away at Dewsbury and the Market Office was quite close to the station, about 5 minutes walk... I'd memorised the route last night on Googlemaps. The grotto was right next to the office, and the Kirklees Council team had brought the Santa Claus costume, so at 10.30 I got started... sitting in the grotto, with kiddies and their families being ushered in, for £2.50 per child, to have an audience with Santa, and a wrapped present.
It was fairly constant, with not many gaps, and I enjoyed it almost as much as the walkabout next week. The most interesting thing this time was the number of Asian customers, many obviously Muslim. This was curious, and my questions like 'are you all ready for Christmas?' were quite often met with a 'no', as they don't celebrate it. But the children are growing up in a culture with images of Father Christmas, so of course they want to experience it. I love our multicultural society. On a couple of occasions when talking with these people, I said I enjoyed Eid, which seemed to go down well.
There was one incident which was a bit disturbing. A pair of women came in right at the end of the day, with a 3 or 4 year old daughter, and one of the women's Dads. He was either drunk, or unwell in some way, and was very controlling, verging on the aggressive. At one stage he tried to sit or crouch down next to my chair, and fell backwards. He said he hadn't been out for 11 days and mentioned that he had diabetes. He also tried to grab and move the child but the mother wasn't having it and stopped him, told him off. It was by far the most difficult visit.
But this was quite close to 3.30, my finish time. I actually worked til 3.40, as the Harry Potter RoadShow finished at 3.30 and I got a few visitors after that.
But I got changed and away to the station for the 4.07 train, and I switched my phone back on and dozed. I tried to send Gill a text but for some reason it wouldn't send. Then I got a phone call from Ashley, one of our friends from primary school days. She'd taken Gill into hospital at midday and the boys were with her. She suggested that I might go to Ward 22 to see Gill, and then come to collect the boys.
So I cycled to the hospital and found Gill, who was in good humour, on her feet, and helping to look after another admission who kept threatening to get out of her bed. Gill told me the doctors didn't know what to do with her, whether to endoscope her to find the source of the bleeding, or something else. Gill told me to get back to the kids and to put £10 on her phone using a card in the hospital shop.
So I did that, and then cycled all the way along the Route 66 cycle path which was mega slippy along to Melrosegate, up Green Dykes Lane, down into Heslington, picked up a good load of logs, and then up Windmill Lane to Ashley and Paul's. The boys were pleased to see me, and had been impeccably behaved, even helping to break up ice on the path outside the house.
I thanked Ashley for all her help, and walked back with the boys. They went onto the computers and I lit the stoves, heated water for pasta, washed up, cooked squash, onion and tomato with herbs, and then boiled carrot, celery and pasta, and those two dishes were adequate for tea, eating at 8pm.
Before bed, we had 2 games of consequences, one a picture game with the theme of robots (good suggestion from our youngest) and then a story consequences which filled 3 sides of A4... meaning that each of us wrote 3 chunks of fiction making 3 funny stories.
Wheat sacks were warmed, hot water bottles filled, hot drinks downed, and they went to bed with no problems whatsoever. Magic!
I then washed up, put the logs in the front and bike away, watched a programme on body language and went to bed at my normal time.
I look forward to finding out what is happening to Gill tomorrow, and if she's in hospital all day, we might go in and see her...
Up early as had to be in Huddersfield working by 10am, so I left the house at 8, cycled slowly though the snow and ice down to the station and got the 8.27 towards Manchester. I met two nice women on he train who were heading to Manchester to meet some old friends, flying in to go shopping. Both were interested in green issues, one had even trained as a York Rotter, but were seemingly not able to convert their concern into significant action. This is not uncommon, and is partly due to lack of knowledge. Hence my blog...see How do I do 'low carbon'?
Anyway, Huddersfield stopped the conversation and I had memorised my route to the market office, and it took me less then 10 minutes to get there. The market office people had purchased a posh Santa outfit last year for the leader of the Council to wear, and they asked me to wear it. I kept my own trousers, red dungarees, and had a tabard thing with a stuffed front, for belly-mass, and then a really nice cloak with hood. And a beard/moustache with two elastics to hold it on, a big improvement on the single elastic that my Santa beard has, which does not stay on very well. They had some welly-boot covers with bells on which were a great idea too.
My role was to walk round the French Market and greet the public and give out Christmassy Chocolate eggs. Before starting I wasn't looking forward to this that much, but as I got down to it, I began to really enjoy it. I especially enjoyed the genuine wide-eyed wonder of some of the children, the play-along-with-it make believe of some of the older children, including teenagers, and helping to overcome the shyness of another group of mainly young children. Only twice did someone say they didn't believe in Father Christmas, shouted at me by a teen, and one lad tried to pull my beard. But the overwhelming response was very positive. I didn't feel the need to alter my voice, and I was able use my verbal humour to make people laugh, which I was pleased with.
This was my first time 'out and about' as Father Christmas... the previous occasions were in a hotel just giving a present or pile of presents to guests at the lunch table, whereas in the street it was a bit more of a natural situation with lots of different sorts of possible meetings. About half a dozen children wanted to hug me (well, my legs!) and quite a few wanted me to pose for a photo with them. I did two and a half hours before I was too cold to continue, and went back to the office for lunch.
I enjoyed the sandwiches Gill made for me and defrosted, and then went out for a 3 hour stint of more of the same. I almost didn't want to finish, but I got back to the office just after 4pm and quickly disrobed, put my fleece back on and got back to the station for the 4.26 train.
When I got back to York and cycled away from the station, my bike lights weren't working very well, in fact the front one wasn't working at all. So I cycled down to Cycle Heaven and a few minutes fiddling revealed that my dynamo had worn out, or gone wrong due to overuse, so I spent £25 on a new one to replace it, and cycled away extremely well lit - much better.
I got in and Gill and the boys were very focused on some telly nonsense (a dancing competition, I think) so I made myself some tea; home grown beans mixed with a bit of tomato soup and cheese, to make a sauce to pour over a big pile of broccoli, all cooked on the woodstove.
I had an extended facebook Scrabble session, playing for over an hour, and enjoyed watching some lightweight TV nonsense... just different nonsense to what the others were into.
Anyway, Huddersfield stopped the conversation and I had memorised my route to the market office, and it took me less then 10 minutes to get there. The market office people had purchased a posh Santa outfit last year for the leader of the Council to wear, and they asked me to wear it. I kept my own trousers, red dungarees, and had a tabard thing with a stuffed front, for belly-mass, and then a really nice cloak with hood. And a beard/moustache with two elastics to hold it on, a big improvement on the single elastic that my Santa beard has, which does not stay on very well. They had some welly-boot covers with bells on which were a great idea too.
My role was to walk round the French Market and greet the public and give out Christmassy Chocolate eggs. Before starting I wasn't looking forward to this that much, but as I got down to it, I began to really enjoy it. I especially enjoyed the genuine wide-eyed wonder of some of the children, the play-along-with-it make believe of some of the older children, including teenagers, and helping to overcome the shyness of another group of mainly young children. Only twice did someone say they didn't believe in Father Christmas, shouted at me by a teen, and one lad tried to pull my beard. But the overwhelming response was very positive. I didn't feel the need to alter my voice, and I was able use my verbal humour to make people laugh, which I was pleased with.
This was my first time 'out and about' as Father Christmas... the previous occasions were in a hotel just giving a present or pile of presents to guests at the lunch table, whereas in the street it was a bit more of a natural situation with lots of different sorts of possible meetings. About half a dozen children wanted to hug me (well, my legs!) and quite a few wanted me to pose for a photo with them. I did two and a half hours before I was too cold to continue, and went back to the office for lunch.
I enjoyed the sandwiches Gill made for me and defrosted, and then went out for a 3 hour stint of more of the same. I almost didn't want to finish, but I got back to the office just after 4pm and quickly disrobed, put my fleece back on and got back to the station for the 4.26 train.
When I got back to York and cycled away from the station, my bike lights weren't working very well, in fact the front one wasn't working at all. So I cycled down to Cycle Heaven and a few minutes fiddling revealed that my dynamo had worn out, or gone wrong due to overuse, so I spent £25 on a new one to replace it, and cycled away extremely well lit - much better.
I got in and Gill and the boys were very focused on some telly nonsense (a dancing competition, I think) so I made myself some tea; home grown beans mixed with a bit of tomato soup and cheese, to make a sauce to pour over a big pile of broccoli, all cooked on the woodstove.
I had an extended facebook Scrabble session, playing for over an hour, and enjoyed watching some lightweight TV nonsense... just different nonsense to what the others were into.
Well a traumatic start to the morning but both children did go to school and this allowed us to get on with a variety of paperwork-type things, despite feeling stressed, tiredness and having a headache. I wrote and sent an invoice, received a cheque for the Pickering Transition event, and got the paperwork through for a series of 5 gigs as Father Christmas in Dewsbury and Huddersfield. I don't really enjoy being Santa Claus, although the excited kiddies wouldn't know that as I remain professional and do my very best. For me, being Professor Fiddlesticks doesn't actually seem like work most of the time, as I genuinely enjoy myself, and Fiddlesticks is more the real me than John Cossham is. But acting as Saint Nicholas is tough, it is definitely work, not play. I'd rather not get offered more Father Christmas gigs, unless the money is very good, which in these cases, it isn't. But I'm in a situation where I cannot afford to turn down any paid work, so I look forward to the eventual cheque and will ensure that I work hard and do a good job.
So, once I'd done some of this paperwork, and dealt with a sales phone call as politely as possible, I did some outside work... a load of chainsawing, collecting the final load of logs from the Millfield Lane house and processing them, and at 4, I cycled round to Beryl the Freecycler in Heworth, who had offered a pair of size 9 steel toe cap wellington boots, and I went to try them on. They fitted me perfectly and she was happy to give them to me. On the way back I got a heavy wooden pallet. I also collected one sack of fallen beech leaves from a nearby tree, and added these to the leafmould pile.
The boys came back having had a good day at school which was a relief.
In the evening I did a big pan of stewed apple, using the tasty cooking apples from our garden, and Gill made a celery soup which was really nice. Later on in the evening my headache went away, probably due to a second dose of paracetamol. I enjoyed the last of the 3 programmes on the National Grid... a fascinating subject.
So, once I'd done some of this paperwork, and dealt with a sales phone call as politely as possible, I did some outside work... a load of chainsawing, collecting the final load of logs from the Millfield Lane house and processing them, and at 4, I cycled round to Beryl the Freecycler in Heworth, who had offered a pair of size 9 steel toe cap wellington boots, and I went to try them on. They fitted me perfectly and she was happy to give them to me. On the way back I got a heavy wooden pallet. I also collected one sack of fallen beech leaves from a nearby tree, and added these to the leafmould pile.
The boys came back having had a good day at school which was a relief.
In the evening I did a big pan of stewed apple, using the tasty cooking apples from our garden, and Gill made a celery soup which was really nice. Later on in the evening my headache went away, probably due to a second dose of paracetamol. I enjoyed the last of the 3 programmes on the National Grid... a fascinating subject.
I woke feeling much more cheery. Both boys got to school and this meant we could get on with stuff around the house.
Gill was busy preparing the wall in our youngest's bedroom to take a self adhesive magnetic strip, and then put the other bit of the magnetic strip onto the sheet of perspex which I carefully cycled home last week. By the early evening, it was up... secondary double glazing, and hopefully will mean that his room will be warmer. We ought to put up Sempatap too, but it's quite expensive. The secondary glazing cost about £70.
I did quite a bit of logpile stacking, at the front door again, on the left looking out. We've had both stoves going quite a bit and we're getting through the logs quickly. I had several phone calls including my agent asking me if I'd be interested in doing several gigs as Father Christmas. I have mixed feelings, as I don't really enjoy doing this... but if it earns me an income, I feel that I need to do it. Let's see if the various local authorities and city centre managers say yes to my quote.
I visited Country Fresh to get a big bag of root vegetables and two sacks of compostables plus two boxes full. Also a sack from Freshways. Then I went straight back down to town to pick up a freecycled bag of carrier bags which I'll use to sell compost in next spring, and then on to Millers Yard to pick up 3 sacks of autumn leaves. I came back via Sainsburys to get nice bread, cheese, soya yoghurt, soya ice cream and a treat, four cans of Kopparberg perry.
I had a fairly quiet evening, editing the Novaterium website to reflect some feedback I'd had from Promessa UK. I also dealt with the three remaining pineapples and all the slices of pineapple look lovely drying on the racks. It is one of my favourite dried fruits.
Gill was busy preparing the wall in our youngest's bedroom to take a self adhesive magnetic strip, and then put the other bit of the magnetic strip onto the sheet of perspex which I carefully cycled home last week. By the early evening, it was up... secondary double glazing, and hopefully will mean that his room will be warmer. We ought to put up Sempatap too, but it's quite expensive. The secondary glazing cost about £70.
I did quite a bit of logpile stacking, at the front door again, on the left looking out. We've had both stoves going quite a bit and we're getting through the logs quickly. I had several phone calls including my agent asking me if I'd be interested in doing several gigs as Father Christmas. I have mixed feelings, as I don't really enjoy doing this... but if it earns me an income, I feel that I need to do it. Let's see if the various local authorities and city centre managers say yes to my quote.
I visited Country Fresh to get a big bag of root vegetables and two sacks of compostables plus two boxes full. Also a sack from Freshways. Then I went straight back down to town to pick up a freecycled bag of carrier bags which I'll use to sell compost in next spring, and then on to Millers Yard to pick up 3 sacks of autumn leaves. I came back via Sainsburys to get nice bread, cheese, soya yoghurt, soya ice cream and a treat, four cans of Kopparberg perry.
I had a fairly quiet evening, editing the Novaterium website to reflect some feedback I'd had from Promessa UK. I also dealt with the three remaining pineapples and all the slices of pineapple look lovely drying on the racks. It is one of my favourite dried fruits.
Both the children slept downstairs because of the coldness of the house, so I don't know what time they woke up as it didn't disturb me! I woke slowly at 9.30 and came down and both were happily ensconced on the computer, and didn't open their presents til after 10am. I was pleased to get a NewScientist book 'How to Fossilise Your Hamster' and a relative had given me a bottle of red wine... as usual... and I don't drink red wine, hardly ever. I do use it in cooking though...
An hour later I was getting ready to go to work down at the Novotel, just an hour or two of Professor Fiddlesticks, no Father Christmas this year, due to a mistake by the hotel, it seems.
I cycled down in costume, and was immediately surrounded by people gathering for their Xmas lunch, happy to be entertained. I did some circus workshops and balloon modelling... and met the 'impostor', a nice young chap called Andrew who did some close-up magic. He told me he'd never done Father Christmas before; I wished him the best of luck!
So I did a continuous stint from 11.45 til 2pm... had a lovely, fun but full-on time. I came back via Freshways, who open every day... as they are Muslim, they open on Christmas day too, as it's not a holiday for them. I bought batteries for our youngest who has had a K-NEX present which has a motor... but no batteries. They gave me a box of unsold mini-aubergines, which look very much like they'll make a good meal tomorrow, a moussaka probably.
I got changed and watched The Queen's Speech before going into the garden and sorting some of the accumulated compostables into several of my 'dalek' bins. I got very cold, and when it got too dark to do more compost heap building, I took some dry logs to the front of the house so I can start to rebuild the severely depleted front-door logpile tomorrow.
So, warmed up, helped Gill in the kitchen, watched a few minutes of Happy Feet which our youngest was enjoying, and then 'The Gruffalo' which is a book I don't know but I enjoyed the TV version!
We got a phone call from my little brother who is coming over from Sheffield tomorrow with his family, and we had to decide whether to meet up in town and eat out, or to come here and have food at home. Neither of our boys fancied going into town so we rang back and said to come here. So then Gill and I got busy making chunky vegetable soup...
I also sorted out a large pile of pears, definitely in a state where they couldn't be sold, but I tidied them up and got them drying on the stove!
An hour later I was getting ready to go to work down at the Novotel, just an hour or two of Professor Fiddlesticks, no Father Christmas this year, due to a mistake by the hotel, it seems.
I cycled down in costume, and was immediately surrounded by people gathering for their Xmas lunch, happy to be entertained. I did some circus workshops and balloon modelling... and met the 'impostor', a nice young chap called Andrew who did some close-up magic. He told me he'd never done Father Christmas before; I wished him the best of luck!
So I did a continuous stint from 11.45 til 2pm... had a lovely, fun but full-on time. I came back via Freshways, who open every day... as they are Muslim, they open on Christmas day too, as it's not a holiday for them. I bought batteries for our youngest who has had a K-NEX present which has a motor... but no batteries. They gave me a box of unsold mini-aubergines, which look very much like they'll make a good meal tomorrow, a moussaka probably.
I got changed and watched The Queen's Speech before going into the garden and sorting some of the accumulated compostables into several of my 'dalek' bins. I got very cold, and when it got too dark to do more compost heap building, I took some dry logs to the front of the house so I can start to rebuild the severely depleted front-door logpile tomorrow.
So, warmed up, helped Gill in the kitchen, watched a few minutes of Happy Feet which our youngest was enjoying, and then 'The Gruffalo' which is a book I don't know but I enjoyed the TV version!
We got a phone call from my little brother who is coming over from Sheffield tomorrow with his family, and we had to decide whether to meet up in town and eat out, or to come here and have food at home. Neither of our boys fancied going into town so we rang back and said to come here. So then Gill and I got busy making chunky vegetable soup...
I also sorted out a large pile of pears, definitely in a state where they couldn't be sold, but I tidied them up and got them drying on the stove!
Gill woke me at 9.30 and asked me if I'd switched off the boiler last night as it wasn't working this morning. I told her that I'd put the thermostat down to 20 degrees last thing, but the central heating was still working when I came to bed. The pilot light had gone out and I couldn't work out how to relight it; there were no instructions or obvious places where to put a match or to press an ignition knob...
Anyway, we had to leave today so we stripped the beds, packed our bags, emptied the fridge, repacked our bags, worried about the time and whether the bus was going to get through today, worried about whether the pipes would freeze if the heating remained off, but got out of the house for 11.20, as Gill had looked at the bus timetable and told me that the buses were at 22 minutes past the hour. But the bus timetable at the bus stop said 52 minutes past the hour... so we waited. And waited... and the bus came on time! We got to Scarborough at the right time, 12.30, and were on the 12.47 train home and enjoyed sandwiches for lunch.
Back in York there wasn't more than 15 minutes to wait for the number 10 bus back to very close to our front door. The house was freezing! I lit both stoves and Gill went back into town to try to find some bits and bobs for the boys' Christmas presents.
I left the boys in the house, happy to be back on the computer, and went to Country Fresh to get some veg for Christmas meals and pick up the compostables before the three-day-weekend-closure. I decided to pop in to the Novotel, where I've worked for the past 5 or so Christmases, to check that all was OK for tomorrow. My agent had booked me for this in early spring, and as it was a repeat booking, I had expected it to go very smoothly. BUT... I'm so glad I went to say hello. The new manager told me that I wasn't booked and they had got another entertainer. But I knew that I had a contract with my agent. So I said that I would ring him and get back to the hotel... the manager said would I like to ring from the hotel. My agent wasn't at home, so I rang his mobile. He had just arrived at his son's house and was settling down to a glass of sherry. I explained the situation to him and he asked to speak to the manager. Ten minutes later, the manager appeared again and passed me a mobile phone and said that my agent wanted to speak to me. He asked if I could remember how much I was due to get paid for the gig tomorrow... and of course I remembered as it's one of the best paying gigs of the year. I passed the phone back to the manager, and a few minutes later, the phone came back to me and my agent asked me if I would be prepared to do a reduced gig tomorrow for reduced money? I felt that if I tried to hold out for my full employ, that might cause difficulties and might jeopardise future work at this hotel. So I agreed a short Fiddlesticks slot with no Father Christmas appearance for a very average fee, less than half of what I had agreed to for doing the full entertainment. The other entertainer would do some magic and do the Father Christmas stuff.
So, not very happy, despite not having to do Father Christmas which I don't enjoy doing. In retrospect, I wonder if I should have said that I wanted to do the work I was contracted to do and demanded my full fee? Not an easy decision to make.
I cycled back via Freshways who were glad to see me and were generous with their unsold limp herbs and over-ripe bananas.
The boys hadn't noticed I'd been away for an hour (!) and when Gill rang from town, she asked if I'd go to the Co-op to get some basics like cereal, milk, pasta and the like. I had put my bike away so I walked down, got a good pile of stuff and on the way back, the bus drew up and Gill got off, gave me a lovely kiss and we walked back together. We are just a great team!
We had a shop pizza for tea, with broccoli, and continued to keep the stoves going to try to warm the place up. A relatively calm evening.
Anyway, we had to leave today so we stripped the beds, packed our bags, emptied the fridge, repacked our bags, worried about the time and whether the bus was going to get through today, worried about whether the pipes would freeze if the heating remained off, but got out of the house for 11.20, as Gill had looked at the bus timetable and told me that the buses were at 22 minutes past the hour. But the bus timetable at the bus stop said 52 minutes past the hour... so we waited. And waited... and the bus came on time! We got to Scarborough at the right time, 12.30, and were on the 12.47 train home and enjoyed sandwiches for lunch.
Back in York there wasn't more than 15 minutes to wait for the number 10 bus back to very close to our front door. The house was freezing! I lit both stoves and Gill went back into town to try to find some bits and bobs for the boys' Christmas presents.
I left the boys in the house, happy to be back on the computer, and went to Country Fresh to get some veg for Christmas meals and pick up the compostables before the three-day-weekend-closure. I decided to pop in to the Novotel, where I've worked for the past 5 or so Christmases, to check that all was OK for tomorrow. My agent had booked me for this in early spring, and as it was a repeat booking, I had expected it to go very smoothly. BUT... I'm so glad I went to say hello. The new manager told me that I wasn't booked and they had got another entertainer. But I knew that I had a contract with my agent. So I said that I would ring him and get back to the hotel... the manager said would I like to ring from the hotel. My agent wasn't at home, so I rang his mobile. He had just arrived at his son's house and was settling down to a glass of sherry. I explained the situation to him and he asked to speak to the manager. Ten minutes later, the manager appeared again and passed me a mobile phone and said that my agent wanted to speak to me. He asked if I could remember how much I was due to get paid for the gig tomorrow... and of course I remembered as it's one of the best paying gigs of the year. I passed the phone back to the manager, and a few minutes later, the phone came back to me and my agent asked me if I would be prepared to do a reduced gig tomorrow for reduced money? I felt that if I tried to hold out for my full employ, that might cause difficulties and might jeopardise future work at this hotel. So I agreed a short Fiddlesticks slot with no Father Christmas appearance for a very average fee, less than half of what I had agreed to for doing the full entertainment. The other entertainer would do some magic and do the Father Christmas stuff.
So, not very happy, despite not having to do Father Christmas which I don't enjoy doing. In retrospect, I wonder if I should have said that I wanted to do the work I was contracted to do and demanded my full fee? Not an easy decision to make.
I cycled back via Freshways who were glad to see me and were generous with their unsold limp herbs and over-ripe bananas.
The boys hadn't noticed I'd been away for an hour (!) and when Gill rang from town, she asked if I'd go to the Co-op to get some basics like cereal, milk, pasta and the like. I had put my bike away so I walked down, got a good pile of stuff and on the way back, the bus drew up and Gill got off, gave me a lovely kiss and we walked back together. We are just a great team!
We had a shop pizza for tea, with broccoli, and continued to keep the stoves going to try to warm the place up. A relatively calm evening.
Awoken rather early as at least one of our kids is still excited by Christmas and the presents that he recieves.... but went to sleep again and got up just before 9 to come downstairs to a happy post-breakfasted family. I had my usual branflakes and muesli, and the presents under the tree came out and were unwrapped. My favourite present was two packets of socks (yes really, I like useful presents!) or perhaps a rather cheeky present from Gill; a hardback book entitled 'The half-hour allotment' suggesting that it takes just half an hour's work each day of the week to manage an allotment, or an hour and a quarter on Saturday and Sunday. In the introduction it even mentions the letter I have recently recieved telling me to tidy up or get off!
Gill was very very happy with her tiny camera, and the boys immediately got into playing 'top trumps'.
However I had to get ready to go to work, so got the bike and loaded up the trailer with assorted Fiddlesticks stuff and my Father Christmas costume, wellies, and sandwiches for lunch. Only a short trip to the Novotel where I spent justabout 2 hours doing my circus and balloons to entertain the guests as they waited for their lunch. Then a half hour of sandwiches and getting into my St Nicholas persona, and then a short and sweet bomb round (sorry, slow walk round!) with a sack full of presents... all the same this time, so probably inappropriate for the older children (teenagers, embarrassed to get a visit from Santa!) and was finished at two pm.
Met several friends on the way home so didn't get in til nearly 3. I got unloaded and crashed out on the sofa.... and found myself watching Finding Nemo on TV... which I enjoyed considerably. Only one thing spoilt it for me.... the slight factual error of when the whale swallowed the fish and exhaled them out of the hole behind it's head.... but besides that it was a very enjoyable thing to slob out and watch...
Tea was delicious. Nutloaf made yesterday and baked in the oven tonight, roast potatoes and tiny carrots from Pocklington, sprouts also from East Yorkshire and gravy made on the woodstove...
Almost a traditional Christmas meal!
Had an evening of doing computery things and was DELIGHTED to get a sensible and kind comment from the anonymous Dr Evil. (see below) Happy Christmas to her and all of my readers.... if there are any other readers! Maybe I should install a counter....
Up late as watched a really good film about surfing called Riding Giants.
Gill was very very happy with her tiny camera, and the boys immediately got into playing 'top trumps'.
However I had to get ready to go to work, so got the bike and loaded up the trailer with assorted Fiddlesticks stuff and my Father Christmas costume, wellies, and sandwiches for lunch. Only a short trip to the Novotel where I spent justabout 2 hours doing my circus and balloons to entertain the guests as they waited for their lunch. Then a half hour of sandwiches and getting into my St Nicholas persona, and then a short and sweet bomb round (sorry, slow walk round!) with a sack full of presents... all the same this time, so probably inappropriate for the older children (teenagers, embarrassed to get a visit from Santa!) and was finished at two pm.
Met several friends on the way home so didn't get in til nearly 3. I got unloaded and crashed out on the sofa.... and found myself watching Finding Nemo on TV... which I enjoyed considerably. Only one thing spoilt it for me.... the slight factual error of when the whale swallowed the fish and exhaled them out of the hole behind it's head.... but besides that it was a very enjoyable thing to slob out and watch...
Tea was delicious. Nutloaf made yesterday and baked in the oven tonight, roast potatoes and tiny carrots from Pocklington, sprouts also from East Yorkshire and gravy made on the woodstove...
Almost a traditional Christmas meal!
Had an evening of doing computery things and was DELIGHTED to get a sensible and kind comment from the anonymous Dr Evil. (see below) Happy Christmas to her and all of my readers.... if there are any other readers! Maybe I should install a counter....
Up late as watched a really good film about surfing called Riding Giants.
