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Published: December 12th 2007
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Oh, you’re going to love this one…
So on Sunday, I went to the charity Christmas party. I asked if I could help out in Santa’s grotto and talk to all the cute little kiddies dressed up in their best party outfits! But then, with about 20 seconds to go before the doors opened, I realised that there was no Santa in the grotto! I told one of the organisers, Daisuke, who then realised that the guy who was supposed to be Santa was actually playing carols with the band so he said “ummm, I think YOU’LL have to be Santa”
I laughed thinking he was joking but he was TOTALLY serious! So I quickly dashed behind the house and threw on this Santa outfit which was at least 10 sizes too big for me! I didn’t even have time to make a beard or stuff my tummy with padding! At first, no kids wanted to come near me and I think I made about 3 kids cry… I did start to get a lot of attention soon enough - though not from the kids, just from old Japanese men who were keen to tell me that I was “a
beautiful Santa!” hahaha!
Eventually I went up to the kids to give them presents and then people started lining up to come and see me… though there were people of all ages really and a lot of them just wanted to have a photo with me!
I was Santa for about an hour and then I joined everyone else on the dance floor… I tried teaching some of the kids my hip hop moves and it was funny to see them doing “the running man” - haha, my favourite move! At the end of the party, everyone had a candle to hold and we all sang a few Christmas carols - it was such a fun night!
School has been good this week… on Monday, one student was fast asleep in class with his head right down on the desk and the teacher walked over to him and started shaking his desk to wake him up. He didn’t move at all! A few students then came over and started pulling his hair and shouting loudly in his ear - he finally woke up, but I was still stunned by how they can fall into such a deep sleep like that in school!
I earned respect from some of the third grade boys when I joined in their game of ‘janken po’ - (rock, paper, scissors) - you’d think it would be easy enough but there’s certain phrases to say at different times and they were completely surprised that I knew them! (I didn’t tell them I’d looked it up on Wikipedia earlier as I was intrigued by what they were saying!) I got a “nice” and a nod from one of them - complete respect!
I went shopping the other day and saw the funniest calendar… you see, the Japanese love ‘puti puti’ which we know better as bubble wrap - they make it in all sorts of shapes here and sell it in strips so people can pop away whenever they please! This calendar was a ‘puti puti’ calendar! So it’s really bulky and has a bubble to pop for every day of the year… any takers!?
I have only just learnt that my teacher friend who sits next to me is actually not a teacher but a social worker at the school… he thought it was hilarious that I assumed he was a P.E teacher because he’s always in a tracksuit, so now he keeps saying to me ‘ok I’m off to teach tennis now, see you later’ etc!
Keeping up with my plan to read a lot of classic books and watch some great movies, I enjoyed reading ‘Death of a Salesman’ yesterday, although I struggled not to cry at my desk! … and ‘Animal Farm’ today. Last night, Laura and I watched ‘The Holiday’ which was beautiful… we absolutely sobbed our socks off throughout the entire thing and stopped it about 3 times to get more tissues! It wasn’t particularly sad, we were obviously just in a soppy mood! There’s more of that to come on Saturday when we get together with Mindy and watch a whole string of rom-coms!
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helen
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Oh great I look a complete plonker sitting here laughing at a laptop. Mrs santa sooo funny!The hair looks wonderful by the way. You have respect of teenagers Well Done. Not long and you will be home. I don't know where you get the energy from because we are all exhausted now just want Friday to come.