11 November 2010

Random Thoughts as We Head Towards Xmas

Sorry for reminding you but you can’t have escaped the adverts on telly, the streets lights going up, and any day now we’ll even spot the first Xmas tree and lights in a house. You know it’s coming when you see Twiggy on the adverts and they start advertising Ferrero Rocher, and all the old rock stars bring out a ‘digitally remastered greatest hits’ album.

J has already started planning her, sorry, our Xmas by inviting a bunch of friends round for Xmas lunch and I suspect New Year’s Day. At least I get notice that it’s happening but only because I asked if I needed to get down to the wine store and stock up. “Don‘t forget to get a couple of dozen bottles of champers”, she chipped in, almost as an after-thought.

Of course, she’ll be out of it for quite a bit of the planning time as she’s off to her Kenyan orphanage for two weeks at the start of December so maybe when, sorry, if she returns, there’ll be a marked reluctance to over-indulge given what she’ll have just witnessed in the dumps and the slums, and that’s just in London where her connecting flight lands!

I’ve told her to take a couple of things with her for her trip: a bouquet garni and a couple of cloves of garlic just in case she’s popped into a pot. If you’re going to go, why not taste good so that the natives remember you? Totally oblivious to their starving, she’s only gone and slimmed down quite a bit before her trip. You would have thought that in a supreme act of giving, which is what Xmas is all about – right? she’d have fattened herself up!

So, whilst the kids fantasise about the pressies which will end up under our tree and hope that we parents have a total dearth of imagination and just give them a wad of cash (ha ha!), J is asking, quite simply, for money to help her on her mission.

She’s already raised about 500 euros through a car-boot sale and various other donations and her job, yes – let me repeat that, her job of managing a villa, is contributing towards the rehabilitation and education of one John Felix, whom she found wandering around the Kenyan villages.

Any day now, I expect to see a ‘for sale’ sign outside Le Brin with a small note underneath saying that ‘all proceeds are going to Kenya!

1 comment:

Allison said...

I think it's lovely that J is so committed to going to Kenya and helping with the orphans! I went to Uganda a few years ago and it was such a rewarding experience! (Though I made the mistake of watching Hotel Rwanda right before I went and I was convinced I was going to get kidnapped).
Good luck managing the holidays! Tell your kids that I'm 22, and I'm still waiting for my parents to just throw cash my way for the holidays (instead, they make it difficult for me by buying a bunch of gifts, so I have to trek all the way to the mall to return everything if I really want the cash!).