Hangin' out with Santa

I was out today with members of Stroud Rotary and All-sorts in the Five Valleys shopping centre today, collecting money for Allsorts, a childrens' charity for whom I work on occasions. A man called Martin played Santa, and I was one of the bucket rattlers. We gave presents to the children of the more generous donators. I don't know how much we made because I was only there for an hour and a half. I beefed up the music (new phone has better battery life) and when my shift ended friend J and I went into the empty shop behind us and had a boogie in the large space. 

Then we went off somewhere to buy a hat or something, and J mentioned that she wished she were going to Scotland with me tomorrow. I said, Really? and then we went off to the cinema to watch the Livestream of the Bolshoi ballet's performance of The Nutcracker. Wow, what a spectacle! Words fail me. The dancing was superb, and the original sets were used. I'm going to see the Bolshoi more often, via Livestream. The cinema was mostly empty. 

Having had time to mull over the idea of J going with me (she knows my family, or many of them) we went to the pub to discuss the potential plan. We couldn't book any plane seats via my phone app, so eventually I went home and managed to get seats on the same flight and the same coach. Amazing. CleanSteve is driving us to the airport, so we didn't need to book extra transport for that keg of the journey. My family are ok with the addition, taking the line that 'there's always room for one more'. Of course, we might all be locked down after Christmas day anyway. 

Thank goodness I did my packing yesterday. Life has been full-on today.