Carols by Candlelight was held at Virginia Lake again this year - loads of people for a very poor musical performance. The brass band raced through the carols 'hell for leather' where some of the carols had verses omitted altogether. It seemed as though 'we'll get through this gig as quickly as possible - move on to Santa's visit, lollies for the kids and we can all go home, put our feet up in front of the telly and have a cold beer'. Remarkable that folks don't seem to know any of the traditional Carols anymore - all the 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' and 'Snoopy's Christmas' type of numbers, some folks sing, but for the most part it all appears to be a bit of a yawn.
Enough said about that.
ACK New Zealand has branches all over NZ now - the 'Kerssangdiens' was held at Levin this year - combined music teams from Wanganui and Wellington provided the music for the good turn out of ex-South Africans. Jo and author up front doing our thing! It's very reassuring for the really 'new and fresh off the boat' folks to enjoy a Carol Service like this one. Home from home if you will.
We have made some really fine kiwi friends here in Wanganui and made home made Buttermilk rusk prezzies for them - 'n karringmelk beskuit sal hom wat verbeel om so mooi te kan vertoon!'Once again, the virtues of the two dollar shops come to the fore in the cellophane and ribbons and bows - 'cheap as chips' and making the parcels look so festive and special!
Ulysses Motor Cycle club in conjunction with the Wanganui Classic Motorcycle club put on a Christmas toy ride for charity and although we cannot compete with the thousands of bikes seen at these events elsewhere in the world, the sentiment is no less heartfelt and the toys no less appreciated by the children who receive them.
It was good being part of a large group of bikes riding sedately behind a guy in a Santa suit through the streets of Wanganui, before heading out onto the open road for a circular route and stopoff for a good pub lunch - how fortunate we are!
And so glad that we know that one more child will have a new, very soft and cuddly bear for Christmas this year.
Dis al!
Looks like a lot of fun. I'm sure a hells angel is rolling in his grave at the thought of those bikes being "cute".
ReplyDelete