Nativity days and plays

There's something about a child with a tea towel wrapped around his head. It gets me every time ...that innocence, that excitement ...as once again the school nativity play is performed.

I watch a nativity, and I have a lump in my throat, remembering my own childhood.....the dizzying heights of playing the Virgin Mary once after paying my my dues for years as a shepherd... remembering my three, playing angels, stars, a chicken.... yes, a chicken and a shepherd . Such wonderful pictures in my mind, such pride as I watched them all every year....and such magic as the age old story is told .

But some parents simply don't get the chance to watch their children perform in the school nativity play. I'm thinking about parents at Edith Weston Primary School in Rutland. Many of them won't be able to watch because they're in the army, stationed as far away as Afghanistan and the Falkland Islands.

I went to the school last week to watch the dress rehearsal...to record some of the play and to hear how the children miss their mums and dads at this important time of year.

Luckily, this year, a bunch of volunteers from the amateur film making group, the Leicester Movie Makers,were there to record the special day, a behind the scenes look at the putting on of the school nativity play.

And there was plenty going on behind the scenes...from little one who literally wet himself with excitement to the teacher who shouted "put some smiles on your faces, and fingers out of noses please!"

A teensy bit of tinsel can make anyone feel like a little angel,....

 

 

whereas playing an elf can make anyone feel a little jolly and mischievous



 

 

But no matter  what part you play, it's hard when your mum or dad can't be there to watch you perform.....and that's why the dvd being made is so important. Copies are being sent out to far flung parts of the world  so that some of  our serving personnel away from home won't miss out on their children's special day, and they 'll be able to talk to them about what happened when they next skype each other.

Click here to hear some of the children...warning ...hanky alert!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012k8wk

As I said earlier, watching any nativity play brings  a lump to my throat ...but this one, this year , brought tears to my eyes too. Those children won't have their parents at home this Christmas, they're so far away. For now.


Today's track is the beautiful, the emotional "So far away" ...I've always admired Carole King and James Taylor...and this is such a fine version from the 1970s.

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days when what goes around comes around...

What goes around comes around.....it's a phrase you hear quite often. I've been thinking about this saying quite alot recently.In both a good way and a bad way....

Shall we concentrate on the positive first? Last week, a bag of apples was at my desk...a present from Herdle, one of the presenters at work. A lovely tasty present that I made into an apple crumble.

At work yesterday I was told there was a certain something waiting for me in a pigeon hole. Now that interested me...something I wasn't expecting...and the very phrase "a certain something" was laden with promise.It conjured up visions of something serendipitous. Well, the very wording....it wasn't going to be something horrible was it?
It wasn't...a rather lovely bottle of merlot from a gardening expert and friend of mine.Why the wine? I couldn't honestly think....but then I realised why.

I had a ticket to go and see the wonderful Kasabian the other week...ah kasabian, I've followed them for years....

Well in the end , it was rather hectic at work.Should I go to the gig and return to work and work into the wee hours ? That was the plan until I heard Ady really wanted to go, so no contest. I've seen the band many times.Since before their first single soared into the charts.So this evening I've been drinking a glass or two of red wine...and yes, you've guessed, I'm listening to Kasabian.


They say everything , like buses, come in threes.So last night I had an email from my dear friend Ros.She'd booked to go to a writers conference this weekend in Winchester. She couldn't now make it, would I like her weekend ticket? Gratis. Would I? Do bears poo in the woods?

Now that's what I call what comes around goes around.I'm absolutely overwhelmed by Ros's generosity...and I just know that something wonderful will wing its way out of the ether to her very soon.

Now before you reach for the sick bag at such a luvvy post, I also firmly believe that similarly , vicious, spiteful people will also be on the receiving end of what goes around comes around....

I'm thinking of the certain rugby player who played against my elder son two weeks ago. The player, who with only five minutes left in the game, kicked my son on the knee with such force his anterior cruciate ligament has been damaged, possibly beyond repair. (My son had already passed the ball.)
He's already had one operation on the same knee...now we don't know whether he will ever be able to play again.He's hobbling around on crutches until the swelling goes down and an operation can be performed.

As I said, I firmly believe what goes around comes around...and I think it will for that player....someday.

But the track for today? Let's get back to the positive shall we? Another beautiful blast from the past...for Ros....