Daddy's Works

So you thought Santa drove a sleigh, right?

Well looks like we've all been hoodwinked because it seems Santa's amazing ability to bring toys to children all across the globe in such a short space of time is less down to magic reindeers, more the power of flight; like Batman, Santa rides in helicopters.

Today was the Chopperdocs' staff children's party over at the chopperdocs HQ out west and Ella's opportunity to go to Daddy's works, which she's always very proud about. The temperatures out west are always five degrees different from on the coast (five degrees colder in winter and five degrees hotter in summer), so you have to pity the guy in the Santa suit and beard struggling with the heat today - we were struggling enough in tee shirts.

And the Christmas party was like no other Christmas party I've experienced before because when we arrived, the kids were in their swimmers sliding head-first down a huge plastic sheet rolled out on a hill, one of the docs spraying the whole lot of them with a hose. It was a good thing we were a bit late because the plastic sheeting terminated in a pool of mud, so by the time the kids dried off for the barbeque they resembled a regiment of paratroopers fresh in from some winter exercise on Dartmoor.

"Bet this is a bit different from Christmas back in England" said one of the chopperdocs. "Something to tell the folks back home"

"You're not kidding" I said, "And not a bit like Christmas at all"

"No" he replied. "We have friends who spent Christmas in the northern hemisphere winter a few years ago and they came home saying Christmas suddenly made sense, you know, like suddenly they could see the reasons for the traditions. Still makes no sense to me having the guy in the heavy clothes, but still it's what we do".