I'd never built a snowman before
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 22 January 2010 09:42:10
When I was a child, building a snowman was always a dream but never fulfilled. My dad was always working, it seemed, when the opportunity arose and I had no brother and sisters at home to help. I'd start rolling the snowball to build up into the body, but would lose heart before it got much bigger than a snowball. A sad, sad tale indeed. And my friends were more interested in snowball fights, probably having learnt for themselves the monotony of amassing that initial mountain of snow that is necessary before the fun part begins. And when I had kids of my own, I lived in a part of the country where snowman building isn't a frequent opportunity. So I'd never built a snowman before.
I never dreamed that work would be my first opportunity!
I arrived, having plodded through the snow, to a white world at work and a shout from the back garden "Come and help!" And there, supervised by the children, my colleague had built the most enormous snowman body, determined that this would be the biggest and best snowman ever built at the centre. Hooray! The boring bit was done! My colleague was frozen, so it was now my turn. My turn, and I got to do the fun bits.
The eyes. What to do for the eyes? Nothing was quite right. We tried mini-jaffa-cakes which worked best, but we thought they might not last long, so we finished the packet instead. There were no stones or lumps of coal to be found. I'd better not say what my colleague eventually found which did the trick just perfectly..... I may lose a friend!
We couldn't find a hat anywhere - well, just one, but it looked silly perched on top of the huge head. Then inspiration hit. Well, the kitchen mop needed a new head on it - it was getting a bit tatty and worn and was much better suited as a snowman's wig. On top of that, the hat looked just right. (Especially the following morning with a fresh layer of snow on top!)
I'd never built a snowman before, so it was quite something to hear the oohs and ahhs of the other staff next morning when they saw him standing there in the garden, 7 foot high. Several people said "I really like his arms and the mop of hair". They were my bits :D
A bit sad this week, mind. A little pile of soggy mop, sodden scarf and hat, frozen carrot and two electric socket protector caps coloured green, lying in a little puddle alongside the broom.