h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Saturday morning began with parkrun. I did my volunteering set up and was pleased to see that the ground is less muddy than last week, the mild weather has dried it up a bit, though not fully. The long grass has also all been mown in the last week. It didn't help me much as though I'd been hoping my ankle was healing, it soon became clear it wasn't and my 45th parkrun this year (205th total) was a struggle and my time was very disappointing. Oh well, you need some bad runs to really appreciate the good runs.

I got back home before the kids were up and dressed and when they were finally ready at 11:30am we went into the town centre, where they had the annual a festive day to celebrate the turn on of the Christmas lights. First we went to the museum where was meeting and giving out s to the children. My son, who cannot go anywhere at the moment without taking a variety of puppets, enthralled with his puppet. Despite being 10 and 8, my son and daughter were both struck quiet by meeting him, and he really was a very convincing , with genuine beard, twinkly eyes and jolly demeanor.

As the museum is next to a charity shop I thought it would be rude not to pop in and browse the s while my family had a look at the market. I must admit I picked up a couple, one on the Goons and the other a book on 'The Storyteller', the television series by Anthony Minghella and Jim Henson. I've been meaning to write an entry on 'The Storyteller' for a while, but when I tried to show the series to my kids about 18 months or so ago my daughter said it was too scary. Maybe it is time to try again now.

Strangely enough the charity shop said that they're now doing a loyalty scheme and made me sign up to get a loyalty card. Apparently when I collect 500 points I can get £5 off my next purchase. I'm not sure how a charity loyalty card scheme really works as I want the money to go to charity and help make the a better place, I'm not really trying to get a discount.

Anyway, as I was filling in forms to get a card I didn't really want my family had been to a market stall where they picked up an empty each – the idea being that if you carried the box to the nearby Baptist Church they'd give you a real . So we went there and inside the church they'd set up a series of games such as splat-the-rat, bagatelle, the wire buzzer, putting marbles inside a flower pot, clothes pegs and a shooting gallery, with the kids given far too many sweets as prizes. They even had a magician, though he was no Randini he kept my son entertained while my daughter did the arts and crafts.

Outside the church and back in the town centre there were also real farm animals that could be stroked, but my kids weren't interested in seeing them this year – wanting to see someone dressed in a costume rather than a real , but all we spotted was someone dressed as a robin, poor thing.

We went home and returned after later, ready for the parade and fireworks display. Last year we met up with a group of my wife's friends, which was fine, but they said that they always waited in a really daft place, from which they couldn't see the fireworks. This year I suggested we meet near the war memorial where we'd get a perfect view of the fireworks, and we arrived early to get a front-row spot to see the parade. This was where the parade finished as it entered the park, where the fireworks were. My wife said she'd reserve our spot by the fence if I could get her a and take the kids around the stalls. There was a sleigh that you could take photos of children sitting on, which I did – although it took a little time for my daughter to take her ear defenders off; she doesn't like the noise of fireworks, and was worried they'd start any minute. When we got back to my wife with the she'd lost the place next to the fence as she'd spotted her friends and wondered off to chat to them…
They were selling the usual light-up tat, which I didn't buy the kids as we'd got light-up stuff at the Legoland fireworks display a few weeks earlier. One of my wife's friends got a light-up thing with a Mickey Mouse head that, when switched on, played the 'Crazy Frog' noise. I suspect it wasn't genuine Disney merchandise…
Still, my kids made their way back to the front of the fence and saw the parade – my son having a puppet made him stand out so lots of people made their way over to him. Sadly I was 5 rows back so didn't get as good a view, which is a shame as I'd've liked to have taken photos of my children meeting the various people in costume. As the parade was approaching us, the speakers had the local radio DJ talking about how the parade had ended. It hadn't ended, it was still very much going – not everyone got front-row seats at the start, thank you very much. When the parade finished rather than fight our way from one side of town to the other like we had last year, we simply turned around to see the park.
Anyway, at 6pm the countdown began and officially switched the town's Christmas lights on – and this year they actually did switch on (unlike last year when they didn’t work until the next day). The firework display began and we wore the glasses we had bought in Legoland last month, which made bright lights look like Lego bricks, which turned the fireworks into an amazing display of exploding Lego. Very spectacular, still not sure how they do that…
Afterwards, rather than be caught in the crush heading home we went to the Methodist church hall for and chips with my wife's friends. All in all it was a good, tiring, day.

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Glad you all had a great day for the lights switch on

That is unusual for a charity shop to have a loyalty scheme - I'd not heard of that before... Will be interesting to find out if it works for them or whether they give up on it before you get to 500 points...

I'd not heard of a charity shop loyalty scheme before – I have always been loyal through the fantastic combination of getting good bargains and knowing your is being spent on making the a better place.

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