Enthusiasm

I am relying on Serj not to re-tell this story as it may lead to me being beaten up by the lady who employed me.

Its our schools Christmas party on Thursday and unlike Waitrose where we just got drunk and didn't speak to each other, its a big deal here. Every year the staff are divided into teams and a theme is announced, this year it's enthusiasm. I can't think of a theme that I'm less cut out for. So the teams have to prepare something that will prove that it is they who are the most enthusiastic. I don't know if you win anything but some take it very seriously, including our team leader Ana who is also the person that employed me, God bless her! She has compiled a small show (short in length not in ambition or sheer sense of theater) about enthusiasm for environmental protection.

As far as I'm away no one in the group is a particular eco warrior and the amount of paper we get through is pretty staggering. So we turned out in the bitter cold, I even had to cancel lessons to do this, to go to Mr. Bricolage (the Romanian equivalent of B&Q) to buy a tree. Well I say tree, it was meant to be a tree but this is the best we came up with. Its certainly not a tree, a shrub at best, and personally I'm pretty unwilling to declare it as anything more than foliage. It doesn't come up much beyond the ankle. We than had to drive (yes I know) to a group member's flat block to plant the damn thing. Surprisingly and maybe worryingly despite living in an urban flat block she produced a shovel which appears to have had plenty of use. It was filmed and we all (including a pregnant women) had to dig a bit of the hole and look enthusiastic while doing it. Though Addy did most of it with all the aplomb of a mobster. The finished product is underneath, see if you can spot it. It was freezing, people were looking and the whole group were a little bemused. It was a filmed and Addy through techno wizzery is going to edit it with the blue man group (??) and bits of films of stuff that is bad for the environment n' that. Hopefully I will get a copy when he's finished.

While this film is being shown the group members will act out a short scene of being on a plane, so laden with metaphor that Shakespeare himself would be jealous. Then we have to strut around with bits of card with words like 'nurture' written on. Once the final decisions are made I'll know more, though with my acting experience (Inn Keeper number 2, spooky train driver, acting as if I know about grammar) I'm confident of stealing the show.

I have to pack for the flight I'm taking this weekend.... think the foliage balances it out? I won't stop until people in St Albans can go to work in shorts and sip drinks with little umbrellas in.