The Hat arrives for dinner. Thank God for The Hat. I can be on my knees with the tolling of Christmas and in she breezes, distributes three tins for Shark, Squirrel and Tiger and saves us all.
The tins, stored in her cupboard, flew in years ago from Iran, Iraq and IKEA in London. They each contain the same assortment: a Chinese Christmas tree ornament, an M&S body lotion, a thick chocolate biscuit, and a hand-sewn bag from Kuwait. With that eclectic mix the gritlets are absorbed for hours, putting the bauble in the bag, taking it out again, nibbling the biscuit and smearing body lotion on their heads, thinking it is exotic hair oil.
Bringer of gifts, bringer of cheer on cold winter nights, and delightful dinner guest, even with lentil slop and peas. The Hat claps her hands at her plate with an expression like I just served Raymond Blanc's finest, so good natured, warm and delightful she is.
She leaves us about eleven o'clock because she says tonight she's going to bed. She's had too many late nights. I don't really want The Hat to go. She reverses her car, crashes into the Vauxhall behind, lunges forward, crashes into the Citroen in front, swings out into the road, wildly waves out the window, and is gone, Happy New Year! ringing down the street.
2009 she says is special, because it's her 60th. She's right. Special.
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5 comments:
Wow! People like The Hat are to be cherished, for they are few and far between.
When I was a child, our lovely next door neighbour drove just like that. Forever bumping into other cars - and she didn't really care. I remember being in her house when all kinds of disasters happened in her kitchen. All were met with a healthy dose of 'whoops, never mind!' Such people are a gift, aren't they?
Glad you had a lovely evening. x
The world is too sterile now. We need more colourful individuals like Hat to bring us glorious madness. God bless her. I know that you don't believe in God, but let's be colourful and pretend shall we?
why can't i comment on the epic below? it has just kept our entire family transfixed. I'm very curious, how did you do it?!
Did you feel like crying when Hat left? I did on your behalf.
I want to be 60 and amazing.
Pigx
thank you for your comments, people. the hat is indeed a fine woman and provides no small amount of inspiration for the purple wearing days ahead.
hiya pig - i have no idea why it won't let you comment. i shall give the computer a smack for you.
the film took tiger about 5 days scattered over a month or so, when she worked with daddy dig. it's basically stop-go animation, so you move the figures, photograph them, move them, photograph them and so on. once dig showed her what to do, she was very clear about her goals. she co-opted shark to press the camera button on instruction, but shark kept missing the focus and got into trouble for that. tiger then sat alongside dig to learn about bringing the frames together with video editing software, then chose sound effects and music. i wouldn't know how to do the video magic, but am glad that dig seems to be master of all trades.
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