Ah, Christmas....

[amberdreams]

We were up at 6am to get layered up for our stint volunteering at the Christmas Dip. This time Paul was on setting up and collection duties while I was on the desk for on-the-day registrations. Which turned out to be lucky, as we were in the land-side of the promenade shelter where the desks were set up and the wind direction meant we were pretty sheltered! While the poor folks on the sea-ward side were right in the path of the cold. Still froze my knees off though LOL. Sadly, being on the wrong side plus having several people turn up to take part at literally the last minute, meant we didn't see anything of the whole rushing into the North Sea thing.

However, Paul was on the prom and took a few blurry pics. I think you can still see the man on the right riding a polar bear...

Rather them than me!
The chilly looking Superman is Will, and the marshal with the mistletoe hat is his boyfriend, Al. They'd come all the way from Colchester, but they weren't the farthest flung folk taking part as we had 6 people from California and a few from Vancouver!

Meanwhile, apropos of nothing at all, here's our fannish mantlepiece before the Xmasification.

Um - confession time - these Christmas cards below have been up since last year. Mmm and in the case of the cross stitch, the year before.

From Paul's brother Tony, this always makes me laugh.

Yes, that is a grenade launcher sticking out of the Impala's window.

So, um. Don't know why I'm posting this but here it is anyway. Now I need to take a pic of all my cards tomorrow for a nice big fat thankyou post.

Comments

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

I've never understood what makes people feel the need to strip off and dive into freezing cold water just because it's Christmas Day!
But fair play to them, I hope the hypothermia wore off quickly :)
That's a great fandom selection. My stuff is all over the house at the moment; I really must gather it all up at some point!

[aerynsun5.livejournal.com]

Brrrr! And I wouldn't go in over my knees in Honolulu! This makes me feel like such baby.

Merry, merry, merry to all.

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

six people came from california to take a dip in the no doubt FREEZING COLD sea? what is wrong with people? i'm cold just thinking about it! props to those folks who didn't even layer up in wetsuits, but still, brrr.

i love the fannish mantlepiece. i wouldn't have taken down the merry christmoose cross-stitch either. :D it's so cute!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

The Moosemass cross stitch was done by my Belgian fan-friend - I'll make sure I tell her you liked it!

As for the crazy people, I only saw a handful with wetsuits. Most were wearing PJs or similar. Brrrrr!! I think the announcer guy said the water was 4ºC, which is 39ºF.

[sillie]

People are crazy. :P

Your fannish mantlepiece looks awesome. :D

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

Haha, as always they're insane, but each to their own, and it's a charity thing, right?

I spy a familiar Christmas card, and that grenade launcher is excellent :D

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Yep, for the hospice. The late entries alone raised £1500, not bad!
Hee hee yep that's your card from last year. The grenade launcher is a keyring.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

Wow, jeez, that's epic and that was *just* the late entries?? Impressive.

I have an actual gun keyring, weighs a ton, I bought it for mini adventures it just hasn't made an appearance yet.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Just looking at these pics makes me shiver! But it's great to see so many nutcases swimming on Christmas Day, and well done to you and Paul for getting up so early to help out. And I love your fannish mantelpiece, so many treasures!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Those folk were nuts! The sea was only 4ºC....