Sitting on Santa's knee

I dropped Kit at the airport this afternoon (Jenny came along too, to see him off), as he starts his seven countries in seven weeks European tour.


We decided to exchange Christmas presents before he left - he gave me a book by Mohammad Hanif called The Case of the Exploding Mangos (which is about the death of Pakinstani dictator Ul-Haq in 1988) that I have been coveting for some time, and I gave him a daily desk calendar with different French quotations for each day, that he can use for school. 

As we were having coffee this morning I saw an old man with a big false white beard sitting outside Woolies, inviting people to sit on his knee. It appeared to give him a modicum of enjoyment, and being in a public place, and the fact that little kids were doing it, it seemed a safe thing to do.  I've no idea why he feels the need to wear a big coat and an obviously fake beard. Perhaps he's on the run, or moonlighting or something, but he was harmless enough and we had a good chat. He's from East Woodford in London, apparently.

Santa gives a "thumbs up" - with his right hand.