Thursday 3rd September

Well managed another couple of hours sleep and woke up at 830, had another chat with Allan before making a cup of coffee and joining Debbie outside for a chat about what the day had in store for us. Decide on cereal and fresh fruit for breakfast and then we both had a shower before taking ourselves off to the village to show Debbie around.

Well since last November the new town hall has been opened and looks wonderful, shortly it will be linked to the Gingerbread House and families will have lots more space to eat their meals. There is a brand new area for volunteers too where they can grab a drink and even a bite to eat if they wish, certainly a massive improvement on the Hula Hut which is now being used to serve ice creams and drinks to people around the pool. It only reopened as such yesterday so there was still a little work in progress. Met two Brits by the pool who had also arrived yesterday, they hail from Fakenham in Norfolk and the guy had brought his son to GKTW, I think he said six years ago and he comes over to spend some time volunteering every year. Sadly he has since lost his son but felt he wanted to give something back for the time he had spent at the village. The Norfolk accent was quite strong and he was surprised that I knew of Fakenham, I lived in Norfolk for a few years when my Dad was posted there and Fakenham was an American Airforce base that used to have great parties for the children, I remembered it well.

Debbie and I checked in at Volunteer Services before having a walk around, think she was impressed with it all. Met a few people that I knew and who greeted me like a long lost friend, great to feel part of it all. Jane, met Dan, he gave me a big hug and welcomed me back, I told him you sent your love too. Shannon is off until Saturday so I will save your awesome until then! Sydney left yesterday so missed her, Eric has long gone, he was doing an internship while we were there. Met Velvet and had a hug from her too and several others.

This afternoon we had a lunch/dinner salad before we left for our Christmas shift. Our jobs tonight, we were Elves, a very important job of course. Debbie was outside looking very appealing in her Elf hat and bib, I can't say too much as I was dressed the same! My job was to use the families cameras/phones/tablets to take pictures of their daily. There was of course an official photographer which the family receive when they leave, so mine were a bonus for them and ones that they can email home or put on their social media page.

My highlight this evening was a family from the UK, I asked where they were from and she said Leicestershire, oh, I said where abouts .... Coalville was the reply. I then of course told her where I was from and it was if the penny suddenly dropped as she asked if I was a Make A Wish volunteer. Yes, you guessed it, I was the wish visitor and when we did the visit the young lady was very poorly and it was a hospital visit. It was great to see her happy and smiling, do hope I see her again tomorrow, suspect I will. Also met another MAW family from Southend On Sea, they wanted my photograph too! Another UK family were from Kenton, I told them that is very close to where Allan came from.

Funniest moment today was a family of lads, one of whom looked like it was all a big embarrassment that he had to be there, let alone sitting next to Santa... he had his earpiece in and was playing games on his phone, so much so he didn't even notice his family had got up and left to get their Christmas gifts. I couldn't help laughing.

Clearing up done we arrived back at the villa a little after nine o'clock to have a supper and write our blogs.

Hope to sleep better tonight as have an early start in the morning. Goodnight all.