The Best Slogan in the World

The weather is still off-and-on stormy and sunny.

Yesterday Jasson and I spent most of the morning researching cars and bicycles to buy. After some debate we decided to rent a car instead of buying, which is a huge relief to me. Now I need to research New Zealand driving laws and practice mentally switching over to the left side of the road.

In the evening Mr. and Mrs. A took us to downtown , where the main street was closed off and street vendors were selling hot dogs, grilled meat and "candy floss" which is cotton candy. There were also some local bands playing.

For what seemed like a small, quaint downtown, the turnout was quite impressive. Jasson said "this is probably half the population of New Zealand."

There was a tent set up by the local chapter of the Lions Club, which is like the Rotary Club. People were lining up to get inside, and it was cold outside so we lined up too. The inside was hard to describe...there were piles and piles of Christmas-themed stuffed animals and Santa-hat-wearing Mickey Mouses and Donald Ducks. It was like every club member had brought all of their cheap, used Christmas merchandise down from the attic and displayed it inside the tent as some sort of...display? Art project? An attempt at embodying the quintessential consumerist holiday wonderland?

"Well this is dumb," I thought. But then we got to the end of the tent and saw this:

The shabby Christmas tree was mechanically swaying its body around and around like it was wearing a hula hoop. It was just looked so pathetic, like a drunk person trying to dance, that I couldn't stop laughing.

Afterwards we went out for ice cream and waffles.

We passed by a pizza shop that, I think you'll agree, has The Best Slogan in the World: