• Home
  • Articles
    • Front Page
    • General Interest
    • Special Interests
    • Snippets
    • Mayoral Notes
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Our Community
    • Our People
    • Question of the Week
    • Jobs in the Central West
    • Be Seen
    • What’s On
  • Special Interests
    • Women In Business
    • Rural Round Up
    • My Place
    • Health & Wellbeing
    • Loving Local Living
    • Just a Short Drive
    • Real Estate
  • Sports
    • Bowls
    • Cricket
    • Equestrian
    • Footy Tips
    • Golf
    • Netball
    • Rugby League
    • Rugby Union
    • Soccer
    • Touch Football
  • Classifieds
  • Competitions
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Page
    • Advertise with us
    • Testimonials
    • Submit an Article
    • Subscribe to the Parkes Phoenix

Parkes Phoenix

Elf Journal Entry – By Debbie Gould

December 17, 2021 By Maggi Barnard

Date: 16th December

What a day! All I can say is the pressure was on. Major panic in the production line. Blue ducks! Seriously? I did tell Santa that Mac was colourblind. I had to do a back shift to sort it out. Santa said he trusted me to fix the problem, but I think he thought flattery alone would work for me. First thing tomorrow I’m going in to change my time sheet to include overtime rates.

My specialty is attaching wheels to toy cars, trains, skateboards etc. I admit it’s not rocket science, however it does require some thought. While I repainted the ducks to the appropriate sunny yellow Santa let Mac work at my station. Mac upended the tray of wheels all over the floor. Susie was walking past carrying a stack of boxes, trod on the wheels and let’s just say now she has a pair of crutches and is on worker’s comp. Mac apologised profusely and quickly gathered up the wheels and returned them to the tray. Unfortunately, most were in the wrong slots. When I finally got back to my station there were cars with skateboard wheels and bikes with car wheels. I just couldn’t believe it. Mac sat there looking at me grinning proudly.

“Everything has wheels,” he said to me. I was speechless.

Mac’s real name is Macaroni which certainly fits. He’s a bit of noodle. Lots of shape on the outside but hollow on the inside. I will have to sort out the wheels tomorrow. Another long day. I appealed to Santa quite forcefully that perhaps a great job for Mac would be using the hose out the front to water the snow. Santa didn’t look impressed.

Tomorrow I will need to do another back shift to catch up. I’m feeling very unimpressed and somewhat angry at the time of writing this despite Santa’s orders that all elves must be filled with Christmas spirit. I am exhausted and tired of cleaning up after Mac. I’m not happy at all but I can’t do anything about it because Mac is Santa’s nephew. Santa was very definite about Mac working on the toys with me.

“Listen Cheese,” he said, “I think you’ll be a winning combination.” I looked at Santa unconvinced.

“Mac and Cheese?” I replied doubtfully, “I can’t see that working out.”

Filed Under: Articles, General Interest, The Write Stuff

Click here to download the recent issue (204) of The Forbes & Parkes Phoenix (2.1MB PDF) – 28th August 2026

SEARCH THE PHOENIX

STAY CONNECTED

The Parkes Phoenix would like to thank you, our Facebook friends, for your continued support and readership!

Phoenix Office
7/113-127 Rankin Street, Forbes NSW 2871

Editor
0432 337 278
editor@parkesphoenix.com.au

Sales
0432 337 278
sales@parkesphoenix.com.au

View our Privacy Policy.
View our Conflict Resolution Process.
View our Ethics and Complaints Policy.
Want to advertise with us?
Information on our Community Promotions.

We are always looking for new articles of interest to the local community.

Please feel free to submit an article for possible inclusion in a future issue.

To submit an article, click here to use our online article submission form.

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2026 · Magazine Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

nsw government logo

The Parkes Phoenix's Digital Diversification of Free Regional Media project is proudly funded by the NSW Government Regional Media Fund

Go to mobile version