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*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*MERRY CHRISTMAS*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

to everyone! Lots of love and festive thoughts to you all, have a good one and see you in 2008!

I'm off to the UK tonight so this is a final blog, probably. We're doing Southampton, Swansea and Devon, seeing my in-laws, my big sis, her husband & the twins, plus my Dad and his partner. WEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE! Can't wait. Just got to get through a final morning of work, the obligatory work Christmas lunch out then we're off.

Mistletoe and Wine

Ah so I am feeling quite Chrismassy today. I have just booked a table at the gorgeous Wykeham Arms pub for this coming Saturday in Winchester, as we will be over in the UK by then! It really is the nicest pub in the world, roaring log fires and heaps of olde English charm, ahhhhhhh. I am limbering up.

Had a great weekend. Took it easy Friday then went to two xmas house parties on Saturday night, after a day of final shopping and tidying. My cousin hosted the first one we went to, then I drove to our friends Tinny & Sarahs in the Vale and joined the festivities there. I got drunk really quickly (I had obviously had to drive from the first one and was sober as a judge while watching my husband get steadily rat arsed by the minute) in order to catch up. Good night! No drunken injuries you will be pleased to hear, just a rather apocalyptic hangover on the Sunday. I managed to crawl out of bed and had Rachel around to watch Transformers. We were all really disappointed that there was no song - "transformers... robots in disguise" in the film. Booooo.

We finished watching Flight of the Conchords which is really sad, I loved that series so much. We are now working our way through the Box of Delights, which is just the most Chrismassy thing ever and is helping get us in the spirit. My husband watched it as a child and although he loves it, it has given him a lifelong fear of wolves/werewolves. And you can see why... this is from the opening titles:

It is a bit flipping scary.

* _ * _ * _ * _ * _

I'm not going to make up blog titles any more as it is just so silly, I can't think of anything.

So I finished Confessor, by Terry Goodkind. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I really loved his earlier books but his latest are just infested with dire monologues that go on for pages and pages. I am glad I have finished, and can get on to pastures new. I think I said before, but I've started reading the Susan Cooper series, which are childrens books and kind of remind me of the Chronicles of Narnia, in the way in which they are written. I've also gotten out of the library a book by George RR Martin, apparentely he writes similarly to Donaldson and Tolkein, so hopefully I will like it a lot.

Just a quiet night in tonight. Then tomorrow two Christmas parties to go to in one night. I could use a time-turner like Hermione had, modified so that it sobered me up between the two.

I popped home at lunchtime and Molly snuck into the lounge and under the Christmas tree. I have left her there as she really really likes it under the tree. If ever I can't find her at the moment I know where to look!

There is talk of going to Herm island on Sunday. However, it will be cold so I don't know. If the tides are right we were thinking of taking our boat Jeannie plus Laurie's rib so we can get a fair few over. We shall see.

Work is dire, I shall say no more.

All dressed up and nowhere to go!

So we woke up on Saturday morning and it was howling wind and rain. As we lurked under the covers we didn't relish the thought of getting out of bed, let alone flying to Jersey.

We packed our bags, then Nick called Alice, who was supposed to be flying out of the island a couple of hours before we did. She was stuck at the airport, nothing was flying out. We phoned the airline and asked them what our chances were of leaving the island. They basically drew in a big breath and shook their heads sadly at us. They did say there might be a 'window' later if the winds changed, but there was now a big backlogue of flights before us so they couldn't say for sure. We decided to cancel the flights, because of that and also the problem that if we did make it then we could easily be stuck the next day as the winds were supposed to be even stronger on Sunday and we wouldn't be able to get back.

So there were 8 of us with our party frocks/tuxedos and nowhere to go. I did the phone around and managed to find a restaurant that had had a last minute cancellation and could fit us in. We dashed to M&S and bought nibbles, and then had everyone around to ours for drinks before heading into town to the restaurant. We ended up at La Perla, which was pretty appauling and we were completely over dressed, but what the hell. Then we found some bar for more drinks and later on a few came back to ours. We were pretty wasted, I thought it would be a good idea to show people this video which I found funny, but now I'm a little concerned people will think I'm a total swinging sex beast. Hey! Watch celebrities having sex! Dear oh dear.

We both had a massive hangover yesterday, no surprise, and now Nick thinks he's properly ill cos he's got a really sore throat. And yesterday we had a huge problem with our electrics, as something is making the upstairs lights ping off, and they're taking all the electrics in the rest of the house with them. So we've just had to turn them off until we figure out the problem, and I had to shower by candlelight this morning, which actually was rather nice.

Wet Hair

. . . And trousers, is what I have. It is one of those days that is chock full of weather. One minute it's eye watering sunshine, the next it's big dark heavy clouds, buckets of rain, and the wind! Well, its coming in a westerly and luckily we're sheltered here on the East coast but I was on the phone to a friend up in the north of the island this morning and he was worried that bits were going to fall off his house!

I drove along the sea front an hour or so ago and there were about a million white horses between Guernsey and Herm island. God I love being so close to the sea, it's all so awesome and dramatic. I do, however, feel extremely nervous that I'm supposed to be flying on a small aeroplane to Jersey tomorrow in force 9 winds. We will see what happens!!

Confessor!

I am dancing a little virtual jig as I finally have my hands on a copy of Confessor, the last book in a series of 12 I've been reading by Terry Goodkind. It got published a couple of weeks ago and my copy arrived at the library that I had reserved about a decade ago it feels. Well I finally have it!! And I stayed up late last night devouring it, I read about a fifth of it. (It is quite a large book, that is a lot of reading.)

In other news, I have been feeling generally tired and passive and in need of a lot of sleep. I am off tomorrow on a plane to Jersey for a Christmas party and I pick up my dress this afternoon (remember the one I drew a few posts ago). I am wearing bright red nail polish and a green top, festive or what. (Don't say 'what', it looks festive, honestly.) OK, more later if my boss goes out.

Office shenanigans

So, a lady left the office for good last week, she is off to OZ to live. We are not replacing her at the moment and I have moved from one side of the office to the other and have her old desk. It is much better as I am:

1. Not right next to the door and all the cold draftiness.
2. Sat next to a warm radiator.
3. Not right in a window so I don't get stared at by weird men walking past.

So all in all a good move. She also had a much better printer/scanner than I did so I stole that as well. I think we need to do the Christmas decs this afternoon, I am going to try to persuade my boss to get the big box of treats out from under the stairs.

Nick was away at the weekend at the Royal Television Society Awards in Plymouth and he won an award!! It was for the documentary he made about a local couple who have 12 children and another one on the way. He won one last year as well in a different category so this shows that he is good allrounder. Anyway it's great news and I am very proud indeed.

I had my first go on a Wii at the weekend. We played the basic sports games that come with the consule and they were great fun. I especially liked the tennis one, it was definitely the most violent. I also did a LOAD of Christmas shopping on Saturday and had a really nice night out in Christies on Saturday night. There was an incredible woman singer who was like Erykah Badu, gorgeous voice, and we all danced around in there. On Sunday I felt hungover but managed some housework and then went around to my Dad's and we dug out all my old school reports and ancient family photos. 'We have had to move Samantha away from other classmates of a similarly chatty nature!' Not much changes then.

My Dad has recently converted the garage into a spare bedroom/library and small utility room, and he has started to bring the books down from the attic and fill the shelves up. He has always collected Sci Fi/Fantasy books, since the 1970's and has over 3000. I have missed them while they've been up in the attic and am so pleased to see them again. I've borrowed 'Over Sea, Under Stone' by Susan Cooper and am devouring it.