OK, so it’s a bit late, but here’s the extended ramble on What I Did For Christmas And New Year. Prepare to be really bored:
Sat 22nd – Work in the morning! Whoopdidoo. Was actually fun… I was in the monitoring room, and that’s never terribly taxing after all. *g* Caught the 15:05 train with no probs at Hull. Not too full – I was on a four with a table, but I had my side to myself. The people opposite had their cat with them – she wasn’t very impressed, bless. But very well behaved, considering. Crossed London by tube in very good time. So good, in fact, that when I reached London Bridge at 18:45, I discovered that I was in time to catch the train before the one I was aiming for. Woohoo! So I got to Battle at 8pm. Sweet. Mum and Dad met me, went home, ate, watched a DVD (can’t even remember which film now…. my bro has many many many!). Sleeeeeeeep.
Sun 23rd – Dragged self out of bed eventually. Faffed around for a bit, then went into town with the bro. Shopped like there was no tomorrow! Successfully got pressies for everyone. Hoorah! Ended up spending more than we’d intended, of course, cos we spotted a couple of things to get for the parents from the two of us. D’oh!! *g* Got home in time for tea, then went off to church for the carol service. Sang with gusto :-) Got back in at about 8:30, and Mum and Dad watched telly while I called Alison, Clara, and Sarah. Much chatting…. and I hadn’t even thought about getting online to check my mail. Wow, record! *g*
Mon 24th – Another quick dash to the shops in the morning, where we finished off the present buying. Martin dropped me off at Alison’s on the way back, where I got the tour of her new flat (very nice, huge garden), chatted to her and Craig, ate chocolate log, and watched Sinbad. Heehee! Ali and Craig then gave me a lift home, where I discovered that Mum had actually been expecting me back for lunch. Ooops. Christmas Eve is Stew & Dumplings day, you see (yum!!), but I’d thought we were eating in the evening. So I had to heat mine back up. After that, Clara popped round on her way home from work. And then it was time to finish wrapping the presents, have tea, and settle in for more telly and DVD watching. Checked my mail (and blogged) before I went to bed. :-)
Tues 25th – Hoorah, Christmas Day! Me, Martin and Dad did the veggie prep after breakfast (parsnips for me, carrots for the bro, sprouts for Dad), and then me and M went round to our cousin’s to say hi to him, his g/f and our aunt Mary. Oh, and see the new telly and car – both shiny and silver. Mary commented on how nice it was to see me wearing a bit of colour (Mum had lent me a red shirt so that I could dress like Spike because all-black on Xmas Day wasn’t allowed), and Raymond showed us the video of the hotel that he and Wendy are buying in Blackpool. Looks good! Anyway, then it was back home for major Christmas nosh-up, followed by pressies! Wheee. And the results are:
RECEIVED: Cash; ‘vampire-face’ Spike action figure (‘normal faced’ version on order); Aerosmith CD; clothing (black); sweets; funky household-type stuff (mainly sheep-themed); various knick-knacks.
GAVE: DVDs; books; scarves; massage cushion; CDs; sweets; silly cheap things.
And the evening was spent watching some of the DVDs and telly and generally faffing around. All very family-y. :-)
Wed 26th – Boxing Day. Totally vegged.
Thurs 27th – First day of the sales! Heehee. Went over to Eastbourne where I met up with Red and we shopped for a couple of hours. Acquired Season 3 of Buffy on video on the Buy-one-get-one-free offer that had just started. Then it was back to Hastings, and round to Clara’s place for a girly night in, complete with marshmallows and Bridget Jones Diary. Which was actually pretty damn good. Hope Clara and Ali can come up and visit soon – it’s a pain in the arse being so far away!
Fri 28th – Went over to see Geoff (the vicar) for a bit. He reckons I should try taking up music a bit more actively again. I think I might just do that. After all those years where music was my life, then going practically cold turkey, it’d be good to get back to it. Then took the train to Folkestone to visit Daisy and The Cheeseman. Cheesy went out for the evening, so me and D got a curry and had a good Buffy(Spike)-fest – School Hard, Becoming 1&2, and Intervention. I stayed over the night, but was sharing a room with D’s little girl…. so was woken up in the morning to meet the Barbies and have a tea party. Bless!!
Sat 29th – D drove me over to Ashford where I met my Mum and Dad at the big shopping complex thing. And damn, that place is big! Can’t say I’ve seen one quite like it before, either – the shops are in a big horseshoe arrangement, with the car parking in the middle, a pavement / walkway in front of the shops, and bizarre tent-canopy roofing covering the shops and walkway so the carpark is open air. Kinda cool! Didn’t really buy anything, mainly just browsed. And then more DVD watching and so on in the evening, I think.
Sun 30th – Packing, mainly. Then a few hours on the train. And home. Ta-daaaaaa.
Said it was long and boring, didn’t I? Hehehe.
