Anyone Want A Humbug?

I was in festive spirit, honest.

Today we travelled up to my parents in Wales. The last two miles of the journey left me traumatised, being as it was driving through low cloud along narrow country lanes.

Then Dad and I moved the slate for his pool table from the outbuildings into the conservatory. It was FUCKING HEAVY. In fact, in terms of things I've ever carried, I think it went beyond my able to do it justice with the English language in terms of how heavy it was. FUCKING HEAVY will have to do.

And we wanted to go and see The Two Towers at a Gold Class screen, but suddenly over the holiday period they've allowed you to book like two weeks ahead, which is just not fair.

So those three events seem to have drained me of festive joy. Which is a shame. Because Anne's visit overnight was good fun, and was in some ways festive. Perhaps I should backtrack a little further.

On Saturday, Alison and I completed the assembly of kitchen units and kitchen furniture. Our kitchen chairs were the last things to be done. All that remains is fixing the last two kitchen units to the wall. I haven't quite been brave enough to look at doing that just yet.

By the time Anne arrived on Sunday, I'd finished clearing all the tools and DIY-related debris from the kitchen and it actually looked like we had a real kitchen. Always good.

So Alison and I decorated the two trees (4 ft one in the living room, 18 inch one in the kitchen) while Anne sat back and drank wine, offering comments both helpful and unhelpful.

And so then Alison and I, and our honoured guest (sic) sat down for the first sit down meal in our new kitchen. IKEA rocks. Well, mostly. I've heard so many horror stories about IKEA kitchens since we've ordered them, I'm just glad it all turned up and that it's all gone together properly so far.

And then we watched Kissing Jessica Stein, which was cool and hauntingly familiar for one of the people watching (you work it out), although the ending left me a little cold. It wasn't unhappy, but I don't think it was that happy either. It lacked closure.

And then there was the sitting around and the talking and the Christmas CD and the whisky (for those present who were not teetotal, obviously). I think the late night talking was only truncated by Anne's contact lenses drying out.

This morning mostly involved much mocking of music channels, or more specifically the bands getting airplay on them. Anne and I also did the We're not at work, Everyone else is chair dance at the breakfast table.

And other than an irritatingly anecdote-free trip to Starbucks, that more or less brings me back to the start of the entry. So I guess I should end it hear for now.

There may be more tomorrow. If not, Merry Xmas.