any excuse will do
Those who pester me about my site will know that I have been planning a redesign for a while, and have given myself numerous deadlines for it – all of which have passed with … well, not much work done. It did give me an excuse for not writing anything though. So, what follows may be the longest thing I have written for a long time, it may be the least interesting, but it will be good for me.
And that is all that counts…
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I last wrote after returning from a long weekend in Venice, where I had spent a magical few days, and set myself up for the christmas period. This started with our office christmas party, imaginatively based at the pub across the road with two-thirds of the budget stashed behind the bar. With a bit of corporate sponsorship, this meant that we had a free bar from lunchtime through to when we left, and I took the opportunity to try most of the drinks that were available, vodka with lemonade, with coke, with orange, with red bull, sidekicks (dodgy peach schnapps concoctions), and the rest is just a bit of a blur. Drinking is not my strong point, and so I was particulary merry by about six. At 7:30 I realised that I had missed six calls from George, who had forgotten her house keys, and so made my way back home to let her in. This was probably very fortunate timing…
The party itself was … not the most interesting, but the company more than made up for it – and the addition of a playstation 2 with ‘dancing mats’ was a stroke of genius. I have never had so much fun playing ‘on the spot hopscotch’ since I was very little!
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Christmas itself was a quiet one, spent in Portsmouth with mum, dad and Robert, very family-oriented, but it just doesn’t feel like home, not yet anyway. I assembled a nice collection of gifts, including a musical christmas tie from my grandma. The battery hasn’t run out yet.
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The second half of the christmas week was spent ‘up north’, staying with George in Chesterfield and visiting various members of family back in Sheffield. Visiting my sisters new house and doing lots of ‘christmassy’ things with George’s neice, Ellie, were two of the nicer things – and, of course, spending time with George. In fact, looking back, exchanging presents on a random weekday morning, while drinking cups of tea and all wrapped up cosy in our duvet is one of the things that makes me smile now, even as I write this.
Mentioning Ellie, one of the weekends before christmas George and I performed babysitting duty while her mum and dad went out for the evening. I only mention it here to remind me – never have children…
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And New Years Eve – well, let’s just say that I have never been so drunk. It started with a random call from Stewart, who had made a surprise visit back to the country for christmas and came down for the party, and along with the other attendees started in the flat. At about 10:30 we headed over to Babel, a small, funky bar – I can remember going in, but not much else until I was violently sick outside the side door. And then it is all horribly, horribly memorable. It was a mighty fun night up until that point though, and at least I provided lots of entertainment for the assembled throng. Won’t happen again for a while, though…
The next day was pretty tough, it being my first ever hangover, but getting out of bed at 2:30 in the afternoon for a walk in the park was probably about the only thing I was good for that day.
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And my iPod? Absolutely bloomin’ brilliant…