I've just got home from the work Christmas party. Last year I dressed as a pirate with an indecently low top and drank far too much - not enough to do anything stupid bu enough to snog my then fiance on the dancefloor (aka work canteen) and feel a little dry the next morning. This year I dressed as Link and was driving, and I actually think I enjoyed the event that much more for being sober. That's not to say I wouldn't have enjoyed having a coupld of glasses and feeling giggly, but I danced better for not drinking, sang karaoke in tune, and am now feeling nice and chilled at home, watching Tom play on a new Xbox game, which apparently involved Miles trying to catch the pretty moving shapes on the TV screen.

With my costume I had an overall win with four people knowing I was Link, and only two thinking I was an elf. :) I'm pretty pleased. One geeky guy proceeded to talk to me about other obscure costumes he was proud of recognising (Rorschach, Hitman) which was quite nice, if a little bizarre.

Still deciding if I'm going to be making mince pies tonight or if I'm just going to sit and watch TV and have a much deserved glass of something cold (finally).

Today has been busy busy! Tomorrow will be ven more so. It's all good though - doing things I like even if it is kind of exhausting.

Up moderately early this morning, though I did get a bit of a lay-in in the form of 8.15am. Pretty god going for me! I woke feeling better than I have for several days - apparently I have shaken this blasted cold finally! I headed into Salisbury, picking up a very nice girl on the way who is also singing in the Mikado, in order to prepare for a few hours of publicity in Salisbury city centre. We parked, walked to another society member's house and proceeded to get kitted up in kimonos and semi-geisha makeup. I managed to figure out how to tie my obi sash properly (the final result was a lot tidier and prettier than that example, but you get the idea) which I was very pleased with since the other girls had pre-tied clip-on obis! Though the other two kimonos came courtesy of our stage manager, Helen, and are utterly gorgeous and significantly more expensive and better quality than mine - bought from a market stall at the base of a mountain shirine in Kyoto. Still, I love my pretty purple yukata kimono and was overjoyed to get the chance to wear it officially, rther than just as a dressing gown at home!

We were dropped in Salisbury centre with a box full of Mikado flyers and proceeded to accost the Saturday morning shoppers. The costumes worked a treat - people were definitely a lot more keen o take a flyer from someone so obviously dressed up than they were from the other helpers in nomal clothing. I guess it helps poeple to realise from a distance that you're promoting something interesting, not just giving out flyers for a new takeaway or mobile phone offer from BT. I had a lot of interesting comments from people, ranging from 'hurr hurr you've got something on your face!' to 'You looking absolutely stunning, dear!' (from a lovely old lady who I specifically crossed the street to give a flyer to). We found a lot of people in Salisbury had alreay bought tickets, which was good, but we also generated some new interested which was the point behind the whole event. I'll definitely do this again for future shows (though perhaps not for SAOS's next number - the Full Monty).

After we ran out of flyers we headed back, got changed, and I spent the remainder of the day in Salisbury doing some shopping and other useful bits. I found a spectacularly horrible royal wedding commemorative china bell in a charity shop which will be given to my older brother, who seems to collect tacky royal wedding stuff. I got back after dark and in the rain, and proceeded to spend the next hour perhaps foolishly digging up the Christmas tree that was planted in our front garden by the previous owners. Tom and I got very muddy, wet and cold but after half an hour messing about in the dark we had finally cut down the tree! I wanted to dig it out, but the root was too thick and the tree was in a tight corner next to the house and a concrete wall, so in the end we dug out as much as we could then used a pruning saw to chop it down. It's now tastefully decorated in the corner of our living room; shame about the rest of the decorations (Tom has draped horrible old tinsle over every hanging thing he can find).

I also made some mulled wine, having half a bottle open from last week. Annoyingly I had no orange juice, so as an experiment I used tropical juice instead! It actually worked - the pineapple and mango flavour was unusual, but not unpleasant. :) The whole house is feeling thoroughly Christmassy now.

Long day tomorrow setting up the theatre for Mikado next week. An 8.00 start (though I doubt I'll get in that early) for setting up, band call, makeup deonstration, then dress rehearsal. I'm expecting to finish about 10..00pm. It'll be exhausting but fun...

I've been searching for some craft projects to make for people as Christmas presents, and here are some of my favourites! (For my reference as well as anyone else's use).

D12 handbag
Molecular embroidery
Fabric placemats
Holiday wreath

All for now! I'll probably update this as I find more. :)

Off to make toffee apples for tonight's firework display!

I just order my Christmas turkey! The butchers in town was very busy, which was nice to see, and open from 8.00am! I've bought a 16 lb (7.25 Kg) free range local bronze turkey, at a little over £9 a Kg. A quick look online shows me this is a very good price for a good quality bird - they do sell for cheeper, but generally for cheeper, lower quality meat. I'm very pleased! Still, it's going to cost me a fair amount for the meat, but it will be worth it. I just hope it fits in my oven!

Car is currently in the garage having its MOT. I didn't book a service because they couldn't fit me in today and the MOT needs doing before next weekend. But apart from an oil change I think I've been keeping Lucy fairly well maintained - she's got new tyres and is always topped up with oil, coolant and water. Here's hoping for a painless MOT...

I had a bit of a money panic last night, realising it's only the beginning of the month and we're still in debt overall. We did have a healthy balance until mortgage went out! I just need to remind myself that we are making progress month on month, and after December we'll no longer be paying for the wedding photos so that will make a huge difference. I'm going to have a big old ebay this weekend as well - I know it's not going to make much of a dent in our debt, but at least I'll feel like I'm doing something. We have loads of wedding gubbins to sell, so hopefully I can make something on that.

I've also been trying to figure out ways to make frugal Christmas presents for people. I hope my brothers don't mind getting home made and cheaper gifts this year, since we're usually all pretty generous and I can end up spending £50 on each brother easilly. Nothing like a bit of debt to bring out the crafty side of me! :)

Is it too early to be using this icon? Probably...

Tom's mum emailed to say everything has changed. Tom's sister, who was the one not wanting to come to ours for Christmas, now has to work Christmas day (boo!) so instead we are having Christmas a day early with his folks, then again the next day at our house with my family! It does kind of suck her having to work Christmas (and boxing day) but she'll get paid loads, and her boyfriend is working anyway since he's a chef so this way she gets to spend an early Christmas with him as well as her parents. Plus she'll get paid double time, which isn't bad considering she's employed by the NHS and only a band below Tom and I - the band I was employed at two years ago.

I'm very excited about this! It means two Christmas dinners back to back, which may be tough on the old digestive system, but I'll cope somehow (probably go for a Christmas day cycle or something). It means we get to have a wonderful cosy house all decorated and full of all the people I love, and I get to cook for them all it's going to be wonderful!

Plus my parents and Tom's parents are coming to see The Mikado! I haven't convinced my brothers to come yet (they went strangely quiet when I asked them!), but may still work on Tom's sister and boyfriend, and maybe Tom's aunt and cousins.

Woop!

Last day back at home before going back to work tomorrow. It's nice to take the days between Christmas and New Year off, but I've run out of holiday so I can't! Still, I've been told that the Big Boss usually sends round an email early afternoon telling people to go home since it's going to be a week of quiet office work for all. It will be god to catch up on paperwork after a few weeks of manic lab-work pre-Christmas. I had joked about taking the Wii in, and apparently some High Up overheard and made an official comment to my boss that I was NOT to bring my Wii into work and play on it all day. Seriously. I laughed so hard when she told me that! I might take in some of the silly presents I got, such as my radio-controlled plague rat.

We came back to Salibsury last night after a very nice long walk along the cold and windy Dorset coastline followed by a pub lunch. I was slightly tempted to stay with my parents until today since there were plans for a beef and venison casserole, but Tom wanted a whole day here to chill and I think it's a good idea. We've had a nice lazy morning, and I've been into town grabbing some bargains in the sale on a nice and quiet Sunday. Shopping on Sundays is bliss! I should do it more often. I got lots of Christmas lights and decorations from Sainsburys for 75% off, as well as some very nice half-price posh party poppers from Paperchase that will be saved for the wedding! I was very pleased with that purchase. I also got a Marvel superheroes wall calendar and some underwear very cheep. The rest of the afternoon is going to be dedicated to trying out some of the computer games we were given for Christmas and catching up on washing and stuff that's built up over the holiday.

Well, Christmas has been interesting. Yesterday's festivities were kind of scuppered by my grandad falling over and needing to go to hospital. He banged his head which bled a fair bit, and also lost consciousness for a few seconds. He's okay, thankfully, but has apparently been getting dizzy spells which he hadn't told anyone about! So our usual post-dinner games and revelry were cut short the rather more dramatic events. Thankfully my aunt hadn't been drinking so she was able to cart my nan and grandad to hospital and back, which did involve several hours of waiting around before they could finally go home at about 10.00pm. Grandad stayed in overnight for test results, but he's been discharged this morning.

But onto more festive postings!

We had mini-Christmas in France with Tom's family, which was very pleasant. French Christmas involved fois gras, hot tubbing, spit-roasted turkey and lots of rose wine. We flew back on the 23rd and have been enjoying Christmas in Lymington with my family since. There have been lots of social gatherings, including pub meet-ups on Christmas eve lunchtime (a fairly new annual tradition with friends), carols sung with friends of family under a rather fine old cast-iron lamppost with mulled wine (also an annual tradition), more carols at the crib service in church, and Christmas day morning round some friends of family for drinks and snacks. I'm amazed how much of Christmas is spent with friends as well as family, but I guess that comes of having a family that mostly live locally and whom we see all year round.

The present haul was kind of funny, because we kept getting duplicate (and in one case triplicate, almost quadruplicate!) presents! Both Tom and I have wish lists at http://www.wishlist.com, which is all well and good because it allows you to pick present suggestions from anywhere on the web, but it doesn't always display a 'reserved' sign next to a gift when someone's bought it. Hence multiple people buying the same gift. I think we're going to find another website to host our wishlists next year!

So, the combined haul:

Toblerones, toblerone bites and chocolate cookies
A ceramic mixing bowl
A hand-blender
b/w stripy Tim Burton scarf and gloves
2 x SD cards for new camera
Shutter release cable for new camera
Small cute Japanese cactus cat thing model
Garlic chutney
Crocheting 'creepy cute' book. Now I can learn to crochet!! :D
A marmite cook book (!)
Lots of Hellboy novels
Hellboy animated series DVDs (x3... ooops)
Some Disney DVDs for the next time I'm at home ill
Firefly DVDs
The Mighty Boosch DVDs
My Name Is Earl series 2 DVDs
Some Gibli DVDs
Some Jeunet & Caro DVDs (Amelie, Delicatessen and City of Lost Children)
The Orphanage DVD
Okami for Wii
Lego Batman for Wii
Singstar games for PS2
Chocobo Dungeon for Wii
Pirates! for PC
Silent Hill 3 for PS2
Cute Overload page-a-day calendar
A build your own robot kit
A SCIENCE! T-shirt
Candles
Bath stuff
Jewellery box
Salt & pepper mills
Hot Chocolate kit
A whole bunch of silly small things to annoy people in the office at work.

A good time was had generally. I enjoyed Dr Who last night and Wallace & Gromit immensely, even if they were on telly while people were rushing around getting my grandad to hospital. My little brother has discovered Animal Crossing on the Wii and seems to be enjoying it. I just hope he takes care of our town! I have a fear he's going to trample my hybrids... :(

Did not sleep well last night. Apparently if I have a little too much to drink I spend most the the night awake with my heart rate racing, worrying about whether I've drunk enough water and if I'm going to feel okay in the morning. In actual fact I feel fine, just tired because I didn't get enough sleep!

I know it's normally the hangover from hell that makes people say they're never going o drink again, but I realy think that a sleepless night is not worth a slight overindulgence the evening before. I normally drink just enough to feel a a little affacted by the alcohol, and I think much more than that is just too much for my fragile body! :P

Last day of work before christmas today! I'm expecting a pleasant day of paper-work catchup and an early leave, then we get picked up by Tom's parents and taken to the ferry to go to France! I'm not looking forward to the 6 hour drive on the other side of the Channel to get to Bergerac, especially as I don't have my DS at the moment (left that at the theatre - still need to pick it up from the stage manager who also works at my place), but I'll probably just sleep most of the way.

Appologies to anyone who replied to my previous post about organising an internet Secret Santa this year - not enough people were interested, so I don't think it's going to happen. Hoh well.

But on a good note, and prompted by jannyblue's post about Christmas cards, if anyone would like a card from me please leave your address and I'll send you one! I may even be making my own this year, but don't hold your breath. :)

Please don't assume I have your address from last year because I've probably lost it! Comments, as usual, will be screened.

Today after work Tom and I drove round a few places we've been looking at houses in. It's all very exciting! When I first started house-hunting properly I was expecting to be looking at tiny little flats and terraced houses with little to no garden, but it turns out that three bed semis with front and back gardens and garages are within our grasp! One good thing to come out of this financial madness is the dropping house prices. Woo! We've not gone to view anything yet, but have seen lots of houses that look quite prmising on rightmove.co.uk. I can't wait to go and view things officially!

The other rather nice thing to happen recently is Tom and I being invited over to France from the 19th-23rd December, for an early Christmas with his family (or at least his parents, sister and sister's boyfriend). They're spending Christmas day there, by which time we'll be back and with my parents.

Work at the moment is a little meh. I'm feeling a bit stifled but scared to apply for jobs outside my department because I love where I am. Still, it's an means to an end, and that end right now is a house of our own and a wedding and that's really what matters. Plus in November I'll have been in the HPA for a year and will get an utomatic pay-rise! Woot!

( Some dragons here )

Christmas is once more beginning to rear its head. It's creeping into shops and conversation and much as I hate to admit it, I think I'm going to have to break my rule of 'No thinking about Christmas until November'.

So on that note, would anyone be interested in a Secret Santa this year round? I know there's usually a mass exchange of cards, but last year I was witness to Tom's organisation of the Secret Santa on the Penny Arcade forums and it was a wonderful sight to behold!

I think that 95% of people on my friends list are also friends, so this shouldn't be a difficult thing to organise with the help of a community. I was thinking spends of between $10-20 (£6-18) or maybe more. It would be a closed community, with people required to leave their address (hidden) to join. People should leave details of the kind of thing they would like as a present, or at least some ideas.

So, anyone interested?

Busy busy.  A rather hectic if fun Christmas, whizzing from Jam's family to mine to Salisbury to London and back again, it's all gone by rather quickly.  I won't bore you with the details, save that we were in London for NYE watching the fireworks, which were awesome, but getting stuck in traffic an dmissing our hotel booking wasn't.

I'm struggling a little at the moment with keeping up with the internet.  I think having moved down here and actually having a job I care about, rather than one which is simply filling in the time until teh next internet break, is making a large difference.  I feel a bit bad because I don't have time to properly read LJ like I used to, and I haven't been on the Sluggy.net forums for weeks now (sorry, krail !  There's a chance I may have to give up certain internet obligations, such as the RPG and LJ communities, simply because I'm not spending the time I used to online and I don't ever want something that I enjoy to become a chore.  I'll still be around posting here but perhaps not as frequently as I used to.  Fewer, longer entries may be the way forward!

The new job is still awesome, though quiet at the moment and there's not an aweful lot for me to do.  I need to spend less time here (bad Flora) and more time reading and doind paperwork.  Speaking of which, time to log off I think.

Well I suppose I have to do the Mega Update at some point, and while I'm waiting for dinner I might as well make a start.

( Up to Christmas - my parents house )

( Boxing Day onwards - Jam's parents house )

So back to work now, back to the routine. That's the only problem with having a holiday - it makes coming back to reality that much harder! Still, it was lovely to have two weeks with friends and family, sharing in the festive spirit. Woo!

I don't have a New Years Resolution yet. I probably won't do one, since I always seem to make pathetic ones that I can't stick to. Maybe I'll take up smoking and quit that? Hah.

Anyway, a bit late but Happy New Year to all, hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

And now I have to try and remember what I've been doing the past few days! Time seems to have been whizzing past, yet I don't seem to be getting a lot done.

On Wednesday night was my work's Christmas meal, only when we turned up at the pub we'd booked in we discovered that both the manager and the chef had done a runner, and they weren't serving food. The manager took all the paperwork with her so while the remaining staff knew there were tables booked they didn't know phone numbers, names or anything, so they couldn't contact us before we turned up.

It took a while (one and a half hours, to be precise) to find us somewhere to eat, but four pubs later and we settled in a Harvester. Food was standard, not too expensive, but it wasn't a Christmas meal. At least the pub we originally booked should compensate us. When they get a new manger...

Thursday I had the saga of trying to find a replacement spare wheel, but you've heard that already! We finially got on the road to my parents' at 3.00pm, which is later than I hoped especially as the fog started coming in as soon as it got dark. It was pretty scary driving along twisty unlight A roads with dense fog all around - okay until traffic came towards me, at which point the headlights effectively blinded me. Past Salisbury it was okay as the roads were well lit, but up to that point I really wasn't enjoying the drive. Plus we kept getting lost round Bath! Stupid unsignposted roads.

But I'm home now and enjoying a bit of relaxation. My mum had surgery on her wrist to releive her carpal tunnel syndrome, and hence needs a fair amount of help. She's silly because she still insists on trying to do all the things she normally does, like make huge gorgeous home-cooked meals and complicated puddings and shopping and stuff. Plus my brotehrs are both useless and don't think to offer to help unless prompted. So I've been helping in the kitchen a lot.

My brothers both love the Wii! The spent ages making silly Miis and then play golf for hours on end. Long after I went to bed last night my older brother, Joe, was down there playing tennis. I don't mind because I just get up early in the morning and play on Zelda for a couple of hours before anyone else has risen! Heehee!

Hungry now, so off to investigate the possibilities of lunch.

The performance last night was pretty darn awesome. The audience were great - laughing and clapping and standing up and singing along and everything. We also got 4/5 stars in The Evening Post, which is pretty good. I was also awesome, noticing as her line approached that one lady was not paying attention, being more absorbed in threatening the judge with her rolling pin, and as her line came up I stepped forward and sang in her place - it was just one line, but I could see she had forgotten about it! The men also missed one line, but rather than pick the line up halfway they just sang nothing, which is much better really and I don't think anyone would have noticed unless they knew the play well.

About half a dozen people stood during The Hallelujia Chorus. We asked the conductor to ask the audience to stand, but either he forgot or thought this not necessary. As we started singing I watched one man get rather nervously to his feet, then for support dragged his friend up with him. This prompted a few other audience members to stand up, but only a few here and there and they were gettig looks from those sitting around them who were clearly baffled by this early standing ovation or whatever they thought it was. Quite funny to look out over a sea of gloomy faces (stage lighting prohibiting much of a view) to witness half a dozen individuals on their feet!

I got home about 10.30pm to discover we now have weather on our Wii!. Despite not having updated for five hours it was pretty fun - I was expecting a local weather station so we could just check the UK, or maybe Europe, but you can check the weather anywhere in the world! At 10.30pm GMT at the North Pole it was -16oC. So there you go! It did, however, have something that annoys me which is insisting that it is sunny outside despite being five hours since sunset. Moons are the way to go!

Last day at work today and I have been wearing my Santa hat since 7.30am. Not so much out of choice, but having worn it for a while I have developed hat-hair and hence cannot take the Santa hat off! Seeing as it's so close to Christmas I'm not getting too many funny looks, though I did hear a few girls giggling as they walked past me while scraping the ice from my car first thing. Who care? It's almost Christmas!

My colleagues apparently do not like Joni Mitchell's 'River'. They are fools! It is a sad song, but it is beautiful, and like it or no it is staying on my Christmas Compilation CD. Along with other depressing Christmas songs by Dido (yes, Dido. I know she's not cool but I like her, okay?) and, er, Bryan Adams. Sorry, you didn't need to know that...

Last night's performance went well enough. It was typical openeing night really - there were a few flaws that needed to be ironed out, but nothing that the audience would probably notice. It's a shame we're only doing this for two nights, as I feel the play would just keep getting better and better. It really was fun out there, and no nerves from me (which I was surprised at!), even if the whole thing was mildly chaotic - last minute scnerey adjustments meant we had much less space on stage than predicted and some of the choreography was a little squahed. But still, good fun, and people seemed to enjoy it!

The second half seemed to get the audience going a lot more. They were singing along, and not just with the audience carols - my Grandad was, apparently, singing along with the Hallelujia Chorus at the end! I'm glad he enjoyed that, seeing as I know he didn't like the G&S play! But he loves Handel, so I guess that evened things out. Apparently you're meant to stand during the Hallelujia Chorus (the audience, that is) but no-one did. I wasn't aware of thins until afterwards - maybe if someone had prompted them they would have? It really doesn't matter.

Same rigmarole again tonight. I'll be getting there even earlier since last night I had to pick up Jam and take him with me. I'll get reasy in plenty of time since mirrors in ladies' changing room are a thing of high demand, then probably sit around playing on the DS for an hour or so!

I've started feeling really Christmassy, but work is sucking all the festive spirit out of me. I came in the morning wearing a Santa hat having listened to my (new) Christmas compilation, and no sooner have I logged on do the public start moaning about Council Tax. Hard to feel joyous when you're arguing with an irate caller because some phone lines have gone down and he can't moan at them so he's going to moan at you instead. Bah Humbug!

Seriously though, I have a lot of Christmas spirit. It's going to take more than a few moaners to crush my spirits! :)

We had such a relaxing weekend flopping at Jam's parents house that neither of us wanted to come back and face work again. Still, just another 2.5 days to go before we're off for Christmas! Woohoo! My production of Trial By Jury and some Christmassy songs is tonight. I'm really looking forward to it, though I'm a bit nervous that I'm going to do somethign daft like drop my flowers (which I did on Friday's dress rehearsal!). The play's really fun to perform - it's very fluid and silly and mostly improvised. I'm never in one set place at any time - I move about from flirting with the men to giggling like a girl at the front to sitting down at the edge of the stage with the other bridesmaids, but it's all pretty much improvised as we go. It does make it mildly chaotic, but it keeps the play full of energy and the singing is so much fun! There's no diaglogue in this one at all, and I think it's a more fun play for it.

The songs will be harder work, but I can cope with that. Sometimes I don't feel like hitting a high note so I just mime it, but most of the time I'm alright. Miming is better than squeaking, of course!

We decorated Jam's parents houseover the weekend, and played lots of Zelda, and ate Stollen (lovely German fruit cake with rum and marzipan! Yum!) and drank wine and generally felt relaxed and Christmassy.

And Jam's old lab mates made up a scientific romantic poem which I feel needs to be posted:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Is your lab sterile
Catagory 2?

Hehehe...

I just hugely impressed my colleagues with what they seem to think is my instoppable computing ability. I (*gasp*) plugged in some speakers, installed Windows Media Player and started playing a Christmas CD in the office computer that can actually do these things (our work station computers do not allow you to mess with any settings beyond volume control and background image). It's amazing how even a rudamentary grasp of Windows functions can amaze techno-phobic middle-aged women.

So we at last have what I hope is a reliable CD player in the office on which to play various nasty CDs, including choral christmas songs, Cliff Richard and whoever it was sang that Amarillo song that took the nation by storm a year ago. I'm planning to burn a new copy of my own Christmas compilation (featuring such gems as Eels, The Webb Brothers and, of course, The Pogues feat. Kirsty McColl. Bless her).

So whee, Christmas music!

It got pretty darn wet cycling in this morning. When I left the house it was drizzly, but most of that was just rain being blown about by the winds. When I got about half way in to work it really started to rain though. By the time I got in my clothing was soaked through. I also discovered that my rucksack is not particularly waterproof. Hence my clothes, all of them, are either a)soaked through or b)uncomfortably damp. I've put on the least damp of the clothes and the rest are drying out on the radiator or in the drying room (which, being filed with cyclists' wet socks, shoes and other apparel is not a pleasant place to visit).

At least my trousers have now dried out. Nylon is good like that. And I always have a spare underwear set in my lockers for such emergencies, so not every part of my is uncomfortable. I'm still not wearing shoes, though. :)

This week I'm going to be playing Zelda a little less. Rehearsals and baking of mince pies for the performance next week (next week! Argh!) is going to be taking up my spare time. It does mean that Jam can get ahead of me, which means that when I do get to play I don't have to kick him out of the front room. And when someone gets kicked out of the front room in our flat there really isn't anywhere else to go. Bedroom, bathroom or hallway are about your only options.

I can't beleive how close it is to Christmas! I only have to buy gifts for my mum (who's dead easy - some smellies will keep her happy!) and my Nanny and Grandad, who are more difficult. I'll probably buy boozes for them, which is boring but about the only thing I can get that they will guaranteed like.

Less that 16 hours to go! :D

I am really rather excited, but before that I have to go to a singing Christmas dinner. I say 'have to' - of course I want to go! But I'm going to be a bit fidgety, and the knowledge of having to get up at silly o'clock Friday morning will stop me staying up too late. We're not booked in until 8.30, so I'm in for a fairly late night whatever. Still, should be fun - the singing people are all nice, and hopefully I'll get to sit next to some of the younger, more fun members.

I'm having four Christmas dinners this year. It would have been five but my office has pulled out of the work's canteen meal because it's expensive and not really that great. Much better to pay a couple of pounds more and go to a restaurant with service and three courses and all of us able to eat at the same time (the problem with working on a switchboard is that someone has to be on the phones at all times).

I seem to procure one more Christmas meal each year. The joys of having a grown-up (i.e. boring office) job I guess!