Christmas Day turned out to be a lot better than I could have hoped for. It did feel quite strange at first, not being with my family and friends, but that all soon came to an end when I started to think of the amount of food I had to cook for a late lunch for four. Of course, I grossly miscalculated, and cooked enough for about 12 (well, OK maybe eight), but there was not one scrap of food left by the end of it... always a welcome sight to one who's been slaving away at the cooker for about four hours. It's amazing what a slight hangover and a glass of champagne for breakfast can do to one's cooking abilities. And I have to say, even though the timing of the cooking was haphazard to say the least, it all worked beautifully in the end.
The weather was sad - as far from the white Christmas I had secretly hoped for as you can get. It was grey, wet and cold, which immediately excluded any exterior activities. But chez moi, the heating was up, there was food and wine aplenty, and the conversation flowed so that by the time some Maltese friends who live in the neighbourhood turned up for drinks, the noise levels were at a level that was high enough to make me feel like I was back home.
Significant Other and I had done the present swapping at the stroke of midnight. I got what I had been secretly lusting after ever since I first laid eyes on it earlier in the year - an iPhone. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot tell you just how sexy this wonderful object is. It looks amazing and seems to do just everything that you want it to do. I'm very much looking forward to the next couple of days uploading all the music and pictures and other bits and pieces that I want to put into it so that by the time I go back to work next week, I'll be carrying one object less.
Being away from work is, I have to say, a dream. It's so nice to be able to get up in the morning and have a day at leisure. Even if I did spend the majority of the two days before Christmas roaming around the aisles of the Supermarket Hell that was Waitrose, stocking up on food for the Big Day, I was still getting home a lot calmer than I usually do after a day at the office. Afternoon naps and crap daytime television. I really could get used to this!
Throughout the week, daytime television has been full of Christmas movies and end-of-year-reflections, which are always a good way to end yet another year. Where is it all going? I can remember the fluttering in my stomach as I was walking home from Paceville in daylight after a big night out to celebrate the new Millennium like it was yesterday. And now all of a sudden it's 2008! It's flying! Still, I suppose as an uncle of mine says, if we're not getting older, we die, so let the years roll I say.
And on this note, I will end, but not before wishing all the best for the year to come. Here's hoping there's less of the bad news, and more of the good, which is always a lot more welcome. But now I've got a playlist to create for downloading onto my new gadget. Oh, the joys of Christmas!
The weather was sad - as far from the white Christmas I had secretly hoped for as you can get. It was grey, wet and cold, which immediately excluded any exterior activities. But chez moi, the heating was up, there was food and wine aplenty, and the conversation flowed so that by the time some Maltese friends who live in the neighbourhood turned up for drinks, the noise levels were at a level that was high enough to make me feel like I was back home.
Significant Other and I had done the present swapping at the stroke of midnight. I got what I had been secretly lusting after ever since I first laid eyes on it earlier in the year - an iPhone. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot tell you just how sexy this wonderful object is. It looks amazing and seems to do just everything that you want it to do. I'm very much looking forward to the next couple of days uploading all the music and pictures and other bits and pieces that I want to put into it so that by the time I go back to work next week, I'll be carrying one object less.
Being away from work is, I have to say, a dream. It's so nice to be able to get up in the morning and have a day at leisure. Even if I did spend the majority of the two days before Christmas roaming around the aisles of the Supermarket Hell that was Waitrose, stocking up on food for the Big Day, I was still getting home a lot calmer than I usually do after a day at the office. Afternoon naps and crap daytime television. I really could get used to this!
Throughout the week, daytime television has been full of Christmas movies and end-of-year-reflections, which are always a good way to end yet another year. Where is it all going? I can remember the fluttering in my stomach as I was walking home from Paceville in daylight after a big night out to celebrate the new Millennium like it was yesterday. And now all of a sudden it's 2008! It's flying! Still, I suppose as an uncle of mine says, if we're not getting older, we die, so let the years roll I say.
And on this note, I will end, but not before wishing all the best for the year to come. Here's hoping there's less of the bad news, and more of the good, which is always a lot more welcome. But now I've got a playlist to create for downloading onto my new gadget. Oh, the joys of Christmas!