Chrimbo!

God that was quick. Work, work, work right up until Christmas Eve and then - Whooooosh! - back at work again. How did that happen?

I returned home to my Kentish brethren for the Yuletide festivities, whereupon I consumed so much meat and drink. So much that I am officially fasting for the next 3 months! Much fun was had playing games, mainly Cranium (Game of the Year apparently) which was my gift to my parents. It really annoyed my Grandparents too, as you can't win it on sheer brainpower alone. Too funny!

Managed to avoid watching the television for the festive period too, which I think is a good sign. Means we actually did more together as a family. It has proved difficult to talk to folk at work though. It seems 80% of conversations begin "Did you see....?" I wonder when I lost my joy at soaking up hours of television on a regular basis?

So my gifts this year included socks (which I desperately needed), a multitool thingy, a credit card torch, a cardigan from Muji, books (including 'Barry Trotter and the Unnecessary Sequel' and 'The Soddit'), a scarf and gloves and some cash. PK bought me a hot water bottle covered in fleece with little sheep on it. This was after my longing gazes at his water bottle during the cold nights of the last few weeks. I gave it a trial run last night and it performs admirably.

Noo Yeer

We're off to Reflex for some camp hilarity. Oh and Nikki French. The gods alone know where they dug her up from! Bargain ticket price of £15 which gets you free entry for the whole of January too.

Northern Lad

Has anyone invented a time machine recently? No? Oh bum!

I really wish it was next Tuesday. His accent alone lights my fire :o)

Errr.....yeah

Sooooo...Eddie Izzard. It was a long time coming (ie 7 years) but finally I got to see my comic idol live in concert at Wembley Arena. Sporting a leather miniskirt, C-Cup boobs and high heels Mr Izzard pleasured his audience for 2 hours on Sunday night (21st December).

I could spend pages here quoting bits of the show, but if it doesn't come from the man himself it loses so much. Suffice to say I nearly asphyxiated many times throughout the evening through laughing too hard.

It's a bit too late for me to recommend going to see the tour as it finished the following day, but you can always buy the DVD!

I Did It Again

I have met another guy on line and he is sooooo sweet. He's from up Nottingham way, but visits London every now and again. I met up with him this time last week and he bought me dinner in London. I should see him again in January (Update: Next Tuesday actually, then I maybe visiting him Oop North :o)

Ah meeting folk through the Internet is a wonderful thing. Feel free to quote that to me when I get chopped into bits by an axe-wielding maniac from Wigan.

Oh Canada!

Due to a bad case of Writers Slackness I never told you about my pals from Canada who came to visit during November and early December. I met them, surprise surprise, on the net. Having chatted to them on and off for a couple of months they suddenly announced "Hey we're in London soon, we must meet up" And so that's exactly what we did.

They are a such a nice couple and they have two adorable children. Yes children, who'd have thunk it? Men with kids. I was always kinda sceptical about that, but having seen it in the flesh and seen how happy they are as a family it's changed my perceptions.

Much fun was had as I showed them the sights of Clapham and Soho. I know there's probably far better places to show folks, but having only been in the Capital for 18 months, my knowledge of it is shaky at best. In return I have been given an invite to the annual Calgary Stampede next year. Sounds cool! Cowboys as far as the eye can see *drool drool*

Bye Bye Birdy

Yes we did find a plane spotter to follow to the right spot. Yes we did wave goodbye to Concorde. Yes we did take photos and have them scanned.

No I don't have them, as they are on PK's parents PC in Suffolk!! Maybe later, huh?

Repeat After Me: YOU WILL BLOG TODAY!

Ye Gods where does the time go? One minute your bowling along merrily, enjoying life and writing about as much as you can. The next minute you suddenly look up and realise that you haven't put finger to keyboard for over a fortnight and you can't quite remember what has gone on in the intervening space.

All of this was brought screaming into focus, when I logged on this evening to discover that one of my Blogparents passed out of cyberspace recently and I wasn't there to witness it. Mike of Troubled Diva has ceased to blog. Much as this causes me a pang of loss and grief, the funny thing about it all is that, when you read his reasons for calling it a day, they have a strong correlation with the phenomenon I mentioned above.

I grew up in an age of blogging when a whole gang of us would congregate on a tagboard to chat in the mornings, sometimes from 8 am through until lunchtime. All of us had jobs where free time was available, were at home for various reasons or lived in a different timezone. I had vast chunks of my day to write a blog although, considering the content of my life at the time, inspiration was thin on the ground. Then, as all good things do, it gradually began to dwindle to its enevitable end. People left the tagboard as work suffered. I was shifted to another office full of all the bastards in hell, who would rather I sit in total boredom than use the Internet. So Peter retired his tagboard as the cobwebs were gathering on its built-in smileys.

Then my life began to change radically. I met PK, we did all kinds of things I'd never done before. I began to take regular exercise. The bastards of hell made me redundant. I attended interviews and got a new job. They turned out to be bastards too, so I left. I got another job which I am so happy in it's untrue and I can finally see a future.

Inspiration at last. Changes and innovation in my life. A time to write surely? Nope, blog entries down to a pitiful few. My bad.

So I understand totally where Mike is coming from. My blog output started to dwindle, whereas he continued to juggle life and work and a superior blog. I'm surprised he lasted this long without spontaneously combusting! All the very best for the future Mike and thanks for giving your time and art so generously.