Happy New Year

We’re done with Christmas again then. I went to my Mum’s in Yorkshire and had a lovely time, though I was glad to be back in my little flat after a week away. Mum says everything that happened over Christmas will end up on here anyway, but this time she’s wrong. I shall just say that my family are quite mad and leave it that. It doesn’t mean I don’t love them, just…in small chunks, you know?

I got back on Friday and me and Max spent NYE at a friend’s house being beaten at Trivial Pursuit. Since then I’ve mostly vegged out and attempted to make a dent in the massive amounts of chocolate and biscuits we have acquired over the festive season. Yesterday we went for a 5 mile skate around the Emirates, so at least I don’t feel as guilty for all the crap I’ve been eating.

Max is back at work today (just for the day) but I am not. The Carrie of December gets bonus points for booking an extra week off, though she’ll lose them again when I go back and remember all the crap she left me with. I am already not looking forward to going back to work, although the dread started about three days in to my holiday. It’ll be next Monday before I know it.

I got some lovely things for Christmas, some new knee pads from Max for roller derby, many books, a big photo frame from my bro as I’d said I wanted stuff for the walls in our flat, which are very bare, a tea set and the aforementioned chocolate.

One of my favourite things about this holiday has been Max reading The Hunger Games. He’s not a big reader usually, so seeing him race through these books – and his passionate arguments for Team Peeta – have just about made my month. I loved the books too, as you can see here, but I was Team Gale in the beginning. Max cannot comprehend this. Why Gale? He doesn’t do anything? Peeta is awesome! He bakes! He’s romantic! He’s totally your type! Gale would do your nut in! You hate outdoorsy types. And on and on. He also keeps guessing what will happen next, though he’s mostly been wrong on that. Can’t wait to see how he feels about the ending.

And here we are in 2012. I may attempt to update this place a bit more, but I can’t promise it. I contemplated doing another Cannonball Read, and maybe I will keep a better record of my books, but I don’t think I want to do one officially. I’ve been seeing a lot of blogs reviewing 2011 and all the things people did in their year and I feel, as usual, woefully behind. Other than starting a new job, joining roller derby and moving in with Max, I haven’t really accomplished all that much. Maybe 2012 will be different, but since I’m very much a slacker, it probably won’t.

Meltdown Redacted

In the continuing adventures of Living With a Boy, this week sees our heroine overreact slightly to a messy house, bewilder her boyfriend and try to come to terms with the fact that hey, people are different. Some people like bins to be emptied when they are full, and some people can either ignore the fact that they are full or just plain not notice it at all. Some people like washing to be placed in a laundry basket, others are happy to have it spewing all over the place in IKEA bags. Some people like to get the boring and annoying chores out of the way before relaxing, others prefer to play Skyrim. It’s a mad mad world full of opposites, and sometimes you end up living with one.

It’s cool, the meltdown is over, we are back to liking each other again now. He’ll try to do better with the chores, and I’ll try not to care so much. We can all blame my mother for raising a child that cares about a neat and tidy house. Did you hear that Mum? It’s all your fault! (Not really. I love you. Don’t hate me. Thanks for bringing me up right.)

Moving on from domestic (non) bliss, today is my last day at work for THREE WEEKS. I am immensely giddy about this. (So much so that it took me four attempts to spell immensely correctly. Ye gods). Hardly anyone is in the office today and in half an hour I will be the only one left, so work? HAH! I shall eat all my advent calendar chocolate and that is that. I may also drink quite a lot of tea.

I’m really looking forward to Christmas, but then I always do. Time off, good food, surrounded by loved ones…it’s great. I shall be going to Yorkshire next week to spend the festive season with my family. There are two turkeys in the back garden waiting to be eaten. I don’t know which one gets to be ours. Maybe I could pardon one, like they do in the States?

I might post again before the big day but if not, Merry Christmas all!

Here We Go Again

It’s been almost three months of no blogging, and you know what? I kinda miss it. I realised this as I was writing maybe the fifth post in my head. If I can’t shut it off I might as well write it down. And there have been things! Things to talk about! (I have to say though, it’s a bit disconcerting to find that I get more blog hits when I don’t write than when I do. How is that even possible?) And so, here’s a little recap of the last three months:

1. I had Norovirus. I took almost a week off work. It was less than fun, as you can imagine.

2. I survived our office move, whereby two companies that had shared space for over thirty years went their separate ways. This involved throwing out epic amounts of useless crap that had been accumulated; packing up everything deemed essential (and stuff that was not but survived the weeding anyway); packing boxes, lifting boxes, unpacking boxes; suffering from sellotape burn; aching all over, being exhausted and ready for a holiday; being disappointed by people’s behaviour; trying not to lose my shit over said people’s behaviour; splitting myself in two because…

3. I got a new job. I have left my old company to go to the one we shared an office with but don’t any more. Following? It’s still in publishing but I’ll now be working in editorial, with some publicity/marketing functions until the position grows to full time. It’s very early days as I started at the beginning of the year, but as I’d been looking for a new job for almost three years all I can say is: PHEW! No more applications! No more CV writing! No more interviews with people who have obviously already chosen a person but have to advertise the position anyway! No more personality tests and stupid questions! I hardly know what to do with myself, or my free time. And so I…

4. Signed up for Roller Derby. I haven’t skated since I was about ten and I am lethal on two feet, let alone wheels, but still, I really wanted to have a go. I got my skates, will have pads etc soon, and start the fresh meat programme with the London Roller Girls in February. Am scared! But also very excited.

5. Cannonball Read III started over at Pajiba but I decided not to do it again this year. I want to read for pleasure and not race through a book to fill a quota. I am following those taking part though, and already have some books added to my wishlist based on their reviews. And I’ll still be posting my thoughts on books I’ve read, just maybe not every book I read.

6. Also there was Christmas in there and New Year. Christmas was lovely, excepting the car crash we had on Christmas Eve, when we hit black ice, skidded off the road and ended up in a ditch. Thankfully only the car died, but we were incredibly lucky. New Year’s Eve was a more sedate affair, with me and Max watching films and avoiding crowds. It’s the best way to do it you know.

And that’s it really. I will attempt to post regularly from now on.

Got Any Chocolate?

And so Christmas is over once again. Won’t be long before it’s here again though. You might laugh but the years go quick. I have been in Yorkshire for most of it, loving being off work and mainly lolling about doing very little. Bliss. I got lots of nice things and ate far too much food, most of it chocolate based. I’d write a proper entry but really, who’s going to read it? This year:

• We have all lost our shit over the snow.
• We again pretended we wouldn’t go to my grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve, only to cave at the last minute, but we positively would NOT be opening presents. And yet we did.
• I have learned more about my grandfather’s bowel movements than I ever needed to. Must go bleach my brain.
• Mum gave up her tradition of running up and down the stairs and flushing toilets to wake us up. I guess that makes me officially old.
• I moaned about not getting any socks or smellies.
• I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing DS games, and I haven’t even started the new Zelda yet. There goes my reading target…
• On Boxing Day I watched too much TV, including The Proposal, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Inkheart.
• You can tell I was going stir crazy since I agreed to go shopping in the sales.
• I was disappointed by Doctor Who.
• I have felt cold, especially my poor feet, for most of it.
• Christmas telly was mostly crap. Who does the schedules and why did they show the third Pirates film before the second? Same with The Santa Clause sequels. (Although who knew there were three of those?)
• My Google Reader had hit 250 posts on my return. I admit to hitting ‘mark all as read’ a fair bit. Sorry.
• I have succeeded in getting through the festive season without having a cold. Woot! Dear universe, this is not an invitation to strike me down.

I have no plans for New Years Eve, but since I hate, loathe, detest!!! NYE I don’t really mind not doing anything. The weather is awful, it’s cold and wet, I do not wish to trek across the city in the dark to go to a party where I know no one and be jostled about and feel out of place until the clock strikes twelve and we all pretend to like each other and then trek back across London to go home. I’m such a bloody misery. Of course, I will go, if I get a nice invite, but snuggling up under a duvet and watching The Big Fat Quiz of the Year sounds like heaven to me…Oh, it appears that’s on New Year’s Day. Pfft. Schedulers.

Walking in a Winter Horrorland

I am steadily sinking into a deep hatred of winter. It’s dark, cold and wet. My eczema has flared up, my scalp is dry and flaky meaning wearing anything black is a hazard, and I live in black for the most part. Christmas is fast approaching and I am in deep denial about it and have no idea what to get people. I need some Christmas cheer! Where’s an angel when you need them? Even that annoying one from It’s a Wonderful Life would do.

But there are some good things about the season, one of which is the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, where they put up lots of stalls to sell you Christmas tat and rides that have tenuous connections to the festive season at best. Last year it was the Wild West ride which had been turned into a budget reindeer race by sticking headbands with antlers on the horses. This time there was a beer garden hall of mirrors ride, which had a (rather terrifying) animatronic man/woman holding its belly and laughing, moving back and forth. They had stuck a Father Christmas outfit on it and a beard which had slipped down its neck, but left the shoes and socks as they were. A little girl was crying her eyes out next to it.

This ‘Santa’ found life very amusing, but the laughter was extremely unsettling. You would not want this person crawling down your chimney at night and leaving you a surprise. Trust me.

And his/her feet. They really went all out with the costume.

Or there was the Christmas dinosaur, and the Christmas pirate ride (which didn’t tell you exactly what was in it, but a grown woman was weeping when she came out so god knows. We were tempted to go in, but for four quid each we passed). My fave though was the ghost train, which had two dead bodies hanging from gallows (not all that child friendly if you ask me), but they’d hung a little green bell from the gallows too. So that made it ok. And in theme.

I did very much enjoy wandering around in the rain, which wasn’t too awful, but I did wonder at the people ice skating and winced when they fell and created a tidal wave of water with their bodies. It looked miserable. But we walked around with our hoods up drinking soup and laughing our heads off at the rides while being smacked in the face with my umbrella. I gave up after a while. Later we went to see the ‘Palace of Grand Illusion’ (by day it’s the circus). Not especially grand I must say. There’s a reason the guy is in a tent in Hyde Park and not, say, Derren Brown. He had no charisma whatsoever. He did some good tricks (just where did that woman come from?!) but it was all so half-assed in the presentation it kinda ruined it. His lovely assistants were bordering on indecent with their asses on show.

Maybe I should go back when it’s not raining (is that likely to be sometime soon?) and see if I can recapture the Christmas spirit? Or at least have an amusing evening of sarcasm and mockery.

Where’d it go?

Christmas was great. I approve of Christmas. It can be Christmas again whenever it likes. We should start having one in July, just for the sake of it, just because we want to. Just think, a nice break in the middle of the year, presents, good food. It woud be awesome.

I am currently at home in Yorkshire suffering from the dreaded lurgy. My evil cough of doom ignored my protests and showed up and stuck around, and is now going full on commando force as a cold too. I am not impressed. But at least I am not at work, and I have my mum to look after me. Always good. If I ask nicely she might even make me some hot honey and lemon. Mmmm.

I am a bit sad that Christmas is over yet again, and I know that in a blink of an eye it will be time to go back to London and work. Oh please no, let’s just stop time for a bit shall we?

So far this holiday I have done sod all, which is just how I like it. I have completed a CSI game on my DS, eat your heart of Gil Grissom, and eaten lots of chocs and drank oodles of tea, and that’s about it. Right now I am uploading songs onto Mum’s itunes and ipod, because no matter how many times I show her she still can’t do it. At least I am good for something.

Friday Fun Part 5*

It’s Friday! Not only is it Friday but it’s also our work Christmas dinner this afternoon, which means presents! and also a half day of work. Woo! I am slightly less thrilled about where we are going for lunch, because it’s not actually a proper Christmas dinner, which I would love (I will eat as many as possible in this season), and my choices of meal include Octopus and Chickpea Stew, Celeriac and Stilton Soup, Baked Crotin (what exactly is Crotin?), Roast Partridge and Seabass. Not really Carrie food at all. Still I am sure dessert will be good.

Anyway, here’s a fun montage of inspirational speeches:

I love ‘A line must be drawn here!’ and personally try and use that as often as possible. Or at least I do in my head. I am thrilled that the Mighty Ducks made it in, but no Goonies? No, ‘This is our time down here?’ Pfft. Must say, I was moved. Perhaps it’s just the music.

I’m going to go eat a chocolate croissant now, just in case the food later isn’t appealing, as I suspect.

Happy Friday!

*I am just making this up now

Ho Ho Ho

I am back in London, my time at home was very relaxing and it’s a bit of a shame to be back in all the hustle and bustle, but while Christmas may be over for some, I had one gift awaiting me when I got back. And it is this:

Oh happy happy joy joy!!! The gift was the DS, I just got the game myself, and figured I’d better write this now or I would be lost to Brain Training forever. Isn’t it pretty? Now I need more games. What are good games? A game I used to love for my PC was Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. I like ones where you have to solve puzzles and stuff to move on (even if the main character for that was well annoying). Well, I say like. I get very frustrated when I can’t to it and had to download the cheats for that one when I got stuck. Will have a look online at what there is.

Moving on from DS talk, to my knitting. Here is a picture of my first attempt:

It’s a scarf. I would say ‘obviously’, but is it obvious? I don’t know. It’s not quite as pretty as the DS, and there are a couple of dropped stitches and threads I need to tidy, but I am enjoying doing it and I think I’m getting better. I’d like to be able to knit a jumper already but must have patience. Of course now my time is torn between the DS and this. My hands will be busy anyway.

Last night I watched While You Were Sleeping for about the 30th time, though I fell asleep before one of my favourite speeches:

Lucy: The truth was that I fell in love with you.
Ox: You fell in love with me?
Lucy: No, N-o, yes. All of you. I went from being all alone to being a fiancee, a daughter a granddaughter, a sister and a friend.

Luckily I woke up in time for my absolute favourite last line: “Peter once asked me when I fell in love with Jack. And I told him, “It was while you were sleeping.”

Aww. Now I’m afraid I’m going to go play my DS. It has been nice knowing you all.

Movies Movies Movies

Yesterday was my book club website’s Christmas party. Starting at 1.30 pm we watched 3 films, had food, then the bar opened. With yesterday’s weather being so awful it was again tempting to turn off my alarm clock and shove my head back under the covers, but I was good and got up. I’m happy to report that I can still get lost in London even with my A-Z. Well, I didn’t get lost so much as get off the bus at the wrong stop. Stupid numbering system in this city. Why does one side of the road go 1-101 and the other go 100-2? Makes NO SENSE. So I got off way down the road before I realised I was an idiot and tramped back through the rain. Oh well, I got there eventually. I was the first one there so talked to the organiser for a bit and we were given luke warm tea, but then we got proper hot tea and I settled into a Mastermind/Star Trek chair that spun all the way round and made me feel tempted to do an evil villain’s laugh. I didn’t. And then we watched the films, none of which I have ever seen, which seems strange given the amount of films I watch.

The first was Meet Me In St Louis which was actually quite nice, in a very girly, bright ‘we have just discovered technicolour and shall therefore dress all the women in hideous frocks’, shrieky, melodramatic way. Honestly, did people ever dress like that, ever? Mismatched colours and patterns that should never be worn together, and the frills, oh my. Anyway, there isn’t a lot of story here. A family is eagerly awaiting the World’s Fair, they like boys, they dance and sing. A LOT. There are misunderstandings. They are going to move to New York. They don’t. Oh yay, Merry Christmas! I also very badly needed subtitles for the younger two daughters, their high pitched voices were just impossible to hear. I missed a whole subplot about the little one being beaten up but not really by the boy Judy Garland fancied when really she split her lip…doing something else. Not a clue what went on there. Anyway, it was nice enough, but had I been watching it alone I may not have made it to the end.

Next up we had The Nightmare Before Christmas which I didn’t really like. I could easily have nodded off during that one. Really thin on story, albeit well made and technically brilliant, but just very meh.

Last was the ultimate Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Is it really? Are you sure? Cos this is one hell of a depressing film. I can see why Phoebe never got to the end of it on Friends. OK, so it has a nice ending, but all the crap that goes on before you get there…it’s too much. I think it’s really well done and for the time really excellent, a well told story and all that. But even though it has the nice ending and everyone is happy and wow he learns that his life has had meaning…he’s still going to wake up the next morning and be stuck in his same old life. He still has to go back to work at that bloody savings and loans. He never gets out of of Bedford Falls. I think I might have like the ending more had someone given him two tickets for a round the world trip so he could finally take his wife on a honeymoon and have an adventure. AND! Evil Mr Potter got away with everything! He stole the money and was just mean to everyone, and he didn’t get his comeuppance? What the hell kind of Christmas story is this? Nope, just too upsetting for my liking.

I also have to ask, what’s with the bizarre names for the youngest girls in these old films? Tootie and Zuzu? Huh? What? Were these really popular names back then that have (quite rightly) died out? Very strange. I have also had the damn song from St Louis in my head since yesterday. I only know two lines. Kind of driving me crazy.

After the films I was actually brave for once and made myself talk to people, and I had some very nice conversations. I left at about 11 pm though because I was just shattered. But I had a really lovely time. Hopefully we’ll do that sort of thing again.

And in other news, yet another person I went to university with is having a baby. So congratulations to everyone in the whole world who is having babies! It’s like an epidemic I swear, and yet none of them live remotely near me so I can’t even use them to get my baby fix. That’s just selfish that is.

Holidays Are Coming…

It is officially Christmas time, for the Coca Cola advert tells me so.