To be honest I don’t have much to write about over Christmas and New Year.  Christmas day was spent at my brother’s house in York.  My parents collected my Grandma on Christmas eve, she stayed at their house for the night, we went to York about lunch time on Christmas day, and then my parents took Grandma home again that night.  I got to stay at my brother’s for the night.  That was OK in the end.  I was a little worried about how that would go — my brother and I aren’t really all that close, although we do get on well, and I’m not really all that talkative — but it turned out fine.  We played a board game which I won, and my brother’s wife got a little bit tipsy which made conversation go a little more easily.

The plan for New Year’s eve was to go to Leeds and spend the night with my old theatre school friends.  That’s the usual New Year plan and I got an invitation via Facebook to go again this year.  So I said yes.  And then on the day before New Year’s eve I got another message: most of the people I knew who were going to the party were now not going to the party.  I was still welcome to go, but I would only really know one person (actually, I knew 4 or 5 people from previous year, but they aren’t really my friends… one of them I specifically wanted to avoid, in fact).  So I didn’t go.  I stayed in with my parents and played Monopoly.  I won.  The most irritating thing about that is that I had been invited to another party back down here which, had I known about the Leeds party in advance, I would have been able to get back for.  Oh well, we did get a good view of the fireworks at midnight from my parent’s hillside house.  I’m not complaining too much.

I keep thinking I must have forgotten something.  This is despite taking an extra day to get ready.  I had planned to leave on Monday.  That left Saturday to work (more about that some other time), Sunday to finish off the shopping, and pack and the Monday was free for travel.  It didn’t quite work out like that.

I did work on Saturday and I did try to shop on Sunday – in fact I made a special trip across to the Westfield Shopping Centre in London (the new big one which opened just in time for the Christmas rush) – but it was slightly less successful than I had anticipated.  I only had one really important present to buy, something for my Grandma, but despite my best efforts I failed to get her anything.  Admittedly the Westfield was/is not the most appropriate place to look for Grandma type things, but I had hoped it would have something. It didn’t.  So I tried Oxford Street.

The problem with Oxford Street is that if you don’t know what you’re looking for you’re unlikely to find anything you want.  I never know what I’m looking for so I rarely find anything at all.  This time was a very slight exception.  I set out knowing I needed to find something for my Grandma.  This was the important one.  Not the only one, but the most important one.  I’m going to see her on Christmas day – that’s the day after tomorrow – so I needed to find something that day.  But, ah ha!  “Actually, if I don’t find something today I can always find something on Tuesday”.  Great idea, assuming I manage to get home on the day I plan to get home.  Getting home on Monday gives me Tuesday and even, if it’s an absolute emergency, Wednesday to find something.  As you know, I’m only just on the way home now.  Tuesday.  Afternoon.

So, a bit of a success?  Yes.  I managed to buy a present which I didn’t need to buy until after Christmas.  As well as my family I had both Tiffany and Dana on my present list.  Tiffany’s reasonably easy – gift vouchers for Dress Circle or something to do with theatre, I also spotted a large Kandinsky calendar – Dana’s a little harder.  However the mild success came in the form of a desk calendar.  I was in Borders looking around and books and things which Grandma might like when I spotted a table with lots of desk calendars on it.  I didn’t think much to begin with, but then saw a collection of calendars which related to certain countries.  They had little phrases and bits of trivia about the country in question.  I looked and found exactly what I was looking for: one about Spain.  Dana’s starting a Spanish course with the Open University in February, so this is perfect – it’s only small so she can’t complain I’ve spent too much on her, it fits in with something she’s doing and interested in, and it shows I’m willing to help with her learning.  Great.

Unfortunately that’s all I managed to buy, which still leaves the problem of what to buy my Grandma.  I now have tomorrow.  Just tomorrow.

So here it is, this year’s Christmas shopping list:

• Mum and dad: Garmin nuvi 205w (Halfords, £119.99)
• Brother and sister-in-law: Sony DPF-D70 7″ digital photo frame (PC World, £73.39)
• Grandma: As yet, I’m not sure.  This is usually the way with my Grandma’s present.
• Tiffany: Again, I’m not sure yet.  I have either until Tuesday or after Christmas to find something.  I suspect she’ll have to wait.
• Dana: Just something reasonably small.  Still not sure what yet.

So, as you see, I’m kind of half way there.  I also bought slippers for my mum and will order an enlargement of one of my photos from the Farnborough Air Show which I can frame for my dad’s birthday present.

One thing I did like about today’s shopping trip was the mis-pricing of various things.  Both the slippers and the sat nav were labelled as per the old VAT prices.  Once I got to the checkout they were cheaper.  In the case of the slippers it was only a few pence saving, but the sat nav was a reasonable amount.  All in all, a reasonably successful trip for just a few hours.

I also checked on the bikes Halfords have this season — my parents said they would put some money towards it as my birthday and Christmas present.  There are a few which caught my eye so I think I’ll have to check in again after Christmas and see what’s going on with their sales.

While Deloitte are promising that the stores will all remain open until after Christmas, I’m not sure there will be much left to sell following the weekend.  Given that Woolworths’ problems began when they were unable to obtain credit insurance and so their suppliers were unwilling to give them credit, I don’t see how they will be able to re-stock.  Unless the Woolworths’ four distribution centres are very well stocked, or the intention is that this sale will provide a cash injection to allow the chain to get their delivery chain up and running again, I doubt they’ll find any suppliers willing to work with them.

One thing is certain – the sale has made people flood back into their stores.  I can’t help feel that if they had managed to get this many people in each shop before now they wouldn’t be in the mess they are in.

I haven’t written since Christmas so I will try to get this up-to-date now.

I got all my shopping done for Christmas on the day before boxing day, so that I could just do nothing on Christmas eve.  That’s what I did pretty much nothing.  Christmas day was nice – we did the present thing at about 11 after my mum and grandma got back from church (my grandma always plays the organ on Christmas day). I got a mobile phone, money off my grandma and a wireless mouse (which is great – it gets rid of one of the wires from my desk, and lets me put it out of the way when I need the space to use real paper). After that my mum and I went to make the lunch together. We made a lot of different soft type things (we had to make soft things – my grandma’s bottom dentures are loose and no one seems to be able to do anything about it), including a nut roast which I made The rest of the day wasn’t that interesting, there were some good things on TV, and we watched them, then did some lateral thinking puzzles as a group, and that was about it. On boxing day I went to Natalie’s family’s party. They sort of have a thing at a local snooker club. I wasn’t expecting much from it because of what she had said before, and it wasn’t wonderful. They picked me up and we only stayed for about an hour until she finished her drink before we came back here. I gave her the things I got her – pyjamas and hot water bottle – and she gave me the things she got me – an electric shaver which comes with a strange goo to sort of lubricate it (actually, its great – fast and makes my face smell nice, hehe). She stayed here that night. The next day I went to her house, and stayed there. Her mum gave me the things they got me – a projector clock and lots of chocolate

My parents had a get together the Sunday before new year with various family members and Natalie’s parents, and some friends. We were a bit thin on the ground with people actually because one of my dad’s brothers didn’t turn up with his family, but it wasn’t too bad. It all started off a bit slow (with a couple of those silences when everyone stops talking), but when people got more comfortable it went quite well. Natalie stayed that night too
New year was OK. The day before was actually really nice, but the evening could have been better though. In the day Natalie and I went to the Cinema to see Sweet Home Alabama in Bradford. It’s quite a good film really, and it was nice to go with Natalie. Also, it was only £2.50 for each of us, which helps, lol. I went to a party that Natalie and her parents had been invited to, but when we got there, there were two rooms – one full of middle aged people who all knew each other chatting, and one with kids running about to Ramstein…so we didn’t quite know where we fit in. After a while Natalie, her mum and I went into the back room and talked, which was alright. A bit late on though her brother, who had drunk too much, started to look very sick, so we took him home, and we ended up at midnight sitting in her front room watching Jonathan Ross. It wasn’t bad,…until I pulled the curtains down trying to look at the fireworks :-\

Since then I have been doing work for college. I start back on Monday, and I have some work to do. I did quite a bit of it today, but I have a little more for politics and computing. I’m going to see Natalie tomorrow after she gets out of work, so that will be nice – I missed her so much these last two days.

Now I need to go and make more bread (and who knows, stop more criminals, lol)…soo, I’ll sees you later. I will be more reliable than this in the future, I promise

Well, since I broke from college I have to say I don’t feel to have stopped (not that it was that long ago).  Wednesday when we finished I saw Natalie for the evening, and then came back to do some college work.  Thursday I didn’t see her, and I needed to get some more presents for Christmas, so I set off at about twenty past 8 to get into Halifax and get the 9.10 bus to White Rose (I thought I would go there, because I might be able to get what I wanted for my mum’s birthday, and maybe my parent’s Christmas presents, and some ideas for my grandma…in the end I came back with none of those).  I got there about 5 to 10, and set about looking round all the department stores for a choppy thing that my mum wanted.  None of them had one.  I wandered about a lot, looked in HMV at the DVDs and some music, bought none of it (actually I thought I would buy one as a present to my self if I got all my shopping done that day…but I didn’t, so I didn’t get a treat, lol), then went on to Woolworths where I bought a chocolate orange for everyone who will be in our house on Christmas day, and then on to Clinton’s for my mum’s birthday card and some more wrapping paper.  I had some lunch, and then set off home again.  I was back by 1 which was quite impressive (hmm, I say that, but it was a long time to buy some chocolate oranges, lol).

When I got home on Thursday I had some post to open (it came after I set off in the morning).  One of the letters was from Lancaster Uni.  They made me an offer!  I don’t actually know what it is yet, because I have to wait for UCAS to get back to me with that, but I know they made me an offer because they wrote to me to tell me and invite me to an open day.  Yey.  Actually, they have one of the courses that I am most interested in, and I know a lot of people who also want to go there – Natalie and Geraint.  I think it would be great if we all ended up there together…sorted for a house at least, lol.

Thursday night I stayed with Natalie.  It was a lovely evening, we lay together for a lot of it and she read to me.  I like her reading to me, I don’t know why, but I like cuddling up to her and her reading to me (even if I wouldn’t normally read that sort of thing myself).  Friday I went to the Doctors with her, and then came home…to do more college work (I have exams in January, so I am trying to get lots of work done over the holidays to work up to them – after all I want to get to the places that make me offers!).

I didn’t see Natalie today because we decorated our Christmas tree, and shopped, and defrosted the fridge.  Actually, I did a lot today, and I have been up for about 15 hours none stop which is pretty good for me (usually I sleep in the afternoon for a few hours), and I don’t actually feel tired…still I think I will sleep in tomorrow.  I spoke to Natalie tonight – she rang me which was nice.  Its a nice feeling inside when I can talk to her, I like it a lot.
So, tomorrow I plan to sleep in for a while, then do some more college work (then I think that will be it until after Christmas day), and I’m going to see Natalie in the evening (I’m meeting her at four), and we are going to stay the night here, and she is going to come with me on Monday to get my final presents for people…I’m not usually this badly organised actually – I usually have it all sorted out by now, but I haven’t this year (I don’t think I have ever been out on the day before Christmas eve to get things!), but I have it all under control, its sorted out…or will be on Monday.  I will have everything!

I don’t know if I am working on Boxing day, it would be nice to know, so I think I will try ringing on Monday (maybe call in if they aren’t too busy when we go past), and see if he can tell me…I should hope so, seeing as it is Thursday!  Oh, and my mum is meeting my Grandma on Monday in Leeds.

Other than that, and needing a shave (I don’t think I have had one for about a week now, lol), I think I have covered everything going on.  I might go and have a bath now…but its a bit late.  We shall see.  Maybe tomorrow morning I will have a shower.

And I should be off.  Hope you are all alright, and I hope, if I dont see you before, that you have a good Christmas (actually, I do intend to write in here before then!)!

I have started it now though, and I have got a good idea what I am going to get for people…except my grandma.

I have been out shopping today and bought some nightwear for Natalie, which is nice.  I know my parents want some bins (hmm, thats what they asked for, so I will get them, lol), so I need to get those…probably be able to get them from Halifax at some point, so thats ok.  Other than that, Im a bit stuck.  My mum is thinkning about grandma for me, and I will keep my eyes open, sooo…we will see.

Looking forward to the holidays which start next Wednesday, so I can be with Natalie.  I miss her.

But thats about all I wanted to say, sooo…