Christmas & New Year

Where has all the time gone? November 30th is over two months ago and yet the blog has remained static. Hopefully this is a return to form for Yours Truly and I will attempt to backfill the last couple of months without labouring too much.

Obviously the big calendar event was Christmas, or in our case 'Christmases' (not even sure if that is the correct plural...). Being that we were due to spend the big day in Spain with Fi's parents, we spent the weekend before with my parents in Cornwall. How about that for equality eh? Thankfully after the demise of the old digital camerea, I was presented with a shiny new, smaller and better one. Nice one Mum & Dad!

After the weekend it was all about preparations for Spain. These were all thrown into the air when we received an email from Ryanair stating that there was a proposed baggage strike at Girona airport on the day we were due to return. Now they stated that although they wouldn't be accepting checked baggage, they would still fly... This wasn't particularly helpful given that we were hoping to make the homeward journey laden with presents! Thankfully it all turned out to be a storm in a teacup - the strike was cancelled, not before we had arranged to come back 4 days later than expected though. Christmas in Spain is exciting - you should try it.

It seems that party life is rife in Spain. I suspect when we look back in the years to come, the most memorable will be the Christmas Eve party we attended. It was hosted by Andy Ball, the ext keyboard player from MUD - remember them?.... It was a Christmas Carol party and just in case you're curious, we did sing 'Lonely this Christmas'.... Legenedary

Stir-Fried Sprouts

It’s been a crazy week at work. Last Friday saw some important deadlines come and go and working up to them had been a bit of a nightmare. Still, that’s all in the past and although weekend left little time for rest, it was great fun.

Saturday saw the second annual games championship. Essentially, a whole bunch of us get together and play video games competitively. Last year I won quite comfortably but this year’s running promised to be a hard-fought occasion. There were 10 ‘events’, the most amusing being ‘Knockout’ on the PS2 using Eye Toy. It really is very funny and not a bad workout! It amounts to little more than shadow-boxing and seems perfectly sensible when you are boxing. Watching others do it on the other hand is an entirely different experience! I brought the cup home again for the second year running, although Paul was just 5 points behind. Maybe next year eh fellas?

With the AGC out of the way, attentions turned to Thanksgiving. And before you all point out that the ignorant limey has the wrong date, I know it was last Thursday. Unfortunately us Brits don’t get the time off work so Sunday was the logical date. As with last year Marla cooked the turkey, made the stuffing and gravy and tidied the house good and proper. The rest of the attendees bought various dishes to accompany the centre-piece. Fi and I provided carrots and sprouts and BBC Good Food Magazine provided an interesting twist on these festive favourites. ‘Stir-Fried Sprouts?!’ I hear you cry…. Don’t scoff until you’ve tried it!

So, three cheers for the Loughborough’s for hosting the occasion. Same again next year?

Good, just not 'Incredible!'

This week has been busy. Patsy and my mum have been in Bath since last weekend and we have been busy entertaining. Coupled with a crazy week at work for me and I'm glad the weekend is here.

Yesterday, we took Patsy to Bournemouth airport for her flight back to Girona. Her flight was a little late in departing but she is now safely back in Calonge. The weather in Southern England was shocking yesterday and it is nice to be reminded that it is 17C with clear blue skies in Northern Spain...

We all went to see The Incredibles last night. To say that this was an anticipated movie would be a marginal understatement, unfortunately, I came out of the movie a little underwhelmed. No doubts, Pixar have done it again with the production quality; the visuals and audio were both out of the top drawer. I do however, have a few major gripes.

• It was too long and I suprised myself by actually checking my watch on a couple of occasions. Pixar clearly want us to care about the characters and therefore the first hour seems to concentrate on the plight of the unwanted Superhero. Now this is all very well (and I suspect that this effort will not be wasted - surely it will be all too easy for Pixar to churn out a couple of quick and dirty sequals), but in parts it was just too slooooooow.
• I'm not sure who the intended audience is. When the action builds at the end it sometimes felt a little too much like a throw-away cartoon on a kids TV show, but there were a couple of powerful mature moments. I can't help feeling that neither Kids or Adults came away fully satisified.
• It's actually not that funny. Pixar's previous efforts have had the firm foundation of a razor-sharp script. Unfortunately, The Incredibles relied rather too much on slapstick comedy for it's kicks and lacked the panache of it's previous efforts

So to sum up, Spykids meets the James Bond family in a cartoon. Good, just not 'Incredible!'

Horse Racing Deluxe

It’s been a busy time since I last gave an update here. Both Fi and I have been sick, we finally got to see Shark’s Tale and now both Fi and my Mum’s are here. Patsy is staying with us and my Mum is staying with Jay and Marie.

Patsy has come over from Spain for the first time since they moved there at the end of March. Being close to Christmas, she wanted to come and do some shopping here in Blighty but also she’s decorating our spare bedroom! Don’t worry folks, she’s not sleeping in there as well, we have 2 spare bedrooms! We’ve had a bit of a decorating frenzy (for us at least) and this will be the third room this year…. None of them are finished, mind you.

Saturday night was good fun. Mum, Dad, Patsy, Jay, Marie, Fi and I had a marathon session at Horse Racing Deluxe. It really is fantastically stupid and well worth a couple of hours of anybody’s time. Patsy won with an outrageous bet on the final race of the evening. Thankfully we weren’t using real money!

I am not the murderer. You should not have accussed me...

It's still quite early in the morning here (partially helped by the clocks going back one hour last night) and I am in suprisingly fine fettle. Normally murder mystery parties are rather drunken affairs but last night turned out to be a respectable engagement.

The evil Louise turned out to be the culprit, fooling everyone save Marla, who guessed corrrectly - well done to her. My character was a bit dull - even the fine Robin Hood costume couldn't save his depression. Talking of the costumes, Rach got a fine Geisha outfit from the same place from which Robin Hood was sourced. If you're ever in the Bath area and need fancy dress, go to Farthingale's. They're very good!

Prior to the fun and games last night, and in preparation for skiing in January, Fi, Griff, Jess, Marla, Rach, Paul and I went to Snow and Rock in Bristol to get some gear. Fi and I had already agreed for me to have Skis for Christmas whilst Rach was after a snowboard. It turned out to be a successful but expensive trip. I picked up some Volkl Supersport 4-stars, Rach and Paul both go themselves nice boards and we all came home happy (after just managing to squeeze into the cars). Just a short 10 weeks until we go to Italy.......