Revolutionary Rants

I hope that those of you who celebrate such things have a had a lovely Christmas. We did. I got many glorious things including DVDs (The Third Man two disk special edition and Venus Beauty Institute), a tiny cake tin and other items from my Chicken, perfume from my bro Al, a wondrous Dalek, chocs, boosk and the like from Mum and Dad and many other nice things.

Mr C and I managed to cook without many mishaps and the meal was – seemingly – enjoyed by all. We have had a good few games of Singstar, Buzz! Quiz, Totopoly and Pass the Bomb. Shortly we will be joined by my second eldest brother and his family for the New Year’s celebrations.

We almost had to cancel Mum’s party after the parental cottage’s drains became blocked, but we all repaired to my eldest brother’s house where we managed to have our curry, party hard and he also managed to get the elusive Wii for on the day.

On Sunday I watched an extremely powerful film, Pan’s Labyrinth. I had thought it was a fantasy film, essentially, but it is in fact mainly about the Spanish civil war, which I have always been very interested in (who wouldn’t be after reading Homage to Catalonia?) It was that rarest of things, a film that actually made me cry (OK, so The Railway Children always, always makes me cry, but other than that almost no film does) – after all, seeing anarcho-communist guerillas die is a likely thing to bring a tear to my eye… The violence was quite horrible in places and the fantasy scenes were truly frightening, but the whole film had a bleak magnificence in its study of war and femininity.

The telly over Chrimbo has in general been shite, however, which is annoying.

Well, Chicken is on holiday until the second of January, and I work on Friday, Saturday and New Year’s Eve, so if I don’t see you in between, happy new year – lets hope the weather is better in 2008!

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Today is my Mum’s 60th birthday. So, happy birthday to her! We (all her kids) are getting her a Wii after Chrimbo, but for now Chicken and I got her an Indian handbag to tide her over. Shortly we are all having a party, featuring curry (including a rogan josh and a dhal I have cooked) and lots of games.

After taking her present down this morning I have:

Nursed Chicken with his man flu cold

Mazipanned and iced one Christmas cake

Cooked a lentil dhal

Cooked a Nigella “ham in coca cola” (with glaze to follow soon)

Washed up

Put clothes in the washing machine

Mopped

I am beginning to think work is quite relaxing…

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Another quiet-ish weekend here in Devonshire. Chris worked later than usual on Friday, I worked yesterday morning. We have been up bright and early (well, for us 7:45 and 8:30 on a weekend is bright and early…) on both weekend days.

Fortified with pan au chocolate and strong coffee (French blend, of course) we are just about to head down to Mum’s for the pre-Chrimbo conference. Chicken and I, as you know, are cooking this year, so we need to finalise all the details of when to buy?!?!? When to cook?!?! How much booze?!?!?! Etc, etc… Plus we have Mum’s birthday on the 22nd, when we are doing a home-made curry stylee feast.

There is also the last episode of Cranford to look forward to later. All the small things in life, there to be enjoyed.

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Sorry about the lack of posting, things are a little bit hectic here. Last Saturday we headed off, in torrential rain, to Exeter. It was a scary drive, but the trip proved to be successful as I got my Essex based niece and nephews their gift at last. Phew. On Sunday we sorted the computer desk, including getting new computer chairs (the wheel had snapped off Chicken’s…) and pottled.

This week work has been very busy, as has Mr C’s (including a lunch visit from Charles) and of course Christmas is impending. I have been quite relaxed this year, getting gifts sorted as and when and the like. Not my usual military mission. We (C and I) are cooking this year for us, Mum and Dad and Alex the elder, but even that isn’t worrying me at present. We have ordered the pork belly (as requested by Chicken) from the market, we are also doing ham, the obligatory turkey and lamb. And the trimmings, obviously. We have to ice one cake and make a trifle, Mum has done the Christmas pud.

Tonight we have one of the best bits of the lead-up to Chrimbo, my niece’s nativity play. She is actually playing the Virgin mother hersen, quite exciting. Well, very exciting really. Last year her nativity was really good, as all the kids got a little bit to do rather than, as I remember it being with school-going friends years ago, entirely Mary and Joseph related. The donkey got a go, my niece as a dancing star, other as equally dancing sheep. A very collective experience. Nice!

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This weekend was somewhere between productive and sleepy. We have finally sorted and cleared out our old, rented house. We rented a “rug doctor” from B&Q, which did an amazing job on the carpets there and in our new home. The water that comes out is pretty gross, but the stains vanish as well! It was strangely satisfying, actually!!!

Now, the hunt for our deposit begins, always fun with rented houses…

Other jobs we completed over the weekend included putting new shelves in the bathroom, taking unwanted items to charity shops, setting up the stereo and general “unpacking” stuff.

Thursday late night shopping was rubbish, we managed to get exactly nothing, still we did quite a bit of online shopping over the weekend and have sorted presents for Chicken’s brothers and nieces. Today, I will venture early in to Barnie and see if I can get some other gifts for my nephews and niece. No wonder people all hate Christmas, it is so bloody stressful!

Oh well, such is life. Time to dash,as I have parcels to deliver down the road, a la pere Chrimbo…

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