Wow, I haven't blogged for ages. I suppose I've been busy, but still, it's been a very long time. There are so many things I could blog about that I'm not sure where to start. I could just summarise. The biggest things to talk about would be Christmas festivities.

The Christmas fun started on the Sunday before Christmas when Rob and I went to his parents' for dinner. We do that sometimes anyway, so it wasn't all that 'Christmas Festivity' like, but it counts. Probably. After that we went round to the church leader's house for, hmm, afternoon tea? Lots of church people descended on their house to eat buffet type food and chat.

On Monday Rob drove me back to my ancestral home in Southend. Family friends Diane and John (my Dad's sister is married to John's brother, so it's a vague family relationship) came round to see us. Then my Mum's mum and my Dad's parents came round for dinner. It was the easiest way of seeing them all without it being too scary. :)

Tuesday morning we all went into town because my brother John wanted to buy a Variax guitar. They're very clever things, those guitars. It doesn't work with normal pickups on the body of the guitar, but it measures string vibrations and synthesises loads of different guitar sounds - 12 string acoustics, Stratocasters, even the banjo! So we bought that and a little later on we drove back to Leicester. We brought John with us.

Wednesday was, of course, Christmas Eve. In the morning I received an exciting package of CD's, stickers, badges, even a vinyl single from Prolifica records. It's a competition to do with advertising the band 'The Servant', you see. The free stuff is totally brilliant, especially since I was having trouble buying the single in the shops. Now I have it and it cost nothing! Hooray!

John and I went to Safeway to buy last minute Christmas goodies (lots of reduced things what with them being closed for a couple of days). Ali joined us and helped choose things... it came to a lot of money but John was a very good boy and paid for it all. Then in the afternoon Rob, John and I set off to the library where Ali works. We were allowed in the back room and were given hot drinks and biscuits. It was strangely exciting being in a forbidden to the public library room!

In the evening Mark turned up, completing our Christmas line-up of myself, John, Rob, Ali and, er, Mark. Mark brought his Amiga with him, and we tried to make games work. I'd brought one of mine up as well. And we had two PC's in the living room too. To be honest we spent a lot of our Christmas playing games. I played Dungeon Siege until 3.30am. Then I fell asleep on the settee next to Rob, who'd been dozing off for a while. I gave up in the end though and crept upstairs to fall asleep on the fold out bed underneath Ali's cabin bed. :)

On Christmas morning we all got up and opened a present. Then John, Rob, Ali and myself headed off to church. A short while later we returned to find Mark had washed up things and made himself useful. All of us joined in to get the Christmas dinner ready, and while that was cooking we unwrapped our huge sacks of presents. Hooray!

Of course, what you really what to know is what loot I was given for Christmas. Well, maybe I'll leave you in suspense a bit longer. In the afternoon we played computer games a lot more - we did a fair bit of Speedball 2 and argued about which joysticks were the nicest - the Python or the Bug, although I always ended up using the Joyball. Maybe because John wouldn't use it. :)

Everyone slept over again that night, and Boxing Day saw us trying to tidy up a bit in preparation for my parents' arrival. They came bearing more gifts, and Dad brought up my other A1200 (we wondered if it'd work better). I made casseroles for dinner, with dumplings, and we all spent a lot of quality time together. It was a lot of fun. The other kids (the 21-28 year old kids) had a swordfight with the plastic swords Ali'd bought, which did get fairly violent. Then Mum, Dad and John had to leave. The rest of us played Absolute Balderdash for a while. Then the others went away, leaving Ali and myself in peace.

Hmm, what else... that's pretty much it. We've gradually been getting rid of all the presents people left here by mistake, although my brother left some stuff... dunno when I'll see him again. I suppose that what with it being nearly 2004 I'll have to start thinking about marriage related things, and that'll mean talking to my parents about stuff, preferably in person. Hmm... scary.

I was going to list all my presents, but this has taken a while to write and is quite long. I don't know if I should write more stuff now or leave the present list for a bit. Here are a few of the bigger things I was given:

* Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon (PC game)
* Red Dwarf Series 3 (DVD)
* Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (DVD)
* Indiana Jones Trilogy (DVD)
* Jools Holland and Friends Volume 3 (CD)
* Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Shoot from the Hip (CD)

So, yes, Christmas was very, very fun. There were none of the grumpy family things that usually happen, mainly because we got to choose exactly who we spent the time with! It was probably the best Christmas ever. :)

I have been mostly.... PLAYING: broken sword 3; dungeon siege / LISTENING: orchestra (the servant)

posted by Fiery Fred @ 3:52 PM 0 comments

I feel like I've been productive today. Don't really know why I feel that, I don't think I've achieved that much. Well, I suppose I've done stuff things over the weekend that I've been putting off, though in the case of the Stargate United e-zine I kind of had to get it done because it's supposed to be sent out today. But last week Rob was ill (and off work) so he came round, and then I started being ill (coincidence, obviously, nothing to do with kissing), so I've been moping around as well. With him around I didn't get much done, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Anyway, over the weekend I wrote the e-zine, so that was one thing done. I even wrote a Christmas fanfic for it, because it seemed to need a little something extra. Dunno if the fic's much good, but I haven't written any stories for ages, so it was probably about time. Hmm. I've bought a few more silly presents for my parents, and I wrapped lots of stuff this afternoon. I went to the incredibly packed Post Office this morning and sent James and Daisy's presents. They'll be late for Christmas, no doubt, but still. I also bought 19 second class stamps and 1 first class stamp and posted lots of cards. The first class stamp was to send my CV off for a possible job, so hopefully that'll result in something.

One thing that makes me very happy about the weekend, possibly because I was becoming a little obsessed with finding it (it kept not being released when it was supposed to be being released) is Orchestra by The Servant. I finally found it on Kazaa. I tried so hard to buy it... to no avail. Boo...

Anyway, that's about it for now. The reason I've been online a bit more lately (I was introduced to online gaming via MSN, hooray!) is because Rob has gone to Scotland for a few days to do scary work things. So I have time to waste again. :)

Hmm... bye then!

I have been mostly.... WATCHING (TV): neighbours (bbc 1) / READING: the sound of thunder (wilbur smith) / LISTENING: orchestra (the servant); good news from the next world (simple minds)

posted by Fiery Fred @ 5:33 PM 0 comments

Today I ended up at this site: emailsanta. Someone wanted me to add the Javascript sleigh thing to their site. Anyway, I was messing about on it a bit and Ali said I should put my letter (and reply) from Santa on here.

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Dear Father Christmas,

My name is Helen. I am a girl and I am already 24 years old!! I live in the great city of Leicester. Of course, that's in United Kingdom, but I'll bet you knew that!!

This year I've been so good that my halo is just a teensy weensy bit crooked!

Father Christmas, some things that I might like for Christmas this year are a Medion PC for my friend Ali, a new plasma TV without dodgy scart sockets and a classic Amiga CD32 with lots of games.

P.S. Father Christmas, I almost forgot to say... I have tried very hard to be good but I just got engaged and it's very tempting to be naughty before I'm married. I'll keep trying hard and maybe presents will help take my mind off things.

Love, Helen

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Merrrryyyy Christmas Helen!!

Thank you for sending me your email all the way from Leicester! The Net sure is wonderful because now I can get emails from Leicester and around the world in the blink of an eye. Even Rudolph gets emails... from pets! Why, here's Rudolph right now! HO!! Ho!! ho!! He just asked me to say 'Hi!' to you!

My goodness, Helen! You're getting to be quite a big girl! Wow, 24 years old already! Pretty soon you'll be too big to sit on Santa's knee! (Ho! Ho! Ho!) Well, even though you're getting a little older Helen, Santa's glad to see you still have the Christmas Spirit! I also hear you've been a really good girl. (Of course, you won't mind if I do a little checking, will you? HO!! Ho!! ho!!).

Let's see what you put in your letter for Christmas wishes: 1. medion pc for my friend ali; 2. new plasma tv without dodgy scart sockets and; 3. classic amiga cd32 with lots of games. HO!! Ho!! ho!! Those ARE good presents Helen! We've been so very busy this year that I hope you won't be too upset with me if you don't get everything you want for Christmas.

Oh no! Rudolph just sneezed and now there's Nose Wax everywhere! I'll see you soon but now I have to go clean off my computer because it's glowing like Rudolph's nose! Take care Helen and don't forget to come back and visit me here at EmailSanta on Christmas Eve!! And remember... only 11 more sleeps until Christmas!!

Season's Greetings!

Santa

P.S. The reindeer say "Thank You!" for the nice treats! I hope you don't mind, but I had a bit of carrot and celery too. After all, even Santa eats his veggies! (*wink*)

P.P.S. I've attached a special postmarked copy of your email below so you can print it off and show it to all your friends or put it on your fridge.

---

Interesting, eh?

Honestly, I can't really think of much I'd like for Christmas. Now I have a Rob I don't really need other things to use up my time. *sigh*

I'll stop before I get too soppy. ;)

Bye!

I have been mostly.... WATCHING (TV): neighbours (bbc 1); the dead zone (sky 1) / WATCHING (DVD): futurama / READING: the sound of thunder (wilbur smith) / LISTENING: orchestra (the servant); claire's birthday

posted by Fiery Fred @ 10:18 PM 0 comments

I figured I ought to blog. ;)

I'm sitting here next to Ali, who's playing with the Atari Joystick that Mark gave her for her birthday. We've both played Breakout a bit, although she has much more than me... Strangely addictive though. With that and Tetris around it's hard to get anything done. :)

Hmm, anyway, it's been a week and a bit since I last posted, so you'd have thought there'd be lots that I could say. I've kind of forgotten stuff though, it's been so long... Hehe. I worked at the Sites and Monuments record for a couple of days, accessioning archaeology reports onto the system and filing them. It was pretty good fun. I still have lots to do. What else...

Oh, I have an engagement ring now. I keep meaning to take a picture of it to put on here, if anyone's interested. It's a band of gold with an inlaid band of white gold and an inset diamond. I like it. :D

Over the weekend I went to Bradgate Park with Rob. It was freezing for walking around - not so much general temperature but it was a cold ear hurting wind. We had a nice cup of coffee and cake each to warm ourselves up afterwards, at the nearby tea rooms (or whatever they're called). We did see some deer lurking about the park, which is the best thing about Bradgate. Probably.

Sunday was exciting because it was Ali's birthday! She was less than a million years old. People came round in the evening and ate pizza and cake, which was fun. I'm sure she'll tell you about everything herself, so I won't say any more.

That's about it, really. I'm currently trying to sort Brian out a bit because he's had a nice refreshing reinstallation of Windows. I thought I'd have a change this time and try MSN Messenger. It prompted me to download new versions the first two times I started it, although I ended up with version 4.7 on there, which was odd because 6.1 is the newest. So I had to download it manually. Very strange.

Anyway, can't really think what else to say. Mark came round last night to watch Stargate. It's always good when he comes round. Stargate's just an excuse really. It's going to be fun having friends to stay for Christmas Day. Hooray!

I have been mostly.... WATCHING (TV): neighbours (bbc 1); stargate (sky 1) / READING: press send (john mclaren) / LISTENING: lavinia (the veils); big band small world 2 (jools holland); sacred love (sting)

posted by Fiery Fred @ 3:40 PM 0 comments

I have had a very busy weekend. On Saturday John, Rob and I went Christmas shopping. John and I bought all the grandparent presents, and we've pretty much sorted out the parental units as well, so that's good. I've ordered a few more bits from Amazon, and I have an eBay purchase on its way, so I think I've done all my shopping. All the big bits, anyway. I need some more fun bits and pieces. And I suppose I ought to get packages for abroad sorted out fairly soon. :)

Saturday evening we had an engagement party, although it wasn't really a party. Not in the way most people would think of parties. It was what Rachel called a 'non-party'. We had a ton of food (most people hardly ate anything) and we talked all evening. We invited people we know from church (including Harriet the Hamster Killer) and Mark and Rob's friend Steve, who'll be our best man. He probably thought we were all mad. Hehe.

Yesterday I played the bass guitar in church for the first time. It didn't go too badly. I was nervous, but I don't think I'm that good at playing the bass really. When I play for myself I think I'm pretty awful, but when I play for God things normally work out. Which is the main thing, I suppose. I like playing it, I just don't like people hearing me, which is a problem. Ah well.

In the afternoon John went home. Rob and I went to the computer fair at the leisure centre across the road. It wasn't bad, although we didn't buy anything. I don' t usually buy things at those things, I just like looking. I don't tend to buy much stuff anywhere, though, I'm more of a window shopper. It's cheaper that way. :)

I just had a look at my Amazon wishlist, since my brother wanted to know what I wanted for Christmas, and as it turns out someone's bought something on it. Interesting. I don't think I advertised it! I'm not sure what to say about the list, really. I mean, I guess if people want to get me something from it but don't want to use Amazon they could e-mail Ali. The whole wishlist concept seemed to go down very well for birthday present buying. I can't figure out what's the best way of organising it. Ah... Ali can delete stuff when it's bought, or something. If it comes to that. :)

Hmm. It's here - MY WISHLIST! - anyway. The only things on there I really really want are the Jools Holland, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Basement Jaxx albums. But I want the other things too. Obviously. ;)

I suppose that's about it. I don't feel all that well. I didn't want to move from the settee so I thought I'd blog. I suppose in another hour or so Ali will be back from work, although she said she might stay later. And Mr Rob'll turn up. Hooray! And it's Stargate night, so Mark will be round too. Wow, I'm in for a busy night!

I'll be off now then.

Bye!

I have been mostly.... WATCHING (TV): neighbours (bbc 1); scrapheap challenge (c4) / READING: last man standing (david baldacci) / LISTENING: lavinia (the veils)

posted by Fiery Fred @ 4:08 PM 0 comments