Tuesday 29 December 2015

Christmas 2015

I wish I had more discipline when it came to updating weekly, but I believe this time I have a valid excuse. Between Christmas and working, I've simply been too busy, too tired, or simply too full to focus on writing. Anyway, here I am, still on a post Christmas come-down and starting to develop what promises to be an unpleasant cold.

I was busy busy on the run-up to Christmas, working every day and putting in a couple of extra hours on Christmas Eve to help out a bit. Honestly, it came so quickly this year because of working so much, and I appreciated that. I usually feel like Christmas takes forever to come around, but before I knew it I was coming home at 6pm on Christmas Eve, ready for the festivities! I did some late-evening baking of Lebkuchen as a gift for my Mum and stepmum. I had a glass of Prosecco while I baked, courtesy of Ryan, who had been given some from work.


Christmas Day was brilliant. We were up at around 10, and had our usual fried breakfast. I had some bacon, toast and beans - doesn't sound like much, but I was saving my stomach for the grand feast that afternoon. Mum, Martin, Ryan and I opened presents. I had quite a good haul, including a couple of nice perfumes ('Fame' by Lady Gaga, and 'Midnight Fantasy' by Britney Spears). After present opening, it was a quick march getting the presents upstairs, getting dressed and tidying the living room before people started arriving. I decided spikes and flowers were my look for the day:


Liam, Ashleigh and Ethan arrived soon enough. I was ecstatic, having not seen the three of them for ages. Ethan was soon passed around like the world's most adorable parcel as everyone wanted to cuddle with him. He was lovely as usual, smiley and looking around at everything. He was dressed in his little elf suit. Nan also turned up, and had her cuddle with Ethan before getting onto the gin and tonics. I was drinking my Kraken rum at this point, and the red wine was soon brought out for dinner.


Christmas dinner, courtesy of Mum and Martin, was delicious. I ate so much of it, and I had a big piece of Vienetta for afters. We had some of Grandma's homemade crackers, as we do every year. While we all ate, Ethan was in his bouncy chair and he was jumping around by the table. It was so cute.

Liam always does the 'blue steel' in photos.
After dinner, we watched the Queen and opened presents from Liam & Ashleigh and Nan. I got a Hogwarts Library (The Tales of Beedle The Bard, Quidditch Through The Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them) from Liam and Ash, and loads of Soap & Glory products from Nan. Pretty pleased with that!

That evening Arron, Kim, Harvey, Paula, Steven, and Ellie joined us. At this point, the house was nicely crowded, and we watched the kids open their various presents. Soon enough, Ellie and Harvey were running around with the Nerf guns Liam had gotten them and shooting everyone. Arron and Kim bought Mum and Martin the UK edition of Cards Against Humanity, and the adults played it until 1am. I have honestly not laughed so much all year; my chest was hurting by the end of it. It was so funny.


I worked on Boxing Day, so I didn't go to Dad's until 4pm. I briefly saw Liam, Ash, Ethan, Nanny Jean, Uncle Paul, and Uncle George before they left. And I ate tonnes again, including a big piece of Dad's amazing lemon meringue pie. I was so full afterwards that I just wanted to lie down. I opened all my presents from Dad and Kath and got loads of cool things - my favourite was the book I got Dad for his birthday ('Goodnight Darth Vader') but in German! It's brilliant!

I had a really great Christmas - even though I have no plans for New Years Eve, and probably won't do much, but I'm happy that the festive season has been so much fun. Also, last night, I finally got to see the new Star Wars movie. It's just as brilliant as everyone is saying, and I was so excited when the movie started. There was a really loud guy who soon shut up when I said loudly, "Are you serious??" - I was glad about this, because I've waited a damn decade for this, and wasn't about to have some bozo ruin it for me (and everyone else in the screen room, obviously).

This post has been terribly disjointed and badly-written, and I apologise. But my sinuses are hurting, and this cold is really beginning to manifest itself. Booooo.

Sunday 13 December 2015

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well, it's not really. Here in England it's just cold and grey, and quite often rainy. But I'm really starting to feel the festive spirit, especially since Liam came home on Friday evening and Caz returned from Manchester yesterday!

It's been three(??) weeks since my last entry on here. I knew I wouldn't stick to the weekly thing for very long. I've been busy working my backside off, and I'm still having a lot of fun. The people I work with are such a laugh, and they're really easy to get along with. The job itself is starting to feel like second nature now; I'm a lot more familiar with the way things work around the store. My confidence has shot up even more, and my social skills are getting back on track again. I'm finding that I'm much better at small talk and making the first move in a conversation now. I'm really thankful for this job and how much it's helped me to come back to the world.

Things on the baking front have been going well. I made some Lebkuchen for practice (I'm making some for my stepmum as part of her Christmas gift, and wanted to do a test-bake), and they came out really delicious! Susie and I have had a couple of baking scenarios, and they were both beautiful but disastrous. First we made what was basically a light version of the Black Forest gateau we made back in August. It was really tasty and so rich, but for some reason the white chocolate ganache had a bit of a tantrum and was really runny, so it ended up engulfing our poor cake.


We also attempted a stollen the other day, and that was just a disaster through and through. NEVER use a recipe from Paul Hollywood - this recipe was just.. Not functional. He reckoned that the stollen needed a whole pound of dried fruit in it. We couldn't even get the entire quantity of fruit into the dough, and then it was so heavy that it barely rose at all. It looked and smelled nice at the end - I've yet to try a piece, but it was 'ok' according to Susie. Here she is looking pretty disillusioned with our stollen slab, and with Paul Hollywood who sits on a throne of lies:


I treated myself recently, too. For literally years, I have wanted the clothbound classics version of Dracula by Bram Stoker. For literally years, I have continuously made some excuse or another not to spend the money on it. But then I put my foot down and said "Treat yo' self!" and now I own it. It's totally beautiful, and looks wonderful on my bookshelf!


All of my favourite TV shows are currently on mid-season breaks, so my life is completely boring and empty until they return. I have hit 2,500 followers on my twitter and since surpassed that number. It's mad that people are actually finding me entertaining (though I do find myself very funny). I also changed my screen name on there to 'Kayligula' (a parody of the Roman emperor Caligula), which I still find endlessly funny.

I have also had a haircut, finally. I have my fringe back, and my hair isn't as unkempt as it was rapidly getting.