Ding dong merrily on high

It's Christmas week already. Four more days of work and then off for 11 days. Ace!

Lots of things have happened since my last post. The depression has lifted for a start! Graham has decided not to be a NERD in the UK as there is no customer base at all at the moment and it's not worth the risk of the money he would have to put into it. Graham's mum has been sworn in as one of the latest magistrates at Hereford magistrates court and we went along to the ceremony and had a big do for her. It was a really great day and we're very proud of her.

Aunt Doll died last week which made us all very sad as she was the last of the old generation. That makes my dad the oldest of the new old generation - a scary thought. Her funeral is today so mum and dad are going to London to attend.

I lost quite a few pounds on two separate "diets" but last week returned to festive excess. The diet I lost the most weight on is too tricky as it involves not combining certain foods and it left me feeling cheated, whereas the other "diet" was more of healthy balanced eating thing than a diet and I always felt full and satisfied as the recipes were lovely and you are allowed certain little indulgences throughout the week. So I am going back on that after the New Year and hopefully should be losing 1-2lbs per week.

We have decided that we can't get enough of Vancouver as we miss it too much so we are planning our next holiday to Canada. This time we are taking Adrian and Sheila with us and we're going for three weeks in July - spending time in Calgary, Banff, Jasper and Vancouver Island as well as Vancouver itself. It should be more than interesting - Adrian has never been on a long holiday before and has different ideas about what he wants from a vacation than Graham - and since we're going to be stuck together on the road for half the holiday things might get a little heated!

Christmas started very early for us this year - Graham had the tree up on the 3rd December and all the presents wrapped underneath it the next day! I have had two work xmas do's already - 1 lunch and 1 dinner but still haven't got really drunk and stupid. On Sunday we had a "xmas day" with Graham's mum, her partner and her partner's daughter and family (4 kids ranging from a few months to 13) - it was all a bit hectic and Crystal was ill but it was a nice day all the same. We have watched two naff christmas films over the last couple of weekends. This week I am keeping clear of festivities until Thursday night when Kerrianne has her party. On Christmas Eve my parents are coming down so we can spend the day together and are staying overnight. Then on Christmas morning they will drive back to Cheltenham, go and see my granddad and spend a few hours at John and Ali's, whereas Graham and I will go and see Graham's brother, drive to Cheltenham and see Alex who otherwise will be spending the day on his own with his cat Nemo. Then we'll all meet up at my parents in the late afternoon to have christmas dinner and open presents.

Ed is back in Bristol this week, so we're going for a bite to eat and to watch Garden State at the Watershed. I am trying to get as many people to see the film as possible as it is wonderful but only on a limited release - so only artsy cinemas like the Watershed are playing it. Hopefully it will get very popular and be released in one of the bigger cinemas like VUE or Showcase. Zach Braff who wrote, directed and starred in it writes his very own blog at http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/blog/ - he's a very funny guy who is refreshingly down-to-earth considering how inflated you might expect his ego to be.

It's 10.30 and we have had just one person come in this morning to return a book. I really wish I didn't work in a library so that I could put the radio on or something!

Looks like we'll be heading oop north for New Year's Eve - it's Graham's choice as we are going to my parents' for Christmas Day. Ade and Sheila invited us up if we aren't going abroad - which looks very likely since the last minute bargain offers don't appear to be much of a bargain. Which reminds me, I'm going to do some holiday hunting now....

Ta ra.