Quiet Christmas

The sermon at church was a bit weird as he was telling us all about his "intelligently atheist son" and a few others comments which I can't remember now. He is leaving our church soon and moving to Halifax so maybe it was a bit of a parting shot.

Despite my parents coming back for Christmas which was undoubtedly the best present this year (but I won't go on about that again), it's been a quiet week (unlike last year) which i've used to earn profit at poker (though i did only come 10th in my big prize event on boxing day securing me £0 - only top 6 won but not bad to say I was up against some pros), and perfect myself at Pro Evolution Soccer 5, WRC Rally Evolved and Football Manager 2006. I'm going out for lunch tomorrow. Not sure who going yet. It also appears to be new years eve.

I'm not a big new years eve fan. It's just another day and it's always packed whereever you go and there's never any taxis to get home in. I'm not sure what i'm doing tomorrow night yet.

On an unhappy note I decided to tell my parents I play poker for money. Even though i'm currently around breakeven and made profit for the last five months, the reaction was not good. Ah well. It's my hobby and something i'm good at (now) so they'll have to get used to it. I'm sure they'll get over it!

Lonely This Christmas (Nearly)

My parents finally got back from their holiday in Antarctica this morning after a flight delay of over 24 hours caused by the flaps not opening on the approach to the refuel stop in Sao Paolo. The weather there was somewhat different to that in Antarctica. According to the British Airways they were not due in until 7pm tonight which would have meant me picking them up at around 5am on Christmas morning. They ended up coming home with Lufthansa and giving us around half an hour notice to clean up.

Due to the above, I was feeling quite sad most of yesterday at the prospect of Christmas not happening and being without loved ones on the day. This was especially the case inthe evening so I didn't feel much like drinking but I went out anyway and spent about 6 hours in The Murg with Kate, JJ, Bill, Rosie and Ed. It wasn't a non eventful night and just after 2am there was a little scuffle at the other side of the pub. We thought nothing more of it until we left and saw the guy who got thrown out with blood on his hands and all the glass in the door smashed as he tried to get back in. Crazy fool!

I no longer have poker profit but it's that sort of game i guess and I did say it was unofficial. Nearly time for my annual visit to church. Merry Christmas everyone!

Welcome To New Readers

On Monday night it was the Huddersfield Student Society Christmas Meal. This went well with nice food and free cocktails. Chocolate and alcohol in the same glass - what a great idea (though it was a bit rich). Rob informed people I work with of the blog which has seen ratings soar in the last few days.

I'd just like to say a "big up" to Andy for passing all his exams. Well done to Patrick too for passing his. They now have no more to do. Hopefully this will be my situation in a couple of years or so. I did receive my first pay rise in my current job which was a nice short term shot in the arm before Christmas.

I've still not seen any more mistletoe around. Maybe there'll be some tomorrow. There's certainly not much action under the photocopier anyway especially after rumours of jealousy and even knife fighting ;-) (only rumours mind). It's the finger buffet tomorrow and finishing work at about 12:00 to have it.

I need to tidy my desk before this though which may take up a good proportion of the morning. A good proportion of the afternoon will also be taken up as my parents arrive home tomorrow evening so it's time we cleaned up, though i must mention that Phil has done an impressive job with some housework today.

Kate, JJ and I went to The Staford quiz on Tuesday night and didn't perform well. Luckily though we did know most of The 12 Days Of Christmas as out of 70 points, there were a possible 11 available on this subject. There was also major controversy at the end with the team in 2nd one point behind the team in first complaining that they had the right answer and it had been marked wrong. He gave them it in the end and the result was a tie. We were only 13 behind!

The controversial question was:- "Name baby Jesus' mother, father, and the angel who came down to see them" So the answer we put (as we had already checked that he actually meant surrogate father) was "Mary, Joseph and Gabriel." 3 points. He failed to state the whole surrogacy thing in the question though and other teams put God causing the controversy. While it is a good quiz, maybe he should choose questions in the future which only have one answer!

I heard a really good joke on Saturday night but it just wouldn't work here so ask me about it next time you see me. I think i'm going out tomorrow seeing Ed and Rosie for the first time in ages which will be good.

I also have unofficial poker profit. Unofficial as the profit is not actually in my bank but i have funds in poker accounts to cover my losses. Whew it's only taken 14 months to break even and now I can go on to make money!

It's nearly Christmas, all presents bought, all cards sent (whether they get there before Christmas is another matter) (except one for hand delivery) and everything seems good in the world at the moment - well, most things anyway :-)

Pearl Retires, Town To Play Chelski

Pearl the tea lady retired yesterday. She is being replaced by two coffee machines. I'm sure she'll be missed. Her retirement meal at Bradleys Restaurant was very nice and afterwards I joined the audit department on the end of their curry night. The curries had been finished so we were just drinking. I didn't have much but a beer to finish the night off gave me a hangover and made me look rough the following day.

Last night I went to see The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. It was a good film with great effects especially the anthropomorphisation (so I'm told by JJ) which wasn't beyond belief. My favourite character had to be Philip the horse for his unexpected cameo role. JJ Kate and I then went into town to Pitchers replacement - The Cell, Barracuda and Jumpin Jaks. It was a nice evening but for the time of year there were far too few young ladies wearing a santa hat with mistletoe on.

On the subject of mistletoe the only piece i've come across this year is above the photocopier at work. I spend enough time there but sadly Emma Bunton's music career is still strong enough for her not to turn to accountancy!

I went to see Huddersfield today. It was a rubbish game against Southend. 0-0. The same result as the rubbish game against Bradford. At least we beat Forest and Worcester (live on BBC) to book our place in the FA Cup 3rd round (for the first time since we got relegated from the top two divisions) where we take on the Russian billionaire Roman Abrhamovic's and Jose Mourinho's Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It should be good experience for our young side. A replay would be nice.

My Sun Fantasy Football team has been doing incredibly well of late pushing me to the top of my old work and current work leagues by 193 and 121 points respectively. I was also 58th in the country last week out of over 542000. I will have slipped after this weekend and I believe the overall prize may be just out of reach.

28 Days Later

Business management is finally over. The exam seemed to go well which is a relief though if i fail the consequences won't be as bad as last time.

Not much has happened in the 28 days since my last post (apologies to those searching for the film). Well, I suppose a lot has really but it's just not terribly relevant now.

George Best, Richrd Burns, Eddie Guererro all died in the world of sport (that's "sport" if you're being picky). Four people I don't see much of nowadays had babies so congrats to Louise, Anna, Rooney, and Paul. I broke my drinking record taking the record to one dozen Smirnoff Ice type drinks in a night.

Hopefully I'll post more often now the exam is over and tell you all about all my Christmas parties.