Festivities from the Festive Season

Finally I've managed to find the energy to get off the couch and report on Christmas 2006. Christmas over here this year was like a mini festival with the drinking and eating starting sooner and finishing much later than the 25th December. Greg Webb arrived from China on the morning of the 24th and Shuz and myself had slept over at Dave's house to be there for his arrival. He wasn't all that considerate and annouced his arrival with a loud doorbell ring just after 7 in the morning. Being the 24th though it was good that we were up early as there was still quite a bit to do.

For the evening of Christmas Eve it was myself, Shuz, Robyn, Dave and Greg. I'm now living at Dave's house until I leave for Thailand and this is where we had our Christmas this year. In the afternoon we went into Regent Street and Oxford Street to go have a look at the lights and more inportantly, go sink a few pints. After the first pub we went running around town trying to find a camera shop so that Greg could buy a new battery for his vedeo camera, but we eventually gave up and went back indoors for another beer. It was only after our first few sips that we realised we had just experienced a new Christmas first. Unknowingly the 5 of us had just entered an apparent over 40's gay pub in the heart of London. The grand white piano and the fact that Robyn had just doubled the number of female patrons in the pub is what gave it away I think. Robyn thought it would be a good idea if the boys chinged (rock, paper, scossors) to see who should go and make a move on one of the men in the pub, but extreme homophobia quickly set in and we made a bee-line for the tube station.

Anyway so back to Dave's house it was where we saw Christmas in by popping champagne and getting enough Christmas carol exposure to impress both Boney M and Cliff Richard put together. Christmas Day, John Standley (Johnno) and his missus, Nikki, arrived with a huge turkey, chicken roast and Mandarin Cheese Cake in tow. The label on Johnno's turkey said it would feed between 8 and 11 people, but to be safe (seeing as there were 7 of us) we cooked a roast chicken, a roast beef and a roast gammon as well just in case. Now the rush is on to eat all the left over meat before it starts going off. Once we had finished eating, the arrival of Paul Zeidler took Christmas to a new level. He had obviously been enjoying his Christmas Day and arrived in good spirits. About 2 hours later the rest of his Christmas party arrived, mostly made up of girls (much to the delight of us single guys) and before we knew it a Christmas house party was in full swing.

Things died down at a reasonable hour and the final minutes of Christmas were spent trying to hang on for Shane Warne's 700th test wicket. All efforts in this regard failed and we were all in bed before midnight.

All in all it was a superb couple of days and now myself and Greg are enjoying a few days of relaxation. Shuz, Robyn and Dave are in Stockholm for 4 days and they get back on the 30th. Then obviously the next day is New Year's Eve and we will all be heading to Camden for another big party.



Cheers guys for a top Christmas and thanks to everyone for your presents. The next post will probably be a few pics from New Year's Eve. Cheers for now, Steve