Well, the carpet does indeed look flipping wonderful. I can't believe how well it goes with the walls and stuff. Woo. And we got all the cables re-connected with no hassles and possibly a new way to keep some of them out of view, so that should be good for the future.

Today has been another one of low productivity for me. Blasted internet. Actually, I wouldn't have done much without the web to distract me - still feeling totally not bothered about things. Must do my best to have a good weekend which should help me do stuff next week. And then a week off for Christmas so if I come back feeling gloomy after that I'll have to start looking around again.

I was going to write a bit more on the trials and tribulations of past yuletide festivities but can't recall what I wanted to say now. Isn't that always the way! If it comes back to me I will try to jot it down sometime.

Instead I'll warp back to Primary School days and the dreaded Christmas Plays. Dreaded by the parents of course, I always enjoyed them. But then I did manage to get good parts in many of them. There were three infant and four junior classes at Panshanger Junior Mixed Infants (known to all as Panshanger JMI) meaning 7 epic productions for them to sit through, and one class always had to do the nativity while the others generally adapted fairy tales in a non-pantomime method.

Those I can recall being in were - a modern (well, for 1976) re-telling of the Christmas/Nativity story to a couple of alien visitors. I played one of the visitors wearing a "proper" spacesuit as borrowed from Graham Kirk.

The Nativity (natch) as Joseph. That year it was a shared role (as Joseph) between me and Frankie Connolly (Boo, hiss) so I only did two of the four performances. And I forgot to (a) lose the chewing gum before going on stage for one of them and then (b) my lines prompting me to turn my head skywards and ask "Oh God, what do say now"? to much amusement from the audience and annoyance from our teacher. Still, the tea towel on the head routine must have gone down OK as costume.

The Snow Queen - adaptation of the fairy tale. All that sticks in my mind on this one is jumping in with an ad-lib in one scene as I had somehow ended up with a non-speaking part and that was just not on after taking the lead in previous productions!

The Nutcracker - another adaptation. I was the toymaker who created the stuff in that one.

The other years have flown from my memory banks but I'm sure I was just as good in those!

After heading on up to Secondary School my acting was confined to Drama lessons in the first three years. There were big school productions put on once or twice a year, but they were strictly paying audience, big scenery, proper costumes, rehersals in your own time stuff and nearly always required singing so I gave them a miss. Anyway, we had a computer at home by then which was more fun to spend my free time on. We still went to see most of them though - Grease, Bugsy Malone, Dracula, The Wiz, Sweeny Todd etc and not just to laugh at the friends who had ended up on stage.

Hmm, time for another early finish today I think.

Another pretty dull day here so far. The highlight has been comming up with yet another version of the office layout that we are all happy with. Which has come about largely as a result of Mitchell finally putting his foot down and telling Ian he has to move away from the window to be in the centre of the two teams he is now overseeing. And in the end I end up in almost the same place as I am now, just a bit closer to the window and further from the noise of Barry. Which can't be bad.

We have also had the windows cleaned outside by a man with a long pole (Oooo-er missus). Obviously instead of doing them this morning they waited until a few minutes ago when it began to rain anyway. Splendid timing as always.

Oh, and a delivery of Ipswich Borough Council junk for us to fight over as a reward to those involved in the Gyratory scheme. I think I will pass on any of it - all tat.

On the home front we now have a carpet in the lounge again. Woo. Joan tells me it looks great, which is a relief as I picked it on my own and wouldn't have wanted to end up with one she didn't like. So I will be leaving here as soon as I can tonight in order to get the furniture back and all the electronics re-wired. All that will remain then will be to find some way of disguising a few more of the cables. Any innovative suggestions welcomed. Joan is out later on so I am getting Richard to help with the "plumbing" so hopefully we'll have time for a spot of Cubing as well.

Less than two weeks to Christmas now, which means I only have to come in here 6 more times. Really looking forward to the break as I think I need to catch up on some sleep as well as books, cds, films, games and stuff. Been thinking back to past Christmases a bit as well over the last few days. When we were in Welwyn Garden City they were all pretty much the same - Christmas Eve we would do things the Danish way with Dad's family. Initially this would rotate between our house, Uncle Mick and Aunt Kir. But then Mick & Kir fell out over something and it was just ours or Mick's from then on. The only one at Kir's I can recall must have been about 1979 or 80 as I distinctly recall unwrapping a set of new, dropped handlebars for my bike of the time (a Puch Mini-Sprint, fact fans) and I know that I got a newer bike in around 1981 as I used that at Primary School for my cycling profficiency test in 1982 at the latest.

It's funny, but I can't clearly remember any other presents from more than a few years ago, just those handlebars. I know we were generally spoilt rotten (still are) and that there were always books but nothing leaps out. Oh, apart from the board games. Until the early 80s there was an old lady in the bungalow next to us who Mum used to keep an eye on, and her kids used to buy us board games every year. Mousetrap, Connect 4, Downfall, Buccanear, Cluedo, Guess Who and my personal fave - Pathfinder. In that one you had two boards each and a screen between you with the aim being to build a maze and then find your way through the opponent's before they escaped yours. Top stuff with great fun in the layout stage.

Christmas Night we would generally have Farmor staying with us so Richard and I would end up sharing one bedroom or the other. Leading to much fun in the early hours when stockings were being opened. Then after lunch we would go down to Grandma & Grandpa's to meet up with Mum's lot and more chaos would ensue. Some years there would be games there, but mostly I just remember eating more and more and squeezing into a corner with a book.

Then Boxing Day top relax and vegetate with the presents and obligatory old film (yo, the Great Escape).

After we moved up to Felixstowe things got a bit trickier. The first couple of years we stayed over at G&Gs but that has now all gone by the wayside. More on that tomorrow I think.

Why am I finding it so hard to do any real work at the moment? I just can't be bothered with it. In fact I can't really be bothered with anything much at the moment which could get to be a bit awkward soon. Oh well, motivation is surely only around the corner.

Battery in the digital camera ran out yesterday and it seems there is no mains recharger unit for it. I can get a mains adaptor fine, but it won't let me charge up batteries in situ so I have just bought a normal set of rechargables for it to see how they go instead. I did consider plugging the charger in here this afternoon to get it up and runnig, but they take 8 hours so I'm waiting for tonight. Ooooh, what a thrilling life I lead some days.

Full demolition of the lounge tonight as the carpet is coming tomorrow. I wonder how long it will take me to get the tv, vcr, dvd, hi-fi bits and all other electronic gubbins plugged back in.

Work Christmas dinner today. So not much done this morning in the build up and even less this afternoon (unless grabbing mp3s counts!). At least I came back to the office to answer the phones though, unlike some I could mention. Still, very nice duck with shallots and beans and honey sauce and stuff. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Nothing else to say!

What a fun and busy weekend that was.

After a very rushed dinner on Friday night (and a chaotic search for Joan's missing Argos card, followed by cancellation of said when it failed to turn up) we picked up Ma & Pa and went down to the Spa for the FMT Pantomime. They go because Dad used to be involved backstage and we go for a laugh. Cinderella this year. On the whole it was pretty good, although the first part was a bit too long, being stretched out by a couple of unnecessary dance routines that were probably only squeezed in to get value out of some of the hired-in costumes! Still, all silly fun and Mum won a plant in the raffle.

Saturday Joan was at work and had her Christmas Dinner in the evening so I was pretty much left to my own devices. The day got split into Ironing (never) complete with DVD commentaries (Gladiator and another of the ones from American Pie 2) and computery fun. Some of which Richard came along for. Not managed to crack any more levels on Super Monkey Ball, and Pikmin is driving me nuts trying to work out how to get past some of the beasties without getting too many of my little chaps killed, but fun all the same. Not much else to say really! Joan had a great meal and enjoyed herself lots dancing afterwards.

Yesterday we did our big Christmas Shopping trip to Ipswich. Came in on the Park & Ride and got practically everything we were after. OK, so we also ended up doing the usual trick of buying ourselves stuff while we were out but I think we managed to justify all that to ourselves. Then when we were broke we went to the cinema to see Harry Potter 2 which rounded off the day nicely. Another good book to screen translation although obviously some bits had to be changed and cropped to make it fit in the time. The cast were also all superb once again, and I'm not sure how they will do the next one as well - especially after the death of Richard Harris. The only real downer was too many adverts beforehand and a lack of trailers, so I can't even get excited about forthcoming features (other than Lord of the Rings 2 of course).

Today at work has been chilly but otherwise busy. OK, so I could have been a little bit less busy if I'd worked all day rather than catching up on the weekend's events on the Llamasoft forum but hey... They had a meet up over the weekend I couldn't get to so the least I could do was read the reports. Also got some more presents for Joan (hey, I was paying attention to her hints yesterday) as well as a couple of CDs for me as part of an offer - Halford/Resurrection (which I have listened to this afternoon while working) and the 4th Feed Your Head compilation of hippy dance stuff.

Now to go home and relax a bit!