Chillaxin'

By which I mean, now that I'm back home, it's rather cold.

I'd switched the boiler over to minimal operation for the duration of my Christmas Stopover With The Folks, fully expecting it to have flatlined before I returned... But I was lucky - it was still functioning, albeit with just barely enough pressure to keep it going and prevent freezing - and the flat was a balmy nine degrees centigrade.

Switching the heating back to full-time, full-blast, I waited for it to get warm. I got here before noon... and I'm still waiting.

So, Christmas?

Well, it could have been a whole lot worse. I went back to my folks on Christmas Eve, my Grandmother came over for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and my sister, niece and brother-in-law came over for Boxing Day.

Surprisingly, I only had to tell my Grandmother that I'm no longer gainfully employed once per day... I think, last year, I had to tell her about work at least three times over dinner. None of it sank in or made any sense to her, of course, but not having to repeat myself till I started questioning my own sanity was a bonus. For some reason, she seemed to think that my erstwhile employers should have offered me something else... Then again, I suppose they did. In Norwich. Which is tantamount to not offering me anything.

In any event, it all went smoothly. Presents were gratefully received (not so much in the niece's case - she had Christmas Present Fatigue from her visit to her other grandparents) though I had correctly surmised that the gift I got my sister was not necessarily the best of choices. I'd left my own presents (Being Human series 1 & 2 boxed set, Chuck season 3) at home but, as my mother pointed out, that just saved on wrapping paper. Christmas Dinner was the usual kind of thing with my family, and the remaining turkey and gammon became Boxing Day lunch and dinner, not to mention dinner the following night. Shame it seems almost impossible to get a family-sized turkey (or turkey joint) that doesn't leave so much as leftovers.

Still, the whole experience gave me a neat idea to try, assuming I can still find some M&S Festive Spiced Streaky Bacon...

I'd taken over a few DVDs - in case, y'know, the entertainment on offer from the myriad TV channels was just not up to snuff - and gave my sister and parents the pleasure of seeing Inception. All agreed that it was a fantastic, not to say fantastical movie. We also managed to squeeze in Salt (my second copy of the disc, as the first was flawed and skipped about half a minute about an hour in), Iron Man 2 and Revenge of the Fallen, while still finding time to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special.

Which was actually bloody good.

I've hated the Christmas Specials, by and large, because they're little more than extended episodes with the flimsiest of plots. The David Tennant/RTD axis was always overblown and underwritten, unless it was to say The Doctor was wonderful, even if he did keep shouting at everyone and banging on about how he was over 900 years old. Matt Smith's Doctor made but a passing reference to his age as he jumped about in time, playing Jacob Marley to Michael Gambon's improbably-named Scrooge. Even the inclusion of another singer in the cast (remember Kylie, in the one set on an interstellar cruise liner?) didn't ruin the story... even if it did seem like an excuse for a musical interlude at the end. Moffat has proven (again) that Who is in safer hands with him than it's ever been... using time travel within his stories, rather than just as a means of getting from story to story, and that it is perfectly possible to make a decent episode out of the Christmas Special. I only once looked at the clock while it was on, and that resulted in me being disappointed that the show would be over so soon.

Still, the trailer for the next series looked awesome.

My sister and her husband were on good form - no signs of any of the strife we've been hearing about, let alone any indication that he might have snubbed our invitation due to the financial bail-out my folks gave him recently. My niece was delightful as ever, though clearly a little overwhelmed by it all. She also had a fine bruise on her right cheek, due to being exceedingly clumsy as she totters around enthusiastically. None the worse for wear, however, and it was nice to see her father actually interact with her once in a while. Weirdly, most of her toys were ignored for the duration of her visit - she favours fridge magnets, the (frequently breakable) contents of my mother's display cabinet, and spools of thread... as they're portable and colourful. She led us all a merry dance, ascertaining the whereabouts of the items she'd swapped from one room to another... though she'd normally be very careful to make a direct swap: Russian Doll Chicken for Spool of Dark Green Thread, leaving the wooden toy in the appropriate slot of my mother's thread box.

I still haven't seen Tron Legacy, despite the fact that my parents have (using my tickets!) and apparently enjoyed it immensely... the 3D effect, according to my mother, is incredibly real... Strange, for such an unreal world...

Perhaps I shall correct this oversight tomorrow - there is, after all, an IMAX screen in Uxbridge, and I could certainly do with getting out and about, having been indoors for about 4 days on the trot. Mind you, I have more of that to look forward to... Unless I find some gainful employment in an office.