Christmas Highs & Lows

Since this tends to be a complicated time of year in the best of years, I normally try to get all my Christmas shopping done in advance.

By which I mean 'during the summer'.

This year didn't go quite according to that plan and, for the first time in many years, I was still doing Christmas shopping the week before (final present bought on the evening of the 17th) though that was largely due to a misunderstanding. I'd thought that my brother-in-law had asked for money towards something he'd bought himself, but it turned out that had been his birthday present. It shouldn't be so bad, but my brother-in-law is almost ridiculously difficult to buy for, because he's "the man who has everything or, if not, is about to buy it for himself". Just about everything one could think of as gift material is already in his possession, and I have this nagging desire to get something which is, if not useful, is at least unique or 'different'.

In the end, traipsing through HMV's gadget section, I happened upon a 'Tetris lamp' (independently lit bricks made in the shape and colour of Tetris bricks, one of which plugs into the mains, the rest pick up their power, wirelessly, from that brick) and a self-stirring mug. The former is pointless tat, the latter is potentially useful... but I'd already heard through the family grapevine that he's drinking espresso these days, which wouldn't suit a self-stirring mug.

I phoned my sister for a second opinion, and the conversation boiled down to "What do you get for the man who has everything? Pointless tat!", so I went with the Tetris lamp.

Naturally, even that didn't go smoothly. I think it was Christmas Eve when the realisation hit me that I hadn't removed the price label, so some careful unpicking of sellotape (naturally from the wrong end of the package) was called for. My faux-pas fixed, Christmas carried on as normal.

It was almost a white Christmas, too, if you count the visibility-reducing white haze of heavy rain. I'd held off venturing off to my folks' place until the early evening of Christmas Eve so as to avoid as much rain as possible. On the way out, I emptied my bins (hurrah for bins being collected on the regular day, despite it being Christmas Eve), then got a text message from my mother asking if I'd be round in time for dinner. I'd been having trouble sending text messages throughout the day, so I decided to call instead... and got a recorded message saying I was out of credit.

Which explained the 'trouble sending texts messages'. Now I just have to get in touch with my network to ascertain why I got no warning text when my credit was running low.

So I just carried on, and announced by arrival with the doorbell, apologising for not calling to say I was on my way - as I'd said I would - because of the issue with my cellphone. I'd actually intended to phone before leaving the flat, but sorting everything out for my absence took a bit longer than I'd hoped, and distracted me.

Almost the first thing I did when I got over there was something I'd been meaning to do ever since I fixed my own PC with nifty bit of software... Namely get a new lease of life out of my folks' 5-year-old clunker. I'd intended to download the software onto a memory stick and transfer it over that way, but didn't get my act together on that front... turns out that was probably a good thing anyway, considering they're running an older version of Windows. Downloading the software wasn't really a chore, but the speed their machine runs at makes just about everything slow. Once it was downloaded, it installed reasonably quickly, ran its checks far faster than I'd expected... and turned up over 400 problems. That's probably only about the same as my machine had, but it proved that the machine required some attention. A short while (and $30) later, this ancient, positively archaic computer (it even has a floppy drive!) had gone from taking several minutes to navigate between web pages to a far more tolerable 15-20 seconds... And I'm reliably informed that its still operating better than it has in years.

I also downloaded Firefox and Thunderbird, just to get my parents away from Internet Explorer and Outlook, but couldn't get the latter set up properly, for no obvious reason. A few demonstrations in YouTube further proved that the machine was running nice and fast, then we just settled down to dinner in front of the TV before bed.

It had been about a year since I slept in that bed last, so it wasn't a surprise to find that I had trouble getting to sleep (I'm so over the "Squeee! it's Christmas!" insomnia) even without the torrential downpour that woke me up around 3am. Rising not long before lunch, we exchanged presents (only one for me - a cheque to cover the TransFormers Collectors' Club Subscription Service for 2013 - with the other, ostensibly from my sister but bought and wrapped by me, held over till Boxing Day), had an awesome Salmon lunch, watched some TV (including the Queen's Speech, naturally, and the 'traditional' Doctor Who Christmas Special) and a couple of DVDs, then headed for bed.

Naturally, with the niece arriving on Boxing Day, things livened up a bit. It began with a conversation between my mother and me about the difference in tone between Sam Raimi's take on Spider-Man and the newer 'reboot' directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield, and would have gone on to the closing chapter of Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy if it weren't for the aforementioned arrival.

Kate was exuberant to the point of being very difficult to keep up with, and she still hasn't quite got the hang of 'Hide and Seek'. For the most part, she was well-behaved (apart from taking a swipe at anyone who seemed to have fallen asleep, and standing in front of the television at critical moments). The last few presents were exchanged, and I was pleased to find that my Tetris lamp was something Mark had considered buying for himself, but hadn't yet got round to.

Typically, we got a couple of tirades of high-tech jargon from him - one regarding his cellphone service provider being unable to offer any meaningful technical support on a piece of hardware that effectively turns their home into a cell on their network (since their service is a bit rubbish in that area), the other regarding PC World's inability to set up a PC according to spec, meaning a new machine they bought was not immediately usable and will have to be taken back (Helen was advised to let them tell her what was missing, so they wouldn't be able to worm out of it and claim she just hadn't been able to find it) - but he spent most of the day napping on the sofa and later had one of his headaches, forcing him to retire to his room.

I got a lift back home, since the arrival of the extended family meant that there were no bedrooms spare anymore. For no readily obvious reason, I decided against turning the heating back on until part way through the 27th, then put it on full-time, full blast, leading me to feel a bit ill, and later develop a headache which lasted pretty much all day on the 28th.

Today, I had big plans... Get the laundry done, do some shopping, get a few other things done and generally prepare for my return to work next Wednesday... Unfortunately, my plans went very awry at the very first stage.

It didn't help that I got up late - virtually 11am, despite waking shortly after 8am - but I then found my washing machine rather uncooperative. The buttons have always been a bit flaky but, having switched it on around lunchtime, I was unable to make it start washing... and then couldn't switch it off again. A quick call to my folks brought them round in the mid-afternoon, but it took about an hour to get the washing machine out of its cubby-hole (yet again, I find myself cursing the guy that installed my kitchen - just about every time something goes wrong, it's exacerbated by the way the units were put together), then much fussing before it was all reassembled, and a quick test performed before it was put back - with only a little less trouble than we'd had in getting it out. There's nothing actually wrong with it (unless my father's theory about microfractures in the PCB is true), and the buttons have always been a bit sticky, but it's now working thanks to a couple of bits of stray plastic wedged in behind the PCB, ensuring it doesn't warp when the buttons are pushed. High-tech stuff.

Now it's all back together, all of the buttons and lights are working better than they used to (particularly the five 'special option' buttons, which had always been sunken in the past), but my first wash didn't drain properly, so half of it got an additional fast spin after a manual purge. I was planning to put another load in, but it got so late I decided to leave it till tomorrow... Expect a detailed write-up...

On the upside, I did manage to look into replacements, should the need arise... and I have made a start on my income tax for this year... I still need to phone the tax office for additional clarification, but it looks as though I'll be getting a little money back.

A Longer Break Than Expected...

...plus, well, it's Christmas, so I'm going to be AFK for another couple of days.

But, hey, Christmas, right? That surely means offline blogging about the perils of venturing home to stay with my folks, experiencing once again the interminable silence that generally settles once all the news has been passed on, and until the niece arrives.

My sister, brother-in-law and niece will be arriving sometime on Boxing Day, having spent Christmas with brother-in-law's family. I gather it's not going to be a fun experience. Just as they frequently outstay their welcome when visiting their son and daughter-in-law, they will be hoping 'the kids' will stay as long as possible. It's not that they're not welcoming (in their own way) or that they just don't try... But my brother-in-law's family just aren't set up for exuberant three-year-olds generally, and it's a widely-held belief that his mother just doesn't know what to do with little girls, having only had sons herself.

I gather than the niece is to have two Christmas costumes (a small fraction of, say, Beyoncé's Christmas wardrobe, but I can see which way the wind blows :P). One I can understand... the other... I'm just gonna hafta see to believe. The word on the grapevine is that she wanted to be able to dress as (Disney's) Rapunzel... and Spider-Man.

Yes, my niece, who not so long ago wanted to be my hat, now wants to be Spider-Man.

And I'm pretty sure she hasn't seen any of the recent movies...

There's so much I should have been blogging about since the last posting... Loads of awesome personal stuff which, upon reflection, will probably not be explained in detail here (this being a personal blog, not a Personal Blog), not to mention taking my folks to see Skyfall and, more recently (like, 2 days ago) going to see the first part of Peter Jackson's improbably triptychal adaptation of The Hobbit, subtitled 'An Unexpected Journey'... though, honestly, it probably should have been 'Half an Unexpected Journey' considering where it finishes.

Work continues apace... As I left one job last week, virtually everything is done on the big project I've been focussed on, so my last three days in the New Year should be a good time to reinforce the minimal training I have given their newbie full-timer (she took excellent notes, and had no problems asking questions on the rare occasion she hit a problem), and go over a few tips and tricks that might prove useful in future. Then, after a short break, I shall be starting full-time, for three months (or more, fingers crossed) with one of my other regular employers.

There's all kinds of other stuff I should be doing - loads of writing and arty things - but I really haven't been in the mood lately. Maybe I'll get some stuff done while I'm back with my folks... maybe things will get back on track once I'm back home after Christmas... but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be breaking my record for posts-per-annum (128, back in 2007) this year...

A Break

For no definable reason, I haven't had a holiday in about ten years.

What I mean by that is "I've taken time off work, but I haven't gone away on a proper holiday". The last one I took was to Auckland with my folks. Prior to that, I took touring holidays in the States with my oldest friend for pretty much three years running.

In part, the holidays stopped because I started saving for a flat and then, once I bought a flat, because there was a mortgage to pay.

This year, my folks invited me along on a 'big family holiday' to Wales with my sister and her family. It didn't necessarily seem like a great idea... and in the end, faced with a choice between taking a holiday with my family and bumming around at home (or, y'know, doing another week of temping work), I chose to face all the possibilities - good and bad - offered by being locked up with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and neice in a converted stables in north west Wales.

While there was no internet out there, as such (brother-in-law found a 'sweet spot', on the arm of a large leather chair in the lounge, where he could slave his phone to his laptop and use it to connect, but it wasn't consistent) I did take along a notepad, hoping to scrawl out some kind of travelogue or, heavens forfend, perhaps even do some creative writing. The idea was that the travelogue would be typed up upon my return, and uploaded to this 'ere blog.

Sadly, while it started out as a reasonable travelogue... it quickly very descended into "OMGMYFAMILYISSOANNOYING!", and so the plan changed...

The overall experience was great (apart from the food poisoning, which everyone else miraculously avoided), and I think we all came away very keen to return, though perhaps at a different time of year. Sometime when it wouldn't be raining as much... Sometime, therefore, that Wales is not part of the British Isles and subject to its ridiculous weather 'patterns'. Or spring/summer... at a stretch.

In my first week back at work after the break, I felt more awake, more alert... My concentration was better, my memory was clearer... Things just seemed to click into place more easily, and I got more done than even I'd expected.

At work, that is.

But now, a week after returning, I've entered the 'unfulfilling' period of my current temping run. The more interesting job didn't book me quickly enough, so the less interesting job has me for three or four days a week until Christmas. On the upside - or so I thought - I'd be training their newbie and setting some ads for their next big project. On the downside, what's happened is that their newbie is getting sent on a proper training course (though I'm to supplement her learning) and the ads were set by the Sub-Editors in the few days I was at the other job between last week and today... So my workload has only risen marginally, and what little extra I have to do is mind-numbing.

Funnily, my colleague at the other job, suggested to me yesterday that I should ask to be released from the unfulfilling job because she'd definitely have interesting work for me... and then, today, one of the managers at the unfulfilling job asked about the possibility of dragging me in for extra days if needed. I can't ask to be released because they firmly believe I'll be busy (sending emails, making phone calls, filing copy... Blah... I could do most of it with my eyes closed) and, while I don't believe I'll be at all busy, I can see the need for someone to be there monitoring copy. I can't accept extra days from them because the other place has already booked them till the end of the year.

Thankfully, the early part of next year is looking more interesting... a final three days at the unfulfilling job, then three months of the fun job (completing what would have been a twelve month maternity cover contract were it not for silly political machinations which have since been backpeddled some way)...

There's a lot more to be said... but it's late, and I'm going to get some kip now...