Lots of holly, lots of jolly

So far, so zen. I've finished my shopping in record time with no hassle whatsoever and wished every shop assistant a merry Christmas. I even got chatting to the guy who served me in Waterstone's and it turns out he'd lived in Amsterdam for a year. I've listened to charity Christmas carols, watched the final of Strictly Come Dancing with pink champagne, drunk gluhwein at the German Christmas market in Dublin, danced non-stop for almost two hours at Snow Patrol's homecoming concert, and dispensed of most of the luggage under my eyes. Tomorrow: lunch with my oldest friends, two masses in one day, lots of present wrapping and some unwrapping, and the cutting of the Christmas cake.

Merry everything and I'll be back as soon as I can prise more than one hand away from boxes of chocolates, cups of tea and glasses of red wine.

Home time

After an insanely busy couple of weeks which have included work work and more work, two friends leaving the country, my laptop dying (RIP), an engagement (not mine - congrats Tim & Julia!), a house move (that one's mine) and have I mentioned the work? it's time for me to pack up and go home. Proper home, not Amsterdam-home. This is the longest break I've had from work since last Christmas and I intend to spend it drinking good wine, eating my body weight in Cadbury's Roses, burning the backs of my legs standing too close to the fire and catching up with family and friends who haven't heard a whole lot from me lately and are about to get three months' worth of catching up in nine days.

I can't wait.

Two things

Thing 1: I am most certainly not the only person blogging about this site as it's been featured just about everywhere in the last day or so, but oh how I giggled when I saw it.

Thing 2: I've just seen Casino Royale and, oh, what a long film. And oh, what a great Bond. Daniel Craig is the real deal. I'm not quite sure I followed the entire plot and its myriad subplots, but it was highly entertaining, even if chugging a mouthful of beer everytime a Sony product popped up on screen meant I'd run out completely after the first hour.