So this is Christmas...

...and what have you done?

Well not very much is the answer to that! It's been a really weird xmas this year as it's been overshadowed by the fact we are leaving for Oz and also Mum and Dad have organised to leave for 3 weeks in Spain on the same day.

The build up to Xmas was actually non-existant as I spent most of it going to and from the flat with bags and boxes to get it cleared out. No interest in it yet but the letting agent says that's to be expected until the New Year.

Arrived at the Olds for the final time on the 23rd and I've been here since. Unfortunately since they are also preparing to go on their hols there was lots of "Zain, can you go into the loft and get the suitcases down?" and "Zain, can you feed the animals?" followed by "Zain, can you put these CDs onto my MP3 player?" You get the picture.

The next thing that sullied the xmas build up was the fact that it has become a bit of a tradition for Saira and I to spend Xmas Eve together catching up and righting the world's problems. This usually involves several bottles of wine and attempts to make the strangest combination sandwiches at 1am. Last year's winner I think was Honey-Mustard dressing, Kettle chips (salted), tomatoes, stilton cheese, ham and mango chutney. Awesome! This year, however, Saira was at Sophie's. I was supposed to go up there for the night but decided to stay with Mum and Dad as I still had some packing and things to do. Didn't seem like a big deal at the time but looking back I wish I'd headed up to Sophie's for one last spectacular sandwich blow-out before Oz. I would have had my own sandwich competition but since Sophie was hosting xmas this year, Mum and Dad didn't have the usual tasty treats to fabricate a breaded gastronomic delight.

Instead I had a bowl of Special K (old and stale) and then went to bed early. Rock-star lifestyle I tell ya!

Xmas day involved pestering the folks for an hour to get them into the car and head to Sophie's. We were supposed to be leaving at 8:30am instead were on the road for 9:30am. This was further hampered by the fact that the Special K didn't agree with me and all of a sudden it felt like cacti were rapidly growing out of my stomach. I had to pull over at Glasgow Airport to use the toilets.

This deserves special mention as unbeknownst to me the car park has it's own toilets and unlike the ones at Central Station or any other public WC (not that I frequent many of them) these were the nicest bogs I've even been in. They must have just opened the day before or something.

One rough-cast toilet bowl later we were back on the road.

Got to Sophie's after 10:30am and then it was time to open presents. The focus was on Sophia as I think it's the first time she's really got to grips with the whole present opening thing. However, she opened the first thing and it was a childrens oven/kitchen set. She loved it straight away and that was the end of the present opening as she spent the next hour only wanting to play with that. Soon though Sophie coaxed her into opening a few other things and the next item of note was a new baby doll which she was ecstatic about. So much so that she took "baby" straight over to the toy oven, pulled out all the plastic oven trays and shoved the doll right into the oven. She even got a bit violent when it wouldn't fit and started battering the oven door closed until "baby" was crushed inside!

I'd bought Sophie and Iain all the accessories that they would need to use Skype and spent until 3pm getting their crap computer to recognise the CD in the drive and have the USB ports function. I even ended up having to go to the webcam manufacturer's website and download new drivers. Mental.

Anyway I got it working and soon we were chatting to Isla face to face up in Perth. I think Sophie was a bit stunned as she said, "I didn't think that we would have the technology to do this!". I didn't want to look like a super geek and start talking about how Amit, Angus and I were using Battlecom 10 years ago to do this. Don't gimmie crap, I know there are some of you out there that are into that stuff you World of Warcraft playing freaks. (If you by it online from Play.com it only costs £9.99 instead of £14.99rrp!).

ANYWAY... enough of that.

Dinner was amazing. Soph had got a big shellfish platter for starter and then we had roast beef instead of the unbiquitous turkey. I took a break after the main course to have a Skype conference with Isla, KP and Matt which was great. Matt and KP are in the States at the moment so it was a bit of a trial run for how Skype is going to work when Isla and I are in Oz, Matt is in Glasgow and KP is in Swizerizerizerland. Was good to catch up and happy birthday to Matt the Christmas baby.

After that I headed back down the stairs and the most mental portion of profiteroles was waiting for me, double cream and all. Approximately 3 mins after that I thought I was goin to be sick. I wasn't, so I had some more.

Before I knew it it was time to go home and Xmas was over for other year. We are definitely getting older as this was "The driest year in history". I think in total I had about 5 drinks over the whole day and none on either side. It won't be long before Sophia is staggering in at 3am on Xmas eve saying "I've not been drinking, I'm just really tired... My friend spilt juice on me and I think it had vodka in it... Everyone else was smoking and now the smell is on my clothes". You get the picture (since you all did it when you were younger).

And that's it. Next year Xmas will be on a beach in the sun. Strange. Hope there will be plenty of people out there to share it with. And Saira, if I win the lottery between now and then I'll pay for you and Ross to come out for the Xmas Eve sandwich competition 2007!