Looking Out To Sea

Today we’re back in Edinburgh, back in the flat. So, what’s been happening? What have we been up to?

Well, obviously, we’ve been up to Christmas, and it was good. This was the first time we’d ever had a Christmas which wasn’t like the ones we’d had when growing up. All the way through university we’d just pile off home and spent a fortnight or however long living with our parents again.

This time Helen and I have our own flat and it seemed right that we should do things differently. We weren’t willing to have Christmas in the flat — that would have been quiet and lonely, and ultimately too much like a long weekend with nothing to do but watch television and eat chocolates off the tree. (Not that I suggest tree-chocolates are a bad thing. Just that there’s often more to life.)

So, we needed to start a “new tradition”. Something that seemed equitable to both our parents but also meant we were doing it differently from before. In short, a grown up Christmas (gasp).

On Christmas day in the morning…

The plan was simple. My parents in the morning and for lunch. Helen’s parents for Christmas dinner in the evening. And some arguing and apportioning of blame during the course of the afternoon over who we were staying with longer. But a bit of familial argument never went wrong in the festive season…

So we did some present opening at the flat in the morning and then raced — raced, I say — to the car and down the road to Dunbar, already half an hour late. We, uh, took the wrong turn-off in our panic to get to Spott kirk and gave up somewhere in the middle of the countryside.

We cut our losses and nipped back to my parents’ house, dropping off presents at other stops along the way. To my parents I gave a brand new Mac mini, in order to stop their computer woes as swiftly as possible. It seemed the ideal thing for them, especially as iPhoto seems to have blossomed into quite a neat little package with the latest updates.

I’ve got a couple of neat books now, including Climbing Mount Improbable (which I’ve been reading over the last few days) and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (which I’ve been keen to get for a long time). Also, the new DVD release of the original BBC Neverwhere. Awesome!

We had lunch with my parents, a bit of soup and some home-made bread. I did my best to show the new computer in its best light, though I had only had the chance to put on some photos.

Sunk, like the Bismarck

In the afternoon we left my parents’ house and went a walk with Helen’s mum. It was dark when we arrived at her parents’ house and I was regretting having gone such a long walk in the cold while still ill and, crucially, without a scarf.

We did more gift-giving and present-opening. I was given three whole loaf tins for making bread. I can’t wait to get started. (Helen has been primed by her father to accept the fact that for a long time I will only make Dwarf bread but that with practise the trick will come.)

We’ve also got a couple more pictures to hang now: a large photograph taken and potatoshopped by Helen’s dad, and a small print of two hamsters in conversation.

I can’t remember when we sat down for Christmas dinner. I don’t think it really matters because before long my stomach was feeling the strain and ready to wave the white flag. There’s too much! It’s all too good! Please help! And so on.

Boxing Day

I tried to get my parents’ computer up and running but was completely stumped by their “passwords? I didn’t know you needed them for email” remark. That wasn’t fun.

Helen’s cousins, Lucy and Anna, came up from London in the evening. Lucy was even worse than me with the cold and didn’t get out of bed all evening. Anna and Helen’s brother made some weird cocktail based on White Russians but with brandy butter and toffee caramel sauce and a cherry on a stick. It had more promise than expected, but needs to spend more time in R&D guys!

Lucy remained in bed while rest of us had steak for tea and then played Trivial Pursuit. It was a close run thing (both teams really racing across the board) but thanks to Helen’s winning streak halfway through the session the girls won out in the end. We’ll get them next time! ;-)

The day after boxing day, whatever that’s called

I was still feeling pretty lousy at this stage. My cold had shifted back up into my nose and I felt as if my forehead was stuffed with cotton buds. I sat on the sofa at Helen’s house for most of the day feeling sorry for myself. We visited the Mason’s Arms for lunch (one of the exciting new changes post–smoking ban: tasty pub meals in the local!) but I wasn’t much of a drinker or a conversationalist.

I spent the evening reading Climbing Mount Improbable in the cool of the guest bedroom. The fire in the living room just made my nose stream more and I felt even worse than before.

We’re not done yet, folks

So we’re now back in Edinburgh and it’s four days since Christmas. Our gaily (first in one sense, then the other) decorated tree is still holding its needles, despite not having been watered at all. It’s beginning to droop slightly.

In another couple of days it’ll be 2008 and whatever that all means. Well, more carousing and the like. Visiting people past midnight to wish them well in the new year and sleeping late to make up for it.

But this post is too long and flabby as it is. More writing when I can write less, if you understand what I’m saying…

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