Be Excellent To Each Other

I stand corrected.

I love Christmas parties. (Well, parties. Socialising, really.) One of the suckiest parts of being a freelancer is not having people to have a Christmas do with. I was really pleased Gaz's boss invited me to theirs the past two years (I do occasional work for them, it wasn't just out of pity )

Our christmas party unfortunately featured this guy...



He was shit.

A friend of mine is a freelance journalist and he too really laments that lack of social contact, especially around Christmas party season. He did try and organize a freelancers get together in London but that fell on its arse. You don't really have the tissue of shared work experience to make the company of strangers less weird.

Have mine this afternoon, I organised it all and will expense it, but I always let my team choose what time they slope off to the pub (within reason)

So this year its 3 pm, I'm strategically getting a taxi from my house at 3.30 which will get me to the pub at 4 pm

Find it always wise to miss the first hour where everyone bangs 4 pints down them

Like you love a good night out, we invite people who have left the dept as well, just can't cope with lots of booze anymore, partly age, also 2 small unforgiving kids!

I’m rubbish at socialising. I don’t like drinking, which is fine, but I’m also really nervous around drunk people, and the louder everyone else gets the quieter I get in response.

I’m happiest sitting sideways on the sofa with my feet up on Russell doing crosswords in the evening, watching University Challenge and Only Connect.

I'm exactly the same, except I don't have my feet up on Russell. Much.

Also, I think my hearing is a bit wonky in my old age, which means that I'm finding conversations harder to follow when there's loud music or background noise, which means I tend to not bother even trying after a while.

Have a drink, thank them,and leave. They don't want The Boss hanging around!

I am just as happy to socialise sober. Some of my best nights out I've voluntarily been the designated driver

With the company I'm at, there are just three of us and one is out of the area at the mo, so my boss has toyed with the idea of the two of usmeeting for lunch for Christmas, but considering all he does it talk shop anyway, we can just do that from home over Skype anyway. At least away from Skype, I won't have to hear him telling off his girlfriend and kids for interrupting his calls



I'm much the same, although I'm even quieter these days as I go out so rarely.



I'd quite like to see more stuff like this on dating profiles (minus Russell). As I browse POF and the like, it's full of gym-obsessed, travel-loving dog owners.

A relaxed first christmas day, the whole family coming over here the second one and then a little minibreak to germany with the kids

when is the dr. who xmas special?

Christmas day in the UK.

7pm tonight for THE LUCKY FEW

Rolled in around 12.30 this morning

Kids had me up at 7am, feel like crap and having to play Lego with my son!

Most drinking was done in a hotel which does decent cocktails so we tend to stay there all night after the meal

Mike Read (The DJ) was at the table over from us, we also had 2 guys on our table called Mike, so he moved as I think he thought we were taking the piss saying "Mike", this was not the case at all!

Same.

Liar. You love drinking.

I went to a Manpower Services Commission North West Regional Office Christmas party, many moons ago, with around 200 people I’d worked with for years, and none of them recognised me and I didn’t have to socialise with any of them..... until the winner of the fancy dress prize was announced right at the end of the event.

I wore an old fawn raincoat, a black silk motorcyclist’s under helmet balaclava thingy with a cardboard cut-out smile, a trilby hat on top, sunglasses, shorts, shoes and socks. So what they saw beneath the raincoat was my bare lower legs with the shoes and socks. I posted signs around the building, taking care not to be seen, saying ‘Beware the Phantom Flasher,’ and variants thereof. Oh, I forgot, under my coat, on a bit of string around my waist, was an A4 sheet of paper bearing the legend, ‘BOO!’

I also had around 20 credit card sized bits of cardboard, with a variety of phrases on them, such as ‘Mind your own business,’ ‘I’d rather not say,’ ‘That’s for me to know,’ ‘It’s a whopper,’ ‘You’ll never guess,’ ‘It’s a long story,’ and Billy Connolly’s two all-purpose words/phrases that he said could be used in almost any situation, ‘Well, why not?,’ and ‘Absolutely.’ If anyone tried to engage me in conversation, I’d show them a card with an appropriate or random response. Occasionally, I’d open the coat, flasher style, for a few select people to see, after showing them a card with, ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ on it. Much hilarity ensued and I won the fancy dress competition, only revealing my identity after I’d been presented with the prize.

Our work Christmas meal is in January which is unusual, but it's a free buffet and drinks so I don't mind too much.
Today there was an office lunch where everyone brought something to feed a few people and we all just helped ourselves - lots of samosas, nibbles and more cakes than we could eat, plus a raffle where I won a bottle of Jim Beam.

The downside is that there was no clear guidance on when the day finished so the office just got emptier and emptier throughout the afternoon.
I much prefer it when someone makes a decision so you know how long you are there for.

At our place, if you come into work on the last Friday you can leave at lunchtime and get a "free" half day off, but you have to come to work.

If you want the last Friday off without doing so you have to book a full day off.

Yep, the last two jobs did something similar - if you want to guarantee the full day off then book it as holiday, and for those in the office, management will make a call on when all the important work has been done and people can leave. This time it was just vague with nobody in charge.

Where you and I were, and Russell is, there was usually a time at which is was deemed appropriate for people to knock off, but it was badly communicated and implemented. IT were always the very last out. I’d usually been finished a good couple of hours by then so would be mooching in the kitchen or hiding in the corner looking at photos with Caz & Di whilst eating biscuits. There were always a couple of departments that had quietly taken it upon themselves to waltz off mid morning, too.

Christmas Day #1 today. Round the in laws for a full Christmas dinner, present opening, etc.

Should probably get them some presents!

Christmas is shit I don't like it, all the stupid socialising and being in 'company' and pretending to be pleased about getting toss presents you don't need or want, when what I actually desire to do is just play videogames on my PC as usual and be left alone.

Hearthly Jnr loves it of course and she's got mountains of presents to open and I'm totally down with children enjoying Christmas but it's not for adults at all and the decent thing to do is treat it like any other day and stop being cocks about it.

And the thing with presents is they made sense when everyone was poor and didn't have fuck all so it was a genuine opportunity to get something special that you could look forward to, whereas these days people just buy whatever they want, whenever they want to. So almost by definition anything you get as a present at Christmas is something you don't actually want, because if it was, you'd already have fucking just bought it for yourself.

Also I'm on-call so it's not even like I can blot out the torment of merriment with alcohol, which is my usual coping tactic.

Overall I give Christmas 125/1000 and I wish it would fuck off. Oh and CHRISTMAS MUSIC IN EVERY SINGLE SHOP, ALL THE TIME, I have reduced the mark to 95/1000 because of that. No one wants to hear 'Wonderful Christmastime' by Paul McFuckingCartney. Ever.

You should buy a new car...

Someone's getting three surprise guests, tonight

I've decided that I'm going to go kayaking with a bottle of southern comfort

Four, surely?

Wouldn't a canoe be more practical?

I've bought my eldest lots of stuff, the younger one we just wrapped some of his toys as he gets more out of grabbing stuff and the noise things make at the moment.

All my family will give my kids money, they both have an ISA which I can see but can't touch the money so people are family are happy to give money as I can't pocket it!

I have no presents under the tree from my wife and she has none from me, I told her I don't need anything and in any case, you are better off buying stuff you might want or need in the sales. Like you say you just buy shit for the sake of it. I did get her some tickets for Pearl Jam and a Spa day when she goes to Dublin, but can't wrap those!

People forget that its only Xmas where things are closed so you don't need to buy 16 pints of milk to see you through!

Maybe they do need 16 pints of milk. Christmas is exactly the time of large family gatherings. My mother has 11 people staying, many of which are children and babies, and they need milk as well as all the milk for cereal, tea, and baking. Add to that the fact that my mum’s partner, the only person with transport, is working every day apart ftomChristmas day itself, so the ability to restock an essential like milk is difficult, and maybe they really do need that. We need to be careful not to judge people on our own lifestyles and living arrangements. I’m queen of the supermarket panic attack, so I’d do pretty much anything to avoid going on Boxing Day or today, but I’m lucky as I have a partner with a car. It wouldn’t be so easy if I were a single mum with five kids.

We get through 6 pints of milk a day normally. I think our milk consumption drops over Christmas, more interesting things for breakfast than cereal, but we often by 18 pints of a milk on our supermarket trips any way.

Wow... I thought I drank a lot of milk!

Also, well said Mimi.

It's looking like Christmas plans mainly involve lying in bed being ill.

Fun.

Look who i found at the high water mark!

We don't have caneos, and I'll rope someone else in.

It seemed OK last year as I recall, but yes, there were bits of the IT team that had to hang around to make sure all the supply chain processes went through correctly.

I don’t think I ever finished early on Christmas Eve when I was on internal IT Support. There was always some late screw up that required me to stay on-site until it was resolved, which meant I usually finished late rather than early, even when the rest of the office of around 400 were told they could bog off at about 3pm.

Looks a bit like the opening scene from an episode of Blake’s 7.

Except for the smile.

Looking good Kern.

Pretty much all of except that I’m not on call.

We tend to buy pressies that we actually need, so I’m getting a new TomTom as my old one is over 10 years old and is now not capable of accepting map updates. In the past I’ve had a new hammer, a new bike seat, etc. Some friends have found this amusing, but they were things I rally needed at the time.

Christmas has officially been launched in the Warhead house. The cheese footballs have been deployed.

I make it my mission to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible, so no disruptive changes around that time and in my previous long term job, a fairly well documented plan of everything that would need doing.

Have a great day tomorrow.

Just me and my boy, I am looking forward to having a chilled day.

Well we’ve cooked basically everything.

We’ve made:

Saltine toffees
Lemon shortbread
Grandma (MrsDoc)’s Christmas Cookies
An eggnog pie with a ginger snap crust
2x batches of eggnog
Mulled apple juice (spiked with rum)
Pavé potatoes (like Dauphinois but you slice then shallow fry — these are for tomorrow)
Ham (sous vide in Coke, glazed with maple and mustard)
Beef stock (also for tomorrow)
Chicken stock (mostly used up already)
A modernist chicken roulade (already eaten most of this)
Sausage rolls
Gravadlax

After the last big push to do dinner tomorrow, it’s days of grazing on leftovers for me. Which is just how I like it.

Oh plus about 45 macarons (we went to a cooking class.)

Of the things that I don't know what are on that list, the most intriguing is gravadlax?

Scandinavian cured salmon. Side of salmon (well, half a side for us), lots of sugar and salt, plus flavourings (traditionally dill; this year I did lemon, juniper, and cucumber.) Into the fridge for 48 hours, rinse off, serve cold. The salt draws the moisture out of the salmon and firms it up, even more so than with smoked salmon. Great Christmas fare. I’m going to serve it on blinis with a little cream cheese although rye crisp bread and a dill-mustard sauce would be the traditional choice.

I bloody love gravadlax, and it's delightfully simple to make

I am confused. I read this as ‘I have never been to Ikea’. How have you never been to Ikea.

Rehearsals continue for the xmas day puppet show.