Be Excellent To Each Other

Reserved thread for saying what you got for Christmas. I was allowed to open one of my stocking fillers early on account of me guessing what it was. It was a little tube of Jelly Bellys, hell yeah.

So, what did you get?

Well, I opened one of mine on Yule, dirty big semi-pagan that I am. One of those DivX DVD players with a handy USB port for loading straight from a flash drive, hurrah! The rest (and by rest, I mean other) will have to wait.

I have got:

Nox, Piers Anthony book that I have longed for-starting to read it tonight/this morning From my secret Santa on here

Some beautiful black and dusky pink lace gloves that go to my elbow from my Secret Santa at the pub

A new bag from my sister in the shape of a high-heeled boot! I shall take pics as it's fucking awesome!

My fantabulously warm and gawjus coat from Mr.GazChap

A necklace in the shape of 'Hello Kitty!' and a small 'Blue nose' cat from one of my best friends.

50.00 from my grandad

Yaaay

Twilight Zone Series 1
Laophraig 10 year old single malt whiskey
Peruvian Fair Trade chess set
Harvey DVD (that James Stewart + invisible six foot rabbit film)
Twenty brasses

So hurrahs!

Money for my ATP vs the fans 2 ticket.
Davidoff Aftershave
Hitchcock Boxset
Ealing Studios Boxset
A Wooly Hat
No Peas

I got Optimus Prime and a little sled kite and a magnetic sculpture thingy and a VW Campervan model kit.

I did get:

1 x EVE timecode
Sonic Chronicles for the DS, which is odd as I don't own a DS although the gf does.
A new wallet
Some toiletries
A coat
A scarf
Some driving gloves.

I see the rest of the family on the 28th so I'm hoping for at least another 3 EVE codes.

I got :

Choccies
Shaun the Sheep calendar
A selection of ciders
Season 1 & 2 of the IT Crowd Boxset
512MB Xbox 360 memory car to replace my old 64MB
Lego Batman (xbox 360)
Fallout 3 (xbox 360)
Family Guy Season 5
£20

and something still to be still be opened at Shewolf's sister's house, and also one from my sister when I get back home.

I got:
A Hello Kitty cigar humidor
An adjustable spanner
A "diary of a call girl" DVD starring Billie
Some books
The Wire season 4

And that's only so far!

I've only just woken up. No presents yet. Breakfast first. Humbug. Hope my family like what I've bought them!

Hilariously myself and Meems bought each other the same thing. I'l try and take a picture.

Me and Gaz are still not dressed, under the duvet on the sofa and watching a DVD I bought him-Frankie Boyle Live standup-it's great!

I got...

Two coffee table books on the artists Gerhard Richter and Peter Doig - both very good painters.
Season 5 of the Wire
A couple ot T-shirts
Some chocs
Watchmen
Onkyo TXSR 606 AV receiver

2 loads of socks and a t-shirt.

really, that's all.

I got:

Some nice gloves
Ski socks
Vodka
40 quid from granny
100 euros
and a ski trip to val thorens in 8 days

Slippers and a dressing gown.

Two more things than I got last year. Bonus

I got:
two lots of chocolates
hand made scarf (s'loverly! )
Lush stuff (already had a bath with it)
360 points (Yay!)
a little plaque thing with 'Nan' and a poem on it.

I got a new monitor, new coat and lots of chocolates that I won't be eating due to my commitment to weight loss.

Coal

- 'The Day Today' on DVD
- 'Watchmen' by Alan Gibbon
- Charlie Booker's new book
- a tripod for my camera, which I opened upside down so it fell on my foot
- a shirt
- a redneck T-shirt from a friend in the US ('If you're not behind our troops, you should be in front of them')

Kern you need a couple of Larry the cable guy's dvds.

Got a few real Ales.
A selection of Batman and Superman Graphic Novels
The Dark Knight DVD.
Batman Lego (PC)
A few Batman T-shirts
Hobgoblin T-shirt
Few HMV gift vouchers.... will be going towards my xbox or Sharpe Boxset
so far

God I made my family sound really mean....

I got 100 quids worth of cat stuff too back in Nov. Flash litterbox with a catflap on it, fancy water bowls carrier etc. Some went toward buying the cat too (bengals = pricey).

Also in late January I'm off on a holiday to Witney (ox) to stay with pals for a week and I got a railcard and tickets too

I got a bike GPS that tells me my speed and distance without all that pissing around with sensors and shit. I already have a speed/distance thing on my bike but it came from Aldi and is all in foreign measurements. I also suspect it's not quite accurate. This new device does miles and I don't need to faff around with needlessly complex charts that work out the size of my tyre and then have to worry about hateful sensors.

The bike GPS isn't like a satnav, but it can show me where I started from and will allow me to see my route (without roads natch because it has no maps) if I get lost.

+ I have a new bike helmet because you are supposed to replace them every 3 or 4 years and mine is more like 15 years old.

I also have two paintings that belonged to former Doctor Who producer Verity Lambert. I have no idea what I will do with them.

Heh - I should. The T-shirt mentions him below the quote. It also has a large flag and and the arms of the four services. It could all be ironic, but the colonials don't really understand that.

Highlights include:

Fallout 3
FarCry 2
Master and Commander on DVD
Remote control dalek
Something that one can't hold but is comically awesome.


MrsA got really, really, ill

mrsA got Wii music and Animavcrossing, which is most excellentbut unplayed as she's ill.

I got igloo boxes for mine aswell ^.^* hehe


Update, presents from Gazs mum and dad are:

FCUK bath gel and body scrub (I smells? )
Perfume (defo smell!)
Candles (This should please GJ, hehe)
Chocolate coins! Yaaaay

Went to the pub later with them last night and it was funny I still have AIDS sadly and I have learnt new Shropshire words too:

'Give it some rice!'
'Faster than pig shit' (or something or other)

I got (in chronological order):

Race Driver Grid
Rock Band 2 (solus)
Pack of dairy milk miniatures
The Presets - Apocalypso
Mirror's Edge

I wasn't sure if you'd like that or not.

Think Ali G as Ali G. Larry is as redneck as it comes, but purely from a comedy angle.

A big, disgusting lovable ox.

Ooo you CHAV you !

Oh my gawds yeah! I evern liek got sum white lyhtning in a bottle and stuffs-goin dahn the park l8as wiv me m8s 2c if we can go on the rahndabout and frow up all ova the park liek

*breaks out the chav hunting gun*



I got

Thorntons hamper of love fudge. Or a "love fudge" hamper.
Some nice smellies
M&S gift voucher
A very nice businessy overcoat from M&S

Mrs Plissken got some some smellies, some Inktense pencils and a pearl and diamond pendant.

hahahahaha you crazy cow

Reality FEEX for you there, bruvva!

Sorry, I am in a very hyper mood!! I had lots of drinkies last night and have a hankering for some spa-[snip! -For the sake of humanity edit]

I got, a bottle of 10 yr old Talisker
A big ass fleecy warm coat thingy to replace the one I put in the washing machine and felted
A Satelite Navigation system
Fallout 3
Two remote control helicopters taht can shoot each other down, not that there is really any need as they fall out of the sky of their own accord anyway.
One of those power ball thingies.
Some funky cuff links made from PCB (Not the chemical)
And sundry other (boring) stuff.

Whisky
Chocolates
Socks
Not much else of note except a £600 vet's bill, which is also why there were few presents this year :|

2 bottles of port.
moolah
Huron Blackheart
Chaos Marine Sorceror w/ Forceaxe
Kecks
Socks
Turkish Delight
the annual big block of Dairy Milk
A pea.

I had my first experience with that pear flavored cider today.



Amazing.

Now when you say "experience"...

You don't have pet insurance?

I pay 6 pound a month through tescos for Rapunzel. And that's the premium plan.

The last time I consumed an alcoholic beverage was 6 months ago. And that was 2 cans of Carlsberg.

I used to be an avid pub goer in my twenties but then when I realized something was amiss upstairs and had to start taking meds I stopped drinking completely.

I don't do drink by halves, so I drank 3 pints of that pear cider and fell asleep haha, just woke up in time for Eastenders.

Ah! You drank it *wipes brow* Good, that's all I needed to know.

Nope. The quotes for insurance I trusted, RSPCA-approved policies that weren't covered in long term illness disclaimers, was a little over £30 a month for my two lurchers. I've had them 2.5 years, so that would have added up to a little over £1k in premiums. I'm still up, overall. Our last dog needed £90 a month of pills for his heart for the last 15+ months of his life, and pet insurance still wouldn't have worked out economical for him, even with that long term illness.

Insurance is gambling, and the house always wins. That's not a reason to never have it, but you do need to weigh up the pros and cons carefully. I decided against it in this case. I've been unlucky with what happened to Jake and the timing of it, but having made the decision to not get insurance, I'm being philisophical about that.

My sister had 'insure the new cat' on her to do list for a couple of months, and then her cat (it seems) fell off a roof and broker her pelvis. Someone who wasn't so willing to spend the money would have let the cat die, but over the course of the next couple of months my sister shelled out over £2500 on specialist vets and pet hospitals and just about managed to save her cat's life.

Needless to say she wishes she'd gotten around to insuring her cat sooner. Cat is ok now

Yeah I hear ya. Punzel is an indoor cat and the house has two doors on each entryway, so theres very little chance of her escaping. There's practially zero chance of her getting cat flu either, so it was pretty much for my peace of mind.

I declined any payout if she dies, because tbh money isn't something that can cure a broken heart so I didn't bother. All I wanted to do was make sure if she got something that is costly (IE needs anti biotics for a while) that I don't have to pay more than 35 quid (the copay) per visit.

My vet is awesome though, that or she just fancies me or totally fell in love with Punzel (see the latter as she called in her 3 mates so they could all look at her) but I went there for a few things.

When I got punzel she had just been spayed and the stitches needed removing. She also needed her booster (the breeder clean forgot, she was wormed and chipped though) and had a lump near her incision (a blood clot between the muscle wall and skin) and was pooping some blood.

The vet removed the stitches, drained the clot, gave her a booster jab AND gave her a full exam and deciphered the bloody stools were from stress.. I was charged 41 quid for the booster, and nothing else.

Needless to say I buy all my cat food there now (royal canin and hills) even though it's a couple of quid more than the prices online with the shipping.

Just like Docs and Dentists a damn good vet is hard to find. Most should be wearing masks and holding up pistols.

See this is the thing. Once we fall in love with our cuddly little bundles of love we put them before ourselves. That's the peace of mind the insurance offers me... Punzel is absolutely adored here, but you can't foresee things like that. Just three days ago she climbed up the ladder on the landing for the loft and the ladder crashed down. She wasn't hurt, but man it could have been very bad (especially if the ladder had gone the wrong way, she would have freefell to the ground floor).

Bengals are sods for climbing.. Every time she catches her toy mouse she tries to climb up something like her ancestor the Asian leopard cat would

I gotted:

Lots of chocolate
Loads of spices
Fallout 3
Death Note 1 (book... read it between then and now - it rocks)
The Suicide Shop (book)
The Ode Less Travelled (*nods towards Mimi*)
DVD Series 1 of Carnivale
Fred Perry Polo shirt (brown)
AWESOME Paul Smith t-shirt, which includes spelling out the name 'Paul Smith' using elements from the Periodic Table *GEEK FEST*
Lovely Bench zippy jumper thing
Lovely Diesel long sleeved t-shirt thingy

Also possibly some other things.

Generally, a good one.

A zippy bench? Is that when he opens his mouth really wide and you sit on his lower jaw?