Christmas, and stuff.

Christmas. And stuff.

Well. Yesterday, I managed to get out of the house in time and get into Liverpool without any disasters. I looked around, took care of a few things, and then went to Starbucks mainly because I needed a place to wrap my last present. As you do, I met people. I hate meeting people you know when you're on your own; it makes you look like you have no life and/or friends. Thankfully, cucharita turned up, ordered hot chocolate, scooped off all the foam, told me about her latest Adam (vampire!Adam) and generally kept me company. After some time we departed, went down to Central and met hathy_col. Which was good. And I even managed to figure out which train to get, so we could go to Conway Park and meet osiris13. We needed her to pick us up, because otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to catch a bus without getting quite shockingly lost. She'd dragged her driving instructor along. I was amused. We got the bus after that, had our usual topics of conversation - from what I can remember, they were music, slash, politics, atheism, the usual - and a man sitting opposite us told us to "Try living in the real world for twelve months."

!!!

I was annoyed.

Enid decided she wanted to sing Christmas carols to Em (shipperkitten) when she opened the door. It was going to be "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", but the word "slashy" crept in there somehow. I was remarkably amused and even more so when Em slammed the door back shut on us. Once we'd persuaded her to let us in, we got mobbed by Ella and later Nessie. I got covered in dog hair, but I don't think I really minded.

Hannah wasn't there at that point. She had to go to a family thing, and made us promise not to even think about opening presents before she got there. Sadly, that gave us about four hours to wait. So we had to amuse ourselves by other things, including eating gloopy lasagne. Em didn't like it, but I did. She says it usually turns out better when she makes it, and I believe her, but it really wasn't that bad even as it was. There was much conversation, and the included picture is to prove I saw Atomic Kitten, not that it is something I would lie about. We exchanged comments about Genie Queen - I still can't quite believe it - and watched Red Dwarf. In the end, we managed to watch the entire third series - including the one where everything is backwards. While I did take pictures, Enid's are better because they were taken with an actual camera. However, she's too busy tidying up to post them at the moment, so I'm posting mine.

This one, of Colleen, Em and Clare, has made Em decide she's never wearing white again or something along those lines. By that point, we were getting slightly bored and wishing Hannah would hurry up, and somehow or other we got on to the subject of Christmas carols again. I was singing the Twelve Days of Christmas, and someone - I'll bet Colleen - suggested the Twelve Days of Fandom. Cue a piece of paper and a pen, which I scribbled fandoms on, and this followed:
( twelve days of fandom )

Yes, we were bored. Enid then decided to drape the presents with fairy lights and put them in a big pile, to make them look pretty. Apparently, pretty is defined with candles. They were very pretty candles, but Em was somewhat afraid we might set fire to something/someone. Thankfully that did not happen. So, we went back to watching Red Dwarf. One of the episodes was The Last Day, where Kryten is told he must deactivate himself and the rest are so annoyed they give him a send-off party, and Holly synthesises something (Vimto and liquid nitrogen) that will get androids drunk. Well, Kryten has some, and then says, in his wonderfully deadpan voice, "I feel the urge to strut my funky stuff."

And I laughed. Fell about laughing, in fact. It was one of those lines that just hits you and sends you into hysterics. Everyone else thought I'd suddenly gone insane, but I was just amused. It rarely happens to that extent, but that was all it was. I don't know if it happened before or after Hannah arrived, but probably before, because when she did, we sat in a circle around the presents and grabbed.

Finally, finally, I can say what I got for everyone! Well, Hannah, Clare and I split Em's present - the two X-Men films on DVD - but I also gave her a copied CD and a Thorton's chocolate plaque with the words, "This chocolate is not for consumption." Clare's present was also edible - it was a jar of dried frog pills! Actually, every green sweet I could find in the pick 'n' mix, put into a big, heavy glass jar and labelled:
DRIED FROG PILLS
Quaque die;
or,
when the multiverse gets too much

I meant to sign it "Archchancellor Ridcully", but I forgot. Hannah got a box of Magnetic Poetry, the Shakespearean edition. I have to admit to being tempted by the erotic edition, on the grounds that it was funnier, but I don't think she'd have been able to put it on her fridge. Enid got sweatbands, which I nearly kept for myself - they were pink 'n' black striped and looked almost edible - and Colleen, resident historian, got a history-related mug. It's from Grin and has a picture, taken from the Bayeux Tapestry, of King Harold getting the arrow in his eye. The caption is "I spy with my little eye something beginning with A..."

I think they went down well. And now what I got. Squee. Hannah gave me the video of Dogma, and a Save Quiggins poster! I don't know where I'll put it, but I love it. Em gave me gorgeous bracelets - red and black beads, natch - and earrings that I like so much I will never take them off. They are long sprays of red and black stars, hanging down. Never taking them off. Colleen gave me tea-tree smellies (my mum got very excited about these when I mentioned them) and Enid gave me a big can of glitter. She said she thought it would amuse me. She was right.

And so. Everyone was left feeling rather pleased with the world. I certainly was. After that everything wound down and we eventually fell asleep about one in the morning, at which point Colleen was delivering a soothing lesson on Catholicism. And that was that until nine o'clock this morning, when the cats came in and woke everyone up. Having woken up and tidied up slightly and caught bits of flying toast, we all went out into Heswall to catch the bus. Em didn't, because it was raining. And it really was raining. Everyone got drenched. It wasn't so bad in Liverpool, though, and Colleen and Enid departed and Hannah and I went to get a sandwich.

We talked a lot. About life in general, and Christmas, and boys, and the Radio City tower, and it wasted an hour and was generally fun. And then I had to leave. Got the train home and met Danny, of all people. He showed me the presents he'd got for Verena, and we talked for quite a while until he had to get off. I read Moving Pictures (Colleen lent it to me) and got home to find a parcel from language_idling! It has sweets, and a book which I can't look at properly because the lights won't come on in the kitchen, and playing cards and stickers and just, yay!

So I am happy. Sort of. But in a sense, not, because that's it, that's Christmas over for me. All my friends were getting excited about Christmas Day, and I'm obviously not. We don't even have a tree or decorations or anything. It's rather depressing, especially when I've just come in from Liverpool, which was all decked out. I think I would have liked a tree.

Still. Too late.