The nightmare before Christmas
Tuesday 24th December:
Unsurprisingly poor sleep but a particularly spectacular sunrise. Didn't want to miss Andy so hovered outside his house. Oscar was feeding the cats but somehow managed to completely miss me as I loomed ominously over the window. Eventually I had to tap like Heathcliffe. Andy emerged from the shower, slightly the worse for wear and we had a pleasant stroll up to his work. Was pleased to manage the run along the line from Bervie ever so slightly faster than yesterday.
Despite a relatively early start it took me an age to crank into work gear. I hit upon what I thought was a breakthrough by designing one simple slide that I could easily replicate for multiple "treatment formats" (a key part of the brief). This worked for a while until I realised the segmentation was very poor. So, for example, "cream" as in a type of medical lotion was returning thousands of irrelevant posts about double cream, ice cream, and so on. Annoying. It was a similar story for "liquids" and others. So my breakthrough wasn't quite the breakthrough I'd thought it was, but I was pleased to get a few more pages done nevertheless. Just hope I can pick up the pace whenever I'm able to resume work in the middle of the Christmas chaos.
Was summoned downstairs for gin o'clock. Andy and family joined very briefly to say cheerio before they headed off to Monymusk. Apart from Freya who in typical teenage style stayed in the car. I shall miss them all very much.
As darkness fell I headed up the road for Christmas Eve feast and movies. Veggie haggis with mashed tatties and carrots as a much more edible neeps alternative. Excellent. I brought the "espresso martini" I'd received for Christmas and demolished the majority of the bottle.
We watched The First Omen, a new prequel to the Gregory Peck classic. It was highly enjoyable with plenty of nods to the original series and a twist that I guessed about five seconds before the big reveal. The Catholic church was concerned about the lack of faith in the world so had come up with the foolproof plan of bringing about the birth of the anti-Christ into the world in order to save mankind. Or something. What could possibly go wrong.
We followed that with Midas Man, a biopic of Brian Epstein. This was a very enjoyable romp with plenty of breaking of the fourth wall, although I thought the ending was a bit rushed and unsatisfactory ... "and then he died of an accidental overdose. The End."
There had been a vague plan for me to join Mum and Craig at the Mission Hall Christmas Eve carol service at 21:00. I'd quite fancied doing something Christmassy ("Stop bringing Jesus into Christmas!" Andy had mocked). But 21:00 came and went with no word from down the road so instead we embarked on the mammoth Gogglebox end of year special.
I am a big fan. Not only does it fill me in on all the popular culture I've missed through not having a telly, but it gives me real faith in the world that all these very different families from all different creeds and backgrounds are not only watching all the same garbage, but almost always reacting in exactly the same way.
This faith was destabilised somewhat when Kate and Mark revealed that Mum and Craig were now fully paid-up card carrying members of Reform. Quite a journey from the progressive SNP (although it was probably the N bit they liked most). As the grandson of a refugee and father of someone who is from one of the most persecuted minorities of all time, this was not news I wanted to hear, despite earlier suspicions. I wondered out loud whether it was due to fear of mortality - there have been several casual mentions of not having long to live etc. As well as distrust of vaccines etc (as they are bad for you whereas fags and booze aplenty are fine). Mark confirmed that C had indeed stopped taking some of his meds for the Big C. A big worry. Despite his flavoursome views, he is a funny man who takes wonderful care of my mother and I really don't want either of them to die any time soon.
When I eventually got home after midnight I did something I have not done very often in my life. I prayed.
Today's expenditure: 0
Alcohol consumption:
1x G&T
Most of a bottle of espresso martini
At least 1x glass of red wine
1x whisky