Holiday update

Well, I'm still here. Still eating too much, not doing any exercise, feeling the cold of our 300 year old house, and generally watching too much crappy tv. Mind you, it's not really a proper Christmas this year, since none of the irritating old favourites are on; no 'Wonderful Life', no 'Great Escape', only one James Bond and no sign of Julie Andrews in anything musical. What is the world coming to? However, I have done the Christmas thing by buying clothes in the sales with no regard for whether I actually need them or whether they are going to fit in my suitcase when I go back to Vancouver. I've also taken the easy way out and done the mass e-mail to wish people a happy holidays, since I wasn't actually organised enough to send out individual messages. But then at least I said something, right?

We got back from visiting my aunt and some friends in Devon last week, only to find that the mice which inhabit the attic above my head had decided to take the opportunity to eat the poison that my father periodically puts down (humane traps being completely ineffective against the armies that reign in our house) and had decided to get back at us by dying under the floorboards. Actually, under my floorboards. So I've spent the last four or so days going to bed with the lovely smell of rotting mouse lingering in the air. I must say, I've experienced better scents. Happily, it seems to have dissipated now, though I am sure further mice are rising up to replace those that were lost, just waiting for their chance to chew through the beams.

I gave in yesterday and ordered an mp3 player from Dixons. I thought about waiting until I got back to Vancouver, but I would have missed all the decent sales. And with the exchange rate as it is, it was actually cheaper to order it over here. Now I just have to hope that it comes in the next week or so, that it actually works, and that it won't have a spaz the minute I fly 4000 miles away with it. Cross fingers. At least if it does work, I will have something to listen to on the plane. After about an hour and a half of Air Canada radio on the way over here, I felt like strangling someone.

Ok, have a good holiday everyone. It's nearly 2006.....