Freeview, 'Bravery' and Festive spirit

Greetings one and all (well I do have an 'audience' now!), yep its another blog from yours truly, and yet another blog nearer to getting back to some normality on this page. So here goes...

Friday was the office Christmas 'do' at the ICC, and as the theme (for the people not on minimum wage, and who could therefore afford it), was 'Hollywood Stars', I was expecting something slightly more adventurous than half the office turning up in 1920's ganster gear, but no matter, as there was plenty more to be cheerful about, namely free food and drink! The food itself was good, well as good as mass-catering can be, and apart from an odd starter and a pretty decent desert, the main xmas meal was really good, proper thick slices of turkey, although the dreaded sprout reared its ugly head again, but as it was christmas, and I felt confident it wasn't actually going to kill me, I tried one (ok the smallest one!), and immediately remembered why I didn't like them in the first place!! Oh well, no harm in trying is there!

The main entertainment was a fake casino, complete with fake money, a blackjack table and a roulette table (apparently). Now, having never, ever, played any casino-type games in my life, I thought I would have a look to see what the heck the rules were......

....after about half an hour staring at each table, I gave up trying to work out anything and gave my fake cash to someone who lost it within seconds. I did have a play on the remote controlled shoe-football game, which sounds more entertaining than you think. I scored 2 goals on my shoe-debut, which I was very proud of, and spent the rest of the evening bopping my ass off on the dance floor to as many cheesy-class tunes as they could put on. A good night was had by all, despite a few misdemeanours by a select few, which I couldn't possibly mention in a blog....so its probably best to email me and i'll tell you all!!

Thee weekend was a pretty good one, despite my horrible cold, which we'll come onto shortly, as we went to Woods Farm to get our Christmas tree, which is always a tradition in our family, as it signifies the official start of chrimbo. So by Saturday and Sunday night, after all the trimmings and lights had been put up, we felt suitably Christmassy, especially when we heard one of the best christmas song ever, 'Driving Home for Christmas', by the legendary Chris Rea, on Radio 1 as it had got to Number 35 in the chart, god love you, downloads! That song, much like the Coke advert, signifies the start of christmas, so we're ready for it now, bring it on!

Monday was a swine, as my cold had developed into a fully blown tornado of sniffles and headaches, which weren't good, especially as the previous week were filled with people 'braving it' and coming into work, coughing and spluttering, so I knew I was gonna get it at some point, which is why I couldn't go into work today (Tuesday), as my head felt like a brick, and I couldn't actually stand up without the room spinning. But apart from that I was fine, apart from the runny nose, hot and cold flushes and being unable to breath when I lie down! God bless those who came in last week and gave the germs to everyone, although that might have had something more to do with the immortal words 'Billable Hours', than anything else!

Monday also saw my aunt get a freeview box for her telly in her kitchen. Now, having not looked into freeview or anything likewise, I hadn't got too much of a clue about what it was, or what it did, however as my aunt is retired now, she had done loads of research into it, and noticed a freeview box for £14.99 in sainsburys, which is a damn good bargain, so she bought it yesterday, and we went round to help her install it, which took about 5 minutes, seriously, its that stupidly simple! And the great thing about it, as you will know if you've been reading this blog since the beginning, is that freeview gives us back Sky News and Sky Sports News, which was like a breath of fresh air! You really don't know how good Sky News is unless you are forced to watch BBC News 24, which is just bilge! Even better news is that my aunt has just bought us one for Christmas, which is fantastic, so even more to look forward to next Tuesday!!!!!

Happy last-minute shopping!!!!