Christmas time

Well a merry Christmas to you all and a very happy new year!

Christmas was lovely at our end. I broke up from work on the Friday but Alex finished on Wednesday, lucky thing! We packed our bags and drove to Coventry on the saturday to spend that day and night with my parents. It was hectic at ours until the last minute, phones ringing, plans being made, and a last minute trip to Kings Heath's butcher. It was a very successful trip! We'd paid for a Christmas hamper and when we laid out all the joints of meat and the turkey it made such an impressive sight we had to photograph it! Well, we do like our food...

But we finally got out the door and it was a very relaxing day and a half. Pads was a tad concerned, but we'd recruited Fran and Les to look after her!

We had Christmas lunch with mum and dad which was lovely and relaxed. We had a good chat and a 'sobremesa', and the meal was delicious. Then after a few hours af catching up my auntie Shelagh and Uncle David, younger uncle David and his fiancee Angela came over to say Merry Christmas. In June I'm going to be their bridesmaid-yey! Some of the party said merry Christmas more enthusiastically than others, with older uncle david dressing as Santa for a part of the evening!

When we got home me and Alex had a nice time preparing the turkey and we spent a few hours with Nathan and Laura and Emma. I think the 5 of us are as much a family as any other. Alex walked me to church, the bells were chiming for midnight mass, the air was crisp, it was a perfect Christmas Eve night. Then the vicar did a daft sermon about how he had a conversation with a puppet mouse and mice finding space in the nativity, and mice that lived in the church but looked more like a cat. Not sure what he was on about. So despite feeling aggrieved that for another year the 100's of people that had packed the church would probably not return the rest of the service was ok. Then we all met up again at Nathan and Laura's and opened each other's presents. It was lovely! Me and Alex walked home to wish the cat happy Christmas and get a good night's sleep.

Christmas day was great. We spent hours opening our presents. I was so relieved that Al liked his! Christmas lunch was festive and relaxed - followed as it was by a quick kip! Then we walked to Fran and Les' to watch Nicholas Nickleby, eat Christmas cake and talk. We didn't even have to walk back 'cause Les gave us a lift! Fab day...

Thank you to everyone who remembered us with cards, gifts and texts, it's my favourite day of the year!

Dylan Moran on kids parties

A very funny excerpt from the old Dylan Moran dvd that tickles me and Al pink - he bought me a new dvd of him for Christmas which I am dying to see!

For those of you with MySpace I thought I'd let you know that I am slowly getting to grips with my MySpace account. You can say hello at:

http://www.myspace.com/gem_richards

However, I'm not keen on having it open to total strangers so only friends who are added can see the full page - so if you have a myspace site too please send me a friend request! At the moment I only have two MySpace friends, so cherished as they are I'm a bit lonely!

Also if anyone learns any funky triks on myspace please let me know as I'm still learning!

The week before Christmas

I have finished work, yey! Ok so it's only for 4 days but I'm still excited! It's nearly Christmas!
He terminado el trabajo, bueno solamente para 4 dias, pero aun sigo estando muy feliz! Estamos casi en navidad!

This has been a crazy week. There was a sudden rush in the sales office at the beginning of the week. Karen sent me to work for one day in the Sales department. They looked at me like I was an alien at first. I'd been quite nervous about going and working on the phones but when the Sales manager was reluctant to let me have a go I felt myself wanting to do it! I hadn't worked on the phones since those awful 3 months at Seven Trent, but after a shaky start getting the technology going ok I had a really good take, taking calls and sales and wishing all our customers a merry christmas!
La semana ha pasado muy rapidamente, ya que estabamos todos muy ocupados. Preparando para navidad y ayudando a la gente que automaticamente sienten la necesisdad de comprar por telefono urgentemente.

That day I had college so I went to my class, which like everything else this week seemed to mean eating... There was party food and mince pies in between learning about osteoporosis. Even so we were all glad to be let out early! I headed off to Ben and Cat's new home, a rented victorian house close to Edgbaston Cricket Ground (Ben's spiritual home!). The had the BIGGEST Chrsitmas tree I've ever seen, and eggnog, and mince pies, and trifle, and it is a gorgeous home! In fact it is exactly like you'd imagine Christmas to be in the movies, the tree was the icing on the cake!

Alex had gone out for a work do that night so I headed home at about 11pm. It was lovely to see Ben and Cat, and great to see their new home. They are planning to get a cat in February - we might give them ours if she carries on scratching the wallpaper - only joking!

This week the weather has been very wintry. My car door froze this morning and I had to unlock it from the passenger side! The lake was freezing over too, as you can see in the picture. Poor Linda finished work yesterday to fly to her family home in Belfast. I just got a text message from her. The fog meant she didn't get home until 4am - 9 hours after she was due to set off on an hour's flight. It's been travel chaos for many this Christmas time. One of our consultants called Alex was supposed to go home to Italy and I hear he never made it. I'm just glad we only have to make it as far as Coventry!
El tiempo ha sido muy frio, nublado y helado; autentico invierno! Aunque no me ha afectada mucho hay gente como mi amiga Linda quien sufrio mucho cundo trato de volar a su familia en el norte de Irlanda, llego 7 horas tarde!















I thought I'd give you an idea of Christmas in the office... Chocolate! Very naughty I know. At about 2pm today Sharon came round with oranges because we'd all OD'd on cake!












Plus we'd dragged the yukka plant or whatever it is out of Karen's office and "decorated" it. I can see why Christmas trees never caught on in Fiji..!














Today was especially nice because as well as being pay day and the last working day before Christmas I received Employee of the month!
El trabajo me reconocio con un premio hoy, senti muy orgullosa y felic al recibirlo. Es algo que premian cada mes, y tenia esperanzas pero no sabia que seria yo este mes.
I remember working hard for that sort of thing at Bright and it never worked out because I just got worse not better and got dispirited, and it was just very saddening every month. But here it has actually paid off! Plus I got a certificate! Yey!















It just remains for me to say, from me Alex and Pads, Happy Christmas to one and all!
Solo hay que decir, de yo Alex y Pads, Feliz Navidad a todos!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

x

A busy few days

The rush to Christmas is upon us.
An interesting fact I heard. the X in Xmas is from the greek for 'Christ' - so that's an interesting one for all you pooh-pooers of Xmas...
Anyway, Thursday was our staff Christmas do, it was brilliant! I went over to Kate's house to get ready, only to realise that I'd forgotten my dress! I'd packed a bag and I'd remembered to pack everything, even my Bridgit-Jones-suck-everything-in pants, but I forgot my dress!!! What a Gemmarism... So we rushed over picked up the dress and rushed back. Me, Kate and Emma all got ready, (with Mary's help who had to go home to finish an assignment) then Mary's boyfriend arrived to pick Mary up and he helped spray our hair with glitter - he used to spray paint walls so he was quite a pro! Then Alex (Alessandro Ferretti, northern Italian, and one of our consultants) joined us and drove us to the Burlington Hotel. In the car he had an album on by a guy called Paolo Nutini, which is probably very popular but it was new to me. Anyway the guy is a lovely singer and I recommend a listen.
We got to the Burlington hotel in town a bit late because we had a nightmare finding parking. Donna was in front of me in the queue and bought two double vodkas and lemonade - she turned to me with a shocked face and said "they cost me £17.50!" - so I bought one drink and decided that that was it for me! Fortunately there was plenty of free wine on the table to accompany the meal and I got up to dance as soon as the music started and forgot all about my glass. I had a great time. It was the BEST works do ever! There was such a good atmosphere, and BioCare totally owned the dance floor. You should have seen the boys, too, usually they are in jeans in despatch, but that night they were so dapper, my god!
I got home at 2am, which made the friday at work quite an endurance test cause it's been ages since I went out on a school night! I'll add pictures asap.
Then friday night me and Alex went to a party in Moseley. Stuart is one of Alex's football team mates, and he and his wife are heading off to Canada for 6 months in the new year. So he thre a bit of a do before heading off, and the theme was "When you were 16". Alex couldn't find anything to wear (and he had long hair then - he went through a bit of a grunge phase) but I cobbled together something approaching my Colosseum outfit. I had my hair in bunches, and got into indie kid mode, it was great! Loads of people made an effort. Loads of people were in Goth mode, Stu looked like he'd been in the Happy Mondays. A few were all grungy. Some people were obviously 16 in the mid 1980's. Rich was the biggest surprise, only 4 years older than me and Alex he was dressed as a fop, in a black suit akin to Mr Darcy out of Pride and Prejudice. His admission: "You have no idea how precocious I was back then" - he is one of the most sensible people I know!!! I got to bed late again that night...
Saturday was another lovely, sunny, crisp winter day. in the evening my parents came over at 6pm for a cup of tea before the three of us went to the church for a Christmas Concert. The choir was the Bournville Young Singers, and now I've got to write a press release on it. But basically it was a good evening. There was a really cute Training choir, made up of 4 years plus. Then the junior sang a few carols, then the senior girls. The senior boys were a big surprise. When I sang in choirs there was always a lack of boys willing to train and give up their time when they could have been playing football or watching telly. This choir is made up of volunteers who practice at a house in their spare time so it was quite an achivement to even have a male voice choir of teenagers. Not only that but they sang wonderfully. Finally the highlight was Vivaldi's Gloria. The soloists tackled the piece really well, even though they looked dead nervous, bless them. Overall it was a lovely night, and we all got to sing a few carols which is always good. I really need to sing a few more though. We sang Oh little town of Bethlehem, Ding dong merrily on high and a few more but there are still so many more to sing!!!

Catching up

This saturday was officially fun!

Me and Alex got our tree, an artificial one this time to last us a few years, and we decorated a bit, then I went to the hairdressers to get my hair done. Hang on to your hats chaps, I've got a fringe! It was the first time I'd got a fringe put in since I was 7 and tried to do it myself, evidence in the picture! That picture is of me and Lisa and the two Danielles, we got together at this lovely little restaurant called The Beeches in Hampton In Arden. It was a great night, hilarious because at first none of us could find the place! We all drove through H in A a few times before realising it was down this tiny road called Marsh Lane. Once there however the food was lovely, there was a good atmosphere and we had a great evening catching up.

While I was out Alex went round to Nathan and Laura's and got fed and looked after, and then they played playstation... bless them!

Don't know what's the matter with me though, despite sleeping loads this weekend I still can't shake off the tiredness... I'm getting old!

The run up to Christmas

It was Friday the 1st December and the next day was Christmas day... confused? This was my weekend...

Friday night me and Alex went on a date! We went to Cafe Rouge for a meal - Alex's treat! We really indulged ourselves, eating our way through 3 courses and finishing with a coffee liqouer, we both chose cointreau, yum! We headed home, next week we're meeting up to see Casino Royale at the Odeon, cool!

Saturday was a fun day. Me and Alex spent the morning resuing the house from a minor state of yukkiness, then Hannah drove over and we made our way to Oxford. We spent an early Christmas day with Sarah and John and Susie and Andy, James Lees, Emily and her very nice bloke, (who we were all dying to meet), and Sarah's sister Joanne. It was fab! John cooked a fabulous christmas dinner, we had two types of cake for pud, and we swapped secret santas. We listened to christmas songs and it really truly felt like December 25th!

We drove back a bit groggily on the sunday, and then I drove to Coventry for a lunch with my parents. It was really nice, we just chilled, went to Sainsbury's, and talked.

Then me and Alex spent the evening together, him groaning every time he moved (the normal effect of a game of football, every week these days! bless him.) By the way Moseley Town football club won 4-1 today, beating a team who'd only lost once before, yey!

Ahh, lovely weekends...