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The Christmas break has been pretty good so far! I am currently writing this from Phil’s parents’ house. We came down here after the carol service at Fordham on Christmas Eve. We had a pretty safe journey – it was well above freezing (well, above freezing anyway) so there was no ice to worry about. (The ice and snow has all gone now, don’t know what it’s like in Colchester but here it’s all clear).

Anyway. Quick overview of the time so far: Christmas Eve – we both took the day off, so we went over to Ipswich to exchange presents with my parents. In the evening we went to the “Carols by candlelight” service at Fordham, which was absolutely packed as per usual!

Christmas Day – spent the time with Phil’s parents and sister, went to church in the morning, and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

On Boxing day morning we went for a walk nearby with some more of Phil’s family. In the afternoon some family friends came round and we played silly games / had a sing song round the piano etc. The usual kind of stuff!

Yesterday we didn’t do very much, but in the evening we went round to Julie and Dave’s and had a nice evening there. Which included watching Top Gear – I really enjoyed the special! I think the Top Gear specials are my favourites. Can’t believe the most unreliable car in the world… turned out to be the most reliable. (Who saw that one coming?!)

Anyway, this afternoon we are going to see “War Horse” in London, I don’t know much about it but hopefully it will be good. The write-up looks good anyway.

Well, that’s all for now! We’re back in Colchester tomorrow, and then we’re off to see my family on Wednesday. That’s all from me for now. Hope all my loyal blog readers are having a good week!

And I wish you a very happy New Year.

(Don’t forget, if you’re around in Colchester and don’t have any plans – our place for a new year party type thing. Let me know if you can make it :))

On Thursday night last week it snowed pretty heavily. This meant that I wasn’t able to get into work on Friday, but I was able to do some work from home.

And we had another party on Friday night! Fortunately it didn’t involve driving so we were able to walk across town. We went round to Tom’s place for a Christmas ‘bash’, there were a whole bunch of people there and we had a whole lot of fun. This included drinking lots of mulled wine and eating lots of food (and I do mean, LOTS of food. There was enough to feed an army!)

So that was good. Then on Saturday we did a bit of shopping, present wrapping and the like. In the evening we watched “The Hangover”. I’d heard some good things about it from my colleagues. It was quite clever and well-written, but… I don’t think I really got the joke. I’m not sure whether it’s a difference between British and American humour, there just didn’t really seem to be any jokes in it! Kind of like “Wimbledon” (the film) – kind of amusing but it didn’t really make me laugh out loud.

Anyway. On Sunday we went to church twice – despite the snow! After our carol service in the evening – which was relatively well attended despite the poor weather – we went round to Jo’s for some tea.

Apart from all those things, I’ve been playing a fair amount of Red Alert 3: I ordered it last week, and it arrived on Friday. It’s got pretty poor reviews on Amazon, but I think there was a problem with DRM / Product Activation which made people give it bad reviews. Perhaps I went in with low expectations, but I’ve actually been really enjoying it. Someone said that it wasn’t as fast-paced as RA2, which I don’t quite see at the moment: it appears to be just as fast-paced in terms of the missions.

The graphics are decent, and I like with what they’ve done with the units. The only problem is, it is a bit complicated for my tiny brain. Each unit has an ‘alternate fire’ mode, for example, which I never use. (Although I probably should…) Oh, another minor problem: Apocalypse tanks can no longer defend themselves against air attack. I suppose the ability did make them a bit too powerful in RA2, but nonetheless it is annoying. You now have to remember to include Bullfrogs or MiGs into your attack force – not necessarily a bad thing I guess, just keeps catching me out! I do like, though, that there are more airborne and seabound units, and in fact several units are amphibious. The battle is much more ‘all across the map’, rather than just being fought purely on land like it was before. Even with Kirovs and Black Eagles / Harriers in RA2, air attack was pretty limited – and I don’t think anyone really used to battle on the sea, outside the missions.

Aaaanyway, the above is only my experience after playing through most of the Soviet campaign (there are three campaigns – Soviet, Allied, and Japanese). I’m really enjoying it so far, and look forward to completing the rest!

Just thought I’d better update before I forget everything that’s gone on at Christmas! On Christmas Eve we went to the carols by candlelight service at Fordham. It was absolutely packed! Around 300 people in the church – a church which has a seating capacity of about 150. We put out a whole load of additional chairs but there were still people standing at the back. It was lovely to see so many people there, though – and I think everyone enjoyed it. The music went well and Mike did a good talk.

Afterwards we went to Ipswich to stay with my parents for Christmas. We had a great time with my family, we played a few games and what have you – all the kinds of things you usually do at Christmas! And on Saturday we came back home after lunch, and as of yesterday we’ve been down at Phil’s parents.

So… in general, it’s been busy but great fun! My Mum got a webcam for Christmas which looks brilliant – we had a chat with my aunt in Australia using Skype. I might have to get one.

We’ve watched a fair bit of TV over Christmas too – haven’t seen the Doctor Who special yet (curse our Freeview recorder which didn’t record!) but we will catch up on the iPlayer soon. We also didn’t see Top Gear Vietnam special (we watched The 39 Steps instead), so another one to watch on the iPlayer. The new Wallace & Gromit was good but I didn’t think it was as good as the previous ones.

Aaaand, I think that’s pretty much up to date. That’s all from me for now!

… “I don’t know who she is, but she really packs ‘em in!”

So goes the old (cartoon) joke, where the above line is spoken looking at a poster outside a church for ‘Carol Singers’. I expect you can now guess what we were doing this weekend! On Friday evening we had a practice for the carol service on Sunday. Philippa was playing her clarinet in the music group, and we were both singing for one of the songs (properly, with like parts and everything!) I had one or two misgivings about singing the bass part (my voice doesn’t really go down that low) but with a bit of practice I just about managed to get there.

On Saturday we went into town to do a bit of shopping, and in the evening we drove over to Wivenhoe to meet up with Alex & Elisa and Dan & Alison. We went to Papas Fish & Chip shop for dinner (felt like we hadn’t been there for ages!) and then went to the Greyhound for a few drinks, a chat – and some darts! It was a really nice evening, now that Alex in particular is down in Kent it was good to be able to meet up and have a catch up.

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning for the Christingle service — I always worry a little that something or someone will catch fire from one of the candles, but mercifully there were no accidents! In the afternoon we went round to Jo’s flat for tea and mulled wine (Jo works at the university with Phil). Afterwards the three of us headed to Eight Ash Green for the carol service there. It seemed to go really well – everyone was quite cheerful at the end, and the music sounded good from where I was sitting at least (behind the musicians, unfortunately, in the choir stalls).

Afterwards we came back home and watched ‘Jersey Girl’ – the only Kevin Smith film at the moment which doesn’t have Jay and Silent Bob in it. I was actually very impressed with it – it wasn’t half as bad as all the reviews made out! I would recommend watching it even if you’re not a fan of Kevin Smith films. It was quite sentimental in places, but generally very good. Probably not ‘buy on DVD’ good (we recorded it on the Freeview box!) but well worth a watch.