I hope you are all having a jolly festive time! I had a great day on Christmas day yesterday. We got up at about 10am to open our presents (a little later than intended but we were up until 3am wrapping presents and setting the table for Christmas dinner).
Both mum and dad had neglected to get each other presents as they’d spent so much on everyone else first so i offered to get what they wanted if they told me as I was going into town anyway to get some odds and ends.
They both said no at first – mum got herself a cooking pot and dad picked up a wooly hat while we were food shopping – but later mum asked me to get dad a box of chocolates. So I went into town and I got the chocolates but I also got him the Best of Savage Garden album as he’d said before he wanted that. Then, so that dad didn’t feel bad, I got mum Sarah Jessica Parker’s perfume Lovely (I think that’s what it’s called). It’s just a little bottle – I probably spent about £20 on each of them – but atleast they each had something to open.
Mum and dad got me a beard trimmer for Christmas, lol. I think they’re hinting that I lose the King Kong look. I tried it this morning on the highest setting so I’m left with a nice, even hairy jaw, lol. I’m undecided wether to keep it like that and just keep grooming it or wether to shave it all off. I might put it on the lowest setting tomorrow and shave it all off. I like the hairy caterpillar under my nose too though (moustache) and it looks daft without the beard to match so I don’t know.
They also got me Playstation 2 games – The Matrix: Path of Neo and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. I’ve only tried Path of Neo so far although the Call of Duty was top of my wanted list. PoN was a little rough around the edges in the beginning – the virtual rendition of the bit where Neo touches the mirror looks rubbish – but once I got into the gameplay it’s pretty good. There’s lots of moves (I keep getting more all the time) and I seem to have alot more control over the moves I perform than I did when I played Enter The Matrix. It looks damn cool too – cartwheeling over people, running along walls, fighting with all kinds of melee weapons etc. It loosely follows the films – there’s lots of training missions that aren’t in the film at all (a forest, cave system etc) – but plenty of bad guys to fight and when you’re outnumbered 6 on 1 and are kicking ass it rocks!
I got as far as the Storming The Drain level – basically it’s a continuation of the bit where Trinity, Neo, Apoch and Switch(?) escape into the sewer after Cypher doublecrosses them (Morpheus is in the bathroom fighting Agent Smith) – you don’t see where they go after jumping down the drain so that’s what this level is about.
I’ve actually completed alot of levels in a short period of time – about 8 levels I think – but the problem is my memory card is full and I have better things to spend my money on than £20 for a new one, so now that I’ve just turned the PS2 off to type this blog, i’ll have to do those missions all over again, lol. I might check online for a cheaper memory card later or just wait until after New Year. You can buy a game for £20 though, so it’s a rip-off for a memory card!
My sister and her fiance got me a manicure set thing – travel toothbrush, tweezers, nail clippers, a comb and a fabric comb – it’s actually really good and will be useful for the trips to London/York.
My brother and his gf got me a printer! I know, it’s shocking I haven’t gotten myself one before now but I just never got round to it. It will be very useful though – I want to print off and frame some pictures (My brother has done the same with Winnie The Pooh pictures, lol) and there’s always some tutorial/article I want to print off but can’t unless I use dad’s pc and printer.
Soul promised me a drawing (He does lots of surreal drawings and has a back-catalog of over a hundred) so he did one for me – it’s not a surreal one this time, it’s actually a portrait drawing of me. It’s really good. He framed it too so I’m going to put it up on my wall. He also got me the Scissor Sister’s album incase I hated the picture, but I don’t.
My friend Fe got me KT Tunstall’s album too – I told Soul I was interested in getting it so he must’ve passed the message on.
Falling got me a warm red scarf. A bookmark with the engraving: “Go confidently into the direction of your dreams” by Henry Thoreau. The Earthsea books by Ursula Le Guin – I already have A Wizard of Earthsea so she got em the other 3 in the quartet and another one I didn’t realise existed. I know nothing about these books but A Wizard of Earthsea is one of my all-time favourite fantasy books so I’m looking forward to reading them. She also got me a couple of Anime dvds – Metroplois and Akira. I’ll keep them for New Year so Falling and I can watch them together=)
All in all, I did very well this Christmas. It’s really sad that Christmas has been built up into such a commercial thing and that we have to give enough material things to make people happy, but I know all these gifts were given with love, as were the ones I gave. At the end of the day, it’s the thought that counts and I’m very grateful for my presents but the intention behind them is what’s more important=)
I had a nice Christmas dinner with my mum, dad, my brother and his gf, and a friend of the family. We played the dvd board game Scene It and all had a go on the karaoke – my brother caught me on film singing With or Without You by U2 *groans*
I got off lightly after my partying – I was sick this morning but I think that was all the peanuts I ate rather than the alcohol I drank. I did manage to drink more than normal though, and keep a clear head, which I think is because I was eating throughout the night so it would’ve soaked up some of the alcohol. I’m just really tired today.
I’m going to try Call of Duty 2 now and watch some more of Firefly. Have a good one=)
