Gangs All Here

'The Gang' has a Christmas Tradition.

No matter how busy the year has been or where we are in the world, we always meet for dinner the last weekend before christmas.

It is not the usual Christmas dinner; there's not a single stuffed Turkey insight.  But the table is laden with Indian Curries and all the trimmings like poppadoms, chutneys, onion bhaji's, naan breads, multicoloured Pilau rice and chips.

It is always great to catch up.  We all have so much going on throughout the year.

This year I had my knee op, my sisters multiple weddings and my 6 month stint in New York.

Ali also spent the year in the USA.  Mainly on the east coast and has also met her new man, Colin.

Lou and Brett have been busy planning for their upcoming wedding nuptials.

Col and Kevin have been doing up their house, which looks stunning with all the christmas festivities.  They too are engaged.

Matt and Zoe have gotten hitched this year and have just got back from their honeymoon looking nicely tanned.

I wonder what 2012 will bring.
Merry Christmas everyone.

It's Just A Game!

Monopoly is one of those games that is like Marmite; you either love it or hate it.  I love it!

I remember the 1st time I ever played it; with my aunts and uncles at my grandparents house till the early hours in the morning (I was about 8 so it felt like the early hours, although in reality it was probably 10pm).

I also remember the Christmas when I opened my present from Santa to realise he had gotten me my very own game.

In the past it has caused many arguments with my sister, to the point where she will no longer play the game with me. To this very day, I only have to mention the word 'Monopoly' and she gets this stony look on her face.

So whenever the opportunity arises to play, I'm there. Today it was me against Marc and Zoe. Who are both seasoned players, which is refreshing as you don't have to explain the rules and more importantly it is more competitive, which makes for a more interesting game.

The game started off well and I had the luck of the dice to buy a lot of property before the others.  The thrill of collecting money from others is always exhilarating and very satisfying, but unfortunately short lived; I ended up with little cash to build up my property.  A problem in this game if you want to have any chance of winning.  Much to my annoyance I ended up losing.  Grrr!!

The dark horse of the game was Zoe.  Having made me bankrupt, she ended up with all my property, leaving Marc in a dire situation.  It was only a matter of minutes before Zoe won the game, leaving Marc bankrupt.

'Cattle' Class

Whenever I fly via a budget airline, I always feel like cattle; being herded from one area to the next.   If you listen very carefully, you can practically here people 'moo-ing' as they push, shove and scramble to get to the front of the queue.  And why? To get a good seat on the plane and to be able to get your carry-on's into the overhead lockers before they get too full.

The priority queue, which you can pay a whole extra £6 for, can help.   But when you are in a foreign country that doesn't have queueing quite down to an art like us Brits, it kind of doesn't make any difference if the staff don't regulate it very well.  You end up finding those odd few who sneak into the wrong queue when the staff aren't looking.

Then you have the chaos which is getting on the bus; if you are unfortunate enough not to be able to walk to your plane.  The bus is segregated via a barrier, to enable priority class to get onto the plane quicker.  But if the driver allows everyone to get off at once, it becomes a free for all instead.

Finding the best seats available causes much amusement.  The plane usually has several rows that they like to keep empty in order to maintain the planes balance during take off and landing.  It's very amusing to watch the number of people that try to get into those seats, even if they are last on the plane.  Surely it is too good to be true to have these seats still remaining when you are last on!

Landing is my favourite part.  The fanfare that you get at the end to say it is on time and the applause is very cheesy.  But when it is not on time, as was the case when I flew back from Poland, there was nothing.  I think they should have a different fanfare, like a wah wah wah to signify the end of the journey.

Bah-Humbug! or Festive Cheer?

Bah-Humbug! It's needless to say that Christmas is my least favourite holiday.  For me Christmas Day is filled with incessant TV watching and being bored witless.  And I think I resent the fact that I have to waste valuable holiday doing that.

Admittedly from a child's eye, Christmas can be magical.  Receiving presents from a fat bearded fellow dressed in red, who rides a carriage pulled by flying reindeers to deliver toys, does sound pretty amazing.  But for me it is a dull day, with the saving grace of a food coma, from stuffing my face with Roast Turkey & Brussel Sprouts.

The one thing I do like are the Christmas Markets.  There is something mysterious and magical about them.  They always turn up in these wooden huts from 1st Dec to just before Christmas selling all sorts of arts and crafts.  But where do they come from and where do they go once the holiday season has ended? 

Work has me travelling to Wroclaw, Poland this week.  Poland isn't really a place you would think of going to for a Christmas Market, but it is here, in the middle of Wroclaw's Market Square.  It's not your traditional German Christmas Market.  Gluwein for a start is missing.  But it does provide some warmth about the festive season approaching.

I was hoping to find my Secret Santa present at this market today, for which I have a limit of £5 to spend on a gift.  But unfortunately I have come away empty handed.  Everything is £15 plus.  I think I am just going to have to be creative this year.

I hope you all have better luck in finding gifts for people.

Merry Christmas.

Oompa Loompas

When I was a little girl one of my favourite books was Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I wanted a golden egg, I wanted to take a swim in a river of liquid chocolate, I wanted to play in an edible sweet garden.  And most importantly, like Veruca Salt, I wanted my very own Oompa Loompa!

Many years later, I now find myself working for a company that makes chocolate.  When I first walked through the doors I was half hoping that I would be greeted by an Oompa Loompa.  But unfortunately no such thing exists.  I apologise if this ruins the magic for you (I hope it's not like I've just told you that there is no such thing as Santa!)

But I've just thought, if I now work in chocolate, does that make me an Oompa Loompa?  Hmm, I don't think I can pull off green hair.  But I think singing Oompa Loompa songs shouldn't be too difficult.

Augustus Gloop / Augustus Gloop / The great big greedy Nincompoop / Augustus Gloop, so big and vile, so greedy foul and infantile / Come on, we cry, the time is ripe to send him shooting up the pipe / But don't, dear children be alarmed, Augustus Gloop will not be harmed, Augustus Gloop will not be harmed / Although of course we must admit, he will be altered quite a bit / Slowly wheels go round and round, and cogs begin to grind and pound / This greedy brute, this louces ear, is loved by people everywhere, for who could hate or bare a grudge against a luscious bit of fudge?

Nim'd It!

"Nim'd it!" is an expression commonly used amongst friends and family.  It's an expression that you won't find in any dictionary or thesaurus, but if more and more people keep using it, then one day you may find it in there.

The expression was first used at work many years ago.  Sat tasting coffee as the day often started out, I was in the middle of a product evaluation on the computer.  As I got up to discard my cup of coffee, I knocked it over & managed to spill the coffee on to the worktop, just missing the computer I was working on.

Five minutes later after evaluating another cup, I managed to do it again, only this time the computer wasn't so lucky.  RIP.

Since then any act of clumsiness has been referred to as "Nim'd It!".

I have to say in all honesty I haven't Nim'd it for awhile... until last night...maybe it was overdue...

Last night I went to my friend Gael's place for dinner and a catch up.  He has 2 cats, of which I was playing with one; Winnie.  We were playing with a bauble off the christmas tree.  I went to fling the bauble for her to chase, but in mid-fling, I managed to catch the bottom of my arm on a glass full of coke and ended up knocking it over.  The drink fell not only on the carpet, but on a Nintendo DS, a mobile phone and on top of a 600 year old book.

It felt like we were moving in slow motion, but as soon as the glass landed there was a mad dash to the kitchen to get copious amounts of paper towels to mop up the mess.

Luckily for me, the Nintendo and the mobile phone didn't suffer too much and were operational once dry.  But the 600 year old book suffered a bit at the edges.  I just hope the coke stains can be mistaken for the book being old.  

Let's hope that's the last "Nim'd It!" for a while...

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

It is not everyday that you get inspired by something or someone, least of all on 9/11.  Especially as this year was the 10th anniversary since the horrific and tragic attack on the twin towers.

9/11 Memorial

But it did happen for me...

The Freedom Tower

The girls are a bunch of 20-30 year olds all like minded in spirit and all wanting to have fun and do things like shopping, have brunch, have dinner... basically anything girlie goes.

Starting from the left: Janina, Matt, Deborah, Ruth, Me, Elaine, Steph, Viv

I met the girls through an internet site called 'Meet Up'.  The site is made up of 100,000 groups.  Of which the 'Fabulous Girlfriends in New York' is one of them and is the 'Meet Up' group that I use to form my social circle in New York.

Me and Pam

As with most big groups, you always find that there are a couple of people that you form closer friendships with, more than others.  This is Ruth and Mer for me.  

Meredith and Ruth

Both girls are great and for different reasons; Ruth and I both arrived in NYC within a week of each other and have a weakness for all things Marc Jacobs.  With Mer, it was the love for cinema and her love of cats and traveling.

The girls at halloween, NYC, 2011

Last weekend was my farewell weekend as I was leaving NYC to go back to the UK.  Mer and Ruth booked my whole last weekend and filled it with a party, shopping in the West Village, a trip to the Designer Resale, a make-over at Bobby Brown and lots of eating at amazing places, like Artisinal, and to say the least, lots of girlie chats and laughs.  Could a girl ask for more?

Melissa, Ruth, Me, Courtney

I could have probably done without the really high heeled shoes that Ruth persuaded me into buying, that had me stumbling across the cobbled stones outside Grand Central Station and had me falling flat on my face.  But hey, the night wouldn't have been complete without me making a fool of myself.

Lisa, Courtney, Deborah

You may wonder where this is going and what this has to do with 9/11.  Well on 9/11 I received an e-mail from the CEO of 'Meet Up' and it was where I learned that it all started from 9/11; through the witness of people being brought closer together by the tragic events, rather than it causing more distrust in one another.  It is very rare that something positive comes out of something so tragic.

Mary, Ruth, Me and John at my first wine tasting

And as I look back over the past 6 months, 'Meet Up' was a big part of my life in NYC.  So thank you 'Meet Up', as without you, perhaps I wouldn't have met Ruth and Mer, perhaps I wouldn't have had the great social life and fun times that I would have had over the past 6 months.

Mary and Ruth on the Zephyr