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So Christmas has come and gone for another year.   Ended up being away from my parents for the first time ever (33 years - is that to be sad or proud of?).  Went instead to my partner's family gathering, though by the time the dust had settled and we hopped out of the car 1.5 hours north of Brisberg, there was just S and her Sis left.  Spats, grudges, last minute revelations stopped the mum coming.  Somehow I ended up cooking all the Christmas lunch (at 3pm), which was 8 little kebabs and 2 prawns each.  Then I sat with S's sis's husband and ate them for an hour alone, whilst the two sisters sat inside feeding babies, talking.  V different from the dinner i was used to.  As S said later, my pares set a high standard for Christmas dinner.  I had been talked out of making a potato salad as we were "bringing a (bought) cheesecake".  Wish I had, as the only salad was a little bowl of olive infested something.

But you can't judge a gathering just by the meal.   There was none of the hatred and infighting that these things are renound for.  Though with just two at the table this would have been a little difficult.  It all fitte dwell with the "scoring on Christmas morning horror".  Somehow S talked me out of the morning stash the night b4 and we had nil for the wakeup and drive north.  We were on the verge of a baby habit at this stage so it wasn't a simple choice of having it the night b4 or the morning after....since we'd had it the night b4, it had to be replaced the next morning or it'd be a sick day.  I forget how we got back here from the days of going to the gym and walks in the forest six months ago....Anyway, I did the beg-for-tick routine on Christmas morning and succeeded, which wasn't that hard at the time as I earned good money and I wasn't a raving junkie loony by this stage.  But it killed Christmas for me.  After eating the meagre fare pretty much alone I crawled into a shed and read a book for nigh on 20 hours without talking to any humes.  I guess it came across as rude but I felt they hadn't given a damn about the lunch so I didn't give a damn about being a model guest.  Childish I guess but the next night at the proper dinner at my parents I was reminded what could happen at a dinner.  Plate after plate after plate till we could eat no more.  And all high quality food - salads, devilled eggs, ham, rumballs, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake.

Received "3 stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" by P K Dick from S, a subscription to Interzone from my pares, the annual stamp album, a towel, a cutting plate of glass etc etc.  Gave iPod to Sim.  Glad it's over.  Back to work now, K & S4 back from north tomorrow morning, ah well life goes on.  Wrote a short story about the kid dying on a motorbike in Cambodia 1992 yesterday.  Wrote it after reading "The Idiot" by Doev... where he describes an execution scene, so there was my motivation I guess....

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