Canape

Last night was funny, really funny. Well no, it was a funny week in general, with two Christmas parties. Well no, it wasn't that either. One was actually a birthday party. Well, neither was it. I mean, yes, it was, but the person who turned wasn't there. Well, she wasn't because she died long time ago. Well, look, I'm starting from the beginning because I'm all screwed up.

I was invited to a party on Wednesday 12th at Nico's, one of my friends here. It was very funny and he lives in a cool house one minute away from my place, on 12 Holland st. We celebrated Anna from Holland's 433rd birthday, which was on December 12th (12-12th). And the party was in 12 Holland st. You get it? Every reasons are good enough to celebrate a party and as the housemate Chris said during a short speech: "Anna from Holland means a lot and has been a very important person in our lives since we knew first about her two weeks ago on Wikipedia". Nico and his housemates provided nibbles and booze and all the guests had to bring it was a toy for children between 0-16 which would be donated to XXXXX supermarket Christmas appeal for the poorest people (is not fair to advertise... ok, ok, it was the Co-op). Besides, I contributed to the party a plate of spanish ham.

Food, drinks, fun, music, people... Everything was excellent. I met new people and, as it uses to happen in this town, one never knows what the fascinating answer can be to questions like "where are you from?" and "what do you do in Oxford?". You can meet whatever and whatever can meet you. I also enjoyed a lot chatting with Lars because we had tried to meet lately but it never was a good moment for one of us two, and meet again some Nico's friends from Wolfson College. I felt specially happy because those people that I like took side next to the ham and they ate nearly all of it.

And what I had yesterday was the company's Christmas party. They rent a small hotel few miles away from Oxford and we have there a couple of halls, the bar and dance-floor, nibbles, drinks... And plenty of crackers, of course. You may have seen them in some Christmas episode of Mr. Bean and didn't know what they were for. They're a tube made of cardboard from which ends two people have to pull and one of them gets a tiny gift, a paper crown that has put on and a label with a joke that has to tell. The jokes are awful, by the way. They also have a small firecracker that explodes when the two people pull. I've searched for examples on Youtube but I haven't liked any of them. That one that showed better how it works, also showed a... 7 years?... old girl wearing just knickers and I didn't find it suitable to post here.

It was good: I talked to people who I don't use to talk to normally, I talked to people who I use to talk to but about subjects I don't use to talk about with them, I met people who have left the company but they came to the party anyway and I laughed a lot over all (honourable mention here to Renata, Sergio and Toni, from Portugal). It was strange to see some people dressed up like "civil people", as I'm used to see them with mud up to their ears. The bad thing about these parties is that they end very early...

But the week hasn't been only binge and party. The tuesday was a very long day because I went back to Woolwich Arsenal. I woke up early in order to take the train and I spent the day going up and downstairs and climbing scaffolding. Once I finished the work, as I had to go across London to come back, I decided to go for a walk between Picadilly, Soho and Oxford street. This is one of the shopping areas in London, so it was jam-packed with Christmas shoppers: what a shight! There was so many people trying to get into the tube station at Oxford Circus that the street was all blocked: it was impossible to walk, literally. I decided to go walking to Picadilly station and I did well because there were no people there. I got home late and really tired after so long working and walking. Besides, I wore the steal-toe boots the whole day (very hard, really bad to use from 6:30 to 22:00) because I carried so much stuff for work in my backpack (camera, folders, sandwich, water and the obligatory gloves, hard hat, protective glasses and hi-vi vest) that I gave the comfortable shoes a miss. I seize on and bought there the toy for Nico's party.

And I was thinking about what I'm going to ask Santa Claus to bring me this year. And I finally have thought that I don't want him to bring me anything; I want him to carry me. To carry me back home next thursday.