I was going to write something really exciting this afternoon, but we’ve just been for our team Christmas lunch (at Koreana). It took two and a half hours and we’re all stuffed to the gills and drifting off to sleep at hour desks as we digest enormous amounts of oriental goodness.
Wake me up when it’s time to go home….
So, there I was in Oddbins on my way home, chatting to the girl behind the counter. She asked what I had on my iPod, and I replied that I was listening to Asian Kung-fu Generation, a CD picked up whilst visiting my brother in Tokyo.
“Oh yes? What’s he doing there?”, she said
“He teaches English, and gets paid very well for it by all accounts.”
“Cool. I had a friend that did that for a while, too. She’s back now, though.”
“Awesome. My brother’s still there and loving it, so far as I can tell.” – and by this point I’d got my change so I said goodbye and left.
About five minutes later I remembered that one of the people I’d met (for “met”, read “gone to a karaoke place and got horribly drunk with and sung bad songs until the early hours of the morning with”) there was a friend of my brothers – also an English teacher, who also lived in Chorlton when she lived in England, and apparently was now living in England again. Of course, by now it was far too late to go back and find out if it was the same person or not, but, y’know, it could very well be.
Of course, the only way I can find out now is by going back into Oddbins on the offchance the same girl is working there so I can ask. So, yes. I’m not an alcoholic. It’s just rude to go into a shop and not buy anything. Right? Right.
It maybe says something about the relationship between Naomi and me that when I mentioned the “Cute Overload” website that I posted about the other day and said it was the best website ever and stuff, she went all thin lipped and glarey, because she assumed that by “cute” it meant “fit girls”, not “small fluffy animals that make you go ‘awwww’.”
My sources tell me that it’s only about a week and a half until Christmas. I must admit this news came as something of a surprise to me. Okay, I’ll concede that the Christmas lights on Deansgate and the Christmas Markets in St Ann’s Square and the Christmas tree in the office and the company Christmas Party and the Christmas music on the radio and the singing Santa on AlanH’s desk and the Christmas coffee in Starbucks and the church carol service and all the rest should probably have tipped me off, but, in my defence, Christmas seems to start in about July or something these days so when I see Christmas lights and markets and trees and coffee, my brain goes “Oh, it must be about October” and then ignores them.
I’ve done, like, one bit of Christmas shopping so far. Even though I work in the city centre, I’ve not managed to summon up the energy to fight through the crowds and buy something thoughtful, wonderful and exciting for my nearest and dearest. Every day, I wake up and think, “I should buy Christmas presents for people in my lunch hour today”. And then 12:30pm rolls around and I’m in the middle of something so I dash out to Suburb to buy a Burrito Grande and a coffee whilst my code is compiling and return to my desk and keep working. And then I get home in the evening and realise I’ve still not bought anything.
It was okay whilst I was at school or University or whatever – term ended well before Christmas so you usually had a week or so to get in the Christmas spirit before Christmas day itself. In the big ol’ world of work, you work up until Christmas Eve and then, bam, it’s Christmas the next day and you’re kind of dazed and confused and just about get used to it being Christmas and then you’re back at work…
Anyway, I’m rambling now, and my compile has finished, so I’d better get back to work. If anyone’s got any suggestions as to what I can buy my girlfriend for Christmas, please leave a comment. I’m getting kind of desperate for ideas now.
Much to Naomi’s disdain, I have something of an affection for Eastern religion and philosophy: it’s not necessarily the actual beliefs that intruige me; more the patterns of thought involved and, in particular, the emphasis the individual having to work things out for themselves rather than just being told that “[x] is the truth, believe it”. As such, I find this collection of Zen Koans very interesting – a koan is an enigmatic or paradoxical question or statement that cannot be understood rationally or logically, and is designed to develop a student’s intuition.
For geekier people, there are other collections of koans that may be of interest: The Tao of Programming, AI Koans and Functional Programming Koans. These may not be entirely serious 🙂
If you really were Orange, you’d know what my account number was and when it expired and wouldn’t have to have asked me. I am not so easily fooled by your lies. Please take your “special offer upgrades” and stick it up your arse.
Love and hugs,
Chris
Meant to post this earlier but didn’t get round to it. We had our office Christmas party on Thursday – usual alcohol-fuelled hijinks ensued, including a limbo competition (no, of course I didn’t enter – I’ve already got an iPod, anyway) and, more excitingly, the giving of the Secret Santa presents. I got one of these:
It’s a “Horny Devil Bag”. You squeeze it, and it says “I’m a horny little devil” or “I’m a bag – I’m a horn bag” (sadly, it doesn’t say the latter phrase in a hideous female Australian accent, otherwise it would be much, much cooler). It’s really quite annoying.
The person who got me this either knows me very well indeed, or doesn’t know me at all. And I can’t work out which it is.
The people over at Ship of Fools have put together their gift suggestions for this Christmas. I’m particularly taken by the, uh, slightly unusual Christmas lights. The mirror is, frankly, a bit creepy, though.
I know we won the cricket and all that and I was very excited, but if Ellen MacArthur doesn’t win this, then there is no justice in the world.