Wednesday Dec 24. X-mas eve. Still recovering from Japanese drinks and dinner the night before. Survived the working day in a state of permanent ouch. Luckily there was a company get-together at 3pm where everyone could pick up their X-mas giftbox from our lady director herself. I packed all 300, so it was no surprise to me what was in them ;) At least it gave me an excuse to crawl away in a dark corner with an orange juice watching time creep by. An hour later I received a message that made me forget about my hangover: my laptop and scanner finally arrived! I took my time inspecting everything and signing the papers so that it was time to go home by the time I put everything back in the boxes. Home at 6pm, and time to pack my bag to spend a few nights at mom & dad's. Got there at 11.30pm, mom was already in bed by then. Showed off my laptop to dad, then went to bed.

Thursday Dec 25th. X-mas day. Helped mom with the final preparations for the family dinner. At 11 am our guests showed up: grandma, aunt & uncle. Granddad had to stay home with a fever. Time flew by as we served dinner in a casual pace (30 mins between each course) and retold memories of 'when we were young'. Turned out that dad had a little surprise for me and my brother: He found out that a friend of him could copy old videos to DVD. So.... we now have a DVD at home with ALL the BLOODY, HUMILIATING, GUTWRENCHINGLY CUTE videos of little Robbie in the snow, Robbie chasing the dog, Robbie coming home in tears 'cos his bike fell into a bush of stinging nettles. AARGH! Nothing makes me feel so embarrassed as having to watch my own childhood filmed by my parents. After 45 minutes of pure agony, I convinced everyone that it would be more fun to watch Finding Nemo, which we did. At that time, the guests had to go, leaving me with cash and a bottle of "Gabriela Sabatini Wild Wind eau de toilette for men". We cleaned up the mess we made during dinner (mmmm stuffed turkey), then the four of us (mom, dad, bro and me) sat down and watched Babe. Not Ruth. Babe, the sheeppig.

Friday Dec 26th. Boxing day. A very lazy day. Read a few hundred pages of the Icewind Dale Trilogy, got told off by mom for not taking proper care of my clothes, had salmon that night.

Saturday Dec 27th. Drove back home, fooled around with my laptop, bought a Bluetooth plug for my PC and did another radioshow that night, with bander, hiryu and thaily constantly requesting songs (Insane Clown Posse! Lords of Acid!). They had to settle for Queen and Tracy Bonham though :D

Sunday Dec 28th. An afternoon with chips, dips, games and Happy Tree Friends. Thanks to jonesybunny, thaily, hiryu, bander, joseb and skunktaur for all the fun and games. Beware the undead potted plant when you're necrophobic!

Monday Dec 29th. Work. Before I knew it, I was dragged into all kinds of chores again, from filling party bags for the New Year's Eve party to making curtains fireproof. Almost worked a full circle (from 9am to 8.30 pm). Roomie Martin's car was broken into, CDs, audiospeakers and a jacket stolen. This was in a parking garage for crying out loud! Rick and Martin decided to rent a few DVD's with their friends Florian and Gerben. Wasn't in the mood for direct-to-video crap that they have in the video-stores these days, so locked myself in my room and played some Dungeon Siege 'til it was time for bed. First had to find my bed underneath the "Clean-but-not-ironed-yet clothes'.

Tuesday Dec 30th. Today. More work, more interruptions, being sent to the photostore to pick up things for the hotel, then having to collect 25 massive rolls of plastic from a DIY store. I don't mind helping out, but if this goes on for another few weeks, I'm gonna have a serious talk with bossman. I'm not his delivery boy. How am I supposed to finish my own stuff if I am sent to do another chore every day?

Tomorrow: HOPEFULLY I'll be finished on time. 2.5 hour drive to Maastricht, eat Mexican food, celebrate New Years Eve with a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne in my old hangout: The Shamrock.

Thursday: Recovering from another hangover probably

Friday: Supposed to be working, but I'm gonna ask if I can have an extra day off. Don't wanna have to drive back to work for 2.5 hours, since I'm expected back in Maastricht that night for a LAN weekend.......