Ahhh, Christmas at home. The drive up from Watford was a piece of p*ss. There was hardly any traffic, and despite stopping 3 times we made it to Northumberland in 6 hours. The only problem was that somewhere near Scotch Corner I developed a cold. This meant that I had to give up on driving as I could no longer keep my eyes open. I was then ill until boxing day. We arrived in good time though, and I was able to have a proper rest. The bairn got quite excited when he saw his grandma and we got a nice big feed!   We went to my Mam's on Christmas day, for the first time since I was 21. It was canny, and even grumpy grandad enjoyed it! He asked whether we would be going for dinner there again next year... Alternate from now on. I went to the match on Boxing Day. Met my mate in Idols with his boss. Some things never change. The last time I was in there was Derby day 2003, it was almost identical! I had a few drinks up Hylton Road after the game, before ending the night with a drink in my old local, the Royalty. I didn't do much else until the Saturday, when due to family committments I missed the match. Went to a baby infested family party instead. Didn't drink, ate some chilli and some cheesecake. Went home. My Mam bought me A Question Of Sport on DVD for my birthday. It turns out that I'm rubbish at the picture round. New Years Eve played more QOS, Spot the Intro and brought the New Year in by finishing last at Pictionary.

On Monday I returned to Watford, a year older. I left the family at home with parents/grandparent(delete as applicable) and am now sttruggling to think of things to do when I'm at home. Currently these "activities" have been limited to surfing the internet and playing computer games. Work, obviously believe this games at home thing is good and bought me £20 worth of Game gift card. I don't know what to spend it on, although I do have 180 days to choose - before the gift card expires. I had a look in Game and considered Canis Canem Edit and Liberty City stories. I'm not that arsed about either really. I seem to have acquired a load of games which I've never really bothered with for one reason or another. Ico, Metroid, Zelda Majora's Mask, Beyond Good and Evil, Half Life.. the list goes on. The main problem with these games is that (with the probably exception of Half Life) they take a lot of time and you can't just have a quick blast, so I end up playing Pro Evo. I think Metroid and Majora's mask would've had more game time if the Game Cube wasn't in the cupboard. Still, I'll go and buy something this weekend.

I've had the good fortune to have 2 games of football since coming back. Both defeats, but that's football. Tuesday night was a surprisingly competetive game against the lads who usually play on the pitch next to us. Due to a "staffing" mixup we ended up with one player fewer than them, but it was quite a close game still. But for some wayward finishing and a dodgy long ball game based on us having a rush goalie I think we would've won comfortably. Last night was our first venture into the world of Power League. It's quicker than the 5 aside we'd been playing in the Pitch Invasion leagues as there are no throwins and I think it took us about 10 minutes to get used to the game (We were so well prepared that we didn't have a ball to warm up with) and we were 5 - 0 down very quickly. As the game wore on we found our feet a gradually fought back. I think the opposition had a couple of better individual players than we did, but after 3 years of playing together we're not too bad a team. We got it back to 16-14, at least partly due to the opposition not putting in quiote as much effort in the second half and partly due to the 5 of us working our socks off... I scored a "great goal"* with the last kick of the match. Think Parlour in the FA Cup final against Chelsea a few years back, only this one was in a 5 aside goal, possibly further out and scored by someone wearing a wooly hat

Some random excuses for our defeat:

We had 5 & they had 8

Our goalie didn't turn up as he was sick

It was our first game

*quote taken from opposition goalie

Now I'm up to date, and wondering what to do tonight. Tonight starts in a couple of minutes actually. I think I'll go...