What a nice way to start Christmas. First my debit card is being declined everywhere despite having "lots" of money in the account, leaving me with very little money for the holidays, and then I wake up on my first day off to a very sore throat which eventually leads me to believe I have a cold. So, after three feverish days with coughing and sneezing and general unwell-being, I am back at work and my head feels like a complete vacuum. At least the sore throat is gone. Well, the throat is still there, but it doesn't hurt anymore. Yesterday was fun, in an irate way. The lift, once again out of order (having been so for five days already had prepared me for an interesting day), did not help me the least as I went to go grocery shopping for Christmas. Wearing my rucksack filled with goods from the local supermarket, I began the ascension to the 10th floor, my throat threatening me with a lawsuit if I went past third floor and my sweat glands not sure what to do about my fever. But I made it in the end and almost collapsed on the floor before getting a grip and put the food into the fridge.

Forgot buying onions, of course, so will have to stop by a shop today as well. And I thought I'd planned every minute detail.

Also forgot to tell you that I went to see The Holiday, which was surprisingly good (it starring Jude Law and all - his appearance quite often ruins the whole film for me, but not this time), and the other day we watched the whole first series of Waiting for God in one go. I've missed that series, it seems. Also, Daniel Hill never appears in anything (but silly commercials).

And I built myself a brand new computer the other day. Shh, don't tell anyone. It even works...ish. It would have worked so much better if I'd actually had the newest version of Windows. So now I am eagerly awaiting the announced 30 January release of Windows Vista. Hopefully I will be able to afford it. Since I received a very surprising Christmas bonus at work (surprising in that I didn't expect one), I think that should be possible. Until then I will have to play a very nice-looking Oblivion with no sound; all the other new games I have won't work as I have no drivers for my Windows version. Haha, must remember to read the fine print.

Actually, I am just amazed I managed to build the darn thing. It took me a lot longer than first expected (and a few extra trips up and down the ten flights of stairs with my sore throat in order to buy tools from Maplin), but at 21:20 I plugged it in and hoped for the best. And the bloody thing actually worked. The graphics are quite stunning and this is definitely a computer which will last at least a couple of years, considering the fact that it is compatible with the not-yet-released DirectX 10, and also I managed to buy a motherboard which can take at least one major upgrade before I have to buy a new one.

So apparently Playstation 3 will not enter my house in a long while. Wii will, however, at least I believe it will.

I no longer have a computer on which to play my old games, though. Will have to look into that. I kept the old parts, of course, and should be able to build a Windows 98 machine from those, when I have the space (which will only happen by magic in the flat where I live at present - good thing Harry Potter is still around).

Looking forward to Christmas lunch. Have stocked up on all sorts of goodies and am expecting a one-woman-feast, apparently. The sad part is, I'll probably finish everything within 30 minutes after having spent a good five hours preparing it. Oh, well. A vely melly Chlistmas to you all, though, no matter how and whether you actually celebrate it or not.

Labels: Christmas, computers, daniel hill, film, food, gaming, illness, TV