Aren't holidays brilliant? The answer is yes. What I am particularly liking about this holiday is that the harder I try to work, the Christmas goodwill does it's job and separates me further. This is not necessarily a Good Thing, but in terms of having a proper break, fate appears to be on my side.

Yesterday I was due to do some work. Instead I was fished out of bed at about 10.30am to do the annual family pre-chaos xmas shopping trip. Usually this means the delights of the marble/chav city of Merry Hill, however this year we got all upper-class and went to the Bullring. Six or seven hours later I had successfully bought just under two presents, bringing my Grand Total Of Presents for this year up to two, the other gift (previously acquired) being the cat's.

This does not bode well for my fellow family members, however I can rest assure at least they will have managed to get me all the stuff I want. Once again, fate may have a hand in my failure - after all the DVD present for Sister One's birthday (three weeks ago) never showed up. Perhaps someone up somewhere is saying "You really don't have to give anymore back to society, thanks for the effort so far" which can only be beneficial to my bank account (except the bastards charged me for the DVD. I detect a flaw in my logic).

Last night was occupied with social activities - namely catching up with James, then later on John and Mike. Darwus had come over to enlighten me of his plans for the following six months, which mostly involve being in somewhere near Michigan. Following this is his 'free time' and it looks like I'm going to be winging my way over to New Zealand for three weeks, then Oz for another three before heading back via Hong Kong or alternative destination. Sounds good to me. This will actually all depend on when I have to hand in essential pieces of coursework, and it looks like I will be spending my 21st birthday (my first birthday) out of the country. Mind you, it won't matter anyway as everyone else starts their exams on the hallowed day, so any party would consist of me and just me. Much better idea to delay it to when people haven't got anything better to do.

We headed to The Crispin for some catch up with the other two and James eventually dropped me back before heading home. Good news comes from OSH; the new Mr Goode and Mrs Goode are now expecting, and there was plenty of other scurrilous talk from the walls of our ex-school to keep the night interesting.

This morning I was awoken by my phone at half eleven (which later became half ten when I realised the clock in my room hadn't been put back - it only took me four days to notice). It was Pennell, who I had agreed to meet up with. This was the second part of my friends' attempts to sabotage any meaningful work effort, and we ended up in Merry Hill shopping for blenders and one or two other presents before being picked up by Sam. A tour of the Dowling household and some food later I was shipped back home in time for me to sit down and get on with something constructive (by this point I was guilt ridden). I've had two really good days, even if my original studious plans have suffered. Tonight I learned that I have a dentist appointment mid-morning tomorrow conspiring against my work ethic.

Oh, I've also been asked to do the OSH careers convention again this year. I'm actually quite enthusiastic this time, but this is maybe in part down to it taking place on a weeknight in the third week of semester two, which means any motivation I have for attending the event can be attributed to work-avoidance.

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