So long Viruses...Hello Holidays

So, where to begin with SUCH a huge gap in between posts? Yep, you've guessed it, my new year's resolution (well one of them) is to keep up blogging. I have let many opportunities pass whereby I could have brightened up your days with my monotonous accounts of daily life, making yours seem all the better...but alas, the main reason for this absence? Idleness. I just couldn't be bothered. So there, I've admitted it, I simply had better things to do. Well, it was Christmas after all, and if you're anything like me (God forbid there's more than one of me, for your sake) you'll have spent the last 6 weeks shopping, spending, packing, wrapping, decorating, erecting (trees and the like, that is), writing, stamping, posting and cooking. So, where do you think the usual things that take up my time went? Like, cleaning, cooking, preparing dishes that don't involve smoked salmon, washing, ironing, socialising, blogging, cleaning, and...oh you see, there it was, blogging. Well, needless to say, it got mixed up with all the other crap that is now sitting in a huge pile in need of attendance. So, I'm working my way through....forgive me.

With reference to the title, the virus part is one to reflect upon. Hmmm, 'virus', not a very nice word in itself, therefore truly befitting given the nature of how it affected my December. 1st off, 3rd of December, in true 'Winter has struck' style, I sneezed and it wasn't hay fever related. So there it was, my first cold since April. Not bad, and hardly something to complain about, most would say, but I do suffer from hay fever for 5 out of 12 months of the year, so a break is necessary just to allow my poor nose to recover. It didn't last long though, this cold, so I was relatively happy, I still took a Benelyn-Day though, that advert is certainly catching. Everything was relatively on track, my presents were mostly bought and wrapped, my tree which was too tall for the room at a giant 7ft was trimmed down to size thanks to my trusty metal hacksaw, and I'd just been given a pay rise at work. Then...came the bag of mixed nuts.

I had known for the past 10 years that most fruits were a no-go. I can eat satsumas, grapes, grapefruits and kiwis (just about) but give me an apple or a peach and you're looking at the next Leslie Ash. The fun starts off with a slight itch inside my mouth, then balloons into giant swollen lumps of flesh, eating away until I can't take anymore and need to eat some chocolate to calm it down (what a shame). Well, nuts have always been fine. I've happily munched on peanuts, pistachios, walnuts etc for most of my life, so when I spied a bag of mixed nuts in Tesco one lunchtime I thought, why not, for a pre-Christmas diet it's fairly healthy. I think you can tell where this story is going...so lets just say that I won't be eating Brazil Nuts 'neat' again as I would quite like my throat to remain its normal size. Cue, cold and sore throat number 2. This one was a bugger to shake off though, 3 weeks!!! I was not a happy Christmas Elf.

And as for the plural usage of the word, my beloved PC was eaten alive by an AntiVirus 2009 download which turns out to give you viruses instead of removing them. Not terrific, I must say, so read all about it here, and for goodness sake, back up your hard drive more often than I did.

Onto more pleasant things, I am hoping to leave the rottenness of December behind with the rest of last year, as to be frank, as years go, it wasn't the best I've had. All the more to look forward to for this year I suppose! I have become, in a word, obsessed with going on holiday. I am off to Paris in February, which is very exciting, despite going about 10 times as a child, I haven't been as an 'adult' yet, nor with a boyfriend. So let this Valentines' be a romantic one. I shall also be re-living a portion of my youth in June, as the 5 near-original Ibiza girls are off on holiday once again, to Greece hopefully, Corfu or Halkidiki. And the end of my travels for 2009? Well, so far, my man and I have narrowed it down (I use the term loosely) to either the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Mexico or Cuba. Knowing us, we'll probably end up in bloody Spain again, but this is hopefully to be avoided at all costs.

I shall leave you now, (as you've most likely switched off, nodded off or moved on anyway) with some pictures taken on a delightful yet excruciatingly cold walk along the Thames. Enjoy :)