Ah I'm home in Cornwall and darling brother Si is here too. Situation is normal - he has left my Christmas present in Thailand!! He promises to send it to me when he gets back lol. Bless. We've had good talks since getting here yesterday, it's been awesome to catch up with him. Our relationship is pretty much the same - intense and interest with much needling on both sides. Tonight, we have dinner at Christ's house with Paul and Tim and family, which is gonna be fun.

Christmas is so close, I can't believe it. Two more sleeps :)

Another weekend, another awesome wedding. Nick and Aisha married, surrounded by lit candles and magical Christmas atmosphere. Most cool, they high-fived after they were officially married and kissed. Made everyone laugh. It was a lovely simple service with gorgeous singing and fun photos of the couple up on the screens during the signing of the register. And we got to see Kendra, who was jiggling with excitement and looked adorable in a green velvet dress. Then Anthony and I took wedding cake to our dear friend Jon who was forced to work and couldn't attend.

In two days, I'll be home and so will Si! I really can't wait to see him, as last time I did it was all sad and melancholy due to Granny P's passing away. Our first Christmas since that and since we redid the house and the first time we'll have someone there who's not immediate family - Anthony who'll be arriving Christmas Eve. I am so full of Christmas spirit. Love it love it love it.

I cannot describe how magical Anna and Andy's wedding this weekend was - those who know me on Facebook check out the awesome pics me and little sis have posted there. It was gorgeous and so beautiful and the speeches were so good, the best man truly knocked it out of the park. Anthony enjoyed himself too, didn't have any panic attacks. I got to catch up with tons of cousins, wow do I feel old when I chat to George and John who have always been my little cousins! Also seeing Harriet, my favourite cousin, was more than wonderful. She's totally gonna help design our wedding!

I'm so buying myself a 'dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians' t-shirt after Christmas. And wear it to church :)

Normal service has been resumed! Thanks to gnimaerd for helping me cope with the photoshop madness that went on here. I am hoping to get an actual new layout up soon.

Worst cramps known to womankind this weekend. According to Mum, it's from Granny P I have inherited this pain as she had terrible period pains too. Still I beat them down with pain pills and hot water bottle. I soldiered through my first carol services. It was amazing, candles everywhere and a very awesome powerful choir. I did get mad when students kept telling me what went wrong during the first service though - we had severe technical hitches. According to Anthony, I looked like I wanted to garrott someone. The thought crossed my mind. But then he took my home and rubbed my feet and watched Top Gear with me :)

Awesome Christmas super short video - Doctor Who BBC Christmas ident. I want a ride like that!

I have bought sparkly pretties for the Braithwaite girls, three lovely necklaces, and a nice earring and necklace set for Baby Mel. I was going to wrap them up last night but then I run out of sticky tape. So I listened to 'Rumours of Angels', the best Christmas music arc ever, and wrote my Christmas cards. I've already sent off the ones that need to be posted. Hope they get to those of you I have addresses for!!

Cousin Anna's wedding this weekend, yay! I get to share a hotel room with Ali and spend time with my family and see my favourite cousin, Harriet. We're sitting at the same table at the reception, woohoo. The mission shall be to keep Dad calm and make him realise that there is no pressure on him. I am up for the task. Mum deserves to enjoy herself!

Happy Turkey Day to all my American friends! I really hope you had an amazing day, spent loads of time with your families, and had a gorgeous meal!

I am hoping to get St Trinian's out on DVD tomorrow. I've got the biggest girlcrush on Gemma Alterton and it needs sating til Prince of Persia: Sands of Time comes out next year - trailer looks amazing for that too. Got a thing for big fun adventure films, though there has to be some substance there too. I draw the line at Michael Bay!!

Hard to believe that Christmas is less than a month away. I still have presents to buy, a railcard to renew, train tickets to pick up.....
Can't wait though. I can't believe I'll get to see Si! It's gonna be chaos but amazing too.

Mum and Dad are off to the O2 Arena in London this weekend to see the tennis. I am hugely jealous that they'll get to see Roger Federer play. But I'm also so glad that they're using the extra money they no longer have to spend on their kids on themselves in wonderful ways. Go parentals!

Anthony's Mum and stepdad have bought a new dog, from the same rescue centre where they got Hannah. Spike is a black spaniel and is adorable. I can't wait to meet him after Christmas :) That house would feel so empty and strange without a dog and they all miss Hannah so much. We're definitely gonna end up getting at least one dog. I've definitely come round to the idea.

Edward Woodward 1930 - 2009
A terrific actor who mastered the art of coiled rage. He will never be forgotten thanks to his lead role in the cult horror film, The Wicker Man, and as the title characters in TV classics Callan and The Equalizer. I will love him forever for his Harry Malone on short-lived show CI5: The New Professionals. He died peacefully in Cornwall surrounded by friends and family.

Tribute to Edward Woodward by Edgar Wright - who directed him in Hot Fuzz. Truly heartfelt and lovely.

My laptop mousepad refuses to respond so I'm forced to use a normal mouse all plugged in. I am scrambling to find someone to fix it. Maybe Jon's housemate who has so much computery knowledge?

Spent the past weekend in Cornwall with the parentals and went to see White Christmas at the theate. It's a wonderful traditional musical, adapted well from the awesome film. And they made it snow indoors! I was delighted. Go and see it people, either in Plymouth or when it moves to Salford soon. A great way to get into the festive spirit.

Attack of the spambots! One got hold of my Facebook account and started posting advertisments for slimming products on all my friends walls. Every annoying. Hopefully it's all fixed now. It kinda came out of nowhere and I didn't realise til it started posting on my wall. My friends were mostly amused at the thought of me using slimming products.

It rained and rained yesterday and I wore my winter work trousers for the first time in a very long while and got a blister from my winter shoes. Then I splashed home, threw on my wellies, and headed to a church student group meeting. I was soaked through when I arrived and probably smelled very ripe. Still, Anthony was pleased to see me and I sprawled between him and Jonathan and ate baked potato and laughed at Kendra's exploratory antics - she's fascinated by remote controls right now. It's a lovely group to be part of cos we're all so radically different but that doesn't matter. I know I can rely on them all. It's a nice feeling :)

My parentals are off on their cruise tomorrow. I cannot believe they're doing it and I'm so thrilled for them. Dad says his mission is to get a photo of Mum on a camel. I cannot see it happening, but I'd love to see him try. I'm so jealous that they're going to see the pyramids. Maybe I can persuade Anthony to take me there?

* Two weeks of overtime whilst co-worker Bill is in Turkey for a well-earned holiday with his missus means minor amounts of sleep but much overtime on the payslip so I am dealing. The early mornings feel as though they're killing me though and I have the urge to buy some concealer to banish the dark circles under my eyes.

* The bank holiday was spent with Dad and Lynda aka father in law and stepmum in law. We hardly ever spend time with them so it was lovely and extra lazy. Anthony really loves being with his Dad so it was awesome for him. We explored Tonbridge Castle which was great fun, I love castles, and watched lots of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition which makes me so unbelievably happy. Also watched some West Wing series 1 which reminded me of the pure joy of that show and renewed my desire to actually watch every series of it.

*I have developed a real love for Tinchy Stryder, the melodies always give me emotion. Nice job, sir.

*I have had my first experience of Bones! Thanks to Paul and Becky lended me the first series boxset and it's as gleefully bantery and made of win as I was promised. I've put off getting into the show before now as I knew once I started I'd have to watch each episode and really the amount of crime shows I'm into is ridiculous. But there's always room for more and Bones definitely takes pride of place with the best of them. I'd gladly recieve any fic recs!

Our weekend in Coventry didn't start out brilliantly - my bank card disappeared, meaning I couldn't pick my tickets up at the station so Anthony had to buy me a pair. Then he couldn't find the codes to retrieve his own reserved tickets, he did find them, and then our train was 45 minutes late which got him really het up. I cancelled my card and ordered a new one so that's all good. A pretty awful way to start a weekend away though.

The weekend itself was wonderful. I got to meet the last of Anthony's really close friends, Stu and Kerry who are marrying in June next year. And got to spend time with a couple I'd met before who were all awesomely welcoming and very fun. They're all hockey obsessives so they accept my own obsessive nature totally fine, which is great. And we had a great night out at a pub inside a church spire, all that remains of a bombed church, and Kerry was a wonderfully sweet and happy drunk. However, Stu's snoring could be heard through the walls which made getting to sleep a bit of a challenge.

We've already started planning Christmas - Si is coming home for it and so Anthony and I will be hitting Cornwall for the occasion. So exciting! Mum is quite overcome with the thought of a full house for the festive season as she and Dad were planning on going away. She's utterly thrilled. It's gonna be incredibly emotional and mostly very cool :)

Supernatural gag reel season 4 - a timely reminder of the adorably dorkiness of Jared and Jensen and the sheer geeky awesomeness of the entire cast and crew.

Hurrah for little sis, Ali! Today she got her A Level results and has got what she needed to get into uni! She'll be there in four weeks! I'm so happy and proud.

What a thought. For the first time since 1984, my parents will be alone in the house on a permenant basis. They're going on a cruise in October, doing what they couldn't before. I'm so excited for them.