The truth hurts but retail therapy heals

Okay, so it was the last day at work before Christmas and we finished at 1pm.

I'm still a bit under the weather so thought I'd head home and have a well earned(!) nap.

As I walked home past the hustle and bustle of the last minute Christmas shopper crowd I thought about how this can be a challenging time of year for me. Christmas is a time for family, love it or hate it but I have none. I see friends and colleagues disappear off out of London or travelling abroad to meet up with their nearest and dearest and I couldn't help but feel a bit meloncholic that here I was going home, alone to have a nap.

That was when I got a text message from an old friend of mine (let's just call her Ami, cause it's short) who wanted to meet up for a few drinks as she was finishing early too. "Great!", I thought, "just what the doctor ordered!"

Me and Ami had known each other for over seven years. We used to work together back when I got my first job out of Uni and apart from my old boss too we are the only ones that meet up every few months or so for a meal and a few drinks after work, to catch up on old times and generally talk bullshit.

Problem is....I have been nursing a crush on her since I knew her but she's engaged to some bloke, who I have never met, but is built like a brick-shit house. And that coupled with the fact that I was really feeling sorry for myself that evening could only have spelt d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r!

To cut a long yarn short, after a few drinks I blurted out how I felt. I don't think she took it that well. It was awkward to say the least. I haven't heard from her since *sigh*

Can a man and a woman be "just" friends? I hope that we can again...

Binge drinking on Friday didn't do anything for my temperature either. I got home last night, hit the pillow and was asleep in seconds but woke up around 3am unable to get back to sleep again.

I watched a bit of TV, read a bit but for some reason, my brain wouldn't switch off. Over the past week I've toyed with the idea of getting hold of an XBox 360 from e-bay and at 4am, for some reason this seemed like a good idea to follow up on again. Retail therapy perhaps?

I had actually tried unsuccessfully during the week twice but each time the price goes from something reasonable (just 30 pounds over retail) to over 100-150 pounds up in the last minute of bidding. There was no way I was going to pay over the odds for something that I could buy in February for normal retail price.

But, boy, I struck lucky this night. Somebody with a good rating seemed to be really eager to make a quick sell on Christmas Eve so long as whoever bought it could pick it up that day.

So, result! I managed to get a shiny new XBox360 and 3 games (he did seem desperate for the money) for normal retail price! The guy didn't appear dodgy. He was a friendly French guy who said that he'd bought 3 and kept one for himself.

Hehe. I met him at Southfields train station (by Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club, as the automated voice on the tube announced as the train pulled in.) He opened up the box, showed me the contents and the games and all appeared fine.

I wore my long black coat, hoodie and black wool hat to (try to) look hard in case he did turn out to be a dodgy geezer. At least I'd look a lot less like an easy score.

Anyhow, got the console home and all is fine. It makes a nice Christmas present for myself. Woo hoo!

Unfortunately Microsoft have only provided a cheapo cable to connect the console to the TV and so I spent the rest of Christmas Eve trying to avoid the humungous crowds in Central London whilst trying to find the "Advanced" version of the cable that gives you awesome picture quality and surround sound. I went to 11 places and walked miles.

It was sold out EVERYWHERE!

I can understand how the console was in short supply and sold out so quickly, but the cables too ? Come on, how long can it take to get a few more of those into the shops???

As it is, I had to rely on E-bay again to buy one *sigh* I should get it next week.

Anyway, despite us having a cold spell a few weeks ago, today was actually quite mild , so there is absolutely no chance of us having a white Christmas. So to get into the Christmas-y spirit, here's London as it was two years ago.

Lovely and snow covered :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Take care and try not to eat too much! Yeah, right(!)