Most of the blogs I’ve come across recently seem to be full of the joys of ‘Look, I made these awesome Christmas decorations!’, ‘This is my meal plan for the week/month/next century!’, ‘Check out this nativity scene I made from lolly sticks and cat fur!’

Screw that.

I’m ill, I’m miserable, and I’m working through it in the midst of hearing everyone around me in real life complaining about how they hate everything in the world. So I apologise in advance that this post is somewhat lacking in festive cheer. I’m not cooking any meals or even bothering to go to the supermarket; various local takeaways, pubs and restaurants have been profiting from my mild flueyness (at least monetarily – physically speaking they’re probably cursing me for selfishly spreading my disgusting germs). I’ve also been taking full advantage of the free food at work as there’s even more than usual at this time of year; I’ve definitely eaten my bodyweight in chocolate whilst wallowing in self-pity. Obviously I’m jealous of all the happy festive bloggers. If anyone wants to come round, present me with a meal plan and then cook for me, I’ll happily go along with it. Until then, it’s takeaway food ordered online, bitches.

On Monday I turned 26. Last weekend was spent in a state of not-being-ill happiness thanks to the work Christmas party on Friday followed by friends arriving in intervals from around 2am Saturday morning. After several shopping trips, roping various people into cooking, and planning two breakfasts and an all-day buffet for around fifteen, I was pretty worn out. By Sunday evening I could feel myself getting ill, but I had a fantastic time and it was great to see everyone, especially my friends from Far Far Away land who I don’t get to see as often as I’d like. I laughed so much it hurt – no party is complete without Cards Against Humanity – the funniest game for adults. Ever.

The best fudge ever.

Homemade hot chocolate powder and vanilla sugar – guess my friends got the domestic genes.

More presents!

I also got the bargain of the century for my birthday – a few domain names with some incredible links at just about the best price they could possibly be. I’ve made a start on getting actual websites on them, but it’s going to be a while before they’re finished in my current state. At the moment I’m barely functioning and dosing up on Lemsip and Strepsils. I’m hoping that by the time I finish for Christmas I’ll be 100% better and motivated to work on my own projects. I’m still undecided on Christmas plans, but I think I’ll be spending quite a lot of time at my house. I want to be hermity and hidden away for a bit – I’ve been doing a lot more socialising than normal as of the past few months (this week alone I’ll have been out three week nights out of five despite being ill) and I’d quite like some time on my own for a few days. Obviously as it’s Christmas and New Year I won’t be hidden away for the whole time, but this will be the first Christmas I’ve ever spent without my family and I don’t expect it to be easy. New Year is the holiday I hate most, so I’m not expecting too much from that anyway. Last year’s was fantastic; this year I’m considering London – we’ll see what happens and whether I can get a cat sitter. As long as I get to stuff my face, it’s all good.