Home for the holidays

I came back home yesterday. Flatmate 7 came with me, because she wanted to see the English countryside, I think, and maybe also because she wanted to see an English family in an English home. It was really hard waking up in time for the train, after only a couple of hours' sleep, and I think if I hadn't arranged with Flatmate 7 to leave at a certain time I wouldn't have left enough time to get to Paddington and catch the train, and would have had to apologise to my parents and ask them to collect me later- so it's a good thing she was coming too. As it was, I tried to stay awake as I postponed the moment of getting out of bed by reading an article in G2, but kept dropping off, and didn't have time to make the breakfast I'd been looking forward to- using up the leftover cheesy filling from last night in a toast sandwich with some of the salsa- and had to make do with nothing instead.

Mum collected us from the station and we stopped in Stow and Bourton on the way home. Mum looked for some Christmas presents that needed to be bought and wrapped in time to get there by post, while I showed Candice what there was to see (not huge amounts, but enough to fill 10 or 15 minutes). It was pretty cold, and I was sorry I'd left my nice big warm coat at home last weekend (so as not to have that to carry as well as everything else: I anticipated having a lot of stuff and indeed I had my massive suitcase that you couldn't move if it wasn't for the wheels, two shoulder bags (admittedly only carrying one shoulder bag's worth of stuff), my white satin small cylindrical bag that I got in Japan, and my laptop bag). I spent the entire time wishing it would be over so we could get back in the warm car, which is probably not the most effective frame of mind in which to show someone around. If it had been warmer maybe it would have been nice to do more aimless strolling and more stopping for photos- I hope she got all the pictures she wanted. I suppose it was also hard for me because as far as I'm concerned these places may be quite pretty but they have very little of interest and they're not going anywhere so I can wander down there any time I like. It's hard to put myself in the position of someone who has never seen buildings or villages/ small towns like this before and will have to make a real effort to see them again.

The visit was not as awkward as I'd feared. I was worried about awkward silences (even though I think people should be able to spend time together in silence, or doing things like reading or whatever, because you can still appreciate people's company like that, I worry about awkward silences), but actually there weren't too many. We had a cup of tea before lunch in the kitchen with my parents, then we all had lunch together- my brother, who'd been keeping Millie, his dog, out of the way, joined us, then we had more tea and spent more time talking, and at one point I got some manga books from my room to show her- and we did sit and read in silence for a while (she initiated it, not me!). So retrospectively, what I'm most worried about is that Millie bothered her- we tried to stop her from nosing Flatmate 7 and her bag, and from jumping up at her, but weren't entirely successfull; I would have suggested shutting Millie away but I thought (though I wasn't sure) that Flatmate 7 wanted to see her- and about a time in the afternoon when we were sitting upstairs in the sitting room with the fire, just her and me and my dad, and I spent quite a time arguing with him, in a light hearted way but annoying him slightly, about whether you could have a tornado so small it didn't suck anything up and other things- I was doing it because I was nervous that if I stopped there would be a big silence that I didn't know how to break, but of course she didn't really say anything during that and it did go on a while. I hope we didn't bore her.

She went back on the same train as my brother, at a little past 5. We got there 10 minutes early and the train was 10 minutes late. I went over the bridge with them and settled down in the waiting room for a chilly 20 minutes, but soon after I'd sat down she said I didn't have to wait if I wanted to get back. I did a bit of 'Are you sure?', but I accepted before I should have done (and indeed maybe otherwise I would have stayed), because I hadn't been to the loo before we left and quite needed to get back home.

I spent a quiet evening on the sofa with my parents watching TV. Mum and I both fell asleep in Men in Black 2. This was not surprising in Mum's case- she often, or fairly often, falls asleep while we're watching TV anyway, and she's a bit ill at the moment with a sore throat. But I hardly ever do, and was enjoying the film- I was just so tired.

I slept till nearly 3 today, even though I didn't feel that tired when my alarm went off at 9.30, or when I reset it for 10, 10.30, 11, 11.30 and 12. I just couldn't resist taking the opportunity to sleep as late as I could for once. Of course, I didn't then do any work- I had a very late lunch, after burrowing my arm deep into my massive suitcase to retrieve the jar of red pesto I'd brought back with me, along with two other jars of stir in pasta sauce and five tins of soup. Then I did Sleek (our cat)'s litter tray- it has to be put out on Mondays because the bin men come on Tuesdays, and I usually do it on Sundays (as does my dad who does it for me when I'm away) so Dad can take it out when he walks Millie on Monday, but was really tired yesterday, so planned to do it this morning, then forgot I'd planned that when the alarm went off. So I had to take it out in the almost dark, but at least there was still a very very little light. Then I did the washing up, then I did nothing for an hour, then I watched the Simpsons, then I came downstairs again to listen to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, halfway through which it was supper time, then I read newspapers for an hour or so while I put off doing the washing up (and let the supper go down- after all I'd eaten it quite soon after having lunch), then I actually did the washing up, then I went and watched TV with Dad (Mum was out at the Christmas meal of the band she plays in on Mondays), then I came down again and waited for Mum to get home (while checking my email- it turns out that I am near the end of the schedule for the presentations for Surveys and Experiment Design, which is bad as I will probably be exhausted again and run the risk of oversleeping- must make sure that doesn't happen, but good because it gives me more time to think about it (though I still intend to get it practically prepared over Christmas)- and get hints from what other people have done). Then I made Mum a hot drink and did a puzzle with her- we often do that after she comes home from one of her bands or other evening things.

This is basically pretty much my holiday routine. I'm going into all the detail this time, but then hopefully I won't have to go through it all every day but just mention the interesting parts. Though I'm hoping that in future the first part of the day will involve getting up considerably earlier (actually in the morning, for a start), and doing some WORK.