What a strange Christmas day. Very nice. Very relaxing, but strange. Dad woke me up getting his breakfast at something past seven and I dozed while he ate. I must have gone to sleep again when he went to church because the next thing I knew he was back again and I was waking up for the second time. I was also late, so I called mum to warn her I was on the way, then jumped in the car and drove up the hill and out of town.

We had cheese on toast for breakfast - something of a Christmas tradition, but Sal was spending the day with Dan’s parents, so we didn’t do the usual unwrapping of presents straight afterwards. Instead we flopped around in front of the telly that was so bereft of anything decent to watch that we retreated to the study to update mum’s copy of Windows.

Hmmm.

We broke off for lunch. Again strange being just the three of us, and finished in time for the Queen, after which we killed time playing Scrabble with half an eye on Gabby Roslin.

Andrew went out to get on with his latest project (building wooden plant tubs) and mum and I drove back to mine for a cup of tea with Oscar, and to wait for Sal and Dan to arrive.

Oscar was being very well behaved, but I think he must have been lonely as he was even more affectionate than usual when we arrived, and doubly so when Sal and Dan turned up. We didn’t stay there long - just enough time for us to watch The Weakest Link and for me to clean out the litter tray, then we returned to Galleywood to unwrap our presents and do more flopping in front of the telly.

The evening was slightly marred when I once again did battle with the Odeon web site. I should have learnt from the Moulin Rouge experience, not to mention what happened last time, after which I vowed to NEVER again use it. Stupidly I didn’t, and I logged on to book tickets for Lord of the Rings this Thursday evening. It crashed half way through, and when I hit reload and it confirmed my card I was confirmed for four tickets for The Princess Diaries.

Unable to scream at anyone on the phone as the enquiry line is closed and the booking line is doing its usual thing of talking to you for 10 minutes and then saying there are no more tickets available. Did some furious text messaging and then cooled down in front of Graham Norton.

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