I'm having an Elvis moment:



Five years ago I went to St. Ives in Cornwall with Sarah, and we found a little leather shop that had fabulous Elvis belt buckles. Sarah bought a gorgeous blue one and I bought a red and silver one very similar to the one in the picture above. But the strain of holding in my fat belly proved too much for it and the pin that pokes through the belt hole broke. I tried to get it repaired but no one could help, so I bought a new one (which is what you can see in the picture). And to celebrate I also bought a CD of Elvis singing Christmas songs - frankly life doesn't get much better!

Yesterday turned out to be really rather relaxed, and surprisingly Christmassy!

The sun was shining and I had no urgent plans so I decided I'd go out and finish my Christmas shopping in the High Street instead of online. In my head I imagined a nice wander round the shops, lots of browsing and a nice lunch. It's a sign of how removed from reality my Christmas shopping experience has been so far that I thought this - I've only been out there twice, briefly - because the reality is that with less than three weeks to go it's hell out there!

Woolworths, which only two weeks ago no one wanted to buy for £1, had a big sale on. People were queued as far as you could see. I actually wanted stuff from there but have been spoilt by online shopping to the point where I don't do queueing, so I left, although it took five minutes too battle my way out of there! When I got back onto the street I heard a woman commenting to her husband as they walked past, "look at all the vultures in there!", which is an interesting thought.

HMV and Clintons were so busy I only got over the threshold before I turned round and left, and Argos was hardly much better but you expect that there! The whole shopping trip must have lasted 45 minutes and then I fled back to my sofa to buy the rest of the stuff I need online. I just need to get something else for my sister, and maybe for the 24 year old, who seems determined to buy me something despite me telling him not to repeatedly.

So now it's time to turn my thoughts to other Christmas things. Here's my top three things I need to deal with (none of them in the slightest bit important):

1. Christmas outfit (it's always nice to have something new to wear).
2. Christmas decorations (a tricky one now the house is so nicely decorated, and of course I have no room for a tree)
3. The perfect mince pie (so far I have only had bad mince pie experiences - am I going to have to make them myself?!)

Last night I went to see Jan & Barry, to catch up with them, ooh and ahh over their radiator cover, and admire their enormous new TV. It really is huge and fabulous, although it seems a shocking waste to watch soaps on it! We drank too much and ended up playing Wii games, and I found a competitive streak I didn't know I had! And a feebleness too - after about five minutes of imaginary bowling my wrist hurt: how crap am I?! We even played handbells, which has got to be the oddest video game idea ever, yet it was completely fab! Of course I have no sense of timing with music at all, shamefully. Lovely to see you both! XXX

Then I came home and did some more drunken and inspired online shopping: a big breasts calendar for the work Secret Santa thing (he's straight and just left his wife, it was a minefield!) and a David Sylvian CD - that'll result in some confusing recommendations from them I think!

A short blog about things I should have done but didn't....

Last night I should have gone to Cambridge to see Joan as Policewoman, but it was cold, dark and I was tired and couldn't face the journey. So instead I stayed home and did lots of sorting stuff out. Things are far more organised. I feel happier.

Today I should have gone to Amsterdam with Thom, but he's not been well so we cancelled. I didn't mind to be honest, because things have been so busy here lately, what with work, Barcelona and wardrobes that I'm not sure I had the energy to enjoy it properly. So instead I have a day off to please myself. I'm hoping to finish my Christmas shopping but that may be a little optimistic!

Last night was culture night, something life has been sadly lacking in lately! That's if you can call a musical of a cheesy American film from the 80's culture..

Actually I'm being snobby as it was an unexpectedly good night out! It was Footloose the musical, which was obviously based on the Kevin Bacon film of the same name. Strangely I don't think I've ever seen the film, although I think I felt like I ought to have seen it so somehow managed to convince myself that I had!

For anyone else who hasn't seen it, the story is quite straightforward - boy from Chicago moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere where dancing is illegal, falls for the vicar's daughter and attempts to get the kids to dance. I've no idea if the film is any good, but the musical is a really fun night out!

When it started the lights went down and people started screaming hysterically, and pretty much continued all the way through! Who knew people had such fondness for the film! All of the songs from the film made it to the stage, with enough extras to turn it into a proper musical. There was some fabulous moments, some really great group dancing, and yet sometimes the bits between the songs were so cringe worthy it was unbelievable!

The cast were mostly fantastic, although the leading man had strange hair and an odd accent, but they all had an amazing amount of energy, probably more than I've ever seen on stage before, which was astonishing as they're now in the last week of a long tour. As an added bonus one of the Nolan Sisters played the vicars wife - you can't go wrong when there's a Nolan sister about!

It was a guilty pleasure type of evening out, although as I grinned so much I think I need to stop being snobby about it - I doubt Stephen Sondheim ever made anyone grin like an idiot! The most ridiculous bit was Holding out for a Hero, in which the vicar's daughter and her three friends lament the lack of good men by dressing up as rock chicks and dancing on the counter of a diner, whilst all around them dancers pretend to be 'heroes': a fireman, builder, cowboy - yep, it was your full Village People! There were lots of shirts off, and from our seats right by the stage I could see just how fit - and just how gay! - some of those dancers were!

Here's Bonnie Tyler singing the original version:



Is it just me or is that bloody amazing? If you're in the mood for a bit more Bonnie here's Total Eclipse of the Heart, which is extraordinary on so many levels.

I've already order the DVD of the film on Amazon, I wonder if I should order the best of Bonnie too?....

The trouble with casual sex is that although the good stuff can be very good the bad stuff can be very, very bad! Like last night's gentleman caller for example! He spent so much time talking about himself and his job that I couldn't get a word in edgewise, and then proceeded to take my silence to mean that I had no friends and no life. Cheeky f*cker. So by the time he got his clothes off I was clearly going through the motions and counting the minutes until he'd leave. It might have been worth it if he'd been a bit of a stud, but he wasn't...

So I felt all out of sorts today. I hate people making judgements about me without really knowing me. I hate crap gay men! Actually I hate crap straight men too! But then it snowed heavily this morning and we put on an Elvis Christmas song, and for a few minutes it really was a winter wonderland! But then it turned to rain and I could have wept!

Tonight was or penultimate tap lesson. I have a horrid feeling there will be tears next week, and I expect some of them will be mine.

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of Dad's death. Five years seems like something of a milestone. Hard to imagine we'd ever get this far, in those first few days after he died he seemed impossible to imagine that life would go on. But days turned into weeks, months and years. It's odd to look back over all the stuff we've done since then, so much of which I'd love to have told Dad about or shared with him. It makes me feel guilty that I enjoyed it without him. So yesterday was a quiet kind of day, reflective but no tears. It doesn't get better, just feels different.

Back in the bedroom the accessorising has begun - here's the new lampshade:



And here it is in the dark:



It's not glass, it's acrylic, and each piece had to be fitted before I could hang it. Once I'd worked out how to do it - pliers! - it was quite a relaxing process, like occupational therapy I guess!

And here's my wardrobe:



Or as it is more traditionally know, the floor! Mum is so mortified that I'm storing clothes in this way that she keeps suggesting places I might buy a wardrobe, but I'm resisting until the new year.

This time last week I was on my way back to the airport in Barcelona, so it is rather crap of me to have waited so long to tell you about it!

At the beginning of the year I was resistant to visiting Barcelona again - I'd already been a few times before and having discovered a love of the US I was drawn to that instead. But Sarah nagged me in the nicest way, and my two visits in the summer were so lovely that I decided to squeeze in another visit before Christmas - which is what I did last weekend - and guess what? It was lovely!

I got there on Thursday evening, met Sarah in town and headed straight to a bar for a beer and a bit of a gossip as we waited for her boyfriend, the lovely David, to arrive from his flight. Then we headed back to hers for a lot of wine, a Thai curry and strangely Musical Youth's Pass the Dutchie - it made no sense at the time and still doesn't now! And it meant that the phrase, "It's a cooking pot Mr Craven", said in a comedy West Midlands accent became something of a catchphrase for the weekend. Oddly Sarah's friend Julie, who is actually from the West Midlands, sounded fake when she said it, whilst David, who is no Brummie, didn't. Or perhaps it was the alcohol...

On Friday morning Sarah had to work so David and I went for a wander, first to a big shopping centre where I think I disappointed him by not wanting to shop. He loves shopping apparently, which would have been great if he'd turned up three years ago but the 'new' me is easily bored of shops, so we went for a beer instead. Then we stood and stared at Sagrada Familia, the huge, beautiful, unfinished Gaudi church. I took pictures but none of them capture just how astonishing it is so I won't bore you with them. It's so astonishing we had to have another beer!

Then Sarah turned up so there was more beer - three before lunch, it's the road to ruin! We met Jan at a lovely Japanese restaurant that had an all you can eat buffet going on. I've never had Japanese food, unless you count supermarket Sushi, which seems a shocking admission at my age, so it was quite a treat! The food was gorgeous and I didn't really want to stop eating.

Then Jan & I set of in search of tickets for The Killers, who are playing there in March, first in a store, then back at Jan & Josh's on the computer. It got a bit complicated but I got one in the end, so I'll be back there in the spring. I also got to see a very exhausted looking Josh and a very perky Emily, which was lovely, before heading back to Sarah's for an evening of drinking in the barrio (that's the neighbourhood for those of us who don't speak Spanish!).

Saturday got of to a lazy start, which was just as well as it ended up being quite a long day! We headed to the beach, because it's five minutes from Sarah's house, and because it was a lovely bright day. We paddled, although the waves were a bit tricky and you had to keep your wits about you or else you'd get a soaking. Then as we sat chatting a beautiful Spanish man on a bicycle turned up and went for a swim. But more impressive was watching him changing afterwards. That makes me sound like a filthy pervert, but he was so handsome I didn't care!

Then there was more beer, this time with Julie, and then Sarah's friend Mike turned up and we ended up going for a curry, which seemed ridiculously un-Spanish but which was just the job! There was time for a bit of lounging on the roof terrace followed by a frantic burst of card making before we headed off to Jan's friend Jule's house, where she was celebrating her birthday with food and The X Factor.

After that we went back into town to see Josh's play. I've heard loads about Josh's theatre stuff but, apart from a short radio play they took to the Edinburgh Festival a few years ago, I've not seen any of it. It was a play called Fuddy Meers which I'd not heard of although it turned out to be written by a Pulitzer Prize winning author. It's about a woman who has amnesia, who is kidnapped by someone claiming to be her brother who takes her to their mothers house where chaos ensues. It's a black comedy obviously. The cast were great, particularly the women, although the man with the glove puppet did make me smile the most. It was great to finally see something Josh had directed - you did a great job!

We then stumbled into the night in search of alcohol, ending up with a big crowd sitting outside what turned out to be a kebab shop. Still, they served gin so we were happy! It was near a very big, slightly scary statue of a giant cat:



I honestly have no idea what that's about - bizarre isn't it! Somehow we ended the night in a bar called Madame Jasmines, where the gins were huge and I nearly fell asleep on the table. Sarah had no recollection of the taxi journey home but unusually for a taxi driver he didn't drive so badly I thought I was going to die - bravo!

After all that Sunday was inevitably a very quiet day. David went home at lunchtime, then Sarah, Julie and I joined their friend Jo for a gorgeous vegetarian meal. It was warm enough to sit outside and eat, and yet all day I'd been getting texts from home telling me how much it was snowing. We finished the afternoon watching a Welsh film in Sarah's front room - they're an international lot out there! - although I missed the end as I had to go.

So. Barcelona is officially gorgeous! Despite the different language I feel relaxed there, although before anyone else asks NO I'm not going to move there! It was lovely to see you all! XXXX

Excitingly there were oranges on the trees and at the same time there were Christmas decorations strung across the streets. It blows your mind rather!

And finally, happy St Andrews Day to all you lovely Scots!