"LAST CHRISTMAS, I GAVE YOU MY HEART ..."

Bah-humbug. It just doesn't feel like Christmas. There are no sweet, summer-y smells in the morning when I wake up. There are no crickets & cicadas chirping. There are no sprinklers switching on just as I walk across the lawn. There has been no Channel 7 Christmas Pageant.

But despite this – there are Christmas decorations dangling everywhere & Christmas Carols playing everywhere I turn to remind me. And yet, when I look at them, I feel nothing. Kind of like when you walk into a store room of a shop & see the Christmas decorations neatly strewn across the roof as not to become tangled, or when they’re neatly stacked in the corner: no excitement registers. I look at the date printing out on forms I’m dealing with: 15 December. That’s 10 days away. Christmas is literally right around the corner.

I need emergency festive spirit!
Enter: The Diageo Christmas Party (tomorrow night!);
AND
The La Plagne Snowboarding Trip (this weekend!).

So the Diageo Christmas Party should be a great deal of fun considering we own 60% of Great Britain’s booze market -w00t! Diageo got voted Britain’s “Best Company to Work For” 2008, & I definitely think they deserve it. Maybe I’m just biased because I came from BHP Billiton who’s idea of a “People Charter” is, well ….. paying their wages. But anyway – Diageo are putting on a mammoth par-tay for their 500+ staff working in London & it sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. Last year they had “Girls Aloud” make a guest appearance & sing for an hour. All you Perthian’s will be reading this going “Who?”, (as was I when I first arrived) but they’re kind of a big deal over here. Like the new Spice Girls. Only younger. And hotter. And stupider. Anyway – my point is: they’re famous & they would of cost bucket loads to get to a private party (I know if I were in a Girl Band I’d be going “Errrrm – how ‘bout no, Scott?” right before threw my champagne in my managers face & reached for a puppy from the basket of puppies put in my dressing room for atmosphere & stress relief). Companies putting out to reward their staff floats my boat in a big way – especially when they included their contractors! ; )

And then this weekend – I’m off to the La Plagne in the French Alps to make some snow angels & build a snowman! Oh, & attempt to snowboard. Yes, that too. Me, Sparkles & Gordo, Duncan & Gemma, (& 5 other randoms of theirs) are staying in a chalet in the Alps on the ski slopes for 7 days & I’m so excited! It’s going to be great as:

a) I’m spending Christmas with Sparkles, Gordo, Duncan & Gemma in a cabin in the snow;
b) I GET TO SEE & TOUCH & TASTE REAL SNOW!
c) Sparkles is going to teach me how to ski!
d) It’s all catered for, so we don’t need to cook!
e) I don’t have to work for a whole week!

We have to be at the airport at 5.00am on Saturday morning, so feck knows what time we have to actually leave from Duncan & Gemma’s. But Duncan is driving Gem, me & his friend Gordon to the airport in their mad 4wd (Hugo), so I’m uber pumped that we’re not having to catch a cab & I don’t have to sell my body on the street to pay my share for the cab ride.

“…… And the very next day, you gave it away …..”.