AA,you could point out that it’s pretty useless as they practice tax avoidance.
As do plenty of other corporations funded by the publics money.
Just me and mrs100th. It'll be quiet as she's in work tomorrow and that'll be busy. It's a no present Christmas, money to charities. Only a couple of minor moans. It's a full Christmas dinner with a 12lb turkey, which seems excessive.
She's taken a few days off so we can spend time together, oh and her step siblings are coming for a few days, festive 500 shot then.
And why, as your only gift, would you think I want a framed photograph of your children?
a_a we've an open door smoker too, when she's had a few (I think she starts the day half ranked) she just flicks the fag butts around so days of finding dog ends and apologising to our neighbours.
..... and Christmas Day blown apart by my mother who's been feeling rough for a few days and has now set me the task of tracking down a prescription for antibiotics.
Mil & sil down, one does everything with the volume set to 11 and the other an open door smoker (she now puts the butts down the drain rather than flick into the garden, an improvement I guess).
It'll be ok so long as the wife dials down the enforced jollity, everyone is not right with that long lasting bug going around so tempers are a lot shorter.
We have an open door smoker also.
Moaned the house and the radiators were cold when they came back in.
"Yes they go off* when the door is left open - its an anti global warming feature"
seems to have cured that.
*Technically not a lie.
Last Christmas was a write-off as wife and no. 2 spawn came down with the ‘Rona the week before Christmas (I’d spent Christmas Eve in the Zona Corona at work, albeit in full noddy suit, goggles and FFP3…). So we are eating the beef that’s been in the freezer for 12 months.
Year before wasn’t great as MiL had newly diagnosed terminal Ca.
This year seems to be going OK aside from no. 1 having a bit of a moan as she doesn’t think she got enough presents 🙄 and I’ll be able to retreat to the kitchen soon and get on with cooking.
I can't walk at the moment 'cos of a ****ed up knee, so the wife took the dog out and left me in charge of lunch. I've got everything sorted to be ready in about 10 mins from now, and she's now come back and has totally taken over but will 'need a shower' before she can sit down for dinner. I've been made to feel like a total incompetent, won't even let me in the kitchen because she's huffing and fluffing around. Still, nose off to spite face, yorkshires aren't done yet so they'll be ready about 15 mins after everything else. I could point this out but I'm being told to stay out of the way.....
^^^ sounds like an excuse to relax and watch some crap on the telly.
We're off to the local for our dinner in about 4 minutes. It's been a really chilled day. Walked the dogs, mushrooms on toast for breakfast, and a couple of glasses of prosecco so far.
Hope you all have a good days as you can.
Merry Christmas!
First cold I’ve had in three years…but
Went to the beach to walk the dog and then popped into to see a 90-year old woman who lives on her own in a remote cottage - feeling very virtuous.
Having moved 500 miles north, no longer having to worry about Christmas Day ruined by my Brexity SIL.
Round at the unlawfuls.. just wandered into the kitchen to check what delights we are having. It's a boiled dinner!
Boiled swede
Boiled parsnip
Boiled cauliflower
Boiled potatoes
Boiled carrots
Boiled broccoli
Luckily the turkey wouldn't fit in a pan so is in the oven. The highlight of culinary expertise and a special recipe is black pepper in the stuffing!
To make matters worse I'm driving so Mrs cloudnine can have a glass of boiled wine.
MiL used to cremate the beef much to both mine and my wife’s horror.
Hopefully will be a bit less well done this year with me overseeing but there’s always the possibility I’ll go too far the other way and it’ll have to be led to the table on a rope.
Kids and their cousins are now in the playroom playing the traditional MarioKart
All going well here. Picked Mum up yesterday evening, first Christmas together since 2019. MsBeej and mum getting on well, lots of lovely presents (I am now the foster father to a baby elephant), dinner only 15 mins late and I've got the Absolute Radio Country Ultimate Collection playing.
Oh, I seem to have polished off most of a bottle of French Sparkling wine. Proper sham-pain.
All good here. Just had a lovely Christmas* dinner/lunch. Washing up done & put away in 10 mins flat. Now sat with a glass of Port watching The Great Escape AGAIN.
Got the stepson coming over later with his GF & sprog (who’d better be quiet)
*glorified Sunday dinner/lunch.
I'm not a fan of christmas, memories of mum struggling to afford presents but not quite old enough to make her understand it didnt matter.
Massive family dinner(s) and the following bitchyness.
Today has been joyfull! Had son over last night, my mum came round this morning and we opened the presents together, watched muppet christmas charol, took son back to his mums, dropped my mum off home, just had hour and a bit on zwift now off down to mums house so we can have dinner, a drink and watch some tv together.
Pretty much perfect! Not in the spirit of the thread but was dreading it yesterday.
Boiled parsnip
This is just %##&^ insanity. Shooting's too good für the type of person who does that. You have my sympathy.
Disaster- all the pigs in blanket have gone so there’ll be none on the Boxing Day Pizza 😱.
Have sausages but no bacon so could do blanketless pigs!
I said I'd make Christmas dinner. Everyone told me, several times because every other Christmas dinner has been late, that they want it at 2.30. So I plan out my schedule, get my Delia Christmas recipe book ready and meticulously plan the cooking to have everything ready at 2.30.
At 2.30 when everything is cooked, my mum and sister barge into the kitchen, take over and say they're making a smoked salmon starter.
My dinner that I slaved over is served fifty minutes late, cold and crusty.
I drank two pints in 8 minutes to numb the anger.
Bunch of pricks. I'm going for a bike ride after presents next year.
Disaster- all the pigs in blanket have gone so there’ll be none on the Boxing Day Pizza 😱.
Piss poor planning, I have another 24in freezer!
take over and say they’re making a smoked salmon starter.
What happened to the starter you had made ?
At 2.30 when everything is cooked, my mum and sister barge into the kitchen, take over and say they’re making a smoked salmon starter.
I feel for you i honestly do. I think i must be a fairly nasty person because I see lots of folk rolling over to things like this, if it happened to me they would be getting told *no you're ****ing not*
Go for your bike ride now no point waiting for next year!
Boiled swede
Boiled parsnip
Boiled cauliflower
Boiled potatoes
Boiled carrots
Boiled broccoli
At some point you’d think they’d have to roast something just because they’ve run out of room on the hob.
Piss poor planning, I have another 24in freezer!
Round to yours then! I blame me mum keep loading my son’s plate #feeder
When your other half has the whole hormone grinch thing going on, and there is hee haw that you can do to break her out of it. Cue lots of passive aggressive silences all day. Grr. Started off well too with a lovely bike ride as the sun rose (and she was still in bed). Utterly fed up.
Go for your bike ride now no point waiting for next year!
I think if I rode a bike now I'd immediately crash into something.
Iainc - I'd made enough to feed the five thousand without a starter! Now none of them will eat the desert I'd made 🤦♂️
Big Dave (dog) wandered back through to sit in front of the fire and gracefully farted a salutation to the sun.
Went through to start the roasties and 13 pigs in blanket are now 10. Now I'm no Sherlock but....
Boiled swede
Boiled parsnip
Boiled cauliflower
Boiled potatoes
Boiled carrots
Boiled broccoli
Not to sell them short, we also had..
Boiled peas
Boiled sweetcorn
Boiled Brussels sprouts
This has to set some kind of boiled bland record!
Power cut for an hour half way through cooking Christmas dinner. I knew my collection of Exposure lights would come in handy for lighting the kitchen. Trying to pan fry finish turkey, roast potatoes and pigs in blankets whilst simultaneously cooking 3kg of veg on the gas hob was a bit stressful I’ll admit though.
Wife has just sat down next to me on sofa with a thump, and drink which was resting on the arm is now all over me 🤦♂️
@tuboflard - Everything in a wok. If it’s not fried in hot oil how do you know you’ve killed all the germs?
@ratherbeintobago ended up pan frying the lot. Roast potatoes were surprisingly good!
One of my mates was BBQing his Christmas dinner. I’m not clear of this was a gambit to avoid family.
Mil found an Xmas pudding in the back of the cupboard best before date 2008...
A mini-moan that I have nothing to moan about.
Three days at my BIL's, was genuinely anxious at the prospect but it's been alright. He's properly tanned the red wine today and has finally relaxed. My MILs dementia wasn't too bad today either so we seem to have survived.
I love my wife, she’s a brilliant, forward thinking, kind and intelligent person and I therefore have no idea why she decided that we were going to start toilet training our youngest child on Christmas Eve when we had 18 people coming over for lunch today.
It’s actually been fine, but fuuuuuccccckkkking hell, only just…
I'm totally in awe of people who don't get stressed cooking for lots of people.
@sanername When we did no. 2 spawn, nursery had been telling us we should really do it.
Turned up on Monday morning with nappy off and bag of spare clothes.
“How has she managed so far?”
“No accidents since I took her nappy off half an hour ago. Over to you…”
@Merak definitely. Getting everything ready for seven people here, at the same time, was bad enough. And even then I used every roasting tin and the sausages were 15 min behind everything else.
Asking my sister if she would like some 'burnt offerings' as she cremated the apricot stuffing into tar was possibly a touch rude.
Cold serving bowls, cold plates, cold bread sauce meant by the time we sat down everything bar the roast potatoes was cold.
Still, the re gifting from charidee shops has yeilded a giant avro vulcan jigsaw, a water filter jug without a filter, aka a jug. A terribley plastic roulette wheel.. Wtaf and a book on enigma code machines
Seeing my 89yr old mum being unable to move unaided was upsetting but she lit up when presented with a family tree and photos from between the wars of the family shop in pontefract and their own brand Vaux products
My MIL passed away this afternoon so we've had a properly shit Christmas.
Sorry to read that.
Thats such a shame.
Sorry for your loss..
That's Dreadful news.
@doomanic That puts it all into perspective. My condolences to your wife, you and all your family.
Well I've had a bit of a shit day. Went to bed early feeling crap last night. After the kids did presents I went back to bed and slept for two hours. Then I had another two hours in bed sleeping at 4. Not just a post dinner snooze either, a proper head on the pillow out like a light kip. Now I've got a nose full of snotters and a headache. 🤒😖
This black barrel Jamesons is making me feel better. The Christmas dinner I made was also fantastic, everything hot and cooked.
If you're feeling down or with reason then my thoughts are with you. My love from my family to you and yours. 🙂🥴🥃
@doomanic So sorry for your family's loss at this time. Just be there for your wife and let her and you grieve as much as you can.
Apart from the famous getting a mention its a terrible time for a death. Sadly I know of 4 family friends in the last week. Not old either.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people can reach adulthood without acquiring the ability to tell toxic shitbags to f*** off.
he is the most racist homophobic angry man i have ever known.
'''
Th bad bit is so is my racist, bigoted, conspiracy-theorist, billy-no-mates, gammony, Farage/Trump/Tory supporting bore of an uncle.
Tell them. Wait until you're on your own together and do it with a big cheesy grin on your face. "Look mate. Literally everyone in this house thinks you're a c**t. The only reason you're here is guilt. Now sit the **** down and shut the **** up. Another mince pie, Brian?"
@doomanic Sorry for your loss, terrible time for it to happen.
Not a bad day for me, nor a good one either..just 'meh' like I am most Christmas's. Always struggle with mental health issues/negative thoughts this time of year, dunno why TBH.
Fairly quite one this year just me, the wife and my mum with some extended family popping by briefly. Nice food, few drinks and some telly. Round 2 tomo with the inlaws (who I get along with great TBH, so should be good)
Well today was actually uneventful, but more in a completely boring and unjolly time than just good. The problem uncle was on decent behaviour for most of the afternoon until he'd had his food, then he started to go on his usual rants etc but by then he was getting sleepy so it dulled the effect down somewhat. The only issue all day was my mum running out of energy 3/4 the way through the cooking so she needed a lot of support to get through that but we managed it. A bloody lovely leg of lamb was devoured and the present side was pretty good too. There just wasn't any particular joy or energy for the whole day though so it was a slog to get through it. Just a product of the year we've had as a family I suppose. The get-together on the 29th for my birthday and a second xmas meet with my sister and her family will be much better as her two kids will provide all the relentless energy we all need so there is that to look forward to.
@doomanic - condolences, it's a crap time to lose a loved one. I lost my nan on the 27th just over a decade ago which put a dampener on christmas and my birthday (on the 29th) so sort of know how much it hurts. Definitely take the time out for grieving and supporting your wife, especially as we head into the fun that is January.
Tell them. Wait until you’re on your own together and do it with a big cheesy grin on your face. “Look mate. Literally everyone in this house thinks you’re a c**t. The only reason you’re here is guilt. Now sit the * down and shut the * up. Another mince pie, Brian?”
Tried that a few years ago, didn't make any difference and all I got was a ranty lecture about how I should respect my elders from him. He didn't like my position that respect is earned not a right at all!
Tried that a few years ago, didn’t make any difference and all I got was a ranty lecture about how I should respect my elders from him. He didn’t like my position that respect is earned not a right at all!
You didn't try hard enough. It's difficult to rant when you're escorted to the street with a foot up your arse.
🤷♂️ I don't know, I guess I sympathise to an extent, I have to bite my tongue occasionally because Her Family (amongst others, a conspiracy theorist and a racist) so I appreciate that sometimes you have to play diplomacy if you're hoping ever to have sex ever again.
On my side though, hard pass. I have few relatives and I long since binned "friends" who existed to make my life worse. Why should you tolerate that crap? Moreover, why should you tolerate that crap under your own roof, by invite? Bollocks to it. Bollocks to them, they can go be brexity about immigrants elsewhere, send them back where they came from.
Concessions made in the name of domestic harmony aside, I'm well past through with putting up with other people's crap. Is your presence in my life a net gain or a net loss?
Cougar you sum up Xmas in a nut shell 👍 As I said in my previous post I put up with it for far too many years eventually saying enough is enough.
Spent most of yesterday pretending I wasn’t ill. Succumbed and went back to bed around 4pm. The worst part of it is that my ennui is trivial compared to others in this thread so can’t even have a Proper Moan in good conscience.
Tell them. Wait until you’re on your own together and do it with a big cheesy grin on your face. “Look mate. Literally everyone in this house thinks you’re a c**t. The only reason you’re here is guilt. Now sit the * down and shut the * up. Another mince pie, Brian?”
Concessions made in the name of domestic harmony aside, I’m well past through with putting up with other people’s crap. Is your presence in my life a net gain or a net loss?
Good advice. Posting both as a reminder to myself more than anything else. We cut one of the family out this year because he can no longer be arsed to acknowledge his niece a nephew, and I think one other will have gone by the end of next year.
Concessions made in the name of domestic harmony aside, I’m well past through with putting up with other people’s crap. Is your presence in my life a net gain or a net loss?
As a family who struggle with the sheer amount of "stuff" in our lives / this house, we endured somewhere between 3 and 4 hours of present opening yesterday. Care of my wife and MIL.
I had a small list, and got everything gloves, shorts, air fryer, that I wanted. And when asked / pressured for more I said (as I have done for a few years) I don't want anything more.
Cue a hamper of food and drink assembled by MIL:
Red wine, jam, jelly babies, crisps, caramel snacks.
I've been diagnosed diabetic and have very high cholesterol; all of which I'm trying to control through diet and exercise.
Maybe she's trying to tell me something. 😆
I did think jesus that lot is going to take some opening! When I was round yours the other week 😮
And I guess the MiL brought more, and more of the bad stuff 🙁 Snot fair is it Rich I make you look like a Pol Pot camp survivor and don't have a problem with either?
Snot fair is it Rich I make you look like a Pol Pot camp survivor and don’t have a problem with either?
My present to you is a block of iodine for you to lick 😀😁😂
Today, no. 2 misplaced Crocky who is a small cuddly crocodile, resulting in us turning the house upside down until found. FML.
Mrs B tested positive for the 'rona on Tuesday so our Christmas plans were cancelled. Christmas day itself was quiet but nice with just the two of us.
She had a really rough few days but was feeling better (but not 'right') by yesterday lunchtime so thought we were over it... And I've just tested positive, what a treat.
bails - see the positive; lock doors, close curtains, disconnect landline, turn mobiles off, turn lights off.
Take care of each other.
Perfect!
Spending 4 days stuck inside a summerhouse in Denmark with the inlaws. 11 people uncluding 5 kids is extremely claustrophobic, especially when the weather is so bad. At least I can't understand what they are talking about.
Disappeared for a few hours this afternoon to get my head down only for my wife to tell me I might as well drive home to the uk as I'm so miserable.
No shit, this is the worst Christmas blues I've ever experienced. Can't imagine what it would be like without Citalopram.
dovebiker
Full MemberFirst cold I’ve had in three years…but
Went to the beach to walk the dog and then popped into to see a 90-year old woman who lives on her own in a remote cottage – feeling very virtuous.
given your post on the cold thread, still feeling virtuous…
Somehow missed this thread and an opportunity to moan.
People who view all makes and models of a given type of product as mutually interchangeable. They have the good sense and generosity to ask me what I'd like as a gift, then proceed to buy something similarish at similar or even higher cost. To them, all cycling gloves are the same, all hex keys and bit sets are the same, and all LED torches are the same. These things aren't groceries!