h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m typing this back at my parent’s house just before we head out to the cosy local boozer for a Christmas drink or two. I’m in the Midlands for a week or so over Christmas, heading back to Bath early in the new-year. I’m hopefully going to manage to get around to seeing all the relatives and catch up with a few friends in the usual inadequately short space of time.

Wednesday night was really lovely. I managed to make it round to my girlfriend’s house in time to chivalrously pick her up and walk into town with her for dinner. The restaurant was really nice. I’ve been to the Wife of Bath before, but it was a couple of years ago with an old girlfriend. Anyway it was much better than I remember; the food was lovely and the company was great too.

After dinner we finally made it to the jinxed new cinema in Bath (the one that’s always sold out for any film we want to see) and watched The Phantom of the Opera. So dinner felt a bit like a pre-theatre thing and we felt like proper grown-ups. The movie was pretty good. I don’t normally go for that sort of thing, but I’ve been told that The Phantom is pretty sinister so I thought I’d give it a go.

Anyway, I thought The Phantom was pretty cool, but I was a little disappointed when he didn’t choke that gimp Raoul and drown the ungrateful superficial Christine. Maybe it’s unhealthy to always want the bad guys to win in movies, but I don’t care because the bad guys are always more interesting.

Take The Phantom, he may be a homicidal maniac, but at least he’s got a spine. Christine was practically dripping over him until she found out he was ugly. Trust me Phantom, if she’s that superficial then you’re better off without her.

But I digress, yesterday I slept in late, had lunch with my girlfriend and then got a train back to Birmingham to visit my parents. Today I went to see my (paternal) Grandmother who has a new boyfriend. And a toy-boy to boot - he’s only seventy-six! The scandal! Anyway she seems in good spirits and is going out dancing tonight. In fact I think I narrowly managed to avoid a lesson in quickstep from her.

As I said, this evening I’m going to the pub with my parents. The best part about coming back home is that beer is so cheap here. I mean it’s £1-70 a pint or something; you can get seriously pissed on £20, there’s no chance of that happening in Bath.

Tomorrow is going to be a quiet Christmas day; I expect it will be just my parents and I. I might go for a run in the morning to work up an appetite for dinner, but I expect most of the rest of the day will be spent eating, drinking and watching television. I haven’t really planned much for the rest of the week. Going to have to get in touch with some of my old friends and see if they fancy a drink or two.

Right, well I can practically smell that cheap beer. The pub is calling (or is that my Dad desperate for a pint?). So I’d better leave it at that. Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you get what you wished for.