So it's January 2007 and if I don't get my ass in gear this blogging malarkey is going to get away from me...

Right, so quick rundown of Christmas and New Year shenanigans - mostly I don't remember the days in terms of activities but rather in terms of meals eaten. Still, let it not be said that I keep things from my nearest and dearest:

23 Dec - Dinner at Ian's house - me making my first Gordon Ramsay meal and Ian (Lewis, Marc's brother) humouring me enough to let me use his kitchen (which is waaaaaaaaay nicer than mine - as is pretty much all of his flat). I don't think Ian was sufficiently prepared for quite all the chaos that ensued but he is the stoic sort, so he coped well with the surprising quantities of havoc I wreaked. Bless him.

24 Dec - Christmas Eve Lebanese meal - fantastic home-made spread of loads of stuff I've been craving, including real hummous, tahina salad, fried aubergines and cauliflower with lemon. Can't talk about this anymore as am missing it already.

25 Dec - Christmas dinner - I passed on the brussels sprouts (not even their mother could love them) but otherwise stuffed myself on the standard meal. Was reminded of how good parsnips are. And oh yes, there were presents too. Can't remember much else.

26 Dec - lots of leftovers and a knitting lesson from Marc's aunt. Oh and chocolate biscuits from M&S.

27 Dec - back to London on a shocking 5 HOUR train journey, which I embarked upon in order to avoid the 4 hour coach journey. Fortunately Austin met up with me when I eventually got there and bought me pizza, which put me in a sufficiently good mood to prepare for the arrival of the Peters.

28 Dec - Aimee arrived at some ungodly hour of the morning and we promptly began our day with bucks fizz and fried breakfast. This combination worked so well that we didn't eat again until about 9.30pm. Walked what seemed like the entire length and breadth of London, met up with some of AP's friends and got all the goss from the sandy city.

29 Dec - Got out of bed in time to shovel some food into AP and chuck her onto a train, then spent the rest of the day watching Season 2 of House and wondering whether Hugh Laurie might be a contender for the spot on my Friends 5 list which was recently vacated by Jason Lee.

30 Dec - back to Cardiff in preparation for NYE. Had dinner at a Chinese restaurant where the staff tried to kid me about what Szechuan duck should look and taste like. Admittedly I am no expert but surely there is a distinct difference between chilli-garlic sauce and hoi-sin sauce?

31 Dec - Gentle shopping during the day and a reasonably well-behaved New Years Eve celebration. Meant to go to the pub for midnight but got involved in a game of Humm Bug and somehow missed the boat on leaving the house that night =) Still, very pleasant evening, so no real complaints on not going to a crowded smoky pub instead.

1 Jan - Had a surprisingly uneventful journey back to London. I admit, I was expecting some sort of debacle but none ensued. I have the sneaking suspicion that the transport industry is saving up something horrible to spring on me at some as yet unspecified future date.

And that was my holiday in a nutshell. A rather large and mildly longwinded nutshell, but a nutshell nonetheless.