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finally found a douglas coupland book that i liked (almost) as much as generation x. microserfs. ace. pop culture meets pre internet bubble poppage with a short trip over to las vegas. you know i love the vegas. i've read nearly the whole collection by coupland, all are written excellently, but only this and generation x i really felt were not just written well, but good stories too. very satisfying. even the metaphysical bit at the end didn't bother me!



on the 23rd, coinsiding with the -ustins' holiday party, my friend amelia and i threw a christmukkah party. i made latkes and (homemade) egg nog while amelia and danny made mulled wine (i wanted mulled manichevitz, but as there are no jews, there is no crappy kosher wine either) and yarmul-clauses. i got into my 'detras de la musica' announcer voice and started the night by announcing that we'd be playing the OC drinking game to the first christmukkah episode (one of the best and worst episodes ever best:summer=wonderwoman worst:introducedoliver). i had to explain the rules and had prepared guides to the game, but again, ya can't fully get it unless you've lived through the damn place.



christmas was really incredible. started with margaritas at 11:45. got a bit stumbly and walked over to the nearest village with a pub - 2.5 miles away. beautiful day, sunny, no clouds, crisp, ace. two drinks later and three miles later (we took a different way back) we bundled back in my uncle's cottage and prepared for the gastronomical onslaught. my cousin and i were adament in our reduction of christmas edibles that is presented during the holiday season by our ex-caterer family; somehow it worked. although we were presented with full scottish breakfast, the munchies presented were minimal compared to usual and dinner had a single course. compare this to last year's 4 different main courses + insane amounts of veggies/pre-coursemeal stuff. brilliant. looks like edgar and maggi are settling into NOT being caterers - finally. haha.

on the 29th natalie K from c-rep fame (i even gave her a tour when she was a pre-frosh) arrived with an american in tow. we immediately went to requisite rep-get-along-ed-ness and continued for the next 4 days. twas bliss having someone to chat about UCI and socal and shite like that. we participated in the annual hogamany torchlight procession (kind of). we watched it begin then caught up as it winded back through town and followed up carlton hill - i'm amazed that i've never been up there. since we lagged towards the end of the procession we caught the fireworks whilst walking up the damn hill. had we been quicker or less in number we might have made it, but the company is what was important, ya know? besides, hogamany is loaded with firework filled events. randomly ran into my cousin and her crew, aaaah drunken relative revelries. while walking back to my flat i rolled down carlton hill in memoritam of student center hill. nearly lost my phone (shudder the thought) - would have been worth it regardless, just annoying as fuck. tromped home and proceeded to oversee my buddies get messily drunk. i hate messy drunks. urgh. pissed, not in the drunk way. robin came by as did kat and helped lighten the mood, but everyone was just too messy. urgh. phoenix then home.

the next day the rest of natalie's crew came up from brighton. what i thought was going to be 2 more people turned out to be 4 and our flat was promptly loaded. myself, reka, reka's sister, nick, nick's uncle, and natalie + 5. not so bad, until hamish and fiona crashed after the george street celidh. loads of fun, especially in my (alex's) kilt. bit of a love (no, lust is more correct) triangle occurred for about 5 minutes, but dancing was to be done, no time for OCesque drama in my life! each year the celidh is hosted by a different country/area, they're supposed to add a local flavor to the dance through a burningmanesque celebration. this year's host was catalonia - they did one of those cool people tower things (where everyone is wearing white suits) and loads of other amazing festivities. great times. i usually say that august is the best time to visit edinburgh, but i think the hogamany celebration trumps the thing - but i don't really like the festival either, so make what you can from that.



new year i vowed not to work preparing the forest's new year party and (somehow) i did it. i spent the morning doing some painting and plodding about the cafe, but i strictly did not want to have any responsibilities during the party. i succeeded by ditching everything forest related in the afternoon and headed to kyle's early starting (7:30) house party. chilled there for a while, was the weed-guy at the party, had a lovely chat and walk to the offlicense with this dutch girl (who i later gave my blind mellon fingerless gloves to), had a seth cohen style comic book talk and took a pill. headed out to arthur's seat for fireworks, tried to find a pair of lost friends, eventually made it alone, enjoyed the closeness the fireworks, got pity happy new year greetings for being alone then headed to the tunnel. rocked.