“Christmas Eve will find me, where the lovelight gleams, I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.”
Ok chaps so I hope your respective Christmases have been enjoyable. Mine was good, not great, but good – I wasn’t at home, but got some wonderful gifts. However, before I begin talking about my Christmas, I’ll let you in on some funny/strange tidbits of info about what’s been going on in my life.
A) The Deportation: So I think I may have inadvertently gotten someone deported the other week. I was going out one Friday night after work, and I called a taxi to go to Shawlands, which is on the south side of the city (I live in the West End – the posh bit). I only knew the name of the pub I was going to, I didn’t actually know where it was. So I was on the phone to my friend trying to get the address because my driver was foreign, and impatient and had no clue where we were going. Unfortunately, it was really loud on the other end and I couldn’t hear properly what the street was called. Anywho, the driver pulls over to call his employer, and all of a sudden there’s a chap at the window. It was the police – can you believe it?? The driver had pulled over onto zigzag lines? I don’t really know what that means but it’s not right. The police told me they needed to speak with him for like 10 minutes and I said I’d wait because I didn’t know where I was going. A little while later, the police came back and asked me if I’d called the taxi or if I just flagged it down, I said I called it, and the police told me that he actually didn’t have any registration or anything!! Looking back, it’s kinda scary what happened because people have been pretending to be taxi drivers lately and have been robbing/raping people. Luckily, I managed to get away, and turns out we were only 2 minutes from the pub I was meant to be at, and I got my taxi was free. I fear that the driver may have been deported after that and I no longer use that taxi firm.
B) The Turning Away of the Football Player: So I work on the door at TGI:Friday’s now, and that means I take people to their seats. Well lately we’ve been very busy as it’s the Christmas season and it was during the day. We had loads of shoppers in because the restaurant is right in the city centre, and we were on a 15 minute wait for tables. I was looking down at the podium, and then I looked back up and who do I see? Mark Wilson, Glasgow Celtic’s right back! My jaw actually dropped, as in the way a cartoon does. I was speechless for a second. He was with his wife and baby and asked if we had any tables. I told him that there was a 15 minute wait, but he didn’t really want to wait. He wasn’t rude or anything, just said “I think we’ll just leave it thanks”. When I told people in the restaurant they couldn’t believe that me, being the biggest Celtic supporter of life, didn’t take him in right away. However, this is what my reasoning was: it was only 15 minutes, and the people who were waiting were probably waiting for their one nice meal out during the holidays because it’s the bloody credit crunch and they don’t get paid £20,000 a week like Mr. Wilson. Plus, Celtic had tied their last two games, perhaps he should have been at Lennoxtown (Celtic’s training ground) instead of coming in for a greasy burger and chips at TGI:Fridays! I am not an elitist!
C) Christmas: I’m absolutely homesick, and everyone knows it. I had a nice Christmas, I was with my mum’s best friend and they totally looked after me, but it still wasn’t the same as being in my own house, with my family, and my wee dog. *WARNING: Emotional overload in the following incredibly long run on sentence*I missed every aspect of Christmas. I can’t lie, I cried a lot. I missed putting up the Christmas tree, I missed wrapping presents, I missed knowing what every person was getting because I’m the only one who can be trusted, I missed Christmas mass at X, I missed getting Christmas jammies, I missed waking up on the big day and having to wait for my dad to get up, I missed waiting for everyone to be ready to go before any of us could go downstairs, I missed watching everyone open the presents that I painstakingly chose for them, I missed my dog getting into all the wrapping paper, I missed the big fry up, I missed getting in trouble for not putting my new stuff away, I missed lazing about and being the last person to get ready, I missed putting bets on with my dad and other sisters about how long it would take Michelle to say “I don’t even know why I come home for Christmas!”, I missed sausage stuffing, my mum’s mash potatoes, I missed everyone wearing their paper crowns throughout the ENTIRE dinner, there are no exceptions in the Mulrine house (even that year when we had plasticy crowns that made us all sweat bombs), I missed my mum always forgetting that she had the crown on and remembering ages later, I missed my mum forgetting the cranberries for Michelle, I missed singing the 12 Days of Christmas with 10 plumbers plumbing, I missed Frances and Aydan’s first Christmas, I missed my mum, dad, Michelle, Colleen, Gerry, Frances, Lisa, Jon, Tayler, Shayla and Aydan, I missed the build up to Christmas at X. Basically I missed everything, and it just didn’t seem like Christmas, nor did I seem like myself.I worked Christmas Eve, and worked today, in fact I’ve been working like mad. All of my gifts made it home in time, and all of my pressies made it here too. I got loads of books, money, some clothes, and Arrested Development Season 1 – yay! I watched a million Christmas movies and they all made me cry. Here is a list of Christmas movies that I watched: Meet Me in St. Louis, Love Actually, National Lampoons’ Christmas Vacation, Miracle on 34th Street, Little Women, All I Want for Christmas, The Family Stone, and my favourite – A Muppet Christmas Carol. I also spent an entire day watching Student Bodies on youtube, what a show that was! I spoke with my parents twice on Christmas Day, I talked to all three of my sisters for ages, and even got to call Mick and then James in Vancouver! So I know it could have been a lot worse, but I don’t think I’ll ever spend another Christmas away from home again.
D) Work: The people I work with thought I was so cute at, they checked on me to make sure I was ok throughout the holiday season and made sure I had plans. Just really nice! I really like the people I work with. They’re all really friendly and we always have a laugh when I’m working. Plus, the money is nice too and I’m no longer stressed about getting a job. I’m super pumped – my mum and dad sent me money to spend on whatever I want, so I’m going to buy a pair of trainers that I’ve had my eye on since I came here! Yay!
E) Celtic: so it’s the Old Firm match tomorrow – Celtic vs. Rangers, and I think I might be the only Celtic supporter who believes we can win. However, my philosophy is this, why go watch the games if you don’t think we can win? How upsetting and depressing is that? So I go into it with an optimistic view unlike anyone else I know! Natalie and I are going to the pub to watch it, and then we’ll hang out all day – should be a laugh regardless of the score because of the pub we’re going to. It’s called Failte, welcome in Gaelic, and it’s a total old man’s pub but everyone is so friendly that I love going there.
Alright kids, keep fit and have fun!
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