The Christmas/Xmas/Hannukah/Saturnalia/BUY OUR STUFF Season

We had a virtual Christmas party which was actually pretty good - it was on Gather.Town, which is a platform where you make your own little avatar and walk around a space to speak to different people - the video chat works by proximity so we could have our own little breakout groups. My boss (who organised it) had set up different activities in different spaces so there was stuff like pictionary and Tetris going on, and we had a Christmas quiz too (where nobody Googled the answers because we're not all lame like your colleague, Jimbob).

My Christmas plans have changed a bit - I'm still going to see my parents but now neither of my sisters will - they'll be spending Christmas with each other. So everyone in our family is still seeing someone, but not for as long as they'd like and a pervading sense of anxiety. I think you summed it up perfectly Cappa.

Gather.Town sounds like the bees' knees! I've wondered in the past, given how poorly virtual chat programmes deal with large numbers of people, why somebody couldn't set up a virtual pub with a proximity-based chatting service. Sounds like somebody's done that! Bang goes my entrepreneurial idea I suppose.

Jimbob wrote:

On a different note (sorry, I haven't been here for 8 days) we had our office charity quiz thing last week, which was quite good, except on our team was a new guy (who I've never communicated with before now and never seen in real life) who kept Googling the answers, is if we were all going to be on board with him cheating. I don't get that - it's just a bit of fun, and we don't have that sort of competitive attitude at our company.

Pretty sure that's grounds for immediate dismissal.

He sounds like a little turd.

I think he's quite young; I've found a common pattern (therefore this might just be prejudice) of some of the younger team members who perhaps haven't had a long permanent full-time job before, and are used to working in e.g. retail where they are treated as disposable resources, therefore feel no more loyalty to a company while working for them as they would as a customer choosing one place over the other. This I do get, and if I am completely honest may have had that attitude once upon a time. I've seen it with a couple of the newer peeps. Also, I think, going with a programmer-y "clever" mentatility, he was probably also thinking he was clever for finding e.g. the answer sheet from the chocolate bar quiz that the team had used. But we're all aware that we could have done that, but also aware of the feelings of our colleagues.
Not making excuses for him, but I'm hoping that attitude dissipates once he's been with us for a bit; I know some of the guys I've dealt with have gradually got better. Although I never would've cheated on a quiz though.

Have a chuffing great Christmas all! Even Jimbob's colleague.

I'm pretty much all done Christmassing now!

Last weekend I had one of the girl's I'm seeing over and made her an attempt at a Christmas roast with what I could find here.

Then this morning I woke up at 6am to skype the family and open all the pressies I'd received in the post. I followed that up with a trip to the cinema to see the first showing of the new Pokémon movie. Then it was a day at work, albeit with a nice lunch break in which myself and my besties exchanged gifts and made everyone else in the company extremely jealous.

Got lots of Nintendo goods, natch.

Not a bad day, only spent a few hours at my uncles and got this haul from everyone



Not a lot of tat this year and got something I wanted with the Blue Series Controller along with the cash which will go towards some new trainers, maybe a game like Sakuna (Waiting on the Balla report) in a sale or just in the bank hoping for that Monster Hunter Rise Special Edition Switch.

Hope you all had a nice Christmas.

Happy Christmas everyone! In terms of the games, I got Bubble Bobble 4 Friends... just in time for Tier 4 to make 2 of those 4 friends unavaiable.

Tier 4 Christmas is the worst, sorry Jim. Next year...

Tier 4 Xmas could be worse. For example, you could be in the same household as your mother, who works in retail, and discovers that 4 different people in her department have COVID, and therefore has to get a test immediately - and she's also in her 60s, so possibly more vulnerable.
Hm.

...ouch. Hope she's okay Jim, that sounds rank rotten.

Yeah, it came back negative, so we've just got some other shit ailment.

I’m counting the number of days on my fingers until I finish work for the year. But Christmas still feels like ages away, and I’m concerned that there’ll be a few twists and turns with COVID-19 throughout the month. I’m not sure I’ll make many plans to see folk or go places, it just doesn’t seem like the right atmosphere again.

The local council cancelled my town’s Christmas Lights switch-on event at mega-short notice because of “fears of a terrorist attack”, and there’s practically hee-haw decoration around. It couldn’t feel less Christmassy where I live. Even at my work, somebody’s bumped the Christmas tree and lights from my office cupboard (that admittedly I bumped in the first place). It couldn’t feel less Christmassy where I work.

I’m needing advocat, lebkuchen and Wizzard, pronto.

COVID definitely looming large over Christmas for me too.  I don't think the government will have a lockdown again, even if Omicron really demands it: it requires guts they don't have.  Therefore my big worry is that one of the two trips I've got planned for the rest of the month before I go see my parents infects me.

Sorry you don't have the Christmassy feeling Cappa - although it has just turned December, maybe chaps 'round your way will get more into the spirit now?  I'll probably shove up the decorations this weekend.  

I had my first mulled wine of the season today.  It tasted awful.

I've done a few christmassy bits and pieces so I'm starting to get there. Was meant to be in Dublin today for the Christmas party but they had to cancel so we're having a London based one tonight instead. I'm still not super christmassy mind, but got a tree coming over tomorrow so between the party and that it should start getting me there.

I've got the tree up, a wreath on my door, I'm knee-deep in organising Christmas and Winter lessons at work, I've recorded a Christmas episode of the Sci-Fi Sanctuary.

I'm about as Christmassy as I ca be, but my family are on the other side of the planet, I live in a country which doesn't have a national holiday on Christmas and there won't be a Chrimbo issue of NGamer or even ONM coming through my door

It was payday on Friday so did all my xmas shopping which is lame as all part cousins and secret santas have presents, all the rest having cash.

masofdas wrote:

all the rest having cash.

yeah me and my sister did something even worse. She lives in Spain, but we didn't even bother transferring money this year, we just bought our own presents.

My problem is my Dad still ill and basically doesn't do anything now, my Uncle actually needs the money.

Which just leaves my grandparents, and I've got no idea what to get 86 year olds, that have everything they would want or can just get it.

That just easier everyone gets the same. Why I was upset when it looked like the forum secret santa wasn't going to happen, as part from it and works, only ones that can actually buy neat stuff for.

Dad can't have chocs/wine? My parents do just get that these days, it's my sister and my partner (and my forum santee) who get anything worthy of note. Admittedly they both give me lists and I just choose off those...

Can't have dairy or alcohol, and even tried things makes him ill that only eats porridge or white fish, and like said doesn't leave house unless "food" shopping or appointment.

Ouch, yep that's rough. Money it is!

The baw's up on the slates. Most of my colleagues have been identified as close contacts of positive COVID cases, and the work’s Christmas night out on Friday is off. That’s right after I missed a different Christmas night out last weekend because I was gubbed with the cold. The other Christmassy day out I had planned looks like it’ll get cancelled any minute now.

Yep, looks like another COVID Christmas. One of my Christmas dos has been cancelled, and now The Lady's making awkward noises about us going for our Christmas dinner. Hopefully at least we'll all get to see our families this year.