I’ve had a rather wonderful Christmas Eve. Firstly I recieved the Kreativ Blogger Award from Katie McCullough (I’ll follow up with a post on it after Christmas). Secondly I was made up to hear my friend proposed to my other friend! They met at my Birthday party two and a half years ago and though we knew that he’d pop the question sooner or later it’s no less exciting!!! I am so happy for them, and looking forward to the wedding planning ahead! They live over in Sydney at the moment so it’ll be a while until I get to give them hugs in person, and admire her Tiffany engagement ring!

Today’s ‘Five…‘ has a rather predictable Christmas theme to share with you the wonders of my Christmas Day!

1. Christmas Eve
We have a Christmas Eve tradition that has evolved over the years but always involves dinner at one of mum & dad’s best friends. The great thing is that it means I’m guaranteed to get to see my friend, their daughter, Lucy every Christmas Eve and my friend Dave too (they got married this year – another couple who met through me, I have a better success rate than match.com!!!) There’s always lovely food, conversation and a silly game or two, usually including an epic quiz of the year. This year I invested in Trivial Pursuit, which provided the necessary levels of discussion, giggling and completely wrong answers! It was ‘juveniles’ vs ‘oldies’ and we won! This is followed by my yearly topping up of Catholic guilt at midnight mass, the carols from 11.30pm are lovely though.

Also in the past few years from lunchtime onwards I keep my nearest and dearest updated on Santa’s progress by following the NORAD Santa Tracker

2. Christmas Morning
There has always been a rule in our house that you have to eat breakfast before presents are opened, though my first present was always a box of Coco Pops (I had to have sensible cereals throughout the rest of the year!). Now we’re older it has got later as we wait until my sister and niece arrive. Nothing in the way of present opening commences prior to 11am, which makes it perfect timing for Bucks Fizz & Mince Pies too! This is the Thornber household so of course there is order in the chaos!

3. Top of the Pops
I’m so glad TOTP still exists in Christmas form. TV is pretty much ignore until 2pm as I blast Christmas music through the house, but TOTP is a good transistion from music to TV… and these days lets me know exactly how out of touch I am with the charts. I just hope I don’t say “Who?” too often!

4. Christmas Dinner
There’s only five of us so of course we cook enough to feed ten. I say ‘we’ I actually mean Mum & Dad. The weekly Sunday Roast is always Dad’s domain so of course with both parents in the kitchen there is usually at least one argument that is hilarious for the onlooker. Sis and I pitch in by setting the table and selecting the wine, and of course by demolishing the fantastic food and saying a big “Thank you!” This year Mum has decided we won’t pretend it will be on the table for lunchtime and deliberately plan for it to be in the region of 3-4pm… I think this is a dangerous move and hope to be proved wrong and eating before 7pm! As long as there are pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce all will be okay!

5. Christmas Cocktails
As the day draws to a close somewhere around ‘The Royle Family’ and ‘Gavin & Stacey’ I will raid the alcohol cupboard (my fantastic father managed to procure some half price Absolut Vodka!) and make a wonderful cocktail for my sister and I as we hurtle towards Boxing Day. This year I’m thinking Cosmopolitans to start followed by something involving Baileys and Amaretto… and hopefully minus a hangover in the morning!

Before you go I have one final treat for you… most people will have had the chance to see their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews in the nativity over the past few weeks. Unfortunately I missed seeing my Dad in his, but I do have a photograph of the event (thanks to southport.gb.com) – he’s the shepherd on the right and I have to say I am very proud!

As it so happens after the delights of the Ghost Hunt (and the cute/funny/slightly scary tour guide) I found myself in the Evil Eye Lounge, sampling their cocktails and really proving to myself how much of a lightweight I am these days. Now I am back in my hotel with cup of tea (complicated when tipsy with a strange kettle/mug set up) and ready to blog.

So cocktails. Well the Evil Eye Lounge really is something to behold. Growing up in Southport, in the vicinity of Maloney’s (which doesn’t have a website but gets top mention on Wikipedia’s entry for Flair bars) I was destined to become somewhat of a cocktail addict. The Cosmo and Mojito are my personal favourites.

Tonight I first entrusted myself to the suggestion of an ‘Evil Pear’ from @Preater. Surprisingly delicious even in a pepper rimmed glass. It went down an absolute delight.

It was from there I made my mistake, opting for a Green Fairy. When they boast a selection of Absinthe cocktails you feel it only fitting to try one, but from the first sip I knew it would be my last.

It also happened to be the night they were offering single shots of any whisky for £2.50. So I opted for the Bruichladdich. I am ashamed to say I only managed half the glass (aware I had no one to carry me home!) but it was nice.

However tomorrow I intend to head back. There was a cocktail that impressed me visually, the Basil Royale, which, as basil is my favourite herb, I don’t feel I can leave York having not sampled. And eavesdropping on the bar mans conversation I also need to try Springbank whisky, because it is the best whisky in the world (to be honest I don’t trust that he has travelled the world drinking whisky, but still a claim like that should be tested out)

Having acquired chips from a kebab ‘man in a van’ on Parliament St, I think I have settled my stomach enough to sleep well and get up early for my uber-tourist day. Now it’s off to enjoy my cuppa before bed.

After finally leaving work about an hour and a half later than planned on the Friday, then getting home about two and a half hours later than planned – courtesy of Tooting High Street turning into a car park – I made it back home to get changed and pick up the parents and head into London.

So this is where the reviews begin…

Following further delay (the northern line this time) we found S (One of my best mates) outside Baker St station, she’d thankfully found someone to call and natter with whilst we’d spent twenty minutes admiring the inside of a dark concrete tube. Once free of delays we headed for Giraffe. Now if you have never visited a Giraffe you simply must, it’s an eclectic ‘grown-up but full of silliness’ family restaurant with the most amazing food and the friendliest waiting staff you could meet. On this occasion we chose Marylebone (the same place I celebrated my birthday last year) but previously have also been to Royal Festival Hall (where we celebrated my mothers 60th last November)… and I imagine whichever you choose there will be people falling over themselves to provide you with whatever you ask whether that’s a balloon, plastic giraffes, scintillating conversation or their to die for cheesecake. The beauty of this place is that they love people. Take my mother as an example (she is often an example), she just loves to make conversation with everyone about anything, in giraffe she is not only tolerated but positively welcomed with open arms, as if she were an old friend back for more of their delicious food. When she starts rather scientifically discussing the ins and outs of making a black coffee (surely just coffee and hot water?) it turns into a full blown and involved anecdote with the waitress sitting down at the table and positively encouraging the chattering. Although once upon a time I would have been a brooding and cringing teenager in this situation, I now seem to freely join in… I feel sorry for any children I may have in the future, I am going to be an embarrassment on a huge scale! I have gone off on a tangent… and I could go on for quite some time about Giraffe, however I think by now you have gathered that this is one place I most definitely love.

So once we were thoroughly fed and ready for another couple of drinks S and I headed off to find the animators in a bar just of Regents St (will remain nameless as quite frankly it wasn’t good enough to deserve a mention, but not bad enough to deserve avoidance). We took a rather long detour down to my lack of skill in identifying the correct time to turn left, but it was a pleasant mistake that left us meandering amongst Vivianne Westwood and Issey Miyake, and eventually with a look of horror on my face when we passed Jimmy Choo and her response was “Who? …I’m no slave to Vogue myself (by a long way) but not knowing your Manolos from your Choos?!

Once animators were found I decided Mojitos were in order (having just had the beautifully made Mellow Yellow Mojito at Giraffe I should have stopped before I ordered a mediocre cocktail) but order I did, and the bar man made such an effort, which led me to ponder that perhaps someone’s cocktail making technique shows their general attitude in their life (well their love life anyway) – the guy that served me was trying very hard, and it seemed very important to him to get it just right, however I did end up being a bit disappointed but of course didn’t tell him, he would have been crushed… instead just avoided ordering anything from him again! – poor bloke, I hope I’m wrong and his love life is a bit more of a success than that!

Whilst supping my less than great Mojito we were approached by Urban Chill. I hadn’t heard of them before, but a couple of my mates were familiar. The concept is that these guys and gals trained in massage (back, shoulder and Indian head massage) pop round bars in London and see if anyone fancies taking five to ten minutes out for a massage, at the end of it you pay them what you feel it was worth. Well me being me it was an opportunity and it was random, so I was up for it. Off I went to the fairly quite bit of the bar, sat back relaxed and experienced ten minutes of bliss (and also good conversation, no awkward silences). I did think afterwards that most people might find it quite strange to be manhandled in the middle of a bar by a bloke you’d met five minutes earlier, but it was a lovely experience. I came back to the table looking “radiant” (to quote Charlie) and parted with a tenner, the combination of the ingenuity of the concept and the sheer lovliness of the massage made it worth that. If you’re someone that has frequent professional massages I can’t say how much you’ll get out of it, but if like me you are non-stop always-on and keep saying ‘I must go get myself a massage’ then it is worth parting with a few of your hard earned pounds for the Urban Chill experience – and for those cynics out there, if you don’t enjoy it and are a tight git you don’t have to pay a thing!

When they finally turfed us out of the bar we headed to the tube (with varying degrees of lurching) and homewards bound. Not before we had (most likely) pissed off a number of other tube users with our “tube surfing” challenge … I think all other passengers escaped unscathed!

After not nearly enough sleep, Saturday started surprisingly well – Suzi made bacon and egg butties – and then I headed out to London with Mum and Dad to spend the day wandering around the west end and visiting The National Gallery, finally introducing them to Wagamamas and then going to see ‘Treats’ at the Garrick Theatre.

No one is more surprised than me that I have seen a play on opening weekend, I am more of a last minute kind of person I spend my life intending to go and see plays and exhibitions only to find that I finally get round to going the day after they have ended. But here I was watching a new West End play on its third night. I don’t want to say too much and ruin it (as I’m about to recommend you go see it) but I will say that it needs to be taken as a whole, the comedy is in the words, but the drama is in the actions and reactions… I was so absorbed that the time flew by, I don’t think I’ve been that immersed by anything on stage for a long time. Definitely recommended!

Well I have babbled on quite enough so I will leave you be… I’m now tup in the North East in the land of the Geordies having a week away from work. Mind you as soon as I arrived in Newcastle I managed to get myself a taxi driver who’d been a union rep in for my company in the area I work in until he’d moved up here in recent years, which meant the entire taxi journey became 20 minutes of discussing the managers, the union and the company… not exactly a break from work. Luckily he was a nice chap and so it wasn’t such an awful conversation. I will regale you with stories of my time up here later in the week… (Don’t expect much, so far I’ve made cups of tea and helped with dinner, whilst avoiding nappy changing duties)

The low points of the weekend (have to get this bit out of the way): Being ridiculously tired on Friday night and dancing with my eyes shut at the Islington Academy. The worst DJ in the world ever trying to bore us to death in The Roxy after forking out £9 to get in. Getting up on Saturday morning at 7.15am to make phonecalls for work…

The high points: Cosmopolitans at E’s. Going to the toilet at Cat’s. Everyone looking damn gorgeous. The pastries E went out to get from Columbia Rd this morning. Beyond Retro on Cheshire St. My new dress. E’s bed (though a low point for E as she gave it up for Lady B and I). Bargain sunglasses. All the random conversations.

I have managed to have a weekend away in my own city and a bloody good one at that, knackered now though…