Well, in the past couple of days, the workplace has been full of christmas anticipation. Various meetings are dominated by present giving and well wishing, and my meeting with my own boss, and the rest of our team, was an opportunity for my lovely kind benevolent etc etc boss to lavish gifts upon me...
As an attendance award, "thanks for not taking time off sick", we each received a huge 1.5L bottle of perry - my second in less than a week. As a christmas present though, my boss was kind enough to buy (and individually wrap, which is a pain in the arse to do, trust me, especially at this time of year, I know!!!!) each of us a present. When unwrapped (by a colleague, I'm keeping mine under wraps - ha ha ha what a crap witticism - until Christmas Day. They turned out to be After eight mints, which I promise you are not cheap. Okay, so they're chocolate covered mints, hardly a brand new lamborghini gallardo or a mail order "go to jail do not pass go" gift card to send to Amy Whinehouse, but come on, when you think about it... 12 people in our team and these things cost what, £2.79-£3.50 depending on where you buy them, my boss out of her own pocket, spent anywhere between £33.48 and £41.76 of her own money, to get her work colleagues something nice for christmas - that's not including the alcohol she bought.
Okay, so it's hardly gold pressed latinum, but the thought was there, and I'm looking forward to wolfing the things down...
So, work aside, what else do I have to comment on.
Hmm. I spose the main thing I'm excited about at the minute is that I bought myself a new keyboard, even though they go for over £80 plus delivery, I managed to find one for £50 including delivery. Bargain, so I snapped it up. Which is just as well, because I'm sorry to say that months of life in my bedroom has seen my Logitech G15 splashed, soaked and otherwise rendered inoperable by various drinks. Now, in its defence, I can take the G15 apart while it's plugged in, clean it, put it back together and it will work again. Unfortunatley, the LCD screen died a while back, so a replacement is forthcoming, in the new model G15. Yay, go me, etc.
Also, some more gems turned up today. Nothing super special, mostly small and sparkly ones, but two in particular I'm kind of taken with.
These gems are called "Star Diopside" gems, and they have a cool (downgraded from "very interesting") property called Asterism. Basically, as you look at the stone and move it around under the light, a cross of white light appears to float over the surface of the stone.
It's quite striking.
So anyway, I am going to sit and eat these slightly overcooked chips, I'm going to finish off my alcohol, then I suspect I will dive into bed again.
But before I do, let me introduce you to what is perhaps one of the most memorable parts of Christmas for me, so far.
For those of you that don't know, there has for many (30 ish?!) years, been a band in Germany called "Kraftwerk". These people have a very distinct sound, based heavily on electronic samples, one person at a pinch (or should that be two people at a pinch? Two people at pinches? What should the ideal person/pinch ratio be? And for that matter, what is a Pinch anyway?) Described their music as "Synthpop". Very distinctive, and to my mind, not widely copied.
Of course, a good old group of lads, part of a comedy act from Sweden by the name of Tyskarna från Lund (Literally, "The Germans from Lund") has taken it upon themselves to parody Kraftwerk and release their own synthpop music based heavily on Kraftwerk's musical and visual style.
I was introduced to these lads by McGee, a good mate of mine, who can find anything whatsoever on the internet, via a flash video entitled "Achtung X-mas". While I have to admit, at first I found the video very strange, if anything, the tune grew on me, though I must admit, I remember describing the tune as "the most surreal thing I'd ever heard" at the time. I then found a mysterious online guy by the name of "divideandkreate" had done a techno-metal remix of it, which turned the tune on its head and gave it a whole new sound.
So yes, a very bizarre pair of tunes, I would say "I think you'll like them" but I honestly don't know. If not, oh well, I do. :)
Anyway, before I go, I shall show you a photo of my sparkly gems, now that even more have arrived:
And I shall now leave you with that. I'm off to drink my perry and go to bed. And sleep and be lazy.
Etc.
Have fun!
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