It started on Thursday morning, with Gary calling me at about 10am. I had only gone to bed about an hour before that so I wasn't exactly in the mood to answer the phone but I did.
"Hello Neil, it's Gary", in his trademark Cockney accent. It's unmistakable, considering I know no other Cockney's. "Do you want to come have dinner with us?", he asked.
"Uh, sure", I said, not actually sure of what he'd just said but I said yes anyway.
"We're gonna go and pick up loads of food and have a meal. We'll be at yours later so make a shopping list and put whatever you want on it.", he said happily.
"Ok", I replied, very groggy and wanting to get back in bed, which I did.
I finally awoke a few hours later around 5pm and Gary and my Mum turned up about an hour later. I was still pretty tired and not really feeling too happy so when they arrived with, well, festive cheer I suppose, I wasn't in the mood to share in it. Still, I got ready to go out with them and we made our way to Asda where I spent about 30 minutes with my Mum and Gary buying food. He/She said just put whatever you like in the trolley, but part of me felt that I shouldn't because it was Gary who would be paying for it and I have a problem accepting kindness I guess.
He ended up buying lots of stuff which included a duck, a chicken and a turkey. We had a whole farm to eat!
After we'd bought the food, we went for a really nice meal in a pub which I enjoyed a lot. Not only because of the food, but the simple fact that it's been ages since I've been out and also the fact that it's the first time I've been able to spend some time just casually talking to my Mum and Gary in a long time. It was really nice.
While we were talking, I mentioned to my Mum how I'd be going to University next year and that I knew that if Laura found somewhere to live, she's going to want to rent this house out to someone. I said I was ok with that, but that I had no idea where Oogee was going to live if that happened. Neither did she.
However, after Gary heard this, he came up with an idea that may just work. The warehouse where Gary is setting up his shop is about a 60 second drive from my house and it's very big. It also has an office in it. Gary said that he'd let Oogee actually live in the warehouse! lol
At first I wasn't so sure if that would work, but maybe it would. There'd be someone there every day to make sure he was ok and he'd be fed and have access to outside as well. But I'd be worried that he wouldn't get any attention and that would just make him depressed. He deserves to be loved as well as given a place to stay. I don't know if you can have one without the other. Also, who'd make sure he was ok of a weekend when Gary had shut the shop? If this idea doesn't work then I'm back to square one.
We were there at the pub about two hours or so and I was very full when we left. We returned here and the food got put away. My Mum said that they were going to be here the next day to cook a meal because they wouldn't be able to be here on Christmas Eve/Day. I told my mum that I wouldn't be here because I was planning on going to Dave's. She said that there'd be time.
A while later, they got ready to leave and I said goodbye to my Mum.
"Why don't you both come here for Christmas?", I asked her.
"We can't", she said, "Gary's got commitments"
"You don't though"
"Ok then", she said, "I'll come"
I was quite happy about that. I knew that it wouldn't exactly be a huge family reunion or something, but I guess in a way I do miss her being here sometimes and I was glad that I wouldn't be that alone over Christmas.
Gary cooked the next day. You should have seen the literal feast that he prepared. You'd think he was feeding the five thousand! He'd cooked so much food, it was amazing to see the kitchen table covered in it. There was chicken piled on one plate, turkey on another, duck next to that, a dish of potatoes, about five different kinds of veg and plenty of drinks. It was impressive.
After eating, I got ready to go to Dave's. I was planning to take some board games to his because I didn't want them. Gary saw them and offered me �10 for Monopoly so I let him have it. He offered me �10 each for two other board games too, but I had already promised them to Dave.
Just as I was leaving, Gary said that he wouldn't see me now until next week, since he'd be elsewhere on Christmas Eve/Day. He shook my hand very firmly, placing his other hand on top. It was one of those handshakes that you do when you actually mean what you're saying and whatnot. He just said that he hoped I have a great Christmas and that he'd see me next week some time.
At the beginning when my Mum starting seeing him, I guess I didn't like him that much. Not because he was a bad person or anything, but simply because Gary was a part of my Mum's life, not mine and I was very happy with it like that. However, since I now see Gary a fair bit more, I guess he's becoming a part of my life too and he's actually trying, rather than it just happening. I suppose this makes me a little more willing to accept him in my life, but, I do think that my Mum just assumes that because he's in hers, that that means I'm fine with him being in mine. As I say, he's a nice guy and whatever, but he's still essentially a stranger to me. I mean, I don't know hardly anything about him still.
I left for Dave's and arrived at his around 8:30pm. Everyone was there already, including Jamie, Danielle, Dave and Liam (since they live there!), Rob, Carl, Glenn and Laura. They were all in the living room drinking. Dave took the games and said thanks for them and I sat down and chatted to whoever.
After a while, I remembered that Dave and Liam now have a kitten called Prisilla and I asked Dave where she was. He told me she was in his bedroom so I went to check, but she wasn't there. In the end, Dave found her in the kitchen and pointed her out to me. She had somehow managed to get on top of the cupboards and was now stuck, but she looked so adorable. Very very cute.
I helped her down and gave her a stroke but because she's only a kitten, she doesn't really like being touched that much and is happy to go scouting around the house and playing lots. She's fascinating to watch.
I feel a little sorry for her though. I mean, she must get a little scared with so many people in 'her' house who don't really understand that she's just a kitten and therefore not ready to be picked up, which they do often. They think she's vicious because she scratches them when they pick her up but that's just because a) Her claws are naturally sharp, something which she can hardly help. Oogee's claws are bigger than when he was a kitten, but they're a little less sharp. And B) She doesn't like being picked up and so does her best to get free. This is made worse by the fact that some of them kept picking her up wrong and so she'd immediatly want to escape their grasp, especially Rob who kept trying to pick her up and make her sort of sit up like a human would. I immediatly wanted to take her home with me and care for her.
I ended up taking a few pictures of her and playing with her while the rest of the group talked. She's incredibly playful if you have patience with her and so very full of life. She scratched me twice gently the entire night because I tried picking her up. Aside from that though, she was lovely. By the end of the night, she was happy for me to stroke her and scratch her head playfully while she rested.
Another thing that worried me slightly is that Liam, her owner apparantly thinks that she's going to stay in the house 100% of the time, even when she's older. I tried to explain to him that she needs to go outside at some point, especially to do her business and aside from that, it's just mean to keep her inside all of the time. Oogee prefers being indoors, but even he goes out now and then to do his business and to venture around. I hope that Liam realises this and that cat actually gets some fresh air. Quite literally, actually, since Liam smokes and I hate to think what it's doing to her poor lungs.
As you can tell, I'm fond of her.
A large part of the night was spent watching a few of them play Atmosfear, one of the games that I had given Dave. It's not really the best enviroment to play it in though because it relies on listening to 'The Gatekeeper' on a TV and that's impossible while people are talking. After 50 minutes of playing, they decided to pack it up and play it some other time.
Jamie and Danielle left at 11pm, but before they did, Jamie invited me to go and have a meal with him in town for his birthday on the 27th so I might do that. I'll buy him a bottle of his favourite drink - Southern Comfort. Having said that, I forgot that Gary said that he wanted me to work on Tuesday so I may have to ask him for my first day at work off haha :/.
Once back in Kirkby, I waited for a cab to take me home from the station although he drove off before I had come out of the station and so I had to call again. When one did come, there were two women also waiting for a taxi. They put their hand out to get the cab to stop near them but part of me was sure it was mine. "Oh, is this yours?", I asked them. "Yeah", one of the women said. Except they didn't ask the drive what name it was booked under and they drove off. 60 seconds later, the car reversed and one of the women opened the door and asked where I was going. I told her and she said they'd give me a lift.
I got in and as soon as I did, I looked at the small computer that tells you whose name the cab has been booked under. It said Neil. They'd stolen my cab and then decided to return for me and act as if they were doing me a favour!
I didn't say nothing. I got home.
My Mum came back today and is here until Monday. Gary's gone to see his Mum apparantly. It's been nice having my Mum here all of today and she'll be here for Christmas tomorrow (or rather today, since it's 6am now) and also some of Boxing Day. I might not have indepth conversations with her that often, but just knowing that she's here makes me feel better for some reason. It's nice.
She said that she's going to give me money for Christmas but I feel uncomfortable taking it and I don't know why. I guess I just feel that because it's not really anything personal, that it's not really a gift as such and that makes it harder to accept. Also, she said that Gary had given her money from him to give to me as his Christmas present to me and that just made me feel even more weird and yet really appreciative that he'd want to do that when he has no need to. I do actually intend to buy him something actually to say thankyou for the meal out, the meal he cooked and just for taking care of my Mum in the was that he has. I did want to go to town to get it today, but I ended up sleeping through the day.
So it's officially Christmas right now. It doesn't feel like Christmas really though. Still, it does feel better than I was fearing it would and I have something to look forward to in the form of either Jamie's birthday or doing something in the Warehouse with Gary. Also, Dave's having a New Year's Eve party which I may go to, but I don't really like the idea of staying over the night because I like my own bed and PC too much! I actually like the idea of bringing Prisilla here so I can take care of her while everyone's partying in Dave's, but Liam considers her his baby, just like I consider Oogee mine.
I like this entry. It's the first majorly positive thing I've wrote in ages I think. Happy Christmas.
