This last week has been pretty quiet, after dropping Helena off at the airport, my mood sank.  I guess my festive mood took off in the plane with her!

I cried.  I didn’t want her to leave, we had a great trip and if I’m honest, I’m a little jealous of what she went back to.  The Christmas I’ve had most of my life.  I miss my family.

That afternoon, Col worked from home so he could be close at hand to my emo-ness (yes, I may have created a word there) which was very sweet of him – and appreciated!

Saturday we had a reeeeeeally long lie in, it was total bliss! During the course of the day, Col asked me out for a date night – no, really, he was very sweet and said he wanted to take me out, I’d have been crazy to turn that down!

We decided to hit-up Sherlock Holmes (7.30pm) at the Studio Movie Grill, where we’d have dinner.  I’ve decided that we won’t be eating there any more, the food isn’t great, it normally comes out luke-warm (or worse) and it’s priced higher than it should be.  Their chips and salsa are good (but it’s pretty hard to go wrong with chips and salsa), but the rest of the food has left me disappointed.

Sherlock Holmes, however, was GREAT – I loved it! I loved the first one and was kind of anxious that the sequel, would be crap, as many sequels are.  Though I wasn’t disappointed, the special effects and acting were both great, the plot was gripping and at least twice I was close to tears and for the rest of the film, giggles weren’t too far away.

My only issue with Sherlock Holmes, or really any film that Robert Downey Jr stars in, is that it leaves me a little bitter about Ally McBeal.  Couldn’t you NOT have gotten busted for drugs and just stayed Larry on Ally McBeal?

Yes, I’ve been scared for life…I have no defense.

Go see the movie, it’s a great family film!

When the movie had finished, our date night wasn’t yet over, we headed to one of my favourite things to do here in Houston, attend the 10.30pm Comedy Sportz ampersand.  I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about it the few times we’ve been, but, if you like laughing and a good time, you should try this out!

We hadn’t seen ANY of the comedians or the referee in previous matches, but, it was just as hilarious, and, cause the audience was a little smaller, both Colin and I got to call out more suggestions than we normally would.  It was great fun and a perfect date night, just what the doctor ordered after the sadness and gloom of the previous day!

Sunday, we enjoyed another lie-in, seriously, it’s the simple things, with us having been so busy lately, it was nice to just (as my friend Sam puts it) ‘mong’ out in bed for an extra long time.

Later in the afternoon we went to the gym (but I’ll post more about that in another entry), en route home, we went to Panera bread to have a cuppa with Magz, Sam and their photographer (who they were sorting pictures with) before having dinner in Pei Wei next door.  From there, we decided that since we were out, we would head to Ross to have a poke about for a new suitcase (yes, in my workout gear, which traumatised even me!!)

Nothing much happened Monday and Tuesday, aside from occasional sobbing, plenty of moping around and homesickness, which was given the heave-ho on Wednesday night when we headed out to dinner with some of our latest friends, Jamie and Natalie.

We went to our favourite Indian restaurant in town, The London Sizzler, which, like I’ve said before, is the best Indian restaurant we’ve found here in Houston (aside from not liking the paying for poppadoms thing, it’s pretty tasty!)

Thursday morning I went to the gym with Natalie (again, more later), we had a nice girlie lunch in Changs Chinese (which, to be honest, wasn’t my favourite, but Fu’s was shut and we were hungry!)

That night we decided to hit the cinema to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, however, when we got to the cinema, the show had sold out, so instead, we went to see Mission Impossible 4, Ghost Protocol which was surprisingly good!

I really enjoyed it, I laughed more than I thought I would, it was very comedic, though there was a few emotional spots, it was mostly amusing and Tom Cruise has definitely made his comeback!!!

Friday, Col worked from home again in the morning.  During the afternoon, we watched James Bond.  Yup, I don’t know about the rest of you, but here, in Casa McMaster, Bond is one of our main holiday traditions – for both of us! (other traditions from ‘my’ side include opening one present on Christmas Eve, having Chinese on Christmas Eve and having 3 types of meat on Christmas day!)

We both love Bond movies, we watched The World is not Enough on Thursday before we went to the cinema, and today, we watched Golden Eye and Tomorrow Never Dies and I’m sure our Christmas Bond bonanza isn’t anywhere near over! LOL!

During Bond, I whipped up a Trotter Y-esque breakfast burrito (recipe to follow), Col tidied the kitchen and, he suggested, that since we didn’t get to see it the previous night, we go and see ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ in the cinema.

So, we did!

Col had never read the books and didn’t know the plot, or really anything about what was going to happen.  I was a little apprehensive, if they were true to the book, then I was completely sure he’d love it, if they strayed, or pulled a ‘Twilight’ on it and not done the book justice, but, I was hoping that with an almost three hour film, they’d done ok.

They had, it was great, Col thoroughly enjoyed it and, although it wasn’t quite as graphic as the book, it still made me cringe and bury my head in Col’s shoulder once or twice (it deals with rape and sexual abuse).

After the movie (around 10.15pm) we decided on impulse to head up to Comedy Sportz (yes, again!) and watch their unscripted, R-Rated version of Charlie Brown’s Christmas.  It lasted about an hour, it had both ‘oldie’ and ‘newbie’ comedians alike, by that, I mean people we’d seen before and people we hadn’t.  The audience was as full as I’ve seen it, and it was pretty fun as well!

Before I sign off to make two kinds of potatoes, yorkshire puddings and a bunch of other Christmas treats, I want to take the time to wish all of my readers a safe and Merry Christmas – please, please, please, don’t drink and drive!