A 'dam fine Christmas Day...

Tuesday 25th December, 2007

OK OK so in the spirit of the season, here's a lil Christmas nostalgia...

Last Christmas (after I gave you my heart) was layers of whipped cream and champagne and that feeling where hungover and sleep-deprived and not a lil tipsy converge. I was, of course, in Amsterdam... safe in the soft warm walls of that hostel called Home, The Flying Pig.

It was my second Flying Pig Christmas in as many years, only this time I had popped back for the occasion from my current 'home' in Manchester, and the year before I had been living in The 'Dam. Many original 'dam family members remained, and our lil posse had swelled impressively with new faces too... and so we came together, to celebrate this good day.

I started the day out of the hostel, waking heavy and hungover at my Dutch Angel Ines' house to find Santa had come!! My parents had arranged for In to buy me gifts!?! Heaven... then into the debauchery of the Pig, where I found my friends on cleaning shift were already well into their Christmas bonus champers. Well, what was I to do but join the fray!?

There were whipped cream fights, constant sparking of Amsterdam's finest, bottles popped ceremoniously over the Room 17 balcony into the Vondelpark below... there were great friends, constant laughter and there wasn't much effective cleaning done, unsurprisingly enough ;-)

Since the staff are supposed to cook all the guests their dinner, this utter lack of sobriety (before lunchtime, little own dinner!) was something of an issue... to this day I have no idea how we turned packet mix mashed potato, soggy brussel sprouts and some kind of Dutch supermarket meat product into a meal for 50, especially given that the majority of the kitchen help were seeing sideways at the time, but we did.

My dear friend Action (nickname, not noun) did lose a chunk of his finger sharpening a knife, but on the scale of how it might have gone?? Methinks we done pretty 'dam good.

I miss those crazy cats this Chrissy. Well, I miss some of them - two of my 'dam family closest are upstairs asleep in my parent's spare room and I have just finished wrapping their gifts with my mumma. Ahh... long live a world so small and safe. Long live the 'dam family.

And Merry Christmas.

xox