Saturday 26 December 2009 – BOXING DAY 1

This just might turn out to be my favourite Saturday in a long time.  I remember with great fondness the days of waking up at my parents’ on Boxing Day, often having the dog run in on me to wake me up and my father making us all bacon sandwiches for breakfast.  Perhaps more than Christmas Day itself this was a true event that best represented the holidays and the sense of family.  Maybe I should have stayed at my parents’ last night and sailed out the uncomfortable feeling of sleeping on their sofa.  I remember a couple of years ago waking up and watching Stranger Than Fiction followed by Talladega Nights in the hope that one of them would join me in watching one of the movies.

For some reason we get two Boxing Days this year.  It is without doubt that today is THE Boxing Day but in some parts people are insisting on describing Monday as being Boxing Day because it is the bank holiday.  I’m happy to take two, in fact this time next year and for the remainder of time I will be happy to take two days off for Boxing Day.  Will that happen though?  Will it fuck.

I wake up around 7.45AM this morning feeling relatively good and relatively happy astonished at just how fast Christmas Day flew by yesterday.  Is that what happens when you grow old, you lose all concept of time compared to pace?  Perhaps this is a knock on effect to be attributed to the information age.  Maybe the information overload is causing great confusion in our attention sockets ruining our perception of time.  I’ll have to give this theory some more thought and represent it later when its not so half baked.

My day begins with watching the Christmas 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live which this year was hosted by James Franco who it now seems weird to think I once saw at the first Latitude festival.  With musical guests being Muse it is not a patch on last year’s Christmas show with Hugh Laurie and Kanye West but the appearance of Mike Tyson on “What Up With That?” (amazingly done as ever by Kenan Thompson) is great fun even though Iron Mike does not look happy in it or himself.

Afterwards I begin watching The Room but today that is just a bridge too far, I don’t think I have it in me to watch a bad film and eventually I just fall asleep.

When I finally reawaken I trot out of bed with view of getting some writing done before heading over to the olds for some Boxing Day fun.  I experience mixed returns from writing today.

Today I finally brave the final set of In Treatment season 2 episodes watching three in a row.  There feels less satisfaction in the conclusion and closure of these characters this year: Hope Davis remains a depressed mess, the Cancer girl happily moves on and the fat kid is still miserable and his parents unpleasant.

Eventually I make my way over to the parents where it remains business as usual as per yesterday.  When I arrive mum has already gone into town shopping and dad offers to make me a bacon sandwich (Boxing Day breakfast tradition) as we all move slowly.

I wander into town half hoping to find bargains, half hoping to accidentally on purpose bump into somebody.  Unfortunately on the former occurs as I end up hitting pay dirt in Waterstones with some great half-price books including the new Charlie Brooker book.  When I take the books to the till the girl fucks up by ringing it through incorrectly and eventually I wind up getting the books even cheaper than I should do.  The magic of Christmas and inexperienced temporary holiday staff.

After this I head back to the olds for some more festive spirit and jollies.  Soon though I find myself heading back to Bohemian Grove wishing that things were like the old days where/when we would all be heading out to the pub on Boxing Day night.  The times weren’t as great as I remember them rose tinted but at least they existed, the opportunities for fun were there.  This year it just does not seem the same, nobody appears able to be bothered and if they are certainly I am not being included in proceedings.  This is especially bad considering that this year Boxing Day falls on a Saturday.

At 8PM I pathetically head to bed to read my freshly purchased Tom Waits book while listening to every MP3 of his I possess.  I wonder what the poor people are doing.