The greatness that is Christmas family get-togethers. Why do we do it?? I have to endure a 5 hour car journey to get to Belgium. A town in the middle of nowhere, where on the 25th December I see my whole family. 3/4 of them do not speak English and even though my mum has told them hundreds of times that I understand Dutch, they attempt to speak English. It's always the same old, "so you enjoy school?" "actually I've left school I'm doing an art foundation course for a year then doing computer science at university" "ohh...computer! I like computer!" and so on until an awkward silence starts. They then do a scary laugh and talk to someone else...I said that same line to about 30 people.

I have no cousins my age, they are all over 26 or under 5. Luckily the 26-35 year old cousins speak "English". One of them was clever enough to marry a South Africa woman, who speaks English. Hurray. And even more conveniently she sat opposite me on the ridiculously long table seating 60 something people. We just sat there, looking at everyone looking bored. We had fun, telling each other jokes about the Belgians, about the family, and laughing because no one understood us. We ended up flicking bits of paper at everyone. Why does Christmas lunch last 8 hours? why??? Eventually someone had the guts to get up and say they were going home. Within 30mins, everyone had gone. If only someone was braver before - it could have ended sooner! Oh well, I do make money out of these events. Since I only see these people once a year everyone feels sorry for me and I keep getting handed these mysterious envelopes with 10 euros in. BTW, do not exchange your euros in the bank - on the Internet it said my 60Euros where worth £48, and the bank only put £42 in my account.

Until next year's Christmas. Hooray for Belgium.