Christmas shopping, DVDs and Mika

My cold began clearing up on Wednesday and now I've just got a sore/swollen throat, but am feeling ok. Fingers crossed I'll be well enough to have my annual flu jab tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I did a huge Christmas shop online. I begun picking up odd presents when I saw them in shops or at carboot sales quite early this year, as I don't want to put myself under stress trying to do it all last minute. So yesterday I had a look on the Internet to see what else I could buy and bought something from Amazon, something from Play.com and quite a lot from Amnesty International's online shop. I love buying from them as they have some lovely gifts and all the money goes to a good cause. Mum also bought some Christmas presents from them yesterday too so we only had to pay one lot of postage and packaging. There were some other bits and pieces I spotted on other websites that I was tempted with, but I was put off some websites by stupidly high delivery costs (such as Hawkins Baazar charging £5 for delivery!). So now I just have one more Christmas present to buy (and I know what it is and which shop I can buy it from) and then I'm done. I also bought my charity Christmas cards earlier this year too. Now I'm glad I'm so organised because I keep hearing about this nationwide postal strike that might happen in the next couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll receive all the stuff I've ordered online by then. Also yesterday morning me and my mum both discovered that we'd got my Nan exactly the same Christmas present!

On Wednesday evening I heard from Claire and she confirmed that she can make it to Save Jess-tival :D Claire is coming round for tea tonight so we're going to work out the details for next Friday then. I'm really looking forward to it. I discovered on Wednesday that I only had 1 of Natalie Imbruglia's 3 albums, so ordered myself the other 2 from Amazon Marketplace to listen to before next Friday. One came in the post yesterday and hopefully the other one will come soon. I suspect she'll be performing some tracks to promote her new album too though. There are still tickets available if you can make it to London next Friday night and want to enjoy a fantastic evening while also raising money for Live Life Then Give Life. You can see the full line-up here. To buy tickets click here to visit Brighton Ticket shop and then search for 'Save Jess'.

My friend R is still in hospital, so I sent her another parcel this morning to cheer her up :) Hopefully she'll receive it either tomorrow or Monday.

Last night I was quite nocturnal and was on MSN til 12.30am and then lay in bed for what seemed like ages before eventually falling asleep. I'll try increasing my Melatonin dose soon and hopefully that'll help. I've chatted to my older brother Chris and his girlfriend Sophie on MSN a couple of times over the last few days and they're going to get some pets in a couple of weeks. I'm slightly concerned because I'm not sure that they can really look after themselves, let alone pets! And rather than going for something common and simple like a hamster or a guinea pig, they've decided to get a pair of degu! I wish them the best of luck with it and will keep you posted on how they get on.

I am trying to not spend too much money, but that plan has failed spectacularly this month - my spreadsheet tells me I've spent a scary amount of money since the beginning of the month! So now I need to try not to spend anything for the rest of the month. But that's not going to work because I need to buy 2 return train tickets to London next week at the very least. Never mind, hopefully my spreadsheet will start to look better now that I've got the majority of my Christmas shopping done and my concert tickets bought, because they were expensive. Despite not trying to spend much money, I preordered myself a new Wii game this week which is due for release in November. I couldn't resist it as it's New Super Mario Bros Wii and looks like it'll be fantastic :)

I watched The Pride of Britain Awards on TV on Wednesday night for the first time ever. I thought it was very moving, but I don't like the fact that only a few people are being acknowledged for being brave/courageous/making a difference, when in fact there are many more seriously ill children/heroic adults/dedicated fundraisers out there who aren't acknowleged publicly.

And last night I watched a fantastic documentary on channel 4 called Alex: A Passion for Life. If you missed it you can watch it on channel 4's catch up service here. I'd highly recommend it as it was very well made and will definitely make you think. The programme follows 18 year old Alex, a music prodigy, starting university in Cambridge and attempting to fulfill his ambition of conducting an epic 3 hour long piece of music. But Alex is also fighting cystic fibrosis. This documentary shows how Alex is determined to live a normal life despite having a very serious medical condition.

Since my last update I've also watched 3 DVDs. I really enjoyed Stepmom as the acting was great and very believable, but it was also very sad. I'd recommend it though. I'd also recommend a Whoopi Goldberg film called Corrina, Corrina which was fantastic. And the third DVD I watched was a Tim Burton creation called Big Fish. I usually love Tim Burton films and despite Big Fish having great reviews on the Internet, I didn't like it. It wasn't bad, but I just didn't care about the characters.

When I was exploring the Internet last night in my nocturnalism I discovered some great Mika video blogs. I only watched 3 last night before making myself go to bed, but if you're a Mika fan I'd highly recommend 37. Behind the artwork, which is fascinating, and 36. Behind the scenes of We Are Golden. If you watch them, please let me know what you think :)

In my last blog I mentioned that I'd bought 3 Mika tickets on Wednesday morning to see Mika in London in February with my mum and my friend H. But I was only able to get standing tickets in the presale which wasn't ideal. So I was ready at 9am this morning when the tickets went on general sale to try to get some seated tickets. Luckily that all went smoothly and I got us 3 seats just 4 rows back in the circle :D So that's great and I'm much happier and feeling much more confident about it now that we've got seats. I'll try to sell the standing tickets nearer the time to get my money back. They are 3 stalls standing tickets for Mika's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on February 28th next year. If anyone is interested, let me know by leaving a comment.

This evening Claire is coming round for tea :) Tomorrow morning I've got my flu jab and then tomorrow afternoon I'm going to the cinema with my parents and Alf to see Pixar's latest film, Up 3D. I'm really looking forward to that :) Might go to the local carboot sale on Sunday if I can persuade Dad to give me a lift, but I suspect he'll probably disappear off fishing though. Then dentist next Thur, Save Jess-tival next Friday and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice next Saturday :) Busy week!