Ingredients for the Perfect Christmas Weekend

What more could I ask of the long weekend just past?

1. House Party on Friday
Truckload of university mates. Naughty gift exchanges. Staying behind longer with the ones I'm closer to. Playing drinking games. And more drinking games. And even more drinking games. And getting a rare insight into the loneliness of someone I hitherto thought was unshakeable.

2. Mother of all Poptarts on Saturday
Heading with friends to the maddest Poptart ever, complete with snow sprays, bodysurfing, non-stop pogo-ing, staggering across the street to the 7-eleven to tank up on alcohol, and dancing till the point of physical injury. Not to mention supper, watching the cops clean out a nearby club, and witnessing a mind-blowingly surreal formation in the sky. It has never been this crazy, and the two first-timers among the six of us couldn't have chosen a better Poptart to start with.

3. Indie Night at Cafe Cosmo on Sunday
Great conversation; nice atmosphere; a birthday surprise for one of the regulars; discovering a band whose latest album cover misled me to believe they were unlistenable; getting inside info on the big acts coming to Singapore in 2006. Couldn't have been a better way to enjoy indie without aggravating my dance injury.

4. Jamming at Boon's Studio on Monday
After years of false starts, false hopes, too much self-belief and too little faith from others, it finally begins. It's come a long way from that innocent reply to an online forum thread back in April. Yes, the amps were lousy, the guitars were shit and we were absolute amateurs. But we have original material, commitment and a great deal of momentum. The three of us get along really well, too. At the tail end of 2005, the defining feature of my life in 2006 has already been set in motion.

...did anyone say anything about work?