Turkey, Bulls and cowboys Nothing like a nice long break to blow away the cobwebs and get you back into the swing of things at work, or maybe that's a nice long break to make it even harder to get into the swing of things at work? In fact I won't actually be back in the office until Monday as I fly to New York early tomorrow morning for a couple of days to see a client.

Shouting at the radio during the Charlton commentaries aside I've had a quiet festive period.

After arriving back into Chicago Christmas Day I had an Australian themed dinner around at a friends house. After seeing the crackers on the table I soon realised that an Australian Christmas is very much like a British one. My mate's parents were there too (from Australia) and told me that they would resist any talk of going down to the beach for a barbie on Christmas Day. It was roast turkey with all the trimmings, cooked in the sweltering heat of Queensland. I had planned to pick up crackers back at home because I have never seen them here in the shops but was glad I didn't.

One American tilt on the Christmas dinner theme was the turkey and the way it was cooked. I have witnessed first hand and you have read here about the American's love of all things deep fried. Well, how about deep fried turkey? And tell you what, it was very good.

On New Years Eve I broke with tradition and avoided overpriced bars packed full of amateurs and went out for dinner instead. Midnight was understated and we drunk some very nice wine and ate some very nice food. It was something I might have done any other night, and it was good not to feel pressurized into doing something 'special' or 'different', when realistically it never is at all.

Otherwise I have been doing some constructive thinking about joining a gym and putting a new kitchen in. Both projects have involved meeting salesman and women, and my the gym bloke was a million times more forceful than the kitchen people. More thinking required on these.

I had some people over for dinner last week and again on New Years Day, which was fun and I've seen a couple of films, chosen for no other reason than they were due to begin at the time I arrived at the cinema.

Arthur Golden's bestseller the Memoirs of a Geisha is very good story and worth a watch and then today I saw Brokeback Mountain, a different take on a cowboy love story involving two male ranch hands in Wyoming. Beautifully shot and prime Oscar bait if you ask me.

On Monday night I went to watch the Chicago Bulls play Milwaukee Bucks. (picture below)

Now, watching the Bulls at the moment is like watching Charlton. Coach Scott Skiles does a mean impersonation of Alan Curbishley and the Bulls 93-92 defeat was their 7th on the spin. Update 10pm tonight: Bulls lose 8th consecutive game against Seattle Supersonics.

"I'm really embarrassed by what happened out there, I thought we came out in the second half and pretty much, we were as soft as I've seen," Skiles said on Monday night. (more)

I was asked afterwards, quite seriously, "why I always support crap teams." It was a fair question but you don't choose teams, they choose you. Of course I don't expect rational people to understand that do you?  ¶ 23:32