2004-12-20 - 12:54 p.m.

Am I glad THAT�S over. Five straight days of festive indulgence makes Pablo�s liver wish it belonged to a young, clean-living goat herd in Mongolia. I feel like I�ve been living in the film �Supersize Me� but with badly mixed cocktails. I�m possibly one of the only people in the country who is looking forward to giving my drinking head a rest over Christmas � thank the Lord my family are models of temperance and sobriety.

Needless to say, I arrived back at work today looking like Keith Richards. The good thing is that I only have 99.5 per cent of my Christmas shopping left to do, so it will be a nice, relaxed week at least. All I�ll need will be 48 hours sleep and a complete change of blood, and I�ll be good to go.