Merry Christmas!

It's officially the weekend for me! I don't know what exactly it is, but I've managed to work myself into a happy high after I got off work today. I wonder if it was the weekend or the bubble tea or the book I am currently reading or the approaching holiday season or simply the cool breeze of a fan blowing in my face as I lie comfortably in bed in complete silence - whatever it is, it feels good.

These days my commute to work is brightened by this book I am reading. Who doesn't love a good story with dragons in it!

A Facebook friend of mine had sent me an inbox message today just to say "Happy New Year" and tagged 124 people to the same message. So every time someone from this pool of mostly unknown 124 people responded with a "Wish you the same", my mailbox got spammed and because I have adjusted my settings to receive inbox messages as sms on my phone, that got spammed too. And because I had to wait till I got home to find out how to detach myself from this nuisance of a thread, I had a lot of spam by the end of the day! Seriously, I wonder sometimes if "common sense" is really as common as the name suggests. Needless to say, I did not reply with a "Wish you the same" and spam another 124 people in the process.

While Christmas holds no religious significance to me, some of its traditions have always been part of my growing up. A tree was essential. So were the cards and gifts. Where a real cypress tree was unavailable, we've put up with plastic ones (like the tiny tree below that I decorated with my 5-year old nephew this time) and even roughed out with bamboo branches! I suppose as children, we were just drawn to the joyful Christmas stories we read and watched. Even with various commercial enterprises over-using the theme of Christmas to make profits, it is still a time of the year when people tend to be less self-involved, more cheerful and generous. And I like it for those reasons.

I recall how my mother and father cleverly led me to believe that Santa left presents for me while I was asleep... until I was about 7 years, that is (then he mysteriously stopped giving me gifts)! I never questioned how Santa knew exactly what I wanted or why I could never catch him in the act. I never wondered if Santa back home was Asian or Caucasian like in the books and movies. And we never left him any milk or cookies. Hell, I should have wondered how he got into the house in the first place, when we locked all our doors and windows and we didn't even have a chimney. Stupid me.junior! I did however once try to catch him or the present, at least. One stormy night, I woke up in the middle of the night and looked around for my present but didn't find it anywhere in the house. So I went outside thinking he might have left it inside the car. To my horror, the front door shut with a loud bang because of the howling winds and I got locked outside. My parents took awhile come and rescue me. I did get the present I wanted that year. If memory serves me right, that was the last present I got from him. My parents probably figured it was for the best.

The Christmas tree of 2012

And I would like to end this post with a warm welcome to Ryuu, who after a very long hiatus and a nasty case of the blogger's block, has recovered and returned to the blogosphere (http://razorbladeryuu.wordpress.com/) to entertain us. Happy blogging, Ryuu!

Urgh. The water in my bottle tastes strongly of dish washing liquid. I should probably get out of bed and get some fresh water.

*does the weekend dance*