Christmas came and went. The metropolitan Chinese have all absorbed this tradition making it a craze. Everybody has to go out to drink and eat, choking the streets with cars making it a city-wide traffic jam, and making it impossible to get a seat in a decent restaurant without having reserved weeks ago. A couple of years ago the only one that cared about this Western holiday was the young and the foreign. Now it involves everybody. It has become a way to meet your business partners, to build relationships with your employee, an excuse to get out and get drunk, but most of all an excuse to go out with a girl on a date. As far as I know there's nothing going on in people's homes. No decoration, no gift giving, no cooking food, eating cakes. It has transformed to a new tradition with little in common with the tradition I know, except for the date.
I spend most of the day reading in a cafe and had dinner with a friend. Ok, I have to be honest. We actually had dinner at McDonald's. Yep. Christmas dinner at McDonald's. Raps up the Christmas mood around here. Christmas is one of the biggest disadvantages of being away from home. There is no good remedy and there is just no good way to tackle it.
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If it makes you feel any better, I am spending my Christmas alone in bed with fever having in some way (probably in conjunction with my Peru trip) been infected with mono (körtelfeber). So my delicious Christmas dinner consisted of a cocktail of painkillers (max daily dose of Ibuprofen), half a protein bar and a clementine. After that feast I relaxed watching yet three James Bond movies (channel 33 has a Bond marathon over Christmas). So I guess there is only one thing to say really. Merry Christmas!! (But by God, let's hope it will be merrier next year...)
Edward.
Mebbe I shouldn't add on to the sad xmas stories here, but well, I had instant noodles which by any standards are pretty tasty around here in Singapore.
Hope u enjoyed ur McDate (so sue me..)
Belated xmas kisses.
I had a pleasant X-mas though. With Toba and Saga. Some presents and lots of good food. (And I was Santa.) BUT I'm ill eating Ibuprofen too, with an aching throat and a sore tounge. I'm at Sveriges Radio for now. Been calling eyewitnesses in Thailand and interviewing the first people to come home to Umeå. It's a tragedy. I've heard of a father whose daughter was swept out of his arms by the sunami-monsterwave. And I've heard of children that lost their parents. So many dead and wounded. In Sri Lanka it's even worse. And in Indonesia.
And in India.
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