Catching up on Xmas Eve

We just returned from a highly untraditional Xmas Eve dinner --- Teochew moi (porridge) at our neighbourhood coffeeshop. This way, we can be sure we won't be sick of turkey before Xmas proper.

People keep asking me why I haven't updated the blog this week. No time lah!

First, there was the three days of being sick, despite taking the prescribed medication; I only felt better on the last day of antibiotics. While this didn't prevent me from celebrating G's wedding, it threw a major wrench in the works after the wedding dinner, when we're all up in the bridal suite, surrounded by bottles and bottles of wine (among others, a highly recommended red and a highly expensive and tasty muscat), and I can't touch a drop. I even got Sprite to SMS her doctor brother to verify one last time that I really couldn't have any alcohol with my antibiotics --- and he averred promptly that yea, it was so.

So I consoled myself by soaking for a good hour in the bathtub the next morning --- which, if you know the rooms at the Ritz-Carlton, means that it was a very nice tub indeed. (Okay, not as nice as the one in the link, because I wasn't going to pay $200 for a fancy bath, but you get the idea.)

By Wednesday, I was back at work. Oh, that project? That I was so excited about? That was all I worked on for the last three weeks? That I've poured heart and soul into? Deadline for completion: indefinite. It'll see light of day, eventually, but meanwhile things have ground to a frustrating halt --- after all the rush, rush, rush that went into it earlier. I'll be glad to wash my hands of it.

Oh, I haven't yet. I'm on leave next week but will go back to work on Tuesday for one last meeting. Yeah, I'm still feeling virtuous.

As for the new job, it turns out I probably don't have to go for any meetings next week other than the usual staff conference on New Year's Eve, but I will be teaching graduating classes next year. Aieeee! The first topic is media and culture, fortunately; that's what I'd get a Master's degree in, if I ever had money to burn on that sorta thing, so I should be able to cook something up for the first day of school.

What little remaining free time I had this week was spent braving the Xmas shopping crowds. I was in town Wednesday, Thursday and today, and today was actually the least painful of them all. I even braved the first day of the annual Mango sale yesterday, since all the girls in the office were going at lunchtime. What better way to round up the last week of work, eh?

This year's unofficial Xmas theme song seems to be "All I Want for Christmas is You". It haunts me no matter which store I enter and then I find myself humming it hours later. It's like the Xmas version of that stupid song that gets into my head every National Day.

And the prize for the best gift to throw into a gift exchange goes to Casey: he found a door-stop (as in, something you put against an open room door to prop it open) in the shape of a cute (but not too cute) little dog. Suits all ages, all genders --- basically, anyone who lives in an abode with doors and who doesn't hate dogs. How is that not a win?

Merry Xmas, everybody!