Yuletide Greeting

Merry Christmas! Well, it is certainly Christmas, not so much of the Merry happening yet... Hopefully that will change later. Although this morning I did talk to a little blonde thing from Australia whose voice it was tops to hear. And also opened the lonely Christmas present sent to me by a very very organised friend a month ago. A book to read! YAY :) Today we have 2 looooong meetings on the board. The first one starts at 9, the second at 1. They will go all day, make no mistake. It's weird how no one here even gives a shit about Christmas. There are decorations up everywhere, Christmas shit all over the shops but that's as far as it goes. It's just about the presents here. I mean, at home it seems to be just about the presents these days, but when you compare it to Japan you can see that it's about more than that at home for most people. Like, at least most people actually sit down and eat with their family or friends, and be merry and have fun and all that good stuff. Here, it's just another day at work.

On Saturday I went for dinner with Hirai, the bloke from the BOE. He took me to his parent's house and we sat in front of an actual feast. There were only 5 adults, but there was food enough for about 20! I was a bit hungover from my efforts at the staff party on Friday so didn't drink too much wine which could only be described as a smart move. Hirai's family is SO quiet. Well, for a start it wasn't really a family, just him and his parents so that probably didn't help. The conversation was basically limited to discussion of every facial movement, every gesture, every noise the child made, sprinkled with the occasional comment or question about Adelaide or Australia. Hirai's daughter Sa-chan is probably 20 months old, so she's all walking and saying random words and stuff - yeah ok she was amusing and stuff for a while, but after half an hour I was ready to move onto another topic of conversation. How is it possible thta the smallest person in the room could dominate so much? We would finally get talking about something interesting when Sa-chan would trip over and knock a chopstick flying into the air and OH, all the attention was back on her again for the next 10 minutes. Really, I appreciate that to the parents of a child everything that kid does is amazing - but can't they remember what it was like to have their converstaion interrupted every 2 minutes by someone cooing over the every move of a toddler? Here's a tip for people with kids - if you are entertaining adults, do NOT allow your kids to become the focal point of the evening, it will just make everyone hate them. Besides, doesn't it make them feel depressed, that the only thing they have to talk about now is this one little person? I'm not saying that the kids should be locked in their rooms, just that they shouldn't be the centre of attention for 4 straight hours, it's sure to go to their head and bore the hell out of everyone in the room who doesn't find conversation conducted with a 5 word vocabulary stimulating.

Anyway, it was nice of them to have me over, I ate myself silly. They gave me a present too, a little vase. I gave them some fruit cake and Christmas cookies I found in town. They seemed happy with the trade off. Yesterday I lolled around reading all morning before finally braving the elements in order to get some shopping done for tonight. I decided to make trifle and so needed to find jelly, custard and a bowl to put it all in. I couldn't find custard, but the rest is happening. Although I just realised that I don't have a whisk so the cream may not eventuate, unless I just pour it over the top... Actually I realised that I don't have much of anything. Approximately 8 people are coming to my house to be fed and I have only 2 forks, 2 spoons and 4 plates. Ummm... Might have to borrow from my neighbours. It's a tough gig, hosting a party. Especially when your house is devoid of furnishings and simple things like cutlery and crockery!

4:24pm. Not long to go now. I am STARVING, having forgone lunch in order to maximise stuffing space for this evening. I have spent the day searching for and reading poetry I always meant to look at but never did. Reading reading reading, that's all I do these days and my eyes are bugging out of my head. I've had a bevvy of e-mails from one person I invited to the Christmas thingo tonight who is very concerned about what he should bring and what time we'll be winding up and so on... It's hard for me to answer such questions without showing my impatience. It's cultural differences I know, but since when do parties have a finish time? OK, I know when you're in primary school the birthday parties go from 2-4 or something, but this is not a children's party. I know some of us have to work tomorrow, btu I am still hoping for a modicum of late night. I really don't mind being hungover at work tomorrow, it is my last day here and I wont be teaching or anything, just sitting at my desk reading poetry - much like today!