Well Christmas is now upon us, and here in Hong Kong the sun is still shining. It did turn cold. For a day. At which quilted jackets came out, heaters went on and half way through the night I found my knees hugged tight to my chest and the thought passing through my head that a trip to Ikea would be necessary to purchase another duvet. Yes, temporary insanity had set in. Thankfully, that passed in a matter of days, and we are (probably, again temporarily) back to something resembling an Indian Summer with Christmas seeming merely a theatrical that everyone is just playing along with. Myself, putting up fairy lights finally this week, included.
Yes, while my compatriots back home are railing against grounded planes, cancelled trains and unseasonably(!) frozen rains, I am finding myself in conversation with other expats and Eurasians that complain of the inconvenience of a sunny Christmas: "It just doesn't feel like Christmas without the cold and the snow!" Quite. What would Christmas be without the coughs and the colds endured though the shopping and the spending and the wrapping? The eating (which, if you're anything like me is more out of a sudden and positive desire just to have a layer of fat between you and the elements that bite!), and the impending doom of post-dinner dieting? Without The Sound of Music for the 25th consecutive year, and the even worse alternative being offered on the other channel? And that feeling when it's all over and someone, clapping their hands together, saying "Well, that's it for another year" that makes you want to cry out "noooo!" Yes, where would we be without the cold and the snow? Where would Christmas be?
Well, I for one would and am right here, wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, whatever and wherever that may be....
