Christmas

Christmas Day started off rainy, but after a few moments' reflection I went back to sleep for a few hours, failing to go out and run intervals in the wet. When we eventually got up, we ate sausages and opened presents, in the dry, a far more relaxing alternative. The skies looked grumpy all day, threatening to rain again, so our plan for a Christmas Day walk around MacRitchie Reservoir came to naught. Instead we watched a DVD of More Carols and Lessons For Godless People, which included Richard Herring's bit about buying his girlfriend an exponentially increasing series of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. What could be more Christmassy than that?

An early German Christmas

We had our team Christmas dinner at a German restaurant in Tanjong Pagar today; this catered slightly better for vegetarians than Hamburg, the restaurant I went to in Osaka after the marathon this November. Which is to say, there was more for me to eat apart from just potatoes.

Fowl Weather, Boxing Day

Despite my best efforts, today was very eventful. We dined late last night on tepid spaghetti and cold mince pies, and perhaps that influenced the dream I woke from at 3 this morning, convinced the resort had been overrun by zombies.

Christmas Day

We woke early today, to hear the waves crashing on the beach and the wind blowing. We were still optimistic that it would be a fine day and we could take a boat to the islands, but our hopes were misplaced; the sky stayed overcast and threatened rain.

Zombie Christmas

Yesterday, wandering though Lane Crawford (Selfridges for those of us who can't afford to fly back to London from Hong Kong to do a bit of tasteful yet insanely OTT designer shopping) I spied a Christmas CD by Emmy The Great. It's incredible.

Boxing Day

It snowed in the night, so when I walked out into the woods with the dogs everything felt very foreign; the monochrome surroundings, perfectly quiet apart from bursts of barking, the cold fresh air, the absence of concrete, the opportunity to wear a hat and gloves and not faint from heat exhaustion.

Christmas, dogs and such

Yesterday evening we drove out to my fiancee's aunt's place, which comes with seven large dogs, one Alsatian puppy that's already the size of a medium-sized dog, and twelve cats.

Christmas Party

The second office Christmas party was tonight: for the first two hours it was largely silence punctuated with the occasional outburst when another dish was delivered to the table. The awkwardness was accentuated by the noise from the rest of the restaurant of people enjoying themselves noisily. I swigged Con Osur wine and tried to keep my head down.

Christmas is coming

They're playing Fairytale of New York in the supermarket, which either displays wonderful irony or a complete lack of comprehension. It's hard to say which, as this is the same shop that's flogging gingerbread men for 65 dollars a pop, and they're not man-sized gingerbread men, and nor do they appear to justify that price in any other way. Maybe if they danced or played the banjo or offered lifestyle advice then I'd pay that much, but for a merely man-shaped piece of biscuit, I think not.

Feeling punchy

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, or so they say. But what do "they" know? I've never had a gift from a Greek in my life, and although Santa and Father Christmas look a bit like a Greek Orthodox priest (big beard, voluminous clothes), I don't actually believe in them. I mean, it's frankly preposterous that a cabal of Greek Christians are flying round the world delivering presents from an enchanted sleigh.

Only 54 weeks until Christmas!

It was a struggle to get up this morning, and it was with rubbery legs that I walked to the tram stop. Damn that stupid run. Next weekend I'll take the bike out instead (and after a year and a half of not cycling, I expect I'll really benefit from having fresh legs on my 40k jaunt around Lantau).