Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas everyone! It's that time of the year once again, this festive season is something that everyone is looking forward after what has been a rather tough year. Though the economy may be bad, many of us still take the time to celebrate Christmas and likewise for me too. In what has turned out to be a yearly affair for me and my sec 4 classmates, we gathered at wong's place for bbq/gathering every Christmas eve. Though not everyone can make it because of their respective commitments, the turnout was still healthy. Even those who were attached still took time out to come down before they left.
My perception of Christmas has largely changed now that I'm older and hopefully wiser too. Christmas eve back in the secondary school days or even in the jc days meant heading down to orchard or somewhere that's crowded to soak in the festive spirit. It was literally the more the merrier and hopefully to catch that last train or bus home after that. Come to think of it, it was rather meaningless and a waste of time. Spending all that time squeezing in that crowd and thankfully I'm not a female cause I've friends or heard of girls who got groped by guys or even foreign workers who happen to be in town to also "soak in the festive spirit". Sometimes these girls only have themselves to blame, it's like if you know it's going to be dangerous, why subject yourselves to such mental and physical torture by heading down to town?
It's a cliche but you only start to treasure something after you've lost it. The time spent in fds had taken away alot of my public holidays. It was either the Christmas eve, Christmas day itself or even both days that I've to be in camp doing duty. By the time you book out, all the fesitive spirit in you would have been long gone. My family doesn't celebrate Christmas and neither am I a Christian but festive seasons like these have taken on a whole new meaning after getting my ic. I've started to dislike going to crowded places and prefer to spend time with friends instead. Singaporeans celebrate Christmas in many different ways, you could be going for masses on the eve, having a party,gathering, bbq at a friend's house or doing charity.
Yes, you didn't read that wrongly. I came across the yahoo homepage on Christmas day itself and saw one of the headlines.One Singaporean spent her Christmas eve providing meals in Little India for the foreign workers while another was helping the less fortunate at a home for the needy. Who says you've got really live it up and get drunk just because it's Christmas eve? It's what you do that really matters and people like that deserves my total respect. They could be out in the comfort of their own homes but they chose to devote their time and energy to helping others out there, at their own expenses.
It was indeed the first time having a bbq when it's raining. As the pit at wong's place wasn't sheltered, we tried all kinds of ways to protect the fire and the food with 2 umbrellas and it ended up with the people who were either holding the umbrella or cooking the food getting a bit wet. I was one of them and in the end, the bbq stopped after we ran out of charcoal and ended up having to cook our food on the stove and microwave. Cooking was part of the fun and we ended up having a catch up session and it was really a good feeling. Ash who's back from his law studies in London joined us too. I really hope this annual Christmas eve gathering continues for long long time to come. We probably won't be bringing our other half too, strictly keeping it to a guys only thingy.
Personally, I'm really happy for James who managed to find himself a nice girl. After all the crap that he's probably not going settle down resulted in this. When love comes looking for you, it's going to be hard to run away from it. When you're based in smu, the female count is pretty healthy as compared to my faculty. It's sad life I'm living and little wonder I found myself devoting all my free time to work last semester and becoming the ultimate nerd. Eventually I found out that the year 1 girl that I found attractive is happily attached. Well, it's sad but that's life. At least I managed to find out without having to jack myself in front of her or even lose this friendship. For this I have to thank the wonders of facebook.
After today, it would be another year before Christmas comes around again. I didn't really feel the festive spirit this year at all. It could be due to the economy and a host of other reasons. Even when I head down to town for shopping, the decorations didn't play their part also. Whatever it is, I hope 2009 will be a better year.
For you and for me.
