December 30, 2005

Happy Holidays all! I know it's been a long while without any activity on my part, but it really is simply because this thing called life has been taking over nearly all of my time.

I'm having a 4-week break for Christmas/New Year, which couldn't have been better-timed, since work leading up to the holidays was rather hectic. We had a Christmas party at Tony Kitten's, this really nice jazz club just three minutes away from the office. The surprise of the night came when I was nominated for the Best Dressed Female! I didn't win, but it was nice to know that my makeshift evening dress (in truth I was only wearing a black skirt and a maroon top, as I was fully prepared not being able to go home after work before the party) was proper enough for the occassion.

After that I had a day to do my last minute shopping (everything was on Christmas sale! it was unbelievable), and catch up with all the friends I won't ever be seeing again, as most of them were graduating, and a lot of them would be going home. It's the feeling of loss that gets a bit much - they're people who are very dear to me, I'd call them my family in Melbourne. I shall miss them dearly - life in Melbourne will not be the same.

Anyway, the last day was truly hectic - did a lot of shopping and running around, but managed to get home just in time to start packing before dozing off. I had to get up rather early the following morning, as my flight was in the afternoon, and a dear friend was picking me up at ten.

All went smoothly - there was nobody in the seat next to mine in the 7-hour flight, so I got to stretch my legs quite a bit, and did quite a bit done of my reading of Memoirs of a Geisha (great book!). I got to Jakarta, where then I went to Bogor, where my aunties are. We celebrated Christmas together, and had this really fun lunch on the 25th where everyone wore brightly different colored polo shirts. It was madness! Such bright colors, so many people! The photos looked so good, yay.

Later at the day we (my family and I, plus a cousin of mine that's my sister's age - 12) hopped onto another flight to Singapore, where I am now typing this journal entry out.

Singapore's been wonderful - much shopping and feasting has been had, and being with my family has got to be simply the best thing in the world. Yesterday was my dad's birthday, so at midnight we gave him a cake, as is customary in our family. Last night was the birthday dinner at Tony Roma's, where the ribs were just wonderful! I just can't believe how cheap things here are, especially when compared to Australia.

A couple of the movies I've seen these last couple of weeks that I would recommend would be Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (of course, since even though it's quite different from the book, it's still a majestic piece on its own), and Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The latter is just such a faithful adaptation of the book, that if you like the book, you can't help liking the movie as well. Oh, and the boy playing Peter Pevensie is just so cute, and so perfect for the role; then again, everyone fitted their roles so well in the movie it's uncanny.

To wrap things up... again, happy holidays to everyone, and I hope to be able to do some more updates (including new piccies) soon. Thanks for reading this far ;)

11:44 AM