(This woman on her cell is obviously not moved by Christmas in the Tropics.)
Though I think it's hysterical that the biggest lights display on Orchard Road (ie Shopping Centre Strip) is the Singapore Visitors Centre:
It's a valiant attempt across the board to Christmas it up, but it just doesn't do it for me. Lots of huge artificial trees are lit around town, but no pine smell. Lots of shopping and sales, but then again, that's what Singapore's like all the time. You hear Christmas music everywhere, although the instrumental version of "12 Days of Christmas" played religiously in the grocery store is not something I recommend you download. ("DA dadadada DA dadadada DA dadadada DA dadadada"...over and over.) The thing that kind of gets me in the spirit is my co-worker Melvin playing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" every day at 6pm, once we're allowed to access things like YouTube. There's something funny, charming and very Christmasy about watching a Malaysian man sing along to Mariah's holiday concert at his desk.
Christmas plans this year involve a vacation to Thailand -- Greg and I are hitting up Bangkok and Phuket (the beach), get back Xmas Day and then his parents come out to visit on the 26th. Speaking of family, we actually got to do Thanksgiving pretty traditionally this year -- the PiAers organized a full pot luck dinner, down to the stuffing, mashed potatoes, roast chicken (as close as we could get to turkey) and homemade apple pie. It was awesome, felt very homey -- half of us were slumped around the table with food comas by the end of it. Had a second Thanksgiving dinner at the American Club downtown with about 200 alum from various US colleges and their families. Again, the meal and company were great. I missed my family, but at least I had adopted family to celebrate with here.
Plus, I saw these guys play on the street on Thanksgiving Day. How can it get better than this?
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!
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