We had a great Christmas! Hope you did, too!
This is the first time in five years that I actually got the day off for Christmas. I spent my luxurious day-off relaxing by the ocean and enjoying the warn tropical breezes.... OK. I'm lying.
Actually, I spent the morning cleaning and re-organizing my bedroom and my office.
A couple of my good friends, Marc and Lisa, are returning to South Africa shortly. They have been in Taiwan on-and-off for about 5 years. Lisa has just had enough of teaching and she wants to return home.
On Sunday, Christmas Eve, they held a "buy-our-shit, it's-good-shit" party at their apartment, with just about everything in the house marked with a price on a little yellow post-it note! I bought a couple of nice shelving units, which Susan and I cleaned and assembled that evening (rubber mallet!!)... which all leads me back to how I spent my Christmas morning cleaning and re-organizing all my stuff!
Susan came up and joined me mid-afternoon and we had a great time listening to tunes and shuffling stuff around. It was actually a lot of fun!!
Once that was done... well... okay, it was nowhere near done, but we were done for the day!... I took Susan to a spa for her Christmas present from me: a Thai massage! I decided against having one myself, so I made myself cozy in the lobby drinking ginger tea and reading my book (Lord Loss by Darren Shan). Sue walked into the spa looking stressed out, then about an hour and a half later she wandered noodle-like back into the lobby, glowing!
After her massage we went to have dinner at this cool restaurant. On your table is a a big pot where you make your own soup (hot pot) by choosing what you want to put in it from the all-you-can-eat area. Also on the table is a barbecue pit and you can choose from all kinds of meat, fish, seafood, and vegetables (all-you-can-eat!). The only condition is that there is a 2 hour time limit on how long you can stay! Sue and I arrived at 8 o'clock and stayed until precisely 10! I gave up trying to force more in by 9:30, but Sue was a real trouper! She was still having fun with the barbecue long after I had given up, LOL!When we got home after dinner we watched "A Christmas Story" (which neither of us had seen). It was a really lovely Christmas!
Then we went back to work on Tuesday... well.. it was only an hour and half, but it was nevertheless work! After work Sue came over to our house again and we made a nice salad and a couple of hamburgers for dinner... as we were cooking, we had a HUGE earthquake! We turned off the gas on the stove, and pretty much stood there dumbstruck! it's been so long since we've had one, and then here comes this DOOZY! The water cooler sounded like a beachfront, and the glasses on the shelves were just clanging like bells on Christmas morning!
We waited a couple of minutes for everything to stop rocking, then we went back to what we were doing... only to be hit by ANOTHER big earthquake! Needless to say, it made for an interesting cooking experience!
The first earthquake was a 4 in Chiayi City, the second was only a 2 here, but they were both above 6 where they originated (Kaohsiung) and they both really rattled.
Of course, once the shaking stopped, we chilled out in front of the TV and watched the new Doctor Who Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride" which was awesome!
So, that was Christmas in Taiwan this year!
Sue and I also got some lovely gifts (our packages from Mom and Dad, as well as from our sister Laurie, arrived safe and sound in time for Christmas! The gifts were awesome!).
Books were pretty big here this year! I bought Susan a book called Night Of The Gargoyles by Eve Bunting and David Weisner. She got me great new schoolbag (mine is starting to fall to pieces).
I bought Pierre a calendar: each date is a tear-away page with a sudoku puzzle on it. I know he'll enjoy it! I also got him a set of three books, collectively known as His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman (There are three books in the series, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass). I had read them last year (In fact, I gave them to my dad as a gift last Christmas!).
Pierre gave me a great new Doctor Who 2007 Calendar and the new Adam And The Ants retrospective DVD Stand And Deliver! (Which I highly Recommend!!)
That's it for now! Catch you all later!!! :)
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