Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

I think i'm over Christmas.

Didn't it start in October?

The holiday season for me really only began on Wednesday afternoon, which I spent in abject depression about the state of my research. I took a nap and tried not to think too much, which is sometimes the only way to deal with things till you're a bit more detached and sensible.

In any case, almost immediately, i reverted to my natural nocturnal habits. Left to my own devices, i unfailingly stay up till 5am and then wake up at noon. This sortof worked on Thursday, when the retail sector stayed up all night too, and so we went shopping at 8.30pm! An adventure! Unfortunately, people doing christmas shopping, even at adventurous hours of the night, are Really Stressed and In a Hurry, and i'm afraid it rubbed off on us. We darted in and out of shops, methodically amassing appropriate gifts for Bear's friends and loved ones... or rather, I would select various items, thrust them in front of Bear, who would say "hrmmmm" or "ehhhhhrrr" or other helpful beary noises, and then I made the final decision.

I got a little upset at Bear, but it really wasn't his fault. Bears can't be expected to be any use at shopping. Thankfully however, they are very good at carrying heavy bags, giving hugs, and driving cars!

After a nice midnight dinner at our regular 24hr cafe, we were off to the Fish Markets! Hurrah! Bear was much happier shopping for fish, and despite the heaving crowds, we got out with several kilos of fresh seafood for Christmas lunch with his family. We also bought some perch for ourselves, which Bear suspects we might've got for free in the chaos, so that was cool. :)

And then we went home. Bear went to sleep, and I stayed up till 5am.

Then came Friday. It's still Friday as far as I'm concerned, but you know, whatever.

We did nothing on Friday, also known as Christmas Eve. I woke up at 1pm, sat around, went online, had some lunch, wrapped some presents, failed to have a nap, sat around some more, and had a brief delusional experience whereby it suddenly occurred to me that the strange bump growing on my ear was dutch, and it was from the netherlands.

Then i made dinner. We looked in the fridge and found a tomato and two potatoes, so with the help of our rather enthusiastic veggie garden, we had thyme seasoned pan-fried perch with lemony mashed potato and a lettuce and tomato salad with basil vinaigrette.

Then i burnt most of the crumble i'd put in the oven, and we had slices of fresh mango with vanilla yoghurt, topped with salvaged crumble for dessert.

That was probably the high point of the day.

Christmas is so nothing. All the shops are closed. They're even closed on Boxing Day, which isn't their fault really since the NSW government took it unto themselves to provide retail workers with "a decent break at Christmas time" by banning retailers from trading on that day.

We're flying off to Singapore on Monday though, for a measly little week.

I wish i had a longer holiday.

I wish my family and friends were here.

I wish we all weren't so inevitably lost and alone in this world.