Christmas Eve 2017 0045

Sunday is normally one of my frequent lazy days but it seems sensible to make it busy this time. I shall do the shopping so that I don't have to buy stuff for our boxing day dinner on the day. I could have done it tomorrow but in case I need a rare siesta between getting home and playing Santa in the evening, at least now I have the choice.

I will also email Pat my internet shopping list, the last of this year and my last chance to stock up on Bisto, cheese and other essentials. Tonight and into the wee hours (and still am) I downloaded Christmas songs. I am definitely a Bah Humbug! sort of cove and in the west viewed this time of year as simply a holiday with an excess of food and booze and a surfeit of arguments.

So yes, I pretend to be jolly in my red suit (and the new beard I bought as the old one tickled my nose) and Annie asked if I could organise some music for the party she organised for the students. We were all amused at learning Dean Li invited Annie to go to her own party!

Anyway, I think I have nigh on 2 hours of music and if I say so myself, it's a pretty damned good playlist with bits of everything for everyone. Even as a Scrooge I defy anyone to start listening to Christmas songs and not get in the mood!

All that remains is to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and hope that my wishes reach you in good health. The happiness part will depend on how you spend your festive season and who with. Mine will be considerably different to most in both the fare and location although I shall at least have the company of two young ladies from whom I am separated by a common language, to quote one of my top two heroes!

My thanks go to anyone who has commented on my blog regardless of which platform you read it on, it's always nice to know there is at least one reader. Especial thanks must go to those who intentionally, obliviously or accidentally enrich or have enriched my life by having been in it this year.

That includes, but is not limited to, my students, Shenyang Steve (doubtless as I type founding the Kuala Lumpur chapter of the Klueless Klucks Klan), Geoffrey Haskins (last spotted looking like the President of a central African country) and Capt Roland Orange who has just commenced a new job but is still earning more in a month than I do in a year.

There are of course others and their omission diminishes not their importance to me.

I cannot say the past year has been a good one because it most certainly wasn't, however I always say that even in the bleakest of times if you look hard enough you can always find something good. Something to laugh about, enjoy or simply gaze upon in wonder.

We none of us know what the future holds, we all simply ride the rollercoaster of life and that's what makes life worth living.

Be happy folks, be healthy. Be optimistic. And LIVE your life!!

Merry Christmas, eat too much, get drunk but most of all, be around to read this annual post next year.