The day after Christmas

Originally uploaded by: kyrakin

How did you celebrate your Christmas? Did you rushed into the malls to buy discounted stuff? As we all know, the holidays are meant to be a time of joy and family celebration. But all the running around we do can zap the fun.

I know some of you have calculated enough to spend on something, but mine was just to simplify the season. It was simply less stressful - that’s what I vow to make my Christmas easier. I didn’t cooked anything because I crashed on my brothers place and took home some ziploc bag on leftovers. My gift for the family was a special home made “stollen” Xmas cookies and Gingerbread freshly from La Rose Noire. I say special because it was written on the back of the box, so I thought, why not savour the Xmas with delicious cake? It was really different, no spending on clothes & gift-giving of fancy items. It was quite extraordinary really. And oh, I received a bottle of Red from my brothers in a wooden box complete with accessories. Such a sweet life indeed.

Apparently, calling home at 12 midnight was a bit disappointing because of the connection traffic but still talking to my family over the phone in the Philippines made me feel I was there. Surprisingly, no one asked me for “where’s our Xmas gift”? I didn’t even felt sad, seemed like they were enjoying the yule back there. Since the electricity was back after the typhoon, some of the folks around downtown was celebrating the usual traditional ‘Christmas Cheers’. It was some sort of gatherings held at de Plaza with kiosks around, singing christmas carols nightly before X’mas. “We’re cooking BBQ’s around here then sells them”, my Mom said.

You know when I was growing up on our province, people put up Christmas displays earlier in October. Like everyone was really thinking about the Misa de Gallo. Filipinos wake up early in the morning to attend the mass, an expression of devotion to God. We also do that here in Hong Kong but then, I had to excuse myself from going too early because I dreaded the cold weather. In fact, my mother felt so strongly about it that she even like to hear the word ‘Christmas’ from the beginning of October, because it’s the most celebrated holidays until now (and will always be).

On the other news, at around 8:26 in the evening on Boxing Day, the city was rattled by an earthquake, a second after three months. It was recorded that the shaking was stronger than the first one at about 3.5 in magnitude. I felt dizzy, the ornaments on my Christmas tree swayed forward and backward about 10 seconds, thought it was only me. I experienced a lot of earthquakes back in the Philippines, so I knew what it was. I texted my friends and they too felt it. The tremor begun while watching the concert of Kylie Minogue’s “… can’t get you out of my head”, on TV and I couldn’t even find the remote control to shut her off so I started to pray, “I believe in God..” as I dialed to call home. After about few minutes I looked around the flat and thought, “Fook! what if this building collapsed”?

The recent earthquake that hit Taiwan around 7.6 scale also made a massive telecommunication disruptions throughout the tech-savvy Asia. The connections in the internet remained really slow. I can’t even open some e-mail programs. All around Hong Kong, people were shocked when suddenly connections are disrupted tremendously considering this city is connected in terms of mobile phones, data and internet use. Right now, I am at the office writing this off and here too is obviously experiencing in slower speeds and congestions. It will probably last for a week or longer before things will restore to normal. Poor Nancy, even if I get her signal, I can’t even access the entire time.

Anyways, I’d like to thank those who sent me a beautiful virtual Xmas cards and dozen of text messages from offline friends. You guys are so sweet. Range, I hope you and your wife are all safe and doing well in Taiwan.

Will see you all in 2007! Have a SAFE & Prosperous New Year!

I’ll Be Seeing You
by: Regina Carter

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