Friday, December 28, 2007

Merry Christmas Virginia!

So Christmas came and went. There were presents but we seem to have spent most of it comatose. Three nights in a row of going to bed at four in the morning takes its toll. We didn't even have the traditional Christmas present-unwrapping ceremony after midnight (which is like, my favourite thing about Christmas) because an uncle wished himself upon us and proceeded to raise holy hell when one of us insulted Singapore.

By three Julie was nodding at the table, Dadda was upstairs asleep, Mums was so tired she nearly passed out, and we sent said uncle and his two bratty kids back to their hotel.

As if one night of him wasn't enough, said uncle called the next day and invited us out to lunch. Note: Mummy's Christmas lunch is like my second favourite part of Christmas. He said Mums would be too tired to cook (she was) so why not eat out.

They all agreed and I went upstairs to catch some shut-eye, begging off. I was too tired to go and make nice at some stupid restaurant, pretending like I was having a good time. Mum woke me up to tell me to feed the dogs before she left.

So I made my way downstairs, cooked up what I thought of as a feast for the doggies and just chilled in the empty house, listening to Esther's present of plinky music which she said she hoped would "calm me down". I gave her crystal balls arranged in the Star of David, for good feng shui. She will put it on her desk, and hopefully it will give her good vibes for the year ahead.

Yesterday, I followed Mums and Chubs to go do a whole bunch of errands - fixing broken stuff (like my car) and repairing my broken gold chain. I also bought 11 DVDs (at five bucks a piece) and so far, only one is not working properly. When I went to the DVD shop to change it, the guy told me that the "Operasi" flers had been there and he could not replace broken DVD. But that was OK. He would have new stock in two days or so. The resilience of crooks is amazing. Almost as amazing as the resilience of those like me who support these crooks with my custom.

I watched a whole bunch of DVDs last night. (OK, four, but if the broken one had been working, it would been five) When Nietzche Wept was a surprise. I hadn't even heard of it, and there it was, this sort of brilliant movie with Armand Assante and Ben Cross.

We are more in love with the feeling of desire, of passion, than the object of desire...Yes. It's about the feeling of love and loss and helplessness and falling down the rabbit hole isn't it? Most times the objects of our desire are merely projections, not real in themselves - come to think of it, that was what Stardust was about, wasn't it? I also watched Stardust, cos Anita recommended it. And yes, I did like it.

The Perfect Holiday was a little two dimensional - the good guy being too good and the bad guy being too noxious. I also watched Uptown Girls which funnily enough, I found unbearably tragic. As it was my second time watching it, this time around, I noticed what sad heartbroken eyes, the main character, the supposedly fancy-free party girl, had.

I'm reading Black, White and Jewish by Rebecca Walker now, which is seriously good. But then, what could Alice Walker's daughter be, if not a good writer?

Coffee Bean again. It's crowded and there are a bunch of kids near me on their red Dell laptop. The automatic door keeps opening and closing. I'm part of the madding crowd and yet apart from it.

You know how it is.

Merry Christmas.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

'they gave each other our great and saving lie: that our love of things is greater than our love of our of love things.' - from everything is illuminated

merry christmas and happy new year. make it a good one, secluded desert island or no.

Jenn said...

more like secluded mountain top. Will fill you in on the details after the fact...next year I want to be less predictable.

Nessa said...

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you.

I did many family hours in an effort to create a savings account for the coming year. I intend to be very selfish in 2008.

As I read your list of movies, I thought to myself, "Jenn should watch Stardust." I bought the DVD and watched it a million times over the last few days. A new fantasy fav for me.