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Festive Activities

Monday 25th December – Christmas Day
The present’s one receives can tell what other thinks of you… this year I spent Christmas Day at my grandparents along with all my aunts and uncles from my dad’s side of the family including all my cousins. So save the trouble of us all trying to sit down to a have our meal together, we had a sort of hot pot were people just came and went whilst they are gambling! LOL

The men in the family were either playing cards or mah-jong all day and the women all sort of congregated near the kitchen, dining or living room – I of course sat right next to the food ;-)

The eating session lasted all night but after 3 hours and a small sip of champagne I made my exit towards all the little kids to help them open their presents! I have this little cousin, Sylvia who is only 7 and she looks so cute in her skirt, t-shirt and spy gadget belt! Yep, she looks so girly but is a real tomboy at heart! I must say, the spy gadgets really do work – there was an infra red pen which she used on to pass on secret messages and the hearing aide receiver was brilliant… I am thinking of getting myself one of those belts now! Hahaha

The younger kids all enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the presents we got them! By this time the men was quite hungry but refused to move from the card game so as soon as Trees brought out the Krispy Kreme (which I brought from London) to them and they devoured it! We didn’t expect them to eat any as they are not known for their sweet tooth

Ok, now for the presents we got for each other (Kim, Ping, Lin, Trees and me – remember we only had a £10 budget for each person) – we stood in a circle in the kitchen, as that was the only room vacant at the time.

First we opened the presents we got from Kim:
Trees – a Yorkie chocolate bar, horoscope book, a little purse and an exercise ball
Me – a marshmallow shaped like a hotdog, a ‘Little Book of Geeks’ (I loved that by the way – it was very fitting), a pack full of PC games along with a toy car full of sweets
Lin – another marshmallow hotdog, chocolates, a ‘Grow Your Own Credit Card’ kit and a scarf
Ping – constipation pills (!), hand cream, a tin of sweets which you can use as a money bank afterwards and a box of 3 photo albums

Second we opened Ping’s:
Kim – hanging mobile and hanging candle
Trees – loads of sweets and kitchen utensils
Me – a pair of mittens and a book entitled ‘Ugly’ (!)
Lin – a clutch bag, and candle holder

Thirdly Tree’s:
Ping – Russian dolls
Kim – hanging mobile
Me – a tea light spinning lantern
Lin – a decorated glass ball hanging from a glass rack

Fourthly Lin’s:
Trees – a clutch bag and a box of Ferrero Roche
Me – an Aveda travel bag full of shampoo and conditioner and a pair of earrings
Ping – a pair of earrings and lacy thong
Kim – scarf and a big mug and saucer

At last it was my turn:
Lin – I made a personalised apron with ‘Donut Princess Lin’ and the recipe of Krispy Kreme donuts on it
Ping – an embossed passport cover with her initials
Kim – I made her a calendar of a Chinese artist, Ron Ng and a small iron for her to take on holiday as she always complain about her clothes being wrinkly
Trees – a desktop calendar with new insults for everyday of the year

So to summarise, the girls sees me as a geek who likes PC games, sweets, girly if the earring, mittens and tea light ornaments are anything to go by… I was reassured that the title of that other book was not ‘personal’! Hahaha

That was Christmas Day! Phew!

Tuesday 26th December – Boxing Day aka St Stephen’s Day
A quick ‘geeky’ fact: Boxing Day originated in the mid-nineteenth century under Queen Victoria – the upper classes would give money/gifts to lower classes in boxes, the day after Christmas to thank them for smooth running of things, and the churches would also open their alms boxes to the poor on that day too.

Ok, my Boxing Day was relatively quite as we didn’t get out of bed until noon, had a long lunch and slowly cooked the turkey to be taken over to Lin’s place where we were planning to have our full turkey and all the trimming dinner!

But before that, a few of the guys (Lee and Pings’ boyfriend, Stephen tag teamed, Trees’ fiancé, Duong and uncle Sung) entertained my granddad on the mah-jong table.

Lin was already cooking up a storm when we got to her place and the sight/smell of food was putting me off… well until it was all laid out in front of me that is! Ate everything on my plate and had room to have two servings of cake and custard! LOL

Saturday 30th December
The Royal Academy of Arts is showing some of Rodin's work up until the 1st January and I have wanted to go ever since it opened back in September – well as today was my only free day off since coming back from visiting family, I took myself up town and braved the threat of wind and rain to attend the exhibition.

I thought I was very well prepared with my printed map from the Transport of London website… it took me onto a major detour through Regent Street and onto Old Bond Street when I could have just gone through Piccadilly! I came across the Royal Academy of Arts’ Garden venue which was closed – I went up the ramp to the disabled entrance and to save me from coming down to wave down a member of staff, I waved down a passer-by instead (I felt like Repunzel… if only I had long hair!) to help me attract the attention of the staff… well the Garden venue was closed so I had to go right round the Burlington Arcade to get to the open part of the Academy! So glad the rain hadn’t arrived yet or I would have gone shopping instead! Hehehe

At the entrance of the Academy was Rodin's ‘Gates of Hell’. The ‘Gates’ is full of figures Rodin have put together from many smaller pieces of work he have made over the years – there of course is ‘The Thinker’ sitting on top of the doors, ‘Shades’, ‘Fugit Amor’, ‘Damned Women’ etc but I must say, the piece most intrigued me on the ‘Gates’ (besides from ‘The Thinker’) was ‘Ugolino’ – he was locked in a cell along with his children and nephew, and he was so hungry that he ate his children. Rodin had sculptured ‘Ugolino’ crouching over a child with his mouth open, ready to devour him…

‘The Kiss’ represented the tragic story of Paolo and Francesca, it was initially going to be in the ‘Gates’ but Rodin decided against it in the end – the piece have become a symbol of erotic art ever since. Some of the pieces are so life like that I just sat there staring, willing it to come to life… Many years ago, I was in Florence and saw Michelangelo’s ‘David’ but was too young to appreciate the amount of effect had gone into the piece, but today I can see that Rodin had taken inspiration from past masters, and as I was using the audio guide I had professional explaining to me some of the key facts/ideas with some of the pieces which I would not have known if I had only went around looking and reading the short inscription of the pieces.

Its New Years Eve tomorrow (today) and I will be spending it all alone… my Mum and Sally went to Hong Kong today and will not be back until the end of January, my Dad is most likely busy, Trees and Duong will have their own party and not sure about Lee… I guess it’s another night spent in front of the TV :-(

I hope everyone have a safe and enjoyable New Year Eve, see you all in the New Year!

Helen X

posted by RavingLoonyLawyers @ 1:08 am