A very Merry Christmas to you all.
I just realised that this has been a very peculiar Christmas period. This Christmas, I've received the least amount of presents since I can remember. And yet, it's also been one of the best Christmas periods I can remember.
The lead-in has been quite awesome, bar a few pangs of loneliness. Kris Kringle on the 17th, and Chen's party last night were a great way to catch up with friends just before today, and were a near-perfect buildup. And for the first time ever, I think I may be properly infatuated. This feels like a culmination of a year, but I'll save that for a more appropriate time.
Today was wonderful as well. After having a lunch of stir-fried Nissin noodles, the Huang family went on a trip to the Melbourne Aquarium and had afternoon tea in the city, then dinner with grandparents as well.
What has become apparent this year, and sort of maybe signals my somewhat maturing, is that friends and family mean so much more to me than 'getting' anything in particular. In fact, I've found that I've derived more joy from giving things to people, and I think I always have. That's not to say that I'm not grateful for the presents that I get. I love the fact that people care enough about me to get something special for me (guitar, and funny little keyring thing, from parents and sister.) It's amazing when you get something that you want/need/like and didn't ask for. I'm a big fan of presents that don't really do anything, but remind me of the person that gave them to me. Wearable things of this ilk take some beating.
But yes. I think I like seeing the smile I elicit from someone when I give them something they like or appreciate.
Family and good friends make this a special time, though. I believe that gifts, and even the giving of gifts, adds gloss to this time. It's like the icing sugar on the funny ninja star windmill pastry things that my mother makes (incidentally, if you haven't had one, let me know, and I'll hook you up. According to those that have had one, or several, or millions, they're quite good, and I think I agree with them). Presents are not essential, but it does give an otherwise great day a certain zing.
Hope you've had as much fun, and experienced as much joy and happiness as I have today.
Word of the Day: Christmas 2009
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Friday, 25 December 2009
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Chad's Stone
Retail therapy is so detrimental in so many ways, yet it provides so much lift for a short amount of time.
I'm serious. It can make you forget almost all your problems.
It's not like I went of a psycho, compulsive, uncontrolled, extremely money-draining splurge on all things branded. I just bought an on-sale pair of jeans from Mossimo. I don't even remember the last time I bought something for myself. I'm fairly sure that most of my money is spent on other people.
It's not something I mind. It's weird. Like, I don't mind spending a lot of money on somebody if they mean something to me, but I'm very loathe to spend money on myself. I'm fine with buying expensive jewelery for others. I like seeing the smile on their face, amongst other things. But myself, I usually wait for the sales, or shop around a bit.
I'm also quite a snob. I don't like buying just anything. It has to be good. That, mixed with an almost unqualified refusal to pay for overpriced goods, is generally not a good mix.
But yes. I bought a pair of jeans. And now I am quite happy. Hopefully this will carry me until Chen's shindig, which will carry me til past Christmas. Goodo.
Word of the Day: Retail
I'm serious. It can make you forget almost all your problems.
It's not like I went of a psycho, compulsive, uncontrolled, extremely money-draining splurge on all things branded. I just bought an on-sale pair of jeans from Mossimo. I don't even remember the last time I bought something for myself. I'm fairly sure that most of my money is spent on other people.
It's not something I mind. It's weird. Like, I don't mind spending a lot of money on somebody if they mean something to me, but I'm very loathe to spend money on myself. I'm fine with buying expensive jewelery for others. I like seeing the smile on their face, amongst other things. But myself, I usually wait for the sales, or shop around a bit.
I'm also quite a snob. I don't like buying just anything. It has to be good. That, mixed with an almost unqualified refusal to pay for overpriced goods, is generally not a good mix.
But yes. I bought a pair of jeans. And now I am quite happy. Hopefully this will carry me until Chen's shindig, which will carry me til past Christmas. Goodo.
Word of the Day: Retail
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Thanks
And as if just to reinforce the point, Arsenal won against Hull this morning, capping off what turned out to be quite a swell week for me.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you may recall that I predicted that good week would follow after Arsenal beat Liverpool on the weekend. Read for more information.
By swell, I mean mostly good.
Annual Kris Kringle with A Rotational Roster of People on Thursday night went quite well, except for the timing issues. I have no idea why, on that day, people had to turn up late, leave early, and just generally not fit in with the plan. Must have been a bad day to pick. But apart from that, it all clicked together fairly well. Most things that I plan generally do, I think, except when people mess them up for me.
Anyway, I got a shirt to add to my growing collection (thanks Davy), and Yvonne seemed pleased with what I gave her. I hope. Unless I'm reading the signs wrong again, as I am wont to do. I think everyone else liked the 'things' that I made them, useless and non-functional though they may be, and Linda didn't kill me for defying her direct order not to make her anything, so I guess that worked out alright. All I know is that I've been completely turned off folding stars, at least for a while, and Sicilian salmon with potatoes at Airstream is also getting a bit old. Alas, must find new thrills.
Imesha and Linda bailed halfway through our dinner, so we moseyed on down to the cinema to watch Avatar.
Personally, I didn't like the 3Dness. Apart from the fact that you had to pay an extra dollar to watch 3D (unless you're Yvonne and have five pairs of spare 3D goggles at home), I thought that it actually made most of the movie look worse. I wasn't really feeling the 3D, and when I did, it just looked like one of those dodgy lenticular things you get out of chip packets. It looked less realistic than it would have on a normal screen. Everything just sort of looked stuck on. But it was a good movie. Not that Davy would know. I found out just then that he fell asleep during the film. He's making a habit of this. First New Moon with his girl, then Avatar.
On Friday, nothing much happened, except for Victor coming over and fiddling with my computers, and FIFA 10. Thanks Victor.
Saturday, would've liked to have gone to Kylie's, but no transport/didn't want to trouble other people in giving me a lift/ditched by Victor. Sorry Kylie.
Just then was the NQT Christmas dinner. It was cool. Found out that Catherine is a pretty cool person, and that I'm a pretty terrible person to sit next to at dinner, as I pretty much go quiet. Also, 'Same Girl' is a universally recognised benchmark of an awesome song.
Here's to having more fun-laden and awesome times ahead. It's a shame really, because I have all this free time, and no-one to spend it with. Guess I'll just practice my newly-acquired guitar (thanks for the Christmas present parents) and my grandpa clarinet. Perhaps working out more. But definitely no more folding of stars.
Word of the Day: Thanks
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you may recall that I predicted that good week would follow after Arsenal beat Liverpool on the weekend. Read for more information.
By swell, I mean mostly good.
Annual Kris Kringle with A Rotational Roster of People on Thursday night went quite well, except for the timing issues. I have no idea why, on that day, people had to turn up late, leave early, and just generally not fit in with the plan. Must have been a bad day to pick. But apart from that, it all clicked together fairly well. Most things that I plan generally do, I think, except when people mess them up for me.
Anyway, I got a shirt to add to my growing collection (thanks Davy), and Yvonne seemed pleased with what I gave her. I hope. Unless I'm reading the signs wrong again, as I am wont to do. I think everyone else liked the 'things' that I made them, useless and non-functional though they may be, and Linda didn't kill me for defying her direct order not to make her anything, so I guess that worked out alright. All I know is that I've been completely turned off folding stars, at least for a while, and Sicilian salmon with potatoes at Airstream is also getting a bit old. Alas, must find new thrills.
Imesha and Linda bailed halfway through our dinner, so we moseyed on down to the cinema to watch Avatar.
Personally, I didn't like the 3Dness. Apart from the fact that you had to pay an extra dollar to watch 3D (unless you're Yvonne and have five pairs of spare 3D goggles at home), I thought that it actually made most of the movie look worse. I wasn't really feeling the 3D, and when I did, it just looked like one of those dodgy lenticular things you get out of chip packets. It looked less realistic than it would have on a normal screen. Everything just sort of looked stuck on. But it was a good movie. Not that Davy would know. I found out just then that he fell asleep during the film. He's making a habit of this. First New Moon with his girl, then Avatar.
On Friday, nothing much happened, except for Victor coming over and fiddling with my computers, and FIFA 10. Thanks Victor.
Saturday, would've liked to have gone to Kylie's, but no transport/didn't want to trouble other people in giving me a lift/ditched by Victor. Sorry Kylie.
Just then was the NQT Christmas dinner. It was cool. Found out that Catherine is a pretty cool person, and that I'm a pretty terrible person to sit next to at dinner, as I pretty much go quiet. Also, 'Same Girl' is a universally recognised benchmark of an awesome song.
Here's to having more fun-laden and awesome times ahead. It's a shame really, because I have all this free time, and no-one to spend it with. Guess I'll just practice my newly-acquired guitar (thanks for the Christmas present parents) and my grandpa clarinet. Perhaps working out more. But definitely no more folding of stars.
Word of the Day: Thanks
Saturday, 5 December 2009
I'm so fly, I get jetlag
A lyric from a forthcoming Usher song. Apparently it means "I'm really cool." But "I'm so fly" is so much more eloquent and beautiful in it's pristine awesomeness.
So yeah, I haven't been disowned by my mother over my results. She took it quite well actually. She was like, well, you didn't fail, so it's not all bad. But you probably should work out a way to do better next sem, because, you know, accounting is kind of important.
I think I've found a method. The method, passed down the generations, father-to-son and all that jazz, is called prioritising i.e. not pouring my soul into International Studies and French, and actually putting some time into my Commerce subjects.
I would like to know the fail rate though. It would help me put things in perspective.
Went to Mount Dandenong for dinner just then. It's so nice up there. The waitresses, the food, the view, the service, the frigid mountain air. It's cool. Might take someone special up there, when I get a car.
Which brings me nicely to my next point. It appears that I may be getting a car sooner than expected. And sadly, not through any endeavour of my own. Apparently, my dad's thinking about getting a car now. But yeah. That might change in the next week. You can never tell. One week he's all like "No. Final." Then the next week he'll be like "Let's get a second-hand car." Then it'll be back to "No." This week, he was like "Let's get a new car." In summary, I'm not getting my hopes up too much.
Today also marks the beginning of an annual period of stupidity, which I shall now call "Andrew's Awkwardness", because it's alliterative, and...yeah. That's about it.
See, it's around this time in the year, where I realise that I've misplaced the mental Christmas wishlist that I've had stored up in my brain. I'm dead serious, next year, I will write down what I want. Right now, All I can think of is a bag. And like, I'm fairly sure that wasn't on the list until yesterday. Probably because I don't need one all that much. I would ask my parents to get me true love, but the last time I looked, there wasn't much of that on the shelves at Myer.
Word of the Day: Fly
So yeah, I haven't been disowned by my mother over my results. She took it quite well actually. She was like, well, you didn't fail, so it's not all bad. But you probably should work out a way to do better next sem, because, you know, accounting is kind of important.
I think I've found a method. The method, passed down the generations, father-to-son and all that jazz, is called prioritising i.e. not pouring my soul into International Studies and French, and actually putting some time into my Commerce subjects.
I would like to know the fail rate though. It would help me put things in perspective.
Went to Mount Dandenong for dinner just then. It's so nice up there. The waitresses, the food, the view, the service, the frigid mountain air. It's cool. Might take someone special up there, when I get a car.
Which brings me nicely to my next point. It appears that I may be getting a car sooner than expected. And sadly, not through any endeavour of my own. Apparently, my dad's thinking about getting a car now. But yeah. That might change in the next week. You can never tell. One week he's all like "No. Final." Then the next week he'll be like "Let's get a second-hand car." Then it'll be back to "No." This week, he was like "Let's get a new car." In summary, I'm not getting my hopes up too much.
Today also marks the beginning of an annual period of stupidity, which I shall now call "Andrew's Awkwardness", because it's alliterative, and...yeah. That's about it.
See, it's around this time in the year, where I realise that I've misplaced the mental Christmas wishlist that I've had stored up in my brain. I'm dead serious, next year, I will write down what I want. Right now, All I can think of is a bag. And like, I'm fairly sure that wasn't on the list until yesterday. Probably because I don't need one all that much. I would ask my parents to get me true love, but the last time I looked, there wasn't much of that on the shelves at Myer.
Word of the Day: Fly
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