Christmas in a Nutshell
Finally, Christmas has come and gone. Gosh, I'm tired. I only got to sleep at around 2 or 3am last night/this morning. Yes. Big yawn, just like the cat.
Oh, here's a requisite Christmas image being sent this year. No family photo because, we did not put up a tree this year.
On Christmas morning, during our dog walk, Frankie decided to go further and further away (the dog seriously seems to want to explore the whole city). I let him go as far as the Casa Garden area (leftmost photo is Saint Anthony's Church in the background). That's a good 1.5km away one-way. I think we walked around half and hour to there. Then he decided to go up some secret staircase up and we arrived at the (to-me) mysterious old people's home (the family keeps talking about this old people's home is where one of my great-grandmothers lived in the end of her life). Along the way we reached the famous landmark Ruins of Saint Paul (center photo), and then I had to pull him homewards, and so wended up in the Senado Square.
The afternoon was spent preparing for the dinner party at night. I had advised the parents so many times to stop hosting the party at home. It's a stress for us to clean up and cook pre-party, and it's a stress for us to clean up and pack up/put away the food post-party. Just before the party we had to take the dogs out real quick, and that reminded me that the new Yoho Treasure Island has opened. I hear they will bring the Galerie Lafayette in there too.
People started arriving, and the food brought out. Standard fair. One of the dishes though, is something called "Diabo" (Ghost) and usually this dish is made after Christmas, because, it's using all the leftover food to cook up a stew. But, for some reason, Mom was insistent on making a "fresh" pot of Diabo. I wonder, if we have ot make another pot of Diabo from the leftover Diabo, would that make it The Diabo-Squared.
My haul this year. I actually have a missing present because one of my cousins did not have enough cash (that's the reason given) because the ATM machine limited the number of withdrawals. Hm. You know what. I call bullsh*t. Cousin works in a bank. Could have very well prepared the cash before the holidays. But anyway.
At one point in the party, one of the aunts was saying "it's a bank holiday tomorrow anyway!" And I had to very vehemently say, in Macau, the holidays are on 24/25, and in Hong Kong it's 25/26. 26 is not a public holiday in Macau. You can push it and say it's a bank holiday in Macau (because Macau banks follow a lot of things with Hong Kong banks, like the stock market, transaction/transfer gateways and such), but it's not a public holiday, and people need to work. Regardless, they only left around midnight, so the before-bed dog walk was also late, then the clean up, and such and such.
Well, this morning Frankie decided to walk another way and walked past this Macau Cruise thing. I'm really curious, so I'm going to have a look one of these days.
Oh, here's a requisite Christmas image being sent this year. No family photo because, we did not put up a tree this year.
On Christmas morning, during our dog walk, Frankie decided to go further and further away (the dog seriously seems to want to explore the whole city). I let him go as far as the Casa Garden area (leftmost photo is Saint Anthony's Church in the background). That's a good 1.5km away one-way. I think we walked around half and hour to there. Then he decided to go up some secret staircase up and we arrived at the (to-me) mysterious old people's home (the family keeps talking about this old people's home is where one of my great-grandmothers lived in the end of her life). Along the way we reached the famous landmark Ruins of Saint Paul (center photo), and then I had to pull him homewards, and so wended up in the Senado Square.
The afternoon was spent preparing for the dinner party at night. I had advised the parents so many times to stop hosting the party at home. It's a stress for us to clean up and cook pre-party, and it's a stress for us to clean up and pack up/put away the food post-party. Just before the party we had to take the dogs out real quick, and that reminded me that the new Yoho Treasure Island has opened. I hear they will bring the Galerie Lafayette in there too.
People started arriving, and the food brought out. Standard fair. One of the dishes though, is something called "Diabo" (Ghost) and usually this dish is made after Christmas, because, it's using all the leftover food to cook up a stew. But, for some reason, Mom was insistent on making a "fresh" pot of Diabo. I wonder, if we have ot make another pot of Diabo from the leftover Diabo, would that make it The Diabo-Squared.
My haul this year. I actually have a missing present because one of my cousins did not have enough cash (that's the reason given) because the ATM machine limited the number of withdrawals. Hm. You know what. I call bullsh*t. Cousin works in a bank. Could have very well prepared the cash before the holidays. But anyway.
At one point in the party, one of the aunts was saying "it's a bank holiday tomorrow anyway!" And I had to very vehemently say, in Macau, the holidays are on 24/25, and in Hong Kong it's 25/26. 26 is not a public holiday in Macau. You can push it and say it's a bank holiday in Macau (because Macau banks follow a lot of things with Hong Kong banks, like the stock market, transaction/transfer gateways and such), but it's not a public holiday, and people need to work. Regardless, they only left around midnight, so the before-bed dog walk was also late, then the clean up, and such and such.
Well, this morning Frankie decided to walk another way and walked past this Macau Cruise thing. I'm really curious, so I'm going to have a look one of these days.