Christmas 2006 in Shanghai

It's Crimbo in Shanghai, and as I write this, I'm stocking up on good Crimbo goodies on KoL. Christmas here is not exactly Christmas back home. It's more of a continuous Black Friday (you know, the day after Thanksgiving?) Multiply that by the entire Advent Calendar & you'll know what Shanghai Christmas is like.

Last Saturday night, Grace & I, along with Alex & Anny (newly married) and Rita (still dating "Napoleon :) ") had a nice Christmas dinner at a Japanese place on Hongmei Road, also called the Hongmei Entertainment street. While the dinner was nice, the service was relatively lacking, as there were two large tables of Koreans there as well, making large demands on the already short-staffed waitresses.

A few days earlier was the WD-40 Christmas dinner, also at a Japanese restaurant near XuJiaHui. "Japanese buffet? For Christmas? Twice?" you say? Well of COURSE! I met Grace's colleagues as well as a couple of WD-40's upper management, including Geoff and Ooi, known in the company as 001 (double-oh one). Geoff, incidentally, was the guy who accompanied Grace to Three on the Bund in downtown Shanghai for a rather exquisite dinner, the day I got back to Shanghai from Xingping (and yes, Grace, you were drunk!) That's okay though, as it was MY idea in the first place. The Company dinner went quite well, and I can tell that Grace is in good company & and with a good company as well. Perhaps someday I'll be able to say that about mine.

Last night, I put on some Christmas music that I downloaded from the net, trying desperately not to end up with all the latest pop-versions of old Bing Crosby & Dean Martin classics. I went to grab the Christmas tree, but found that somewhere between the 3 apartments we've had this tree, the stand went missing. No tree this year. But our goofy Santa Claus decoration is back up by the TV for another holiday season. I managed to mass email the family. Tacky, I know, but when I'm on the road, it's tough to get a decent internet connection. Half the e-birthday cards took about 10 minutes to load in Xingping's internet.

Later today, I'm off to the station to get a train ticket back to Xingping. I'd fly normally, but my passport is now with the company, who now says I don't work for Aston English School, nor Aston Educational Group, but Aston Business Consulting instead. Yet another new visa.

Looks like Roosevelt, the Evil Teddy Bear is done ripping the stuffing out of Rudolphus of Crimborg (Locutus of Borg?) for the day. Time to stock up on pet rocks & Toy Ray Guns!

"I am the beginning. The end. The one who is many. I am Crimborg. Resistance is futile. You will be merry."