Holiday crowding

I've spent the last five days completely off balance so I apologise for the lack of updates. It's like that when you're home for the holidays, short Christmas holidays in particular.

I was volunteered to provide narration at the Christmas Cantata, CBC (do come), and should've looked at the text before I said okay. Now I have to learn my parts and the most random script ever.

Driving's always worth a paragraph or two after we get back. I've been listening to Weng's complaints of how they drive too close, don't follow (or know) the right-of-way rules, cut without signalling first, turn without signalling first, stop without signalling first. It seems most Malaysians have forgotten that they even possess indicators, or maybe the vibration from their stripped-down exhausts has shaken their brains to mush.

This time round, I've adapted more quickly to local driving and I'm largely unfazed, or was largely unfazed, until Weng complained that I cut him off at a junction. I swear, there were no cars. I don't get to drive all that much now because Cheryl's so insistent on driving anywhere. I have to wrestle the keys off her.

But no, Weng hasn't spent his holidays so far only complaining. The guy was so happy to be back that he spent the first sunday handing out handfuls of chocolates absolutely reeking of happiness. It was like Christmas come early for him.

I finally watched Harry Potter yesterday. We spent fortyfive minutes in line, having reached the counter the first time and finding out that the tickets were sold out, then rejoining the line and waiting for the telephone reservations to be released. The smell was terrible. Six lines of anxious, mildly sweaty bodies standing way too close as tickets seemed to sell out faster than the lines were moving. Then there was that stupid woman who 'made friends' with someone two people infront of us and then proceeded to talk to them until they hit the front of the queue (they were three people away, I think she wanted to be slightly less obvious about it). She cut line. I wanted to smack her, feeling quite distraught at the prospect that I might be the very very last person on earth to watch Harry Potter. But we got in, and I didn't have to resort to violence.

I haven't been Christmas shopping yet because I haven't been able to get into MidValley. You need persistency and lots and lots of time, which I don't have. The jam to get into the carparks wraps around the mall three cars deep. So that's why we're leaving at 10am to try and get into the mall early. I gotta go.