Christmas lights

Well the Christmas tree never did get any lights. It's Boxing Day today, so I guess Sonia will soon give in and dismantle the tree. Without lights. Quite an achievement, I think.

We went to a friend's place yesterday, around 1pm, for a Christmas lunch. As one of the other couples was late, this turned out to be somewhere between lunch and dinner, finishing as it did around 6pm. Turkey, ham, lamb, etc. We did dessert - chocolate cheesecake, lemon meringue cupcakes, and chocolate brownie. The baking started at 7.30am and finished ten minutes before we needed to leave home, so it was a busy Christmas Morning! Glen (the friend) had got a chimineya for Christmas, so we ended up sitting around it until quite late in the freezing Tokyo weather, talking about life in Japan and Asia. The others who were there were mostly Australians with a token American couple. It was a good Christmas.

Speaking of life in Japan, ours is at an end. I've accepted a job in Hong Kong with a consulting company - heading up the insurance business for Asia Pacific. The scope includes NZ, so there is a chance of getting to NZ from time to time. We'll be moving sometime in late January - February, although not we are exactly sure of the timetable at this point. I officially start on 17th January, but we will need to find an apartment in Hong Kong, sell the car (the motorbike will probably be shipped), and pack up the furniture (getting rid of the couches first). Life is never boring :-)

Merry Christmas

Andrew and Sonia

Everyone's Home Again - Yay!

Well Andrew walked in the door from his London flight 3 or 4 hours ago and has now gone off to the office for a couple of hours work and then a colleagues farewell 'sayonara' party. I finally made it home from Bangkok on Wednesday morning after having to extend my stay by a few days to deal with some issues we were experiencing. It is good to both be home! It does not last long though as I am off to HK from Tuesday thru Saturday next week, and then Melbourne Monday thru Friday of the following week. Andrew is also looking at needing to be in New York that same week so poor Sachi will be deserted once more and left in the care of the ridiculously expensive cat sitter. At least Sachi seems to tolerate her now and at comes out of hiding - bit hard for the poor cat sitter to 'play' with our cat for 30 minutes when she won't come out from under the couch!

Roll on Christmas when we are both likely to be in Tokyo for a full fortnight! No leave over the actual Christmas period, but we do both get a couple of days in the New Year, so that will be nice. We are staying in Tokyo for Christmas this year - guess we will have to decide soon if we are going to book a restaurant or cook in. In Asia the night of the 24th is a much bigger deal, so often there is nothing of much substance going on once you get to actual Christmas Day.

After my darling husband disposed of yet another of my Christmas Trees in our last move (it just would not fit in the shipping boxes... or so he said!) I decided that the next time I bought a tree it was going to be

a)Exactly what I wanted and not just a temporary compromise and
b)Significant enough that Andrew would think twice before throwing it away!

I can think of at least 3 that he has chucked out over the years, plus the one that lives with one of the relatives back in NZ...

So while in Bangkok I splurged and we are now the owners of a lovely 8 ft Christmas tree that is really bushy and looks great. It touches the ceiling and takes up half our tiny apartment lounge...but hey - this is the LAST one I am ever going to buy :-) It needed to fit into any future houses we may live in as well.

So here is a little picture or two for you. After spending a full ten hours believing the tree was evil and was going to attack her (she hid in the kitchen where she could not see it for most of the day - our cat NEVER spends time in the kitchen other than to eat!) Sachi has decided to make friends with the tree and has taken to curling up underneath it. Now if I could just put a 'To Paul, Love Andrew and Sonia" bow around her neck she would make a perfect playmate for Toby.

So far so good and we have had very little interest in batting the baubles off - long may it last if she knows what is good for her.






And here are my latest decorations - so ugly they are cute Make a Wish Foundation Thailand fairy/elves that my hotel was selling to raise funds for local kids with cancer. Hey it is Thailand - the don't know that fairies and elves are not really the same thing!






Perhaps once Andrew relents and buys me some Christmas Tree lights it will be time to take a picture of the whole tree and add it here for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime you will just have to imagine...

Love,

Sonia