Busiest time of the year

The Season is staring at me with the most menacing eyes: write about me! ME!

I stubbornly refused to submit to its pleas in the beginning of this month. Then pleas became shouts of abuse. And now the screams are getting too loud to ignore. Fine! The Season wins!

This festive season is particularly long, starting with Xmas and NY, followed by Hari Raya Haji in mid Jan and Chinese New Year in end Jan. Factor in my birthday on the 8th (now you know it, you have to send me, at least, a long email expressing your heartfelt congratulations for my 26th! Don't forget to add that I still look like 18 =D) and I suddenly feel that the rest of the year may very well be rendered tasteless by this concentration of activities.

The coming CNY will be my third in Singapore after a four-year hiatus. I remember writing earlier that I fear the renewed novelty of such gatherings with my cousins during CNY is diminishing with time and, perhaps, age. I'm now developing similar sentiments towards Xmas; what's so special about clubbing and partying if I can do that any time?

As a kid, Xmas meant a whole day in front of the black box, ingesting endless cartoons and cookies in the same breath. I graduated from that to crowded street parties in my teens. Then I found Xmas in Oxford unbearable if not for the company of other overseas students who did not go home; decor was not as fancy and the streets were deserted with everyone at home with their loved ones. Or hidding alone pretending to be with their dearest.

The last Xmas, NY and birthday were spent with Hoegaarden and tequila etc on the dance floor. This Xmas has come and gone. The coming NY and birthday don't seem to look much different at this point. After that, CNY will be spent getting fat on cashew nuts, BBQ pork, pineapple tarts, chocolate and more candies. Cousins will play silly games, like last year, which was like the year before.

I'm grown now, and begin to feel the repetitive nature of these annual festivities. The activities never change! But I can't do the same thing or what is in essence the same, year after year. I don't need to go through it for ten years to feel such monotony; things become routine the moment I realise they are going to repeat, which, without a doubt, they will.

Perhaps cos such anniversaries do not mean much to me. I don't celebrate Xmas in the religious sense. I didn't feel it approaching until I happened to see the Xmas lights in the Orchard area when I passed by a couple of weeks ago. Already, I'm having pineapple tarts when it's not CNY, I can make logcakes if I want to, and with the proliferation of cafes, cakes are no longer restricted to birthdays only. Anniversaries have been blurred with mundane everyday life. I had wanted to dig out my Santa hat for the lunch party but decided not to; I don't want to force a Xmas mood on the party, though I did get a logcake for tea and cheer.

But I still like these holidays cos they offer a chance for a get-together, a chance to be away from work and perhaps see what the neighbourhood is like on a weekday. Still, well, it's hard to dislike Xmas etc la :p I just wish it could be different.. How different? I don't know. I'll think of it next year. Or now, to make NY and birthday different :)