Christmas everywhere

I have been so engrossed with getting the whole Cyprus trip ready, and then immersed in getting everything finished whilst there last week, that I've hardly registered the time of year. Actually, I kept meaning to mention how Cyprus make a big deal of Christmas and the streets were getting decorated, even in tiny villages. It was very sweet.

Anyway, back in Dubai and at work, I got reminded that it is the office Christmas party on Thursday night (yikes), Secret Santa in the afternoon, and in keeping with tradition, a competition to see which department decorates their area the best, so much of the afternoon was spent putting up decos! Not the best day for me to think about such things, as were my Dad still alive, he would have been 75 today. The weather seemed to match my gloom, being dull and overcast. I am told, via the wonderful technology of Whats app, that it was the same in Lahore and Hong Kong!

Back to this image though; with Jesus pretty much taken out of Christmas now and Christmas being celebrated by everyone (my parsi colleague was telling me of the 7 foot tree she put up on the weekend), a lot of the decorations in the office were decidedly "wintery" i.e. blue and silver or other non-trad colours. I'm afraid I still love the red, gold and green, and was thrilled to see this huge tree when I visited Lamcy to get my Secret Santa present. Good on them.

And in other news, I put in my Nol (think Oyster) card to pay for parking and left it in the machine. It had not-a-small amount of money on it. Argh! And the garage have said that I shouldn't expect to have my car back this week. Hoping for a better day tomorrow... :)