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24 Dec 2005: Feliz Natal



A picture

Making Christmas

Yes, yes, I know this isn't a picture from our Madeira trip, I've just got to get a few things off my chest before we go there.

While I was in Japan, Aki bought me a tiny Christmas tree to keep in my tiny apartment. It was a commensurate celebration of Christmas, the religious festival of shopping, with little blue bulbs flashing inoffensively.

Now I have a bigger apartment, a bigger life with a wife, I had to return the favour and get a brand new pagan symbol for the Christmas period. So here it is, a much larger artificial tree that dominates the room with its Yuletide presence.

I had ordered the tree secretly while taking a few days off for Japanese exam revision, so I could get it set up and surprise Aki when she came home from work. After she had recovered from the shock, I told Aki she had been assigned the job of decorating the tree. Several days later, the mission was accomplished (save a few runarounds trying to get the right lights) and Christmas had been reborn in our flat.