A Walk to Remember: Christmas and Boxing Day

Christmas (251209)

This year's Christmas is quite different for me. It's my first Christmas in Australia. And I must say it is very different from back home. Back home, we can feel that Christmas is just around the corner when all the shopping malls starting to have fancy deco involving huge Christmas trees, ornaments etc. Here, the deco are pretty simple and not much impressive as back home (at least to me) because everyone is busy decorating their own home. 9 out of 10 people who walked into a mall or departmental store must come out with a Christmas tree (I even see people buying on the 26th, they're buying and keeping it for next year?!) The Christmas spirit is in the air a month before, and people are already slowing down at work. Many departments start to shut down one to two weeks before the big day. Saying that the malls and departmental stores are packed like "sardin" is an understatement. The market is jammed on Christmas eve as everything will be close the next day (I mean EVERYTHING). You'll have to get enough food to at least survive Christmas. I was at my office on Xmas eve and when someone asked me what am I doing at office on Christmas eve and I said that I was working, he looked at me as though I'm an alien. A typical Aussie will either spend his/her Xmas eve at home with family, at church, or at the bar/club. Since I don't have my family here with me and I don't fancy drinking, I spent my Xmas eve watching live carol on TV.

The initial plan was to spend Christmas Day with an aunt at her orchard, but on second thought, it's a nice day to work at office without all the distractions. I'm NOT a workaholic, I just tend to be in the mood to work when everyone else is not. So, I drove to office (since parking will be free) and the whole place looks like a ghost town. Let's just say I can reverse my car all the way from my house to office and nobody will be honking at me. I reach the office and unlock the door as usual. Little did I know the alarm of the building is armed and I set it off as soon as I walked in the door. I ended up calling the security to disarm it. Again, the security asked me "Why are u at office? You're not supposed to be working on Christmas." Sigh~ I guess I better not step into office till it reopens on the 4th of January. Otherwise the security will get so annoyed having to disarm the alarm for me each time.

Christmas dinner is very filling for me. The only thing missing is a turkey. The rest of the night was spent watching TV. But I still got my Christmas gift. So, not bad-lah.

Crumpler bag for me

My new red Crumpler coin pouch

Five Must-Know facts for Crumpler bag

Christmas card for me

Christmas gift for him

Boxing Day (261209)

Traditionally, Boxing Day has been the day when servants get a day off from work and get to visit and spend a day with their family. The celebration involves giving to those in need and servants receive a box containing gifts from their employer. However, modern day Boxing Day has become Malaysia's equivalent of Mega Sale only triple the people in the malls. People from all walks of life flooded the malls, departmental stores etc. For those who have been waiting for a great deal to buy something, be it furniture, electrical, clothes or even books, this will be the perfect time to get them. Some stores open as early as 5 a.m. but the people are there even earlier, they have been queuing since midnight (according to the news).

We have always wanted to go to Chadstone shopping mall (the biggest mall around here) to look around, so we decided it would be the perfect day to go since I have a free $100 gift voucher. I need to get some new clothes anyway. The mall open early on Boxing Day, at 7 a.m. So we thought, going at 7.30 a.m. would be reasonable. Boy, were we wrong. Let's just say we got stuck in the traffic into the mall and we spent the next 40 minutes searching for a parking spot. The crowd was crazy. Most of the stores look like a war zone. People even have to queue to get into some shops.

Being a movie freak, a day would not end with me not watching a movie. So first things first, we went to the cinema. It wasn't even open yet. It opens at 930 and we were already there at 830 =_= We hang around the nearby shops for an hour and managed to get tickets for:

The movie is at 630, so there's plenty of time to shop around. My stomach was grumbling by the time we got the tickets so we went for a quick bite. We had our first roti canai in 6 months. Roti canai which costs us RM21.00. And what's breakfast without a nice cup of coffee?!

There goes breakfast, and now comes the good part. It's time to shop!! The crowd has not dampen my shopping mood, although my shopping mood would normally have vaporizes as soon as I saw the crowd. Probably I have not been out for far too long. So we excitedly explore the huge complex. By 2o'clock we have already finish touring the whole place. Went for lunch for a place called Noodle Box. Food, not bad. Service, not so good. My grumbling tummy has turned numb by the time the food was ready, and I thought it's supposed to be served fast?! But anyway, we've got four hours left to burn by the time we finish lunch.

We literally have to drag our feet through the mall the next four hours, and even ended up ALMOST falling asleep on the sofa. We found this shop that give good massage. Nelson tried out their neck and shoulder massage since he's always been complaining about his stiff and aching neck & shoulder (and reported that his neck and shoulder are much better after the massage, so we concluded that their skill must be not so bad after all, - end of report -) Wanted to try their foot massage since my feet are sore, but never have the guts to go for it. Heard it hurts like H***?? Anyone with experience, please let me know how it feels. Maybe I'll go for it next time. Maybe.

Nothing much happens after that. Went for dinner then movie. Sherlock Holmes is one of the movie that I have been wanting to watch, without the friendly cinema staff telling me that it's a must-watch. I have not been reading novels of Sherlock Holmes (although it has been sitting in my book rack for several years now), so I didn't know what to expect. I only knew that Sherlock Holmes is this fictional intelligent detective who is very skillful in his observation and forensic skills. Overall, it's not a bad movie and even funny in a way. But let's not spoil the suprise.

At the end of the day, we only gotten ourselves a jacket each. Didn't manage to get any new clothes for myself, I suppose I rather have buy them at a slightly higher price than have to Q up to get into the store, then Q again to get into the fitting room, then wait in a long Q to pay. I still have my $100 gift card with me at the end of the day. How nice if I could turn this into a RM300 gift card and go back to shop in Malaysia. I would have gotten myself so much more things with that. Sigh~ Dream on! Oh, did I mention that it's the first time ever, after my six months here, to see shops are still open after five? The whole mall is brightly lit and pack with people till midnight. Incredible! Where does all these people come from?