Blessed and Merry Christmas !!

Blessed and Merry Christmas to everyone !!

Due to the hectic short 2nd trimester, I hardly have much time and energy to think about Christmas celebration.

In previous years, the Christmas season is at the beginning of the long 3rd trimester and we could afford to be more relax and plan for Christmas party. In previous years we would have BBQ, sing Christmas songs etc, usually one or two weeks before Christmas.

MMU have pushed the beginning of the academic year to a much later date of the year in order that those students who joined national service could come in at the right time. As a result, in the years to come, MMU people will not be able to have much holiday mood even during Christmas and year end, while the rest of the people in Malaysia are having school holiday etc. Though myself and many of my colleagues were on leaves in these last two weeks (or more) of the year, we still have to conduct classes prior to the students' examination at the first week of next year, we still need to sort out all the end-of-trimester matter such as marks etc., on top of that there are final year projects reports and presentations to be evaluated.... all during imposingly holiday season and while on leaves !! We simply have no options as we can't just go away for holiday at this time.

Short trimester in nature has always been a depressing time for everyone, staff and students alike. I doubt any students can really learn much with only 8 weeks in a trimester, though the classes are doubled, there simply aren't enough time for the students to digest all those being taught, especially for technical subjects.

Unless MMU do away with this monstrous, crazy, almost 'hellish' (for staff and students) short trimester, this scenario will not change in years to come.

Anyway, let's put this aside, there simply nothing much we could do about that for now. I am suppose to talk about Christmas !!

In previous years, I used to put up my Christmas tree at least a month before Christmas. This year, I only get the time to take out the Christmas tree on the night of Dec 23, two days before Christmas. When i took out the lighting for the tree, I found that it is not working. The bulbs are connected in series, so if one is broken, half of the lights will not work as well, since there were 140 light bulbs and the way they are connected, it would be very difficult to figure out which is the broken one. So I was still without Christmas tree even on Christmas eve!

Thank goodness, I managed to buy the lights on Christmas Eve itself and put it up at about 1am on Christmas Day (the night of Christmas Eve) ..just in time I suppose.

Here it is:















So how did i celebrate Christmas?

Well...nothing much....in previous years usually Christmas was celebrated one or two weeks before Christmas itself (mostly just get together with friends) as most people will be going home or holiday during Christmas Day itself. Back in Penang time, we would go to church to sing Christmas carols on Christmas Day... really missed those time.

So for this time, I just spent my Christmas Eve relaxing with 3 of my friends, chit chating, listening to Christmas songs/carols playing cards (no gambling!) and drink some wine (just one glass each!) after they helped me to set up the Christmas tree. Oh..we went to play an hour of pool game at the South City Plaza before that, the table there is in very good condition, we gave up on the bad condition of the pool table at Mines! We were playing the cards (more like training in strategy and logical thinking) till about 8am! .. then these crazy four of us decided to call up another friend and ask him to drive us to Puchong to eat Dim Sum for breakfast! After eating Dim Sum, we drove to the park at Bukit Jalil to 'jalan-jalan', while I was enjoying the scenery and the fresh air there, 1 ot 2 of my friends were like zombies and drunken master trying to stay awake! After we went back, all of us slept through the Christmas afternoon!

On top of that, of course, Christmas is also a time to catch up with far-away friends through the wonderful technology of internet, phone calls and SMSes.

I should have been going to church to sing carols, which I really would have enjoyed a lot, which I really missed back in yesteryears in Penang.... long story why I did not do that this time. Oh, I did not lost my Christian faith!

Nevertheless, Christmas to me is not about a religious festival. To me, it is about the Greatest Gift of Christ, it is about love, joy and peace. I will not embark to write about the True Meaning of Christmas which one could easily read about over the net.

Most importantly, Christmas is about people.

Due to busyness in the last few weeks, I have not been able to catch up with as many people as I wished to and wish them 'Merry Christmas', hopefully will get to catch up on that in the next few days. If you are someone I know personally and you are reading this and I did not call you, please do give me a call :) ... of course if you are in Malaysia la.....if not then email me, yahoo me or skype me... :)

Christmas has always been a time of reflection and a perfect time to think about next year resolutions before the new year arrives!! Hmm.... it has been quite some years that I have not actually write down in back-and-white my new year resolutions...may be that is the reasons so many things not get done.....:( I think I would actually write my new year resolutions this time.... will post some of them here... :)

It is over 2am now, the night of the Christmas Day. I should stopped here as tomorrow I still have lecture at 9am, it is actually a revision class and the last class in the trimester.... I am still on leave and I doubt many people will turn up... I could have just tell the students there are no more lectures as we have finished the syllabus and I do not have to wake up early tomorrow. Nevertheless, I just carry out my responsibility and the rest are beyond my control.

Blessed and Merry Chistmas again to everyone !!

Ho... Ho... Ho....!!