Christmas At Home 2009

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We had our annual Christmas gathering at the Coffee Nations this afternoon. The small corner of the cosy cafe were packed to the brim by 24 of us. A few surprise gifts caught me unprepared this afternoon as I had not prepared any gifts in return. I do not claim to be on the best of terms with all 24 of them. There were some whom we drifted apart over the course of the year when I left the company. I'm kind of thankful that I was still invited for this informal Christmas gathering.

I was happy to see them again. Of course with such a huge group, it was virtually impossible to mingle with everybody present given the few hours this afternoon. Finally, I decided to stick with my usual kakis whom I was most comfortable with. I didn't share much with my upcoming Nanjing trip with them for fear of inviting more questions from the floor.

All too oftened, I was misunderstood for spending money on useless activities like travelling. Which in actual fact, 52% of my salary went straight to the bank account every month. 21.5% to my daily expenditures and insurance policies while 17% to my retired parents. Only 9.5% of my salary went towards fuelling my extravagant travel expenses. Call it extravagant? How extravagant could it be when I oftened fly with the budget aka the cheapest carriers available and stayed at the cheapest decent accomodations I could possibly hunt from the internet?

As I continued to venture out new places year after year, it made me realised how big the world is. I could probably spend my whole life time travelling yet not able to cover most of the places on earth. For now, I would continue with my extravagance for new experiences. China, I will be with you shortly.

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