Merry Christmas

Hello everyone,
Merry Christmas. I hope this finds you well and happy.
I’m just sat in my living room right now. I’ve come to realize by now (twelve o’clock) that Christmas day, despite the fact that my family are catholic, and there are Christmas trees and suspiciously Asian looking Santas everywhere, is a none event. Not much of a surprise, so many of the occasions in Asian, it seems to me, just involve a lot of sitting round and erm, not a lot else.
I had also been under the impression I was attending midnight mass with them. When I returned at nine thirty last night it turned out that they had “dee royee” – gone already. So I jumped on the chance to get an early night!! Is it sad, that the prospect of going to bed at ten thirty was a genuinely pleasant prospect, even on Christmas eve. I was awaked early though by one of the mothers of the house. One arrangement I did manage to make, without any miscommunication, was to go and get a free massage with her.
It was a bizarre experience but kind of touching. It involved a twenty minute walk through the winding streets near our house, past gawping men and women sleepily sucking on noodles in various street kitchens. When we finally arrived to the ‘happy dream’ centre, that’s not a translation its actually called ‘happy dream’, she pointed to her ears and mimed approval, suggesting we were going to hear something pleasing. We stepped in to the centre which was essentially a large hall and my ideas of an at least semi tranquil massage were shattered instantly. It closely resembled a hospital waiting room, with rows of numbered chairs in the middle of the hall and what seemed like quite a crowed of shuffling elderly people in white pajamas. Surrounding them was, again, row upon row of massage tables, the ones with the moving parts in them. The ‘pleasing sounds’ turned out to be a women, in fact a string of women, constantly talking for the whole hour and a half we had to wait. Just before we were ushered on to the tables the lady roused the dosing, chatting, audience to participate in the disturbingly unenthusiastic and in English - “happy, happy, happy, Go Vap”
I was nice actually once we were lying down with the young female staff innocently fluttering around us plucking up the courage to ask if I have a girlfriend and tell me I am “dep chai” or handsome. Some spoke English quiet well and touchingly after one of them spoke to the woman from my house who I was with they said: “your mother says you are a good son”…
So now I’m back home and feeling wholly thankful for a day off. A chance to rest my body which feels physically drained. I’m heading to the pool for a sunbathe, a sleep, food, drink and a generally laid back Christmas day with my friends.
Much love from me,
James.