… can be a surprisingly wonderful day.
I got all my Christmas crap out of the way a while back, but I do like to mosey on into the city on Christmas Eve to watch the insanity.
After a leisurely late breakfast at the coffee shop and a couple of hours meandering aimlessly, people-watching and stopping to chat with friends I popped back to the coffee shop for a spot of lunch.
It was crowded to standing room only inside (it's been pissing down with rain all day), but it's a ludicrously warm seven (count 'em) degrees centigrade today, so I sat merrily coatless under the big brollies outside in a little pool of dryness and smiled at the sight of the torrential downpour thrashing the shit out of the huddled, bickering hordes of last-minute shoppers.
One scrummy artisan baguette, one black Americano (with that lovely deep ginger-coloured froth of steamed water that I so love), one tall still water, one old and well-read (but still pristine) copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's too warm to feel Christmassy, so I'm playing at Spring.
After a blissful forty-five minutes spent in the delightful company of Miss Holiday Golightly, Chris (the yakuza tattoo barista) came out and sat with me for his lunch break, bearing a freebie Americano and a fresh water (one of the many reasons I frequent his shop is that I get as many free coffees as those I pay for). We sat and gawked, vastly amused by the sheer volume of stress happening all around us and chatted happily about digital movie post-production (what he's studying at uni), tattoos and girls.
We are both fully paid up members of the lost and the lonely but we were without any shadow of a doubt the two happiest and least stressed people in the city today. Sometimes Christmas works in mysterious ways.
I was so happy, however, that on my way to the Cathedral after lunch I got sucked into the Whisky Shop and treated myself to something I've not enjoyed in many a long year: a bottle of cask strength Talisker, my favourite whisky in the whole wide world.
Hoo boy, that's gonna sting on my next bank balance, but what the hell … every last drop will be like Heaven only without all those annoying Christians. Bliss.
Have a stress-free Christmas, folks.
3 comments:
I wish people let me be lost and lonely. Alas, I've been adopted by large (mostly) Asian family. I'm off to have a traditional family Christmas. At least there will be eggrolls.
We had Christmas eve dinner with friends (Margaret, your favorite author, and her family). Tomorrow we will be our little threesome unit (me, J, Boz). It sounds to me like you did all right. Chris sounds like a good guy, and Capote is excellent company.
John says "annoying Christians" is redundant. I say it's a pastime.
Who needs loneliness when you can have eggrolls, Vanda. Enjoy the benefits of your adoptive family's culinary skills.
Have a great day!
Christmas in Pasadena sounds idyllic, Petrea.
As for annoying Christians: for me it is a way of life; it gives me purpose and amuses me greatly.
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