Friday 2 January 2009

Crappy New Year Everybody......


Well 2009 has arrived and all I can say is thank frack that Xmas is all over and all that jazz along with it.....grud I hate this time of year. It's such a hypocritical holiday-Jesus wasn't even born in December anyway and another thing I recently learnt was that a couple of hundred years before the gospels in the bible were written (which have been heavily edited over the centuries by the Catholic church by the way), the Persians celebrated the life of somebody called Mithras whose birth in the winter months was presided over by wisemen and who is alleged to have died and come back to life. Sound familiar? Makes you wonder, does it not, how much of what we are told to believe in is true and how much of it has been nabbed from earlier, much older religions......it's not like Christmas is about Jesus anymore anyway- now it has all become about who can spend the most money and, this year with the credit crunch, who can save the most in the sales....


If it hadn't been for the arrival of my daughter, I think I would've given up on the whole spirit of Christmas by now. This year, me and the wife weren't going to buy each other presents just get a little something for each other from Emilie. The wife actually went out and got me some chocolate covered coffee beans in the end because she knew I had been moaning about not being able to find any and they are one of my special treats but the intention was there. For me Christmas came and went with very little notice - it just felt like any other paticulary busy time at the hotel and by the time the actual day arrived, it didn't at all feel like Christmas day to me....I kinda feel like maybe thats why I'm so pessimistic about the whole thing- everyone else gets to enjoy this time but for us in the Hotel trade (not just chefs) it might as well be any other time of year. I guess thats why I'm so jaded about the whole thing...


Anyway, have I made any resolutions for the new year? Have I frack!

Actually the only one I have made is the same one I make every year- I am going to try and be more tolerant of others and be a better person. Still I say that every year and it never really lasts so in that way I am just like the rest of the population. Mind, c c c c since reading Wild Swans, Peking and Mao; The untold story recently all about the atrocities and horror that occurred during the years of China's cultural revolution, I have I think developed more a sense of the world at large and how much goes on that, until now, I had barely been aware of. Reading these books has also put my own life a little in perspective and made me realise that there are bigger, more important things happening all across the world even as I type this than what goes on in my small and often insignificant life.


#I have also vowed to think a bit more before I speak sometimes but it will be interesting to see if I can keep that up as I am kind of known offline for being quite outspoken. Some of it is said for effect but at least half of it is meant sometimes as well. I get away with it 99 times out of 10 because often people don't realise I am being serious and treat it just as my humour but often my jokes hide a measure of seriousness behind them too- just very thinly veiled.#


Heres a rather disturbing joke I heard the other day that has the potential to be a bit offensive but which I rather enjoyed: A man is walking into the woods one night with his girlfriend. "I'm scared of the dark..." she says. "Its alright for you," says the man, "I've got to walk back on my own..."


That joke comes courtesy of Martin Abernathy, whom I work with......sometimes I worry about some of the people I am in close proximity to.....


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