December 21, 2012

It's 12/21/12 and like the rest of the planet, just sitting here Waiting For The End Of The World.  I tried to look up a betting line on the doomsday prediction but couldn't find one.  I am such a crappy gambler, but you only have to be right once to make winning a doomsday bet worthwhile, no?  Am always amazed at people having real fear of these things...the cleaning lady came over yesterday and asked me if I knew that the world was going to end tomorrow and then starts balling her eyes out.  She rallied and still did a nice job though.  My feeling is that if it is gonna end, what are you gonna do about it, but it is a good time to take a minute to take stock and ensure that you've done enough to get you into a nice condo in the next life and make sure you tell your loved ones how much you love them. 

Taiwan's religious make-up of Taiwan comes in at 33% Buddhist, 32% Taoist, with only about 5% being Christians, so there is not a lot in the way of decorating and celebrating around town.  About the only places where you see decorations are in the bigger stores and even those are muted.  What you get are a few small plastic Christmas trees (no pine trees in the tropics), and Christmas songs playing at the 7-11 (and not your Eartha Kitt or Burl Ives versions...ever hear Silent Night in Chinese?  Haunting.)  The scariest Christmas "decoration" I saw was from the ad campaign in the Takashimaya store across the street.

Here is a closer look at the guests around the dinner table.

Those are some bizarre characters and you don't even want to know what kind of kinky stuff the woman is into. 

Am not gonna complain about the lack of Christmas spirit though as it is nice not to be inundated with advertising and tortured by a month of the same old Christmas songs, but still get choked up when we come home to see these decorations in the apartment lobby.

We're off to Italy for two weeks tonight so will be taking a break from posting.  Talk to you when we get back and hope you all have a great holiday.