The Countdown to Christmas

I was a little disappointed that the schedule moved ahead by a month and I had to hit London in November. That reduced an intended 1-month break to 2 weeks. But in hindsight, I'm glad that was so because the cold front in London arrived a month earlier. When the first snow flew last December, I was sitting at Lantana Cafe having breakfast with the girlfriends. This year, the snow came alot earlier, shortly after I left. So it's perfect that we got the logistics for all humans, cargo and the Aunts' thingamajigs out of the way before the city is crippled by the snow.

While I'm thankful not to have to wrestle with the crowds, on the other hand, if London had happened as planned on 1 December, then I'd have stayed there all the way till January, and that would have been a whole lot of grins. Oh well, one can't have it all so neatly wrapped up like a Christmas package. Still, I managed to do most of the things I wanted despite a shorter trip.

Snow is awesome when I'm skiing or snowboarding. Other than that, I'm not a fan of walking about in the snow. Looking at the chaos unfolding at Heathrow Airport, I can only commiserate. Gatwick, Stansted and London City are still more operational. Hmmmmm. Blame the direction of the wind I suppose. Some of the friends and family made it in and out of London smoothly last week. Hopefully, the others will be able to fly out of Heathrow in time for Christmas in Singapore, and elsewhere or fly home to London via other routes from work trips by Christmas Eve. They're not particularly enamored with the idea of a white Christmas for the past few years. We've got parties to go to, people! The fun can't happen without you! Crossing fingers that all goes well.