Is it already December?

I can't believe it is already December and less than 3 weeks until Christmas! This morning, I saw someone putting up a Christmas tree in one of the public garden areas that is about a block from the ocean & sand - way too surreal i.e. Christmas trees just seem out of place in hot climates ;-)

Today was also the first day the 'security' dogs at my house did NOT bark at me when I came home (I use the word 'security' loosely as all they seem to do is sleep in the shade...) - I guess they have figured out that I am here to stay, at least for a while. Or maybe they are just trying to be friendly with me so that I will let them sleep on the front porch so they don't get soaked in the RAIN - which finally (!) started this past week. Lovely, lovely, lovely refreshing rain :-)

In other exciting news - apparently my shipment from the UK arrived in Dili port today (YAY!) but since it is the weekend and Monday and Tuesday are Public Holidays, and of course Customs is closed (BOO!) the earliest I think I may see my stuff is on Thursday, since it still needs to get cleared by Customs which hopefully will not take toooooo long (however there is a whole saga about Customs and tax exemption which I am too tired to explain here - suffice it to say that the 'tax exemption' rivals the 'passport' saga from Sept...ergh!).

Fingers crossed that my stuff will actually be delivered to my house before I leave for Christmas next Sat 12th ... I am going to head to Singapore first for some rest and relaxation (and to complete my Christmas shopping which I started just recently, well, this morning actually...) and then onto Stockholm and London for work and to visit my friends in St Johns - then a brief stopover in Toronto to see my god daughter (and her mom of course!) and then to Saskatchewan to celebrate Christmas and New Years with family & friends.

Between now and when I leave for Singapore, there is a flurry of activities, including a multi-cultural Christmas service at the international church I attend, then the inauguration of the main cathedral (I'm not Catholic - but I am curious about what the cathedral looks like inside since they've been working on it for months!), then parties with colleagues and friends each evening this coming week, with the biggest one being our office Christmas party on Friday afternoon/evening where we'll be having a BBQ for dinner - again, quite surreal for me ;-) I've also been invited to a posh party at the Japanese Embassy, so if my shipment gets delivered in time then I will actually have something decent/formal to where to it...here's hoping...

Time to sign off and get back to writing my Christmas letter....