On the first day before Christmas..

I was supposed to go to a Christian sponsored BBQ, where everyone gets together and celebrates Christmas. I had also been invited by my friend in the hope that she could get someone else to help convert me. Now this sounds quite paradoxical, but the last thing I want to be on Christmas is a Christian. The last thing I really want, is to have some random debate over it while I am trying to eat. Selfish, for sure.
Personally, I have never felt altogether comfortable with the following aspects of Christian Mass: asking forgiveness for our sins, the implication that we are weak because God makes us strong, and praying for XYZ to occur. Being Christian, or Catholic in my case, seems to be an open admission that we are all a bunch of failures. In some areas, yes I am. We all are. But what I cannot do is pass this all onto an external entity to solve my problems. All of it.. the ups and downs, are mine to deal with. I have friends and family to share them with, and if I need a change in my surrounds, then I must do something to change it. So from a functional perspective, Christianity does nothing for me. I think that everyone would be in agreeance that working stuff out yourself makes you more mature.. Anyways, I avoided the party, as a doubter. I too a trip down to the Gold Coast to stay with my mum later on in the afternoon, after spending most of the morning in a daze.
It was a bit of an uneventful ride down- and I was met by mum at the train station and we legged it to a Malaysian restaurant. Rather than eat really Malaysian flavoured foods, we ended up eating Malaysian Chinese food which was pretty good, but not all that good considering the rave reviews that she was giving it. A bit of chit chat on what the current popular figures in the peanut gallery were doing, and the next thing I know we've eaten through almost 100 dollars worth of Malaysian food. Wtf.. Anyway, we headed home and for the first time in a long time, I enjoyed airconditioned comfort and a nice, bright, clean, new home. Nothing like the dive I live in up here. Needless to say, it was good to be back. :)