I actually thought I was going to be very early with my Christmas letter this year, but as quickly as you can say "Huh?" and Christmas is next week!  So I thought I'd better take a break from saving the allies from the Nazis to bring you up to date about the ups and downs in my life this year.  Firstly, the downs (might as well get it over and done with and end on a positive note! 😔

While you may remember that I did quite well last year in Toastmasters, I didn't have that good a year this year. I did not win a single competition this year. But one thing I learned when I was a boy, is not to be a sore loser (unlike the Italian football team). So, hopefully I'll have better luck next year. I continue to be the Vice President of Education of my club, which means I get to set out the agenda of each meeting. While at times I thought "I've had it with this bunch!", it's quite satisfying when a meeting runs smoothly and everybody had fun.  For the last 3 year, we have been having a joint Christmas meeting with members of another club. This year, quite a few of them came up to me at the end of the meeting thanking me for organising it and that they had a great time.  That made it all worth while! 
On a sad note, the beginning of the year saw the passing of a close family friend, losing the fight to cancer. K.F., was technically speaking, our god-brother-in-law.  We haven't spent a lot of time together, as he lived in Singapore, but three things of him I remember: his laugh, his love of food and his generosity.  May he rest in peace. 

My work still sucks.  I am looking for a change next year.  Any suggestions?

On the brighter side of things, my home network is now protected by a proper firewall from the cruel and cold outside world.  It wouldn't have been if it weren't for all those 'Klez' virus I was getting.  About the Klez virus, it randomly picks two names from your address book and sends the virus to 'name 2', pretending to be from 'name 1'.  So you may get an email from me containing the virus, but when you tell me about it, I find that my computer is not infected by that virus at all!  Very tricky.  So to combat that, I now have industrial strength virus checking on my mail server, deleting them as they come in.  I also have Norton Anti-Virus on all our computers checking all emails going out.  So if you received an email from me with the Klez virus, it didn't come from me! 
No change to my home theatre, while my video library is still expanding.  To start making room for my DVDs, I have started doing what I didn't want to do when I started this hobby a few years ago: converting from VHS to DVD.  I have now sold 5 videos on eBay.  I have the entire Star Trek  collection to sell off, as 7 seasons of The Next Generation takes up 2 and a half drawers while the whole thing on DVD takes up only 1/3 of a drawer!  Any interested Star Trek fans out there?

Most of our computers at home now have webcam. Last Christmas, we successfully had a NetMeeting with my cousin in New Jersey.  It was fun being able to see family and friends instead of just hearing the voice talking on the phone. Come on, you people overseas, if I can't convince you to visit Sydney, at least let me show you my messy room via webcam!  Say, with all these webcam sites that people pay to watch women do interesting things to themselves, do you think they would pay to look at my messy room? 🙂 

While work sucks, I have had two very interesting trips this year resulting from work.  In September, I went to Boston again.  This time around, I got to actually stay in Boston and was told to spend the weekend there just so I could meet this guy on the following Monday about something I'd already know.  Fine!  I made the most of my stay in Boston during the week, having the excellent seafood they have there - stuffing myself silly!  On the Friday evening, I met up with some ex-colleagues, friends I've made from my last visit, for dinner.  Well, the company was great, the only sore point was my tooth!  I was eating a deep-fried oyster, and then 'OUCH'!  I had bitten on a small ball bearing shaped, black object.  My first concern was that I'd broken my tooth, but a probe with the tongue indicated otherwise.  It was just very sore.  But it ruined the rest of my lobster Ravioli dinner.  Oh well, that'll be my excuse to go back and have the lobster Ravioli next time!  The day I arrived back in Australia, I visited the dentist and he showed me - the tooth had cracked, but was just sitting in the socket.  No wonder it was sore for the whole weekend!  So, a tooth extraction was performed. Despite the toothache, I still tried to enjoy my food over the weekend, though chewing was a bit of an effort.

For the rest of the weekend in Boston, I had a great time, though my friends Brian and Christine might disagree. Why? Because I went sailing with them. Now, I've never done sailing before. I prefer surface I can stand on. The smallest boat I've ever been in is the Manly ferry or Hong Kong's Star ferry.  But one thing I definitely didn't expect was the choppy waters (and that was on a good day, I was told)!  So, you've probably guessed it, I got sea sick, even with the pre-emptive motion sickness tablet I took.  20 minutes going out of Boston Harbour, I was asking "when are we getting to dry land?"  Eventually, my friends convinced me to lie down, and that felt better, and I actually fell asleep with the cool breeze and the water got calmer. And I got seasick again coming back into Boston Harbour.  Other than that, it was very nice!  I had a good appreciation of the phase "smooth sailing", which is exactly how it feels. As usual, showing my ignorance, I wished it had brakes and indicator lights and that we could reverse park! 🙂 It was a fun experience, and getting seasick was part of the fun. On the Sunday, a colleague showed me around the Lexington area, and ended up at his house having dinner in a Sukkah.  For those of you not familiar, Lexington is the place where the first shot of the American revolution was fired, and we visited the Munroe Tavern - one of the historical houses in Lexington. The tour was very informative, and I found out how certain phrases came about, like why is mail called "Post"? Why do Americans call the back storage area of the car the "trunk"?  Where did "reading between the lines" come from? If you ever visit Boston, I highly recommend visiting Lexington.

In November, I visited Shanghai. It's my first visit to China in more than 10 years, and my first visit to Shanghai.  Another historical city, which meant a visit to the local book store to get 'a book' on the history of Shanghai, and ended up with 7, plus three from a relative, and one from the hotel, and my luggage was overweight again! 

I arrived late Sunday night and left the following Wednesday evening, so it was a very short visit.  But I met up with a distant cousin, whom I last met in Hong Kong about 8 years ago, and even though it was late, he showed me some of the sights of Shanghai in a taxi ride, and walked the rest. Shanghai taxis are very good, very cheap, and at the end of the trip, you get this printout that lists the date of the trip, the amount, the time the trip started, the time the trip ended, total amount of idle time (in traffic), driver number etc. So if the driver gives you a hard time, take that receipt and make a complaint! They were all very friendly, except one who dropped me off at the wrong place!  Luckily, it was not far off from where I wanted to go, and I speak the lingo. 🙂 I finally visited "The Bund", and saw the Peace Hotel (both starring Chow Yun-Fatt, one a movie, the other a Hong Kong TV serial). The night view of the Bund, with the lights on the old colonial buildings, is really pretty.  I think most of you know of my extreme dislike for the Chinese communists, but in Shanghai, at times you would think it's Hong Kong! 

One other thing, it's a surprisingly green city, despite the fact that it's 'foggy' a lot of times. Down HengShan Road, there are French parasol trees on both sides of the road. I was a little disappointed with the food, with Shanghai being the home of 'Xiaolongbao'. I went to supposedly the best shop in Shanghai, located in YueYuen in Old Town God's Temple, waited in line for about half an hour, and was disappointed that there's one restaurant here in Sydney that would beat it hands down. I also went to the restaurant where Bill Clinton and the Queen dined when they visited Shanghai. Yeah well, let's just say I doubt if Bill and Liz could tell good Shanghai food from bad Shanghai food. In any case, as my distant cousin pointed out, they would have had the number 1 chef preparing the food for them many days before their arrival, while we would have the junior chef preparing ours 5 minutes after our arrival!  Nonetheless, I enjoyed Shanghai, and hope for a longer visit next time.    

So, that's pretty much the highlights of my year! Other notable events in brief:

1. Watched the World Cup and re-kindled my love for football ('soccer' for the non-devotees). I was only going to support England, but ended up also supporting Ireland, the US and most of all, Korea! What an inspiring, gutsy team! 

2. Singapore food: Finally found this little place in Parramatta that makes authentic Singapore food! It's called DeLaksa and the restaurant manager Caleb Foo is a very good cook. If you ever visit, tell him I recommended you, and get him to suggest his best stuff.