I know people here from a number of countries. Brazilian, Canadian, English, Austrian, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Indian, Italian and Greek. It's like I'm working at Insearch again. I also know a fair few Germans (so I am making an effort to know the locals). The reason I mention that I know the international crowd is that they are all to disappearing over Christmas. The Germans are all disappearing too. In fact, I'm getting the distinct impression that the entire city just empties out from the 25th till New Years. Although it would be nice not to need to fight the crowds at the Penny-Markt, I too am flocking to where all the crowds are, and will be spending my festive season in London. In practical terms, that means comment moderation will be a bit slower on here - which I think is only really going to inconvenience Apepoker and Butercup. I was going to try to go to Zürich to meet Ben, but the prohibitive prices of train tickets stopped me right in my tracks (Har-har). The train system here is priced in such a way as to actively discourage people from catching the train. It's cheaper for me to fly up to somewhere like Berlin rather than catching a train there.

I've been spending far too much time out at the Christmas markets here, looking at the various goods they're offering for purchase. It's like a new-age hippie paradise in the markets, with a whole bunch of "hand-made" candles, incense burners, lamps, and dangly decorative things to make your Ikea flat look that little bit less pre-packaged (not that the decor in the apartment I'm in is anything to be proud of). The Christmas markets are covered with all the traditional Christmas decorations (pine-leaf crap, red crap, silver crap, star-shaped-glittery crap), but it doesn't look as tacky as it does in Australia. It seems like the decorations belong here, whilst they look strangely alien in Australia. My perceptions may have something to do with the fact that it's dark whenever I see these decorations, and so I never can see them properly. It may also have something to do with three glasses of Glühwein that I'm drinking every time I'm at the markets (It's cold out there!). Thanks to the dynamic duo, I've got some Christmas decorations in my house. The pictures you can see accompanying this post are the two decorations that I have up in my place. They're doing pretty well at staving off the SAD (Cranking up the stereo while listening to Avalanches Breezeblock sets also works wonders). I'd put more decorations up - but chances are they'll never go down since housekeeping isn't exactly one of my strengths.

Have you ever wondered what Christmas would be like without people trying their hand at celebrity gurning? Consider the link a gift from me to you.